Dámusta saga

Overview & Synopsis

Dámusta saga belongs to the genre of original riddarasögur, the chivalric literature of medieval Iceland. The saga was likely composed sometime in the late fourteenth century and is extant in some twenty manuscripts and three versions. The story is set at the court of Constantinople and tells of Dámusti, a pious knight especially devout to the Virgin Mary: of his love for the emperor’s daughter, the fair Gratiana, and of the sin he commits for the sake of her love. This work represents the first Italian translation of Dámusta saga and the first study wholly devoted to the text since 1937. The study opens with an overview of the Norse literary system and the riddarasögur as a genre, from which the saga is set apart due to the centrality of the religious component as a driving force in the narrative. While scholars have been at odds in explaining how the saga justifies Dámusti’s salvation by the direct intercession of the Virgin despite his sin, this study argues for the coherence of the hero’s actions in light of the parable of sin and repentance that lies at the core of the saga. Through the discussion of parallels with European chivalric literature and Norse religious texts, the study demonstrates that this component is the supporting structure of a narrative which is in turn a tale of chivalric adventure and an example of penitential literature. The discussion of the manuscript tradition of the saga and of the codex of the version translated here (Reykjavík, Safn Jóns Sigurðssonar, JS 27 fol. (1670), ff. 314v‐329r) is followed by an overview of the other versions of the story that transmits Dámusti’s adventure and demonstrates its success beyond the medieval period. The translation of Dámusta saga is based on the oldest complete manuscript. The facing Old Norse text is accompanied by a selection of significant variants chosen from other witnesses of the manuscript tradition.