Klári saga is one of the chivalric sagas of medieval Norway. Ostensibly derived from a Latin poem which Jón Halldórsson, Bishop of Skálholt, found in France, it became a prototype of the maiden king medieval Icelandic bridal-quest romances: it seems to have been the earliest of these, and was followed by many more. These include Nitida saga, which is thought to be a direct response to Klári saga.
Content and themes
The protagonist of the story, Prince Klárus of Saxony, is told of the fair princess Serena of France by his mentor, Perus. Smitten by the description, Klárus asks leave to travel to France and ask the hand of Serena. Perus initially advises Klárus to rethink his proposal, as Serena is prone tricks and deceits. Klárus does not listen however, and travels to France with his troops. Klárus presents himself to the king of France, and is welcomed as a guest of honor. After sending her maid down to examine Klárus, Serena invites him and his troops to a feast in her tower, and he brings along sixty men. The feast is most marvelous, and Serena acts most lovingly towards her guests. However, as the evening passes she grows more and more tired of his manners and fixation on getting her hand in marriage. She offers him the blade of a jewel encrusted knife, but at the last moment as he is prone to accept it slices it downwards, so that it cuts his tunic and streaks his chest, and mocks him for the scums and barbarians he brought to her chamber.
Humiliated, Klárus returns to Saxony and threatens to execute Perus unless he helps him seek revenge on Serena. Perus reluctantly agrees, but insists that in order to do so he needs full control of the Saxon kingdom for three years. He is granted the power, and using the resources builds three grand tents, each more beautiful and decadent than the last. At the end of the third year Perus instructs Klárus that they shall return to France, but that he must go disguised and under the name of Eskelvarð, king of Ethiopia, with the aim to ask for Serena's hand.
Once Klárus and Perus along with the royal troops arrive in France, they pitch the three grand tents. Serena sends her maid to ask who arrives with such grandeur and display of wealth and riches, and if the grand tents would be able to be sold or gifted to her. The maid returns saying it is Eskelvarð of Ethiopia. Serena invites this king to a feast as before, and is adamant that she will have the grand tents. Eskelvarð says that the tents are not for sale, except if she is willing to buy them with her affection. She agrees, and later the night Eskelvarð arrives at her chambers. Serena offers Eskelvarð a drink, and drinks from the same pitcher beforehand. Once Eskelvarð takes his drink a deep sleep falls upon him: where Serena orders him to be dragged from the bed, flogged until bare, and left on the floor. Eskelvarð returns to his men ashamed and humiliated the next morning. Serena however still longs for the richness and grandeur of the tents, and asks Eskelvarð to a feast a few days later, which ends the same way with Eskelvarð whipped and humiliated.
At the third invitation Perus asks the maid not to offer Eskelvarð the sleep medication, and the maid tells them that the drinks that Serena drinks and Eskelvarð drinks are separated by a small compartment in the pitcher. Perus asks that the medication be thinned out so as not to awaken suspicion, but so that Eskelvarð does not sleep as long or deep. This comes to pass, and mid-night Eskelvarð wakes up on the floor, and joins Serena in her bed, sleeping with her. This leads to her submitting to him, and she agreeing to marry him and leaving France to join him.