Norse literature Six years ago the Norwegian Research Council decided to fund a large project on the “Translation, Transmission and Transformation of Old Norse Romantic Fiction and Scandinavian Vernacular Literacy 1200 – 1500” – or in less convoluted language: The Scandinavian rewriting and adaption of medieval literature from the rest of Europe: The French romances, the songs of the troubadours, religious texts etc. From 1200 -1500 an impressive amount of European literature was translated into Norse – in Iceland, In Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The translations, however, had more the character of rewritings than translations as such. In this way they became adapted to the already existing vernacular and partly oral tradition, which is best known from the Icelandic sagas although it is in fact much more diverse. The main object of the project was to focus on this adaptation process. Another object was to study the interplay between the oral traditions and performances and the growing literacy in the period in question. Intermingled with this was a focus on the interplay between the increased vernacular use of the Runic alphabet, e.g. in connection with the writings of letters and other small texts as is famously documented from the excavations in Bergen at Bryggen and the growing Latin literacy. Earlier on this European influence was considered destructive in terms of its influence upon what was considered “the national, home-grown Norse literature” (the sagas, the eddic poems etc.) Nowadays, however, it has been established how fluid and entwined the traditions actually were. For instance it is no longer fashionable to distinguish between the so-called Royal Sagas, which continued to be written until the middle of the 13th century and the recently introduced romantic sagas with their new and different code of honour: Courtly instead of Manly. Further, until the printing press established textual consistency, the idea of an authorised text of either a poem or a piece of historical writing was non-existent creating a crucible for a huge cultural creativity. A famous example of this is the so-called Hauksbók. Haukr Erlendsson and his assistants wrote it some time before 1334. The book contains versions, sometimes the only extant versions, of some old Icelandic texts as well as translations and reworkings of geographical, theological, mathematical and scientific texts as well as sermons. The project, lead by Karl Gunnar Johansson and Terje Spurkland, has had a considerable impact. Foremost a large number of postgrads have discovered the importance interdisciplinary philological and cultural studies. Secondly the research has contributed to internationalising the study of Norse medieval literature and locating it inside the international research milieu, claims the professors. Translation, Transmission and Transformation of Old Norse Romantic Fiction and Scandinavian Vernacular Literacy 1200 – 1500
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:03:14 +0000
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