Narrative Form and Literary Adaptation in the Medieval North

Abstract

Abstract Around 1300, ›Hertig Fredrik av Normandie‹, one of the foundational works of medieval Swedish literature, was translated from a German source of which no trace has survived. This article exposes the anachronistic expectations about narrative coherence that underpin existing attempts to reconstruct that source and how it was adapted. By focusing on the end of the bridal-quest action, the article advocates a revision of value judgements about the (in)competence of the Swedish translator. In doing so, it shows how narrative poetics can open up new approaches to medieval literary relations between Germany and Scandinavia, as well as to the literary historiography of lost texts more generally.