The Arnamagnæan Commission have begun the publication under the title Editiones Arnamagnæanæ of a series of critical editions of texts based on the manuscripts. The works are to be divided according to size between Series A in larger, and Series B in smaller format. Ivens saga, edited by Professor Foster W. Blaisdell, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A., is now issued as the eighteenth volume of Series B.

There is a twofold need for a new edition of ÍS: the saga represents an important item in medieval Euro­pean Arthurian literature, and the existing editions are outdated. According to the statement at the end of the saga, it was translated from French at the be­hest of King Hákon the Old (Hákon Hákonarson, ruled 1217-63). It is thus one of the products of the literary activity in Norway which also produced translations of some of the foremost works of medieval Europe: the lais of Marie de France (the Strengleikar), the Tristan of Thomas (Tristrams saga), among others. ÍS is, in fact, a prose translation of the verse epic Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes.