French Fantasies in the Medieval North: Translating Old French romances at the court of King Hákon Hákonarson of Norway (O’Connor)
- mmapodcast1
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Translation was critical to transmitting but also transforming ideas as they moved across linguistic, cultural and geographic boundaries in medieval Europe. In this episode, Mary Catherine O’Connor explores the role of translated literature in introducing ideas of courtliness and chivalry but also in fostering a shared European literary culture at the multi-cultural and cosmopolitan court of King Hákon Hákonarson in Bergen in the thirteenth century. Hákon commissioned a royal programme of translation in which some of the most popular romances, lais, and chansons de geste were translated from Old French and Anglo-Norman into Old Norse. These translations were closely connected to Hákon’s political objectives in transforming the Norwegian monarchy and re-aligning the conduct and ideals of his courtiers along continental European models. This episode will discuss why Hákon undertook this programme of translation, how these translations were carried out, and what they may reveal the political and cultural implications of these translations at the Norwegian court.
Mary Catherine O’Connor is a PhD candidate in Old Norse studies at the University of Oxford’s English Faculty. Mary’s research analyses the translation of Old French and Anglo-Norman romances, lais, and chanson de geste, through a spatial lens. Space, place and landscape provide the central focus of Mary’s thesis as she examines changes to these narratives for evidence of political ideologies and pre-existing cultural conventions.
Further Resources:
Angerer, Michael Lysander. “Translatio Studii as Literary Innovation: Marie de France’s Fresne and the Cultural Authority of Translation.” Exemplaria (Binghamton, N.Y.) 34.4 (2022): 341–362.
Bandlien, Bjørn. Strategies of Passion: Love and Marriage in Medieval Iceland and Norway. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005.
Barnes, Geraldine. “The riddarasögur: A Medieval Exercise in Translation”. Saga-Book 19 (1974): 403-441.
Copeland, Rita. Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Jaeger, C. Stephen. The Origins of Courtliness : Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
Kalinke, Marianne E. King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: The Matière de Bretagne in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels Boghandel, 1981.
Kaeuper, Richard W. Holy Warriors : The Religious Ideology of Chivalry. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
Larrington, Carolyne. “Learning to Feel in the Old Norse Camelot?” Scandinavian studies 87.1 (2015): 74–94.
Sif Ríkharðsdóttir. Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2017.
Sif Ríkharðsdóttir. Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse: The Movement of Texts in England, France and Scandinavia. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012.
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