Konráðs saga keisarasonar is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. In the assessment of its editor Otto J. Zitzelsberger, it is 'a fine specimen of an early indigenous riddarasaga that combines elements from native tradition with newer and more fashionable ones from the Continent'. He dates it to the early fourteenth century.'Konráðs saga keisarasonar', in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Phillip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 360-61. Although seen as highly formulaic by Jürg Glauser,Jürg Glauser, Isländische Märchensagas: Studien zur Prosaliteratur im spätmittelalterlichen Island, Beitrëge zue nordischen Philologie, 12 (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1983), pp. 166-68. Heizmann and Péza have argued that the saga provides a sophisticated exploration of identity,Wilhelm Heizmann and Tibor F. Pézsa, 'Reale und nominelle Identität in der Konráðs saga keisarasonar ', Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 94 (1995), 176-89. and Marianne Kalinke has argued that the saga "is unique in medieval Icelandic literature, indeed in medieval European literature, in that the plot is generated by the protagonist's monolingualism and the antagonist's multilingualism".

Synopsis and analogues

Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus:

With his foster-brother Róðbert (the son of an earl), Konráðr (son of the emperor of Saxland) who is outstanding in every respect except that he has not learned foreign languages, journeys to Miklagarðr to woo Mathilda, daughter of the king of Grikkland. Róðbert, who is skilled in foreign languages, is to speak for Konráðr, but impersonates him and sues for Mathilda's hand. Konráðr learns of the betrayal and with the advice of Mathilda—who has vowed to marry only the son of the emperor of Saxland—he embarks upon a series of dangerous exploits designed to convince the king of Grikkland of his identity. Finally, he succeeds in obtaining Mathilda as his bride.Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances, Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 75.

The Earl Róðbert who is the villain of the saga also features as a villain in Þjalar-Jóns saga,'Þjalar-Jóns saga', trans. by Philip Lavender, Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 46 (2015), 73-113 (p. 76). while Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns is viewed as a specific and intentional response to Konráðs saga, to which its shorter version contains an explicit reference.Bibire, Paul, 'From Riddarasaga to Lygisaga: The Norse Response to Romance', in Les Sagas de Chevaliers (Riddarasögur): Actes de la Ve Conférence Internationale sur les Sagas Présentés par Régis Boyer (Toulon. Juillet 1982), ed. by Régis Boyer, Serie Civilisations, 10 (Toulon: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 1985), pp. 55-74 (p. 68). These sagas thus constitute an interesting example of intertextual relationships within the romance-saga corpus.

According to Marianne Kalinke,Konraðs saga keisarasonar is an indigenous Icelandic composition, although it bears some resemblance to Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken's Loher und Maller (1437), a German prose translation of a French work belonging to the Carolingian cycle but no longer extant. Part I relates the adventures of Loher (= Lotharius), son of Charlemagne, in Constantinople. He is accompanied by Maller, a faithful friend, and Ott, a cowardly cousin, with whom he has agreed to exchange names for a year. Ott, under his assumed name, is believed to be Charlemagne's son, and is promised Zormerin, daughter of King Orscher of Constantinople, as his bride.

Manuscripts

The 2013 survey by Alaric Hall identified the following manuscripts of the saga (giving the sigla used in Zitzelsberger's edition):Alaric Hall and Katelin Parsons, 'Making Stemmas with Small Samples, and Digital Approaches to Publishing them: Testing the Stemma of Konráðs saga keisarasonar', Digital Medievalist, 9 (2013), http://digitalmedievalist.org/journal/9/hall/ .

A (Holm perg 7 4to) B (Holm perg 7 fol) b (AM 118a/119a 8vo) D (AM 180b fol) E (Holm perg 6 4to) F (AM 567 4to) AM 179 fol AM 181f fol AM 524 4to AM 529 4to AM 585e 4to Böðvar Kvaran MS V 4to Fiske F75A125 8vo Holm papp 46 fol IB 102 8vo IB 224 8vo IB 277 4to IBR 42 8vo IBR 43 8vo IBR 5-6 fol IBR 59 4to Johns Hopkins 9 4to JS 407 8vo JS 623 4to JS 632 4to JS 635 4to JS 8 fol Kall 614 4to Lbs 1217 4to Lbs 1509 4to Lbs 152 4to Lbs 1654 4to Lbs 1687 8vo Lbs 1785 4to Lbs 2115 4to Lbs 2462 4to Lbs 272 fol Lbs 3121 4to Lbs 3933 8vo Lbs 3944 4to Lbs 4825 4to Lbs 679 4to Lbs 998 4to Nks 3051 4to Oslo fol 3562:13 Rask 31 4to Winnipeg, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, ISDA JB3 6 8vo Winnipeg, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, ISDA JB6 1 4to

Editions and translations

[Gunnlaugur Þórðarson (ed.)]. 1859. Konráðs saga keisarasonar, er for til Ormalands. Copenhagen: Pall Sveinsson. Cederschiöld, Gustaf (ed.). 1884. Fornsögur Suðrlanda. Lund: Gleerup. Riddarasögur, ed. by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 6 vols (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1949–1951), III 269–344. (Normalised version of Cederschiöld's text.) Hunt, Jennifer Margaret. "The Major Text of Konráðs saga keisarasonar with a Thesaurus of Word Forms." M.Phil. Thesis, Univ. of London, 1972. (based on Stockholm Perg. 4:o nr 7; Perg. fol. nr 7; Perg. 4:o nr 6.) Zitzelsberger, Otto, 'Konráðs saga keisarasonar', Seminar for Germanic Philology Yearbook (1980), 38-67 (translation) Zitzelsberger, Otto J. (ed.). 1987. Konráðs saga keisarasonar. American University Studies, Series I: Germanic Languages and Literature, 63. New York: Lang.

References