Hákonar saga Hárekssonar

Text in Danish. The Icelandic Hákonar saga Hárekssonar is a short exemplum-like tale of a young Norwegian who visits the court of the Danish king Sven Estridsen. It was probably originally written by Abbot Arngrímr Brandsson (d. 1361) of the Benedictine monastery of þingeyrar in northern Iceland. Only three incomplete manuscripts have been preserved, constituting less than half the text. The present edition is the first to take account of the entire known manuscript material and to include a 17th-century Latin translation made for the benefit of the Danish historian Stephanius (d. 1650). The introductory chapter on the motifs of the saga is written by the Finnish scholar Mirjam Lanjala, who did preparatory work on the edition in the 1960s.