Nitida saga
Encyclopedia
The Nitida saga is a fictional late medieval Icelandic romance saga
thought to have been composed in Iceland
in the fourteenth century. This saga is about a maiden-king named Nitida, who rules over France
, and who is pursued by kings and princes from such faraway places as Constantinople
, India
, and a place the saga calls the Land of the Saracens. It is thought to be a direct response to Klári saga
: in Klári saga, the main female protagonist, Serena, is brutally punished for her initial refusal to marry the hero Klárus, whereas the heroine of Nitida saga is portrayed much more favourably. Ethnicity, travel, and geography play important roles in the saga, and questions of gender and power, while magic, trickery, and deception are also prominent. Nitida saga has been published twice, first as a diplomatic edition and basic English summary in Agnete Loth's Late Medieval Icelandic Romances, and more recently as a normalized Icelandic edition and full English translation in the academic journal Leeds Studies in English. The saga survives in almost 70 manuscripts.
Chivalric sagas
The riddarasögur, sagas of knights or chivalric sagas are Norse sagas of the romance genre. Starting in the 13th century with translations of French chansons de geste the genre soon expanded to indigenous creations in a similar style...
thought to have been composed in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
in the fourteenth century. This saga is about a maiden-king named Nitida, who rules over France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and who is pursued by kings and princes from such faraway places as Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and a place the saga calls the Land of the Saracens. It is thought to be a direct response to Klári saga
Klári saga
Klári saga is one of the chivalric sagas. Ostensibly derived from a Latin poem which Jón Halldórsson Bishop of Skálholt found in France, it became a prototype of the maiden king medieval Icelandic bridal-quest romances: it seems to have been the earliest of these, and was followed by many more...
: in Klári saga, the main female protagonist, Serena, is brutally punished for her initial refusal to marry the hero Klárus, whereas the heroine of Nitida saga is portrayed much more favourably. Ethnicity, travel, and geography play important roles in the saga, and questions of gender and power, while magic, trickery, and deception are also prominent. Nitida saga has been published twice, first as a diplomatic edition and basic English summary in Agnete Loth's Late Medieval Icelandic Romances, and more recently as a normalized Icelandic edition and full English translation in the academic journal Leeds Studies in English. The saga survives in almost 70 manuscripts.
External links
- http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.www/sagaconf/barnes.htm Margin vs centre: geopolitics in Nitida saga (a cosmographical comedy?) by Geraldine Barnes