Rómverja saga

{{Short description|Old Norse-Icelandic translation of three Latin texts concerning Roman history}}

Rómverja saga (The Saga of the Romans) in an Old Norse-Icelandic translation of three Latin historical texts: Sallust's Bellum Jugurthinum and Coniuratio Catilinae and Lucan's Pharsalia.{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontooldno00mctu|url-access=limited|last=Würth|first=Stefanie|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=2005|editor-last=McTurk|editor-first=Rory|editor-link=Rory McTurk|location=Malden, Oxford, Victoria|pages=[https://archive.org/details/companiontooldno00mctu/page/n178 164]|chapter=Historiography and Pseudo-History|isbn=9780631235026 }} It gives an account of Roman history from the Jugurthine War (112 BCE) to the death of Augustus (14 CE).{{Cite thesis|url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0355267|title=Rómverja saga: an introduction and translation|last=Birnudóttir|first=Svala Lind|publisher=University of British Columbia (unpublished MA thesis)|year=2017|pages=1–2|doi=10.14288/1.0355267 }} This combination of sources is unique in medieval literature. Along with Breta sögur, Veraldar saga and Trójumanna saga, it represent the earliest phase of translation of secular works into Old Norse-Icelandic.{{Cite book|title=The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus' Realms|url=https://archive.org/details/arthurnortharthu00kali|url-access=limited|last=Gropper|first=Stefanie|publisher=University of Wales Press|year=2011|isbn=9781783167876|editor-last=Kalinke|editor-first=Marianne E.|location=Cardiff|pages=[https://archive.org/details/arthurnortharthu00kali/page/n58 48]-60|chapter=Breta Sögur and Merlínússpá}}

Rómverja saga exists in two versions: an older and longer, but poorly preserved version in AM 595a-b 4to; and a younger, abridged version in AM 226 fol, copied in AM 225 fol.{{Cite book|title=Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia|last=Benediktsson|first=Jakob|publisher=Garland|year=1993|isbn=0824047877|editor-last=Pulsiano|editor-first=Phillip|location=New York|pages=537–538|chapter=Rómverja saga|editor-last2=Wolf|editor-first2=Kirsten}}

There are close parallels between sections of Veraldar saga and Rómverja saga. Hofmann proposed that Veraldar saga takes its Roman history from Rómverja saga.Hofmann, Dietrich. (1986) "Accessus ad Lucanum. Zur Neubestimmung des Verhältnisses zwischen Rómverja saga und Veraldar saga." In Sagnaskemmtun: Studies in Honor of Hermann Pálsson on his 65th birthday, 26th May 1986, edited by Rudolf Simek, Jónas Kristjánsson, and Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Vienna: Hermann Böhlaus, pp. 121-151. Þorbjörg Helgadóttir instead considers that the two sagas both used the same Latin sources: Sallust and Lucan.{{Cite journal|last=Helgadóttir|first=Þorbjörg|date=1994–1997|title=On the Sources and Composition of Rómverja saga|url=http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/1996_XXIV_4.pdf|journal=Saga-Book|volume=24|pages=203–220}}