Researchers at the University of Cambridge in UK have determined that a medieval scribal error triggered centuries of confusion and misunderstanding over a long-lost saga.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/18/science/medieval-saga-chaucer-mystery-error

The saga in question is a little-known text in Middle-English called The Song of Wade, twice mentioned by Chaucer, but largely forgotten nowadays.

The Song of Wade originated in the 12th century, and its hero battled monsters — or so scholars once thought. The only known text was found nearly 130 years ago in a 13th-century Latin sermon, which quoted a bit of the saga in Middle English. In the excerpt, the word “ylues” was originally translated as “elves,” suggesting that Wade’s long-lost saga was teeming with supernatural creatures.

Researchers now believe that a transcription error changed a ‘W’ to a ‘Y’, transforming ‘Wolves’ into ‘Elves’. Another word in the excerpt, translated as “sprites,” should instead be “sea snakes,” moving the story even farther away from the realm of the supernatural, the researchers reported July 15 in The Review of English Studies.

https://academic.oup.com/res/advance-article/doi/10.1093/res/hgaf038/8198901?login=false

Magic:The Gathering will never be the same !  ;-)

Edited July 19, 2025Jul 19 by toucana
capitalised 'Middle English' l.2

I, for one, love a good yarn about wolves and sea snakes!