Everyone knows the legend of King Arthur. But most English sagas – unlike the Irish and Icelandic tales – have not survived the test of time.

The legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is world famous. But there were once many more English medieval hero stories, researchers hypothesize. “We estimate that more than 90 percent of these sagas have been lost,” said researcher Katarzyna Anna Kapitan.

Statistical Models

The research team relies on statistical models. In the same way that biologists estimate the loss of biodiversity, researchers now mapped the loss and survival of precious stories from different parts of Europe. And that offers a new perspective on the loss of cultural heritage.

English hero stories

The British are getting away with it. Because the findings show that most English heroic sagas have not survived the test of time. “We found remarkably low estimated survival rates for medieval English fiction,” said study researcher Daniel Sawyer.

Irish and Icelandic legends

A pretty remarkable discovery. Surprisingly enough, more than three quarters of medieval stories in Icelandic and Irish have survived to this day. The Irish sagas appear to have stood the test of time best, while works in English, in particular, have disappeared for good. The team calculated that about 81 percent of Irish and 77 percent of Icelandic romances and adventure stories still exist today, compared with only 38 percent of similar works in English. In addition, the results suggest that about 19 percent of Irish and 17 percent of Icelandic manuscripts still exist, compared to just 7 percent of English copies.

explanations

Why so many English stories have been lost? “We could blame it on the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII,” suggests Sawyer. “Although heroic stories in English are rare in the libraries of monasteries. Another possible explanation is the limited past prestige of the English language. Today, English is taught as a second language all over the world. But in the Middle Ages it had little international significance. Especially after the Norman conquest of England, French was important as an international language of power and culture.”

Meanwhile in Ireland and Iceland

At the same time, Irish and Icelandic stories may have been so well preserved because these countries are islands, which may have contributed to the preservation of the culture. “In addition, the similarities between Ireland and Iceland can be explained by the fact that long after the invention of printing, literary texts were copied by hand,” said Kapitan.

All in all, the findings underline how fragile English medieval hero stories apparently are. At least they still have the brave mythical King Arthur.