Romancing Scandinavia: relocating chivalry and romance in eighteenth‐century Britain

Abstract

The latter part of the eighteenth century saw a new interest in the medieval romance. This article examines how such interest coincided with the development of a widely accepted (albeit controversial) theory that metrical tales of chivalry originated with the Scandinavian court poets, the scalds. In England, the theory had a nationalistic orientation, since it was proposed that the scalds had formed an integral part of Anglo‐Saxon culture. The article argues that the theory emerged at a critical juncture when attempts to form a new vernacular canon were under way. The theory was specifically useful in breaking with the common conception that Anglophone romances were merely copies or imitations of French examples. The imaginative rewriting of poetic history helped to acquire for English literature a status closer to the center of European literary progress. Central to this new origin narrative of romance was the notion of the Gothic peoples’ ethnic inheritances. It is analyzed how ideas established in mainstream political discourses were tapped and transferred to the construction of “vernacular” literature. The main proponents of the theory were Thomas Percy and Thomas Warton, whose somewhat conflicting versions of romance development are discussed and contextualized.