Norse Translation Research Articles

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre

Genesis and Provenance of the Oldest Soul-and-Body Debate in Old Norse Tradition

This article traces the manuscript filiation and the routes of textual transmission of Viðrǿða líkams ok sálar, the first soul-and-body debate that is preserved in Old Norse translation, a fairly faithful yet succinct translation of the Anglo-Norman poem known alternatively as Desputisun de l’âme et du corps and Un Samedi par nuit. The Norse text survives today in four manuscripts: AM 619 4to (Old Norwegian Homily Book), AM 696 XXXII 4to, AM 764 4to, and JS 405 8vo. Through a qualitative analysis of concurrent readings, the present study confirms and expands the stemma hypothesized by Ole Widding and Hans Bekker-Nielsen in 1959. The presence in the Norse text of readings typical of a newly identified “Continental tradition” within the Anglo-Norman family of manuscripts indicates that the nowlost manuscript source may have been a French codex, produced in all probability in a Flemish Benedictine monastery (Picardy, northeastern Artois or Hainaut) during the second half of the twelfth century. Subsequently, the codex may have been transferred from Flanders to a sister Benedictine house in Norway—such as Munkeliv in Bergen—via well-attested profitable monastic and trade networks that connected Flemish and Norwegian scriptoria between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries.

The Old Norse–Icelandic Hagiography of St Ambrose of Milan: Manuscript Tradition, Sources, and Composition

The Old Norse–Icelandic Hagiography of St Ambrose of Milan: Manuscript Tradition, Sources, and Composition

Reading the Old Norse–Icelandic “Maríu saga” in Its Manuscript Contexts

Reading the Old Norse–Icelandic “Maríu saga” in Its Manuscript Contexts

Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages, ed. Aisling Byrne and Victoria Flood. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019, viii., 323 pp.

Abstract: In a collection of essays, thirteen writers discuss texts from medieval Britain and beyond, the common theme being translation or events abroad. Helen Fulton describes manuscripts and libraries in Wales; Elena Parina, Welsh medical texts; Victoria Flood, English Tudor versions of Welsh political prophecies. Joanna Bellis sets out Latin propaganda poems of the Hundred Years’ War; Rory McTurk, possible links between Langland and skaldic verse. Then come four studies relating to Ireland. Erich Poppe takes on the Charlemagne legend in Irish; Aisling Byrne, Irish texts on the Crusades; Mariamne Briggs, Statius in Irish; Julie Leblanc, legends in Irish about Aeneas. After that, four contributions on Iceland. Mathias Egeler surveys Otherworld islands in Norse, includ­ing the Land of Women; Sif Rikhardsdottir explores emotive literary identity in the Old North; Sarah Bacchianti analyzes Norse translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth; Sabine Heidi Walther examines the personality of Hercules in the Old Norse saga of Troy.

Analog Resources and Digital Limitations

Following the completion of a bachelor in History, started in France but completed in Tromsø as an exchange student, I started to develop an interest for Scandinavian History and culture, which translated in me moving to Iceland to enroll in the Old Norse Religion MA program at the university of Iceland in 2013. After graduation, three years later, I began the life of an unaffiliated early-career scholar eager to make use of my newly-acquired knowledge. Since then, I have met with a number of obstacles related to access to scientific publications and source material, as well as discovered and developed ways around such problems. Working largely outside the framework of a higher-education establishment, my academic experience has so far been characterized by the mixing of traditional research methods and resources with more informal approaches. Finding primary sources, always a capital task for researchers of older History, is the perfect example of how contemporary Old Norse scholars combine long-established resources such as scholarly editions and manuscript transcription with less well-established web-based material such as amateur translations and commentaries. Online support and networking groups, largely operating via social media pages also do play an important role in facilitating collaboration between scholars, wanna-be scholars, and other enthusiasts, as well as making less-accessible resources more widely-distributed. One such example of collaborative internet-based academic project is the current Old Norse translation network I have been a part of since last year. Gathering individuals currently or formerly employed in academia, as well as enthusiastic amateurs and prospective academics, it makes for a relevant case study. This can be used to demonstrate how contemporary Old Norse scholars must operate in a hybrid field where the ever-growing amount of online resources must nevertheless be critically balanced with traditional published sources in order to conduct research.

“ek hræðumz ekki þik” – The dvergar in translated riddarasǫgur

Abstract This article investigates the usage of Old Nordic supernatural concepts in the Old Norse translations of Old French and Anglo-Norman chivalric romances and courtly lais from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. This paper focuses on the usage of the term dvergr as a translation for the Old French nain, reflecting not only the narrative purposes involved in the choice of this word as a translation, but also the possible consequences it could have had on Icelandic folk belief when these works were read out loud alongside other works that formed part of Icelandic literature and Icelandic oral tradition.

Algorismus in GKS 1812 4to: Transcription and translation

This article provides a diplomatic edition of the Algorismus, an Old Norse translation of the Carmen de Algorismo of Alexander of Villedieu (c. 1170–c. 1240), found in the encyclopedic manuscript GKS 1812 4to 13v1–16v31. This version has not been published previously. It has various characteristics, most notably in the script as well as in some readings, which distinguish it from previous editions that were based on AM 544 4to, a part of Hauksbók. Also, included here is, as far as is known, the first English translation of the Algorismus.

Teaching and practicing the Quadriga in Medieval Norway: A Reading of Barlaams og Josaphats Saga

The present volume establishes that Christian liturgy and religious rituals were the main tools for the transformation of the self after the introduction of Christianity in various cultural contexts of medieval Europe. The liturgical ritual was the ultimate arena and outer manifestation of the cognitive and behavioral changes required by individuals and which were inspired in them by the Church. In this article, I will discuss whether the same tools for transformation were relevant in medieval Norway and how self-reflection and cognitive change were triggered not only during the liturgy but also through other activities, such as the reading of literature. The primary focus will be on the medium of the book, here exemplified by an Old Norse translation of the pan-European legend about Barlaam and Josaphat as preserved in its main manuscript Holm Perg 6 fol., c. 1250. By Studying the content of the saga, its narratological structure, and the mise en page of the manuscript, I will argue that the text foregrounded the Christian quadriga model of interpreting and may have served to teach this model to its readers, i.e. members of the upper social class in medieval Norway during the second half of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. This book itself, with its specific mise en page, may thus be seen as a tool assisting in the transformation of the self, in a similar way as the liturgy.
 Keywords: Barlaams saga, Quadriga, cognitive transformation, mise en page, medieval Norway. 
 On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts by Sif Rikhardsdottir

Reviewed by: Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contextsby Sif Rikhardsdottir Matthew Firth Rikhardsdottir, Sif, Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts( Studies in Old Norse Literature), Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 2017; hardback; pp. 223; R.R.P. £50.00; ISBN 9781843844709. As a corpus, the Old Icelandic literature is often characterized by an economy of expression. It is a literary style that can provide a narrative with a sense of detachment from its material, establishing characters who seem dispassionate and inexpressive. Indeed, the paucity of passages that verbalize the feelings and emotions of saga characters make those few that can be found remarkable within the corpus. However, readers familiar with the style of the sagas know that this apparent objectivity is merely a veneer. The sagas may not preference dramatic displays of emotion, yet the laconic exchanges and tersely described interactions of saga characters are imbued with subtle indicators of emotional engagement. When these narratives are understood within the cultural contexts of both setting and authorship, it becomes evident that the characters operate within a rich emotional landscape. It is this emotional landscape that Sif Rikhardsdottir seeks to explore in this volume, identifying both the literary formulas through which it finds expression, and the emotive and behavioural codes that inform its parameters. The book is comprised of five chapters, each taking a literary case study (or studies) as its framework for discussing a different aspect of emotion in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. It is not an unusual approach for such thematic examinations of Old Norse texts, and serves to make manageable a topic as broad as that which Rikhardsdottir has undertaken to explore. Yet this does mean that the book cannot be considered a comprehensive survey of emotion in Old Norse literature. Rikhardsdottir limits herself to three 'genres', putting forward two chapters framed around the Íslendingasögur, two focused on the adoption and adaption of romance literature into Old Norse, and one on Eddic poetry. Moreover, as Rikhardsdottir herself notes, the volume deals nearly exclusively with Old West Norse dialects, limiting the study to Iceland, with occasional shifts to Norway (p. 2). But these are minor criticisms and, at worst, it could be said that the volume title— Emotion in Old Norse Literature—is somewhat misleading. Rikhardsdottir makes the parameters of her study immediately accessible in the introduction, and her reasons for limiting the book to the selected 'genres' and regions are justifiable on the basis of what is representative of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Scandinavian literary production. Chapter 1 uses as its texts Ívens sagaand Tristrams saga ok Ísödar—Old Norse translations of Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lionand Tristan. Here Rikhardsdottir introduces two terms: 'emotive literary identities' and 'emotive scripts'. The former is defined as the cultural framework of values that guides a [End Page 220]text's intended audience in how to interpret a character's emotive motivations. The latter refers to the more generic codes of behaviour that are recognizable to the audience as literary tropes and thus inform the reading of emotions through generic formulas. These terms and their underlying theories are the foundation of the book. Rikhardsdottir tests them against the process of narrative transmission in the translation of courtly romance from one culture to another. By comparing the Old French texts with their Old Norse translations, she is able to demonstrate that the expression of emotion within the narratives also undergoes a process of translation. Gone are the overt concerns with courtly love and feudal society present in Yvainand Tristanas these emotive scripts are rejected and the literary identities of Ívenand Tristramare modified to adhere to Icelandic literary norms. The next four chapters shift to native literary traditions. Chapter 2 approaches Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, using it as a platform to explore emotional interiority and how to read emotion in a literary tradition that eschews outward display of internal emotion. Of particular interest is Rikhardsdottir's assertion that the scarcity of emotive words lends those that are there deeper meaning and greater complexity, while also lending non-emotive words a degree of emotive content. Chapter 3 looks at Eddic poetry and the...

Personal Religion among the Ancient Scandinavians and the Fulltrúi-Concept

The question of personal religion among the ancient Scandinavians has centered around the concept of having a deity as one’s fulltrúi ‘trustworthy friend,’ ástvinr ‘close friend,’ or vinr ‘friend.’ Most scholars of the twentieth century regarded the concept as a true expression of pre-Christian Germanic belief. By contrast, modern scholarship strongly tends to see it as a construct of medieval authors who took the saints’ cult as a model to describe the personal piety of their ninth and tenth century compatriots. On the basis of a passage in the Old Norse translation of Clemens saga, corroborated with archaeological evidence and some skaldic verse, e.g. Sonatorrek, the present study argues that the religious concept of fulltrúi and its parallel terms developed in pre-Christian times.

Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translation, Voices, Contexts by Sif Rikhardsdottir

Reviewed by: Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translation, Voices, Contexts by Sif Rikhardsdottir Anne Le Sif Rikhardsdottir, Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translation, Voices, Contexts ( Cambridge: D.S. Brewer 2017) 223 pp. We ought to move away from our impulse to consider Old Norse literature as void of emotion, particularly when compared to other medieval literatures. This is at the core of Sif Rikhardsdottir's Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts. In this book, she aims to forge news ways of reading representations of emotions in a wide array of Old Norse literature. That is, she suggests that there is in fact an emotive script present throughout the corpus, which runs counter to the long-held thought that the medieval Icelandic saga avoids emotive or subjective positioning. Rikhardsdottir mines these texts to uncover the ways in which these narratives in fact generate emotional impact or responses and to address the dearth of research done on medieval emotions in Old Norse studies. Throughout the introduction, Rikhardsdottir goes to great lengths to orient and give context to the reader. At times, this can be quite overwhelming, though she attempts to break it down piece by piece. She takes care to note that her methodology involves a selective reading of the Old Norse corpus with attention paid particularly to secular works from Iceland, though she shifts between Iceland and Norway as needed. An example of her thoroughness comes early in the introduction as she discusses emotion itself. When it comes to the question of emotion and how to define it, Rikhardsdottir is not timid about confronting the methodological issues that arise. As she lays out her methodology for her reader, it quickly becomes evident that her approach must mix science with the humanities. She references modern neurology and psychology, and she even hints toward anthropology. Of course, Rikhardsdottir also brings in medieval medicine and its conception of the mind-body continuum. This interdisciplinary approach is key, for Rikhardsdottir notes that her goal is "not to authenticate medieval emotion, but to locate emotionality within the text produced by the medieval mind and probe how this emotionality can still resonate in a meaningful manner with the modern mind" (13). In this way, Rikhardsdottir's work negotiates between biological processes and [End Page 268] different social contexts and how they construct emotional behavior in Old Norse literature. In addition to her justification of interdisciplinarity in her methodology, Rikhardsdottir spends time in her introduction discussing the importance of voice in literature, which she states has been unfortunately overlooked in medieval studies. To address voice and its connection to medieval textuality, Rikhardsdottir relies upon Paul Zumthor's theories of orality, which places an emphasis on the human voice in relation to text. This in turn eschews the boundaries between orality and textuality in favor of suggesting a relationship between these elements, thereby lending itself to vocality. Rikhardsdottir writes that "it is precisely this notion of medieval 'vocality' that serves as the premise of the proposed theorizing of voice and its relation to the emotive" (21). Rikhardsdottir addresses voice and vocality, since these concepts are key to the delivery of medieval texts, which she emphasizes were often read aloud to an audience. This performative aspect and its emotive possibilities are in turn of interest to Rikhardsdottir, because the "the interplay between the emotionality of a text and the voicing of this emotionality is at the forefront" of her book (22). Thus, Rikhardsdottir approaches emotion in Old Norse vernacular literature—and its various genres—while considering voice as a means of foregrounding the aesthetic range of emotive expression. Rikhardsdottir divides the rest of the book into various chapters that deal with different genres and themes. In the first chapter, entitled "Literary Identities and Emotive Scripts," she takes care to introduce and lay a foundation for the theorizing of "literary identities" and "emotive scripts" (25,27). Her main objects of study are the Norse translations of two texts: Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain ou le Chevalier ou lion as well as Thomas de Bretagne's Tristran. These texts are chosen to demonstrate how the Old Norse reconceptualizes emotive coding found in Old French courtly ideology. She thoroughly compares...

The Lover and the Statue: Idolatrous Love in Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar

As early as the first paragraph of Tristrams saga ok Isondar, a thirteenth-century Old Norse translation of Thomas of Britain's Tristran, (1) the narrator tells us we will hear of the obaeriliga ast (Jorgensen 1999, 28) of Tristram and Isond, and thus of the seminal theme of the European Tristan-corpus: unbearable love. Yet the translator's adaptation of the romance diverges significantly from his French source, as Thomas's long passages describing the psychology of his characters' love are often truncated or condensed in the Old Norse text. It is thus easy to understand an earlier critical viewpoint would express that the translated saga provided a factually accurate but emotionally reduced rendition of its exemplar (Finlay 2004,206). (2) Despite the promise of its opening, scholars have argued Tristams saga misses the main preoccupation of its continental counterparts: psychological explorations of the obsessive love of its protagonists. As Alison Finlay indicates in the quotation above, this has been taken as evidence of a less developed interest in love on the part of the Norse translator and his audience. However, Tristrams saga includes an episode does offer significant insight into the psyche of the saga's protagonist. In the so-called Hall of Statues episode, a lovesick Tristram constructs a hall filled with lifelike representations of Isond and other characters (chapter 80). The narrator provides a lavish, ekphrastic description of both the hall and the statues within it, a description is remarkably long and detailed. In this essay, I argue Tristram's hall represents a striking externalization of his lovesick psyche, and the inclusion of the episode therefore indicates a strong interest in the psychology of love. I read the Hall of Statues and, in particular, the wonderfully lifelike representation of Isond, as a device represents Tristram's memory and purposefully recalls statues. Tristram's construction and subsequent adoration of his places the romance at the center of medieval debates on image theory and idolatry. It showcases the production of an artwork is at once a lifelike representation of reality and a powerful illusion created by the protagonist's frustrated passion. In a discussion of this episode (3) in Thomas's text, Tracy Adams writes the French Tristran attempts to deal with his mental and physical desire for Ysolt (4) by reproducing Iseut's presence--her essence--in a statue (2005,152), and suggests he is able to capture essence in his art. (5) I argue, however, the of Isond in the saga is a physical produced by Tristram's unchecked imagination and desire--a manifestation of his delusions. The setting of Tristram's creative act supports this reading: in a remote forest, the hall physically excludes all external impressions, allowing Tristram's obsession with his absent lady to grow while simultaneously removing him from society. The hall is the product of an enclosed, cupidous imagination, what Michael Camille calls an idol of the mind (1989, 307-8). Since this unhealthy inventive activity stems directly from the love potion Tristram and Isond unwittingly drink, it is an extreme and particularly vivid example of the devastating effects of love-madness on the psyche. The inclusion of this episode in the saga therefore not only points to Thomas's interest in contemporary philosophical and artistic debates about the relationship between desire, imagination, and idolatry, but also indicates the Norse translator's (and perhaps his audience's) interest in such topics. The Old Norse translation might express characters' interiority differently than continental romance, but interiority and psychological depth are nevertheless present in an episode such as the Hall of Statues. Showing its protagonist increasingly isolated in a hall is the product of his own imagination, the saga forcefully depicts the idolatrous potential of the isolated, lovesick mind. …

Learning to Feel in the Old Norse Camelot?

were consequences, for instance, of having Middle English feelings, as distinct from Anglo-Norman, Welsh, French, or Latin ones? asks Sarah McNamer (2007, 248). Or, indeed, Old Norse feelings? These surely existed, even if we can map neither modern nor Middle English word onto an Old Norse equivalent. If, as McNamer suggests, language-specific emotional systems exist, then that of Old Norse can seem hard to locate, for famously objective narrators of Islendingasogur are reluctant to speak directly about love, anger, fear, or disgust, and other saga genres are equally reticent. (1) The translated Arthurian romances do, however, depict a range of emotional situations that are often intensely experienced by their protagonists. Here, then, we can begin both to map Old Norse emotional lexis and to probe its cultural uniqueness. In my chapter on translated lais in The Arthur of North (Larrington 2011), I briefly examined language of feeling in two thirteenth-century Strengleikar translations, Geitarlauf and Januals Ijod, and explored how Marie de France's subtle emotional calibrations were mediated from verse into prose and from Anglo-Norman into Norse. The recent work of Suzanne Marti (2012, 2013), Stefka Eriksen (Johansson and Eriksen 2012; Eriksen 2013), and Sif Rikhardsdottir (2008, 2012, forthcoming) has highlighted importance of recognizing how translation must always involve adaptation of source text's signifying systems, in order to signify for target audience a move that often lays bare ideological processes at work in both texts. As Sif Rikhardsdottir observes, the negotiation of separate semiotic systems of French text and its Norse translation, evident in diverse behavioural patterns that manifest innate ideological principles, underscores elements that define cultural conceptualising of self and social environment (2012, 74). What is true of ideological systems is also true of emotional systems. In terminology of psychologists such as Keith Oatley (1994, 1999; see also Mar et al. 2011) and Ed Tan (1994), literary texts provide models of which, if effectively implemented in terms of characters, behavior, and situation, will elicit both empathy and aesthetic appreciation in listening audience. As listening audience runs simulation, appropriate and congruent emotional reactions should be produced. (2) Norse audiences for translated texts would thus be required to process different (individual components of text's simulation) contained in emotion-episodes narrated to them, if they were to engage and empathize with plot and its characters. Translation requires adaptation of source in order to arouse emotions of target culture. The changes between source texts and translations illuminate cultural differences in and also, crucially, over time will come to affect development of emotion simulations and scripts in target culture's signifying system. In this article, I focus on some key emotional episodes in Parcevals saga, Norse translation of French poet Chretien de Troyes's romance Le Conte de Graal (ca. 1180), in order to investigate how Norse translator depicts both basic emotions (such as anger, fear, joy, sorrow) and complex emotions (such as resentment), adapting his emotion scripts for his audience. (3) Cognition, performativity, behavior, and somatic effects are verbalized in ways that differ from source that Norse translator had before him; these scripts open up comparisons with similar emotion episodes in native Norse texts, primarily sagas. This analysis will in turn illuminate extent to which of Parcevals saga cohere with simulations intended to evoke audience empathy in other genres. Finally, a brief comparison with lexis of emotion in representative examples of texts from other Norse genres will explore how Old Icelandic literary language already had a well-developed emotional range before transmission of translated Arthurian sagas to Iceland. …

“Undir ilmöndum laufum ok nýsprungnum blómstrum”: Sensual Pleasure in Old Norse Arthurian Romance

“Undir ilmöndum laufum ok nýsprungnum blómstrum”:Sensual Pleasure in Old Norse Arthurian Romance M. A. Jacobs Tristrams saga begins with a young man who wants to go to court. Having acquired as much wealth and fame as he could at home, Kanelangres, who will become Tristram’s father, sets his sights higher: the court of England, which is renowned for its wealth, its pleasures, and the prowess and courtliness of its members. After preparing himself appropriately, Kanelangres sets out with a company of men for Tintajol, where they are greeted warmly and with honor. During their stay, King Markis decides to have a feast to celebrate a holiday. He invites all the nobles in the land and undertakes lavish preparations. We are told that: safnaðiz saman allr sá fjöldi í Kornbretalandi í einum skógi hjá stöðuvatni nokkuru. Þar váru fagrir vellir ok víðir, sléttir, prýddir fögrum grösum ok blómasamligum. En fyrir sakir þess, at staðr þessi var hinn lystiligasti sakir margfaldrar skemtanar, þá lét Markis kóngr á þeim völlum þar setja ok skipa stórum landtjöldum, gulum ok grænum, blám ok rauðum, ok ríkuliga búnum, gylldum ok gullsaumuðum, undir ilmöndum laufum ok nýsprungnum blómstrum. (Jorgensen 1999, 32) the entire crowd gathered together in Cornwall in a forest and beside a lake. There were beautiful fields, spacious and flat, adorned with fine herbs in bloom. Because this place was the most delightful due to its many pleasures, King Markis had large tents set up and furnished in yellow and green, blue and red—and richly decorated, gilded and embroidered with golden thread—under fragrant foliage and bursting blossoms. (Jorgensen 1999, 33) [End Page 107] The scene is vividly descriptive, of both natural features and the manmade structures found among them. The language is the elaborate prose typical of translated romance, characterized by alliteration and strings of adjectives (Kalinke 1977). The descriptive elements pile up, the language itself adding to the image of lushness and luxury. Also noteworthy in this scene is the attention to elements designed to engage the senses. There are bright colors to catch the eye, a pleasing arrangement of forest and field and lake, and herbs and flowers to perfume the air. This is, of course, the setting for a feast, so we might also imagine further sensory engagement in the “dýrustar vistir” (Jorgensen 1999, 32) [“choicest foods” (Jorgensen 1999, 33)] that the saga tells us Markis provides for his guests. This episode is indicative of a broader tendency in the Old Norse translated romances: they emphasize sensory engagement—and in particular, sensual pleasure—in ways that Old Norse sagas of other genres rarely do. For anyone acquainted with Icelandic sagas, the scene from Tristrams saga is somewhat startling. The Íslendingasögur and konungasögur—the Icelandic family sagas and the kings’ sagas, respectively—typically feature a spare style, characterized by parataxis and minimal description. When the narrative does pause to describe something, it is generally to introduce an important character or to create narrative tension, rather than to set a scene, as in the example above.1 French and German romances, however, delight in vivid detail, with elaborate descriptions of people and settings that were so commonplace as to become tropes.2 The Old Norse translations of these romances fall somewhere between the extremes of their source texts and the Íslendingasögur. Medieval translations did not simply consist of word-for-word substitutions, but employed a variety of strategies whereby a text was made intelligible to a new audience through means of acculturation (Copeland 1991).3 Romances translated into Old Norse display strategies such as providing short explanations of unfamiliar concepts, restructuring texts according to native principles, and emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain aspects of the stories, such as battles and internal monologues, respectively, and changing verse to prose. Given the amount of acculturation these texts have undergone, it is noteworthy that so much sensory description [End Page 108] has been retained. This seeming incongruity allows us an opportunity to inquire into how the senses were understood in medieval Iceland and...

Britain as Sjónhverfing: Decoding the Landscape in Strengleikar

Geitarlanf is an Old Norse translation of Marie de France's lat du Chievrefoil. Only 118 lines long in the original, and covering just under one manuscript page in the Norse, the lai describes a single episode in the long and complicated story of Tristan and Isolde. Banished from the court of King Mark, Tristan hears that the queen plans to ride to Tintagel for Pentecost. He hides in the forest along the route and carves a message on a hazel branch. In the Anglo-Norman text, the exact nature of this message is unclear, (1) but the Old Norse version quotes it in full: Sva ferr med ocr kvad hann sem viduindil sa er binnz um haeslivid. Medan pessir tveir vidir bua bader saman. pa liva ok bera lauf sitt. En sa er paessa vide skildi hvarn fra odrum. pa deyr haslenn ok pui nest uidvinndillenn ok berr hvarki lauf. nema porna ok firir verdaz baede. Hin frida unnasta min. Sva ok eftir peim haetti ero vit. Ei ma ec lifa on Jain, ok ei pu on min. (Cook and Tveitane 1979, 198) (2) goes with us, he said, with the honeysuckle that fastens itself around the hazel tree. As long as these two trees are together they live and produce foliage, but if anyone should separate these trees from each other, the hazel will die and then the honeysuckle, and neither of them will produce foliage; instead, they will both dry up and perish. My beautiful sweetheart, such and in the same way are we. I cannot live without you, nor you without me. (Cook and Tveitane 1979, 199) hazel branch functions as both message and metaphor in a telescopic layering of interpretative meaning. Isolde must find, read, and decode the message inscribed upon it; the message then invites her to compare the physical object she holds to the emotional and sexual ties that bind her to Tristan. (3) As Peter Haidu writes: The stick is a natural sign of itself. sign, which normally supposes the absence of the signified, here signifies its presence (2004, 130). very wood through which Isolde rides becomes a symbol of secret communication and illicit desire. Isolde successfully interprets both message and metaphor, and the resulting meeting between the lovers gives rise to a new text, the lai itself. Geitarlauf demonstrates well the symbolic relationship between the act of traveling through the natural world and that of interpreting the written text. Indeed, this relationship is developed throughout the whole of Strengleikar, the compilation of translated Breton lais in which Geitarlauf is found. In particular, the island of Britain emerges as a key site for such explorations. It will be argued here that the Strengleikar collection demonstrates a sustained interest in the role of Britain as a setting for the romance text, and that travel through the British landscape parallels the process of reading and decoding the romance genre itself. Consisting of twenty-one prose tales, Strengleikar translates into Old Norse eleven of the lais attributed to Marie de France, as well as six anonymous French poems; a further four of the Old Norse texts have no known origin. collection is largely preserved within one manuscript, Uppsala University Library, de la Gardie 4-7. (4) manuscript dates to around the year 1270 and was likely produced in Bergen or the surrounding area. translation was reputedly commissioned by Hakon Hakonarson, king of Norway, as part of a campaign to import Continental romance texts to his country. Ruling from 1217 to 1263, Hakon developed a keen interest in the life of the Anglo-Norman court and seems to have commissioned the translation of the lais as part of a wider cultural program that included the translation of several romance texts into Norse, as well as the adoption in Norway of English styles of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Such forms of cultural exchange were supported by a mutual reliance on trade and an increasingly close relationship between political and ecclesiastical authorities (Leach 1921; Helle 1968; Kalinke 2011). …

The Arthurian Legacy in Sweden

The Arthurian Legacy in Sweden Sofia Lodén The so-called Eufemiavisor, three translations into Old Swedish written at the behest of the Norwegian Queen Eufemia at the beginning of the fourteenth century, mark the beginning of Swedish literature. At least, there is no trace of earlier literary texts of the same scope as the Eufemiavisor: the runic inscriptions, law texts, and legends that precede them are really not narrative literary texts as extensive as the Eufemiavisor. This beginning of Swedish literature also signalled the arrival of King Arthur in Sweden. Two of the Eufemiavisor link up directly with the Arthurian tradition. Herr Ivan mainly recalls Chrétien de Troyes’s famous romance Le Chevalier au lion: the French text was the Swedish translator’s main source text, while the Old Norse translation of the romance, Ívens saga, served as occasional support.1 The source text of the second of the Eufemiavisor, Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, has not survived, but similarities with the German genre of the Spielmannsepos [End Page 62] have been pointed out by William Layher (1999), and the text presents a strong “Arthurian veneer” (Layher 1999, 247). Florian Bambeck, who has studied Hertig Fredrik av Normandie extensively, considers it as “ein nachklassischer Artusroman mit Brautwerbungsepisode, der seine Handlung in eine nacharturische Ära verlegt” (2009, 235) [a postclassical Arthurian romance with a courtship episode, whose plot is set in a post-Arthurian era].2 The third text that was written at the behest of Queen Eufemia, Flores och Blanzeflor, can hardly be considered an Arthurian text, since it goes back to the tradition of the French roman idyllique, a genre that was also known throughout medieval Europe. The Old Swedish Herr Ivan, the first of the three Eufemiavisor, presents both ideological and stylistic ideals, and simultaneously introduced the Arthurian legend to Sweden.3 When reading the becomes clear that King Arthur was not considered a well-known character by the new public but needed a careful presentation: J nampn fadhers oc sons oc thæs hælgha andhawil iak taka mik till handaforna saghu fram att førathem til skemptan ther a wilæ høraaff the werdhogasta konunga twather man æ hørdhe sakt j fra:Karlamagnus oc konung Artws;til dyghdh oc æro waro the fws.Artws war konung aff Ængland.Han van Rom medh swerdh oc brandok war ther keyser medh mykle æra.Han frælste Ængland aff hardhe kæra [End Page 63] ok skat ther romara førra giordho,swa at ængin han sidhen kreffwia thordhe.Annar war Karlamagnus aff Franz.Thet wil iak idher sighia til sanz,mot hedhna mæn for cristna at stridæwaro enge fræmbre j thera tidæ.Badhe the herra iak sigher j frathe haffwa thera framfærdh skipath swa,ower alla werldina gaar thera loffhwar herra och førstæ søkiæ hoff.Konunga synir the søkto thera heem,hertoghar, iærlar, greffuar thiænte them;riddara synir the giordo och swaoch alle the ther wider kunno na.Om thenne werdug konung Artus daghawaro kempæ starke thera liiff tordo wagafor ridderskap och frvr æræ.Thet ær illæ the æru nw færræfore frvor loff wilæ priis at winnæ;man kan them nw næplik finnæ. (Noreen 1931, vv. 1–32) In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I will take it upon myself to tell an old tale as entertainment for those who want to listen about the two most worthy kings about whom stories have ever been told: Charlemagne and King Arthur; they were eager for virtue and honor. Arthur was the king of England. He conquered Rome with sword and fire and was emperor there with great glory. He freed England from hardship and from tribute which the Romans formerly imposed, so that nobody has dared demand it since. Charlemagne was the other one. In truth I want to tell you: where Christians battled against the heathens none was more outstanding in those days. The two rulers I am telling you about have governed their actions in such a manner that their praise has spread over the entire earth...

Writing in the Margins: Norse Arthurian Sagas as Palimpsests

This is a comparative study of three Old Norse translations/adaptations of French romances. The focus is on certain of the modifications made in the Norse romances as part of the process of 'acculturation,' the need to modify texts to align them with the differing assumptions of another cultural context.

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Morris's Old Norse Translations

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Morris's Old Norse Translations

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Morris's Old Norse Translations

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Morris's Old Norse Translations