Conference Presentations by Jonathan Hui
Sigrid Undset and Norse Romance
This paper explored Sigrid Undset's pioneering use of Norse romance in her little-known 1924 shor... more This paper explored Sigrid Undset's pioneering use of Norse romance in her little-known 1924 short story, 'Saga om Vilmund Vidutan og fællerne hans', and its revised 1943 English version, 'Sigurd and his Brave Companions'. It was presented at the conference, 'The Middle Ages in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Relevance, Reimagination, Inspiration' (MARRI), in Stavanger in August 2024.
This paper explored the evolution of Sigrid Undset's 1924 children's story, 'Saga om Vilmund Vidu... more This paper explored the evolution of Sigrid Undset's 1924 children's story, 'Saga om Vilmund Vidutan og fællerne hans', into the revised 1943 English-language novella 'Sigurd and his Brave Companions', examining why she chose to revise this little-known tale for publication in the United States during the Second World War. It argued that in her efforts to rally American support for the European resistance, she also sought to push back against stereotypical associations between Norwegians and Vikings that had been prevalent in American discourse in the preceding years and decades. The paper was presented at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in July 2023.
Bad Beef and Mad Cow Disease in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs
In the Norse legendary saga Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, the heroes, on a quest to claim a vulture’s eg... more In the Norse legendary saga Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, the heroes, on a quest to claim a vulture’s egg, encounter a formidable pagan priestess. This priestess’ monstrousness is fuelled by her consumption at every meal of meat from a fresh heifer poisoned by a demonic bull who is kept at the temple. My paper examines the construction of the monstrous beef in this episode: its preparation, use and characteristics. In saga literature, poisonous meat shown to possess a transformative aspect is fairly rare, so apart from a comparison with an episode containing similarly transformative meat in Vǫlsunga saga, my analysis extends to thematically- and symbolically-related episodes from Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, Eiríks saga rauða and Ragnars saga loðbrókar, in order to examine and better understand the literary processes behind the construction of this episode in Bósa saga.
Vilmundar saga viðutan: Medieval Iceland and the First Modern Cinderella
The tradition of hearth-names in Cinderella tales is usually thought to have begun with Giambatti... more The tradition of hearth-names in Cinderella tales is usually thought to have begun with Giambattista Basile’s La gatta Cenerentola, published in 1634. However, Basile’s tale preceded by a little-known Norse saga from the fourteenth century, Vilmundar saga viðutan (‘The Saga of Vilmundur the Outsider’). The saga, composed as part of Iceland’s wave of popular late medieval romances, contains the striking co-occurrence of hearth-name and Cinderella’s iconic bridal-shoe motif-complex; in fact, its hearth-name, ‘Öskubuska’, is still the Icelandic name for Cinderella today. In my research for an edition and translation of the saga, I had already examined the relationships between several Cinderella analogues in Old Norse literature alongside Vilmundar saga. My paper filled in the pieces of the puzzle that my research had discovered so far. It argued for a plurality of concurrent Cinderella tales in medieval Iceland by the time of Vilmundar saga's composition (though key sources - perhaps oral - have been lost), and it identified pathways through which certain idiosyncratic elements of the Cinderella fairytale came to co-exist in this remarkable saga.
Gautland in the Gautasögur
In this paper, I analysed the way in which certain idiosyncratic geographical aspects of Gautland... more In this paper, I analysed the way in which certain idiosyncratic geographical aspects of Gautland formed the basis of landscape construction in two medieval fornaldarsögur based there: Gautreks saga and Bósa saga ok Herrauðs.
Ash to Ashes: Cinderella in Old Norse Literature
It is a little-known fact that the earliest extant Cinderella tale with a Cinderella-name in the ... more It is a little-known fact that the earliest extant Cinderella tale with a Cinderella-name in the world is not Giambattista Basile’s La gatta cenerentola from around 1634, but a late medieval Icelandic romance saga called Vilmundar saga viðutan, which was probably written some two centuries earlier. The saga is little-known; the first English translation has only just been produced and is forthcoming. Based on research done for the introduction to this translation, this paper traced the transmission and development of three iconic Cinderella aspects within the saga: the persecuted heroine setup, Cinderella’s bridal shoe and the ash-name. Analysing connected extant sources written in France, Norway and Iceland, the paper tracked the linear development of the Cinderella tale from when it first entered Scandinavia in literary form – from the earliest extant Cinderella story in Old Norse, to the earliest extant Cinderella story written in Iceland, to Vilmundar saga, when the ash-name became introduced to the Cinderella-tale for probably the first time in the world.
Manuscript Transmission in ‘The Matter of Gautland’
The ‘Matter of Gautland’, a cycle of fornaldarsögur, is usually said to consist of Gautreks saga,... more The ‘Matter of Gautland’, a cycle of fornaldarsögur, is usually said to consist of Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and Bósa saga ok Herrauðs. As with ‘the Matter of Hrafnista’, the sagas in the cycle feature heroes who share a kingdom of origin and who are all connected by genealogy. While my PhD dissertation focusses on literary aspects of the representations of Gautland across various generic clusters in the fornaldarsögur, this paper examined a specific aspect of the groundwork for this – namely, the manuscript transmission of the sagas in the cycle. The paper examined idiosyncratic aspects of the ‘Gautland’ cycle and the attitudes of compilers towards the individual sagas which form the cycle.
The Matter of the Austrvegr: The Russia-based Subset of Fornaldarsögur
The idea of location-based cycles in the Old Norse fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas) was elegantly... more The idea of location-based cycles in the Old Norse fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas) was elegantly expressed in Stephen Mitchell’s Heroic Sagas and Ballads, where he identified ‘the Matter of Hrafnista’ and ‘the Matter of Gautland’ as two such groupings. Some work has been done on these cycles: ‘the Matter of Hrafnista’ has been published on by Helen Leslie, while the more complex ‘Matter of Gautland’ is the subject of my doctoral dissertation. This paper examined several legendary sagas which could possibly form another such category: ‘the Matter of the Austrvegr’ (‘East-Way’), based in the Russian locations of Garðaríki (and its capital Hólmgarðr), Rússía, Aldeigjuborg and Álaborg. The paper examined the textual and literary connections between the sagas, exploring the different ways in which they interact with a curious geographical location that is northern but un-Scandinavian.
Legend and Location in Bósa saga
In this paper, I examined the localised legendary traditions underlying Bósa saga, specifically t... more In this paper, I examined the localised legendary traditions underlying Bósa saga, specifically the deliberate connections drawn by the saga author to the Ragnarr Loðbrók and Brávellir legendary and narrative traditions.
This paper was presented in shortened form at the 4th Symposium of Old Norse Folklorists Network ... more This paper was presented in shortened form at the 4th Symposium of Old Norse Folklorists Network in Tartu on 11 December 2015, and is based on research done as part of my Masters dissertation, entitled ‘Paranormal Objects in the Fornaldarsögur: Their Role in the Portrayal of Heroic Luck’, submitted at the University of Cambridge in June 2014. The paper examines the two sets of arrows in Ǫrvar-Odds saga and the explores how the multivalency of their underlying symbolism affects the eponymous protagonist as well as the texture of the saga.
This paper, presented as a shortened talk at the 2015 Cambridge, Oxford and London Symposium in O... more This paper, presented as a shortened talk at the 2015 Cambridge, Oxford and London Symposium in Old Norse, Old English and Latin, focussed on instances in two fornaldarsögur, 'Ásmundar saga kappabana' and 'Gautreks saga', where the hero kills a character who is related to him through social or familial bonds. In both Ásmundr's killing of Hildibrandr and Starkað's sacrifice of Víkarr, the narrators insert brief comments into their prose that their respective protagonists felt regret over their deeds. Referencing Saxo Grammaticus' versions of both sagas in his 'Gesta Danorum', as well as the Old High German 'Hildebrandslied', the paper explored the narrative context and social implications of this regret, concluding that they were used to very different effects, and suggesting that regret was a fluid literary vehicle for fornaldarsaga authors attempting to negotiate the dishonourable acts of kin- or king-killing which tradition made necessary to their plots.
My paper, given at the 2015 Bergen-Cambridge Postgraduate Symposium in Old Norse Studies, discuss... more My paper, given at the 2015 Bergen-Cambridge Postgraduate Symposium in Old Norse Studies, discusses the use of prosimetrum in 'Víkars þáttr', chronologically the middle þáttr of the longer version of 'Gautreks saga'. In identifying textual variations involving the inclusion of verses, such as a curious mannjafnaðr verse, I explore prosimetric implications on the intentions of þáttr-author and -reviser, and assess the likelihood of deliberate and didactic characterisation around the character of Starkaðr, as has usually been assumed by scholars seeking to read didactic unity into the longer saga as a whole.
Papers by Jonathan Hui
Food and Feast in the Arthurian World, , 2026
The late medieval Icelandic romance Samsons saga fagra (‘The Saga of Samson the Fair’) is one of ... more The late medieval Icelandic romance Samsons saga fagra (‘The Saga of Samson the Fair’) is one of very few texts in which Old Norse myth openly meets Arthurian legend. Previous scholarship has identified the saga’s clear borrowings from the French fabliau Le mantel mautaillié (‘The Ill-Fitting Mantle’) via the fabliau’s Norse translation, Möttuls saga (‘The Saga of the Mantle’), primarily with regard to the chastity-testing mantle. What has escaped scholars’ notice so far, however, is the fact that Samsons saga does not simply borrow the Arthurian chastity mantle with minor adaptation. In addition to repurposing the mantle for a non-Arthurian setting and retaining its chastity-testing function while turning it into the object of a retrieval quest, Samsons saga also notably embeds the motif within the narrative context of a prominent Norse myth, namely the wedding-feast of Þrymr, best known from the eddic poem Þrymskviða (‘The Lay of Þrymr’), but also attested in the fifteenth-century set of rímur known as Þrymlur, whose composition was roughly contemporary with that of the saga. This chapter examines the fusion of these two traditions – the giant’s wedding-feast and the chastity-testing mantle – to explore how the thematic resonances and confluences between the mythological tale and the Arthurian motif allow for the combinative reappropriation of both within a romance context. In so doing, it provides insight into the understudied question of the influence of Norse myth on later medieval Icelandic romance.
The Explicator, 2026
This essay revisits the little-known suggestion that Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Middle High German ... more This essay revisits the little-known suggestion that Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Middle High German epic, Lanzelet, might have been known in some form to Icelanders in the late Middle Ages. In reconsidering the significance of the previously identified evidence and adducing an additional Icelandic analogue to a key episode in Ulrich's poem, the essay argues that there is a stronger case to the suggestion than has previously been realised.
Ála flekks saga: A Snow White Variant from Late Medieval Iceland
There has been very little scholarship on the transmission of the Snow White tale-type in medieva... more There has been very little scholarship on the transmission of the Snow White tale-type in medieval Icelandic literature, or in any pre-modern literature. Scholarship on most folktale-types tends to focus on modern variants, with particular attention usually paid to a variant which has come to be seen as the 'standard' version of the tale-type. In the case of Snow White, tale-type number 709 under the Aarne-Thompson classification system, the 'standard' version is the 1857 edition of the Grimm Brothers' Sneewittchen, published in their influential collection of fairytales; it was on this version that Disney would base their 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the cultural impact of which continues to the present day. Not all variants of the tale-type will have the very same motifs as the Grimms' version, of course, as is evident from the variation within the fifty-seven tales found in Ernst Böklen's 1910 collection of Snow White variants. I...
New Analogical Evidence for Cymbeline’s Folkloric Composition in the Medieval Icelandic Ála flekks saga
Shakespeare Survey 75, 2022
This article explores a number of striking correspondences between Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and a ... more This article explores a number of striking correspondences between Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and a little-known, late medieval Icelandic romance, Ála flekks saga. Using as a basis the two texts’ common affinity with the 'Snow White' folktale, the article untangles their complex analogical relationship by examining the oblique illumination shed by each text on the two main folktale traditions from which both of them drew, as well as the implications that those findings carry for the folkloric composition of each text. It also addresses one other curiosity in the saga of potential interest to the Shakespeare scholar: the presence of the name 'Polloníus'.
A Serendipitous Comparison? Jin Yong and J. R. R. Tolkien: Genre, Prosimetrum and Modern Medievalism East and West
Comparative Critical Studies, 2021
In recent years, the legendary Hong Kong author Jin Yong has been referred to in Anglophone media... more In recent years, the legendary Hong Kong author Jin Yong has been referred to in Anglophone media as ‘China's Tolkien’, but the basis for that comparison has been disregarded by Sinologists for valid reasons. However, the very establishment of the comparison, even on questionable grounds, may be a stroke of serendipity. This essay probes the Tolkien-Jin Yong comparison from a literary perspective, arguing that the comparison is often made on the basis of fundamental misconceptions, but that it is nevertheless serendipitously apt for reasons that have remained unexplored. Identifying Jin Yong and Tolkien as influential modern literary medievalists, the essay shifts the Tolkien-Jin Yong comparison from the problematic terrain of genre to the firmer ground of medievalist antiquarianism, with important implications for questions of cultural identity, historical reconstruction and narrative form.
Leeds Studies in English, 2018
A facing-page edition and translation of an Old Norse text Ála flekks saga (‘the saga of Áli flek... more A facing-page edition and translation of an Old Norse text Ála flekks saga (‘the saga of Áli flekkr’), with an introduction and apparatus. It is thought to have been composed around the early fifteenth century, placing it among the youngest medieval Icelandic romances.
It is the intention of the authors to provide a new and scholarly translation, freely accessible to academics, students and enthusiasts alike, in order to help the saga gain a wider audience and some long-overdue attention. This translation represents part of a recent wave of English translations of indigenous riddarasögur (‘sagas of knights’).
The introduction investigates motifs including the werewolf episode, Áli's dream, and Áli's fleck. It also discusses manuscripts and transmission.
Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh, Katherine Marie Olley, William Norman and Kimberly Anderson, ‘Ála flekks saga: An Introduction, Text and Translation’, Leeds Studies in English New Series XLIX (2018) 1–43.
Leeds Studies in English, 2018
There has been very little scholarship on the transmission of the Snow White tale-type in medieva... more There has been very little scholarship on the transmission of the Snow White tale-type in medieval Icelandic literature, or in any pre-modern literature. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the close correspondences that Ála flekks saga (‘the saga of Áli flekkr’), an entertaining Icelandic saga probably written in the early fifteenth century, has with the key structural aspects of the Snow White tale-type. Although its Snow White connection has previously gone unnoticed, the saga seems to be the clearest Snow White variant in the corpus of extant medieval Icelandic literature.
Because of its close and numerous structural parallels to the Snow White tale-type, Ála flekks saga must be considered to represent the clearest Snow White variant in the extant corpus of medieval Icelandic literature. Furthermore, the saga must also be regarded as one of the earliest known literary Snow White variants in the world.
This article also discusses the álög (‘curse’) motif in Old Norse and its relationship to the Irish geis.
[Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh and Katherine Marie Olley, ‘Ála flekks saga: A Snow White Variant from Late Medieval Iceland’, Leeds Studies in English, New Series XLIX (2018), 45–64]
Bad Beef and Mad Cow Disease in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs
Scandinavian Studies, 2018
This article examines the conflation of two established motifs, namely the monstrous animal and t... more This article examines the conflation of two established motifs, namely the monstrous animal and transformative meat, in the fantastic Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, seeking to contextualise fully the literary processes underpinning this conflation by examining analogues of each of these separate motifs, in order to determine the specific ways and effects through which the saga author adapted them.
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/scanstud.90.4.0461
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Conference Presentations by Jonathan Hui
Papers by Jonathan Hui
It is the intention of the authors to provide a new and scholarly translation, freely accessible to academics, students and enthusiasts alike, in order to help the saga gain a wider audience and some long-overdue attention. This translation represents part of a recent wave of English translations of indigenous riddarasögur (‘sagas of knights’).
The introduction investigates motifs including the werewolf episode, Áli's dream, and Áli's fleck. It also discusses manuscripts and transmission.
Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh, Katherine Marie Olley, William Norman and Kimberly Anderson, ‘Ála flekks saga: An Introduction, Text and Translation’, Leeds Studies in English New Series XLIX (2018) 1–43.
Because of its close and numerous structural parallels to the Snow White tale-type, Ála flekks saga must be considered to represent the clearest Snow White variant in the extant corpus of medieval Icelandic literature. Furthermore, the saga must also be regarded as one of the earliest known literary Snow White variants in the world.
This article also discusses the álög (‘curse’) motif in Old Norse and its relationship to the Irish geis.
[Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh and Katherine Marie Olley, ‘Ála flekks saga: A Snow White Variant from Late Medieval Iceland’, Leeds Studies in English, New Series XLIX (2018), 45–64]
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/scanstud.90.4.0461