The lost Middle English romance which we may call Olive and Landres was written before 1286. It was, therefore, one of the earliest English romances of which we know—among extant romances only four are certainly as old as that, and hardly half a dozen others can conceivably be as old. Before it disappeared it was translated into Old Norse prose. A foreword to the translation tells us how, in the winter after the death of the Scottish King Alexander, grandfather of the Maid of Norway (that is, in the winter of 1286), Lord Bjarni Erlingsson of Bjarkey was busy on a political mission to Scotland. There he found this saga written down in the English language. Impressed, ostensibly by its high moral lessons, Lord Bjarni had the saga translated from English into Norse.