Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/651



N the Bragda Mágus Saga, an Icelandic version of the Romance of Maugis, but with considerable alterations in the story, is the following very curious passage, which seems to indicate a belief in a life indefinitely prolonged, not attached to the Jew, Cartaphilus. I quote from the edition “Bragda Mágus Saga, med tilheyrandi Fáttum, skrif. af Gunnlaugi Thordarsyni. Kaupmannahöfn, 1858. Cap. 35—40.”

“Mágus went before the king (Charlemagne), and greeted him courteously. The king received him well, and asked him his name. He said he was called ‘Vidförull.’ The king said, ‘You are a vigorous man, though you seem very old.’

“Vidförull replied, ‘Sire, you say right that I am very old, but I have been much older, and it may fall out that I become younger.’

“‘How can that possibly be,’ asked the king, ‘that you could have been older than you are, and will be younger?’

“Vidförull said, ‘That I will make clear to you. Twice have I cast my old skin, and become each time younger than before.’

“When he said this all the guard of the king sprang up, laughing, and said he should not venture to talk such non-