An edition and study of "Nikulás saga leikara"

Nikulás saga leikara (Nsl.) tells the story of Nikulás, king of Hungary. His
foster-father, Earl Svívari, convinces him to stop playing with magic and try to win
Princess Dorma of Constantinople as a bride. Svívari makes a secret betrothal with
Dorma, contrary to her father's wishes. Nikulás then travels to Constantinople where he
poses as a merchant in order to insinuate himself into the Byzantine court. Nikulás meets
with Dorma secretly, and the couple escape from Constantinople. Valdimar's
Scandinavian mercenaries capture Dorma by employing magic, but Nikulás re-captures
his bride, also using magic. The final battle is precluded by Valdimar's accidental killing
of his own mercenaries. Valdimar accepts Nikulás, and Nikulás becomes king over
Constantinople upon Valdimar's death.

Nsl. is an Icelandic romance which survives in sixty manuscripts dating from the
seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. Despite the saga's popularity in Iceland, Nsl.
has received little attention from saga scholars. Nsl. is clearly a fictional saga, and
neither the action nor the protagonist are related to Scandinavia. Consequently, scholars
who regarded saga as history, as well as those who wished to define a unique medieval
literature for Iceland - or other Scandinavian countries - had no interest in this saga.
However, recent scholarship has discovered that sagas such as Nsl. are rich in both
Icelandic and continental literary styles and motifs. Nsl. may therefore be seen as a
particulariy Icelandic form of medieval romance.

The present translation of Nsl. will make the saga available for further study of
native Icelandic romance. Of the two redactions ofNsl., the edition ofNsl. (Nks. 331,
8vo) which is part of this study represents the longer, more popular version. With this
edition, it is hoped that scholarly attention will be drawn to a saga which was read and
enjoyed in Iceland over at least four centuries.