The Old Icelandic “Brut”

Abstract

Breta Sögur, or The Saga of the Britons, is more or less extant in several manuscripts, all of Icelandic origin.1 They are supplemented by a series of fragments and paper copies. It is commonly accepted that there are two versions of the Breta Sögur. The so-called “shorter version”, found in a 14th-century manuscript called Hauksbók, is described as an abridged version. The so-called “longer version”, transmitted principally in Copenhagen, Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 573 4to, is said to be closer to Geoffrey’s De gestis Britonum than the shorter version, and more interested in chivalrous narrative developments. These assumptions are partially true but need to be studied further. It is, indeed, simplifying to refer to these two manuscripts as “two versions”, and the qualifiers (“shorter” as opposed to “longer”) do not always do justice to the text copied in both manuscripts. Moreover, other important witnesses of the Breta Sögur need to be taken into account. There are two 19th-century editions of the Breta Sögur, but neither, though very useful, offers a complete synoptic view.2 This is unfortunate, since the saga is an important witness to the DGB’s transmission in northwestern medieval Europe. Hauksbók (hereafter “Hb”) is a codex divided into three parts. The part bearing shelfmark AM 544 4to contains, among other materials, a translation of The Fall of Troy by Dares Phrygius and a “Brut” starting with a Virgilian prologue. This version (and this version only) includes a versified translation of the PM called Merlínusspá, written by the Icelandic monk Gunnlaugr Leifsson around