French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture: 7 (Studies in Old Norse Literature, 7) 1843845822, 9781843845829

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FRENCH ROMANCE, MEDIEVAL SWEDEN AND THE EUROPEANISATION OF CULTURE

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Studies in Old Norse Literature Print ISSN 2514-0701 Online ISSN 2514-071X

Series Editors Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir Professor Carolyne Larrington

Studies in Old Norse Literature aims to provide a forum for monographs and collections engaging with the literature produced in medieval Scandinavia, one of the largest surviving bodies of medieval European literature. The series investigates poetry and prose alongside translated, religious and learned material; although the primary focus is on Old Norse-Icelandic literature, studies which make comparison with other medieval literatures or which take a broadly interdisciplinary approach by addressing the historical and archaeological contexts of literary texts are also welcomed. It offers opportunities to publish a wide range of books, whether cutting-edge, theoretically informed writing, provocative revisionist approaches to established conceptualizations, or strong, traditional studies of previously neglected aspects of the field. The series will enable researchers to communicate their findings both beyond and within the academic community of medievalists, highlighting the growing interest in Old Norse-Icelandic literary culture. Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editors or to the publisher, at the addresses given below. Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir, Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Iceland, Aðalbygging v/Sæmundargötu, S-101 Reykjavik, Iceland Professor Carolyne Larrington, Faculty of English Language and Literature, St John’s College, Oxford University, Oxford, OX1 3JP, UK Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK Previous volumes in the series are listed at the end of the volume.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Sofia Lodén

D. S . B R E W E R

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© Sofia Lodén 2021 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Sofia Lodén to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2021 D. S. Brewer, Cambridge

ISBN 978 1 84384 582 9 (hardcover) ISBN 978 1 80010 158 6 (ePDF) ISBN 978 1 80010 159 3 (ePUB)

D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate

Cover image: The Baldishol Tapestry, c. 1150–90. Photo: Frode Larsen, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.

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contents Acknowledgements vii A Note on Editions and Translations viii Manuscripts Referred to by Sigla ix Introduction 1. Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden 2. The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion: Le Chevalier au lion 3. Children of Medieval Europe: Floire et Blancheflor 4. Animals, Beastliness and Language: Valentin et Orson 5. Masculinity and Venus: Paris et Vienne Conclusion: Found in Translation

1 31 47 85 119 151 179

Bibliography Index

187 207

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acknowledgements I started to write this book at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as an International postdoc funded by the Swedish Research Council, and I finished it at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala and at Stockholm University as a Pro Futura Scientia XII Fellow, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The research environments in Venice, Uppsala and Stockholm have been a source of inspiration for this book. The Romling (Romance Linguistics) network at Stockholm University’s Department of Romance Studies and Classics has offered additional funding, for which I am very grateful. Many friends and colleagues have offered me invaluable help. My thanks are due in particular to Leah Tether for performing wonders with my often clumsy English, and to Henrik Williams for discussing the whole text with me and helping me with the translations from the Nordic languages. Of course I remain solely responsible for all remaining errors and mistakes. I would also like to express my warmest thanks to the editors of this series, Sif Rikhardsdottir and Carolyne Larrington, for encouraging me to publish this book in their series, and to Caroline Palmer, Elizabeth McDonald, Tracey Engel, Sarah Thomas and Boydell & Brewer for their support. I am very much indebted to the anonymous reader whose comments helped me clarify and sharpen some of my main arguments. I also want to thank James Helling for his help with my index. I am grateful for valuable advice from many scholars. I would here especially like to mention Mia Åkestam, Agnieszka Backman, Massimiliano Bampi, Anders Bengtsson, Olivier Biaggini, Keith Busby, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, François-Xavier Dillmann, Christine Ekholst, Wendy Espeland, Olle Ferm, Michèle Gally, My Hellsing, Corinne Péneau, Jonatan Pettersson, Benjamin Pohl, Vanessa Obry and Lydia Zeldenrust. Finally, I would like to express my endless gratitude to my family: to my parents Lena Jönsson and Torbjörn Lodén for reading and commenting on my manuscript several times and at different stages of my work, and to my children Alfred and Edmund for their curiosity and love. Above all, I would like to thank my husband Charles-Albin Louriais: without his unfailing encouragement and support this book would never have been completed. vii

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a note on editions and translations

This book contains a great number of quotations from medieval romances, accompanied by translations into English. I refer to the chosen edition of each medieval text the first time that the text is quoted. When possible, I use already existing English translations and these are also referred to the first time that they are quoted.

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manuscripts referred to by sigla

A

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 375

AM 191 Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, København Universitet, Cod. AM 191, fol. B

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1447

C

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12562

D 2

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 2

D 3

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 3

D 4

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4

D 4a

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4a

E 8822

Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Cod. RA E 8822 fol.

K4

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 4

K 45

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 45

K 47

Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 47

V

Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatini latini, 1971

ix

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Introduction

Medieval romance is perhaps best described as European rather than national. And yet, the French romance functioned as a means of establishing a Swedish literary culture and was instrumental in configuring borders that delimited a linguistic and cultural community.1 This book is an attempt to cast new light on how the French romance was translated, rewritten and interpreted in medieval Sweden – and how these processes need to be understood in the wider European context. It is predicated upon the assumption that translations of literary texts are interesting both for the role they play in the culture of their target languages and for the light they shed on their source texts. I will examine four European literary traditions that, in different ways, have contributed to the spread of French culture in medieval Sweden and to the formation of a Swedish national literature.2 At the centre of my study are Le Chevalier au lion and its Swedish translation, Herr Ivan; Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor and the Swedish version, Flores och Blanzeflor; Valentin et Sansnom (the original French text has not been preserved, rather just its later prose rewriting, Valentin et Orson) and the Swedish text, Namnlös och Valentin; Paris et Vienne and the fragmentary Swedish version, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna. Whereas Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor are dated to the beginning of the fourteenth century, Namnlös och Valentin was written in the fifteenth century and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna in the sixteenth century. I will argue that the status of these four translations of courtly literature should not be reduced to the level of less important, later versions of prestigious sources – rather they belong to more complex and above all European

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The role of borders in medieval European literature is explored in the book L’expérience des frontières et les littératures de l’Europe médiévale, ed. Sofia Lodén and Vanessa Obry (Paris: Champion, 2019). Medieval Sweden had different borders than present-day Sweden: the southern provinces Skåne, Blekinge and Halland, today Swedish, were part of Denmark, while the western provinces Bohuslän, Jämtland and Härjedalen were part of Norway. Additionally, what is today Finland was, from the middle of the twelfth century, part of Sweden.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture text traditions that, in point of fact, contribute to casting new light on the French romance more broadly. Ever since Ernst Robert Curtius’ influential book Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter appeared in 1948, the question of cultural European unity during the Middle Ages has often been discussed.3 It was not just people and merchandise that were in continuous movement in the Middle Ages; ideas, languages and texts travelled just as widely. The circulation of the romance reflects the resulting Europeanisation of culture, and the genre of romance is thus a kind of a hybrid born out of the processes of translation and rewriting. The notion of national literatures is rooted in the historiography of the nineteenth century, coloured by patriotic and romantic views of society, and is, for obvious reasons, problematic in the field of medieval studies. In his collaborative history of European literature 1348–1418, David Wallace tackles this issue by approaching the question of European literature through an exploration of what he calls ‘itineraries, places drawn together through links of travel, trade, religious practice, language, and literary exchange’.4 The Europe that emerges has loose borders and its spaces are defined as ‘sites of cultural negotiation producing literatures of extraordinary variety, ingenuity, and regenerative power’.5 Taking a similar stance, the aim of this book is not to present a history of medieval Swedish romance translations as an isolated and insular phenomenon. On the contrary, I set out to explore four particular cases of literary transmission that depend on a wider European context, characterised as much by diversity as by unity. My point of departure however remains the ‘French romance’ and ‘medieval Sweden’, since these two units were instrumental in the gradual emergence of a Swedish cultural identity as part of a broader process of identity construction, which also involved other prominent cultures such as, for example, that of Northern Germany. In the first issue of Interfaces, the editors discuss how one can define medieval European literature. Drawing inspiration from the field of ‘world literature’ while simultaneously stressing the regionality of literature, they argue that one of the journal’s aims should be ‘to explore not only the literary cultures of medieval Europe and their place in a wider world, but also the value of Europe as a framework for the study of medieval literature’.6 In the recent book Medieval Romances Across European Borders, Miriam Edlich-Muth suggests that the category of Ernst Robert Curtius, Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (Bern: Francke, 1984 [1948]). 4 David Wallace, ed., Europe: A Literary History, 1348–1418, vol. 1 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. xxviii. 5 Wallace, Europe: A Literary History, vol. 1, p. xl. 6 Paolo Borsa, Christian Høgel, Lars Boje Mortensen and Elizabeth Tyler, ‘What Is Medieval European Literature?’, Interfaces 1 (2015), 7–24 (p. 15). 3

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Introduction ‘Europe’ should not be limited primarily to a geographic space in which a certain number of languages are spoken, but should rather be considered as ‘a network of individual works from different parts of the region, whose defining feature is their mode of circulation across boundaries’.7 The study of textual traditions across European borders thus implies a revision of the category of European literature. At the same time as ‘World literature’ constitutes a growing field, there also exists a scholarly tendency to underplay the role of French courtly literature as the dominant and most prestigious literature in the European Middle Ages, and instead draw attention to the diversity of medieval European culture, in which the French romance intertwined with other vernacular traditions. For example, Bart Besamusca and Jessica Quinlan have stressed the need to study ‘the pan-European dimensions of medieval Arthurian literature’.8 As Lydia Zeldenrust has shown convincingly in her recent book, the pan-European dimensions of medieval literature may be defined by their diversity: moving away from more traditional nation- and language-based approaches does not necessarily mean that everything is subsumed into one pan-European view, as if the different literary contexts were all the same. It is important for research that takes a cross-cultural perspective to remain attuned to both connections and divergences, similarities and differences.9

In the field of French Studies, Simon Gaunt has discussed the role of French literature outside medieval France and proposed to consider its role in Europe in a new way: ‘Rather than a history of French courtly culture being exported to the rest of Europe from a central point, the literature of France starts to look like a bricolage of influences from elsewhere.’10 Similarly, in a recent book, Keith Busby has drawn attention to the role of French in medieval Ireland, highlighting, for example, how Miriam Edlich-Muth, ‘Introduction’, in Medieval Romances Across European Borders (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 9–18 (p. 10). 8 Bart Besamusca and Jessica Quinlan, ‘The Fringes of Arthurian Fiction’, Arthurian Literature 29 (2012), 191–241 (p. 192). There are several examples of a pan-European approach to medieval literature – some examples are the handbooks Littératures de l’Europe medievale, ed. Michèle Gally and Christiane Marchello-Nizia (Paris: Magnard, 1985); Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur’s Court in Medieval European Literature, ed. Leah Tether and Johnny McFadyen (Berlin and Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2017); and the ambitious series Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. Ad Putter (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991–2015). 9 Lydia Zeldenrust, The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020), p. 233. 10 Simon Gaunt, ‘French Literature Abroad: Towards an Alternative History of French’, Interfaces 1 (2015), 25–61 (p. 59). 7

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture a considerable number of Francophone texts were produced in Kilkenny, Waterford and Dublin.11 However, the case of medieval Sweden is different: French was not a core language and the influences between France and Sweden were mostly unilateral. A significant example is the collection of medieval charters held in the Swedish National Archives. In the main catalogue of the Diplomatarium Suecanum, one can find fifteen charters written in French, but all of these were written outside of Sweden.12 It is worth comparing these charters to the 2461 charters in German preserved in the same archives: even though many of these were also written outside of Sweden, as many as 207 were written in Stockholm, as well as 72 in Visby and 70 in Kalmar, among others. Nevertheless, despite the peripheral role of French in medieval Sweden, the Swedish contexts in which French romances were received are interesting not only as examples of the spread of the romance in the distant North, but also in their own right and as a part of a literary tradition that is European rather than French or Swedish. The Old Swedish translation of Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier au lion, referred to as Herr Ivan or Ivan Lejonriddaren, was written at the behest of the Norwegian queen Eufemia (queen of Norway 1299–1312) in 1303. Queen Eufemia was of German origin, more precisely from Rügen, and had come to Norway in 1299 in order to marry the Norwegian duke Hákon Magnússon (1270–1319). Herr Ivan is considered to be the first of the three so-called Eufemiavisor, followed by Hertig Fredrik av Normandie and Flores och Blanzeflor. These verse narratives are the oldest surviving Swedish literary texts, preceded only by runic inscriptions, diplomas and legal texts. Even though it is possible that anterior literary works did exist but have been lost, there is no doubt that Chrétien, through Herr Ivan, laid the groundwork for the fictional literature that developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Sweden.13 While Eufemia commissioned translations into Old Swedish of courtly romances, her husband King Hákon V promoted translations into Old West Norse of didactic literature, such as Stjórn, a Bible commentary and Karlamagnús saga, influenced by Old French chansons de geste as well as the work of Keith Busby, French in Medieval Ireland, Ireland in Medieval French: The Paradox of Two Worlds (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017). 12 These numbers can be found in the database of the Swedish National Archives, see https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sdhk. 13 For a discussion on the possible anterior Swedish literary tradition, see Olle Ferm, ‘The Emergence of Courtly Culture in Sweden: A Critical Discussion of Swedish Research’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture: Time, Texts and Cultural Transfer. Papers from a Symposium in Stockholm 11–13 October 2012, ed. Olle Ferm, Ingela Hedström, Sofia Lodén, Jonatan Pettersson and Mia Åkestam (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2015), pp. 109–20. 11

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Introduction Vincent de Beauvais. In both cases, they were interested in texts linked to French culture.14 All three Eufemiavisor have a more or less direct French origin and could be seen as emblematic of the intricate routes that texts travelled in medieval Europe: as mentioned above, Herr Ivan was translated from Le Chevalier au lion, but the Old West Norse translation Ívens saga functioned as a secondary source.15 Hertig Fredrik av Normandie was, according to its epilogue, translated from a German version of a French text, but none of these is still extant.16 Finally, Flores och Blanzeflor was probably translated from Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr, which is the Old West Norse version of the French idyllic romance Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor.17 The stylistic impact of the Eufemiavisor has been emphasised many times: the literary works that followed in their wake repeatedly borrowed elements from them, e.g. the verse form knittel and set expressions such as arla om morgon (early in the morning). What has been explored far less is the place of these texts in the context of European literary traditions. Since the ground-breaking work of Valter Jansson, scholars have generally assumed that the three Eufemiavisor were written by one and the same translator. It has been suggested that the translator in question was Peter Algotsson (d. 1299), from the sourthwest of Sweden (Västergötland).18 Algotsson had studied in Paris and became a canon 14

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17

18

The Norwegian historian Bjørn Bandlien has also argued that they had a common interest in ‘the ideals of courtliness and related virtues’. See Bandlien, ‘Didactic Literature for Women and Romance in the Age of Queen Eufemia of Norway’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 32–48 (p. 44). The question of the sources of Herr Ivan is explored in Sofia Lodén, Le chevalier courtois à la rencontre de la Suède médiévale: Du Chevalier au lion à Herr Ivan (Stockholm: Department of French, Italian and Classical Languages, Stockholm University, 2012). The source question of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie is discussed in Chapter 1. Several recent studies claim that the saga was the only source, see for example Virgile Reiter, Flores och Blanzeflor: L’amour courtois dans la Suède du XIVème siècle (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Université Paris 4, 2015), p. 18; Massimiliano Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature and Ideology in Medieval Sweden: Flores och Blanzeflor’, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 4) 1–14 (pp. 2–3). However, others have argued that the translator may have had access to a French manuscript (either alongside the saga or as the only source). See for example Stanislaw Sawicki, Die Eufemiavisor: Stilstudien zur nordischen Reimliteratur des Mittelalters (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup and Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1939), pp. 210–12. The first to present this hypothesis was Bjarne Beckman, Matts Kättilmundsson och hans tid 1 (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar, 1953), pp. 365–67. See also Carl Ivar Ståhle, ‘Medeltidens profana litteratur’, in Ny illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria 1, Forntiden, medeltiden, vasatiden, ed. Eugène Napoleon Tigerstedt (Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1967), pp. 37–124.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture in Skara, but he also worked for the Swedish king Magnus Ladulås (king of Sweden 1275–90), as well as for the Norwegian court.19 Another hypothesis, presented more recently by Lars Wollin, is that the translator was a Dominican, who ‘squeezed in the conflict between opposite loyalties […] tried to perform a barely decent Christian reading of a profane and gallant Frenchman’s poetic pirouettes’.20 In any case, we can assume that the translator was a cleric. The Christian focus of the three texts is therefore hardly surprising. If the Eufemiavisor represent the beginning of a courtly literary culture in medieval Sweden, then Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna represent its continuity and end in the late Middle Ages. Namnlös och Valentin was translated from the Middle Low German Valentin und Namelos, which, in its turn, probably goes back to a lost French chanson de geste, generally referred to as Valentin et Sansnom. When it comes to the person behind the translation, Werner Wolf, who edited the Swedish text, states that he was undoubtedly closely familiar with the Eufemiavisor and characterises the translator as follows: ‘Er war ein bäuerlicher, grobkerniger Mann, der jedoch ein sehr hohes Ritterideal vertrat und allem Anschein nach Mönch in Stockholm oder dessen näherer Umgebung gewesen sein muss.’21 (He was a rustic, coarse man who, however, represented a very high ideal of knighthood, and seemingly must have been a monk in Stockholm or its surroundings.) It has been suggested that the text’s author was Sigge Ulfsson (Sparre av Hjulsta och Ängsö) – he is at least known to be the main scribe of the oldest preserved manuscript of the translation (see below).22 Like Peter Algotsson, Sigge Ulfsson was closely linked to the Church: first as an archdeacon and then as bishop in Strängnäs in Sweden. He had studied 19

Peter Algotsson’s brother was Brynolf Algotsson (d. 1317), who was bishop of Skara and later canonized. The latter wrote an important number of theological works and liturgical poems, which might have inspired his brother. On the life of the two brothers, see Nat. Beckman, ‘Peter Algotsson’, in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 1 (1918), p. 395, and K. B. Westman, ‘Brynolf Algotsson’, in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 1 (1918), p. 391. 20 Lars Wollin, ‘Chivalry and the Scriptures’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 255–72 (p. 268). 21 Werner Wolf, Namnlös och Valentin (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1934), p. cvii. 22 Gisela Vilhelmsdotter, ‘Namnlös och Valentin – en prosaroman om en drottnings olycksöde’, in Den medeltida skriftkulturen i Sverige: genrer och texter, ed. Inger Larsson, Sven-Bertil Jansson, Rune Palm and Barbro Söderberg (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2010), pp. 262–77 (pp. 263–64). For an analysis of the probable scribal hand of Sigge Ulfsson, see Per-Axel Wiktorsson, ‘On the Scribal Hands in the Manuscripts of Skemptan’, in Master Golyas and Sweden: The Transformation of a Clerical Satire, ed. Olle Ferm and Bridget Morris (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 1997), pp. 256–67.

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Introduction in Leipzig, where he likely acquired the skills needed to translate a romance from Low German. Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna has similarly been traced back to a Middle Low German source that, in turn, goes back to the French idyllic romance Paris et Vienne. This translation is linked to another man of the Church, Hans Brask (1464–1538), who was bishop of Linköping between 1513 and 1527, and his secretary Hans Spegelberg (the role of each will be discussed further below).23 As was typical of a man of that time and position, Brask had studied theology and law. He was a student at the cathedral school of Skara in Sweden before studying in Germany, first at the University of Rostock in 1486 and then, due to a rebellion in Rostock, in the following year at the University of Greifswald. He also spent time in both Nürnberg and, like Sigge Ulfsson, Leipzig. Brask, who was patriotic and conservative, is famous for his struggle against the Protestant Reformation. He spent many years abroad and wished to connect Swedish culture to a larger European tradition; Paris et Vienne is just one example of what he seems to have brought home with him. A number of other texts could have been included in the analysis as well, but my focus will be exclusively on texts with at least a supposed French origin, and ones which are part of a larger European textual context, with preserved text witnesses. The selection thus excludes, as one example, the second of the Eufemiavisor, Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, since none of its presumed sources, nor any other European versions, are preserved (I will however come back to this text in Chapter 1). The study of translation in the Middle Ages is a relatively large research field, which encompasses many different theoretical approaches and linguistic areas.24 The Old West Norse riddarasögur (I will return to these 23

For a general introduction to Hans Brask, see Lars Sjödin, ‘Hans Brask’, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 6 (1925–26), pp. 45–65. 24 The series Medieval Translator, published since 1989, has played a crucial role in developing the study of medieval translations. Rita Copeland’s influential Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) discusses the development of translation theories from antiquity to the late Middle Ages, and has inspired wider discussion on the subject. Instead of considering translations as poor replicas, inferior to their sources, medieval translations are in modern scholarship more often considered as valuable, independent text witnesses deserving separate attention. Other important contributions to the field are Pratiques de traduction au Moyen Âge: Medieval Translation Practices, ed. Peter Andersen (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004) and The Garden of Crossing Paths: The Manipulation and Rewriting of Medieval Texts, ed. Massimiliano Bampi and Marina Buzzoni (Venice: Cafoscarina, 2007). Two more recent examples are the ambitious project Transmédie, which devoted three volumes to medieval translation: Translations médiévales. Cinq siècles de traductions en français au Moyen Âge (XIe-XVe siècles): étude et répertoire 1, De la translatio studii à l’étude de la translatio, ed. Claudio Galderisi (Turnhout:

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture texts later in the introduction) have been explored in several meticulous studies by Geraldine Barnes, Marianne Kalinke, Sif Rikhardsdottir and Stefka Georgieva Eriksen, to mention but a few.25 The context of medieval Sweden has received more limited interest, mainly due to the fact that there are fewer texts to study.26 Until recently, very little was written following the work of Valter Jansson on the Eufemiavisor, published in 1945.27 Among this more recent scholarship, the work of William Layher on Eufemia and her role as a commissioner of literary texts has been particularly influential.28 Massimiliano Bampi has shown the fruitfulness of reading early Swedish literature in the light of polysystem theory as developed by Itamar Even-Zohar, emphasising the need to study the manuscript context of the translated texts.29 The manuscript context Brepols, 2011) and Emma Campbell and Robert Mills, Rethinking Medieval Translation: Ethics, Politics, Theory (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2012). 25 See for example Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen, The Norse Version of the Chanson de Roland (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1959); Geraldine Barnes, ‘The riddarasögur: A Medieval Exercise in Translation’, Saga-Book 19 (1977), 403–41; Marianne Kalinke, King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: The matière de Bretagne in Old NorseIcelandic Romances (Copenhagen: Reitzel Boghandel, 1981); Stefanie Würth, ‘Die mittelalterliche Übersetzung im Spannungsfeld von lateinischsprachiger und volksprachiger Literaturproduktion: Das Beispiel der Veraldar saga’, in Übersetzen im skandinavischen Mittelalter, ed. Vera Johanterwege and Stefanie Würth (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2007), pp. 11–32; Jonatan Pettersson, Fri översättning i det medeltida västnorden (Stockholm: Stockholms universitet, 2009); Sif Rikhardsdottir, Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse: The Movement of Texts in England, France and Scandinavia (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2012); Stefka Georgieva Eriksen, Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture: The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013) and Jürg Glauser, ‘Romance (Translated riddarasögur)’, in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 372–87. For an overview of previous scholarship, see Sif Rikhardsdottir and Stefka Georgieva Eriksen, ‘État présent: Arthurian Literature in the North’, Journal of the International Arthurian Society 1 (2013), 3–28. 26 An important work on translation in the Swedish context is Lars Wollin, Svensk latinöversättning 1–2 (Lund: Blom, 1981–88). See also Lars Wollin, ‘Translation and Interference by Translation in Old Nordic, II. Old Swedish and Old Danish’, in The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the Nordic Germanic languages 1, ed. Oskar Bandle (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2002), pp. 1005–14. 27 Valter Jansson, Eufemiavisorna. En filologisk undersökning (Uppsala: Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1945). 28 William Layher, Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). 29 Massimiliano Bampi, The Reception of the “Septem Sapientes” in Medieval Sweden between Translation and Rewriting (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 2007); ‘Translating Courtly Literature’; ‘In praise of a copy: Karl Magnus in 15th-century Sweden’, in Lärdomber oc skämptan: Medieval Swedish Literature Reconsidered,

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Introduction has also been studied in the recent doctoral dissertation by Agnieszka Backman, in which the manuscript Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 3 is analysed in depth.30 Joseph M. Sullivan, meanwhile, has focused on thematic aspects of Herr Ivan and thereby highlighted not only the role of the female characters, but also questions of age, power and landscapes.31 Herr Ivan has also been the focus of my own previous research: I have analysed the question of the sources of the Swedish text and discussed the ways in which it adapts different aspects of courtoisie to a Swedish audience.32 Gisela Vilhelmsdotter and Fulvio Ferrari have written on Namnlös och Valentin and thereby brought to light a so far little known text.33 Kim Bergqvist, Corinne Péneau and Thomas Småberg have shown the usefulness of reading Old Swedish courtly literature in order to gain insight into the historical context, and Herman Bengtsson has studied the influences of the continental court culture on medieval Scandinavian culture more broadly, and on art in particular.34 Lars

30

31

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ed. Massimiliano Bampi and Fulvio Ferrari (Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 2008), pp. 11–34; ‘Prodesse et Delectare: Courtly Romance as Didactic Literature in Medieval Sweden’, in La letteratura di istruzione nel medioevo germanico: Studi in onore di Fabrizio D. Raschellà, ed. Marialuisa Caparrini, Maria Rita Digilio and Fulvio Ferrari (Barcelona and Rome: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales, 2017), pp. 1–14. Agnieszka Backman, Handskriftens materialitet: Studier i den fornsvenska samlingshandskriften Fru Elins bok (Codex Holmiensis D 3) (Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk, Uppsala universitet, 2017). Joseph M. Sullivan, ‘Youth and Older Age in the Dire Adventure of Chrétien’s Yvain, the Old Swedish Hærra Ivan, Hartmann’s Iwein and the Middle English Ywain and Gawain’, in Arthurian Literature XXIV: The European Dimensions of Arthurian Literature, ed. Bart Besamusca, Frank Brandsma and Keith Busby (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007), pp. 104–20; ‘Rewriting the Exercise of Power in the Landuc Segment of the Old Swedish Hærra Ivan and Chrétien’s Yvain’, Neophilologus 93 (2009), 19–37; ‘Laudine: The Old Swedish Herr Ivan Adapts a Character from Chrétien’s Yvain’, Yearbook of the Society for Medieval German Studies 1 (2009), 50–75, and ‘Making the Woods More Negative and Praising Life at Court: Herr Ivan and the Hero’s Descent into the Forest’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 235–54. Lodén, Le chevalier courtois. Fulvio Ferrari, ‘Da Valentin a Falantin. La Traduzione svedese del romanzo in basso tedesco medio “Valentin unde Namelos”’, in Teoria e pratica della traduzione nel medioevo germanico, ed. Maria Vittoria Molinari, Marcello Meli, Paola Mura and Fulvio Ferrari (Padova: Unipress, 1994), pp. 359–88; Vilhelmsdotter, ‘Namnlös och Valentin’. Kim Bergqvist, ‘Debating the Limitations of Kingship in Fourteenth-Century Sweden: Political Language and Norms in Romance and Chronicle’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 67–85, and ‘Courtliness, Nobility, and Emotional Restraint in the First Old Swedish Translated Romances: On Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor’, in Beyond the Piraeus Lion: East Norse Studies from Venice, ed. Jonathan Adams and Massimiliano Bampi (Copenhagen:

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Wollin has placed Old Swedish literature in the wider context of medieval translations.35 These contributions to the field form an important starting point for my analysis.

Old West Norse, German and French Influences While the aim of this book is to place Old Swedish literature in a larger European context, Swedish culture must first be considered within a Scandinavian context. The Scandinavian countries remained intimately linked throughout the Middle Ages: economically, politically, socially, culturally and linguistically.36 The Scandinavian languages, considered as North Germanic languages, were mutally intelligible. Despite the division between East Norse (Old Danish and Old Swedish) and West Norse (spoken in Norway and Iceland), people from Sweden and Norway could most probably understand each other – in both the written and spoken forms of their languages. Denmark was Christianized first, followed by Norway. Even though the Swedish province Västergötland was Christianized at an early stage, soon followed by Östergötland, it took longer for Sweden as a whole to become Christian, which might be explained in terms of the less established royal power in Sweden by comparison with that in Denmark and Norway, as well as by virtue of its more intense contacts with the still pagan regions around the Baltic sea.37 In order to understand the role of Swedish literature as part of a European literary tradition, it is important first to consider its role in medieval Scandinavia, and particularly its links to Norwegian literary culture. In the thirteenth century, Hákon Hákonarson (king of Norway 1217–63) had a number of texts translated into Old West Norse. Five translations explicitly refer to the king as the commissioner: Tristrams Universitets-Jubilæets danske Samfund, 2017), pp. 189–212; Corinne Péneau, Erikskrönika. Chronique d’Erik: première chronique rimée suédoise (première moitié du XIVe siècle) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2005); Thomas Småberg, ‘Bland drottningar och hertigar. Utblickar kring riddarromaner och deras användning i svensk medeltidsforskning’, Historisk tidskrift 131 (2011), 197–226; Herman Bengtsson, Den höviska kulturen i Norden: En konsthistorisk undersökning (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 1999). 35 Wollin, Svensk latinöversättning, ‘Translation and Interference by Translation in Old Nordic’ and ‘Kavaljerernas intåg – och översättarnas: Franska kulturnedslag i det medeltida Sverige’, in Langage et référence: mélanges offerts à Kerstin Jonasson à l’occasion de ses soixante ans, ed. Hans Kronning (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2001), pp. 695–707. 36 Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Den långa medeltiden: De nordiska ländernas historia från folkvandringstid till reformation (Stockholm: Dialogos Förlag, 2015), p. 14. 37 Ljungqvist, Den långa medeltiden, p. 65.

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Introduction saga (Tristan et Yseut), Ívens saga (Le Chevalier au lion), Möttuls saga (Le Mantel mautaillé), Elíss saga (Élie de Saint-Gilles) and Strengleikar (the Lais of Marie de France).38 Other translations belong to the same context, even though they do not explicity mention King Hákon, such as Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr (Floire et Blancheflor), Parcevals saga and Valvers þátter (Le Conte du Graal), Erex saga (Érec et Énide) and Flóvents saga Frakkakonungs (no preserved source text).39 The many Old West Norse translations of romances, all written in prose, are referred to as riddarasögur. They were copied in medieval Iceland and also played important roles in the development of the Icelandic sagas.40 Thus, the riddarasögur illustrate the swift spread of courtly culture, even in the most distant parts of medieval Europe geographically speaking. Considering the closeness between the Scandinavian languages, one may question the need to translate romances into Swedish a whole century later, in rhymed verse rather than prose. While the close connection between Sweden and Norway was the main reason for the composition of Herr Ivan – considering the role played by the Norwegian queen Eufemia – the obvious German influence could be seen as a key distinguishing feature. The nineteenth-century Norwegian historian Peter Andreas Munch formulated a hypothesis to explain why Eufemia had three texts translated into Old Swedish.41 In his view, the Eufemiavisor were written in order to honour the Swedish duke Erik Magnusson (d. 1318) who, in 1302, became engaged to Eufemia’s daughter Ingeborg (1301–61). This union was intended to be a way for the Norwegian king Hákon V (king of Norway from 1299 to 1319) to secure the throne for his family: since he had no son, he needed his only daughter Ingeborg to be married to someone who could protect the interests of the king. According to Munch, the appearance of each one of the Eufemiavisor corresponds to the events of this union: he links Herr Ivan to the engagement in 1302 and argues that Flores och Blanzeflor would have been written in order to celebrate the marriage that took place in 1312. In respect of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie Munch believes this text to have been written as a means of improving the relationship between the king and the duke, which had been marked by a period of conflicts. Later scholars have deepened and nuanced Munch’s hypothesis, insisting on the dual nature of these texts as both entertaining and didactic.42 Writing and Reading, pp. 106–07. Writing and Reading, p. 108. 40 However, it is important to stress that Iceland was not the periphery of courtly culture in medieval Scandinavia. I will come back to this in Chapter 1. 41 Peter Andreas Munch, Det norske folks historie, 4 vols (Christiania: C. Tønsberg, 1859), II. 42 See for example Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature’; Lodén, Le chevalier courtois; Småberg, ‘Bland drottningar och hertigar’, 197–226; Stefanie Würth, 38 Eriksen,

39 Eriksen,

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture The most important revision of the translation context of the Eufemiavisor was made by William Layher in 2010, who argued that the texts must not be reduced to mere gifts from Queen Eufemia to the newly married couple, but rather that they represented a means of exercising royal power, similar to building fortresses and castles, so as to secure Norway’s position towards Sweden. According to Layher, the Eufemiavisor would not have been written if Hákon and Eufemia had had a son and not a daughter – and their crisis of succession would indeed find a locus at the root of these texts. Just as King Hákon strengthened his daughter’s position by changing the inheritance laws, allowing the eldest daughter of a king to inherit power, Queen Eufemia would, by ordering the three translations, have secured the status of her daughter in the Swedish nobility. Layher argues that the use of ‘vart mal’ (‘our language’) in the epilogue of Herr Ivan stages a politically strategic ‘we’ and that the voice of the Swedish language thus functions as a means of creating a community transcending the national and linguistic borders of Norway (the epilogue is quoted at the end of this introduction).43 He also draws attention to the stylistic originality of the Eufemiavisor: even if end-rhymed verse was already known in the North, the translator was the first to associate it with the narrative genre, which contributed to the texts’ cultural appeal.44 Thus, following Layher, the Eufemiavisor were far from being just entertaining or didactic: ‘the Norwegian queen had established a courtly literature, and a lasting cultural and political legacy, for the benefit of her daughter and her heirs’.45 The emphasis on the Eufemiavisor as a political vehicle for the queen represents an important contribution to research on these texts. One may, however, wonder whether the queen’s only desire was to strengthen the position of her daughter and the Norwegian court in medieval Sweden. The Eufemiavisor also found a core locus in the European context. For example, Eufemia, of German origin, not only reinforced her position as a Norwegian queen, but also, as Stephanie Würth has shown, the importance of her German culture, in which this type of literature of French origin was much more common. By ordering texts in verse rather than prose, she broke with the Norse tradition whilst connecting with a larger European trend. Her vision seems not to have been to compose new sagas, but to create a Swedish national literature that was closer to its counterparts on the European continent. ‘Eufemia: Deutsche Auftraggeberin schwedischer Literatur am norwegischen Hof’, in Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik: 13. Arbeitstagung der deutschsprachigen Skandinavistik, 29.7-3.8.1997 in Lysebu (Oslo), ed. Fritz Paul (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2000), pp. 269–81. 43 Layher, Queenship and Voice, p. 99. 44 Layher, Queenship and Voice, p. 128. 45 Layher, Queenship and Voice, pp. 129–30.

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Introduction During this important period of the Swedish Middle Ages, the Hanseatic League contributed to the strong German influence on medieval Sweden. According to Sten Lindroth, this influence was mainly economic and political.46 Rome was the ecclesiastical centre – at least in the thirteenth century – while English influence was considerable in architecture. Following Lindroth, cultural ideals were to a great extent French, but Lindroth may have somewhat underestimated the role of the German influence on culture. Due to the closeness between Swedish and German cultures in the Middle Ages, German influences may appear less obvious than their French counterparts.47 As this book will show, French influence can be linked to more distant and exotic ideals, whereas German influence was direct and concrete. The importance of the Middle Low German language in northern Europe during the Hanseatic League cannot be underestimated. In medieval Sweden and Denmark, it functioned as the lingua franca of the political and economic elite, it was the international language of commerce whilst also being written and spoken at court.48 The level of German influence on Swedish literature was also considerable. As one of many examples, scholars have mentioned the many German loan words to be found in the Old Swedish language, as well as the use of the metrical form known as knittel used in the Eufemiavisor, and the provenance of a considerable number of source texts used for Old Swedish translations from the territories of Northern Germany, as will be shown in the sections which follow.49 While many Middle Low German literary works were translations and adaptations of Dutch or Middle High German texts, Middle Low German texts were repeatedly translated into Swedish as well as Danish.50 Namnlös och Valentin is a useful example of this, since it was translated from a Middle Low German source, which in turn was probably translated from Middle Dutch. Additionally, the most important chronicle of the Swedish Middle Ages, the Erikskrönikan, bears witness to influence Lindroth, Svensk lärdomshistoria 1, Medeltiden. Reformationstiden (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1975), p. 63. For a close analysis of the German presence in medieval Sweden, see Jean-Marie Maillefer, Chevaliers et princes allemands en Suède et en Finlande à l’époque des Folkungar (1250–1363): le premier établissement d’une noblesse allemande sur la rive septentrionale de la Baltique (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1999). Fulvio Ferrari, ‘Middle Low German Literature: A Polysystem between Polysystems?’, in Textual Production and Status Contests in Rising and Unstable Societies, ed. Massimiliano Bampi and Marina Buzzoni (Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2013), pp. 75, 78, 79. For a study of the German loan words in the Eufemiavisor, see Jansson, Eufemiavisorna, pp. 174–201. Ferrari, ‘Middle Low German Literature’, p. 75. See also Kurt Erich Schöndorf, ‘Einwirkungen mittelniederdeutscher Literaturwerke auf die schwedische Übersetzungsliteratur’, in Niederdeutsch in Skandinavien, pp. 128–45.

46 Sten 47

48

49 50

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture from Low German, with its many parallels to the German Reimchroniken, such as the Braunschweiger Reimchronik.51 Another example of Swedish interest in Middle Low German literature is provided by the Stockholm, Kungliga bibliotheket, Cod. Holm. Vu 73, a collection of literary texts in Middle Low German, which belonged to the Swedish nobleman Arend Bengtsson.52 The fact that Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna were translated via Middle Low German intermediate sources is significant – French influences were generally more indirect than Low German ones. Furthermore, the French loan words in the Old Swedish language are revealing: almost all are linked to courtly culture, chivalric feasts and courtly life, and they mostly appear in courtly literature. As pointed out by Lars-Erik Edlund, many of them existed in Low German and High German too, through which they often may have been transmitted.53 Some examples are äventyr (aventure), dust (joste), torney (tournoi), päll (paile), baldakin (baldaquin), sindal (cendal), kär (cher). The words amur (amor) and romanz (roman), however, are more loosely bound to the Middle Low German or Middle High German languages and are more likely to have been introduced directly from French. Amur is interesting in this context since its first occurrences are to be found in Flores och Blanzeflor, followed by Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna.54 When it comes to romanz, it is only used in Herr Ivan and Edlund here considers it to be a quotation from the French source rather than an actual loan.55 Despite the relatively limited French influences on the Swedish language in the Middle Ages, the French origin of the four texts discussed in this book deserves more attention than it has so far received. The desire to translate a specific text undoubtedly reflects a certain knowledge of the text in question, and one may wonder to what extent the French origin of the four texts discussed here was important for the commissioners and translators behind the translations.

51

Ferrari, ‘Middle Low German Literature’, p. 79. L. Geeraedts, Die Stockholmer Handschrift Cod. Holm. Vu 73 (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1984). 53 Lars-Erik Edlund, ‘Franskans inflytande på svenskans ordförråd – några tankar kring ett kapitel i vår språkhistoria’, in Studier i nordisk språkvetenskap, ed. Gertrud Pettersson (Lund: Lund University Press, 1988), pp. 23–42 (p. 27). On French loan words in the Old Swedish language, see also Alfred Nordfelt, Om franska låneord i svenskan II, De äldsta fransk-svenska låneorden (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1928). 54 Edlund, ‘Franskans inflytande på svenskans ordförråd’, p. 26. 55 Edlund, ‘Franskans inflytande på svenskans ordförråd’, p. 27. I will return to the use of romanz at the end of this introduction. 52

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Introduction

Gender and Genre in Translation In recent years it has become commonplace to study medieval literature from a gender perspective. Although I am concerned with questions of gender in this book, my primary intention is to study the ideological core of the different textual traditions and thereby deepen our understanding of different medieval conceptions of the world. At the same time as it provided entertainment, the romance took an active part in the construction of a courtly ideology that touched both men and women. The translations of romances illustrate perfectly how courtly ideals and interests changed continuously. Even though medieval societies partially inherited certain views on gender from the classical world, such as the notion of male superiority, gender attitudes were also constantly reconstructed and reconstituted.56 When scholars began to discuss gender in relation to medieval literature, the focus was often on the role of women – as literary characters, readers, writers or patrons. In response to this approach, scholars then started to show more interest in masculinity, and thus to offer balance. Indeed, in order to understand the medieval ideologies of gender, both sides are crucial, and in this study I will take a step even further and argue that conceptions of children and animals are also vital if we are to glean a more nuanced understanding of what it meant to be a man or a woman in the Middle Ages.57 Recent scholarship has even emphasised the need to discuss plural masculinities rather than a singular medieval masculinity. In his influencial book Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature, for example, Simon Gaunt argues that different genres in French and Occitan literature – epic, romance, lyric, saint’s lives and fabliau – construct gender differently. For example, while the chanson de geste would define the male characters ‘as individuals in relation to other men’, the masculine character of the romance ‘acquires his identity through a relationship with a woman’.58 According to Gaunt, the conception of women is complex in romance: ‘Romance ostensibly elevates the feminine whilst

Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. D.M. Hadley (London and New York, NY: Longman, 1999), p. 17. 57 Similarly, Ruth Mazo Karras argues: ‘Femininity is not the only category opposed to masculinity – both childhood and bestiality function as opposites of manhood – but being not-a-woman is always a greater or lesser part of what it means to be a man’, in From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), p. 153. 58 Simon Gaunt, Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 22, 92. 56 See

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture underscoring its courtoisie with profound misogyny and pervasive concern with masculinity.’59 Whereas Herr Ivan, Flores och Blanzeflor and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienne have their roots in the French tradition of romance, Namnlös och Valentin, according to most scholars, goes back to a lost chanson de geste, through an intermediary Low German source. Additionally, within the group of texts from the romance tradition, there is a dividing line between Herr Ivan, which is a translation of an Arthurian romance, and Flores och Blanzeflor and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienne, which are linked to what scholars commonly refer to as idyllic romances. The question of genre is especially complex when it comes to medieval literature and has accordingly received scholarly attention.60 Even though Jean Bodel, as early as the twelfth century, distinguished between the three subject matters of literature – matière de Rome, matière de France, matière de Bretagne – the literary genres that modern scholarship refers to when discussing medieval literature are far more recent inventions.61 The Arthurian romance is a good example of the difficulty of defining the medieval genres. Patrick Moran has drawn attention to its heterogenous nature when studied in its European context and arrives at the following conclusion: ‘There is no doubt that the fundamental characteristic of ‘Arthurian literature’ is its diversity and adaptability – its ability to multiply and differentiate without denying its ties to a shared fictional wellspring.’62 The malleability of the genre becomes striking when considered from a European perspective: many of the riddarasögur were translated from French romances, but others go back to the epic tradition – King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are no longer a common distinguishing feature of the genre. The Swedish texts that are discussed in this book illustrate this malleability of genres when used in a context of textual transmission, translation and adaptation. Despite their different generic origins, they are commonly considered by scholarship as hövisk litteratur (‘courtly literature’) – that is, as one literary genre, as opposed to chronicles, saints’

Gender and Genre, p. 121. A recent example from the scholarship on Old Norse literature is A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre, ed. Massimiliano Bampi, Carolyne Larrington and Sif Rikhardsdottir (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020). 61 According to Paul Zumthor, the question of genre would thus be an obstacle in the study of medieval literature, a view that has however had relatively little impact, see Paul Zumthor, Essai de poétique médiévale (Paris: Seuil, 1972), pp. 160–61, 164, 167–69, 239–43. For a discussion of this, see Bart Besamusca, ‘The Value of Genre for the Study of Multi-Text Codices’, in Medieval Romances Across European Borders, pp. 15–32 (pp. 15–16). 62 Patrick Moran, ‘Text-Types and Formal Features’, in Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur’s Court in Medieval European Literature, pp. 59–77 (p. 74). 59 Gaunt, 60

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Introduction lives, legends etc.63 Moreover, they seem to have been read in similar contexts, something to which I return below. Even though this book is not primarily about genres, the questions raised by Gaunt are important in this context as well. What happened to the links between gender and genre when different linguistic and cultural borders were crossed, and do the Swedish texts form a separate kind of genre despite their different origins?

Manuscript Context and the Female Audience Relatively few manuscripts have been preserved from the Swedish Middle Ages, and only around fifteen of these, most of them dated to the later Middle Ages, contain literary texts.64 My study deals with texts transmitted by means of manuscripts that are mostly much later than their lost originals. Despite the time lapse between the different texts in terms of their supposed year of composition, several of them are actually preserved in the same multi-text codices and were thus read in the same chronological contexts.65 The fact that they are often to be found in the same text collections also raises the question of their intertextual relations and generic unity. Indeed, as shown recently by Bart Besamusca, it is ‘noticeable that in text collections various genres interact in meaningful ways’.66 Herr Ivan is preserved in six manuscripts from the fifteenth century. The first is Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4 (hereafter D 4), a manuscript dated to the first half of the fifteenth century, probably written in Vadstena Abbey, the centre of the Bridgettine Order and a milieu that produced a great number of manuscripts during the Swedish Middle Ages. This is mainly a paper manuscript, but with some parts on parchment. The content is extensive, with profane as well as religious texts written in Old Swedish, Latin and Middle Low German. Jonas Carlquist has likened the function of the codex to that of a small library and believes that it was written for a layman. Herr Ivan is the first text in the collection, followed by Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, Om Danmarks kungar 63

I have opted to employ the notion of romance in its broadest sense and thus include Namnlös och Valentin in my corpus, even though it is not, strictly speaking, a translation of a romance. As I will discuss in my chapter dedicated to this textual tradition, the extant French Valentin et Orson, a prose adaptation of the lost original, is considered a romance only by some scholars. 64 Jonas Carlquist, Handskriften som historiskt vittne: fornsvenska samlingshandskrifter – miljö och funktion (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2002), p. 23. 65 I use the term ‘multi-text codex’ instead of ‘miscellany’ to avoid the problematic associations of the latter, as pointed out by Besamusca, ‘The Value of Genre for the Study of Multi-Text Codices’, p. 18. 66 Besamusca, ‘The Value of Genre for the Study of Multi-Text Codices’, p. 29.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (a historical text about the Danish kings), Flores och Blanzeflor, charms and notes in Middle Low German and Latin, extracts from Farmer’s Almanac, Konung Alexander (the Swedish version of Historia de preliis), notes in Latin, historical notes in Swedish (Danaholmsfördraget, Kristna kungar i Sverige), biblical riddles, notes, prayers and psalms in Latin, Karl Magnus (a translation of the Old West Norse Karlamagnús saga that relates the career of Charlemagne), Dikten om Kung Albrekt (an epic poem about King Albrecht), a number of religious texts in Swedish, a Swedish translation of Lucidarius, Sju vise mästare (a Swedish version of Seven Sages of Rome), Själens och kroppens träta (a didactic poem that presents a debate between the soul and the body), Riddar S. Göran (a rhymed narrative about Saint George) and De sju sakramenten (a didactic text about The Seven Sacraments). Even though the codex was produced in Vadstena, scholars seem to agree that its primary owner was a layman. Ronge and others have suggested that this person belonged to the aristocracy. More recently, Bengt R. Jonsson has argued that this person was Gustav Algotsson (Sture), who was a knight, head of the royal council and district judge in Oppunda in Södermanland.67 The second manuscript in which Herr Ivan is transmitted is Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4a (hereafter D 4a), also referred to as Codex Verelianus or Fru Märtas bok. It is a paginated paper manuscript dated to c. 1448. The texts are more similar in terms of content than are those contained in D 4. It starts with the Erikskrönika, followed by Karl Magnus, Flores och Blanzeflor, Skämtan om abbotar (a satirical text on abbots), Julens och Fastans träta (a debate between Christmas and Lent), Herr Ivan, Namnlös och Valentin, Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, Tungulus (a Swedish version of Visio Tnugdali) and the two Swedish chronicles Lilla Rimkrönikan and Prosaiska krönikan. Scholars have argued that the manuscript was owned by the noblewoman Märta Ulfsdotter (Sparre av Hjulsta och Ängsö), the sister of Sigge Ulfsson and the daughter of Gustav Algotsson, mentioned above.68 The function of the manuscript has been described as mainly entertainment.69 However, in a study of the codicological context of Karl Magnus, Bampi has underlined the rich hermeneutic potentialities of medieval literature, arguing that texts like Bengt R. Jonsson, Erikskrönikans diktare: ett försök till identifiering (Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 2010), pp. 104, 118. This book, which is mainly an attempt to identify the author of Erikskrönikan, has given rise to a scholarly discussion, see Roger Axelsson, ‘Recension av Bengt R. Jonsson, Erikskrönikans diktare – ett försök till identifiering’, Fornvännen 106 (2011), pp. 148–49; Per-Axel Wiktorsson, ‘Erikskrönikans diktare Tyrgils som skrivare och resenär’, Fornvännen 106 (2012), pp. 345–48; Roger Axelsson, ‘Svar till P-A Wiktorsson om Erikskrönikans författare’, Fornvännen 107 (2012), pp. 128–29. 68 Wiktorsson, ‘On the Scribal Hands in the Manuscripts of Skemptan’, p. 262. 69 Carlquist, Handskriften som historiskt vittne, p. 107. 67

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Introduction Karl Magnus entertained their listeners at the same time as functioning ‘as a means to convey ideological and moral aspects’.70 The third manuscript is Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 3 (hereafter D 3), also named Fru Elins bok and dated to 1488.71 It is a paginated paper manuscript and its content is close to D 4a. It comprises the following texts: Herr Ivan, Karl Magnus, Erikskrönikan, Flores och Blanzeflor, Namnlös och Valentin, Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, Tungulus, Lilla rimkrönikan, Prosaiska krönikan, Skämtan om abbotar, Schacktavelslek (a Swedish version of De ludo schacorum) and, finally, three miracles. The manuscript was probably written for Elin Gustavsdotter (Sture), who was the daughter of Märta Ulfsdotter, mentioned above.72 In a recent study of the manuscript, Agnieszka Backman argues that it should be seen as an autonomous and well-planned collection of texts.73 Like Bampi, Backman emphasises not only its amusing but also edifying function, as well as the role of the female reader, to which subject I will return. The fourth manuscript is Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Cod. RA E 8822 fol (hereafter E 8822). It differs considerably from the others, both in terms of content and function. The first half of the manuscript is a compilation of devotional poems, followed by the copy of Herr Ivan. A note in the manuscript states that the complilation was done by Friar Johannes of Nidaros, who was a Franciscan in Trondheim in Norway in the late fifteenth century, but altogether three hands can be discerned.74 The texts are written in birgitternorsk ‘Birgittine-Norwegian’, which can be described as a mixture of Norwegian and Swedish. Bjørn Bandlien positions the manuscripts as an example of how the readership of Herr Ivan was not limited to the Swedish aristocracy.75 He draws attention to how the Franciscans travelled in Härjedalen and Sunnmøre, where they preached to all classes, and suggests that Herr Ivan was read at local gatherings, weddings and guild feasts. The fifth and sixth manuscripts are both written in Old Danish: Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 4, and Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 47. Since this study is limited to the Swedish reception, these manuscripts will not be discussed.76 70

Bampi, ‘In praise of a copy’, p. 24. For a recent study of D 3, see Backman, Handskriftens materialitet. 72 David Kornhall, Den fornsvenska sagan om Karl Magnus. Handskrifter och texthistoria (Lund: Gleerup, 1959), p. 45. 73 Backman, Handskriftens materialitet. 74 Herr Ivan Lejon-riddaren: en svensk rimmad dikt ifrån 1300-talet tillhörande sagokretsen om konung Arthur och hans runda bord, ed. Jeremias Wilhelm Liffman and George Stephens (Stockholm: Norstedt, 1849), p. xcvii. 75 Bjørn Bandlien, ‘Yvain among Friars: A Late Medieval Franciscan Manuscript of Herr Ivan’, Journal of the International Arthurian Society 1 (2013), 81–119. 76 The Old Danish reception of romance is an interesting case in its own right, which has recently received new scholarly attention through the conference 71

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Flores och Blanzeflor is preserved in five fifteenth-century manuscripts as well as in one fragment from around 1350. Four of the manuscripts also contain Herr Ivan and are mentioned above: D 4, D 4a, D 3 and K 47. The fragment, Helsinki, University Library, Cod. Hels. RIII, is composed of a single-leaf piece of parchment containing only a short section of Flores och Blanzeflor. Despite its length, it is important since it is the oldest preserved textual witness of any of the Eufemiavisor. The final manuscript of Flores och Blanzeflor is Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, København Universitet, Cod. AM 191, fol. (hereafter AM 191), also referred to as the Codex Askabyensis. It is a paper manuscript dated to c. 1492 and opens with a copy of Schacktavelslek, followed by some shorter notes in Latin on Charlemagne’s son Philip, then Karl Magnus, two extracts from Själens tröst, the first about Alexander the Great and the second about Amicus och Amelia, followed by Flores och Blanzeflor, a religious drama in Swedish (En syndares omvändelse), historical and astronomical notes in Swedish and Latin, Prosaiska krönikan, Lilla rimkrönikan, a short love song and other notes, Birgittakrönikan (a chronicle by the Birgittine nun Margareta Clausdotter) and Sju vise mästare. As this shows, the content of this manuscript is similarly heterogeneous. According to an annotation in the manuscript, it was owned in 1492 by Johannis Gerardi, chaplain at Askeby, a Cistercian nunnery in Östergötland in Sweden. Per-Axel Wiktorsson has argued that the manuscript was commissioned by the aristocracy, which would explain the presence of several texts that are also present in the more obviously courtly manuscripts mentioned above.77 Particularly interesting is the connection to the nunnery: like the manuscripts associated with the artistocratic women Märta and Elin, AM 191 was also possibly intended for a female audience, that provided by the nuns’ community. Indeed, Bampi has suggested that the chaplain might have used it for the moral instruction of the nuns.78 Namnlös och Valentin is preserved in three manuscripts, two of which also contain Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor: D 4a and D 3. It is also preserved in Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 45, a paper manuscript from c. 1500. Apart from monthly prognostication and later notes, it contains Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, Didrikskrönikan, Tungulus and Namnlös och Valentin. Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna is preserved as a fragment in one single manuscript: Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 2 (hereafter The Eufemiaviser and the Reception of Courtly Culture in Late Medieval Denmark, organised at the University of Zurich by Massimiliano Bampi and Anna Katharina Richter in September 2018. 77 Per-Axel Wiktorsson, ed., Schacktavelslek med Äktenskapsvisan (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2016), pp. 16–17. 78 Bampi, The Reception of the ‘Septem Sapientes’, pp. 35–39; ‘Prodesse et Delectare’, p. 8.

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Introduction D 2), also known as Spegelbergs bok. The first part of the manuscript is dated to 1470–80 and the second to 1523. It is a paper manuscript, apart from the first two and the last two pages, which are vellum. The first text in the manuscript, Om Gotland, is a translation into Old Swedish of the second chapter of Guta saga, a history of the island of Gotland written in Old Gutnish. This text is followed by copies of two famous Swedish rhymed chronicles retelling political events: Erikskrönikan and Karlskrönikan. After these chronicles, the manuscript presents a copy of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, followed by the fragmentary Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna. The fragment occupies the folios 184v to 187r and is followed by a number of empty folios (187v—228v), some of them missing today. Thus, it seems that space was left in order to continue the translation. The empty folios are followed by Historia Sancti Olai, which is a condensed, rhymed translation of the Old West Norse Óláfs saga helga. After this text come three translations of Latin diplomas, written at the behest of King Valdemar of Denmark, referred to as Paa halland och skane. We then find the didactic poem Biskop Henriks rim, attributed to Bishop Henrik Tidemansson, that deals with the Ten Commandments and how to rule. D 2 ends with the chronicle Kung Christian Klippings krönika, which, according to Carlquist, contains clearly anti-Danish elements.79 The manuscript is commonly called Spegelbergs bok because Hans Spegelberg, the secretary of Bishop Hans Brask, has often been identified as the main scribe of the manuscript.80 This, however, has been questioned by the Latinist Hedda Gunneng who argues that Spegelberg only wrote one page, whereas another scribe, whom she calls E, wrote more than a third of the manuscript.81 The most important point for our purposes, however, is Gunneng’s conclusion about Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna; according to her analysis of the different handstyles in the fragment, Hans Brask wrote half of it himself. The different manuscripts of Herr Ivan, Flores och Blanzeflor, Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna reveal important background information for the study of these texts. When considered together, there is no doubt that translated literature occupies a central position in medieval Swedish literature, and that translations of French courtly romances need to be understood in this context. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind the mix of different genres in the codices. Indeed, when Handskriften som historiskt vittne, p. 105. See for example the description of D 2 given in the edition of Gustaf Edvard Klemming, Svenska medeltidens rimkrönikor 3, Nya krönikans fortsättningar eller Sturekrönikorna: fortgången af unionsstriderna under Karl Knutsson och Sturarne, 1452–1520 (Stockholm: Samlingar utg. av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1868), pp. 243–46. 81 Hedda Gunneng, Vad har Spegelberg skrivit? (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets-, historie- och antikvitetsakademien, 1981), pp. 20–22. 79 Carlquist, 80

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture looking at the composition of each manuscript, one may wonder whether modern views of genres do not blur the understanding of how these texts were actually read. Finally, it is crucial to remember that several manuscripts are linked to people that were closely related, in particular Gustav Algotsson, Märta Ulfsdotter and Elin Gustavsdotter. Herr Ivan is compiled as the opening text in two of the four Swedish multi-text codices in which it is preserved, D 4 and D 3, which underlines its central role in medieval Swedish literature.82 If we only consider the Swedish manuscripts containing Herr Ivan, three of these four manuscripts also comprise Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, Flores och Blanzeflor and Karl Magnus – thus we might reasonably understand these texts as together forming a core at the heart of these manuscripts. In D 4, Herr Ivan precedes Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, while in D 4a it is placed before Namnlös och Valentin and in D 3 before Karl Magnus. The position of Herr Ivan in D 4a, in between Julens och Fastans träta and Namnlös och Valentin is significant, since it functions as a bridge from a short dialogue on religious matters to a romance and thus becomes a way of setting the tone for the following text. Despite the different contexts of composition, the connection to Namnlös och Valentin is easy to make: even though the latter is written in prose, it contains shorter extracts in knittel, the meter of Herr Ivan, and the courtly and chivalric culture is clearly present. Even though scholars tend to emphasise the Christian focus in Flores och Blanzeflor rather than in Herr Ivan, the appearance of the latter in the Fransiscan manuscript E 8822 shows that it was read both by laymen and people of the Church. Bampi has discussed the codicological and thematic links between Herr Ivan and Karl Magnus in D 3, pointing out how the prologue of Herr Ivan compares King Arthur to Charlemagne and thus creates a natural link to Karl Magnus, which tells the story of Charlemagne.83 Additionally, the links between Herr Ivan and Hertig Fredrik av Normandie in D 4 are multiple: both texts were translated on the initiative of Queen Eufemia and explore courtly ideals, even though the tone is different.84 Contrary to Herr Ivan, Flores och Blanzeflor is never the first text in the codices in which it is preserved, but it appears in between other texts, which could indicate that it had a more secondary role. When looking at the Swedish manuscripts, only one other text is always in the same manuscript as Flores och Blanzeflor: Karl Magnus. As Bampi points out, both texts share a common interest in the Orient as well as in the relationship between the Christians and the Saracens, but their narrative foci are different. The fact that Flores och Blanzeflor precedes Konung Alexander in D 4 and Namnlös och Valentin in D 3 underlines the many Herr Ivan also opens the two Danish manuscripts K 4 and K 47. Bampi, ‘In praise of a copy’, p. 21. 84 See Lodén, ‘The Eufemiavisor: A Unified Whole’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 176–88. 82 83

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Introduction similarities between these texts – such as the use of knittel to the focus on courtly ideals – despite their different origins and generic identities. Whereas it mostly appears in manuscripts containing one or two of the other Eufemiavisor, it is the only Eufemiavisa in AM 191. Even though Namnlös och Valentin was written in another historical context than the Eufemiavisor, it is closely related to them in terms of its codicological context. In D 4a it appears after Herr Ivan and before Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, and in D 3 it comes after Flores och Blanzeflor and before Hertig Fredrik av Normandie. In K 45, which contains neither Herr Ivan nor Flores och Blanzelor, Hertig Fredrik av Normandie is the first text and Namnlös och Valentin follows Tungulus, which is additionally to be found in D 4a and D 3. The fact that the fragmentary Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna is only preserved in one manuscript says something important about its peripheral role in Swedish literature: the translator seems to have abandoned the text shortly after it was even started. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the fragment directly follows a copy of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, thus linking this later text to the Eufemiavisor. When looking at the manuscripts of both Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor, it is worth noting that two of the manuscripts are linked to noblewomen – mother and daughter. Furthermore, AM 191, containing only Flores och Blanzeflor, is linked to a nunnery. Thus, while Eufemia is put forward as the literary patron of the Eufemiavisor, these different manuscripts indicate that women were also an important part of the literary audience. In order to understand the role of these women, a closer look at the epilogue of Herr Ivan is needed: Nu haver iak sagt af hærra Ivan alt hvat iak skrivat af honum fan ok ængte vætta lagt þær til. Late hva þæt eigh tro vil! Iak lot þær ængte ater sta þæt iak skrivat for mik sa. Þa þusand vinter, þry hundraþ ar fran Guþs føþilse liþin var ok þær til þry, i þæn sama tima varþ þæsse bokin giorþ til rima. Eufemia drotning, þæt maghin I tro, læt þæssa bokena vænda svo af valske tungo ok a vart mal –Guþ naþe þe æþla frugho sial– þær drotning ivir Norghe var mæþ Guþs miskun þrættan ar. Nu ær þæsse bok til ændæ. Guþ os sina naþer sændæ! Guþ givi honum þær hana giørþe

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture ok allum þem þær bokena hørþe himirikis glæþi for sina møþo ok frælse os fran hælvitis døþæ! (vv. 6425–46)85 (Now I have told about Sir Ivan everything I have found written about him and have not added anything myself. Whoever does not believe it, so be it! I have left out nothing of what I found written. When one thousand winters, three hundred years had passed since God’s birth and another three, that is when this book was turned into verse. Queen Eufemia, you may believe me, had this book translated from French into our language –God have mercy on the noble lady’s soul– who was queen of Norway for thirteen years by the grace of God. Now this book is finished. God grant us His mercy! God grant him who wrote it and all those who listened to the book heavenly bliss for his efforts, and deliver us from death in hell!)

In his discussion of the riddarasögur, Jürg Glauser has pointed out the ‘Überlieferungsbewusstsein’ (awareness of transmission) to which the Nordic translations often bear witness.86 Additionally the epilogue of Herr Ivan gives a clear example of this textual phenomenon and is interesting for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it is these closing verses that link the translation to Queen Eufemia and to a specific time in history.87 But they are also of philological importance, since they point out the language of the source text ‘valske tungo’.88 The role of the narrator is another interesting feature, in particular the narrator’s emphasis on his fidelity to his written sources and the recurrent use of ‘iak’ (I). In this context, it is however the role of the female patrons – Eufemia, as well Märta and Elin – that deserves attention. In D 4a and D 3, this first The quotations and translations from Herr Ivan follow Norse Romance, vol. 3, Hærra Ivan, ed. and trans. Henrik Williams and Karin Palmgren (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999). For a modernized version of the three Eufemiavisor, see Eufemiavisorna I and II, ed. Henrik Williams, with an introduction by Bo Ralph (Stockholm: Atalantis, 2018). 86 Jürg Glauser, ed., Skandinavische Literaturgeschichte (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2006), p. 33. 87 As mentioned earlier, Layher has discussed the use of ‘vart mal’ (our language). 88 The Old Swedish word valsker, meaning ‘foreign’, is mainly used in reference to the languages of southern Europe: French and Italian. See Knut Fredrik Söderwall’s dictionary of Old Swedish, Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket, Svenska fornskrift-sällskapets samlingar 27: 1–2 (Stockholm: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1884–1918). Supplement by K.F. Söderwall, W. Åkerlund, K.G. Ljunggren & E. Wessén, Svenska fornskrift-sällskapets samlingarn 54 (Stockholm and Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1925–73). For a discussion of the word’s use in this passage, see Lodén, Le chevalier courtois, pp. 64–65. 85

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Introduction epilogue is followed by a second epilogue, which Backman refers to as an ‘owner-epilogue’ (‘ägarepilog’), since it refers to the presumed owner of the manuscript.89 In D 4a, one can read: Then gud ther all ting forma gøme then frv ther boken a frv mæreta medh gudz miskund late henne liffuæ medh ænglæ fund j himmerike for wtan endæ och j werlden henne glædi sendæ ee mæden hon wil her byggiæ och bo hon ær dygdelik thet moghi tro gudh giffui henne heder æuinnerlik thy at hon haffuer sik mykit høffuisklik och allom them henne an wæll och frælsse them aff æuerdelikæ hæll Amen.90 (May the God who is capable of everything protect the lady who owns this book: Lady Märta, with God’s mercy, let her live with the angels in heaven for eternity and send her joy at earth, while she lives and dwells there. She is excellent, you may believe that. May God give her and all those who love her eternal honour, since she is courteous, and deliver them from infinite death. Amen.

D 3 contains a similar prologue, in which the reference to Märta is replaced by another to her daughter Elin. The closeness between the owner-epilogues in D 4a and D 3 indicates that they derive from the same exemplar.91 As noted by Backman, there are obvious parallels between the roles of Elin (and the same could be said about Märta) and Eufemia: ‘Queen Eufemia arranged the translation of three works, thereby ensuring that her name was preserved, while Lady Elin, in causing the manuscript to be made, also ensured the survival of her name’.92 Backman points to the similar descriptions of the two women: Eufemia as the noble lady and Elin, like Märta, as good and courtly, descriptions that she argues fit well with the manuscript’s edifying function.93 One difference between Eufemia and Elin, however, lies in the fact that Eufemia was already dead by the time the manuscript was written, whereas D 3 was made for Elin some years before she died.94 Handskriftens materialitet, p. 153. The epilogue is quoted from Herr Ivan, ed. Erik Noreen (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1930–31), p. 408. My own translation. 91 Backman, Handskriftens materialitet, p. 163. 92 Backman, Handskriftens materialitet, p. 205. 93 Backman, Handskriftens materialitet, p. 165. 94 Backman, Handskriftens materialitet, p. 163.

89 Backman, 90

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Whereas Eufemia, Märta and Elin were commissioners of translations and manuscripts, it is important to mention in this context that the Danish manuscript K 47, which contains the three Eufemiavisor in Danish, actually refers to a female scribe ‘then hinnæ skreff hwn maa och saa’ (the one who wrote it [the book], she will also [go to Paradise]).95 Thus, there seems to be a tradition of female reading and reception of romances in Scandinavia. The role of the female reader in the Middle Ages is complex and has been discussed by many scholars. One of the most influential contributions is undoubtedly Roberta L. Krueger’s Women Readers and the Ideology of Gender in Old French Verse Romance, in which she argues the following: One of the paradoxes of romance for noblewomen was that the very activity of reading, whether for pleasure or for analytical reflection, was an elite experience that marked class status and implicitly reinforced traditional gender roles. Noblewomen’s reading was in itself a social privilege that may have compensated for and obscured women’s secondary gender status.96

Krueger’s focus is mainly on the French context of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but parallels can be drawn to the Scandinavian context: Eufemia as well as Märta and Elin were part of an elite and they most certainly had very different status than men did within this elite.97 Even though the small number of preserved literary texts from medieval Sweden makes it hard to draw more general conclusions, it is clear that literature, at least the reading and patronage of literature, was neither a male- nor female-only occupation. In her study of the French romance in the later Middle Ages, Rosalind Brown-Grant analyses questions of morality and gender in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century French romance, frequently linked to the court of Burgundy.98 She argues that gender roles underwent a considerable change in the romances of the later Middle Ages and points towards the introduction of regulation in respect of both female and male sexuality, considering these texts ‘as products of a more overtly moralizing culture than that of the twelfth and 95

Anna Katharina Richter, ‘La transmission de Floire et Blanchefleur au Danemark (XVIe–XVIIe siècles)’, in L’espérience des frontières et les littératures de l’Europe médiévale, ed. Sofia Lodén and Vanessa Obry (Paris: Champion, 2019), p. 405. 96 Roberta L. Krueger, Women Readers and the Ideology of Gender in Old French Verse Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 274–48. 97 For a closer discussion of both female patrons and readers of Arthuriana in medieval Scandinavia, see Sofia Lodén, ‘Female Arthurians in Scandinavia: Eufemia, Christina and the Modern Female Scholar’, Journal of the International Arthurian Society 7(1), (2019), 42–60. 98 Rosalind Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

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Introduction thirteenth centuries’.99 The actual degree of change in discourse between the high and late Middle Ages is a matter for debate;100 nonetheless, Brown-Grant’s analysis shows that questions about gender were topical for the medieval public as well – otherwise, there would be little obvious reason for the consistent and concerted attempts to rewrite or adapt these themes in prose remaniements of earlier verse romances or later original romances. The fact that the Swedish translations of romances were frequently associated with female readers – e.g. Eufemia, Märta, Elin, a nunnery – shows that women continued to play a central role for the development of the romance in late medieval Europe, at least in Sweden. However, the references to specific historical women do not necessarily reflect a historical reality in which literature was read by women – it would also be possible to understand these references as a partly literary device that would connect the manuscripts or texts in question to a larger European context, in which patrons such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie de Champagne were well known. Even though we will never know the exact make-up of these texts’ different audiences; the women, men, children and animals that are actually depicted in the different narratives may give us some clues. The chapters in this book will analyse the different textual traditions through the lens of several different themes. These themes do not reflect an already established theoretical agenda, but rather stand out as essential to the respective textual traditions. I wish to treat each tradition separately in order to highlight the plurality of courtly literature when considered in a wider European perspective. Thus, after a first chapter about the question of Europeanisation and medieval Sweden, I will devote my second chapter to the role of female characters in the different versions of Le Chevalier au lion, in which the lady Laudine and the maiden Lunete both play intriguing roles. Then, in my third chapter, I will turn to the role of children in Floire et Blancheflor, which depicts two small children: their birth, upbringing and education, which in turn leads to love between them. The fourth chapter will treat the role of animals in the textual tradition of Valentin et Orson, in which the wild brother Orson or Sansnom is a complex character who has been interpreted differently depending on the context. Finally, the fifth chapter will explore masculinity in the tradition of Paris et Vienne, since Paris’ masculinity is at the centre of the Swedish translation. While the French romance has been explored from many different perspectives, neither the Swedish tradition nor its links to the larger 99

100

Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages, p. 216. See Michelle Szkilnik’s review of the book, ‘Rosalind Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes (2008), available at: http://journals.openedition.org/crm/11464, accessed 25 March 2019.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture European context have been widely studied. This book aims to make the first steps towards filling this gap. The Old French expression mettre en romanz, from which the notion of romance derives, refers to the act of translating into the vernacular, and the medieval romance was indeed born of just such a process of translation and adaptation. One scene in Le Chevalier au lion is often cited as an example of how romances were read aloud and thus frequently associated with a female readership: when the French Yvain enters the castle of the Pesme Aventure, he sees a maiden who is reading to her parents ‘En un romans, ne sai de cui’ (v.5368) (from a romance, I don’t know what it was about).101 This mise en abyme of the reading of romances is particularly significant in its Swedish translation Herr Ivan, in which the translator retains the word roman and explicitly links it to the French language: ‘Þe iomfru las þær romanz, / ena bok man kallar sva a franz’ (vv. 4775–76) (The maiden was reading a romance, / a type of book so called in French). The explanation given by the translator reveals a vision of the romance as French – something that is significant considering the many influences on medieval Sweden of Old West Norse and German culture. However, the introduction into the Swedish language of this notion of the Frenchness of romance seems to have yielded far less influence, for it does not occur in the other texts discussed in this book.102 Even if no other such explicit references are found, implicit references to the extensive influence of French romance in medieval Sweden can be traced by other means, as this study will show. The complex ways in which the medieval romance was disseminated and adapted to new contexts reflect its truly European character and the emergence of a stronger European identity, as well as its role in defining the various national languages and customs that come together to constitute European culture. Since relatively few French romances found their way into Swedish literature in the Middle Ages, the ones that actually did are all the more interesting. What kind of romances were they? Which of their elements particularly caught the translators’ The quotations from Le Chevalier au lion of Chrétien de Troyes follow Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier au lion, ed. Karl D. Uitti, in Œuvres complètes, ed. Daniel Poirion et alii (Paris: Gallimard, 1994). The English translations of Chrétien follow Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. William W. Kibler (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991). On the female reader in medieval romance, see for example Max Grosse, ‘Lectures pieuses, lectures amoureuses – Observations sur les lectrices dans la littérature française du Moyen Age’, in La lecture au féminin: la lectrice dans la littérature française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle / Lesende Frauen: zur Kulturgeschichte der lesenden Frau in der französischen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Angelica Rieger and Jean-François Tonard (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1999), pp. 49–73 (pp. 66–67). 102 In Söderwall’s dictionary of the Old Swedish language, romanz is only used in Herr Ivan, see Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket.

101

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Introduction attention? How do they relate to the broader European context? I will argue that Le Chevalier au lion, Floire et Blancheflor, Valentin et Orson and Paris et Vienne reflect the process of Europeanisation in the Middle Ages. The question of Europeanisation is of course highly complex and could be studied from a variety of different angles. My focus will be entirely on the Europeanisation of culture through the lens of literature. In my first chapter, I will draw attention to how historians have previously described medieval Europe as an emerging distinct cultural entity and how this may be seen reflected in the corpus of the French romances and their Swedish adaptations. In Chapters 2–5, I will then explore in turn and in more depth the different facets of this overarching theme. The fact that Le Chevalier au lion, Floire et Blancheflor, Valentin et Orson and Paris et Vienne reached medieval Sweden illustrate their European and cross-cultural character, while the specific Swedish translations of them reveal a conscious effort to connect Swedish culture to a broader context. The Swedish reworkings of literary themes such as the female character, childhood, education, language, beastliness and masculinity reveal considerable divergences from the sources which, when considered in their wider European context, deepen our understanding of the medieval romance and its role as a vehicle for the Europeanisation of culture.

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N 1 n Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden I will argue that the different textual traditions that I discuss should be seen as part of a larger process of Europeanisation. In Chapters 2–5, I will explore the specific elements in romance that seem to have been most crucial in this Europeanisation process, and which also played a role in the emergence of a Swedish literary culture. But before this analysis can be undertaken, I wish in this first chapter to pause to consider the notion of ‘Europeanisation’ in relation to the historical context of medieval Sweden. In his discussion of ‘immagined communities’, Benedict Anderson maintains that three cultural conceptions needed to be dissolved before national communities could be imagined: first, ‘the idea that a particular script-language offered privileged access to ontological truth’ – which, in the West, was Latin; second, ‘the belief that society was naturally organized around and under high centres – monarchs who were persons apart from other human beings and who ruled by some form of cosmological (devine) dispensation’; third ‘a conception of temporality in which cosmology and history were indistinguishable’.1 He then draws particular attention to the role of ‘print-capitalism’ and argues that the first print-languages ‘laid the bases for national consciousness’.2 All romances studied in this book were written before the imagined communities of nations would be possible, if we follow Anderson’s arguments. However, even though nations as they are understood today did not exist in the Middle Ages, courtly literature could be seen as one of the core roots of modern national culture(s). When Queen Eufemia ordered three texts to be translated into Swedish, the linguistic identities of the source and target cultures were already well articulated; at least, this is what is implied by the reference in Herr Ivan to how Eufemia ‘læt þæssa bokena vænda svo / af valske tungo ok a vart mal’ (vv. 6436–37) (had this book translated from French into our language). The use of the pronoun ‘vart’ signals a community, defined in terms of its vernacular language, that Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verson, 2016 [1983]), p. 36. 2 Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 44. 1

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture has motivated the whole translation. Thus, the translations of courtly romances reveal how one distinct linguistic community, in this case the Francophone community, is opposed to another, here the Swedish. As the next chapter will show, Herr Ivan is, indeed, a translation from one language to another, but it is also a conscious cultural adaptation. When I refer to the Europeanisation of culture in the Middle Ages, I neither mean the construction of a concrete European community as we know it today, nor a solely imagined one. In the same way as the different linguistic romance traditions may reveal strong linguistic communities, the very essence of the romance lies in its circulation across borders – a circulation that in itself is everything but merely imagined and that must be seen as a concrete example of how medieval literature contributed to the creation of a cultural European community. Thus, the emerging European culture was constructed on the basis of a number of languages and subcultures. The ethnic groups that we meet in the Middle Ages were fluid and diverse in character. Within one and the same community several languages could be spoken, while a single language might have been spoken in different communities. Medieval peoples, such as the Franks or the Goths, underwent constant change, to such an extent that one could hardly consider them to have been stable ethnic groups.3 For these reasons it is not really possible to trace clear and continuous lines between the different romances and modern nations. As discussed in the introduction, the French romances and their translations were transmitted in manuscripts that were mainly owned and read by a very restricted stratum of medieval society. Nevertheless, they were as close as one could come to international bestsellers and later, with the arrival of the printing press, several of them were printed. Furthermore, some of these narratives also spread orally far beyond the courtly milieu. Indeed, the Swedish tradition of sung ballads, which often evoked courtly motifs, could be taken as an example of this wider spread. In any case, the courtly origin of the romance does not make its impact or spread less important.

The Civilising Europeanisation: Honour, Gender and Religion Even though Europe existed as a notion before the Middle Ages, mainly in reference to specific geographic boundaries, it was only in the Middle Ages that it began to be understood as referring to a cultural entity. The actual term ‘Europe’, however, remained mostly associated with 3

Concerning the fluid and diverse character of the ethnic groups in the Middle Ages, see, e.g., Patrick J. Geary’s thought-provoking book The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002).

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden geography throughout the Middle Ages, whereas ‘Christendom’ covered a wider range of places. The unity of medieval Europe had two sources: ‘on the one hand the idea of a Christian community, and on the other the global inheritance of the universal might of the Roman Empire’.4 In earlier scholarship, Charlemagne and his Frankish empire were often referred to as marking the beginnings of Europe.5 More recent scholarship has been opposed to such a view for several reasons. Most importantly in this context, Charlemagne did not control the whole of Europe: Britain, the Iberian Peninsula, the eastern parts of central Europe, the Balkans and Scandinavia all remained outside of his kingdom.6 The case of medieval Sweden is, indeed, significant when trying to grasp the nascent European identiy in the Middle Ages. In his major work The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350, the historian Robert Bartlett considers medieval Europe from the dual perspective of centre and periphery.7 He argues that the core areas of Europe, from which European culture spread and ‘Europeanized’ its more distant parts, were ‘France, Germany west of the Elbe and north Italy, regions which had a common history as part of Charlemagne’s Frankish empire’.8 According to Bartlett, ‘Europe existed as an identifiable cultural unity’ by 1300.9 He singles out a number of features that particularly reflect this Europeanisation of medieval culture: the homogenisation of names and saints’ cults, the minting of coins, the use of written charters and the founding and development of universities.10 Even though his focus is not on literary sources, it is important to note that he mentions the romance as a central element in the French part of Europe’s core culture: ‘Northern France, the birthplace of Gothic architecture, scholasticism and Arthurian romance, gave thirteenth-century civilisation much of its distinctive flavour.’11 Bartlett thus intimates that

Heikki Mikkeli, Europe as an Idea and an Identity (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 29–30. 5 See, e.g, C. Delisle Burns, The First Europe: A Study of the Establishment of Medieval Christendom A.D. 400–800 (London: Allen Lane, 1947). 6 Mikkeli, Europe as an Idea and an Identity, p. 19. 7 In a recent book on the manuscript production and literary culture of medieval Iceland, the Norwegian historian Hans Jacob Orning also takes as his starting point the tension between centre and periphery: The Reality of the Fantastic: The Magical, Political and Social Universe of Late Medieval Saga Manuscripts (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2017). 8 Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 269. 9 Bartlett, The Making of Europe, p. 291. 10 Bartlett, The Making of Europe, pp. 269–91. 11 Bartlett, The Making of Europe, p. 20. 4

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture the genre of romance played a crucial role in the Europeanisation of medieval culture. The opposition in romance between the court and the rest of the world – between civilisation and wilderness – is adapted to different cultural and linguistic contexts and becomes an integral part of a civilising process that contributes to the ‘making of Europe’. The historian Chris Wickham, who, although emphasising the great diversity of Europe, singles out three aspects of medieval culture that he considers ‘somewhat more widespread across Europe than others’, namely: ‘attitudes to honour, gender, and religion’.12 As we shall see, all these aspects are central in relation to the Swedish translations of medieval romance. First, the question of honour is, indeed, one of the main themes of the Swedish translations. In his book Medieval Europe, Wickham describes how being seen as honourable was crucial in all strata of medieval society, in all regions and periods, for men as well as women, even though ‘honour certainly had variants’.13 For example, in most medieval societies, violence was an accepted form of defence against violation of honour, and revenge tended to be considered as honourable. Second, questions of gender will be discussed in detail in this book. Wickham argues that a significant difference between the early and the late European Middle Ages is that the latter period presents more ambiguous female roles.14 For example, he claims that ‘the legal constraints which sometimes appear quite sharp in the early period seem often to have been more mediated later on, even if female inheritance was never generous’.15 This increase in ambiguities was likely due to the increasingly complex economy and society.16 Finally, even though the central role of religion in medieval European culture may seem obvious, it is precisely the religious focus that scholars have brought to the foreground in previous studies of Swedish translations of medieval romance. According to Wickham, secular motives can never be entirely separated from religious ones when studying medieval culture, as historians so have often done. He argues that the two sides were inextricably linked together and that they were not perceived as discrete by medieval people. Wickham briefly discusses the spread of the Arthurian romance in relation to gender and community in late medieval Europe and explains the initial success of the French romance as due to its representation of the ‘aristocratic world in emblematic terms’, combining fin’amor Chris Wickham, Medieval Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), p. 16. 13 Wickham, Medieval Europe, p. 18. 14 Wickham, Medieval Europe, p. 19. 15 Wickham, Medieval Europe, p. 19. 16 Wickham, Medieval Europe, p. 194. 12

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden with attractive plot lines.17 According to him, the Arthurian romance ‘contributed substantially to the self-consciousness of the aristocratic strata of the period’.18 I will press this argument yet further, and argue that the romance – and not only Arthurian romance – contributed to the self-consciousness of a literary cross-cultural tradition, that in its turn reflected the nascent European identity. On the one hand, Wickham’s three key aspects of medieval European culture may indeed help to explain the success and spread of the specific romances discussed in this book; the romances could thus be considered as ‘typically European’ precisely because they are grounded in these aspects. On the other hand, the romances may also nuance these, and indeed add other, aspects to the picture and thus deepen and enrich our understanding of medieval European culture. In the following chapters, which are dedicated to the romances in question, I will argue that both interpretations are possible as well as meaningful. The ways in which the medieval romance was translated into Swedish and developed its relationship with broader European traditions reveal both powerful and sophisticated aspects of medieval Europeanisation.

Historical Background As described in the introduction, I will discuss Swedish texts from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century in relation to other European versions from an even wider time span. The period is marked by a number of societal changes across Europe, such as the Late Medieval Crisis, the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War and the Great Schism.19 Considerable change had similarly taken place in the Nordic countries between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries. Swedish society saw the emergence of a central government, and the power of the king was reinforced.20 Military defence was transformed, many castles were built, Medieval Europe, p. 197. Medieval Europe, p. 196. 19 See Karras, From Boys to Men, p. 18. 20 For closer studies of the historical context, see Birgit Sawyer and Peter Sawyer, Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800–1500 (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1993); Knut Helle, ‘Towards nationally organised systems of government: Introductory survey’, in The Cambridge History of Scandinavia 1: Prehistory to 1520 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 345–52; Knut Helle, ‘Conclusion’, in The Cambridge History of Scandinavia 1: Prehistory to 1520, pp. 771–800; Péneau, Erikskrönika; Olle Ferm, ‘Transformations sociales et émergence de nouvelles élites dans le royaume de Suède, 1220–1350’, in Les élites nordiques et l’Europe occidentale (XIIe–XVe siècle): actes de la rencontre franco-nordique organisée à Paris, 9–10 juin 2005, ed. Tuomas M.S. Lehtonen and Élisabeth Mornet (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2007), pp. 53–65; Kim Bergqvist, ‘Det 17 Wickham, 18 Wickham,

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture new taxes were introduced and centralised administration and ecclesiastical organisation both became more fully developed. The nascent society was divided into new social groups, and particularly significant in this context is the emergence of a new type of aristocracy. In 1280, about 20 years before the appearance of the Eufemiavisor, men who served as heavy cavalrymen were exempted from royal taxes in the ordinance Alsnö stadga, which distinguished between riddare (knights) and svennar (squires). Alsnö stadga, which has not been preserved in its original form, surviving only in later copies, reflects the growing importance of the new ‘feudal’ model in Sweden and the impact of the new class of knights. It was issued during the reign of King Magnus Birgersson, more commonly known as Magnus Ladulås (king of Sweden 1275–90). When King Magnus died in 1290, his son Birger Magnusson succeeded him. Birger’s reign, however, was marked by constant struggles for the throne. In 1306, Birger’s two brothers, Dukes Erik and Magnus, imprisoned the king in Håtuna. Then, in 1310, power was divided between the king and his brothers, but this peace was short-lived; in 1317, the king captured his brothers in Nyköping. The following year, supporters of the dukes united against the king; Erik and Magnus died, while Birger fled to Denmark. In 1319, the son of Erik and Ingeborg, Magnus Eriksson, was elected king. He inherited Norway through his mother. During his reign, which lasted for 45 years, the Eufemiavisor were followed by a number of important texts: the first law of the realm (Magnus Erikssons landslag), a mirror for princes (Um styrilsi konunga ok höfþinga, also known as Konungastyrelsen), the rhymed chronicle Erikskrönikan and St. Birgitta’s Revelations. The Eufemiavisor probably continued to be read, however; Michael Nordberg has drawn attention to one of the books mentioned in the inventory of King Magnus – Item vnum yuan – suggesting that this somewhat enigmatic title might conceivably refer to the original copy comissioned by Magnus’ grandmother Eufemia.21 King Magnus is important in this context since he may have contributed to the role of the French language at the Swedish court when he married Blanche of Namur (d. 1363).22 Blanche was the daughter of John I, Marquis of Namur, and Marie of Artois. Her paternal grandfather was Guy of skandinaviske aristokratiets ideologi på Eufemias tid’, in Eufemia: Oslos middelalderdronning, ed. Bjørn Bandlien (Oslo: Dreyer, 2012), pp. 125–39; Philip Line, Kingship and State Formation in Sweden, 1130–1290 (Leiden: Brill, 2007); Sverre Bagge, Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014); Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Lagfäst kungamakt under högmedeltiden: en komparativ internordisk studie (Stockholm: Jure. Rättshistoriskt bibliotek, 2016). 21 Michael Nordberg, I kung Magnus tid: Norden under Magnus Eriksson 1317–1374 (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1995), p. 75. 22 King Magnus and Blanche had two sons, Eric and Hákon, as well as three

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden Flanders from the House of Dampierre, and her maternal grandfather was Philip of Artois, who linked Blanche to the House of Capet. Even though the exact reasons for the Swedish king marrying Blanche remain unknown, ‘it is, nonetheless, safe to assume that the choice of Blanche of Namur was dictated by a wish to create beneficial alliances with powerful French and Flemish families’.23 It is known that Blanche’s brothers Robert and Louis came with her to Sweden and worked for the king.24 We know little about their role in the aristocracy, let alone the languages that they used. However, it is plausible that they spoke French with each other, as well as with Blanche. One may therefore wonder whether their presence actually made French a more prominent language at the Swedish court and whether their cultural heritage contributed to a continued interest in courtly literature from the Continent. Even though the Hanseatic League provided opportunities for close contact with Low German language and culture, as discussed in the introduction, there are also examples of connections between the Frenchspeaking parts of Europe and Sweden in the Middle Ages – and not only through aristocratic marriages. One obvious early example is provided by the Cistercians monks who came to Sweden from Clairvaux in 1143 and founded the abbeys of Alvastra and Nydala, followed by several other Cistercian houses.25 As argued by Lars Wollin, the Dominicans, who arrived in Scandinavia in the thirteenth century and, altogether, established eleven houses in Sweden, also played a central role in the introduction of French culture and scholasticism in particular.26 The idealised role of French culture in medieval Sweden can be seen as an expression of France’s dominant position in European civilisation during the High Middle Ages.27 The university in Paris was perhaps the most important university in Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth daughters who died at an early age. Hákon married Margaret, daughter of Valdemar IV of Denmark, who became the founder of the Kalmar Union. 23 Henric Bagerius and Christine Ekholst, ‘The Unruly Queen: Blanche of Namur and Dysfunctional Rulership in Medieval Sweden’, in Queenship, Gender, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060–1600, ed. Zita Eva Rohr and Lisa Benz (New York, NY: Springer, 2016), pp. 99–118 (p. 100). 24 Nordberg, I kung Magnus tid, p. 71. 25 On the role of the abbey of Alvastra, see Lars Ersgård, ed., Munkar och magnater vid Vättern: Studier från forskningsprojektet ‘Det medeltida Alvastra’ (Lund: Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens historia, Lunds Universitet, 2012). For a broader discussion of the Cistercians in Scandinavia, see James France, The Cistercians in Scandinavia, Cistercian Studies Series 131 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992). 26 See Wollin, ‘Kavaljerernas intåg’, pp. 703–05. On the Dominicans in Scandinavia, see Jarl Gallén, La province de Dacie de l’Ordre Frères Prêcheurs I (Helsinki: Söderström, 1946). 27 Lindroth, Svensk lärdomshistoria, p. 64.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture centuries, where the faculties of philosophy and theology represented the pinnacle of the learned environment and undoubtedly played a crucial role in the spread of French culture. From the end of the thirteenth century to the middle of the fifteenth century, several hundered Swedish students came to Paris to study.28 A sign of their presence was the Collegium Upsaliense with its house dedicated to the students from the cathedral school of Uppsala, located in a house that was donated by Andreas And (d. 1317) in 1291 at Rue Serpente in the Quartier Latin. Two other Swedish colleges were also founded in Paris: one for the students from Linköping and another for those from Skara. Even though the lingua franca of these colleges, as well as of the university in general, was Latin, it is probable that the Swedish students learned to communicate in French. They are therefore likely to have come across texts in vernacular languages, which they might conceivably have brought back to Sweden. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the university of Paris had reached its peak as the learned centre of Europe and other universities rose in reputation – many Swedish students went to universities closer to Sweden such as Rostock and Leipzig, and later also to Cologne and Greifswald. At the end of the fourteenth century, the Swedish colleges in Paris were almost empty. For example, the college of Skara was transferred to the English ‘nation’ where it only continued its activities until 1430.29 28

The precise number of Swedish students in Paris is hard to pinpoint, since the university did not keep formal records. However, through the analysis of other sources, scholars have proposed various numbers. See for example Tore Frängsmyr and Sverker Sörlin, ‘La peregrinatio academia’, in Une amitié millénaire: Les relations entre la France et la Suède à travers les âges. Ouvrage publié sous l’égide de l’Académie Royale Suédoise des Belles-Lettres, de l’Histoire et des Antiquités, ed. Marianne Battail and Jean-François Battail (Paris: Beauchesne, 1993), pp. 69–93 (p. 76). For a closer analysis of the Swedish students in Paris during the Middle Ages, see also Henrik Schück, ‘Svenska Pariserstudier under medeltiden’, Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift 1 (1900), 9–78; Ellen Jørgensen, ‘Nordiske Studierejser i Middelalderen’, Historisk tidskrift 8 (1915), 331–82; Pär Eliasson, Från Peregrenatio Academica till Peregrenatio Erudita: Svenska akademikers studieresor och universitetsvistelser i utlandet intill år 1800 (Umeå: Cerum, 1990); Kjell Kumlien, ‘Svenskarna vid utländska universitet under medeltiden’, Historiska studier tillägnade Sven Tunberg den 1 februari 1942, ed. Adolf Schück and Åke Stille (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1942), pp. 143–69; Per Förnegård, ‘Le Saint Denis suédophone. La guérison miraculeuse d’un Suédois selon les chroniqueurs de Saint-Denis’, in Regards sur la France du Moyen Âge: Mélanges offerts à Gunnel Engwall, ed. Olle Ferm and Per Förnegård (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2009), pp. 95–109. 29 The Scandinavian presence at the University of Paris in the late fourteenth century and the early fifteenth century is discussed by Élisabeth Mornet, ‘«Entre Eglise et Etat »: Elites scandinaves à Paris sous le règne de Charles VI’, in Saint-Denis et la royauté: Études offertes à Bernard Guenée, ed. Françoise Autrand, Claude Gauvard and Jean-Marie Moeglin (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1999), pp. 91–109.

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden When considering the role of the university in Paris, it is important to remember that the medieval learned communities were rarely confined to one specific geographical area. On the contrary, these milieus were highly mobile. While Sweden could be considered an intellectual periphery in the Middle Ages, with Paris representing the central locus of knowledge, the two seem also to have formed a reciprocal, if not interdependent, relationship – this is what is suggested by Tore Frängsmyr and Sverker Sörlin in their discussion of the role of the cathedral schools in Uppsala, Linköping and Skara and of learned men such as Laurentius Olavi (Lars Olofsson, Laurentius de Vaksala) and Magister Mathias (Matts Övidsson), whereby Frängsmyr and Sörlin posit these schools and persons as actors on an international stage. Frängsmyr and Sörlin also point to the fact that the University of Uppsala was founded in 1477 by one of the former Swedish students of Paris, Jakob Ulvsson. According to them, the foundation of this first Swedish university did not just mark the end of Swedish intellectual insularity, but was in fact a direct consequence of the scholarly contact across borders that had been a hallmark of the entire Middle Ages.30 Could the same be said about the writing of romances? Were the Eufemiavisor and the courtly romances that followed in their wake in fact the result of literary contacts between northern and southern Europe that had existed for decades, if not centuries?31 Indeed, the notion of peripheries often relies on preconceived views of the world. In the case of the Nordic countries, it could also be linked to the desire during certain historical periods to consider the Nordic culture as fundamentally different from that of the rest of Europe, representing a more or less fictitious notion of ‘pure Nordic culture’. The case of medieval Iceland is particularly interesting in this context. Even though Iceland was a geographic periphery in medieval Europe, the Icelandic interest in the Arthurian legend shows that it was clearly not a cultural periphery: the Prophetiae Merlini and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae were translated into Old Icelandic as early as 1200. These two translations, Merlínússpá (Prophetiae Merlini) and Breta sögur (Historia regum Britanniae), are the oldest Nordic texts with references to the Arthurian legend.32 Moreover, on a church door in Valþjófsstaðir in the east of Iceland scenes have been carved that seem to derive from Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier au lion and the Welsh Owein – carvings 30

Frängsmyr and Sörlin, ‘La peregrinatio academia’, p. 91. The question of an earlier literary heritage is discussed by Ferm, ‘The Emergence of Courtly Culture’, pp. 109–20. 32 See Stefanie Gropper, ‘Breta sögur and Merlínússpá’ in The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus’ Realms, ed. Marianne E. Kalinke (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011), pp. 48–60. See also Marianne Kalinke, ‘Arthur, King of Iceland’, Scandinavian Studies 87.1 (2015), 8–32, and Sif Rikhardsdottir and Eriksen, ‘État présent’, pp. 3–4. 31

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture that are dated to c. 1200 and thus, once again, highlight the very early presence of the Arthurian legend in Iceland.33 Even though the Icelandic sagas may seem to reflect an indigenous and unique literary tradition, recent scholarship has shown that the contact with Europe played a crucial role in the development of Icelandic literature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.34 The integration of their history and culture into the larger European context was, according to Torfi H. Tulinius, as essential for the development of Icelandic culture in the Middle Ages as it was for European culture in general: ‘Medieval Icelanders constructed their own identity and culture by viewing their pagan past as other but also by integrating this particular otherness of their past into the Christian secular culture of their own time.’35 Similarly, Margaret Clunies Ross argues that neither the indigenous Icelandic past nor its literature was marginalised, ‘on the contrary, they are made part of a Christian world history to which Iceland and Icelandic writers made a unique and significant contribution.’36 The medieval Swedish context was in many ways different from the Icelandic one, and its literary tradition was considerably smaller. The Icelandic context reflects more clearly the broad diversity of Nordic contexts, at the same time as it problematises the notions of centre and periphery in reference to Nordic countries. While the Eufemiavisor were written at a time when the Swedish aristocracy was still very young, Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna belong to a later context. The late Middle Ages were marked by different unions between the Nordic countries, which led to more centralised political power, which resulted in much conflict. During Magnus Eriksson’s reign, there was a personal union between Sweden and Norway, followed, in 1375, by another personal union between Norway and Denmark. When King Olof of Denmark and Norway died in 1387, his mother, Queen Margaret, succeded in uniting the three countries in the Kalmar Union. She adopted her great-nephew Bugislav, who was renamed Erik of Pomerania and was made king of Norway in 1392 and king of Denmark and Sweden in 1396. Erik, however, became unpopular in Sweden. A rebellion against him, led by the nobleman Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, known as the Engelbrekt rebellion, took place in 1434–36 and eventually led to the erosion of the Kalmar Union – after Sif Rikhardsdottir, Emotion in Old Norse Literature, p. 32. Torfi H. Tulinius, ‘The Self as Other: Iceland and Christian Europe in the Middle Ages’, Gripla XX (2009), 199–216 (p. 206). 35 Torfi H. Tulinius, ‘The Self as Other’, p. 213. 36 Margaret Clunies Ross, ‘Medieval Iceland and the European Middle Ages’, in International Scandinavian and Medieval Studies in Memory of Gerd Wolfgang Weber, ed. Michael Dallapiazza, Olaf Hansen, Preben Meulengracht Sørensen and Yvonne S. Bonnetain (Trieste: Edizioni Parnaso, 2000), pp. 111–20 (p. 120).

33 34

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden the rebellion, Sweden functioned de facto as an independent country. During this period, several chronicles were written in Sweden that openly criticized King Erik. Massimiliano Bampi has argued that one of them, Karl Magnus, might actually provide ‘an illustrious example of a rex iustus who takes care of the security of his subjects and his kingdom under the aegis of God’, thus providing a foil for King Erik.37 As discussed in the introduction, Karl Magnus appears in many of the manuscripts that also contain the texts studied in this book. Even though the youngest of the texts treated in this book, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, was never finished and holds a largely peripheral position in the history of Swedish literature, much more is known about its historical context. As noted in the introduction, the translation is linked to the Swedish bishop Hans Brask. As Per Stobaeus has pointed out, the German milieu in which Brask studied was characterised by a ‘theological traditionalism’ that certainly influenced him.38 When he returned to Sweden, he was made a canon. Around 1499, due to a conflict between Bishop Henrik Tidemansson, for whom he had worked, and the chief magistrate of Linköping, Lars Nilsson, Brask went to Rome and worked at the Roman Curia. His stay in Italy continued until 1504, with two short interruptions. During this time, he wrote supplications to the Curia, received a doctoral degree and strengthened his power within the Swedish Church. He also made acquaintances that he kept for a long time, mostly with Swedish and German priests. According to Stobaeus, Brask’s long stay in Rome helped him to see the Church from an international perspective at the same time as experiencing the flourishing Italian Renaissance.39 Thanks to Brask’s many letters, the modern reader can gain some insight into his thoughts and ideas. For example, Brask describes Sweden as being situated at the end of the world – a poor country that was Christianized at a late stage in history and therefore needed regular contact with the centre of Christianity.40 He was concerned not only about the Church’s situation, but also about the laymen, and he wanted to spread European literary texts among the Swedish public. For example, he sent one text, referred to as Sancti Renoldi book, to Ture Jönsson; he wanted it translated into Swedish so that young Swedish men would read 37

Bampi, ‘In praise of a copy’, p. 30. Per Stobaeus, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, in Diocesis Lincopensis II: Medeltida internationella influenser – några uttryck för en framväxande östgötsk delaktighet i den västeuropeiska kultursfären, ed. Kjell O. Lejon (Skellefteå: Norma, 2005), pp. 168–208 (p. 174). 39 Per Stobaeus, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, p. 178. 40 Biskop Hans Brasks registratur, ed. Hedda Gunneng (Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 2003), letters 91, 330, 426 and 484. See also Stobaeus, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, p. 170. 38

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture books instead of drinking beer: ‘en good gerning pa thet at vnge karle finge vnderstwndom oc noget annet ath göre än altiid ligge i ööl stooped’ (a good deed as young men would thus also at times have something else to do than always being in their cups).41 In his letters to Canon Peder Bengtsson, who belonged to his closest circle of friends, Brask encouraged him to learn as much as possible abroad, not only in respect of the work at the Roman Curia but also about more worldly things such as precious stones, gold and textiles. What is more interesting in this context is his advice that Bengtsson should learn Italian and French, languages that Brask considered useful for diplomatic work.42 In one letter to Bengtsson, Brask also writes about the literary texts that he had come across, most likely in Italy. Among the texts that he mentions is inamoramentum Karoli Magni inamoramentum Renoldi vel orlandi, the Italian Renaissance poet Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato, a text written in ottava rima that tells the story of the knight Orlando, also known as Roland.43 His wish to translate literature from the Continent reflects his eagerness to educate the Swedes by making Swedish culture more open to influences from abroad. Indeed, it is worth noting that for some time Brask also ran a printing house in Söderköping that helped to distribute the texts that he had designated as suitable for translation. As the Swedish literary historian Karl-Ivar Hildeman has pointed out, the translation of Paris et Vienne chimes particularly well with these didactic intentions.44 Brask’s literary ambitions were not very successful, however, probably because of the historical circumstances in which he was operating. For some time he had supported Gustav Vasa (king of Sweden 1523–1560), even though the king was his opponent. However, in 1527, when the decision was taken to place the Church under royal control as a first step towards Protestant Lutheran reform, he went into exile, travelled to Danzig and never returned to Sweden. The king closed down the printing house and the plan to translate texts such as Orlando innamorato was never realised. In fact, Brask’s literary ambitions do not seem to have extended beyond the manuscript in which the fragmentary Swedish translation of Paris et Vienne is preserved, which makes this text all the more significant. Let me finally draw attention to Hertig Fredrik av Normandie. As noted Biskop Hans Brasks registratur, letter 484. Biskop Hans Brasks registratur, letter 256. See also Karl-Ivar Hildeman, Medeltid på vers: litteraturhistoriska studier (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1958), p. 27, and Per Stobaeus, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, p. 194. 43 Biskop Hans Brasks registratur, letter 256. See also Hildeman, Medeltid på vers, p. 32, and Stobaeus, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, pp. 189–90. 44 Hildeman, Medeltid på vers, pp. 31–35. 41

42

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden in the introduction, I will not devote a separate chapter to this text since there are no extant sources or any other versions of the narrative to which I can relate it. It is nevertheless interesting to consider this second text in the group of the Eufemiavisor in light of the question of Europeanisation. In the epilogue, we are informed that Hertig Fredrik av Normandie is mediated from French via a German translation: Thenne bok j her høræ hona loth keysær Otte gøra och wendhæ aff waksko j tytzt mall; gudh nadhæ thæss ædhlæ førstæ sial! Nw ær hon annan tiidh giordh til rima nylikæ jnnan stuntan tima aff thyzko och j swænskæ thungo, thet forstanda gamble och vngæ. (vv. 3279–86)45 (Emperor Otto had the book you are listening to prepared and translated from French into German. May God have mercy on the soul of this noble prince! Now it has recently been put into rhyme a second time, from German into Swedish, a language understood by both old and young.)46

These lines have received much scholarly attention, and the existence of a French original has been questioned.47 But if the French text was only a literary invention, could not this also be the case for the German one? May then the Swedish text be a pseudo-translation? Yet, as Keith Busby has argued, ‘the author’s statement should be believed until it can be proven false’.48 Busby argues convincingly that the base material of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie ‘is securely rooted in the narrative traditions of medieval Francophonia’, and he further suggests that several elements are anchored ‘in a distant Norman past’, lending support to the existence of a French original.49 Most significantly, through the very mention of the two unknown sources, the text inscribes itself in a cross-cultural and European tradition, from which it cannot be separated, whether or not the claimed sources are real. William Layher has emphasised the political role of the vernacular in the Eufemiavisor, stating that it creates a sense of community through 45 46 47

48 49

Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, ed. Erik Noreen (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1927). Keith Busby’s translation, in ‘Generic Hybridity and Memory in Hertig Fredrik av Normandie’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture, pp. 98–108 (p. 99). See, e.g., Florian Bambeck, Herzog Friedrich von der Normandie: Der altschwedische Ritterroman Hertig Fredrik av Normandie. Text, Übersetzung, Untersuchungen (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2009), p. 158. Busby, ‘Generic Hybridity’, p. 99. Busby, ‘Generic Hybridity’, p. 100.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture its poetic voice: ‘The Old Swedish tongue challenges national identities and differentiations. The epilogues make it clear that the romances belong not to the court or the Norwegian courtiers but, in broader terms, to those listening communities able to comprehend them.’50 This is an important point. However, this new community is a corollary of a larger European one and the epilogue of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie must be understood as a means by which to make this larger community explicit.

Before looking closer at the ways in which Le Chevalier au lion, Floire et Blancheflor, Valentin et Orson and Paris et Vienne were translated and adapted, it is useful to summarise the discussion so far. By ‘Europeanisation’ I refer to the emergence of Europe as a cultural identity that may be defined in terms of the dissemination of a number of literary texts, forming different traditions. Throughout the Middle Ages, the opposition in the courtly romance between civilisation and wilderness was adapted to various cultural and linguistic contexts through translations. In other words, the civilising features that stand at the core of the courtly romance form a part of the Europeanisation process. Chris Wickham refers to honour, gender and religion as the three most central aspects of medieval European culture.51 The dissemination of the French romance indicates, indeed, a similar pattern, though this book will seek to nuance these aspects. The case of medieval Sweden is particularly interesting for the understanding of the Europeanisation of culture. The first Swedish translations of courtly romances saw light in a period when a new type of aristocracy was emerging in Sweden. The appearance of these texts must be linked to this historical context, which also implies that the appearance of the new type of aristocracy must be linked to the broader European context. The translations of French romances into Swedish were not many in number, but they were in most cases an intrinsic part of a larger European tradition, which is significant. The latest of these translations, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, marks the end of the medieval period when texts were still transmitted in manuscript form – it is plausible that it was actually intended to be published in print. Nevertheless, the intention to connect Swedish culture to its European counterpart stands out more strongly than ever if one considers what is known about Hans Brask as a literary patron. Sweden was a cultural periphery in medieval Europe and the arrival of literature from abroad reveals important insights: the incorporation of 50 Layher,

Queenship and Voice, pp. 98–99. Medieval Europe, p. 16.

51 Wickham,

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Europeanisation and Medieval Sweden a figure like King Arthur and themes such as idyllic love, fin’amor and animal metamorphosis into Swedish culture says a great deal about the dynamics between the cultural centres of the Middle Ages and their peripheries. Old West Norse literature and its relations to the broader European context has already received considerable attention, probably due to the very rich tradition of Icelandic sagas. Much less has been written about the Swedish context, which by comparison with Norway and Iceland stands out as a periphery in terms of literary culture. The following chapters will explore the ways in which the Swedish periphery became a part of the larger European cultural context.

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N 2 n The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion: Le Chevalier au lion Critics have considered Le Chevalier au lion as the pinnacle of Chrétien’s romance composition, since it contains all the typical elements of a courtly romance.1 It is preserved in seven complete manuscripts as well as in a number of fragments, and its success in medieval Europe is reflected by its translation into Old West Norse, Danish, English, German, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.2 The French reworking by Pierre Sala in c. 1522 shows that the interest in the romance in France persisted long after the twelfth century. Jane H. M. Taylor situates Sala’s version within a broader context and argues that Sala’s translational moves, many of which seem quite minor, amount in fact to a process characteristic of late medieval and Renaissance romance adaptation and intra-lingual translation: a process of what I call ‘textual management’ whereby the social language of romance – myths, legends, rituals, symbols, stock characters, topoi – is appropriated, as a rhetorical and ideological enterprise, to affirm the nostalgic values assigned to Arthurian romance.3

Taylor’s concept of ‘textual management’ could certainly be extended to translations of French romances into other medieval vernaculars and into Old Swedish in particular. As we shall see, this is particularly true when analysing the female characters. The Old Swedish translation Herr Ivan is emblematic of the Europeanisation of medieval culture: it was not only the text that introduced the Arthurian romance into medieval Sweden, drawing on See Jean Frappier, Étude sur Yvain ou le Chevalier au lion de Chrétien de Troyes (Paris: Société d’édition d’enseignement supérieur, 1969), pp. 11–12. 2 For a discussion of the different adaptations of Yvain, see Tony Hunt, ‘The Medieval Adaptations of Chrétien’s Yvain: A Bibliographical Essay’, in An Arthurian Tapestry in Memory of Lewis Thorpe, ed. Kenneth Varty (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1981), pp. 203–13. 3 Jane H. M. Taylor, Rewriting Arthurian Romance in Renaissance France: From Manuscript to Printed Book (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014), p. 6. 1

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture both Chrétien’s romance and its Old West Norse translation Ívens saga, but also the narrative that marked the earliest known incarnation of Swedish national literature. In other words, the new literary tradition that developed after Herr Ivan bears distinctive markers of the continental material introduced by that very text. The role of the female characters in Chrétien’s romances has been discussed extensively from different perspectives and theoretical positions, which is also the case with Le Chevalier au lion.4 The lady Laudine and the maiden Lunete are at the centre of the romance: Laudine, a victim of violence between men, is the object of Yvain’s love and the raison d’être of the principal chivalric quest; Lunete, also a victim, is the instigator whose action leads the narrative in new directions. The complexity of the French text, alongside Chrétien’s frequently ironic tone, however, opens up many possible interpretations of the two women’s roles in the narrative.5 This becomes all the more obvious when studying the different translations of the romance. In order to understand the Swedish recasting of the two female characters of Laudine and Lunete, in this chapter I propose to situate Herr Ivan in a broader European context, and to compare and contrast the transformation of the women to their portrayals in the Old West Norse Ívens saga, Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein, the Middle English Yvain and Gawain and Pierre Sala’s sixteenth-century rewriting.6 Five of these texts were written in verse; Hartmann von Aue’s version is the longest of these at 8266 lines, while the Middle English rendering is the shortest An early study is that by Myrrha Borodine, La femme et l’amour au XIIe siècle d’après les poèmes de Chrétien de Troyes (Paris: Picard, 1909). For a more recent discussion of the topic, see for example Anna Paupert, ‘L’amour au féminin dans les romans de Chrétien de Troyes’, in Amour et chevalerie dans les romans de Chrétien de Troyes: Actes du colloque de Troyes, 1992, ed. Danielle Quéruel (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, Annales littéraires de l’Université de Besançon, 1995), pp. 95–106, and Krueger, Women Readers and the Ideology of Gender, pp. 33–67. Before expanding my study to a larger European literary context, I studied the role of the female characters in the French and Swedish texts, see Sofia Lodén, ‘Laudine and Lunete Moving North’, in Medieval Romances Across European Borders, ed. Miriam Edlich-Muth (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 95–106. 5 The ambiguity of Chrétien’s romance has been stressed many times. See for example Joan Tasker Grimbert, Yvain dans le miroir: une poétique de la réflexion dans le Chevalier au lion de Chrétien de Troyes (Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 1988). Chrétien’s style has been explored in a detailed study by Danièle James-Raoul, Chrétien de Troyes, la griffe d’un style (Paris: Champion, 2007). 6 For a comparative study of the Old French, Middle High German, Middle English and Old Norse versions, see Johannes Frey, Spielräume des Erzählens: Zur Rolle der Figuren in den Erzählkonzeptionen von Yvain, Îwein, Ywain und Ívens saga (Stuttgart: Hirzel, 2008). 4

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion at 4035 lines. Chrétien’s romance comprises 6820 verses, Pierre Sala’s rewriting contains 4275 lines and the Old Swedish Herr Ivan is made up of 6446 lines. Even though these numbers vary depending on the redaction present in each manuscript, Herr Ivan is the closest in length to the French source. The Old West Norse Ívens saga is written in prose and could be categorised as one of the shorter versions. The diversity of interpretations of the female characters in these different texts illustrate the complexity and malleability of Chrétien’s source at the same time as it helps us understand the motivations behind each of the rewritings. While Herr Ivan laid the groundwork for courtly literature in Sweden, Hartmann von Aue played a crucial role in the establishment of the German Arthurian tradition.7 Hartmann’s first Arthurian romance Erec is only preserved in one manuscript and a few fragments, whereas Iwein has survived in fifteen complete manuscripts and seventeen fragments.8 Despite interesting parallels between the Swedish and German texts, it is highly improbable that the Swedish translator used Iwein as a source.9 The first trace of Le Chevalier au lion in Scandinavia is in the Old West Norse prose translation Ívens saga, written at the behest of Hákon Hákonarson in the middle of the thirteenth century.10 It is preserved in fifteen later Icelandic copies, three of which are particularly important philologically.11 It has been argued that the translation was composed by 7

He has long been considered the author responsible for bringing Arthurian material into the German literary tradition, but this has been nuanced after the discovery of the Zwettl fragments. See Cyril Edwards, ‘Introduction’, in German Romance, vol. 3, Iwein, ed. Cyril Edwards (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007), pp. xiv–xv. 8 Edwards, ‘Introduction’, p. xxi. 9 Lodén, Le chevalier courtois, pp. 42–45. 10 For a close comparison between Chrétien’s romance and the Old Norse translation, see Hanna Steinunn Thorleifsdóttir, La traduction norroise du Chevalier au lion (Yvain) de Chrétien de Troyes et ses copies islandaises (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1996), and ‘Dialogue in the Icelandic copies of Ívens saga’, in Übersetzen im skandinavischen Mittelalter, ed. Vera Johanterwage and Stefanie Würth (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2007), pp. 167–76. Moreover, Sif Rikhardsdottir has explored the Old Norse text in relation to both the French source and the Middle English version, in Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse, pp. 76–112. 11 Marianne Kalinke draws attention to the role of the most recent of these manuscripts, dated to 1690, the paper manuscript known as Ormsbók: ‘On the basis of evidence from the paper manuscript, we can postulate an original Ívens saga that transmitted the content of the French romance at once more accurately and in greater detail. Both vellums are corrupt and condensed redactions of the translation, as is the paper manuscript. Nonetheless, despite extensive reduction in the seventeenth-century recension, the paper manuscript transmits material from the translation that scribal editing has excised in the vellums.’ See Kalinke, King Arthur, North-by-Northwest, p. 68.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Brother Robert, who also wrote the translation of Tristan et Yseut, known as Tristrams saga. As discussed in the introduction, it was Norway’s Queen Eufemia who ordered the translation of the romance into Old Swedish and the result, Herr Ivan, is dated to 1303 and preserved in six manuscripts from the fifteenth century.12 Several scholars have discussed the question of the sources of the Swedish text: was it translated from the Old West Norse saga, the French romance or both? In my previous work, I have argued that the translator did, indeed, have access to both sources, but that the French text was the main source, whereas the saga served as an additional resource for the translation process.13 Many Middle English romances go back to Old French sources, but only two are based on Chrétien de Troyes, namely Ywain and Gawain, a translation of Le Chevalier au lion, and Sir Perceval of Galles, based on Le Conte du Graal.14 Like Herr Ivan, Ywain and Gawain was written in the first half of the fourteenth century and it survives in one single copy preserved in the British Library. The similar dating of the Old Swedish and Middle English translations of Le Chevalier au lion is significant, since it reflects a broader European interest in the tale at the time of their composition. In an article on the Middle English adaptations of Chrétien’s work, Keith Busby notes that both Ywain and Gawain and Sir Perceval of Galles differ considerably from the classic examples of Old French romance, suggesting ‘that they may be termed epic romances, since they embody many of the features characteristic of the epic whilst retaining a basic affiliation to the romance’.15 Busby points to a number of elements that are reworked in the Middle English versions, including the role of men and women, and argues that the texts are adapted to what resembles a more male-oriented society: ‘This is particularly visible in a general switch of attention from women to men and a reduction in the submissiveness of men to women’.16 In the following, I will examine whether there was a similar move in the Old Swedish text. Busby’s conclusions about the Middle English texts’ generic hybridity sets the scene for a broader understanding of how the Old French romance was adapted to diverse cultural and historical contexts, at the same time as highlighting the difficulty of applying set generic terms, such as romance, to medieval translations considered in a wider European context.

12

See Introduction for a more detailed description of these manuscripts. Lodén, Le chevalier courtois. 14 For an analysis of these two Middle English romances and their links to Chrétien’s romances, see Keith Busby, ‘Chrétien de Troyes English’d’, Neophilologus 71 (1987), 596–613. 15 Busby, ‘Chrétien de Troyes English’d’, p. 611. 16 Busby, ‘Chrétien de Troyes English’d’, p. 603. 13

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion

Mes de duel feire estoit si fole: Laudine, Emotions and Knightly Honour The lady Laudine is a complex character in Chrétien’s romance. Her decision at last to marry the man who killed her husband is treated with apparent irony by Chrétien, who describes her anguish and change of mind in detail as she considers the possibility, whilst omitting any explicit judgement. Her character is firmly associated with the expression of strong emotions. In what follows, I will examine how the translators and adaptors handle this character, who is subjected to many varied interpretations, and I will also consider in what ways she is particularly remarkable in the narrative of Herr Ivan. Before looking more closely at Laudine’s emotions, however, her name deserves separate attention. In Chrétien’s romance, the lady is referred to as either ‘la dame de Landuc’ or ‘Laudine’, depending on the particular manuscript version. The name ‘Laudine’ appears only once, in three specific manuscripts, while it actually never appears in the other manuscripts, in which one only finds references to ‘la dame de Landuc’.17 It is when the lady marries Yvain that her name appears in the three French manuscripts: Veant toz ses barons se done La dame a monseignor Yvain. Par la main d’un suen chapelain Prise a Laudine, de Landuc La dame, qui fu fille au duc Laududez, dom note un lai (vv. 2150–55) (In the presence of all her barons the lady gave herself to my lord Yvain. By the hand of one of her chaplains he took Laudine, the lady of Landuc and daughter of Duke Laudunet, of whom they sing a lay.)

The absence of the name in the majority of the French manuscripts have given rise to considerable scholarly discussion: was Chrétien the first to use this name or was it a later copist? In Chrétien’s four other romances, the principal heroines are named: Énide, Fenice, Guènièvre and Blancheflor. Even though the well-known ‘Copie de Guiot’ does not contain the name, scholars have claimed that ‘la dame de Landuc’ should be corrected to ‘Laudine de Landuc’, as in the passage quoted above, arguing that Chrétien himself most likely used the name and that the absence of it consitutes a scribal error.18 However, in a recent edition of Le Chevalier au lion, Corinne Pierreville has stated her opposition to 17

These three manuscripts are: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1450; Princeton, University Library, Garrett 125; Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reginensi Latini 1725. 18 Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier au lion, ed. Uitti, p. 1188. See also Brian

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture this editorial practice, considering it more likely that Chrétien did not use the name. According to her, the fact that the lady remains unnamed highlights the distance between her and the other characters surrounding her, in particular Lunete, whose name appears frequently and who remains socially inferior.19 Pierreville further argues that it adds to the mysterious aspects of the lady’s character – a character about whom Chrétien tells us very little on the whole. One may, however, wonder whether one single instance of the name could really remove much of this mystery.20 More interesting in this context is the role of the lady’s name in the wider European context. The name Laudine is transmitted in Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein: ‘Frou Laudîne hiez sîn wîp’ (v. 2417) (Lady Laudine his wife was called), and it is even used several times.21 In the Middle English translation, it is used only once, at the same moment as in the three French manuscripts: ‘Thare wedded Ywaine in plevyne / The riche lady Alundyne’ (vv. 1253–54) (Ywain married the rich lady Alundyne).22 It has been suggested that the Middle English ‘Alundyne’ is a mistake by the translator, who would have understood the French ‘a Laudine’ as one word.23 This is not the case in the two Nordic texts, in which the lady remains unnamed. This can probably be explained by the translators having used a French manuscript that did not contain the name. If we follow Pierreville’s hypothesis, this anonymity would contribute to the mysterious aspect

19

20

21 22

23

Woledge, Commentaire sur Yvain (Le Chevalier au lion) de Chrétien de Troyes, t. 1 (Genève: Droz, 1986), p. 136. Le Chevalier au lion, ed. Corinne Pierreville (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016), p. 57. Pierreville draws attention to the fact that the three manuscripts that actually contain the name are dated to after 1250, whereas the manuscript Annonay, which is the oldest, does not contain it. See Vanessa Obry, ‘“Celui qui le jaiant ocist”. Réflexions sur le nom et ses substituts dans le Chevalier au lion’, in “Chose qui face a escouter”: études sur le Chevalier au lion de Chrétien de Troyes, Actes de la journée d’étude organisée 9 décembre 2017 par l’Université Paris-Diderot Paris 7 et l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, ed. Amandine Mussou, Anne Paupert and Michelle Szkilnik (2017), pp. 51–62 (p. 51), available at: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/publicationsde-la-silc-section-%20francaise--393070.kjsp?RH=1329834238527 [accessed 18 April 2020]. The quotations and translations from Iwein follow German Romance, vol. 3, Iwein, ed. and trans. Cyril Edwards. The quotations from Ywain and Gawain follow Sir Perceval of Galles and Ywain and Gawain, ed. Mary Flowers Braswell (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995) and available online: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/ braswell-ywain-and-gawain. The translations follow the online translation, ed. George W. Tuma and Dinah Hazell: https://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/ romances/ywain_gawain_rev.html. See Albert B. Friedman and Norman T. Harrington, eds., Ywain and Gawain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 122.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion of her character. However, as the analysis will show, the absence of her name in the Nordic texts, and in the Swedish in particular, seems to serve more to underline her peripheral role in the narrative. Laudine enters the scene when she has just learnt of the death of her husband. Chrétien describes her appearance thus: Vint une des plus beles dames C’onques veïst riens terrïene. De si tres bele crestïene Ne fu onques plez ne parole; Mes de duel feire estoit si fole Qu’a po qu’ele ne s’ocioit A la foiee, si crioit Si haut com ele pooit plus, Et recheoit pasmee jus. Et quant ele estoit relevee, Ausi come fame desvee, Se comançoit a dessirer Et ses chevols a detirer; Ses mains detuert et ront ses dras, Si se repasme a chascun pas, Ne riens ne la puet conforter, Que son seignor en voit porter Devant li, en la biere, mort, Don ja ne cuide avoir confort; Por ce crioit a haute voiz (vv. 1144–63) ([…] there entered one of the most beautiful women ever seen by human eye – such an exceptionally beautiful lady has never before been reported or told of. But she was so crazed with grief that she was on the verge of killing herself. All at once she cried out as loudly as she could and fell down in a faint. When she was lifted back to her feet, she began clawing at herself and tearing out her hair like a madwomen; her hands grabbed and ripped her clothing and she fainted with every step. Nothing could comfort her, for she could see her lord dead in the coffin being carried in front of her. She felt she could never be comforted again, and so she cried out at the top of her voice.)

The French romance dwells upon Laudine’s despair and the passage continues further. However, even in these first few lines, we find evidence of an important difference in ideological focus between the French and the Swedish texts. The Swedish text says: þa kom þær gangande þe stolta frugha. Guþ haver eigh vænare alit giørt. For sorgh gat hon eigh talat ælla hørt; ømkelik þa varo hænna lat for sorgh ok iæmber ok mykin grat.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Førsta hon a likit sa i ovit fiol hon niþer ok la. Þe fruær hænne stoþo næræ loto vatn a hænne bæræ. Þæt førsta þe frua forsinnaþe sik hon ref sit har sva iæmerlik. Riddara ok svena hænne baþo: ’Vi viliom þæt alle Iþer raþa, fruor ok mør ok høviska qvinna, I latin Iþan grat i þætta sinne, sænden buþ æptir klærka gamal ok unga ok lætin for hans siæl læsæ ok siunga!’ (vv. 942–58) (Then the noble lady approached. Our Lord has not created a more beautiful face. For grief she was not able to speak or hear; the sounds she made were pitiable, caused by grief and lamentation and much weeping. As soon as she saw the corpse she fell down in a swoon. The ladies standing beside her had water brought to her. As soon as the lady recovered her senses she tore her hair most pitifully. Knights and squires entreated her: ‘All of us want to give you advice, ladies and maidens and noble women, stop your crying for the present, send for priests, old and young, and have Masses sung and read for his soul!’)

Even though both texts underline the lady’s beauty and describe how she, out of grief, tears out her hair and falls to the ground, only the French text refers to her screaming, as well as tearing off her clothes and behaving like she was fole (crazed). In the Swedish translation, there is no equivalent to fole and the lady’s grief remains rather more controlled: instead of screaming, she weeps and is unable to speak or hear. Moreover, she is given the advice from her knights to calm down – a piece of advice that is not referred to in the French text. If we look at the other versions of the scene, the advice given to the lady is unique to the Swedish text: it has no equivalent in the Old West Norse, Middle English, Middle High German or later French texts. Joseph M. Sullivan has argued that the segment in which Yvain arrives in Laudine’s realm and finally marries her reflects a clear rewriting of the exercise of power in Herr Ivan.24 According to Sullivan, the Swedish translator proposes ‘a section of narrative that works much more as a model of ideal government and rulership than had Chrétien’s original version’.25 He argues that Laudine’s restraint in her emotions reflects the translator’s ‘authorial agenda to educate his Swedish audience’.26 By eliminating the madness and lack of control in the lady’s behaviour, the translator has made her ‘especially capable of making an important 24

Sullivan, ‘Rewriting the Exercise of Power’. Sullivan, ‘Rewriting the Exercise of Power’, p. 32. 26 Sullivan, ‘Laudine’, p. 63. 25

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion political, state decision’, i.e. to choose a new husband and ruler over her realm.27 Sullivan sees this rewriting as an example of the didactic function of the Swedish text, showing its audience, the Swedish nobility, ‘how to live successfully in a feudalized world’.28 The saga also presents a similar rewriting: ‘en eptir líkinu gekk ein frú svá fögr, at í allri veröldu mátti eigi finnaz hennar nóti. Hún syrgði ok æpti sinn harm; stundum fell hún í óvit’ (p. 50) (and behind the body walked a woman so beautiful that nowhere in the world might one find her equal. She was mourning and moaned loudly in her grief).29 Like the Swedish text, the saga does not present the lady as fole: the lady does not tear her hair or her clothes, even though she does cry out. As shown by Sif Rikhardsdottir, there is a tendency in the saga ‘to reduce the depiction of the internal emotional realm of its characters’.30 However, the toneddown emotions should probably not be understood as representing a lesser interest in emotions as such, but rather as revealing an adaptation to a new political context. In her book on emotion in Old Norse literature, Rikhardsdottir has suggested that the rewriting of the lady’s emotions may be interpreted as a way to depoliticise the narrative: while the French Laudine would only perform her social duty when she displays her emotions in the open public space, acting according to feudal conventions in her role as the widow of a great lord, ‘this elaborate embodiment of the grief becomes redundant once the political context no longer applies’.31 Even though the performativity and vocalisation of the French lady’s sorrow has been removed in the saga, her grief is still there even though it has become internalised. The relative control the lady has over her emotions in the Nordic texts is contrasted by the Middle English translation’s version of events which, despite its condensed character, fully transmits the lady’s violent grief: A lady folowd white so mylk, In al that land was none swilk; Sho wrang hir fingers, outbrast the blode. For mekyl wa sho was nere wode. Hir fayre hare scho al todrogh, And ful oft fel sho down in swogh; Sho wepe with a ful dreri voice. (vv. 819–25) 27

Sullivan, ‘Laudine’, p. 52. Sullivan, ‘Laudine’, p. 63. 29 The quotations and translations from Ívens saga follow Norse Romance, vol. 2, Knights of the Round Table, ed. and trans. Marianne E. Kalinke (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999). 30 Sif Rikhardsdottir, Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse, p. 110. 31 Sif Rikhardsdottir, Emotion in Old Norse Literature, p. 43. See also Sif Rikhardsdottir, ‘Translating Emotion: Vocalisation and Embodiment in Yvain and Ívens saga’, in Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature, pp. 161–79. 28

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (A lady, white as milk followed, nearly mad with woe. She wrung her hands until they bled, pulled out her fair hair, wept, and often fell down in a swoon.)

It is particularly interesting to note that the notion of fole is retained in the Middle English text, with the verse ‘For mekyl wa sho was nere wode’. Hartmann von Aue’s version differs from the other texts, with a longer and more abstract description of the lady’s desperation: und nâch der bâre gienc ein wîp, daz er nie wîbes lîp alsô schœnen gesach. Vor jâmer sî zebrach ir hâr und diu cleider, wan ezn dorfte nie wîbe leider ze dirre werlde geschehn, wande sî muose tôten sehn den aller liebesten man, den wîp ze liebe ie gewan. Ezn möhte niemer dehein wîp gelegen an ir selber lîp von clage alselhe swære, der niht ernst wære. Ez erzeigten ir gebærde ir herzen beswærde an dem lîbe und an der stimme. Von ir jâmers grimme, sô viel sî ofte in unmaht – der liehte tac wart ir ein naht, und sô sî wider ûf gesach und wider gehôrte unde sprach, sô ne sparten ir die hende daz hâr noch daz gebende. (vv. 1303–26) (and after the bier walked a woman, whose person was such that he had never seen so beautiful a woman. Out of grief she tore her hair and her clothes, for never could worse befall a woman in this world, for she had to see, dead, the dearest man of all that any woman ever came to love. No woman could ever apply to her body such a burden out of grief unless she was in earnest. Her gestures revealed her heart’s sorrow in her person and in her voice. Because of her grief’s ferocity she often fell into a faint – the bright day became night to her, and when she looked up again, and could hear and speak again, then her hands did not spare her hair, nor her headdress.)

The lady is not explicitly said to be fole; nevertheless, Hartmann von Aue maintains the frenzied tone of her emotions, but contextualises them by offering more perspective through his referral to women in 56

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion general. Additionally, like in the Old Swedish text, he refers to Laudine’s momentary loss of capacity to speak and hear. By contrast, in Pierre Sala’s later French adaptation which, according to Pierre Servet, has an overall tendency to simplify and rationalise the narrative, the lady remains explicitly crazed.32 The text says: Aprés se corps venoit pleurant Et son visaige desirant La plus parfaicte et belle dame Que je vys onques, sus mon ame, Car je ne croys pas que Nature Formast oncq telle creature. Mais son deul estoit si visible Quë a le croyre n’est possible. Souvant pasmeë devenoit; Par les deux bras on l’amenoit; Choir se laissoit comme desvee Et quant elle estoit relevee, Si commensoit ses pleurs piteux, Gectans grosses larmes des yeulx Du grant deul quë ellë avoit. Quant son amy pourter en veoit Devant ellë en biere mort, Nul ne luy peult donner confort. (vv. 955–72)33 (after the body came – crying and with a desirous face – the most perfect and beautiful lady that I had ever seen in my life, for I do not think that Nature ever made such a creature. But her grief was so visible, that it was not possible to believe it. She fainted regularly; they lifted her up by her two arms and she let herself fall down as if she were mad. And when she had stood up, her pitiful crying started, with big tears that fell from her eyes, because of the great sorrow that she had experienced. When she saw her friend dead in the coffin being carried in front of her nobody could comfort her.)

However, even though Pierre Sala describes her as desvee when she faints and falls to the ground, he also omits the references – here at least – to her tearing of her hair and clothes and her screaming out loud. The lady’s grief is manifested by her tears rather than any violence towards herself, which underlines her role as a victim, unable to act. Later in the narrative, however, Sala also depicts the lady hurting herself (vv. 1139–42). Even though Chrétien’s depiction of Laudine makes her above all a victim of masculine violence, the following part of the narrative makes it Pierre Servet, ‘Introduction’, in Pierre Sala, Le Chevalier au lion, ed. Pierre Servet (Paris: Champion, 1996), pp. 24–39. 33 The quotations from Pierre Sala’s text follow Sala, Le Chevalier au lion. The translations are my own. 32

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture clear that it is her emotions that enable her to become an active agent, one who avenges her husband’s death: Bien a vangiee, et si nel set, La dame la mort son seignor. Vangence en a feite greignor Que ele panre n’an seüst, S’Amors vangiee ne l’eüst, Qui si dolcemant le requiert Que par les ialz el cuer le fiert; Et cist cos a plus grant duree Que cos de lance ne d’espee: Cos d’espee garist et sainne Mout tost, des que mires i painne; Et la plaie d’Amors anpire Quant ele est plus pres de son mire. Cele plaie a messire Yvains, Dom il ne sera ja mes sains, Qu’Amors s’est tote a lui randue (vv. 1364–79) (The lady, although she does not know it, has fully avenged the death of her husband: she has taken greater vengeance than she could ever have thought possible had Love herself not avenged her by striking Yvain such a gentle blow through the eyes into the heart. The effects of this blow are more enduring than those from lance or sword: a sword blow is healed and cured as soon as a doctor sees to it; but the wound of Love grows worse when it is nearest to its doctor. My lord Yvain has suffered this wound from which he’ll never be healed, for Love has completely overwhelmed him.)

Indeed, Yvain falls in love with Laudine from the first moment he sees her and is then wounded, as Chrétien tells us, not by a sword but by love. Thus, the lady’s grief has a strong manipulative role.34 It seems clear that the Swedish translator has rewritten the passage in which Yvain arrives in Laudine’s realm in order to adapt it to a new context. As Sullivan has shown, the Swedish Laudine is presented as a conscious political agent, who is able to control her emotions.35 When relating the Swedish text to the French romance however, it becomes apparent that Chrétien’s lady exerted great political influence too, only in a more subtle way by openly showing her strong emotions. As the passage above shows, Laudine’s tremendous grief in Chrétien’s text is not only a sign of a woman’s lack 34

For a discussion of the manipulative role of feminine grief, see Sofia Lodén, ‘The Weeping Lady in Arthurian Romance’, in Tears, Sighs and Laughter – Medieval Studies, ed. Per Förnegård, Erika Kihlman and Mia Åkestam (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2017), pp. 314–25. 35 Sullivan, ‘Laudine’.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion of reason and political influence, but also – and equally – an example of female power. Even if she is not aware of the direct consequences of her behaviour, it is nevertheless her grief that helps her to obtain what she desires: the avenging of her husband followed by the love and protection of his superior, finally resulting in a marriage between them. By depicting Laudine’s sorrow and the madness that it causes in detail, Chrétien presents an elegant example of how a noble lady’s suffering is bound to curse any knight. If we look at the different translations of the romance, the role of Laudine’s emotions is different in each case. None of the Old West Norse, the Middle English, the Old Swedish or the later French text says anything explicit about the revenge that the lady has taken against the knight. Only the Middle High German text transmits this motif: Ouch wart diu frouwe an im baz gerochen, danne ir wæere kunt, wan er was tôtlîchen wunt – die wunden sluoc der Minnen hant. Ez ist umbe ir wunden alsô gewant, sî wellent daz sî langer swer danne diu von swerte ode von sper, wan swer von wâfen wirt wunt, der wirt schiere gesunt, ist er sînen arzât bî – und wellent daz disiu wunde sî bî ir arzât der tôt und ein wahsendiu nôt. (vv. 1540–52) (Moreover, the lady was better avenged upon him than she knew, for he was mortally wounded – it was Love’s hand struck those wounds. The nature of her wounds is such that people maintain that they hurt longer than those made by sword or spear, for if a man is wounded by weapons he will rapidly regain his health, if he is close to his doctor – but they say that the wounds of love are death if the doctor is present, and growing anguish.)

Laudine’s revenge through her emotions indicates the particular significance of love in the different texts – for it is not only the lady herself whose role changes depending upon which text is under consideration; the same is also true of the knight’s love for her. In the French text, for example, the narrator describes how Yvain falls in love with her when secretly observing her lamenting her loss: Et messire Yvains est ancor A la fenestre ou il l’esgarde; Et quant il plus s’an done garde, Plus l’ainme, et plus li abelist.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Ce qu’ele plore et qu’ele list Volsist qu’ele lessié eüst Et qu’a lui parler li pleüst. An ce voloir l’a Amors mis Qui a la fenestre l’a pris (vv. 1418–26) (And my lord Yvain was still at the window observing her; and the more he watched her, the more he loved her and the more she pleased him. He wished that she would cease her weeping and her reading, and that it were possible for him to speak to her. Love, who had caught him at the window, filled him with this wish.)

When reading these verses, one may wonder whether the lady’s grief is actually a condition for the knight’s love. In Herr Ivan, the focus is shifted from love to more concrete chivalric values: Hærra Ivan ater til hænna sa, han þænkte mæþ sik ok saghþe sva, þa han sa hænna hvita kin: ‘Nu gave þæt Guþ at þu vare min! Matte iak þe fru valdugh væra, iak toke þæt for al væruldsins æra!’ (vv. 1079–84) (Sir Ivan observed her once more. He thought to himself and said, when he saw her white cheeks: ‘God give that you were mine! Were I to have power over the lady, I would consider it the world’s highest glory!’)

The lady’s tears no longer have any power over Ivan. The latter falls in love with her beauty and not her violent suffering. Indeed, it is in fact the knight who would like power over the lady and to possess her through marriage. It becomes apparent that the knight is not driven by love itself but rather by the idea of acquiring chivalric honour (æra) through marriage – which is what his chivalric quest is all about. When studying Herr Ivan on a stylistic level, one can see that the word æra is used abundantly throughout the text and that the notion binds together several themes, forming the ideological core of the translation.36 If we return to the scene in which Ivan observes the lady from the window, Ivan says that it would be a dishonour not to help her when she is weeping: ‘Hiælper iak eigh hænne, þæt ær mik skam!’ (v. 1036) (If I do not help her, it will be a disgrace to me!). The French romance does not contain a similar statement but is instead entirely occupied with the knight’s own emotional struggle, caused by his newly-found love for the lady. The Old West Norse and Middle English texts do not translate the passage in question, but the German text contains the following translation: 36

The central role of honour in Herr Ivan is studied in more detail in Lodén, Le chevalier courtois, pp. 226–47.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion Der herre Îwein saz verborgen in freuden und in sorgen: im schuof daz venster guot gemach, des er genôz daz er sî sach. Dâ wider forht er den tôt – sus heter wünne unde nôt. (vv. 1687–92) (Lord Iwein sat hidden in joys and in sorrows: the window brought good comfort to him – he benefited by it in that he could see her. On the other hand, he feared death – thus he endured both delight and anguish.)

Although love also plays a central role in the German text, the translator here tones down the suffering caused by it and presents it instead as a kind of joy (freuden), while the knight’s fear of imprisonment becomes the source of his suffering. By contrast, in Pierre Sala’s version, the narrator explicitly states that the knight felt no joy when watching the lady that he loved. Instead, he refers to Yvain’s fear of Lunete, who has asked him to stay hidden: Messire Yvein, qui ne dort pas, Ne prent pas se deuil pour esbat. Plus la voit, plus ly ranbelit, Més en ce n’a il nul delit, Car c’estoit pitié de la voir. Pour quoy soiez asseur pour voir Que s’il n’eust lors creint la pucelle, Qu’il s’en fust allé devers elle, A quel bout qu’en fust advenu. Més d’elle luy est souvenu. (vv. 1143–52) (My lord Yvain, who did not sleep, did not consider the sorrow as amusement. The more he watched her, the more she pleased him. But he did not have any pleasure in it, since it was painful to watch her. For that reason, be sure that if he had not feared the damsel [Lunete] he would have gone directly towards her [Laudine], no matter what the consequences. But he remembered her [Lunete].)

Later in the narrative, when Yvain and Laudine are married and Yvain realises that he has forgotten to return to Laudine after a year of chivalric adventures as he had promised, he is devastated when the lady’s messenger lets him know that the lady no longer wants him as her husband. Chrétien describes the knight’s reaction as follows: Et ses enuiz tot adés croist Que quanque il vit li angroist Et quanque il ot li enuie; Mis se voldroit estre a la fuie

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Toz seus en si salvage terre Que l’en ne le seüst ou querre, Ne nus hom ne fame ne fust Qui de lui noveles seüst Ne plus que s’il fust en abisme. Ne het tant rien con lui meïsme, Ne ne set a cui se confort De lui qui soi meïsme a mort. Mes ainz voldroit le san changier Que il ne se poïst vengier De lui qui joie s’a tolue. (vv. 2783–97) (And his anguish grew constantly, for everything he saw added to his grief and everything he heard troubled him; he wanted to flee entirely alone to a land so wild that no one could follow or find him, and where no man or woman alive could hear any more news of him than if he had gone to perdition. He hated nothing so much as himself and did not know whom to turn to for comfort now that he was the cause of his own death. But he would rather lose his mind than fail to take revenge upon himself, who had ruined his own happiness.)

The Swedish translator once again proposes an important rewriting of the passage: Hærra Ivan sara i hans hiærta sveþ; þæn riddare hiolt sik svo ømkelik; han vare þa hælder døþer æn qvik ok sva langt þæþan komin bort þæt ængin finge til hans sport, hvarte vin æller frænde, at ængin man honum kænde. Han haver nu mist al þæn æra þær han i væruldinne hafþe bæra ok þær til baþe vit ok sinne; slikt fanger man for stolta qvinnæ; þera hoghmoþ ær alt ofbald, þær þe giva þolik þiænista giald. (vv. 2168–80) (Sir Ivan’s heart ached grievously; the knight behaved quite pitifully. He would rather have been dead than alive and so far away from there that nobody would know his whereabouts, neither friend nor kinsman, and that nobody knew him. Now he has lost all the honour he had borne on earth and furthermore both his wits and mind. That is what happens because of haughty women; their arrogance is much too great, when they give such reward for service.)

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion from everyone whereas, in Herr Ivan, it is the shame that he feels that makes him want to flee the court. Then, just as Chrétien refers to Yvain’s loss of joy, the Swedish narrator speaks of Ivan’s lost honour, which is another example of the key role played by the notion of æra in the Swedish text. Furthermore, nothing is said in the Swedish text about the knight wanting to take revenge upon himself, similar to his French counterpart; instead, he is described as a victim of female arrogance, which is not the case in the French romance. Despite the close link between the Swedish text and the Old West Norse translation, the latter does not modify the French source in the same way: En hann angraðiz af harmi ok vildi nú þangat fara sem engi maðr þekti hann. Hataði hann þá ekki jafnmjök sem sjálfan sik ok fell þá á hann svá mikil æði, at hann vildi hefna á sjálfum sér, þvíat hann hefir nú týnt allri sinni huggan. (p. 68) (And he was distressed because of sorrow and now he wanted to go to a place where no one knew him. He now hated no one as much as himself and such a great madness now befell on him, that he wanted to take vengeance upon himself, since he had now lost all his comfort.)

Like the French Yvain, Íven is distressed because of sorrow rather than shame – he hates himself, wants to take revenge on himself and is not described as a victim. The Middle English text presents a similar version: Sir Ywayn, when he this gan here, Murned and made simpil chere; In sorrow than so was he stad, That nere for murning wex he mad. It was no mirth that him myght mend; At worth to noght ful wele he wend, For wa he es ful wil of wane. ‘Allas, I am myne owin bane; Allas,’ he sayd, ‘that I was born, Have I my leman thus forlorn, And al es for myne owen foly. Allas, this dole wil mak me dy.’ An evyl toke him als he stode; For wa he wex al wilde and wode. (vv. 1637–50)37 37

In an analysis of this passage, Corinne Saunders highlights how the Middle English translator retains the central connection between mind, body and affect in its description of the knight’s madness. See ‘Mind, Body and Affect in Medieval English Arthurian Romance’, in Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature, pp. 31–46 (pp. 37–38).

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (When Sir Ywain heard this, he was stricken with sorrow and nothing could stop his mourning, which nearly drove him mad. He had come to nothing and knew he had caused his own destruction: ‘Alas that I was born. I have lost my love on account of my own folly. I will die from this grief!’ An evil took him and he grew mad from his woe.)

Hartmann von Aue offers, once again, a longer translation of the passage, which contains echoes from various of the texts: Daz smæhen, daz frou Lûnet dem herren Îwein tet, daz gæhe wider chêren, der slac sîner êren, daz sî sô von im schiet, daz sî in entrôste nochn riet, daz smæhlîch ungemach, dazs im an sîne triuwe sprach, diu versûmde riuwe, und sîn grôzziu triuwe sîns stæten muotes, diu verlust des guotes, der jâmer nâch dem wîbe – die benâmen sînem lîbe vil gar die freude und den sin. Nâch einem dinge jâmert in – daz er wære ettewâ, daz man noch wîp enweste wâ, und niemer gehôrte mære, war er bechomen wære. Er verlôs sîn selbes hulde, wan ern mohte die schulde ûf niemen andern gesagen. In het sîn selbes swert erslagen. Ern hazte weder man noch wîp, niuwan sîn selbes lîp. (vv. 3195–220) (The scorn that Lady Lunet had bestowed upon Lord Iwein, the swift reversal, the blow to his honour – that she departed from him thus, not consoling him nor giving him any counsel – the shameful distress of her rebuking him for lack of loyalty – his delayed remorse – and the great loyalty of his constant mind, the loss of his property, his sorrow on account of his wife – they deprived him entirely of his joy and his mind. He longed, wretchedly, for one thing – that he might be in some place of which neither man nor woman knew the whereabouts, and that they would never hear tidings of where he had gone. He lost favour with himself, for he could not attribute the blame to anyone else. His own sword had slain him. He hated neither man nor woman, except his own self alone.)

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion The German narrator, like Chrétien, refers to the knight’s loss of joy and his self-hatred, but he additionally evokes the blow to Iwein’s honour (‘der slac sîner êren’), which mirrors what is said in Herr Ivan. Finally, in Pierre Sala’s version, the passage is rewritten considerably. The narrator tells us less of the knight’s emotional struggle and focuses on how he leaves the court: Messire Yvein la veult enquerre Et hastivement la suyvit, Quant ainsi despartir la veit, Més le pouvre homme, en courant Aprés elle, en ung monment Tumba en telle fantesie Qu’il s’en ensuyvit frenasie Si avant que le cas vint tel Qu’il passa oultre le chastel Ouquel le roy faisoit son estre. (vv. 2196–205) (Sir Yvain wanted to search for her and followed her hastily when he saw her leave. But the poor man, running after her, became so troubled in his mind that he was taken over by frenzy, which took him so far away that he passed the castle where the king was staying.)

Even though all versions describe how the knight leaves the court, Sala is the only one to refer to his departure as a means by which to follow the maiden. In this later rewriting, the knight thus appears more emotionally controlled than his twelfth-century model. It is only after a number of adventures that Yvain can finally be reconciled with his lady, once again through the help of Lunete. When, in Chrétien’s romance, the knight finally finds himself together with his lady after their separation, he addresses her as follows: Et dist: ‘Dame, misericorde Doit an de pecheor avoir. Conparé ai mon nonsavoir, Et je le voel bien conparer. Folie me fist demorer, Si m’an rant corpable et forfet, Et mout grant hardemant ai fet Qant devant vos osai venir; Mes s’or me volez retenir, Ja mes ne vos forferai rien.’ (vv. 6782–91)

(‘My lady,’ he said, ‘one should have mercy on a sinner. I have paid dearly for my foolishness, and I am glad to have paid. Folly caused me to stay away, and I acknowledge my guilt and wrong. I’ve been very bold

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture to dare to come before you now, but if you will take me back, I’ll never do you wrong again.’) In Pierre Sala’s version, the passage is shortened. The narrator no longer refers to the foolishness in the past but only looks forward: Disant: ‘Puy qu’il vous plait d’avoir Pitié de moy, vuillez sçavoir, Ma chiere dame et tant aymee, Que dés or més, de corps et d’ame Vous obeÿrey sans reprouche.’ (vv. 4248–52) (Saying: ‘Since it pleases you to have pity on me, please do know, my dear and much beloved lady, that from now on, I, body and soul, will obey you beyond reproach.’)

In Hartmann von Aue’s version, the narrator does not refer to the knight’s folly, but dwells upon his regret and the importance of forgiveness: ‘Frouwe, ich hân missetân. Zwâre daz riuwet mich. Ouch ist daz gewonlich, daz man dem schuldigen man, swie swære schulde er ie gewan, nâch riuwe schulde vergebe, und daz er in der buozze lebe, daz erz niemer mêr getuo. Nû ne hœret anders niht dazuo, wan chum ich nû ze hulden, sî ne wirt von mînen schulden niemer mêre verlorn.’ (vv. 8170–81) (‘Lady, I have done wrong. Truly, that grieves me. Moreover, it is customary that the guilty man, no matter how great the guilt he has ever incurred, be forgiven for his guilt after he has shown contrition, and that he should live in such a state of atonement that he will never do it again. Only one thing remains to be settled now: if I now find favour with you, it will never again be lost by my doing.’)

In her study of the Old West Norse and Middle English renderings of Chrétien, Rikhardsdottir argues that the French romance insists on Yvain’s ‘internal maturation’ since he parted from Laudine, while the two other texts focus on his failure of being true to his word.38 As an example, Rickhardsdottir quotes the Middle English translation of the knight’s speech:

38

Sif Rikhardsdottir, Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse, pp. 104–05.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion ‘Madame,’ he said, ‘I have miswroght, And that I have ful dere boght. Grete foly I did, the soth to say, When that I past my terme-day; And, sertes, wha so had so bityd, Thai sold have done right als I dyd. Bot I sal never thorgh Goddes grace At mi might do more trispase; And what man so wil mercy crave, By Goddes law he sal it have.’ (vv. 3995–4004) (‘Madam, I have done wrong and paid dearly for it, as I should have. Truly, it was great folly to stay away past my term day, but I shall never, through God’s grace, do more wrong. And the man who craves mercy shall have it, by God’s law.’)

She also quotes the saga: ‘þá mælti hann: “Frú, miskunn beiðaz misverkar. Ek hefi dýrt keypt heimsku mína ok óvizku, því gef ek mik sekjan yðr í vald. Ok ef þú vill nú taka við mér, þá skal ek aldri optar misgera við þik.”’ (p. 98) (he spoke: ‘My lady, my misdeeds plead for your mercy. I have dearly bought my foolishness and thoughtlessness, and thus I place myself a guilty man in your hands. And if you will now accept me, I shall never again wrong you.’) According to Rikhardsdottir, Chrétien’s interest in the psychology of the individual is replaced by ‘generalised traits of gendered and socially prescribed behavioural patterns’.39 This is a transformation that goes well together with the project of Europeanisation that I consider to be the context for these texts. Let us finally look at the speech in the Swedish translation, which presents a rather different interpretation of the knight’s begging: ‘Guþ þakke Iþer, frugha,’ saghþe han, ‘hvat iak haver brutiþ i þænna staþ, þær haver iak fangit for et baþ! Guþ late mik liva mæþan iak ma ok aldrigh optare gøra sva; iak vil nu Iþra æro gøma ok aldrigh mik sva sara forgløma.’ (vv. 6390–96) (‘May God reward you, M’lady,’ he said, ‘ whatever misdeed I have done, I have paid for with hardship! God let me live, however long, never to act like that again. I shall now protect your honor and never again transgress.’)

There is no reference to any regret or foolishness in the Swedish text – Ivan’s fault has been paid for and all now seems to be well. As so often, the religious focus is strong: God, and not the lady, will be the final judge 39

Sif Rikhardsdottir, Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse, p. 106.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (‘Guþ late mik liva mæþan iak ma’). The Swedish translation also adds a new reference to honour – this time to the lady’s honour, which the knight promises to defend (‘iak vil nu Iþra æro gøma’). No other of the quoted versions refer to the defence of honour at this specific point, even though the lady’s need of masculine protection is obvious in all texts.

Con fist que preuz et deboneire: The She-Lion We have seen how the complex portrait of Laudine in Chrétien’s romance prompts various interpretations, resembling what Jane Taylor refers to as ‘textual management’.40 The translators have in one way or another, and to different degrees, chosen to present the lady as a more easily defined character; indeed the Swedish Laudine, emotionally controlled and the key to the knight’s honour, is a very good example of this. Another equally complex character in the romance is the lion and, as we shall see, it needs to be understood in relation to the question of female characters more generally, especially Laudine. Tony Hunt, who has compared Chrétien’s treatment of the lion to that in other versions of the romance, argues that ‘Chrestien’s handling of the episode is both more versatile and more comprehensive than that of the foreign redactors, whose treatment of detail is liable to be haphazard.’41 In a study of the lion in the Welsh, French and English versions of the tale, Juliette de Caluwé-Dor concludes that the different functions of the animal depend ‘on the fundamental theme of the work’.42 The fact that the lion has interested many medieval translators requires us to interrogate the cultural context that led to the lion being so commonly depicted in heraldry and literature across the whole of medieval Europe.43 When Yvain discovers the lion that is being attacked by a snake, he quickly decides to kill the snake and cut off the part of the lion’s tail that the snake is holding, thus saving the lion. Yvain believes that the lion might then attack him, but on the contrary, it submits to him and he becomes the Knight of the Lion.44 The French romance describes the scene as follows: Rewriting Arthurian Romance in Renaissance France, p. 6. Tony Hunt, ‘The Lion and Yvain’, in The Legend of Arthur in the Middle Ages: Studies presented to A. H. Diverres by colleagues, pupils and friends, ed. P. B. Grout, R. A. Lodge, C. E. Pickford and E. K. C. Varty (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983), pp. 86–98 (p. 89). 42 Juliette de Caluwé-Dor, ‘Yvain’s Lion Again: A Comparative Analysis of its Personality and Function in the Welsh, French and English Versions’, in An Arthurian Tapestry in Memory of Lewis Thorpe, pp. 229–38 (p. 236). 43 This is developed by the French historian Michel Pastoureau, Une histoire symbolique du Moyen Âge occidental (Paris: Seuil, 2004), pp. 53–54. 44 The role of the lion in the French text has received much scholarly attention. See, for example, Peter Haidu, Lion-queue-coupée: L’écart symbolique chez 40 Taylor, 41

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion Öez que fist li lyons donques, Con fist que preuz et deboneire, Com il li comança a feire Sanblant que a lui se randoit, Que ses piez joinz li estandoit Et vers terre encline sa chiere; Si s’estut sor ses piez derriere Et puis si se ragenoilloit, Et tote sa face moilloit De lermes, par humilité. Messire Yvains, por verité, Set que li lyons le mercie Et que devant lui s’umilie Por le serpant que il a mort Et lui delivré de la mort; Si li plest mout ceste aventure. (vv. 3394–409) (Listen to how nobly and splendidly the lion acted: it stood up upon its hind paws, bowed its head, joined its forepaws and extended them towards Yvain, in an act of total submission. Then it knelt down and its whole face was bathed in tears of humility. My lord Yvain recognized clearly that the lion was thanking him and submitting to him because, in slaying the dragon, he had delivered it from death; these actions pleased him greatly.)

In the Old Swedish text, the knight also saves the lion and the latter submits to him. Nevertheless, the translator modifies several details that, when taken together, reveal a new interpretation of the passage, involving Laudine:   Þæt førsta leonit þætta sa at drakin døþ for hænne la, þa gik hon for hærra Ivan liggia sum hon vilde naþer af honum þiggia ok teknar honum þæt bæzta hon ma ræt sum hon vilde sighia sva: ‘Þæt later iak Iþer, min hærra, høra, hvat I mik biuþin þæt skal iak gøra.’ [...] hafþe han eigh hænne skilt viþ þe nøþ, þa vare leonit genast døþ. Þæt leonit var af dyghþ sva goþ; þa hærra Ivan þæt forstoþ at hon vilde honum þiana

Chrétien de Troyes (Geneva: Droz, 1972) and Jean Dufournet, ‘Le lion d’Yvain’, in Le Chevalier au lion de Chrétien de Troyes: Approches d’un chef-d’œuvre, ed. Jean Dufournet (Paris: Champion, 1988), pp. 77–104.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture for þe hiælp han giorþe viþ hana, þa þotte honum þæt vara væl at han slo þæn ormin i hæl. (vv. 2723–44) (As soon as the lion saw that the dragon lay dead before it, it [‘hon’] went to lie down before Sir Ivan, as if it wanted to beg him for mercy, and beckons to him as best it can, just as if it wanted to say: ‘I want to tell you, M’lord, whatever you bid me, I shall do.’ […] Had he not rescued it from that danger, the lion would have died at once. The lion was so gentle in disposition. When Sir Ivan understood that it [‘hon’] wanted to serve him because of the help he gave it, he thought it was a good thing that he had killed the serpent.)

The fact that the lion is considered as hon (she) is surprising.45 The Old Swedish noun leon (lion) is normally neutral or masculine, whereas leena (lioness), not used in Herr Ivan, is the feminine form. Ivan’s lion therefore seems to be somewhere in between the masculine and the feminine – it is a she, but without her being a lioness. Jean Frappier has argued that there is a parallel between Chrétien’s lion and the character Énide, ‘la plus dévouée, la plus touchante des héroïnes de Chrétien’, from his first romance Érec et Énide.46 This parallel has been discussed further by Jean Dufournet.47 Similarly, according to Francis Dubost, the cutting of the lion’s tail expresses the domestication and feminisation of the animal.48 When looking at the Swedish text, it seems as though the translator wanted to communicate a similar interpretation. William Layher has raised the possibility that the Swedish lion ‘was meant to be understood as a female’,49 and this hypothesis becomes all the more convincing when comparing the text to its French source. For example, when looking at the lion’s behaviour when it delivers its implied speech it is notable that, while Chrétien describes how the animal extends its paws and puts its head to the ground, the Swedish lion is anthropomorphised – this is also the case in the French romance, but the Swedish texts seems to go one step further. The relationship between the knight and the animal, moreover, is coloured by a courtly and feudal vocabulary through the address of ‘min hærra’ (my Lord) and the information ‘at hon vilde honum þiana’ (that she wanted to serve him). This role of the lion in the Old Swedish text is markedly different from its counterpart in the other versions. Despite the close link between the See the word leon in Söderwall’s dictionary of Old Swedish, Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket. 46 Frappier, Étude sur Yvain, p. 216. 47 Dufournet, ‘Le lion d’Yvain’, pp. 91–95. 48 Francis Dubost, ‘Le Chevalier au Lion: une ‘conjointure’ signifiante’, Le Moyen Age, 90 (1984), 195–222. 49 Layher, Queenship and Voice, p. 133. 45

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion Nordic texts, the animal in the saga is neither referred to as ‘she’ nor given an implied speech, even though the narrator does refer to its tears: En leó snýr þegar upp á sér maganum ok skreið at honum sem hann vildi biðja sér friðar með tárum, ok gaf sik svá í vald herra Íven. En hann tók því glaðliga ok þakkaði guði, er hann hafði sent honum þvílíka fylgð. (p. 72) (But the lion immediately turned its belly up and crawled toward him as though it wanted to ask for peace with its tears, and thus it surrendered to Sir Íven. And he accepted this gladly and thanked God for having sent him such a companion.)

In the Middle English text, the narrator specifies that the lion could not speak, which underlines its primary status as an animal, and the relationship between the knight and his lion is given a considerably different nature, one diametrically different from that in the Old Swedish text: Bot the lyoun wald noght fyght. Grete fawnyng made he to the knyght. Down on the grund he set him oft, His fortherfete he held oloft, And thanked the knyght als he kowth, Al if he myght noght speke with mowth; So wele the lyon of him lete, Ful law he lay and likked his fete. When Syr Ywayne that sight gan se, Of the beste him thoght peté, And on his wai forth gan he ride; The lyown folowd by hys syde. In the forest al that day The lyoun mekely foloud ay, And never for wele ne for wa Wald he part Sir Ywayn fra. (vv. 2001–16) (but instead of fighting the lion sat fawning on the ground, raised up his front paws, and thanked the knight as best he could without being able to speak. He was so appreciative that he lay down low and licked the knight’s feet. Sir Ywain pitied the lion and began to ride on his way; the lion meekly followed by his side in the forest all day and never would be parted from the knight, for good or ill.)

Thus, whereas the other texts speak of the knight’s excitement when the lion submits to him, the Middle English text describes how it is the knight’s pity that makes them companions. 71

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture In the Middle High German Iwein, meanwhile, the lion is said to communicate without speaking, albeit with a voice, a state which seems to contradict itself: daz wart im anders chunt getân – sich bôt der leu ûf sînen fuoz, und zeiget im unsprechenden gruoz mit gebærden und mit stimme, âne allerslahte grimme, und erzeigte im sîne minne, als er von sînem sinne aller beste mohte, und einem tiere tohte. Er antwurte sich in sîne pflege, wander in sît alle wege mit sînem dienst êrte, und volget im swar er chêrte. (vv. 3862–74) (He was taught a different lesson – the lion lay down at his feet and greeted him, without speaking, by gestures and with a voice entirely without ferocity, and manifested its love for him, as it thought it might best do, and as beseemed a beast. It surrendered itself into his care, for afterwards it honoured him at all times by its service, and followed him wherever he went.)

Despite the fact that the narrator refers to the lion’s voice and the love it felt for Iwein, it is referred to as an animal (tiere), which reduces the anthropomorphisation that is so prominent in the French romance. As shown by Pierre Servet, Pierre Sala insists on the Christian nature of the scene by, for example, adding the verses ‘Ainsi que nous dit l’Escripture, / Serpent est de malice plein’ (v. 2744–45) (As the Scriptures tell us, the serpent is full of evil), which specify the reason why the knight decides to help the lion and not the snake.50 Servet also discusses how Sala pares back the lion’s marvellous character.51 If we look at his rendering of the passage quoted above, we can immediately see a number of verses borrowed from Chrétien: Or escoutés qu’il fit adoncques Comme gentil et debonnaire: Il se myt par terre pour fere Semblant quë a luy il se rend Et sa pacte destre luy tend Et beyssa devant luy sa chiere. Puys s’assist sus ses piedz derriere Et aprés envers se voultra 50 51

Servet, ‘Introduction’, p. 58. Servet, ‘Introduction’, p. 58, p. 68.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion Et son(t) humilité monstra. Messire Yvein, en verité, Voyant cest humilité, Connoist que le lÿon s’alie A luy, quant ainsi s’umylie, Pour le serpent qu’il avoit mort, Qui sa cuhu avoit ainsi mort. Sy ly plait moul ceste aventure. (vv. 2770–85) (Listen now to what it did then, nobly and splendidly: it stood on the ground in order to make it seem as though it submitted itself to him: it extended its right paw and bowed its head. After that it sat down on its back paws and then rolled down on its back, showing its submission. My lord Yvain, seeing this submission, understood that the lion became his allied when it acted like that, because he had killed the snake, by cutting its tail. This event pleased him greatly.)

Nevertheless, despite many similarities, it is important to note that Sala’s lion does not extend its two forepaws towards Yvain as it does in Chrétien’s text, nor does it kneel down or cover its face with tears; it extends only its right paw and shows its submission by rolling on the ground. As Servet has argued, the lion appears far less human throughout Sala’s version.52 As the narrative continues in each text, so too do the different interpretations of the lion. Shortly after Yvain has found the animal, for example, he finds himself in front of the fountain where his adventures started and thanks to which he married Laudine. He is devastated when reminded of his loss and goes mad with sorrow for a second time. When he then faints, his sword slips and injures him in the neck. The lion believes him to be dead and tries to kill itself, but Yvain wakes up just in time. The passage evokes the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe and Francis Dubost has argued that it is characterised by the feminisation of the lion, which suffers immensely and even wants to kill itself when it sees Yvain’s distress, taking on the role of the ‘amie désesprérée’.53 In the French romance, Yvain reacts as follows when he realises how the lion has suffered for his sake: Donc n’ai je ce lyon veü Qui por moi a si grant duel fet Qu’il se volt m’espee antreset Parmi le cors el piz boter? Et je doi la mort redoter Qui ai ma joie a duel changiee? (vv. 3548–53) 52

53

Servet, ‘Introduction’, p. 68. Dubost, ‘Le Chevalier au Lion’, p. 220.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (Have I not observed this lion so disconsolate just now on my behalf that it was determined to run my sword through its breast? And so should I, whose joy has changed to grief, fear death?)

The Swedish translation lessens the force of the knight’s emotions, instead accentuating those of the lion: Þæt ær nu min mæsta kæra þæn harm þær leonit for mik bæra, iak vilde hælder vara døþ æn se a hænne þolika nøþ. (vv. 2873–76) (My greatest concern is now the sorrow the lion feels for me; I would sooner be dead than see it suffer so.)

While the focus in the French romance is on Yvain’s loss of joy through love, the Swedish translator switches the focus, stating that the knight’s greatest misfortune is the lion’s sorrow. The lion has thus become the knight’s true amie. The passage in question is not translated in the Old West Norse saga, but it is transmitted in the Middle English text, which is closer to Chrétien than to the Old Swedish version: I saw this wild beste was ful bayn For my luf himself have slayne. Than sold I, sertes, by more right Sla my self for swilk a wyght That I have for my foly lorn. Allas the while that I was born! (vv. 2097–102) (If this wild beast was ready to kill himself for my love, then certainly by more right I should slay myself for such a person that I have lost through my folly. I rue the day that I was born!)

Hartmann von Aue is also closer to Chrétien’s version than to that of the Old Swedish text: Nû gît mir doch des bilde dirre leu wilde, daz er vor herzeleide sich wolde erstechen durch mich, daz rehtiu triuwe nâhen gât – sît mir mîn selbes missetât miner frouwen hulde, und dehein ir schulde, âne allerslahte nôt verlôs, und weinen für daz lachen chôs. (vv. 3993–4002)

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion (Now, indeed, this wild lion shows me by its example, in that, out of heart’s sorrow, it desired to stab itself for my sake, that true loyalty runs deep – since it was my own misdeed lost me my lady’s favour, and no fault of hers, there being no necessity for it at all – and I chose weeping instead of laughter.)

The epithet ‘wild’ (wilde) reflects the view of the lion as an animal, making it distinct from the knight. The entirety of the passage that describes Yvain’s return from the fountain is considerably shorter in Pierre Sala’s version, in which the lion, as we have already seen, is considered as an animal above all: Ung lïon c’est bien volu mectre A mort pour amour de son mestre Et je, qui m’amye ay perdue, Que tardé je que ne me tue? (vv. 2927–30) (A lion wished to kill itself for the love of its master. And I, who have lost my love, why do I wait to kill myself?)

Even though Sala’s animal is desperate and wishes to kill itself, just as in Chrétien’s text, the references to ‘ung lïon’ and ‘son mestre’ evoke a rather more impersonal and emotionally distant relationship.

Qui li vialt conpaignie feire: Lunete, Love and Comfort When Yvain has killed Laudine’s husband Esclados, it is the maiden Lunete that hides him in Laudine’s castle. As we have seen above, the different versions discussed here all describe the lady’s sorrow for her dead husband, at the same time as ascribing different roles to both the emotions that the lady expresses and the lady herself. The maiden’s role as an ambassador between Yvain and Laudine and as the lady’s counsellor is interesting, since it makes her an active character with power. However, Lunete is not only a counsellor and ambassador, but also her lady’s closest friend. The portrait of the female friendship between Laudine and Lunete stands out as unique in the romance tradition. As stated by Amy Brown, ‘Le Chevalier au Lion, in particular, engages with female friendship not as a constrained form of resistance but as an integrated part of the system of alliances that operated between noble powerbrokers.’54 In the Swedish context, the powerful maiden may 54

Amy Brown, ‘Female Homosociality and the Marriage Plot: Women and Marriage Negotiation in Cligès and Le Chevalier au Lion’, Parergon 33/1 (2016), 49–68 (p. 67).

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture remind us of the women behind the literary scene – in particular, Queen Eufemia, Märta and Elin (see Introduction). At the same time as the lady’s grief has a certain manipulative role in the French romance, the French Lunete manipulates her lady. Joseph M. Sullivan, who has studied the maiden’s role in the French and German texts in relation to the nature of counsel, argues that ‘counsel, in both its private and public forms, becomes singularly positive’ in Hartmann’s version, whereas Chrétien tends rather to problematise it.55 In other words, one can reasonably claim that the manipulative aspects of Lunete’s behaviour are adapted in translation. This is also the case for the Swedish text. When compared to the other versions, Herr Ivan presents in several respects a different interpretation of Lunete. When Lunete has hidden the knight at the lady’s castle, Chrétien describes how she at one point comes back to him and finds him looking out of the window: Mes la dameisele repeire, Qui li vialt conpaignie feire, Et solacier et deporter, Et porchacier et aporter Quanque il voldra a devise. De l’amor qui en lui s’est mise Le trova trespansé et vain; Si li a dit: Messire Yvain, Quel siegle avez vos puis eü? – Tel, fet il, qui mout m’a pleü. (vv. 1543–52) (The damsel, who wished only to keep him company, soon returned to comfort and cheer him and to seek and bring him whatever he desired. She found him obsessed and weak from the love that had entered him. ‘My lord Yvain,’ she said to him, ‘what sort of a time have you had today?’ ‘Such,’ he replied, ‘as greatly pleased me.’)

As we learn from what follows, Yvain’s response refers to his having fallen in love with Laudine. If we look at how this opening of the dialogue between the two characters is rendered in Herr Ivan, it seems as though the translator has confused the lady with her maiden, since Ivan, in his response to Luneta, hints that he loves her as well: Þe iomfru þær han hafþe kær hon kom þa ater gangande þær ok sa hærra Ivan mykit syrghia. 55

Joseph M. Sullivan, ‘The Lady Lunete: Literary Conventions of Counsel and the Criticism of Counsel in Chrétien’s Yvain and Hartmann’s Iwein’, Neophilologus 85 (2001), 335–54 (p. 335).

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion Þa vilde hon honum þær at spyria: ’Hvat ær Iþer nu til qviþo, for hvi ærin I nu sva obliþe?’ Hærra Ivan svaraþe þæn iomfru rik: ’Þæt sæghir iak Iþer sanlik, førsta tima iak Iþer ser min sorgh forgar, mit hiærta ler.’ (vv. 1121–30) (The maiden who held him dear then came back there and saw Sir Ivan deeply grieving. Hence she wanted to ask him: ‘What is now your sorrow, why are you now grieving so?’ Sir Ivan answered the noble maiden: ‘I tell you the truth: as soon as I see you, my distress disappears, my heart smiles.’)

Even though Ivan subsequently tells the maiden about his wish to marry Laudine, the fact that his heart smiles when he sees the maiden is revealing; it seems to reflect the limited role that the translator actually assigned to the knight’s love for Laudine. When looking at Chrétien’s version of the passage, there is also evidence of a similar ambiguity: the maiden is referred to as the one who wishes to please the knight. I shall return below to the Swedish text’s recasting and development of this motif. If we look at the other versions, the knight’s feelings for Lunete are perhaps most marked in the Swedish text. First, it should be noted that it does not derive from the saga, which remains closer to Chrétien: Í þessu kemr jungfrúin sú gangandi er hann varðveitti ok sá hann íhuga[fu]llan ok ástbundinn sem hann vissi eigi hvat hann vildi. Hún mælti við hann: ‘Hvat hefir þú í lífi þínu?’ ‘Þann hug,’ sagði hann, ‘sem mér vel líkar vel.’ (p. 52) (At this the young woman who took care of him came walking in and saw him lost in thought and struck by love as though he did not know what he wanted. She spoke to him: ‘What are you pondering?’ ‘A thought,’ he said, ‘which pleases me greatly.’)

In the Middle English romance, the maiden answers her own question before the knight has the chance to respond: The mayden come to him with that. Sho sayd, ‘How hasto farn this day, Sen that I went fro the oway?’ Sone sho saw him pale and wan, Sho wist wele what him ayled than. Sho said, ‘I wote thi hert es set, And sertes I ne sal noght it let; Bot I sal help the fra presowne And bring the to thi warisowne.’ (vv. 910–18)

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (the maiden came and asked how he had been since she last left him. She could see from his pale, wan appearance what ailed him and said, ‘I know that your heart is set, and certainly I will do all I can to help you out of prison and bring you to your reward.’)

In this way, any ambiguity concerning the relationship between Yvain and Lunete is avoided: the maiden’s only role is to help Yvain reach out to Laudine. Hartmann von Aue’s version is similarly clear about the maiden’s role, referring to her as the good maiden (‘guote magt’): Schiere chom gegangen diu guote magt diu sîn pflac. Si sprach: ‘Ich wæne, ir swæren tac und übel zît hinne tragt.’ Er sprach: ‘Daz sî iu widersagt, wan ichn gewan liebern tac nie.’ (vv. 1734–39) (Soon there came walking in the good maiden who tended him. She said: ‘I believe you are enduring a burdensome day and an evil time in here.’ He said: ‘I must contradict you, for I never enjoyed a happier day!’)

Pierre Sala’s shortened version, too, avoids any ambiguity: Sus ce point revint la pucelle, S’amye qui riens ne luy celle, Disant: ‘Amy, qu’avés vous veu?’ – ‘Une chouse qui moul m’a pleu’. (vv. 1217–20) (At this point, the damsel returned, his friend who did not hide anything from him, and said: ‘My friend, what have you seen?’ – ‘Something that pleased me greatly.’)

Later in the narrative, when Laudine has finally agreed to receiving Yvain, Lunete prepares the knight as best as she can: she brings him rich clothes, after having bathed him. The French romance says of the bathing: ‘Si le fet chascun jor baignier, / Son chief laver et apleignier’ (v. 1883–84) (and each day she bathed him, and washed and brushed his hair). These two verses, which are followed by a longer description of how he was then dressed, are developed in the Swedish translation thus: Þe iomfru lot et karbaþ gøra, hærra Ivan monde hon þær innan føra. ‘Min hærra, I skulin hær innan fara, til alla þiænist vil iak Iþer vara.’ Mæþ hvite hand vreþ hon hans bak ok skipaþe honum ræt alskyns mak; hon kæmbde hans hovuþ siælf ok þva,

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion hon unte honom væl, þy giorþe hon sva. Þa han skulde stigha af þæt baþ, et rikt baþlakan kom þær i staþ hon kasteþe ivir han sva innelik. ‘Min hærræ, lig ok hvile þik!’ (vv. 1389–1400) (The maiden had a bath prepared; she brought Sir Ivan in there. ‘M’lord, you are to get into the bath; I want to be of full assistance to you.’ With her white hand she rubbed his back and devised all sorts of comfort for him. She personally combed and washed his hair. She loved him much; that is why she did it. When he was to climb from the bath, a splendid bath towel was brought there at once, and she threw it over him tenderly. ‘M’lord, lie down and rest yourself!’)

In the Swedish text, too, the narrator then describes the knight’s new clothes that ‘en riddare matte mæþ ærom bæræ’ (v. 1402) (a knight could wear with honour). However, it is the description of the bathing of the knight that is most notable: the translator not only adds a reference to the maiden’s white hand and gentleness but also emphasises her meticulous care for Ivan, justifying her behaviour by evoking the love that she felt for the knight (‘hon unte honum væl, þy giorþe hon sva’). The erotic connotation contributes to the ambiguity of the Swedish Luneta, while at the same time it could be read as an example of the maiden’s excellent care for the knight and – indirectly – for her lady, since she is caring for the one who will soon marry the lady. The saga lacks this erotic connotation and follows Chrétien closely: ‘ok gerði honum hvern dag laug, þvær honum ok kembir’ (p. 56) (and every day she prepared a bath for him; she washes him and combs his hair). The Middle English text states: ‘Bilive sho gert Syr Ywaine bath’ (She had Sir Ywain bathed) (v. 1102). Similarly, the German text says: ‘Sî bâdet in harte schône’ (v. 2186) (She bathed him very prettily). Finally, Pierre Sala says: ‘Si le fait tous les jours baigner, / Laver, netoier et pigner’ (vv. 1511–12) (each day she bathed him, and washed and cleaned him, and combed his hair). Lunete’s final success in reconciling the already married Yvain and Laudine after their long separation resembles the manner by which she first enabled their marriage.56 In an analysis of the ending of Chrétien’s romance, Fredrik L. Cheyette and Howell Chickering have emphasised the role of peace, by drawing attention to the occurrence of the Old French pes in a number of verses at the very end of the romance. Linking the medieval conception of peace to Augustine and his definition in the City of God, they argue that it should be understood as a question of restored order.57 56 57

See Brown, ‘Female Homosociality and the Marriage Plot’, p. 66. Fredrik L. Cheyette and Howell Chickering, ‘Love, Anger, and Peace: Social Practice and Poetic Play in the Ending of Yvain’, Speculum 80/1 (2005), 75–117 (p. 82).

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Lunete is the person who has made this peace possible, and the word pes is used again in the last paragraph dedicated to the maiden: Et Lunete rest mout a eise; Ni li faut chose qui li pleise, Des qu’ele a fet la pes sanz fin De monseignor Yvain le fin Et de s’amie chiere et fine. (vv. 6811–15) (And Lunete, too, was very happy: she lacked for nothing now that she had established an unending peace between the noble Sir Yvain and his dear and noble lady.)

In Pierre Sala’s rewriting, the word pes has been omitted and the focus is on the present happiness that has erased the former torments (vv. 4267–68). If we look at the translations of the romance, there are important additions to this passage. Hartmann von Aue adds a longer paragraph, in which he, for example, refers to how the maiden was rewarded for her service with ‘Bürge, lant, rîche stet’ (v. 8228) (Castles, lands, and rich towns), and how she was married to a rich duke. Similarly, we learn in the Middle English text that she ‘Was honord ever with ald and ying / And lifed at hir owin likyng’ (vv. 4015–16) (was honoured by young and old and lived as she liked). Several verses later, the Middle English text refers to the joyful life of Ywain and Alundyne, and then adds a reference to Lunet and the lion: ‘In joy and blis thai led thaire live. / So did Lunet and the liown’ (vv. 4024–25) ([they] lived in joy and bliss, as did Lunet and the lion). As noted by Rikhardsdottir, the Middle English Lunet is thus placed on the same narrative level as the lion: ‘She is in fact, as the lion was to Ywain, the corresponding faithful companion to Alundyne.’58 While the saga has omitted the whole passage, Herr Ivan presents a new version of the ending, in which Luneta first addresses a prayer to the reconciled couple: ‘A hærra Guþ i himirik mæþ sina sighnaþa naþæ gøme Iþer saman baþæ ok late Iþer hær liva sva þæt I maghin himirikis glæþi fa ok naþer for utan ænda þa Iþer skal døþin hænda!’ Nu haver Luneta alt þæt fangit þær hænne haver længe æptir langat, sæt sin hærra ok sina fru sva at þe æru væl ivir ena nu. (vv. 6414–24) 58

Sif Rikhardsdottir, Medieval Translations, p. 102.

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion (‘Ah, may the Lord God in Heaven with His blessed grace preserve you two and let you ever live in such a way that you will enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven and grace without end, when death seeks you!’ Now Luneta has achieved everything that she has desired for so long: she has reconciled her lord and her lady, so that they are now at perfect peace.)

A few verses later, Luneta’s prayer is followed by the translator’s reference to Queen Eufemia, which also addresses God (see Introduction). If there had been any ambiguities about Luneta’s relation to the knight, these are all ruled out by the end and the maiden is characterised as a uniquely pious and servile woman.

In this chapter, I have combed a number of texts with different cultural and linguistic origins. When Le Chevalier au lion is compared to its different translations, it reveals itself to be a most sophisticated and complex source, malleable enough to be subject to a great variety of interpretations. The female characters are no exception to this rule. Whereas Chrétien’s romance was the fruit of a long tradition of courtly literature, the Swedish translation marks the beginning of a new literary tradition in which the translator is free to redraw the ideological agenda. The psychological complexity of the French Laudine, whose emotions play a manipulative role, is much reduced in Herr Ivan. The Swedish Laudine is portrayed as a powerful lady, who is more in control of her emotions. She is not so much Ivan’s beloved as the key to his chivalric honour and the focus is on the marriage that represents the honour that the knight has searched for in his quest, rather than the love between them. By portraying the lady as controlled, Herr Ivan dismisses this manipulative power of female emotion and tones down the female influence over men more generally, at the same time as the text clarifies that political power is a question of self-command and reason, rather than of emotion and manipulation. The rewriting of Laudine as a character with more controlled emotions could be seen as a way of avoiding a discourse on love that did not tally with the text’s ideological aims. Compared to the Middle English and Middle High German translations that foreground the lady’s grief and folly, Herr Ivan differs on this point substantially. However, it is important to acknowledge that the knight’s emotions are also pared back in Herr Ivan. Meanwhile, the maiden Lunete loses some of her psychological complexity in the Swedish text. While her French counterpart is enterprising and cunning as well as soft and vulnerable, the Swedish maiden is transmitted in a simplified form, as the young woman who pleases the knight – a portrait of this young women that, again, differs from the other versions. Indeed, the translator’s initial insinuation that she could 81

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture be the object of the knight’s love, and his subsequent dwelling upon her delicate care when bathing the knight, could be understood as ways of according different and schematised roles to the two main female characters: while the lady is presented as the one who augments the knight’s honour, the maiden is described as the woman who procures his comfort and pleasure. Both the central role of chivalric honour and the rewritten female characters connect to what Chris Wickham considers as the most widespread aspects of medieval European culture: honour and gender. Thus, the fact that the Swedish translator stresses the importance of honour should not be seen as particularly ‘Swedish’ or as its original focus, but rather as an echo of a value that dominated the whole of medieval Europe. The fact that Herr Ivan, the first Swedish translation of a romance, gives the notion such a prominent role further indicates that Swedish culture shared core values with the rest of Europe. Whereas the two women’s importance is reduced, the role of the lion becomes more central, to the extent that the lion could be argued as taking the place of the lady. It is not only referred to as hænne (she) and given an implied speech, but the translator also develops the theme of the animal’s distress when it believes Ivan to be dead. Meanwhile, we will remember, the emotions of the lady and the knight are underplayed, while those of the lion are more pronounced. While one could talk of a subtle feminisation of the lion in Chrétien’s romance, the translator chooses a more direct interpretation, with no equivalence in the other versions. By contrast, when looking at the other translations of the romance, it is interesting to see that several of these opt instead to reduce the anthropomorphisation of the animal that is so prominent in Chrétien’s text. This central role of the lion in Herr Ivan could be understood in light of the popularity of the animal in medieval culture and it could be perceived as another element of Europeanisation. The fact that it appears on the coat of arms of the Folkungar is an example of the close connection between the animal and the milieu for which Herr Ivan was intended. But there was probably more to it than just this. When studying Herr Ivan in relation to the other versions, it becomes clear that there is a conscious shift of focus in the Swedish translation from the female characters to the intriguing animal. If Herr Ivan was indeed written, as has been argued elsewhere, too, as a manual of conduct for the relatively newly established Swedish nobility, one could imagine that the portraits of courtly men and women – the intended public – needed a clear and tangible ideological agenda, rather than a psychological and literary complexity, and that such a need would have motivated the two schematised female portraits. Even though the lion was a well-known animal in art and heraldry with numerous symbolic associations, it did not represent the audience; the translator could thus present a more complex, literary and interesting image of the 82

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The Maiden, the Lady and the Lion animal. If the lion in the Swedish text is all at once a ferocious beast, an amie and a vassal, it must therefore have to do with the translator taking the opportunity to portray it as a wholly literary character, something he was less able to achieve with Laudine, Luneta and Ivan, due to the need to position them as representative of clearly defined ideals above all else. The next chapter will turn to the role of childhood in the tradition of Floire et Blancheflor. Since the Eufemiavisor were most likely written by one and the same translator, one would expect that the Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor adopts a similar approach to the main characters as in Herr Ivan. However, the two children are neither grown-up courtly characters like Laudine, Luneta and Ivan, nor symbolically charged animals like the lion. As we shall see, the translator has an approach to the children that is quite unusual within the context of the larger European tradition of the love tale.

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N 3 n Children of Medieval Europe: Floire et Blancheflor Det var två konungabarn, som lekte med spiror och äpplen af gull, hvarandra som bi och blomma smekte då våren af doft stod full, och äppelblommornas snöfall blekte all örtagårdens mull.1 (Of royal birth, two children played / With sceptre and orb of gold. / Like bee and bloom the two caressed / As scents of spring enfold / And snow of apple blossom laid / On every lovely wold.)2

Since antiquity, stories about children who fall in love with each other have circulated in Europe. According to the above-cited passage, the second stanza of the Swedish poet Oscar Levertin’s poem ‘Florez och Blanzeflor’, the famous lovers Floire and Blancheflor were two such children who played together before they eventually fell in love.3 The poem was published in 1891, in Levertin’s first collection of poems Legender och visor, written at a sanatorium in Davos whilst the poet was suffering from tuberculosis. Like many writers of his era, Levertin was inspired by medieval literary themes and thus devoted the poem to the famous couple. While Tristan and Isolde are among the most famous medieval lovers for modern audiences, the story of Floire and Blancheflor was an even greater medieval success, at least if we measure literary success on the basis of the number of extant text witnesses in different languages. The tale is preserved in a great number of versions in different medieval and Renaissance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Middle Oscar Levertin, ‘Florez och Blanzeflor’, Legender och visor (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1891), p. 36. 2 Translation by William Jewson, in the booklet for the disc Peter Mattei: A Kaleidoscope (Åkersberga: BIS Records AB, 2010), p. 21. 3 The name ‘Blancheflor’ is often used in its translated form ‘Blanchefleur’. 1

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Dutch, Middle High German, Middle Low German, Middle English, Old West Norse, Old Swedish, Old Danish, Czech, Greek and Yiddish. The mention of Blancheflor alongside Helena in Carmina Burana (Ave formosissima) is yet another example of the tale’s popularity.4 It was probably through the Old Swedish translation Flores och Blanzeflor, written, as were Herr Ivan and Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, at the behest of Queen Eufemia of Norway, that the Swedish poet Levertin knew the story of the two lovers. Flores och Blanzeflor is the last of the three Eufemiavisor and was finished shortly after the queen’s death. Ingeborg was only one year old when she was engaged to the Swedish duke and eleven years old when she married him – so still a child herself. In the Erikskrönika, the narrator describes how the couple immediately fell in love when they were presented to each other. This mention of their meeting in the Erikskrönika, together with the contemporary Swedish version of Floire et Blancheflor, could be read as a literary justification of their union. Floire et Blancheflor might indeed have been considered as particularly suitable for the young Ingeborg, since it tells the story of two children who fall in love; Blanzeflor would have provided a beautiful and sophisticated model for the princess. I have already drawn attention to the role of female patrons in Flores och Blanzeflor (see Introduction). In his book on children in medieval England, Nicholas Orme mentions the Middle English Floris and Blancheflour as one medieval story, among others, which may well have appealed to a younger readership – children and adolescents – even though it was probably intended for adults.5 Considering the links between the Swedish translation and Queen Eufemia’s daughter Ingeborg, one could imagine that the Swedish text may also have been partly intended for a younger audience.6 In this chapter, I will set out to explore the image of children and 4

Furthermore, on the golden cup that is given to Flores’ father in exchange for Blanzeflor, there is a depiction of the abduction of Helena, thus associating her with Blancheflor. For a discussion of this passage, see Sofia Lodén and Vanessa Obry, ‘Les objets miroirs du récit dans la tradition européenne des aventures de Floire et de Blanchefleur’, in L’œuvre et se miniatures: Les objets autoréflexifs dans la littérature européenne, ed. Luc Fraisse and Éric Wessler (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2018), pp. 523–51. 5 Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001). 6 In her doctoral dissertation on Swedish literature for children and young adults 1400–1750, Lotta Paulin discusses a number of exemplary stories that may have addressed a younger readership. Among these are Själens tröst, which is linked to Flores och Blanzeflor through the manuscript AM 191 (see Introduction), Paulin, Den didaktiska fiktionen: Konstruktion av förebilder ur ett barn- och ungdomsperspektiv 1400–1750, doctoral dissertation (Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 2012).

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Children of Medieval Europe childhood in the Old Swedish translation Flores och Blanzeflor in relation to the French Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor, the Old West Norse Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr and the Middle English Floris and Blancheflour. Parallels will also be drawn to the Spanish Crónica carolingia, for reasons that I will explain below. As in the previous chapter, my aim is not to establish the philological relationship between these different versions but to discuss the question of childhood in light of the adaptation context. However, in order to do so, I need to start by giving a philological background to the complex textual tradition. I will then analyse the different linguistic references to children, followed by the different descriptions that are given of the relationship between child and parent. Finally, I will examine the links between the children’s education and love. Whereas questions about courtly values, religion, the Orient and female characters have been discussed frequently in relation to Floire et Blancheflor, the representation of children has rarely been the primary interest of scholars, even though it is the core theme that consistently links all the various aspects of the romance together.

The French Conte and the Insular Tradition It has often been argued that Floire et Blancheflor has its origin in the East.7 Critics have considered the roots to be found in Persian, Byzantine or Arabic culture,8 and parallels between Ni’ma and Nu’am in Thousand and One Nights have been pointed out several times. More recently, the question of a Spanish origin has been debated, a subject to which I will return.9 7

For an overview of earlier research on the origin, see David Arbesú, ed., Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2011). 8 Italo Pizzi asserted that the romance had a Persian origin, in Le somiglianze e le relazione tra la poesia persiana e la nostra del Medio Evo (Turin: Clausen, 1892); Édelestand du Méril argued that it was Byzantine, in Floire et Blanceflor: poèmes du XIIIe siècle, publié d’après les manuscrits (Paris: P. Jannet, 1856), which was also true of Hans Herzog, ‘Die beiden Sagenkreise von Florios und Blanchefleur’, Germania 39 (1884), 137–228; Jan ten Brink presented the hypothesis of an Arabic origin, in Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche letterkunde (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1897), a hypothesis that was supported by René Basset, ‘Les sources arabes de Floire et Blancheflor’, Revue des traditions populaires 22 (1907), 209–226, Oliver M. Johnston, ‘Origin of the Legend of Floire and Blancheflor’, Matzke Memorial Volume 125–38 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1911), Mario Cacciaglia, ‘Appunti sul problema delle fonti del Romanzo di Floire et Blancheflor’, Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 80 (1964), 241–55 and Jean-Luc Leclanche, Contribution à l’étude de la transmission des plus anciennes œuvres romanesques françaises: Un cas priviligié: Floire et Blancheflor, doctoral dissertation (Lille: Service des reproductions des thèses, 1980). 9 See for example José Gómez Pérez, ‘Elaboración de la Primera crónica general de España’, Scriptorium 17, (1963), 233–76, and Patricia Grieve, Floire and

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Floire et Blancheflor is commonly considered as an example of the idyllic romance.10 These love stories often follow a specific scheme: two children are born at the same time or at least get to know each other at a very early stage in their lives; they grow up together and fall in love, have to fight opposition from the adult world, are separated and then exposed to a number of adventures, such as false death, attempted suicides, long voyages across the sea, imprisonment and escape.11 The most prominent texts of the genre all seem to have appeared in the middle of the twelfth century in France, amongst them Pyrame et Thisbé, Aucassin et Nicolette and Floire et Blancheflor. The French Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor was written in verse, in the langue d’Oïl, around 1150 and is preserved in four manuscripts: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr 375 (A); Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1447 (B); Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12562 (C); Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatini latini, 1971 (V).12 It is commonly referred to as the ‘aristocratic version’. In Konrad Fleck’s Middle High German translation from around 1220, the French source is attributed to Ruprecht von Orbent, or Robert d’Orbigny, a designation which may associate the author with the locale of Orbigny in the French department of Indre-et-Loire. This ‘aristocratic version’ is not to be confused with a second French version of the tale, known as the ‘popular version’ or the Roman de Floire et de Blancheflor.13 The Roman was written in the later part of the twelfth century and is preserved in only one manuscript. The two French texts were rapidly followed by translations and adaptations into various European vernaculars. For a long time, critics have assumed that the original version was written in French and have thus argued that the translations were based either on the aristocratic version or on the popular version, which would explain some major

10

11 12 13

Blancheflor and the European Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). According to the first major study on the idyllic romance by Myrrha Lot-Bordine, Le roman idyllique au Moyen Âge (Genève: Slatkine repr., 1972, first published in Paris in 1913), Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor was the first important text witness of the genre. For a more recent discussion of the genre, see Le Récit idyllique: Aux sources du roman moderne, ed. Jean-Jacques Vincensini and Claudio Galderisi (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2009), and Idylle et récits idylliques à la fin du Moyen Âge, ed. Michelle Szkilnik, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 20 (2010). See Giovanna Angeli, ‘Enfants, frères, amants: Les ambiguïtés de l’idylle de Pyrame et Thisbé à Aucassin et Nicolette’, in Le Récit idyllique, pp. 45–58 (p. 46). Jean-Luc Leclanche, ed., Robert d’Orbigny, Le Conte de Floire et Blanchefleur (Paris: Champion, Classiques Moyen Âge, 2003). Margaret M. Pelan, ed., Floire et Blanchefleur: Seconde version (Paris: Ophrys, 1975).

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Children of Medieval Europe differences between them. The question of sources remains difficult, since most texts are preserved in later manuscripts; I will return shortly to the traditional view of the stemma, as well as to the more recent challenge to this version of events. According to Jean-Luc Leclanche, who has edited the French Conte, the Nordic texts belong to the insular tradition of the romance tradition, together with the Anglo-Norman manuscript, V, and the Middle English translation.14 Distinct from the insular tradition is the ‘continental tradition’, which derives from manuscripts A, B and C of the Conte. This continental tradition is considered to be formed from a combination of versions such as the French Roman, Konrad Fleck’s Middle High German adaptation and Diedrick van Assenede’s Middle Dutch version. Leclanche calls the insular branch a ‘vulgate’ and argues that it represents an older state of the narrative. Unfortunately, the Anglo-Norman text is only preserved in a fragmentary manuscript, V. The manuscript comprises 1247 verses, i.e. vv. 133–1614 in Leclanche’s edition. The fragmentary status of V makes the Nordic and Middle English texts all the more interesting for philological reasons. The Middle English Floris and Blancheflour is a translation of the Conte, although only a third of its length.15 It goes back to the thirteenth century and has a claim to being the second oldest romance in English. It is preserved in four manuscripts and the beginning of the tale is missing in all of them. Geraldine Barnes stresses the entertainment function of the translator’s work: Like other medieval translators and adaptors of the story, he has shaped those elements which best suit his purpose, probably minstrel performance, into a well-constructed tale of which the essence is comedy rather than idyll. In so doing he has injected his work with a vitality foreign to the French original, so that amor vincit omnia not primarily through the strength and appeal of youthful devotion, nor by force of arms (as in the judicial combats of the Norse Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr and the ‘popular’ Floire et Blancheflor), but through cunning and ingenuity.16

Thus, whereas several European versions of Floire et Blancheflor, such as the Nordic texts, seem to present a Christian reading of the tale, the Conte and its Middle English translation are more focused on courtly values. This does not necessarily reflect a more original version; it is possible that

Leclanche, ed., Robert d’Orbigny, Le Conte de Floire et Blanchefleur, p. VIII. Floris and Blancheflour in Sentimental and Humorous Romances, ed. Erik Kooper (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2005). 16 Geraldine Barnes, ‘Cunning and Ingenuity in the Middle English Floris and Blaunchefleur’, Medium Aevum 53 (1984), 10–25 (p. 23). 14 15

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture the Old French and Middle English authors transformed a more religious original into a more secular and courtly version.17 The first trace of Floire et Blancheflor in Scandinavia is the Old West Norse Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr, also written in the thirteenth century, during a period in which a number of French romances were translated into Old West Norse prose. Apart from some older fragments, it is only preserved in later Icelandic copies of which only one is complete. Most scholars consider the saga as a riddarasaga, written at the behest of the Norwegian king Hákon Hákonarson. The lack of evidence that would link the saga to the king has however driven Helle Degnbol to question its origin and raise the possibility that it was actually written ‘as a stage en route to the Eufemiavisor’, i.e. at the instigation of Eufemia.18 To my knowledge, this hypothesis has never been discussed outside of Degnbol’s study, even by Degnbol herself. Degnbol stresses the fidelity of the Old West Norse text to what she supposes to be a French source, arguing that it respects its source more than do the other riddarasögur. This fidelity might be illusory, however, since the other riddarasögur may have survived in copies that modify more faithful originals.19 Despite the closeness between Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr and the French Conte, there are important differences. First and foremost, the religious dimension is given more prominence in the narrative about the lovers. According to Barnes, the translator has explored the hagiographic potential of his source and superimposed it upon the roman idyllic, with a result that resembles the outline of a medieval vita.20 The elimination of the prologue and the rendering of what happens after the arrest of the two lovers are the most obvious modifications made by the translator, and both provide a Christian emphasis.21 According to Degnbol, the saga plays a particularly central role in the philological understanding of the European tradition: ‘it not only occupies a high position in the stemma, but on account of its being in prose (a saga is a prose narrative) it has not been forced to adapt itself to the rhymes and rhythms of a metrical form.’22 Whether the prose form did, indeed, result in a closer rendering of the source text remains a matter for debate. Floire and Blancheflor, p. 94. Helle Degnbol, ‘“Fair words”: The French poem Floire et Blancheflor, the Old Norse prose narrative Flóress saga ok Blankiflúr, and the Swedish poem Flores och Blanzaflor’, in Rittersagas: Übersetzung, Überlieferung, Transmission, ed. Jürg Glauser and Susanne Kramarz-Bein, Beiträge zur Nordischen Philologie 45 (Tübingen: Francke, 2014), pp. 71–95 (p. 90). Degnbol, ‘Fair words’, p. 82. Geraldine Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, Scandinavian Studies 49 (1977), 48–66 (p. 54). Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 55. Degnbol, ‘Fair words’, p. 76.

17 Grieve, 18

19

20 21

22

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Children of Medieval Europe The main differences between the French Conte and the saga are on the one hand the shift from verse to prose and, on the other hand, the description of the lovers’ trial in front of the Emir as well as the very end of the tale, in which the Old West Norse translator describes how the couple founded a monastery and a nunnery in which they decided to live.23 Most scholars have considered these latter digressions to be an invention of the translator.24 As early as 1875, Gaston Paris argued that there may be a Spanish ‘third strain’ in the stemma of Floire et Blancheflor.25 Patricia Grieve has drawn new scholarly attention to the European context of the romance and argued that several translations, the Nordic texts being amongst them, have their origin in lost textual witnesses, which are older than the preserved French ones.26 Grieve has highlighted the role of the fairly recently discovered Castilian manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 7583, and pointed to the fact that it contains digressions similar to those in the saga.27 The Spanish manuscript is dated to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century and is assumed to be a copy of a compilation from the end of the thirteenth century, dedicated to the history of Spain; Flores y Blancaflor is only one part of a larger compilation of texts, namely the Crónica carolingia.28 According to Grieve, it is plausible that a thirteenth-century Spanish version of the tale was brought back by the Norwegian king Hákon’s envoy, which had spent a longer period at Alfonso’s court.29 It is notable, for example, that King Hákon’s daughter Kristin was married to Felipe, the brother of Alfonso el Sabio of Castile, in 1258. A Spanish version of the tale could have been given to the Norwegian court as a gift and then served as source for the Norse translator. Grieve states that it is possible that ‘there was a greater diffusion through central and northern Europe of the third strain (as represented by the Chronicle) than heretofore has been postulated’.30 Her hypothesis challenges the stemma of the European tradition of the tale. She argues that the first version of the tradition, today lost, must have resembled the See Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’; see also Barnes, ‘Cunning and Ingenuity’. 24 The Icelandic saga Sigurðar saga þögla contains a reference to Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr and its Christian emphasis. 25 Gaston Paris, Les Contes orientaux dans la littérature française (Paris: F. Vieweg, 1875). Reprint from Revue politique et littéraire 15 (1870), 1010–17. 26 Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor. 27 The Spanish version was first presented by José Gómez Pérez, ‘Leyendas medievales españolas del ciclo carolingio’, Anuario de Filología (Maracaibo) 2–3 (1963–64), 7–136. 28 Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, p. 35. This dating is still debated, see Arbesú, Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor, pp. 25–27. 29 Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, pp. 38–39. 30 Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, p. 80. 23

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Spanish chronicle and that it was possibly written in French.31 She also believes that the Christian emphasis was a Spanish addition and that the Spanish tradition actually may have influenced the Scandinavian one. It is, indeed, plausible that the two French versions derive from one common source, today lost, and it cannot be excluded that this ancestor was followed by a Spanish text, anterior to the Crónica.32 However, opinions on the matter are divided. According to Francisco Bautista, who has edited the Crónica carolingia, the Spanish version does not bring us any closer to an archetype.33 On the contrary, he argues, it is derived from the Anglo-Norman V, through a lost intermediary.34 As stated by David Arbesú, ‘the main and most recent division is between those who argue for the supremacy of the French versions […] and those who argue in favour of Spain’.35 As so often happens in scholarship, the arguments in favour of the one or the other seem to be coloured by linguistic preferences. The Old Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor is a verse translation written in the early fourteenth century and the source is probably the Old West Norse saga.36 It is preserved in four fifteenth-century manuscripts as well as in one fragment from around 1350. It is also the source of a Danish translation.37 At the same time as the translator most likely used two sources for writing Herr Ivan (see Chapter 2), earlier scholarship considers it unlikely that this was the case for Flores och Blanzeflor. If the translator had had access to a second source text alongside with the saga, ‘we would have expected to find either correct (more original) readings or attempts at emendation, based on a second look at the French, where there is clumsiness or blatant error in the saga’, which is not the case, as Degnbol argues.38 Neither the Old West Norse nor the Old Swedish translation include information about how the translation was carried out. The Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor is actually the only one of the three Eufemiavisor that does not contain any reference to the linguistic nature of its source. In the epilogue of the Swedish text, it states that the translation was written at the behest of Queen Eufemia: Floire and Blancheflor, p. 50. See Arbesú, Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor, pp. 6–7. 33 Francisco Bautista, ‘Floire et Blancheflor en España e Italia’, Cultura Neolatina 67, 1–2 (2007), 139–57. See also Bautista’s edition: La materia de Francia en la literatura medieval española (San Millán de la Cogolla: Cilengua, 2008). 34 Bautista, ‘Floire et Blancheflor en España e Italia’, p. 157. 35 Arbesú, Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor, p. 11. 36 The question of the sources is complex, see Introduction. 37 The Danish translation is presented by Richter, ‘La transmission de Floire et Blanchefleur au Danemark’, pp. 395–406. 38 Degnbol, ‘Fair words’, p. 88. 31 Grieve, 32

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Children of Medieval Europe Thesse bok loot vænda til rima Eufemia drøtning ij then tima litith før æn hon do. (vv. 2183–85)39 (This book was then turned into rhyme by Queen Eufemia shortly before she died.)

In his recent doctoral dissertation on the Swedish translation, Virgile Reiter speculates as to why the translator did not give us more information about his actual source text, while he does tell us the origin of the sources of the other two Eufemiavisor. According to Reiter, it is possible that the translator considered an Old West Norse source less prestigious than both his French source for Herr Ivan and the supposedly German source for Hertig Fredrik av Normandie; it is also possible that the closeness between the two Nordic languages made him consider his work differently, i.e. he saw it as less of a translation than the other two works.40 Whatever his reasons, the epilogue seems to confirm the use of the saga: the translator describes his work as something that he has rewritten in rhyme, thus implying that the source was in prose. Even though the Swedish text follows the overarching narrative trajectory of the saga, there are some major differences between the two. The fact that the saga was written in prose and the Swedish text in verse is undoubtedly the most striking of these, but there are others, too. Degnbol notes: On the one hand, we see the Swedish poet rhyming and in reality doubling a phrase from the Norwegian prose original, and, on the other hand, there is a tendency to move through the story at great pace. It is stylistically successful, but the content has of course suffered somewhat in the process.41

As argued by Reiter, the translator is more visible in the Swedish version, commenting and explaining different aspects, such as the theme of love and the characters’ actions and emotions.42 According to Massimiliano Bampi, a comparison between the Old West Norse and Old Swedish texts reveals three major differences in style and focus. First, the Swedish translation repeatedly renders passages written in reported speech in the saga into direct speech in his translation, which dramatises the relationship between the characters.43 This dramatising function fits particularly well The quotations from Flores och Blanzeflor follow Flores och Blanzeflor, ed. Emil Olson (Stockholm: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1956). The translations are my own. 40 Reiter, Flores och Blanzeflor, p. 22. 41 Degnbol, ‘Fair words’, p. 88. 42 Reiter, Flores och Blanzeflor, p. 23. 43 Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature’, pp. 6–7. 39

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture in a context where the text was read aloud, which was probably the case with the Eufemiavisor.44 Second, even though the saga already places stress on the Christian elements, Bampi observes a further expansion of religious references in the Swedish version: ‘the role played by God in the story is made more prominent by means of some additions which depict him as “the main agent of the action”’.45 In a second article, Bampi relates this religious focus in the Swedish text to its manuscript context and draws attention to the fact that the Swedish translation was copied in manuscripts containing texts with clearly religious concerns.46 Finally, the Swedish text places a stronger emphasis on the nobility of the characters.47 By using terms from modern translation studies, Bampi discusses how the Swedish translation was subject to the norms of the target culture and functioned as a means to preserve the narrative and ideological code established in Herr Ivan. The differences between the Old West Norse and Old Swedish texts need be related to the larger European context. This is certainly true in respect of the religious aspect, since scholars have shown several times that it constitutes a theme that medieval translators from different contexts chose to develop. Additionally, the focus on religion in the Swedish text could simply be seen as a reflection of the central role of religion in medieval European culture more generally. As in Herr Ivan, one may wonder whether the Swedish translator chose this focus consciously. As pointed out by Chris Wickham (see Chapter 1), the secular and the religious were in many ways inextricably linked with one another.

Prologues and Genre Before turning to the role of children, some space needs to be devoted to the two prologues in the French Conte and what they tell us about the generic affiliation(s) of the tale. The opening of the French Conte signals generic affiliations to romance as well as to chansons de geste, as pointed out by Simon Gaunt.48 The narrator refers to his story as a conte (v. 5) and he addresses it to ‘tot li amant’ (v. 1) (all lovers), arguing that it will teach them a great deal about love: ‘Se mon conte volés entendre, / molt i porrés d’amors aprendre’ (vv. 5–6) (If you listen to my story, you can learn a lot about love).49 These 44

Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature’, p. 13. Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature’, p. 8. 46 Massimiliano Bampi, ‘Übersetzung als Manipulation der altschwedische Flores och Blanzeflor und dessen Überlieferung im 15. Jahrhundert’, Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek, 36.1 (2018/19), 8–21 (p. 17). 47 Bampi, ‘Translating Courtly Literature’, pp. 9–11. 48 Gaunt, Gender and Genre, p. 86. 49 The quotations from the French Conte follow Robert d’Orbigny, Le Conte de 45

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Children of Medieval Europe elements, together with the octosyllabic form, are typical of the romance genre, but the passage that follows, which presents the lineage of Floire and Blancheflor and their link to Charlemagne, has clear epic associations.50 This first prologue is then followed by a second, in which the narrator describes how he first heard the story of the lovers in a chamber where two sisters were sitting together on a richly decorated bed, talking about love. The elder then told the younger an old love story, which she had heard from a clerk: ‘mais uns boins clers li avoit dit, / qui l’avoit leü en escrit’ (vv. 53–54) (but a good clerk had told her, who had read it written). Roberta Krueger has discussed the role of this passage and these two verses, and the opening lexical choice of ‘mais’, in particular: The ‘mais’ dispels the illusion of female autonomy in the story’s creation, an illusion so poignantly evoked in the details of the narrator’s description. Female speech is no longer an original source but a secondary one, derived from the ultimate authority of the clerk’s writing. At the very moment that the narrator begins his own mise en escrit, he deflates the power of oral female presence whose world he has infiltered to assert the primacy of clerical writing, and the transmission of culture between men.51

This complex role of the female reader could be linked to the Swedish context in which, as discussed in the introduction, the noblewomen Märta and Elin are said to have played important roles. While the first prologue has an epic structure with links to the romance tradition, this second prologue is more clearly part of a romance tradition. According to Gaunt, the association of the two prologues reflects an attempt ‘to displace an ideology reminiscent of the chanson de geste and to replace it with new generic paradigms’.52 He further argues that ‘the ideology of the new genre is predicated on a new construction of gender’.53 If we consider the different versions of the tale from a European perspective, the labels of chanson de geste, romance and idyllic romance become problematic. Although the narrative lines of Floire et Blancheflor might seem straightforward, the different European versions provide proof positive of its myriad dimensions and possible interpretations. Grieve stresses the ‘generic diversification’ of the European tradition,54 stating: In its own European peregrinatio, the story emphasized, depending on the translator or refashioner, the country and the time period, exactly what the situation called for: romance, chronicle, hagiography, Floire et Blanchefleur, ed. Jean-Luc Leclanche. The translations are my own. Gender and Genre, p. 86. 51 Krueger, Women Readers and the Ideology of Gender, p. 9. 52 Gaunt, Gender and Genre, p. 87. 53 Gaunt, Gender and Genre, p. 87. 54 Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, p. 4. 50 Gaunt,

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture epic. Floire and Blancheflor functions as a kaleidoscope of medieval narrative: one easily sees the main currents of medieval forms in the varying versions, but, as in a kaleidoscope, they achieve prominence in different ways.55

The different versions of the tale are, in other words, all integrated into different vernacular traditions with their own generic divisions. However, all of them share major plot lines. The role of the French prologues is particularly remarkable when considered in relation to the various translations of Floire et Blancheflor discussed in this chapter, since none of these contain parallel passages. In respect of the English text, the previous existence of a prologue cannot be excluded, since its beginning is lost in all manuscripts, while the saga, at least in its preserved state, begins in medias res with a description of Floire’s father, King Felix. As Barnes notes, there is no indication that the saga will be a love story until its third chapter.56 Despite its links to the saga, the Swedish text contains a short introduction to the narrative in which the narrator, like in the French text, refers to his written sources: Som iak ij bøkir skrifuith sa57 ok æwintyrith sigher ij fra, een hedhin konung foor medh brand hæria ok ødha sancti Iacobs land. (vv. 1–4) (As I saw written in books, and as the adventure tells us, a heathen king ravaged and looted Saint Jacob’s land.)

Nothing is said at this point about the love theme, let alone the role of female readers. Nevertheless, the reference to the adventure links the text to the chivalric romance and in particular to the two other Eufemiavisor, in which the term ävintyr is frequently used.58 The fact that Flores och Blanzeflor is centred on the love theme, while the focus of Herr Ivan is more on chivalry and the search for honour, only becomes apparent at later narrative moments. Rather than emphasising the specificity of Floire and Blancheflor, p. 7. Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 57. 57 In Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, p. 122, we are reminded of the fact that several versions contain references to written – now unknown – sources. She writes: ‘Although the intentions of the authors of the various versions are surely different, and the frames that the French romance, the Spanish Chronicle and Boccaccio’s opus devise are worlds apart, there is a common feature: all refer to a written text that preceded the present account and that is, naturally, unavailable to us for direct consultation. Both the aristocratic French poem and Il Filocolo state from the outset that the forthcoming narrative passed through an oral stage, but only the Chronicle and the aristocratic French admit at the very beginning that there is a written source.’ 58 See Jansson, Eufemiavisorna, pp. 182–83. 55 Grieve, 56

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Children of Medieval Europe the tale, then, the opening lines of Flores och Blanzeflor express the text’s connection to an already existing literary tradition.

Li doi enfant: Linguistic Designations, Names and Portraits In her recent book, the Swedish historian Eva Österberg sheds new light on the question of childhood in medieval Scandinavia.59 Österberg discusses the ideas of the French medievalist Philippe Ariès, who, in his book L’Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l’Ancien Régime from 1960, considered childhood as a social rather than a biological construction and argued that the idea of childhood did really not exist in medieval society.60 According to Ariès, the idea of childhood as an isolated period in life only came into being in the seventeenth century, as a result of social and economic development. Even though Ariès’ book has played a fundamental role in the sense that it prompted the history of childhood to become a field of study, his view of medieval childhood has been questioned and nuanced.61 Österberg agrees with many objections made against it and draws particular attention to the Nordic context, in which she shows how children were considered not merely as small adults, but also as a distinct group of their own. In the end, it comes down to the fact that the Middle Ages, whilst distant in time, should not be seen as straightforwardly and diametrically opposed to the modern world: children were just as much children in medieval society, whether in France or Scandinavia. The case of Floire et Blancheflor is particularly interesting in this context, since its various versions delimit the two lovers’ childhoods differently. When analysing how the children are described, the terms that the narrators use in order to refer to them reveal important information. From the moment that the children are born to the moment of their separation, the Conte uses six different terms in order to refer to them: fil, enfant, fille, Eva Österberg, De små då: Perspektiv på barn i historien (Stockholm: Natur & kultur, 2016). 60 Philippe Ariès, L’Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (Paris: Plon, 1960). 61 See for example Shulamith Shahar, Childhood in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1992); James A. Schultz, The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages, 1100–1350 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995); Colin Heywood, A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times (Cambridge: Polity, 2001); Orme, Medieval Children; P. J. P Goldberg and Felicity Riddy, eds, Youth in the Middle Ages (York: York Medieval Press, 2004). Moreover, in an article on Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Conte du Graal, Leah Tether has shown how the childlike behaviour of Perceval may well reflect different stages in the development from child to adult, as described by Aristotle, Augustine and Boethius. See ‘Perceval’s Puerile Perceptions: The First Scene of the Conte du Graal as an Index of Medieval Concepts of Human Development Theory’, Neophilologus 94 (2010), 225–39. 59

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture meschine, valet and damoisel; the saga uses four: son, barn, dóttur and sveinn; the Old Swedish text uses three: son, barn and mø; the Middle English text uses three: son, children and mayde.62 In all these texts, the term fil or son is by far the most common, which reflects the focus on the male character and that he is to be understood in relation to his parents. The use of the French valet, meaning a boy or a young man, and damoisel, meaning a noble young man who is not yet a knight, together with the terms fils and enfant, provide examples of more nuanced vocabulary concerning children than in the other texts. Even though the French passage is considerably longer than its counterpart translations, the greater variance of terms referring to childhood is nonetheless significant. The Old French enfant not only carries the meaning of ‘child’ but can also refer to a noble young man who is not yet a knight. The use of this noun in the Conte, moreover, is not limited merely to the description of the early childhood of the protagonists, but can in fact be found throughout the text, which is typical of the idyllic romance. Indeed, as shown by Vanessa Obry, the Conte repeatedly refers to both Floire and Blancheflor using the same terms, which sets them in opposition with the other characters who are referred to as adults.63 On the one hand, Floire and Blancheflor are each referred to as enfant separately; on the other, ‘li doi enfant’ is commonly used to refer to them as a couple (see for example v. 2691, v. 2839). The fact that the same noun is used in order to refer to both characters reflects the nature of their relationship in which the one resembles the other. Additionally, it elegantly reminds us that their characters are not subject to change, but rather remain the same throughout the narrative.64 The noun enfant has 42 occurrences in the Conte, spread across the whole text, and 19 of these are in the plural. Whilst these occurrences confirm the generic function of the term enfant, a comparison with the other versions of the tale reveals additional nuance. For example, in the Middle English translation, there are 35 occurrences of child/children (18 of these are in the plural form children). As in the French text, Floire and Blancheflor are referred to as children throughout the text. The Spanish text repeatedly refers to Flores as infante, but the Castilian term should not be mixed-up with the French enfant. Even though it could have the meaning ‘little child’ or ‘baby’, as derived from Latin, it refers more often 62

For an analysis of the many terms that are used in medieval French literature in reference to children, see Jens N. Faaborg, Les Enfants dans la littérature française du Moyen Age (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997), pp. 411–84. 63 Vanessa Obry, Et pour ce fu ainsi nommee: Linguistique de la désignation et écriture du personnage dans les romans français en vers des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Geneva: Droz, 2013), p. 187. 64 Obry, Et pour ce fu ainsi nommee, p. 390.

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Children of Medieval Europe to a ‘king’s son’ or ‘prince’, which is also how it should be understood in the Crónica, where it is found throughout the narrative in reference to Flores, as in ‘el infante e Blancaflor’ (p. 213) (the prince and Blancaflor).65 The terms that correspond to enfant are actually niño and niña, which are mainly used to designate the young children in the Castilian text.66 In the Old Swedish translation, the corresponding term barn is used only five times in total, and all of these occurrences are found at the beginning of the text, in the passage prior to Floire’s departure: ‘The frua var medh barne olææt’ (v. 33) (That woman was pregnant with a child), ‘eet barn monde hon tha vinnæ’ (v. 86) (She was pregnant with a child), ‘Thæsse barn the føddos op nær’ (v. 107) (These children were brought up close together), ‘æn annar barn aff thera aar’ (v. 121) (than other children of their age), ‘the barn, ther bæther nima ma’ (v. 146) (children who would learn better). As these passages show, barn only refers to Flores and Blanzeflor specifically on a single occasion (‘Thæsse barn the føddos op nær’), whereas the others refer to children more generally. Thus, the Swedish translator also opts for vocabulary that does not depict Flores and Blanzeflor as static characters, but which rather confines the lovers’ infancy to the opening of the story. This once again underlines the difficulty of considering the European tradition in its entirety as an example of idyllic romance. Additionally, the names that are given to the children play a decisive role in the construction of the two characters. For example, the names Floire and Blancheflor are described as having been chosen because the two children were born on the Christian feast ‘Paske Flourie’ (v. 163): Li doi enfant, quant furent né, de la feste furent nomé: la crestiiene, por l’onor de la feste, mist Blanceflor non a sa fille, et li rois Floire a son fil quant il sot l’estoire. (vv. 171–76) (The two children, when they were born, were named after the feast: the Christian, in honour of the feast, gave the name Blancheflor to her daughter, and the king gave Floire to his son, when he learnt of the story.)

This passage is missing in the Middle English translation, but the importance of the names is found reflected in the Old West Norse text, which gives an even more detailed explanation for the benefit of its non-francophone audience: The quotations from the Castilian version Crónica carolingia follow La materia de Francia, ed. Bautista. The translations are mine. 66 See for example La materia de Francia, ed. Bautista, pp. 142–43. 65

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture var báðum bǫrnunum gefit nafn á þeim degi, er þau váru fœdd. En pálmsunnudagr heitir blómapáskir á útlǫndum, þvíat þá bera menn blóm sér í hǫndum. En blómi er flúr á vǫlsku, ok váru þau af því kallat blómi. Hann var kallaðr Flóres, en hon Blankiflúr; þat þýðir svá, sem hann héti blómi, en hon hvíta blóma; en konungr vildi því svá sinn son kalla, at en kristna kona hafði sagt honum, af hverju kristnir menn heldu þá hátíð. (p. 6–7)67 (when they were both born they were given names after the day that they were born. Palm Sunday is called Flower Easter abroad, because people carried flowers in their hands. A flower is fleur in French, and that is why they were named after flowers. He was called Flóres and she Blankiflúr, designating that his name meant ‘flower’ and her name meant ‘white flower’. The king wanted to call his son thus, because the Christian woman had told him why all Christian men celebrated a feast at that time.

As noted by Barnes, this passage in the saga ‘implies a possible receptiveness to Christianity in King Felix’, despite his unchristian behaviour that follows.68 In the Swedish text, the passage is shortened and the role of the feast is less pivotal. However, the translator retains the explanation of both names: Man gaff them nampn ij sama riidh, thy thet var tha mot somars tiidh. Flores tha var kalladher han, Blanzaflor til nampn hon van; hans nampn thet bloma thydhir, ok henna nampn (at) hwita bloma lydhir. (vv. 101–06) (They were given names at the same time, because it was then summertime. He was called Flores, and she gained the name Blanzeflor; his name meant ‘flower’ and her name ‘white flower’.)

The Spanish chronicle also underlines the importance of the names. Flores is not only associated with flowers, but also with the month of April: ‘e porque nasçió en el mes de abril quando nasçen las flores, pusiéronle nonbre Flores’ (p. 53) (and because he was born in the month of April, when the flowers are born, he was named Flores). Of Blancaflor, we learn the following: ‘Dize Sigiberto que porque encaesçió quando era la Pascua de los moros segunt su ley, e otrosí por las flores, que mandó aquella reina que le pusiesen nombre Blancafor’ (pp. 142–43) (Sigiberto says that because she gave birth when the Moors celebrated Easter according to The quotations from Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr follow Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr, ed. Eugen Kölbing (Halle: Niemeyer, 1896). The translations are my own. 68 Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 59. 67

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Children of Medieval Europe their law, and also because of the flowers, this queen ordered that she would be named Blancaflor). Whereas the names are given a central role at the opening of the tale, little is said about the children’s respective appearances. Later in the tale, however, when Floire and Blancheflor are questioned by the emir, their appearance is given more attention in the Conte (vv. 2857–922); in the part of the narrative devoted to their childhood, by contrast, the French, Old West Norse and Spanish texts merely refer to their beauty, and even then only in the briefest of terms. The French text says: Quant cinc ans orent li enfant, molt furent bel et gent et grant. De lor aé en nule terre plus biaus enfans n’esteüst querre. (vv. 195–98) (When the children were five years of age, they were very beautiful, noble and grown. More beautiful children of their age would not be possible to find anywhere.)

The passage is slightly different in the Anglo-Norman version V, in which the second verse omits ‘bel et gent’: ‘bien furent nurri et bien grant’ (v. 64). The Old West Norse translation follows the French closely: ‘En þá er þau váru V vetra gǫmul, þá sýnduz þau meiri vexti en þeira jafnaldrar, ok fríðari en fyrr hefði bǫrn verit’ (p. 8) (When they were five years old, they looked more grown-up than others of their age, and more beautiful than those born before them). The corresponding passage in the Spanish Crónica tells us that the children were ten – and not five – years old: ‘É así se criaron amos fasta que llegaron a hedat de diez años. E dize la estoria que era la niña tan fermosa de la hedat que era, que non podie omne fallar a parte del mundo más fermosa niña’ (p. 143) (And in that way they were brought up until they reached the age of ten years. And the story says that the girl was so beautiful at that age that one could not find a more beautiful girl in the whole world). The reference to their beauty at this narrative moment is omitted from the Old Swedish and Middle English translations. The Middle English text only states ‘That they were of elde of seven yere’ (v. 6) (they were seven years old).69 The Swedish text foregrounds instead their speedy growth: Æn tha the hafdho fæm aar hære, tha syntis the a væxte mera wære æn annar barn aff thera aar. (vv. 119–21) (When they were five years old, they looked more grown-up than other children of their age.) 69

The quotations from the Middle English text follow Floris and Blancheflour, ed. Erik Kooper. The translations of this text are my own.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture One may wonder whether the choice in the Swedish text to confine the use of the word ‘barn’ to the beginning of the tale and to omit any description of the children’s appearance reflects an attempt to reduce the role of childhood more generally. Even if not, it remains clear that the Swedish translator did not consider childhood a theme worthy of a particularly emphatic literary focus.

Grant doel ont fait de lor enfant: The Children and their Parents The parents of Floire are diametrically opposed in the Conte and reflect the social roles of gender. Whereas the story starts with an image of the father, King Félis, and his cruelty during the war against the Christians, the scene is rapidly contrasted by the mother’s behaviour. She courteously receives the Christian captive that is brought to her by her husband, and who will become Blancheflor’s mother: the two women’s collective focus is not on war but on good manners, education and maternity.70 Similarly, when the king discovers Floire’s love for Blancheflor, he wishes to kill Blancheflor so that his son forgets her and can marry someone else; it is only thanks to the intervention of the Queen that the girl is not killed, rather sent away. Nevertheless, even though the mother seems to moderate the father’s cruel behaviour, in the end the parents work together to deceive Flores, by sending away his beloved and pretending she is dead. The relationship between the young Floire and his father varies between the different versions. Despite the harsh image that is created of the father, the French text emphasises the father’s love for Floire. First, the narrator establishes: ‘li pere ama molt son enfant’ (v. 177) (the father loved his son very much).71 Then, it is said that the father accepts that Blancheflor is studying with Floire ‘par vostre amor’ (v. 213), i.e. out of love for his son. None of the Spanish, the Old West Norse, the Old Swedish or the Middle English versions contain similar explicit references to the father’s love, thus giving a less nuanced image of his character. When the king tells Floire that he should think about his education, Floire answers in the French text: ‘Sire, que fera Blanceflors? Et dont n’aprendra?’ (vv. 209–10) (Sir, what will Blancheflor do? Will she not learn?). The use of the French sire, as a mode of address to the father, underlines the distance between father and son. It is omitted from the Old West Norse and Middle English texts, but replaced in the Swedish translation by the pronoun fadher: ‘Sigher iak thik, / min fadher, læt Blanzaflor følghia mik’ (vv. 135–36) (I tell you, my father, let Blanzeflor come with Marion Vuagnoux-Uhlig, Le couple en herbe: Galeran de Bretagne et l’Escoufle à la lumière du roman idyllique médiéval (Geneva: Droz, 2009), p. 53. 71 V says ‘le reis’ instead of ‘li pere’: ‘Le reis amat mult sun effant’ (v. 45). 70

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Children of Medieval Europe me), which gives the impression of a closer relationship. Furthermore, when the king tells Floire that he will have to leave the country without Blancheflor, the French Floire protests directly, using sire: ‘Sire, fait il, que puet çou estre’ (v. 347) (Sir, he said, how could it be). The other versions simply omit the term of address. Additionally, it is important to note that it is only when the king has promised his son to let Blancheflor follow later (which is a lie) that he accepts the forced departure. In the Nordic texts, this protest is reduced. Even though Floire expresses his dislike, he never tries to negotiate with his father in the saga: ‘“Hversu má þat vera, at ek skiljumz við Blankiflúr ok meistara minn?” En þó at honum væri þetta nauðigt, þá játaði hann’ (pp. 12–13) (How could it be that I will be separated from Blankiflúr and my master? But since this was necessary, he accepted). Similarly, the Swedish Flores directly states that he will accede to his father’s will: Iak veet ey, huru thet vara ma, at iak skils vidh min mæstara ok Blanzaflur, min eghin hiærtans kæra amur. Tho mik thykker ilt fra them at skilia, iak vil tho gøra idhan vilia. (vv. 216–20) (I do not know how it may be that I have to be separated from my master and Blanzeflor, my own heart’s love. Even though I think it is bad to be separated from them, I will consent to your will.)

The Spanish text is closer to the French, since it retains the young man’s attempts to negotiate: ‘Señor, si vós toviésedes por bien, fuese conmigo Blancaflor’ (p. 148) (Sir, should you feel so inclined, please let Blancaflor come with me). The father gives Floire precious gifts prior to his departure: Floire receives everything he needs for his quest as well as the golden cup that was given in exchange for Blancheflor and a richly decorated horse. It is interesting to note that Flores in the Swedish text expresses more gratitude to his father than do his counterparts in the other versions, and this is conveyed through the addition of extra verses, such as: ‘Gudh thakke then fadher, ther talar swa!’ (v. 511) (God, thank the father who speaks like that), ‘Han thakkadhe honum swa innirlik’ (v. 546) (He thanked him sincerely). This could be read as a way of depicting a friendlier relationship between father and son, even if the primary purpose is more likely to have to do with the ideological focus of the Swedish text, with its emphasis on the nobility of the characters, expressed here through Flores’ use of appropriate courtly manners. The relationship between the child and the mother is also described in distinctive ways across the versions. First, it is only the French text that makes a reference to the pain caused by the physical deliveries of Floire 103

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture and Blancheflor: ‘Travail orent et paine grant / tant que né furent li enfant’ (vv. 167–68) (they had hardship and great pain before the children were born). We then learn how Blancheflor’s mother took care of both children, except for the breastfeeding of Floire: Livré l’ont a la damoisele, por çou qu’ele estoit sage et bele, a norrir et a maistroier, fors seulement de l’alaitier. Une paiienne l’alaitoit, car lor lois l’autre refusoit. El le nouri molt gentement et garda ententivement plus que sa fille, et ne savoit le quel des deus plus cier avoit. Ensamble nori les enfans tant que cascuns ot bien deus ans; onques ne lor sevra mangier ne boire, fors seul l’alaitier. Ensamble en un lit les coucoit, andeus paissoit et abevroit. (vv. 179–94) (He was left to the maiden, because she was wise and beautiful, to be brought up and educated, in all regards except for being breastfed. A pagan girl breastfed him, because their law forbade the maiden from doing it. The maiden brought him up most courteously and took care of him more attentively than her own daughter. She did not know which of the two she held most dear. She brought up the children together, until they were two years old: except for breastfeeding, she never gave them food or drink separately. She put them in bed together, fed them and gave them something to drink together.)

This passage has been discussed several times elsewhere, especially with regard to the noun damoisele in the first verse.72 The theme of breastfeeding is particularly interesting, since the bonds between milk siblings were generally considered similar to the bonds between true siblings in medieval culture, which implied that a boy and a girl who were breastfed by the same woman would not be suitable for marriage.73 Since Floire and Blancheflor do marry eventually, the specification that they did not receive milk from the same woman is important. As noted by Carolyne Larrington, the fact that they shared the same bed seems to have encouraged the children’s devotion to one another, even though it could, in other contexts, have been linked to incest.74 The Anglo-Norman See Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, pp. 43–46. Carolyne Larrington, Brothers and Sisters in Medieval European Literature (York: York Medieval Press, 2015), p. 227. 74 Larrington, Brothers and Sisters, p. 227. 72 73

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Children of Medieval Europe V tells us that they were brought up by the maiden until they were three – and not two – years old. The Middle English text abbreviates the passage considerably, but retains the love of Blancheflor’s mother for both of them: ‘The Cristen woman fedde hem thoo; / Ful wel she lovyd hem both twoo’ (vv. 3–4) (The Christian women nourished them then. She loved the two of them very much). The saga also refers to the mother’s love: En fyrir því at en kristna kona var svá vitr, þá fengu þau henni sveininn at fóstra at ǫllu, nema eigi vildu þau, at hann drykki kristinnar konu brjóst, ok fengu til þess heiðna konu; en annars konar fœddiz hann upp við kristinn sið allan. Hon fœddi þau IIII vetr svá at æ áttu þau bæði samt drykki ok svefn; en aldri vissi hon, hváru hon unni betr. (pp. 7–8) (Because the Christian woman was so wise, they gave her the boy to educate him in all manners, though they did not want him to be breastfed at the Christian woman’s breast, and arranged for this a heathen woman; otherwise he was brought up entirely according to Christian tradition. She educated them for four years such that they both drank and slept together, and she did not know whom she liked most.)

As shown by Geraldine Barnes, the Old West Norse translator pays close attention to ‘elements of the hagiographic potential’ in the description of the infancy of the protagonists, such as ‘the arrival of a Christian child (Blanchefleur) in a heathen court and the role of her mother as nurse to a pagan prince’.75 Whereas the Middle English translation does not mention the question of breastfeeding, the saga retains this passage and also makes reference to the fact that the Christian woman could not give Flóres her milk. However, ‘in the translation this proviso is attributed, not to law, but, arguably, to an aversion for such intimate contact with Christianity.’76 Furthermore, while the Conte uses different terms in order to refer to the mother – mescine, damoisele and crestyene – the Old West Norse translator prefers kristna kona, as in the passage above.77 In the Spanish Crónica, the king proposes to employ two women to nurse the children, a motion that is turned down by Blancheflor’s mother who wishes to breastfeed them both.78 This decision plays an important role in the Spanish narrative, since it later inspires Floire to convert to Christianity. Grieve notes: ‘The concept of Berta’s breast milk functions as a unifying thread and as a metaphysical symbol: nursing the baby Flores

Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 58. Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 58. 77 Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, p. 58. 78 The passage is discussed by Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, pp. 43–46; 96–98; 162. 75 76

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture in the beginning of the text, she provides him with the gift of life; later, that gift will reappear as the food that gives him eternal life as well’.79 Significantly, the love between the woman and the two children, which is so clearly present in the other texts, is omitted from the Old Swedish version: Thæsse barn the føddos op nær – huart thera hafuer annath kær – vnder gømo the kristna quinna, thy hon hafdhe badhe vit ok sinne. En hedhin quinna ther var, henna bryst han drak aff margh aar; forutan thet ena ij alla ridh the føddos op vidh kristin sidh. The føddis fyra vinter swa, at huart ij sæng medh annath la; the ato ok drukko badhin saman, giordhe them glædhi, leek ok gaman. (vv. 107–18) (These children were brought up close together – they hold each other dear – under the care of the Christian woman, because she was both wise and clever. There was a pagan woman who breastfed him for many years; except for that, they were brought up in the Christian faith. This went on for four years: they slept together in the same bed, they ate and drank together, and were happy, played and amused themselves.)

The last verse of the passage is particularly interesting, since the Swedish text actually refers to the two children playing. As we shall see, the other texts prefer to focus on their education. The fact that the Swedish text does not explicitly refer to parental love – neither on behalf of the mother nor the father – is significant. The love theme is thus manifestly concentrated on Flores and Blanzeflor, while the relationship between the children and their parents is more driven by a focus on courtly manners. As mentioned earlier, it is thanks to Floire’s mother that Blancheflor is not killed – and it is also thanks to her that Floire, convinced that Blancheflor is dead, does not kill himself. When she sees that her son tries to stab himself to death, she runs towards him and prevents him from any such act of self-harm. In the Conte, the mother exclaims that her son acts like an enfans (v. 1013) when he wants to kill himself, thus associating the child with folly and a lack of self-control. She then delivers a long condemnation of suicide in which she distinguishes between heaven and hell and refers to mythological characters who are condemned to suffer in hell (vv. 1013–40). In her speech, it becomes clear that the mother sees her role as to educate her child. Similarly, the saga describes the young man’s behaviour as bernsligt (p. 24) (childish). As shown by Barnes, the tone 79 Grieve,

Floire and Blancheflor, p. 162.

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Children of Medieval Europe of the Old West Norse translator is more moralistic than in the French text and the references to mythology are omitted, choices which come together to reinforce the Christian focus.80 It is important to note that the Old Swedish text does not refer to the childish behaviour of Floire, but rather connects his actions with those of a fool: ‘Mik tykker thik vara een dara, / thu kan thit eghit liiff ey spara.’ (vv. 419–20) (It seems to me that you are a fool, since you cannot spare your own life). The mythological references are omitted in the Spanish Crónica as well, and here the mother is also seen characterising her son’s behaviour as foolish: ‘por poco que non te digo que eres loco’ (p. 161) (I am close to telling you that you are a fool). Only in the Middle English text does the mother not attempt to educate her son, rather just preventing him from committing suicide (vv. 293–96). By pretending that Blancheflor is dead, we will recall, Floire’s parents manage to fool him. After having stopped her son from killing himself, Floire’s mother finally tells him the truth about this in the Conte: Biaus fius, fait ele, par engien, par le ton pere et par le mien, fesins cest tomblel faire ci. (vv. 1063–65) (Dear son, she said, it was through the cunning of your father and myself that we had this tomb built here.)

The notion of engin (‘cunning’ or ‘ingenuity’) plays a pivotal role in Floire et Blancheflor and its uses have been much discussed elsewhere.81 The saga aligns itself closely on this matter: ‘þetta váru ráð fǫður þíns ok mín, at þessi þró var gǫr’ (p. 26) (this was the wish of your father and me, that this tomb was made). The Middle English text is similarly close: Florys, son, through engynne Of thy faders reed and myne, This grave let we make (vv. 313–15) (Floris, son, through the cunning of your father and myself, we made this grave.)

The Swedish translator changes the content of the mother’s speech considerably: according to the mother in the Swedish text, it is only the father who is responsible for the treachery, and this stresses the different roles of the two parents: Thu skal thet vita, min son kære, 80

81

Barnes, ‘Some Observations on Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr’, pp. 59–60. See Barnes, ‘Cunning and Ingenuity’, and Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, pp. 53–85.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture at thetta hwalff, som thu seer hære, vardh giort fore thins fadhers vald (vv. 457–59) (You should know, my dear son, that the tomb that you see here was made at your father’s behest.)

The Spanish text also differs, in the sense that it is not the mother but the father who reveals the truth, this time related in reported speech: ‘E el rey tóvolo por bien, e dixeron a Flores todo el fecho en cómo pasara.’ (p. 162) (And the king considered it good to act in this way and they [the king and the queen] told Flores the whole story). Floire’s reaction to Blancheflor’s falsified death causes both of his parents great pain, which is stressed in the different versions of the tale. In the Conte, the narrator tells us: ‘Grant doel ont fait de lor enfant’ (v. 696) (they showed great sorrow for their child). The saga seems to follow this closely ‘ok létu hǫrmuliga um son sinn’ (pp. 21–22) (they sounded sad because of their son). The Swedish translation adds to this that his parents actually shed tears: ‘the armelika lata ok fælla tara’ (v. 372) (they sounded miserable and shed tears). Similarly, when Floire tells his father that he will leave and search for Blancheflor, the father is ‘irié’ (v. 1109) (angry) in the Conte: ‘Fius, fait li rois, cor remanés!’ (v. 1123) (Son, said the king, stay here!). In the saga, he is ‘ófeginn’ (p. 27) (unhappy) and says: ‘“Son minn”, segir hann, “heill svá! Ver kyrr, ok far eigi frá feðr þínum!’ (p. 27) (’My son,’ he said. ‘Hey there! Stay still, and do not leave your father!’). The Old Swedish text, meanwhile, has the king emphasise the pain felt by both parents: Min son, gør os ey then skadha, thinne modher ok mik swa høghelik vadha, thet thu skil tik os ij fra! Aff sorg maghom vi brat for ga. (vv. 499–502) (My son, do not cause us that misery, such harm to your mother and me, by parting from us! Of sorrow we shall quickly perish.)

Whereas the Swedish Laudine appears to have more control over her emotions than does her French counterpart, as discussed in the previous chapter, here Flores’ parents seem to experience the opposite, even though the narrator avoids any direct reference to their love for their son. By contrast with Laudine, they cannot gain any more political power than they already have, but only lose it, which may serve to explain their tears. When Floire finally sets out in his search for Blancheflor, his parents are once again devastated. The Conte describes the scene as follows: 108

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Children of Medieval Europe A tant a congié demandé. Li rois en plorant l’a doné. A sa mere ra pris congié et ele l’a cent fois baisié. La les veïssiés molt plorer, lor puins tordre, lor crins tirer, et tel duel faire au departir com sel veïssent dont morir. (vv. 1217–24) (Then he asked for permission to leave. The king, crying, gave it to him. He took leave of his mother and she kissed him a hundred times. You should have seen them cry a lot, wring their hands, tear their hair, and show such sorrow at the departure, as if they had seen him die.)

In the saga, the passage is rendered as follows: en síðan tók hann leyfi af konungi ok dróttningu; en þau kystu hann grátandi, ok tóku síðan at reyta hár sitt, ok bǫrðu sik ok létu, sem aldri mundu þau hann sjá síðan, ok um þat váru þau sannspá; en þá bað Flóres þau vel lifa. (p. 31) (and then he took leave of the king and the queen; they cried and kissed him, and then tore their hair and beat themselves and sounded like they would never see him again, which they were right about, and they bade Flóres farewell.)

Thus, even though the Old West Norse version of Chrétien’s Laudine tones down the public display of the lady’s emotions, this saga here presents the same sort of violent, emotive behaviour, directed against the body, just as in the French source. The Anglo-Norman V presents a different version, in which the mother speaks directly to her son, and both parents kiss their child (vv. 766–70). Like V, the Swedish translator chooses to insert a passage in direct speech, which reinforces the pain of the parents: Orloff togh han aff them ther varo; the græto swa sara, the matto ey swara. Fadher ok modher rifua thera har. ‘Medh sorgh mon nu ændas var aar; vi se honum aldre mere,’ swa sagdho the ok andre flere. (vv. 577–82) (He took his leave from those who were there; they cried so heavily that they could not answer. Father and mother tore their hair. ‘Our years will now end with sorrow; we will never see him again.’ So they said, as did many others.)

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture The Spanish text differs once again, omitting the strong emotions of the parents: ‘E el infante gradesçiógelo mucho a su padre e a su madre, e besoles las manos e espidiose d’ellos, e entró en su camino.’ (p. 164) (And the prince thanked his father and mother a lot, kissed their hands, said goodbye to them and began his journey).

Ouidium ther the nima j skola: Education and Love Floire and Blancheflor were not only born simultaneously, given similar names, shared the same beauty and were taken care of by one and the same woman, but they also received the same education, something that underlines how their love was constructed on an egalitarian foundation. As Marion Vuagnoux-Uhlig points out, desire is greatest where there is likeness.82 This is a typical scheme of the idyllic romance, and it recalls literary descriptions of masculine friendship such as are seen, for example, in the Chanson de Roland, where the friendship between Roland and Olivier is central to the plot.83 Similarly, idyllic love contrasts with the passionate love or fin’amor of the troubadour lyric, which is based on hierarchies and differences between the lovers. In a study of late medieval England, Merridee L. Bailey emphasises how the process of socialisation has long been considered the central component in the production of ‘a well-adjusted adult who had thoroughly absorbed the current conventions of society and could meet its demands’.84 As we shall see, the education of the two lovers plays a central role in Floire et Blancheflor. In light of the civilising aspects of the Europeanisation of culture, one may wonder whether the narrative’s exploration of education was part of this success. It is also interesting to consider the role of education for women, in this case Blancheflor, in the wider European perspective. As noted by Carolyne Larrington, Floire’s insistance that Blancheflor must study with him ‘points up the realization that educational parity might contribute to a successful marriage; female literacy was becoming desirable for a noble wife who might need to oversee the administration of her husband’s estates in his absence’.85 In the case of the Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor, which is linked to a number of historical women such as Queen Eufemia, Ingeborg, Elin and Märta Vuagnoux-Uhlig, Le couple en herbe, p. 71. Vuagnoux-Uhlig, Le couple en herbe, p. 72 84 Merridee L. Bailey, Socialising the Child in Late Medieval England, c. 1400–1600 (York: York Medieval Press, 2012), p. 194. 85 Larrington, Brothers and Sisters, p. 228. See also Carolyne Larrington, Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook (London and New York, NY: Routledge, 1995), p. 191. 82 83

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Children of Medieval Europe (see Introduction), one may wonder whether the very fact that both protagonists’ eductation plays such a prominent role in the narrative might have been an important factor to emphasise when having this text translated and copied. Even though the different versions of Floire et Blancheflor all contain references to the two children’s education, which in itself underlines its importance, they differ in their methods of presenting it. When Floire has reached five years of age (or seven in the Middle English text), the king wishes to send him to the master Gaidon in order to give him an education and agrees to let Blancheflor accompany her beloved. According to the French Conte, ‘a letres le vaut faire aprendre’ (v. 202) (he wanted him to learn letters). In the Spanish text, we learn that ‘era en tiempo que podía leer’ (p. 146) (he was old enough to learn how to read). In the Middle English text, it states: ‘But his son were sette to lore / On the book, letters to know’ (vv. 10–11). When we look at the Scandinavian versions, meanwhile, education is not directly linked to written culture, as is the case in the other texts. The saga says: ‘þá lét hann fœra hann til skóla í þann stað, er á Vísdon heitir’ (p. 8) (then he let him be sent to school, in the place that is called Wisdom) and the Old Swedish text goes one step further: ‘tha looth han them til skola føra, / at the matte ther visdom høra’ (vv. 123–24) (then he let them be sent to school, so that they could receive wisdom). Even though ‘høra’ rhymes with ‘føra’, the choice of this verb seems to reveal a different vision of education, linked to a more oral context. Indeed, in the French text, the concrete result of the studies that are said to have taken five years (v. 265) is summed up in two verses: ‘bien sorent parler latin / et bien escrire en parkemin’ (vv. 267–68) (that they knew how to speak Latin and write well on parchment). This education in Latin is unsurprising: Latin was the language of the Church and of the educated part of the population. Even though most people in the Middle Ages did not speak Latin, those who actually learnt it became members of a European community.86 Thus, one could say that Latin played an enduring role in the Europeanisation process. The education of Floire and Blancheflor even finds parallels in the Tristan tradition: the extensive education of Tristan included the study of several foreign languages in Gottfried von Strassburg’s Middle High German Tristan and Brother Robert’s Tristams saga ok Ísöndar.87 In the Middle English translation, the French verses are rendered as 86

Herbert Grundmann, ‘Litteratus – illitteratus: Der Wandel einer Bildungsnorm vom Altertum zum Mittelalter, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, Band 40, (1958), 1–65; Bernhard Bischoff, ‘The Study of Foreign Languages in the Middle Ages’, Speculum 36.2 (1961), 209–24 (p. 210). 87 Danielle Buschinger, ‘L’enfant dans les romans de Tristan en France et en Allemagne’, Senefiance 9, (1989), 253–68; Emmanuèle Baumgartner, ‘La Parole amoureuse: Amourous Discourse in the Prose Tristan’, in Tristan and Isolde: A

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture follows: ‘Inowgh they couth of Latyne, / And wel wryte on parchemyn.’ (vv. 33–34) (Enough they knew of Latin, and they could write on parchment). The Crónica specifies what kinds of texts they wrote in Latin and also refers to other types of acquired knowledge: ‘en seis años aprendieron fablar en lógica e fablar en latín, tanto como en arávigo. E en latín escrivién versos de amor’ (p. 146) (in six years they learnt to speak in logic and in Latin, as well as in Arabic. And they wrote verses of love in Latin) (p. 146). The reference to Arabic highlights especially well the multilingual context of medieval Spain. The Scandinavian translations, on the other hand, say that the studies went on for four years and only refer to Latin as the language that the lovers learnt: ‘þau tǫluðu latínu djarfliga fyrir hverjum meistara, er við þau talaði’ (p. 10) (they spoke Latin courageously with each master that they talked to), ‘the for klærka ok (swa for) vala / kunno mæstirlika bookmaal tala’ (vv. 157–58) (they could speak Latin brilliantly to priests and foreigners). Once again, the Nordic versions omit the reference to a written education. The dividing line constructed between literacy and orality is revealing, especially when considered within the associated historical context(s), in which very few children received a similar or standardised education. The passages could be linked to the prologues of the French Conte, in which the two sisters discuss a written source, as discussed above. One may even wonder to what extent the Nordic texts’ focus on orality actually reveals something important about the possible foci of a typical courtly education in the Nordic world – an education that was particularly European in nature. The education that is given to Floire and Blancheflor results in a love between the two characters that is more than just a form of juvenile affection. We learn that ‘Au plus tost que souffri Nature / ont en amer mise lor cure’ (vv. 223–24) (As soon as Nature permitted, they devoted themselves to loving each other). Several verses later, we also hear: Cius lires les fist molt haster en autre sens d’aus entramer que de l’amor de noureture qui lor avoit esté a cure. (vv. 231–34) (These books very soon made them love each other in another way than the fraternal love they had felt before.)

The other texts abbreviate the longer passage to which this one belongs, a section which is dedicated to the ways in which the love between the two children developed during their studies together. It should also be noted that the entire insular branch omits the following passage, in which the narrator describes how the children spend considerable time together in Casebook, ed. Joan Tasker Grimbert (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 187–206 (p. 188).

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Children of Medieval Europe a garden in which Floire’s father has planted a mandrake and where the birds sing: Un vergier a li peres Floire u plantee est li mandegloire, toutes les herbes et les flours qui sont de diveres coulours. Flouri i sont li arbrissel, d’amors i cantent li oiseil. La vont li enfant deporter cascun matin et por disner. Quand il mangeoient et bevoient, li oisel deseure aus cantoient. Des oiselés oënt les cans, çou est la vie as deus enfans. (vv. 241–52) (Floire’s father had an orchard where a mandrake was planted, as well as herbs and flowers of different colours. The trees are in blossom; the birds sing songs of love. The children go there to amuse themselves each morning and at dinnertime. When they ate and drank, the birds sang above them. To listen to the birds singing – that is the life of the two children.)

This omitted passage seems to recall similar love scenes from other courtly romances and thus connects the text to a wider literary tradition. In the Conte, it is then described how Latin becomes the language of love: ‘et consiller oiant la gent / en latin, que nus nes entent’ (vv. 269–70) (and they could speak secretly in Latin in front of everyone, such that no one understood them), a point that is also omitted from the translations. The fact that this passage, which is dedicated to the love between the two children, is omitted in all other versions discussed here is important: even though the children fall in love at an early age in all texts, their childhood is presented merely as a background to their love – and not as the condition that gives rise to it. The Crónica differs in the sense that the love that is described in the Conte as a consequence of the children’s common education is in fact linked to the common breastfeeding that they had as children, though their love is nonetheless one born between two adults of 18 years of age, rather than between two children: ‘e otrosí porque en un día nasçieran e en uno los criaran, e mamavan una leche e uno comién e bevién, e en un lecho se echavan. E desque fueron de diez e ocho años amáronse naturalmente como omne a muger’ (pp. 146–47) (and also because they were born on the same day and were raised together, suckled with the same milk, and ate and drank together, and laid in the same bed. And when they were 18 years old they fell in love naturally, as man to woman). 113

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture The links between education and love are expressed more concretely in the Nordic texts, where the translators not only refer to the fact that they read books, but also introduce a reference to Ovid. In the saga, for instance: ‘En þau námu pá bók, er heitir Óvidíus de arte amandi: en hon er gerð af ást, ok þótti þeim mikil skemtan ok gleði af, þvíat þau fundu þar með sína ást’ (pp. 9–10) (They learnt the book that is called De arte amandi by Ovid: it is about love, and it gave them much amusement and pleasure, because there they found their own love). The Swedish text states: Ouidium ther the nima j skola; han kenner nødh for ælskog thola, och ælskog ganger for all ting, ther werlden ganger medh omkring. (vv. 151–54) (Ovid, as they read in school, teaches that love must endure pain, and love comes before all those things that exist in the world.)

This reference to Ovid does not exist in the French, English or Spanish texts. However, it can be found in Boccaccio’s Il Filocolo.88 Thus, even though a considerable part of the discourse of love is abbreviated, it still garners the translators’ attention and interest; they did not simply omit the whole passage, but actually added their own interpretation to it.

The links between the different versions of Floire et Blancheflor are intricate and reflect how literature crossed linguistic and cultural borders in the Middle Ages. The Spanish Crónica has stimulated a new discussion of how the tale spread in medieval Europe, such that the French Conte should no longer be considered a priori more genuine or superior; on the contrary, it requires careful comparative study within its broader European context. As highlighted by Lydia Zeldenrust in her study of the Mélusine tradition, the French origin of a particular literary tradition ‘does not mean that there is simply one central point of origin with several lines of influence moving outward to other languages and cultural contexts. There is ample evidence that the translations also influenced each other.’89 The parallels between the Spanish chronicle and the saga are to be found in specific and isolated episodes – the majority of the narrative, According to Boccaccio’s version Il Filocolo, Racheio teaches the children the holy book of Ovid. For a discussion on this passage, see Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor, pp. 130–31. 89 Zeldenrust, The Mélusine Romance, p. 225. 88

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Children of Medieval Europe however, reveals the saga to be closer to the Conte. Even though this does not exclude a lost Spanish source somewhere between the extant Crónica and the Conte, the closest extant version remains the French text. The fragmentary status of the Anglo-Norman V should remind us of the fact that we do not know the entire context of the French tradition. It is possible, and even likely, that the saga derives from a French version that, just like the Spanish text, had a more religious focus. We may never be able to glean a completely clear picture of the stemma of the entire European tradition of Floire et Blancheflor – the tradition is too widespread and troubled by lacunae. Nevertheless, the study of the different extant versions provides a vivid example of the dissemination of texts in the Middle Ages and how one specific tale with a relatively linear plot-line can be adapted in various ways in order to fit different contexts. As we have seen when comparing the Conte with the texts from the insular tradition, the French version presents far more nuanced vocabulary concerning children than do the other texts. This may be at least partially due to the fact that the Old West Norse, the Old Swedish and the Middle English translations are shorter than the Conte. But it also seems likely that the translators deliberately opted to avoid devoting too much time to the provision of a nuanced and literary picture of childhood. It is not clear how long we are expected to consider the protagonists as children in the French and English texts, especially with regard to the static use of the denominations enfans/child. When looking at the Nordic translations, however, childhood is more clearly delineated and seems to end when Flores sets out to search for his beloved – from that moment he is no longer referred to as a child. While childhood is one of the central literary themes of the Conte, present throughout the whole narrative despite the increasing age of the lovers and linking the text thematically to other idyllic romances, it is presented as a far more trivial episode in the Nordic texts, one that could even be read more as a kind of prologue to the courtly adventure that is to follow, thus in effect replacing the two prologues of the Conte. The passage dedicated to the love between the two children is far longer in the Conte than in its translations: the other texts, as well as the Anglo-Norman V, contain no references to the garden where they became lovers, or to the birds that sang to them. Despite the references to Ovid in the Nordic texts, the links between education and love are also less rigid: in none of the Nordic texts, for instance, is Latin presented as the secret language of the lovers, but merely as a core part of a solid education. Moreover, the Nordic reception of Floire et Blancheflor raises the question as to how young people of the court were educated. Even if they read Ovid, the Nordic lovers are never mentioned as having learned how to write. 115

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Despite their holding a similar view of childhood as a separate period in human development, there are differences between the Nordic texts when it comes to how they describe this specific stage. The Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor is the only version among those that I have discussed that refers to how the two children played together – a matter that does appear in Levertin’s poem, which was cited at the opening of this chapter. This reinforces the view of childhood as a separate and bounded period of life, reflecting a biological reality rather than a sophisticated literary motif. Moreover, the Swedish text never makes any references to parental love. Even though the Swedish Flores addresses his father as fadher, their relationship resembles that between a king and a servant and mainly serves as a means to exhibit courtly manners. The strong parental emotions invoked by Flores’ departure could be linked to this courtly focus: it emphasises the parents’ loss of control over their son and echoes the weeping lady Laudine in Herr Ivan, who needed to hold back her tears in order to maintain control of her realm. The Swedish Flores och Blanzeflor thus belongs to the periphery of this particular romance tradition: it was translated far later than most other versions and probably through an Old West Norse intermediary. Nevertheless, the text deserves close scholarly attention since it reveals how the tale was read in one specific context. In the same way as Herr Ivan, it presents a coherent interpretation of the tale that is best understood in relation to the closely related versions: by considering the role of childhood as a delimited period in the protagonists’ lives rather than a condition for a sophisticated literary love, the translator clarifies and simplifies the structure of the narrative, at the same time as toning down the incestuous aspect of the love tale. Floire et Blancheflor stands out for its contribution to the Europeanisation of medieval culture in that it spread to a broad variety of cultural and linguistic contexts. The central position of the East in the narrative might indeed have been a motivation behind the choice to translate this specific text in some of these linguistic and cultural contexts. In the case of the Swedish text, one can link the references to the exotic East to the project of connecting Swedish culture to a broader context: it may be seen as an early example of orientalism, but above all it reflects the Europeanisation process in which Swedish culture positioned itself in a wider cultural landscape. When comparing the different European versions of the narrative, the theme of childhood does not emerge as the theme that unites the different European texts – the different interpretations rather reflect diverse visions and interests, and none of the translators pay it particular attention. The theme that reveals itself as core to all versions is love: it is, of course, presented differently depending on the version at hand, but nonetheless attracts the translators’ attention in all cases. Given that Floire et 116

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Children of Medieval Europe Blancheflor is centred on the love story between the two protagonists, this interest may seem obvious. It is, though, still worth underlining the fact in relation to the wide transmission of the narrative. The idyllic love depicted in Floire et Blancheflor must be seen as a central part of medieval European culture and an integral cog in the Europeanisation process. As we shall see in the next chapter, the importance of well-mastered speech, acknowledged in the passage dedicated to the children’s education, remained a central motif in Swedish courtly literature.

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N 4 n Animals, Beastliness and Language: Valentin et Orson In Charles Dickens’ famous A Christmas Carol, written in 1843, a ghost reminds the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge of a Christmas when the latter was a child: ‘And Valentine, said Scrooge, and his wild brother, Orson; there they go!’1 Dickens’ reference to Valentine and his brother of course harks back to the tradition of these two twins in European literature: thanks to a great number of printed versions from the fifteenth century onwards, versions of this tale crossed many linguistic and cultural borders.2 For example, the French Valentin et Orson, written in prose in the fifteenth century, was quickly translated into other languages, such as English at the beginning of the sixteenth century and Italian in the middle of the sixteenth century. The English translation in particular provided the source for a considerable number of new versions, and it inspired several later authors – Shakespeare may even have been one of them.3 More recently, in 1989, the tale was adapted for children by Nancy Ekholm Burkert in her children’s book, Valentine and Orson.4 The European tradition of Valentin et Orson illustrates the difficulty of positing the French text as the source and model for the whole tradition. Indeed, even though most scholars seem to agree that the tradition has Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (London: Chapman & Hall, 1843), p. 51. On the popularity of the tale and in particular its Middle English version Valentine and Orson, see Velma Bourgeois Richmond, The Popularity of Middle English Romance (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976). 2 However, as Larrington has pointed out in her book on siblings, twins are relatively rare in the medieval European romance, see Larrington, Brothers and Sisters, p. 61. One may indeed wonder to what extent the theme of two twin brothers contributed to the European success of this particular narrative. 3 Helen Cooper, ‘The Strange History of Valentine and Orson’, in Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Romance, ed. Rosalind Field (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999), pp. 153–68 (pp. 164–65). 4 Nancy Ekholm Burkert, Valentine and Orson (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989). 1

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture its roots in the French Middle Ages, Valentin et Orson is not the oldest surviving text about the two twin brothers. On the contrary, verse narratives in Middle Dutch, Middle Low German and Old Swedish, anterior to the French prose text, seem to bring us one step closer to a lost French verse original, a chanson de geste, with the hypothetical name of Valentin et Sansnom and presumed written in the first half of the fourteenth century. The oldest surviving text witness is a Middle Dutch fragment. This version seems to stand independently and tell a more developed tale, which was subsequently abbreviated by the other texts.5 The Middle Low German Valentin und Namelos is the oldest complete version and a text that could, according to previous research, offer us a sense of the shape of the lost French text. It is preserved in two manuscripts, both compilations, from the fifteenth century: Stockholm, Kungliga bibliotheket, Cod. Holm. Vu 73, and Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. 102c in scrinio (Hartebok). The Swedish scholar Gustaf Edvard Klemming was the first, in 1846, to point out the anteriority of Valentin und Namelos to the oldest preserved French version. According to Arthur Dickson’s study of 1929, the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German versions derived from a Middle Dutch source, now lost, that would have been a translation from the lost French original.6 It is generally accepted that the Old Swedish Namnlös och Valentin was translated directly from Valentin und Namelos. Like the French prose text, the Swedish translation dates from the fifteenth century. By comparison with Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor, discussed in the previous chapters, there is no doubt that Namnlös och Valentin is close to its source, even though it has replaced the rhymed verse of the Middle Low German text with prose. Scholars have generally argued that the translator’s source was another Middle Low German manuscript than the two that are preserved.7 Although the Swedish translation is written in prose, it contains short passages in verse and the question of the metric form of the text has been the subject of much discussion. Some scholars have considered these passages to be influenced by the Eufemiavisor, while others have seen them as influenced by the German source. Either way, these passages give the Swedish text a hybrid character, in which the prose is marked by a rhythm akin to that of verse.8 The extant French Valentin et Orson belongs to the large group of late medieval prose renditions of earlier verse epics or romances. The earliest trace of it is in an incunable from 1489, printed by the Jacques Maillet of Arthur Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study in Late Medieval Romance (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1929), pp. 12–13. 6 Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 12. 7 See for example Wolf, ed., Namnlös och Valentin, p. lxxv. 8 Ferrari, ‘Da Valentin a Falantin, p. 374. 5

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Animals, Beastliness and Language Lyon, and of which four copies are preserved today. Valentin et Orson is the first book that carries Maillet’s name; he would later also publish Fierabras, Jason et Medée, Baudouin de Flandres, Recueil des histoires troyennes and Descruction de Jherusalem.9 Maillet’s edition of Valentin et Orson is followed by several other editions of the tale, first in Lyon and then in Paris. There are at least 50 printed French versions of the tale preserved, ranging in date from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Twelve of these are from the sixteenth century. The preserved versions also include the nineteenth-century adaptation that appeared as part of the ‘Bibliothèque Bleue’ series.10 In a recent article on the first printed editions of Valentin et Orson, Maria Colombo Timelli highlights the ways in which the tale evolved between two editorial centres, Lyon and Paris. Colombo Timelli draws attention to the fact that Maillet’s incunable is not an ideal product in terms of both its physical quality and its transmission of the narrative: ‘le seul critère de l’ancienneté d’un témoin, en l’occurrence de l’editio princeps, ne saurait suffire’.11 As stated by Shira Schwam-Baird, who has edited the French text, Valentin et Orson is above all ‘a polymorphic text’, with influences from a wide range of genres.12 Michelle Szkilnik similarly emphasises its generic diversity.13 Whereas Dickson considered the French Valentin et Orson a romance, it is more commonly held to be a development from the epic genre. The term romance is however still occasionally used in reference to Valentin et Orson – one example is Helen Cooper’s article on the text.14 In order to understand the different arguments relating to the genre of Valentin et Orson, one has to consider the generic conventions of romance and epic to the context of late medieval French literature. Georges Doutrepont has argued that the literary genres that are generally used to categorise high medieval literature do not make sense when it comes to later prose renditions, such as Valentin et Orson.15 François Suard speaks of the late French epic (‘l’épopée française tardive’) and William Kibler 9 10

11

12

13 14

15

Maria Colombo Timelli, ‘Valentin et Orson, de Paris à Lyon’, Carte Romanze 3.1 (2015), 313–32; 352–58 (p. 315). Shira Schwam Baird, ‘La longue vie de Valentin et Orson’, in Pour un nouveau répertoire des mises en prose. Roman, chanson de geste, autres genres, ed. Maria Colombo Timelli, Barbara Ferrari and Anne Schoysman (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014), pp. 297–305, (pp. 300–02). Colombo Timelli, ‘Valentin et Orson’, p. 331. Shira Schwam-Baird, Valentin et Orson: An Edition and Translation of the Fifteenth-Century Romance Epic (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2011), p. xii. Michelle Szkilnik, ‘Pacolet ou Les infortunes de la magie’, Le Moyen Français 35–36 (1994), 91–109 (p. 104). Cooper, ‘The Strange History’, pp. 153–68. Georges Doutrepont, Les mises en prose des épopées et des romans chevaleresques du XIVe au XVe siècles (Brussels: Académie royale, 1939), p. 4.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture refers to a number of late medieval texts as ‘chansons d’aventure’.16 Similarly, Danielle Quérel argues that later prose renditions blur the lines between literary genres.17 In an article on Jean d’Arras’ Roman de Mélusine, Kevin Brownlee draws attention to the hybrid body of Mélusine, who has a woman’s body, a mixed body (half-woman and half-snake) and the body of a flying snake.18 He analyses the different kinds of metamorphosis that she undergoes and argues that her mutating body reflects ‘a discursive composite’ linked to different genres.19 Lydia Zeldenrust suggests that this generic hybridity might actually explain the success of the narrative on a European level: ‘there seems to be something there for everyone, and so each translator may choose to focus on some elements more than others.’20 Even though Valentin et Orson is different from the Mélusine romance in several ways, it is also characterised by its generic hybridity and is much occupied with the metamorphosis of the wild brother Orson/Namelos/Namnlös, who mutates from animal to human. Considering the broad dissemination of both Mélusine and Valentin et Orson, one may wonder to what extent the hybridity of these two characters, not only on a generic level but also in their guises as animals and humans, may explain their European success and even contributed to the Europeanisation of medieval culture.21 16

17

18 19

20 21

François Suard, ‘L’épopée française tardive (XVIe–XVe s.), in Études de philologie romane et d’histoire littéraire offertes à Jules Horrent, ed. Jean Marie d’Heur and Nicoletta Cherubini (Liège: Université de Liège, 1980), pp. 449–60; William Kibler, ‘« La chanson d’aventure »’, in Essor et fortune de la chanson de geste dans l’Europe et l’Orient latin: actes du IXe Congrès International de la Société Rencevals, 2 vols (Modena: Mucchi, 1984), pp. 509–15. For a survey of the research on the Old French and Middle French epic, see Philip E. Bennett, 'Chansons de geste and Chansons d'aventures: Recent Perspectives on the Evolution of a Genre', French Studies LXVI.4 (2012), 525–32. Danielle Quérel, ‘Des mises en prose aux romans de chevalerie dans les collections bourguignonnes’, in Actes du VIe colloque international sur le moyen français, vol. 2, Rhétorique et mises en prose au XVe siècle, ed. Sergio Cigada and Anna Slerca (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1991), pp. 173–93 (p. 189). Kevin Brownlee, ‘Mélusine’s Hybrid Body and the Poetics of Metamorphosis’, Yale French Studies 86 (1994), 18–38. Mélusine is, according to Brownlee, ‘a hybrid mixture of the discourses of conte de fée, courtly romance, crusade-epic, political historiography, travelogue/pilgrimage, popular theology, Hundred-Years-War propaganda’. Brownlee, ‘Mélusine’s Hybrid Body’, p. 38. Zeldenrust, The Mélusine Romance, p. 11. Zeldenrust draws attention to the central role of Mélusine’s hybridity in all versions, as well as its key role in the iconographic tradition: ‘the moment where we first discover the details of her hybrid form remains a key point in all Mélusine versions. Perhaps it is only fitting, then, that Mélusine’s hybridity also becomes her most defining, emblematic feature in the images, and is even highlighted as the romance’s main selling point’. Zeldenrust, The Mélusine Romance, p. 230.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language The most obvious difference between the French prose adaptation Valentin et Orson and the Middle Low German verse text is that the French adaptation is about ten times longer. As stated by Dickson, the tale of Valentin und Namelos ‘is drastically abbreviated and baldly told, while [Valentin et Orson] is leisurely, even prolix’.22 The first parts of the respective narratives resemble each other a great deal – it is the second part that differs considerably. The French text adds a number of elements that do not exist in the extant Germanic versions, among them several battles, the Green Knight, the magician Pacolet, a flying wooden horse and a talking brass head – we shall return to the last of these later. As shown by Michelle Szkillnik, supernatural elements are particularly abundant in the French prose rendition.23 Early scholarship on the text tradition was mainly preoccupied with the relationship between the different extant versions, especially with the original version of the tale. Wilhelm Seelmann, who edited Valentin und Namelos, considered the Middle Low German text to be an adaptation of a folk-tale.24 Arthur Dickson examined this hypothesis in more detail and tried to trace all possible influences for the development of the narrative, arguing that the main source was ‘a märchen of the Jealous Sisters type’.25 This view was challenged by Alexander Haggerty Krappe, who argued that the origin was rather an ancient twin-tale.26 The prologues of the different versions offer an interesting and representative example of the differences between the narratives. The prologue of Jacques Maillet’s edition clearly sets the tone of what will follow: Vous princes et aultres seigneurs qui prenés plaisir a lire tous livres, je vous veul racompter la vie des nobles seigneurs Valentin et Orson, nepveux du vaillant et redoubté roy Pepin, jadis roy de France. Pour voir la declaraition dudit livre plus amplement, lisez premierement ceste presente table en laquelle on trouvera que ce present livre contient lxxiiii. chapitres, lesquels parlent de plusieurs belles et diverses matieres, lesquels pourront voir ceulx qui liront ce premier chapitre long a long (p. 2).27

Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 157. Szkilnik, ‘Pacolet ou Les infortunes de la magie’, p. 92. 24 Wilhelm Seelmann, ed., Valentin und Namelos: Die niederdeutsche Dichtung. Die hochdeutsche Prosa. Die Bruchstücke der mittelniederländischen Dichtung. Nebst Einleitung, Bibliographie und Analyse des Romans Valentin et Orson (Norden and Leipzig: Diedr. Soltau’s Verlag, 1884). 25 Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 23. 26 Alexander Haggerty Krappe, ‘Valentine and Orson’, Modern Language Notes, 47.8 (1932), 493–98. 27 The quotations from Valentin et Orson, as well as the English translations of the same text, follow Schwam-Baird’s edition. 22 Dickson,

23

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (My lords and princes, you who take pleasure in reading all kinds of books, I wish to tell you the story of the noble lords Valentin and Orson, nephews of the valiant and respected King Pepin, long ago king of France. For a fuller understanding of this book, first read this table of contents where you will discover that this book contains seventy-four chapters, which speak of many beautiful and diverse subjects, and which those who read this first chapter completely will be able to see.)

The narrator addresses himself to a public made up of men, princes and seigneurs, and stresses the tale’s pleasantness. The subject is said to be the life of the two brothers, as well as many beautiful and diverse matters. The English version of Henry Watson presents several similarities: All Prynces and other Lordes that take pleasure for to rede all bookes I wyl recounte vnto you the lyfe of the two chyualrous Lordes Valentyne and Orson, sonnes of the Emperoure of Grece, and Neuewes vnto the myghty Kynge Pepyn kynge of Fraunce. The whiche historye I Henrye Watson symple of vnderstondynge haue translated out of Frenche in to our maternall tongue of Englyshe, at the Instaunce of my worshypfull mayster Wynkyn de Worde. Prayeng all the reders or hearers here of to haue my youth for excused, yf I haue fayled in any thyng (p. 1).28

Apart from addressing, once again, a male public, Watson underlines his role as translator, asking his readers to be kind in the face of possible errors. He also refers to the printer, Wynkyn de Worde, for whom he had also had other texts translated from French to English. The Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts differ from the others in several ways. The Middle Low German text begins in medias res, without a prologue. However, it contains five verbatim references in other parts of the text to the lost French source: ‘also ik ût deme walschen las’ (vv. 530, 1654, 1738, 2300 and 2532) (as I read in the French [text]).29 These references have been considered as proof of the existence of the lost French original.30 The Swedish translation, which, as stated above, is generally close to its source, adds a prologue and an epilogue.31 The prologue is interesting for several reasons: Her effter børiæs eth høffuist æuintyr aff Nampnlos och Falantin, aff all theres mandom, som the bedriffuo j theres daga; och ær lusteligit at

The quotations from the Middle English version follow Dickson, ed., Valentine and Orson. 29 The quotations from the Middle Low German version follow Seelmann, ed., Valentin und Namelos. The translations are mine. 30 See Seelmann, Valentin und Namelos. 31 For a close analysis of these modifications, see Ferrari, ‘Da Valentin a Falantin’. 28

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Animals, Beastliness and Language høræ, hwo ther wil giffuæ liudh och akt pa, at fordriffuæ tiiden til thæs en høgre glædi komber. (p. 2)32 (Hereafter begins a courtly adventure of Namnlös and Valentin and of all their heroic achievements in their days, amusing to hear for those who want to listen and pay attention, and will while away time until a higher form of joy arrives.)

Like the author of the French prose text, the Swedish translator tells us that his story should be pleasant to listen to, adding that it makes for a diverting pastime while waiting for a superior form of joy to arrive. The term ävintyr, meaning both the chivalric adventure and the story of such an adventure, links the translation to other Old Swedish romances. Indeed, Hertig Fredrik in Normandie begins similarly: ‘Eth æuintyr thet byriæs hær’ (v. 1) (An adventure begins here).33 By describing the adventure as ‘hövisker’ (courteous), the link to the courtly romance is strengthened. In addition, when the translator notes that he has written an entertaining story based on what happened in an indefinite past, he evokes the notably similar opening of Herr Ivan, whose prologue states precisely the same thing. While the other prologues contain references to the intended audience, princes and lords, the Swedish text presents no equivalent designated set of addressees. In all texts, Valentin’s twin brother lives like a wild man in the forest before he meets his brother and undergoes a metamorphosis. However, whereas the French Orson is raised by a she-bear, the German and Swedish Namelos/Namnlös is brought up by a she-wolf. In this chapter, I will discuss the role of animals and beastliness in the French, Middle English, Middle Low German and Old Swedish versions. This question could obviously be studied in isolation within each of the vernacular traditions, since each one of them comprises different manuscripts and/ or prints that, in their turn, often form a heterogenic group. I will nevertheless limit my discussion to one representative of each tradition: Jacques Maillet’s and Henry Watson’s printed versions, as well as the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts. I will start by discussing the role of the wolf and the bear in the upbringing of Orson/Namelos/ Namnlös and then analyse the different depictions of both the beastliness of the wild brother and his metamorphosis. I will finally draw attention to the roles played by the serpent, the panther and the brass head – elements that in one way or another reveal the brothers’ identities. As we shall see, the themes associated with animals are continuously reworked by the

The quotations from Namnlös och Valentin follow Wolf’s edition. The translations are mine. 33 Noreen, ed., Hertig Fredrik av Normandie. 32

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture translators and in the case of the Swedish text, this reworking reveals a clear ideological agenda.

L’ourse getta l’enfant parmy les oursons: The Wolf and the Bear Like children, animals have for some considerable time remained at the margins of the writing of history; only more recently have they become a field of study in their own right. The work of the French scholar Robert Delort from 1984 played a particularly pivotal role in facilitating a deeper discussion of the question of animals in history.34 It was also in the 1980s that a so-called ‘animal turn’ occurred in both the humanities and, especially, the social sciences. Scholars attempted to shift the focus from the human to the animal: ‘Critical Animal Studies destabilizes humanism’s hierarchical human/animal binary by revealing these categories to be contingent and mutually constituted’.35 In respect of the Scandinavian context, Lena Rohrbach’s book on the relations between humans and animals in the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas has laid the ground for a more profound understanding of animals in medieval Iceland.36 The Swedish context however deserves more attention. The central role of the lion in Herr Ivan (see Chapter 2) may have inspired the translator behind Namnlös och Valentin. Throughout the Middle Ages, animals frequently functioned as metaphors for human behaviour and were often used to convey particular meanings. The famous Physiologos served as the basis for many medieval bestiaries, and medieval literature repeatedly places animals in the foreground of its narratives: the most famous example is probably the Roman de Renart, but the Lais of Marie de France and the Mélusine tradition also provide important examples of the central role that animals played in the medieval imagination. As argued by the French medievalist Michel Pastoureau, medieval views of animals are marked by great curiosity, but also by a binary division in the perception of their status.37 On the one hand, animals were sometimes described as inferior and the precise opposite of humans, who were believed to have been created in the image of God. On the other hand, the closeness between man and animal, in terms of more than mere biology, was frequently emphasised. According to Joyce E. Salisbury, for example, the perceived boundaries between animals and humans started Robert Delort, Les animaux ont une histoire (Paris: Seuil, 1984). Anna Lisa Taylor, ‘Where are the wild things? Animals in western European History’, History Compass 16.3, 2018, 1–12 (p. 1). 36 Lena Rohrbach, Der tierische Blick: Mensch-Tier-Relationen in der Sagaliteratur (Tübingen and Basel: Francke, 2009). 37 Michel Pastoureau, Symboles du Moyen Age: Animaux, végétaux, couleurs, objets (Paris: Léopard d’Or, 2012), pp. 28–29. 34

35

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Animals, Beastliness and Language to break down in the twelfth century.38 She argues that, rather than the contact with real animals, it was the contact with imagined animals, in both art and literature, that began to prompt the blurring of these barriers.39 Furthermore, the broader diffusion of Ovid, which also started in the twelfth century, made the theme of metamorphosis a central tenet of medieval culture.40 In the late Middle Ages, half-human or shapeshifting creatures had become a common literary motif and the texts that I will discuss in this chapter provide just one example of this interest. Caroline Walker Bynum has discussed medieval conceptions of identity and change by analysing metamorphosis and hybridity, two phenomena that she considers distinct both in terms of their use and nature: […] I suggest, rather, that hybrid and metamorphosis are fundamentally different images and occur in different cultural contexts. They express different rhetorical strategies and different ontological visions; as the literary critics say, they do different ‘cultural work’. The hybrid expresses a world of natures, essences, or substances (often diverse or contradictory to each other), encountered through paradox; it resists change. Metamorphosis expresses a labile world of flux and transformation, encountered through story.41

As we shall see, Valentin’s wild brother could be linked to both phenomena, especially when considered from a broader European perspective: in other words, different versions adopt different approaches. Animals tend to be defined in relation to humans – they are what humans are not. According to Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas and many other medieval thinkers, the main difference between animals and humans consists in the animals’ lack of reason.42 In his work on the monstrous races in the Middle Ages, John Block Friedman argues that Greco-Roman accounts of the human persisted into the Middle Ages and beyond: ‘Everyday cultural differences in such things as diet, speech, clothes, weapons, customs, and social organization were what truly set alien peoples apart from their observers’.43 These differences not only apply to ‘alien people’, but could also help us define humans in relation to animals. As we shall see, the categories pointed out by Friedman have a close connection with the diverse descriptions of the wild brother. Joyce E. Salisbury, The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages (New York, NY: Routledge, 1994), p. 173, p. 176. 39 Salisbury, The Beast Within, p. 9. 40 Salisbury, The Beast Within, p. 163. 41 Caroline Walker Bynum, Metamorphosis and Identity (New York, NY: Zone Books, 2001), pp. 29–30. 42 Salisbury, The Beast Within, p. 5. 43 John Block Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 26. 38

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture The two twin brothers’ birth and upbringing are presented differently depending upon the version in question. In the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, the marriage between King Pippin’s sister Phila and the Hungarian king Crissosmos does not please Crissosmos’ mother and her ally, the bishop Frankart. When Phila is about to give birth to the twins, her mother-in-law asks one of her maidens to drown the two babies in the river secretly. The maiden however fails to obey her lady and puts one of the babies in a basket that floats down the river and leaves the other alone in the forest. The basket is found by the maiden Clarina, who raises the boy – Valentin, her true cousin – in a castle, giving him the finest chivalric education. The other boy is found in the forest by a she-wolf who takes care of him. The Middle Low German text describes the intervention of the she-wolf as follows: dar bi was eine wulvinne gelegen mit jungen wulven, also ik vorsta. de wulvinne quam deme kinde so na unde drôch it mit er in dat nest, se lede it mank de jungen bêst, it sôch alse ein ander dede. (vv. 176–81) (Close by lay a she-wolf with her small wolves, as I know. The she-wolf took the child and carried it with her into the nest. She laid him with the other young wolves and he suckled, as did the others.)

The Old Swedish text abbreviates the passage, omitting the two last verses that refer to how the boy grew up with the other wolves: ‘litet ther j fra haffde en ylffuæ sith boo. hon kom tiidh som barnit la och tok thet och bar j boet / och lagde thet j bland sinæ vngæ / och fødde thet som en annan vngæ.’ (p. 12) (Close by, a she-wolf had her nest. She came to where the child was; she took it, carried it to the nest and laid it with her young wolves and fed it like another cub.) In the French text, the plot is rather different, as are some of the characters. We learn how King Pepin’s sister Bellissant marries King Alexander, emperor of Constantinople, and that it is Alexander’s archbishop who, having tried to seduce Bellissant, decides to plot against her. Bellissant flees the castle and gives birth to her children in the forest. According to this version, Orson is not left alone, but kidnapped by the she-bear while still with his mother: Vers elle vint une grande ourse et velue a grant merveilles, qui en faisant chiere trop horrible et effroyee de Bellissant s’aprocha, et ung de ses deux enfants prist entre ses dens et parmy le bois s’en fouit. (p. 40)

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Animals, Beastliness and Language (a huge she-bear, marvellously hairy, came towards her, and, making horrible frightening faces, approached Bellissant and grabbed one of the children with her teeth and took off into the forest.)

Even though the Middle English translation is close to the French text, it first presents the bear as male: ‘ther came vnto her a beer, the which was marueilously great and horrible, and toke one of her children in his mouthe, and wente his waye into the thycke of the forest also faste as he myght.’ (pp. 33–34) As we shall see, this version is soon contradicted. After having lost Orson, Bellissant is filled with despair and starts to search for him, thus losing her other son, who is found and taken care of by King Pepin who passes through the forest at the same time. In the chapter that follows in the French text, we learn that the she-bear’s initial intention was not to raise the boy as her own but to serve him up as food for her own children: L’ourse qui avoit pris ung des enfans de Bellissant pas ne le devora, mais le porta en sa terrierre en une fosse profonde et obscure qui estoit sans clarté. En laquelle fosse avoit iiii. oursons fors et puissans. L’ourse getta l’enfant parmy les oursons ainsi comme celle qui leur baille a mengier, mais Dieu qui jamais ses amis n’oublye monstra evident miracle, car les oursons nul mal ne lui firent, mais de leurs pates velues commencerent a le plaigner moult doulcement. Quant l’ourse vit que ses petis oursons ne le vouloient devorer, elle fut fort amoureuse de l’enfant et tant que parmy les oursons le garda et alaitta ung an entier. Si fut l’enfant pour cause de la nutrition de l’ourse tant velu ainsi comme une beste sauvage. (p. 46) (The she-bear who had taken one of Bellissant’s children did not eat him; rather she carried him to her den in a deep, dark gully where little light shone. In this gully were four strong and powerful bear cubs. The she-bear threw the baby to the cubs for them to eat, but God, who never forgets those He loves, produced a miracle, for the cubs did not harm him: rather they began to play with him quite gently with their furry paws. When the she-bear saw that her little cubs didn’t want to devour him, she fell completely in love with the child, so much so that she kept him with her cubs and nursed him an entire year. The child then became as hairy as a wild beast because of the she-bear’s milk.)

It is important to note that Orson becomes an animal through the milk that the bear gives him. The Middle English translation similarly describes how Orson was suckled by the animal: The Beer that had taken one of the chyldren of Bellyssant, deuoured it not, but bare it in to his cauerne that was profounde and obsure. In the whiche was foure younge Beers stronge and puyssaunt. The Beer caste the chylde amonge hys whelpes to be eaten, but God that neuer

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture forgeteth his frendes shewed an euydent myracle. For the younge Beeres dydde it no harme, but with theyr roughe pawes strooked it softelye. When the Beer sawe that he lytle whelpes would not deuoure it, she was right amerous of the chylde (so much) that she kepte it and gaue it souke a hole yeare. The chylde was all roughe because of the neutrifaction of the beer, as a wilde beest. (pp. 37–38)

Importantly, the bear, first referred to as he, only begins to be referred to as a she-bear once it is said to love the boy. While the French and Middle English texts point out milk as the physical reason why the kidnapped Orson becomes half-animal, the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts do not contain such an explanation. As we have seen above, the Middle Low German narrator states that the little Namelos suckled the she-wolf (‘it sôch alse ein ander dede’), which the Old Swedish translator also transmits (‘och fødde thet som en annan vngæ’). These two texts, however, refer to how Clarina secretly brought up Valentin to become a noble knight and how she gave him goat’s milk: ‘[…] mellek vant / van einer segen […]’ (vv. 255–56) ([a servant] found milk from a goat); ‘hon fødde thet opp medh gete miølk’ (p. 16) (she brought it up with goat’s milk). According to Dickson, the fact that Valentin is fed with goat’s milk is a loan from the swan-children märchen.44 In the French text, Valentin does not drink goat’s milk, but is fed by a ‘nourrice’ (p. 40). One may wonder why the French version and its different translations feature a bear as the adoptive mother of the little boy, while the Germanic versions speak of a she-wolf. Is the bear a later invention – did the presumed original version of the French text also refer to a wolf – or is the wolf original to the Germanic tradition? Dickson argues that three texts in particular should be seen as sources for the role played by the wolf and the twin brothers, namely the Eustace legend, Guillaume d’Angleterre and Octavian: From the Eustace legend, or from the Guillaume d’Angleterre, [Valentin und Namelos] borrowed the fundamental idea of separation of the brothers brought about by a wolf, and combined it in an awkward way with the Jealous Sisters story of exposure and a suckling beast. From Octavian must have come the idea of combining such a separation story with the trials of a Calumniated Wife, and of developing it into a pair of independent life-histories.45

When it comes to the bear in the French text and its translations, Dickson argues that it is an influence from the epic Orson de Beauvais:

44 Dickson, 45 Dickson,

Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 37. Valentine and Orson: A Study, pp. 112–13.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language Our author was familiar with the other Orson of chanson de geste fame, Orson of Beauvais; for he incorporated most of the latter’s adventures into those of his own Orson […]. Evidently, then, he was struck here by a happy thought. The story called for a wild beast to carry off and suckle the hero. Let the hero be called Orson, a good traditional name, and let the beast be, appropriately, a bear. Perhaps the idea of using the Orson de Beauvais material was already in his mind, and helped to suggest the name; or perhaps the name, once thought of, suggested the later use of the material. At any rate, it seems clear that the name Orson was suggested by Orson de Beauvais, and that it in turn suggested the change from wolf to bear.46

Despite Dickson’s impressive knowledge of similar motifs in a wide range of literary texts, the possible sources that he points out cannot alone explain the shift from wolf to bear. In order to better understand the role played by the different animals, we need to pause briefly to consider their role in medieval culture more generally. Like Valentin and his brother, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus from Roman mythology, well known in the Middle Ages, were also separated from their mother as small children. Even though the two brothers were not separated from one another, they were, just like Namelos/Namnlös, suckled by a she-wolf. The role played by this she-wolf is in fact a relatively positive one, which is contrasted by the role of the wolf in Norse mythology, in which it is described as a most ferocious animal, particularly in the case of the monstrous Fenrir. Attitudes towards the wolf have evolved throughout history. Michel Pastoureau considers the fourth and the fifth centuries as a period when the wolf became more clearly associated with the evil – an evolution that he links to new environmental challenges.47 Similarly, in his book Lupi genti culture, the Italian historian Gherardo Ortalli argues that the fear of the wolf increased after the Roman period, caused by a demographic collapse that put people in more direct contact with the wolf.48 In another book on the wolf in the Middle Ages, Aleksander Pluskowski states that ‘human responses to the wolf’s environment in medieval northern Europe parallels responses to the wolf itself – attempts at controlling the uncontrollable in an increasingly ordered world’.49 Compared to England and Wales, where the wolf was extinct by the Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 171. Le loup, p. 39. Pastoureau refers to hagiography in which saints win over wolves or transform them into servants as an example of the less positive attitude towards the animal. 48 Gherardo Ortalli, Lupi genti culture: Uomo e ambiente nel Medioevo (Turin: Einaudi, 1997). 49 Aleksander Pluskowski, Wolves and Wilderness in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006), p. 194. 46 Dickson,

47 Pastoureau,

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture end of the Middle Ages, Pluskowski also draws attention to the fact that the Scandinavian wolf population did not suffer as much, only really diminishing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.50 One may wonder whether the actual lupine presence in these different contexts influenced the Middle Low German and Old Swedish writers in how they chose to describe the animal. Medieval bestiaries, commonly considering animals who can see in the dark as related to the Devil, also often describe the wolf as evil. The Latin beast epic Ysengrimus is centred on the wolf character with the same name, who is described as greedy and monstrous; the text functions as a satiric attack on monks.51 Wolves also became common literary characters through the many werewolf stories that explored the theme of metamorphosis from man or woman to wolf, one of the most famous being Marie de France’s Bisclavret, which was translated into Old West Norse together with others of Marie’s lais (referred to as Strengleikar).52 However, even though a fear of the wolf remained, the phenomenon acquired a more comic tone in the High Middle Ages: in literature, the animal came to be humiliated and ridiculed, such as in the Old French Roman de Renart, with its many branches, in which the wolf Isengrin is constantly mocked: he is described as stupid and easily fooled, and he becomes a victim of the other animals. The view of the bear has similarly changed over time.53 Michel Pastoureau has explored how in western culture the bear has gone from Wolves and Wilderness in the Middle Ages, p. 7, p. 194. Wolves and Wilderness in the Middle Ages, pp. 120–21. 52 The Old Norse translation of Bisclavret is known as Bisclaretz ljóð. See the edition of Strengleikar by Robert Cook and Mattias Tveitane, Norrøne tekster 3 (Oslo: Norsk Historisk Kjeldeskrift-Institutt, 1979), pp. 85–99. On werewolfs in medieval Icelandic literature, see Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ‘The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 106.3 (2007), 277–303. On the Strengleikar more generally, see Ingvil Brügger Budal, ‘Strengleikar og Lais: Høviske noveller i omsetjing frå gammalfransk til gammalnorsk’, 2 vol. (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Bergen, 2009); Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ‘Strengleikar in Iceland’, in Rittersagas: Übersetzung, Überlieferung, Transmission, ed. Jürg Glauser and Susanne Kramarz-Bein (Tübingen: Franke, 2014), pp. 119–31; Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ‘Old French lais and Icelandic sagnakvæði’, in Francia et Germania: Studies in Strengleikar and Þiðreks saga af Bern, ed. Karl G. Johansson and Rune Flaten (Oslo: Novus, 2012), pp. 265–88. 53 Even though the Old Swedish text speaks of the wolf and not the bear, it is important to emphasise that the bear played a core role in medieval Scandinavian culture as well. See for example Carl-Martin Edsman, Jägaren och makterna: Samiska och finska björnceremonier (Uppsala: Dialekt- och folkminnesarkivet, 1994). The first part of Edsman’s book has been translated and adapted into French by François-Xavier Dillmann: ‘La fête de l’ours chez les Lapons. Sources anciennes et recherches récentes sur certains 50 Pluskowski,

51 Pluskowski,

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Animals, Beastliness and Language being considered as the king of animals and the object of many cults to being replaced by the lion – this being the result of a long and persistent struggle on behalf of the medieval Church, which wanted to erase pagan beliefs and symbols: Roi des animaux, présent sur tous les territoires, redoutable et redouté, attribut des chefs et des guerriers, symbole de sauvagerie et de sexualité exacerbées, cousin ou ancêtre supposé de l’homme, objet de vénération et de cérémonies païennes dans toute l’Europe du Nord, amateur de jeunes filles et de jeunes femmes avec qui il passait pour s’accoupler, l’ours ne pouvait que terrifier l’Église chrétienne du haut Moyen Âge. Il lui apparaissait comme le plus dangereux de tous les animaux indigènes, et même comme une créature du Diable. Non pas tant parce qu’il était doté d’une force prodigieuse et qu’aucune autre bête ne pouvait le vaincre, mais surtout parce qu’il ressemblait étrangement à l’homme, au point qu’on lui prêtait des comportements humains, et aussi parce qu’il était par excellence l’animal des traditions orales, des croyances incontrôlables, des superstitions les plus difficiles à éradiquer.54

The bear can stand on two feet, jump, run, sit, swim and lie down; it is omnivorous and its body, without fur, resembles that of a human.55 According to Pastoureau, monotheistic religions do not like animals that nature or culture has considered close to humans and this was certainly the case with bears in the Middle Ages.56 The fact that Orson in the French text is kidnapped by a bear could be read as a reminder of the biological and symbolic affinity that early medieval thinkers saw between human and bear.57 Pastoureau shows how the war against rites de chasse aux confins septentrionaux de la Scandinavie’, Proxima Thulé, 2 (1996), 11–49. 54 Michel Pastoureau, L’ours: Histoire d’un roi déchu (Paris: Seuil, 2007), p. 123. English translation by George Holoch: ‘King of the beasts, present in every land, dreadful and dreaded, emblem of chiefs and warriors, symbol of extreme savagery and heightened sexuality, presumed cousin or ancestor of man, an object of veneration and pagan ceremonies throughout northern Europe, lover of girls and young women with whom it was thought he mated, the bear necessarily terrified the Church of the High Middle Ages. The Church saw the bear as the most dangerous of all indigenous animals and even as a creature of the Devil. This was not because it was endowed with such prodigious strength than no other animal could defeat it but primarily because it strangely resembled man, so much so that human conduct was attibuted to it. It was also the animal around which clustered oral traditions, uncontrollable beliefs, and the superstitions that were most difficult to eradicate.’ In Michel Pastoureau, The Bear: History of a Fallen King (Cambridge, MA, and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011), p. 89. 55 Pastoureau, L’ours, pp. 89–91. 56 Pastoureau, L’ours, p. 224. 57 Pastoureau, L’ours, p. 277.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture the bear consisted in first eliminating it physically, then giving it new symbolic values and finally associating it with the Devil. At the end of the twelfth century, this war was won by the lion. The latter was associated with written sources that the Church controlled to a greater extent than it could the oral tradition associated with the bear. The Roman de Renart is a perfect example of the bear’s fall from grace as a respectable species: the character Brun is described as stupid, afraid and unattractive, and is constantly mocked by the other animals, although he remains faithful to the king, the lion Noble. Schwam-Baird argues that the shift from wolf to bear in the tradition of Valentin et Orson should be understood in the light of the closeness between man and human in the folkloric tradition. She draws attention to the wild man motif’s popularity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and to the ritual of the wild man hunt, which sometimes confused the man and the bear: ‘[…] the conflation of bear and man in the folklore tradition of the wild man hunt not only gave Orson his name, but also determined the source of his entry into wildness, namely, the formative suckling by a she-bear, not a she-wolf.’58 At the same time as this folklore ritual may have influenced the writer of Valentin et Orson, it should be stressed that the French prose rendition and its translations fit well with their historical context, in which the bear had become a peripheral – and literary – animal. Pastoureau writes: Disparu de maintes régions, délaissé par les rois et les princes, difficile à observer ou à étudier, l’ours se transforme peu à peu en un animal de fiction, une créature exotique, un objet de rêves et de fantasmes, les uns dynastiques ou emblématiques, les autres chimériques ou ludiques, d’autres encore fortement érotiques.59

The French Orson is a vivid example of this late medieval literary fascination for the bear. As we shall see, he is described not just as a wild man when brought back to civilisation by his brother, but also as the object of feminine interest.

58

Shira Schwam-Baird, ‘Terror and Laughter in the Images of the Wild Man: The Case of the 1489 Valentin et Orson’, in Fifteenth-Century Studies 27, A Special Issue on Violence in Fifteenth-Century Text and Image, ed. Edelgard E. DuBruck and Yael Even (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002), pp. 238–56 (p. 247). 59 Pastoureau, L’ours, p. 246. English translation by Holoch: ‘Gone from many regions, neglected by kings and princes, hard to observe or study, the bear gradually turned into an animal of fiction, an exotic creature, a subject of dreams and fantasies, some dynastic or emblematic, others fanciful or playful, and still others strongly erotic.’ In Pastoureau, The Bear, p. 185.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language

Vivoit de vie bestialle et non humaine: Different Views of Beastliness Whereas the Roman de Renart positions the bear Brun as a literary character, Valentin et Orson portrays Orson as neither a bear nor a civilised human. The indefinite nature of the wild brother raises the question of human nature. The wild man in the forest is a common motif in medieval literature.60 According to Seelmann, it is the oldest element of the narrative about the two twin brothers.61 Dickson considers it a composite of different aspects, such as ‘the wood-spirit of popular belief and custom, of art and pageantry; the eccentric recluse of actual life; and the märchen hero who owes his extraordinary strength to his animal birth or up-bringing.’62 However, if the tale originated from what he calls the märchen of the Jealous Sisters type, it should be noted that this type of folk-tale does not present the wild man as a central character.63 Depending on which version is at hand, Namelos/Namnlös/Orson is described to both greater and lesser extents as an animal. Lise Andries has shown how one later French version of Valentin et Orson, published in the series of the Bibliothèque Universelle des Romans (1775–89), clearly toned down Orson’s initial nature as animal: ‘plus rien n’est dit de ses griffes, de ses dents, de sa gloutonnerie compulsive’, at the same time as paying very little attention to the different stages of Orson’s transformation.64. The different views of the wild brother’s beastliness can be discerned when looking at the designators used to refer to him, the name by which he is called and the descriptions of his physical appearance and behaviour. Starting with the designators, one can observe that during his time in the forest, the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts consistently refer to him as an animal: dêr, diwrit. Once he has been taken care of by Valentin, the Middle Low German version also refers to him as ‘Namelos den wilden man’ (v. 1196) (Namelos the wild man), which hints at the coming metamorphosis and which is not translated in the Swedish text. The French version, on the other hand, uses several different designators throughout the descriptions of Orson in the forest: enfant, omme A classic study of the wild man motif is that of Richard Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology (Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952; New York, NY: Octagon Books, 1970). Bernheimer’s model of the wild man is disputed more recently by Lorraine K. Stock, The Medieval Wild Man (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). 61 Seelmann, Valentin und Namelos, pp. lvi–lx. 62 Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 124. 63 Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 24. 64 Lise Andries, ‘La métamorphose animale dans Mélusine et Valentin et Orson’, Topiques romanesques: réécriture des romans médiévaux (XVIe–XVIIIe siècles), Ateliers, Cahiers de la Maison de la Recherche (Lille: Université Charles de Gaulle, Lille III, 1999), pp. 53–63 (pp. 58–59) 60

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture sauvaige, beste sauvage, le sauvaige. Similarly, the Middle English refers to the chylde, wylde man, beest and Orson le sauage. Thus, while the designators in the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts clearly depict an animal all the time he lives in the forest, the designators used in the French and Middle English texts tend more to stress Orson’s ambiguous nature as a half-human. When it comes to the names that the wild brother is given, it should first be observed that they play a central role in his metamorphosis in the Middle Low German and Old Swedish versions, since he receives it only after his brother has taken care of him. The Middle Low German text says: ‘dat dêr wart geheten Namelôs’ (v. 1177) (the animal was called Namelos). In the Swedish text, this is elaborated. As in Herr Ivan where the lion belongs to Ivan, the narrator here underlines the fact that the wild brother, still considered an animal, should belong to Valentin: tha badh Falantin, at the ærligæ mæn skuldo giffuæ diwrit nampn. the sagde, at thet borde honom: och diwrit hørir honum til, han ma giffuæ thy hwat nampn han wil. tha wart diwrit kallat Nampnlos. (p. 72) (Then Valentin asked that the noble men should give the animal a name. They said that he should do that and that the animal should belong to him, that he should name it what he wanted. Then the animal was called Namnlös.)

As Pastoureau has argued, the names support the notion that Namelos/ Namnlös does not belong to a social order even though their very existence suggests that he one day will.65 In the French text, the boy is given the name Orson at an earlier stage in the narrative, when he is being taken care of by the bear: ‘Il fut appelé Orson pour cause de l’ourse qui le nourrist et allaita, et pelage avoit comme ung ours.’ (p. 46) (He was called Orson because of the she-wolf who nursed him and nourished him, and he had the fur of a bear). The Middle English text also refers to his name at this point: ‘He was called Orson because of the beere that had nouryshed hym, and he was also rough as a beere.’ (p. 38) Thus, the name does not play any part in the metamorphosis of the brother in these latter two texts. It is also notable that whereas Namelos and Namnlös put forward the character’s unidentified identity, Orson stresses his nature as an animal rather than a human. Similarly, the fact that Orson was suckled by the she-bear emphasises his physical beastliness: he is not just a wild human but a physical cross between a human and a bear. According to Robert Delort, one point in particular distinguishes the 65 Pastoureau,

L’ours, p. 278.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language human from the animal: the costume.66 Pastoureau, on the other hand, argues that it is rather the over-abundant hairiness that truly distinguishes them.67 In medieval bestiaries, animals with dark hair are often charged with negative associations.68 At the same time, late medieval literature frequently associates the bear, and in particular its fur, with virility and describes it as something that pleases women.69 If we turn to the appearance of the wild brother, there is a significant difference between the versions. When King Pepin, in the French text, first sees the wild brother, he exclaims that despite the hairiness of the latter, Orson would look like a beautiful knight if he only had clothes (‘Et combien qu’il soit velu s’il estoit vestu comme l’ung de nous, fort seroit plaisant a veoir et beau chevalier sembleroit’, p. 102 ‘However hairy he is, if he were clothed like the rest of us, he would be most pleasant to behold, and would appear a most comely knight’). This is also the case in the Middle English text (pp. 73–74). As we shall see, clothes and hairiness play a central role in the metamorphosis of the wild brother in all versions. Nevertheless, while the French and Middle English versions repeatedly refer to the hairiness of Orson, the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts only refer to it in the passage that describes how he is shaved when arriving at the castle – a passage to which we will return shortly. Until this moment of the narrative, these two texts show little interest in the bestial appearance of the wild brother. The wild brother’s behaviour is also depicted differently. In all versions, the opposition between the courtly, educated Valentin and his brother is given concrete form in the battles between them, in which Valentin is almost killed. However, whereas the French Valentin only overcomes Orson by means of his speech, finally asking his brother to surrender, Namelos/Namnlös is only conquerable by violence. The French narrator, indeed, dwells for some time upon the comic behaviour of the wild brother, contrasting it with the courtly manners of Valentin.70 For example, he first describes how Orson, even as a small boy, adapts to life in the forest and leads the life of an animal, ‘vie de beste’ (p. 46), stressing the opposition between animal and human: ‘vivoit de vie bestialle et non humaine’ (p. 46) ([he] lived a bestial life, not a human one). When he is later taken care of by his brother, their different behavioural patterns are strongly contrasted. While Valentin knows well the rules of courtly Robert Delort, ‘Les animaux et l’habillement’, in L’uomo di fronte al mondo animale nell’alto Medioevo (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1985), pp. 673–706 (p. 673). 67 Pastoureau, L’ours, pp. 278–79. 68 Pastoureau, L’ours, p. 172. 69 Pastoureau, L’ours, p. 269. 70 Schwam-Baird has shown how the ferocity of the wild brother is the cause of the reader’s laughter. Schwam-Baird, ‘Terror and Laughter’, p. 245. 66

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture behaviour, Orson eats raw meat like a wolf (‘la menga tout ainsi comme ung loup fait sa proye’, p. 98 ‘eating it just like a wolf devours his prey’), drinks water like a horse (‘en but tout ainsi que le cheval fait en la riviere’, p. 98, drinking just as a horse does from the river) and sleeps on the floor, as he would in the forest (‘il se coucha a terre et tantost s’en dormit, car aultrement n’avoit aprins de dormir en la forest’, p. 104, he lay down on the floor and fell directly asleep, for in the forest he had learned no other way to sleep). Similar descriptions are included in the Middle English text.71 Dickson points out a parallel between the chanson de geste Aliscans and the image of the wild brother in Valentin et Orson: ‘The fear inspired by Orson at first sight, his bestial manner of eating and drinking, and the treatment of his conduct by the author and the other characters as a huge joke are all traits that Orson has in common with the vilain of the chanson de geste.’72 As pointed out by Schwam-Baird, ‘baptism alone cannot sweep away the habits of fifteen years in the forest or reverse the consequences of having been suckled with a she-bear’s milk’.73 Despite his ignorance of matters of seduction, Orson unconsciously pleases women, which exemplifies the erotic charge of the bear in late medieval literature. After his Christian baptism, Orson is brought by his brother to the court, where he finds himself in a room full of noble women: Lors Valentin appella Orson, si le print par la main, si le mena en la chambre de Esglentine en laquelle avoit plusieurs dames et damoiselles qui voulentiers regarderent Orson. Et Orson en riant se getta sur ung lit et regarda les dames en faisant plusieurs signes et manieres qui aux dames estoient moult plaisantes. Mais tout ce qu’il faisoit point ne l’entendoient, de quoy elles estoyent moult desplaisantes. Si appellerent Valentin et luy demanderent que c’estoit que le sauvaige leur monstroit par ces signes, et Valentin leur dist, ‘Mes dames, sachez de vray que le sauvaige monstre par ces signes que moult voulentiers vouldroit baiser et acoler les dames et damoiselles qui icy sont,’ dont elles commencerent a rire et regarder l’une l’autre. (p. 104) (So Valentin called Orson, and, taking him by the hand, led him to Esglentine’s chamber where there were ladies and damsels who looked at Orson with much interest. And Orson, laughing, threw himself on a bed and looked at the ladies, making all kinds of signs and gestures that the ladies found very funny. But they didn’t understand at all what he 71

We find the following translations: ‘a beastes lyfe’, p. 38; ‘liued a beastual life and not humayne’, p. 38; ‘eate as a wolfe dotg his praye’, p. 71; ‘dronke as a horse doth at the ryuer’, p. 71; ‘he layde hym downe vpon the erthe, and anone he felle a slepe for he was not accustomed for to slepe otherwise’, p. 74. 72 Dickson, Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 180. 73 Schwam-Baird, Valentin et Orson, p. xxix.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language meant, which displeased them. So they called over Valentin and asked him what the wild man wanted to show them by these gestures, and Valentin explained to them, ‘My ladies, understand that the wild man is gesturing to indicate that he would very much like to kiss and hug the ladies and damsels here,’ for which reason they all started to laugh and glance at one another.)

The passage is also found transmitted in the Middle English text (p. 75). The Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts do not present the same comic portrait of Namelos/Namnlös, but are more concise, which reflects the general character of the texts at the same time as revealing an ideological focus, a subject to which I will return. These texts are also less interested in the brother’s way of pleasing women. Even though they put forward the barbarity of the wild brother, such as when Valentin first sees him: ‘ach here got, wo wunderlik / is dit dêr unde greselik!’(vv. 1096–97) (Oh, my God, how strange and terrible is this animal), which is translated as follows into Swedish: ‘a herra gudh! Hwilkit eth vnderligit diwr och græseligit!’(p. 68) (Oh, my God, what a strange and terrible animal), the narrator does not further describe his animal instincts when eating or sleeping at court. What he does describe, however, is how the wild brother attacks the maiden Clarina: unde rêt mit den klawen sîn de kledere van den megetîn, so dat se sere wart vorvart. (vv. 1166–68) (and tore with its claws the clothes of the maiden, so that she was very afraid.)

The Swedish text here modifies one detail that reveals an important rewriting of the brother’s beastliness: ‘tha sprang thet til henne medh sinæ harda hender och reff allæ hennes clæder aff henne, swa at iomfrvn wart sare forfæræt.’ (p. 72) (then it ran to her with its hard hands and tore all clothes off of her, so that the maiden was very afraid). Instead of referring to the claws of the wild brother, the translator chooses hender (hands). This pares back his animal nature, which in turn, makes his behaviour with the maiden even worse since it has no physical explanation – he is clearly not an animal, but he still behaves like one, giving into base emotions in an uncontrolled way. The same type of modification is found when the two brothers first meet in the forest. The Middle Low German version then says: ‘he sprank up unde grêp ene an / mit den klawen, den jungen man’ (vv. 1102–03) (he jumped up and seized the young man with his claws), which is translated as follows in the Old Swedish text: ‘tha lopp thet honum j mot och ryktæ Fanantin fra hæsten medh sinæ starkæ hender’ (p. 68) (then it ran towards him and tore Valentin from the horse with its strong hands). This could be compared to the French text that, 139

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture like the Middle Low German, refers to Orson’s claws, such as in ‘aux grifz et aux dens si fermement serre’ (p. 94) (he gripped so firmly with his claws and his teeth). Thus, compared to the French and Middle English versions, the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts focus less on the hybridity of the wild brother’s character or the comic aspects that are associated with it. The Old Swedish text in particular tones down the brother’s beastliness, referring to his hands instead of his claws. I now turn to the differing arguments regarding his metamorphosis.

Et luy monstre par signes: The Wild Brother’s Metamorphosis The theme of metamorphosis or transformation is abundant in medieval literature and evokes different meanings. As Miranda Griffin writes in a recent book on the theme: Transformation is a motif which brings together a wide range of concerns involving humanity and embodiment. It expresses anxiety about the fragility of the human body; the postulated superiority of the human mind; the difficulty of envisaging a divine reality beyond human physicality; and the power of human language to circumscribe and control the strange things that bodies do.74

When analysing the descriptions of the wild brother’s transformation into a human in different European versions of the tale, it becomes clear that this process takes on different roles in different contexts. As mentioned earlier, for instance, the French Valentin does not overcome Orson with violence, but rather asks his brother to surrender: Helas, homme sauvage, pour quoy ne vous rendés vous a moy? Vous vivez en ce bois tout ainsi comme une povre beste et n’avez cognoissance de Dieu ne de sa mere ne de sa sainte foy parquoy vostre ame est en grant danger. Venés vous en avec moy et vous ferés que saige. Baptiser vous feray et la saincte foy apprendre. Et si vous donneray assez de chair, de poisson et de pain et de vin boire et menger, vesture et chaussure vous donneray richement et userez voz jours honnestement ainsi que tout homme naturel doit faire. (p. 96) (Alas, wild man, why not give yourself up to me? You live in these woods like a poor beast, possessing no knowledge of God or his mother or the holy faith, which puts your soul in great danger. Come with me – you’ll be acting wisely. I will have you baptized and teach you the holy faith. Then I will give you sufficient meat, fish, bread, and wine to eat 74

Miranda Griffin, Transforming Tales: Rewriting Metamorphosis in Medieval French Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 2.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language and drink, rich clothes and shoes to wear, and you will spend your days honestly like every natural-born man should.)

Valentin’s speech thus provides a clear sense that the wild man’s metamorphosis depends on a conversion to Christianity – consequently, when Valentin brings Orson to the king, the first thing that he asks the king in the French text is to have Orson baptised (p. 102). The Middle English text presents a close translation of this (pp. 69–70, p. 74). In his study, Dickson draws attention to the fact that Valentin’s speech is paralleled in Tristan de Nanteuil, in which Tristan explains Christian faith to Doon, his wild half-brother, when they first meet. According to Dickson, however, it is impossible to know whether this should be understood as a direct connection between the two texts.75 Orson’s reaction to Valentin’s speech is immediate: Quant Orson oÿt parler Valentin il entendit et aperceut bien par ses signes que Valentin vouloit et desiroit son bien. Et alors parla Valentin de Dieu, et selon le cours de nature qui ne peult mentir, Orson se getta a deux genoulx et tendit les mains devers son frere Valentin, luy faisant signe que pardon luy veulle faire et du tout a luy veult obeïr et complaire pour le temps a venir. (p. 96) (When Orson heard Valentin speak, he understood and perceived well by his signs that Valentin desired only his well-being. Then Valentin spoke of God, and, following the natural inclination that cannot lie, Orson threw himself to his knees and held out his hands to his brother Valentin, begging by signs that he pardon him and expressing that he wished to obey him and please him in the future.)

The Middle English text is once again similar (p. 70). Whereas the French and Middle English Orson changes from a cross between a human and a bear – due to the milk that he received from the she-bear – to a human, the metamorphosis of Namelos/Namnlös is more difficult to articulate. First, Valentin’s defeat of his brother is markedly different. The Middle Low German version says: do sulves brak de degen wîs van eime telgen ein scarp rîs unde slôch dat dêr to den sulven stunden mit der roden an de wunden so lange, dat dat dêr vêl nedder, up sine kne gaf it sik sedder unde volde sine klawen beide dorch vruchten unde dorch leiden. (vv. 1128–35) 75 Dickson,

Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 179.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture (Then the wise man broke a sharp twig from a branch and at the same time hit the animal in the wound with the rod, for so long that the animal fell down. On his knees, he then surrendered and joined his claws, out of fear and out of pain.)

Thus, Valentin is not only better educated than his brother, but also stronger in battle. The Old Swedish text largely follows its source text but adds a reference to an interjection from Namnlös: ‘tha brøt Falantin eth riis och slo diwrit ther medh j sarit swa lenge, thet fioll a sin knæ och wilde swa sighiæ: nw giffuer iach mik’ (p. 70) (then Valentin broke a twig and hit the animal in the wound with it for so long that it fell down on its knees and wanted to say: ‘now I surrender’). A similar inclusion of Namnlös’ apparent interjection is to be found a little later, when the maiden Clarina has cured the wild brother from his injuries. The Middle Low German text says: he vêl up sine kne do nedder unde nêch der juncvrowen sedder. dar wrochte der naturen kunst, dat he begunde sedder vornumst. (vv. 1190–93) (he fell down on his knees and bowed for the damsel. Then the art of nature brought about that he started to adopt reason.)

This is rendered as follows in the Swedish text: ‘och Nampnlos fioll pa sin knæ och neyg henne medh sith hoffwdh, som han wilde swa sighiæ: iach thakker idher, iomfrv, fore mina helbrøgdæ. thet giorde hans naturlige fornumpst.’ (p. 74) (and Namnlös fell down on his knees and bowed his head to her, as if he wanted to say: ‘I thank you, maiden, for my health.’ This was a result of his natural reason). Even though the French narrator refers to the physical signing of the wild brother (‘Et luy monstre par signes’) and the Middle Low German text describes how he shows his submission through gesture, the Swedish translator goes one step further by adding this reference, once again, to an implied speech. The fact that the Swedish translator allows Namnlös to act as though he was speaking once again reduces his beastliness at the same time as evoking the scene in Herr Ivan in which the lion surrenders to Ivan and is given an implied speech. If the Christian baptism in the French text could be seen as the first step in the metamorphosis of Orson, the second part of the metamorphosis is taken care of by Valentin, after Orson has attacked the palace cook who had hit him: Et Valentin luy monstra mode et maniere de soy gouverner parmy le palais pour le temps a venir. Valentin print la chairge et si bien

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Animals, Beastliness and Language l’enseigna que depuis il ne fit a nul mal ne desplaisir qui premier en luy n’en faisoit. (p. 108) (Then Valentin taught him how to comport himself in the palace from that time forth. Valentin took charge of him and taught him well, so that thenceforward he caused no harm or unpleasantness unless someone provoked him first.)

This passage is also translated very similarly in the Middle English text (p. 78). As noted by Schwam-Baird, it is curious that the French narrator, although interested in the hairiness of Orson when he lives in the forest, never remarks upon his appearance when he becomes more civilised: ‘it is simply assumed that at some point Orson’s appearance becomes less wild’.76 This is different in the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts. Even though a secular education is part of the wild brother’s metamorphosis in these texts, Valentin first bathes his brother and sends for a barber to shave him, which underlines the important role of appearance in the process of this metamorphosis. The violence of Namelos/Namnlös however results in the killing of the barber, which could be seen as an expression of his reluctance to renounce his wild nature completely. The Old Swedish text here adds a new reference to the fact that the brother uses his hands to kill the barber: ‘tha wart Nampnlos wred och kramade honum j hæll medh sinæ hender’ (p. 74) (then Namnlös got angry and squeezed him and killed him with his hands). Even though the killing is described in the Middle Low German text, no reference is made to the brother’s hands. The final part of the metamorphosis happens when he puts on clothing: Namelose worden do kledere bracht vil wol bereit, de tôch he an unde wart gemeit unde was ein schone junk man. do lêrde he up den voten gân, ôk so lêrde he tucht unde êre unde nam to in dogeden io de mere, he vornam der lude sprake wol, al dat ein man vornemen schol. (vv. 1211–19) (Clothes were brought to Namelos, that were beautifully made, he put them on and became happy, and a beautiful young man. Then he learnt to walk on his feet and he also learnt discipline and honour and acquired even more virtues. He understood the human language well and all that a man should understand.) 76

Schwam-Baird, Valentin et Orson, p. xxxii.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Thus, dressed in proper clothes, ‘Namelos den wilden man’ becomes ‘ein schone junk man’ who can learn courtly honour. This may be a reference to the shame of being naked that came with the Fall, and which is supposed to distinguish humans from animals. It is, indeed, a typical feature also to be found in werewolf stories. The Old Swedish text stays close to the Middle Low German version: tha lot han clæde Nampnlos j ærlig clæden. tha han haffde them pa sik, tha war han en dægeligh vnger man och lærde tha førstæ ganga pa ij føter. ther til nam han thøk och æræ och tok myken dygd til sin och kunde forsta, hwat folk sagde honum, æn thok at han kunde ey talæ. (p. 74) (Then he let dress Namnlös in beautiful clothes. When he wore them, he became a handsome young man and first learnt to walk on his feet. Then he learnt courtliness and honour and many virtues and could understand what people said to him, even though he could not speak.)

Additionally, the central role of speech is reflected in the closing words, which have no equivalent in the Middle Low German: ‘æn thok at han kunde ey talæ’. Despite this new civilised appearance, then, the Swedish Namnlös is not yet like his brother, since he lacks speech.

La teste d’arain estoit sur ung riche piller: The Brass Head, the Serpent and the Panther In the French text, the true identities of the two brothers are revealed at the castle of the beautiful Esclarmonde, the sister of the Green Knight and the giant Ferragu. Esclarmonde possesses a brass head that is capable of answering any question it is asked and Valentin proposes to fight the chatelain in order to enter the castle and find out his own identity from the brass head. When Esclarmonde sees his courage in fighting the chatelain, she immediately falls in love with him, without yet knowing who he is (p. 198). The brass head is said to be placed in the most beautiful room: dedens celle chambre il y avoit ung pilier moult riche et excellent sur lequel avoit une teste d’arain, laquelle jadis si avoit esté par une faee fort subtillement et par art d’ingromance faicte et composee. Laquelle teste estoit de telle nature qu’elle rendoyt responce de toutes les choses que on luy demandoit. (p. 196) (in this chamber there was a fabulous pillar supporting a brass head that a fairy had made and fashioned most cleverly with magic arts.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language The nature of the head was such that it answered any questions put to it.)

The beauty and richness of the room is described further when Valentin finally enters it and we learn the following about the placement of the head between four pillars: ‘Et entre ces pillers il y avoit une armaire plus riche que dire ne pourroie, en laquelle la teste d’arain estoit sur ung riche piller moult richement enclose.’ (p. 206) (Between these pillars was a cabinet more richly decorated than I could describe, in which the brass head was enclosed, sitting on a fancy pillar, also richly decorated). The brass head is similarly described in the Middle English text (p. 133 and p. 140). According to Dickson, the passage dedicated to the brass head is probably derived from Valentin und Namelos, although in a modified form, since the Germanic texts contain no direct equivalent.77 Dickson draws parallels to Lancelot, Perlesvaus and the legend of St. Irene, insisting particularly on the resemblance to saints’ legends more generally: The Brazen Head is oracular; it inhabits a splendid castle, and is guarded by a heathen maiden; on the hero’s arrival, it refuses to give information until questioned by the hero himself; and after answering his questions, it senclina bas and is forever silent. The result is that the heathen maiden embraces Christianity. All this is but a disguised version of the saint’s legend in which the oracular idol in a heathen temple, silenced by the saint’s arrival, speaks by the saint’s permission, after which the demon is forced to leave it, the idol is shattered, and the heathens are converted.78

The Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts present a different version. First, according to these versions, the maiden only falls in love once she knows the true identity of Valentin, and she then promises to reveal it to Valentin on the condition that he agrees to marry her. The Old Swedish text says: ‘iach wil oppenbaræ ider och ider broder, hwo ider fader och moder ær. men j skulen først loffua mik pa idhræ tro och æræ, at j wilin haffua mik til husfrv’ (pp. 138–40) (I will inform you and your brother about who your father and mother are. But first, you have to promise me on your faith and honour, that you will take me as a wife). Even though she says that she loves the knight she seems concerned above all about her future, actively choosing her husband. It is clear that Esclarmonde does not exercise the same power in the French text but rather submits herself to Valentin, without mentioning the question of marriage: ‘Et d’ores en avant je vous jure et prometz de cueur, de corps et de biens, et de ma povre petit puissance vous loyallement et de couraige 77 Dickson,

78 Dickson,

Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 190. Valentine and Orson: A Study, pp. 194–94.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture servir et a vostre plaisir faire’ (p. 208) (From now on I promise and swear to you with my heart, my body, and my goods to serve you and do your pleasure as loyally and bravely as my weakness allows). The French Valentin also asks the maiden to convert to his religion, a request which is not mentioned in the Middle Low German or Old Swedish texts. Several differences, particularly in respect of the depiction and role of the love theme, could be discussed here, but perhaps of most significance are the different versions of the brass head itself.79 Indeed, in the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, the maiden does not possess a magic head but rather an animal capable of revealing the brothers’ identities. In the Middle Low German version, this animal is a serpentelîn. The serpent is the first creature that the brothers meet when they arrive at the castle and it promises to reveal Valentin’s identity if he follows it. The Middle Low German text says: dar segen se ein serpentelîn, dat hadde wunderliken schîn, it sprak in der sulven stunt ’her Valentîn, ik do ju kunt unde wil ju des maken vroder, we si juwe vader unde moder. wetet dat vorwâr, ik lope ju vor, des volget mi al upme spor!’ to sime broder sprak Valentîn ‘dit dunket mi michel wunder sîn, doch wille wi volgen up eventure desseme dere al ungehure.’ (vv. 2231–42) (Then they saw a small serpent that looked peculiar. It spoke immediately: ‘Sir Valentin, I can and will explain to you who your father and mother are. I will go before you – be sure to follow me in my traces!’ Valentin said to his brother: ‘It seems to be a great wonder to me, but we will follow to adventure this dreadful animal.)

The Old Swedish text follows the general gist of its source but makes modifications that are of particular interest for our discussion: ther fingo the see eth pantir. thet talade til herra Falantin och sagde: iach gør ider kunnogt, hwo idher fader och moder ær. och tith som iach løper fore, thit følger mik effter. tha talade Falantin til Nampnlos och sagde: mik thykker waræ eth stort vndher, at thetta rædeligæ diwrit talar. thok wilom wi følgiæ thy pa enæ godhæ tro. (p. 136) 79

The role played by the feminine character Rozemonde, also in love with Valentin, is discussed in an article by Shira Schwam-Baird, ‘A Husband to Her Liking: The Wily Saracen Queen Rozemonde in the 1489 Valentin et Orson’, Olifant 26.1 (2007), 45–66.

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Animals, Beastliness and Language (There they saw a panther. It spoke to Sir Valentin and said: ‘I inform you about who your father and mother are, and where I go, you follow after.’ Then Valentin spoke to Namnlös and said: ‘It seems to me to be a great wonder, that this dreadful animal speaks. Nevertheless, we will follow it in good faith.’)

The most obvious modification is the substitution of the serpent with a panther. According to Dickson, serpents with a guiding role exist nowhere else in medieval romance and he suggests that this may be the reason why the Swedish translator chose to replace it with a panther.80 Other scholars have argued differently. Werner Wolf, for example, argues that the Swedish translator might simply have confused the Middle Low German words serpentelîn and pentelîn.81 Fulvio Ferrari, on the other hand, states that the modification is due to a cultural adaptation: the serpent was a widespread symbol of evil and treason and the Swedish translator might have preferred an animal less associated with negative values.82 In many medieval bestiaries, the panther evokes Christ, which might equally have influenced the translator. When the serpent/panther has entered the castle, he reveals the two brothers’ identities to the maiden and informs her that Namelos/Namnlös will learn how to speak if a vein is cut under his tongue. It also tells the maiden that it will die if she and Valentin should fall in love – which is what happens. One may indeed wonder whether the death of the panther in the Swedish text can be seen as a reference to the death of Christ. Even if so, given the links between Namnlös och Valentin and Herr Ivan, it is plausible that the translator wished to avoid a reference to a serpent in this passage, since it is also a serpent that cruelly attacks the lion in Herr Ivan. One could say that both the serpent and the panther have equivalents in the French text where the brass head is guarded by a lion ‘moult grant, fier et orgeuilleux’ (p. 204), together with a villain. Esclarmonde informs the two brothers about the nature of the lion: ‘jamais a filz de roy il ne fera mal ne oultraige’ (p. 204) (he will never hurt or cause any harm to the true son of a king) – and this is also the reason why Valentin can overcome him in battle. Thus, whereas the brass head seems to be a later addition, there is reason to believe that the wild animal is not. The apparition of the animal surprises the brothers in both the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, and Valentin refers to it as a wonder (wunder, vndher). Nevertheless, there is a significant difference between the two versions: only in the Old Swedish translation does Valentin specify that the wonder consists in the fact that the animal speaks (‘mik thykker waræ eth stort vndher, at thetta rædeligæ diwrit talar’). Once Valentine and Orson: A Study, p. 54. Namnlös och Valentin, pp. lxxix–xc. 82 Ferrari, ‘Da Valentin a Falantin’, p. 384. 80 Dickson, 81 Wolf,

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture again, the episode resembles Herr Ivan, in which the lion is given the power of speech. The episode in question is the last step in the wild brother’s metamorphosis. At the same time as the twins find out about their origin, Orson/ Namelos/Namnlös acquire, in all texts discussed here, the capacity to talk. In the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, the serpent/ panther first informs the maiden how this should be done and the maiden cuts the vein a little later (vv. 2313–16; p. 140). In the French and Middle English texts, it is the brass head that tells Valentin about the vein that needs to be cut (p. 206). Furthermore, while the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts describe how the serpent/panther dies as a consequence of the love between Valentin and the maiden (pp. 138–39), the French text describes how the brass head loses its capacity to speak: ‘Quant la teste d’arain eust ces paroles dictes elle s’inclina bas et perdit le parler, et oncques depuis par elle ne fust parole proposee.’ (p. 206) (Once the brass head had spoken these words, it bowed down and lost its power of speech, nor has it ever spoken a word since), which is also similarly transmitted in the Middle English translation. Thus, at the same time as Orson acquires the capacity to speak, the brass head loses it.

The prologue to one of the Italian versions of Valentin et Orson is close to Jacques Maillet’s French edition and Henry Watson’s Middle English text. Just like the English prologue, discussed at the beginning of this chapter, the Italian prologue emphasises the text’s nature as a translation, even though the narrator mentions neither a commissioner nor the existence of possible errors and thus appears more anonymous than Watson does in his prologue. The Italian text’s reference to the narrative’s content is of particular importance in this context. Instead of the vague reference in the French version to the many beautiful and diverse matters that are to be told (‘plusieurs belles et diverses matieres’), the Italian prologue refers to ‘molti & varii soggetti d’arme, & d’amore’.83 In order to understand the images that are given of the animal metamorphosis, the love theme provides an important parallel. In the French text and its translations, love plays a pivotal role, as reflected by the Italian prologue. The fact that the French Valentin et Orson and its translations include a she-bear who kidnaps the young Orson may well reflect the late medieval fascination for the bear and in particular its erotic connotations: the grown-up Orson, half-bear, immediately catches the women’s interest. As we have seen, the French narrator is only too pleased to portray the extremes of the wild man – as ferocious, comic 83

Historia dei dve nobilissimi et valorosi Fratelli Valentino et Orsone (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi and Baldassarre Costantini, 1557).

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Animals, Beastliness and Language and pleasing for women. It is plausible that the she-bear was invented in the French prose rendition in order to evoke the view of the bear that was common in the late Middle Ages. By contrast, the she-wolf of the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts does not kidnap the boy but takes care of him when abandoned. She, therefore, evokes the tale of Romulus and Remus over and above the view of the wolf as a diabolic and particularly violent animal. At the same time as the violence of the adoptive mother is less marked in the Germanic texts, the wild brother’s erotic connotations are also less prominent. There are major differences between the versions that I have discussed in respect of how they portray the nature of the wild brother. The French narrator plays with the theme of half-human and shape-shifting creatures, conforming to a cultural meme in late medieval literature; he describes Orson as partly human in the forest and as partly animal after his Christian baptism. The Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, by contrast, present two clearly separated stages – the animal who becomes a human –, while showing less interest in the nuances of what is animal or human. These different views of the wild brother connect with the distinction that Bynum makes between hybridity and metamorphosis: the French text mostly explores the phenomenon of hybridity while the Middle Low German and Swedish texts are more focused on his metamorphosis. The two phenomena however remain intimately connected: the wild brother has a hybrid character in all versions, at the same time as also undergoing a transformation in all of them. Depending on the version, however, the focus shifts onto either his hybridity or his metamorphosis. It is, indeed, when comparing the different versions with each other that the two phenomena can be more easily disentangled. In the Old Swedish text, the translator goes one step further: by referring to his hands instead of his claws, Namnlös is described less as an animal than is his Middle Low German counterpart. The translator is clearly not interested in the question of shape-shifting creatures, rather his focus is on the opposition between the civilised and the uncivilised world, and Namnlös illustrates the importance of courtly behaviour. The implied speech that Namnlös is given not only connects Namnlös och Valentin to Herr Ivan, in which the lion addresses Ivan when saved from the serpent, but it also underlines the central function of speech more generally. The fact that Namnlös only first appears to speak when defeated by his brother highlights the crucial role of speech: it is here that Namnlös’ metamorphosis begins. This could be related to the French version, in which the role of language is embodied by the brass head that loses its capacity to speak when Valentin and the maiden fall in love. Speech also plays a key role in the substitution of the serpent with the panther. While the German narrator does not refer to the serpent’s

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture speech, it is the very fact that the panther speaks that explains the wonder (vndher) of his apparition in the Old Swedish text. Both Jacques Maillet’s French edition and the Old Swedish manuscripts of Namnlös och Valentin date from the fifteenth century. Despite their chronological closeness, they represent two very different versions of the tale about the two twin brothers and the animals associated with them. One may wonder, however, whether the prose form of the Swedish translation actually serves a method of connecting the narrative to the tradition of late medieval French prose versions. Either way, it certainly corresponds closely. While Le Chevalier au lion and Floire et Blancheflor reflect the central roles of honour, gender and love in the Europeanisation of medieval culture, the broad transmission of Valentin et Orson in medieval Europe suggests that another element may be added to this list, namely the continuous questioning of the limits between animal and human. In the case of the Swedish Namnlös och Valentin, this questioning remains closely linked to courtly values: the human is defined in terms of education, speech and refined behaviour. Valentin et Orson and its Swedish translation thus perfectly illustrate how the Europeanisation of medieval culture was a civilising process. In the next and final chapter, I will turn to Paris et Vienne and the Swedish Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna. Like Valentin et Orson, the two French versions of this tale, one longer and one shorter, also date to the fifteenth century.

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N 5 n Masculinity and Venus: Paris et Vienne Like the texts discussed in the previous chapters, the romance Paris et Vienne was widely disseminated in the late Middle Ages, which is reflected by the large number of preserved manuscripts and prints of the text. This tale exists in French, Italian, English, Dutch, German, Catalan, Spanish, Latin, Mozarabic with Almajiado script, Russian, Armenian, Romanian, Yiddish and Swedish. The Old Swedish Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, from the sixteenth century, is often held to mark the end of the tradition of courtly literature in Sweden – and significantly, it was never finished.1 The translator only wrote the actual opening of the tale: his version contains no more than 208 lines, written in cross-rhymed verse, and is preserved only in D 2.2 In these opening lines, masculinity and love stand out as the most significant themes. I will discuss how this focus might be understood, and then relate it to the likely Low German source text and the French versions of the same narrative. I will also draw parallels with the English and Italian traditions. My analysis will cover the Old Swedish notion of mandom and the themes of kingship, knighthood, friendship and love. Like Floire et Blancheflor, the French Paris et Vienne is commonly considered an idyllic romance, a genre typically centred on a couple that has to overcome parental opposition before they can finally marry.3 Despite their common generic features, there are important differences between Floire et Blancheflor and Paris et Vienne: Floire et Blancheflor represents not only an older textual tradition, but also depicts two lovers who 1

2 3

Ståhle, ‘Medeltidens profana litteratur’, p. 115. For more detail of this manuscript, see Introduction. The idyllic romance as a genre is discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. For an analysis of Paris et Vienne as an example of the ‘idyllic romance’, see Jean-Jacques Vincensini, ‘Genres et conscience narrative au Moyen Âge. L’exemple du récit idyllique’, Le Moyen Âge contemporain: Perspectives critiques, Littérature 148 (2007), 59–76. See also Jean-Jacques Vincensini, ‘Désordre de l’abjection et ordre de la courtoisie: Le corps abject dans Paris et Vienne de Pierre de la Cépède’, Medium Ævum 68.2 (1999), 292–304.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture grow up together; Paris et Vienna, at least what is preserved of it, belongs to the later Middle Ages and its lovers first meet as adolescents. In both cases, however, the tales become European ‘bestsellers’ and straddle the boundary between medieval manuscript culture and the Renaissance’s era of printing. The noble Vienne, the only child of the powerful ‘Dauphin’ Godeffroy d’Alençon and his wife Dyane, is known for her great beauty and many men would like her as a wife. The young Paris, who like Vienne is an only child, loves her secretly, but since he is from a lower section of society – his father Jacques is one the Dauphin’s knights – marriage is not appropriate, despite the fact that Vienne also loves him. Thus, the greater part of the narrative is dedicated to the events and misfortunes that eventually lead to making their marriage possible. According to Jean-Jacques Vincensini, the romance hinges on the opposition between order and disorder; it could be interpreted as the establishment of a cultural order different from the order imposed by the existing law.4 In an analysis of a number of French romances, Leah Otis-Cour links the role of love and marriage in Paris et Vienne to the context of the later Middle Ages, when the marriage of love had started to play an important role in the ideological construction of society.5 Since the Swedish fragment ends abruptly, the theme of marriage is only briefly and rather vaguely introduced, but there is enough still to raise the question as to whether its central role in the larger European tradition was part of the reason why Paris et Vienne was translated into Swedish in this specific context. Despite the focus in the idyllic romance on a more or less asexual love between the two protagonists, resembling that between twins, the roles of gender seem to remain stable, since the matrimonial frame sets the limits. Yasmina Foehr-Janssens has developed this idea: ‘bien qu’il repose sur un rêve d’indifférenciation sexuelle, le cadre idyllique ne présente pas de véritable remise en question des catégories du genre. Le schema matrimonial ne l’autorise pas’.6 As we shall see, the Swedish translator seems to reinforce gender categories.

4

5

6

Vincensini, ‘Désordre de l’abjection’, p. 302. Leah Otis-Cour, ‘Mariage d’amour, charité et société dans les « romans de couple » médiévaux’, Le Moyen Age 111.2 (2005), 275–91 (p. 291). Since the Swedish fragment ends abruptly, the theme of marriage remains peripheral. Bernard Ribémont has also explored the role of marriage from the perspective of family law in Paris et Vienne: ‘Un roman idyllique du XVe siècle et le droit matrimonial: Paris et Vienne de Pierre de la Cépède’, Studia Romanica Posnaniensia 38.1 (2011), 3–12. Yasmina Foehr-Janssens, ‘La fiancée perdue et retrouvée dans les romans idylliques (XIIe–XVe siècles)’, Clio 30 (2009), 61–78 (p. 68).

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Masculinity and Venus

The European Tradition and the Moralistic Tone The French narrative has been preserved in one long and one short version. The longer version, edited by Robert Kaltenbacher in 1904, is attributed to Pierre de la Cépède from Marseille. According to the prologue with which de la Cépède introduces his work, the French text was a translation made in 1432 from the Provençal, and the same Provençal source was based on a Catalan version. However, neither of these sources has been preserved, although traces of Provençal influence have been identified in the early manuscripts of the romance.7 The longer version is preserved in eight manuscripts that closely resemble each other, apart from one Burgundian redaction, that in Brussels, KBR, MS 9632/3, which differs considerably by being divided into chapters and containing some important additions as well as omitting the prologue.8 The shorter version of Paris et Vienne is preserved in a single manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 20044, as well as in later printed editions.9 It is about half the length of the longer version and like the Burgundian redaction, it starts without a prologue and is divided into chapters. This shorter version, edited by Anna Maria Babbi in 1992, formed the basis for sixteen printed French editions of the tale, published 1487–1596.10 It was also the starting point for many translations of the romance into other languages and it is from this version that the Old Swedish text appears to derive, although through a Middle Low German intermediary source, to which I will return. Rosalind Brown-Grant has identified some major differences between the longer and the shorter version of Paris et Vienne. She argues that the playful and comic tone of de la Cépède’s text is replaced by a more serious tone in the short redaction that underlines the moral dilemmas of the young lovers’ personal desires. This would be in line with the philosophical texts and mirrors for princes of the time: the shorter version of Paris et Vienne turns this tale into a much more serious analysis of intergenerational conflict than that found in the longer version. This it achieves by depicting the couple as courtly lovers 7

See for example Robert Kaltenbacher, ed., ‘Der altfranzösische Roman Paris et Vienne’, Romanische Forschungen 15.2 (1904), 321–688 and Rosalind BrownGrant, ‘Adolescence, Anxiety and Amusement in Versions of Paris et Vienne’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes 20 (Special issue: Idylle et récits idylliques à la fin du Moyen Âge) (2010), 59–70 (p. 60). 8 For a description of the French tradition, see Anna Maria Babbi, ed., Paris e Vienna: romanzo cavalleresco (Venice: Marsilio, 1991), pp. 29–55. The Burgundian redaction is described in more detail in Brown-Grant, ‘Adolescence, Anxiety and Amusement’. 9 For a list of the French prints, see Babbi, ed., Paris e Vienna, pp. 45–51. 10 Helen Cooper, ‘Going Native: The Caxton and Mainwaring Versions of Paris and Vienne’, The Yearbook of English Studies 41.1 (2011), 21–34 (p. 25).

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture rather than as adolescents, by foregrounding the problem of their social inequality and the effects of their transgression on their own sense of well-being, and by showing the lovers’ less duplicitous attitude towards the dauphin himself.11

Brown-Grant raises the question as to whether this difference in tone between the two versions may actually explain why the translators and printers seemed to prefer the shorter version as a source text, which will be an important hypothesis to bear in mind as this analysis continues.12 According to Brown-Grant, the depiction of gender in the later idyllic romance is more moralistic and unsympathetic with regard to the young couple: Whilst studies of Old French romance have tended to suggest that it is female sexuality which is presented in these texts as troublesome and in need of being controlled and contained, what emerges from these later romances is that male sexuality could be viewed as equally problematic and in need of close moral scrutiny if transgressive forms of male behavior, such as the irrational lusts of incest (as seen in Jehan Wauquelin’s Manekine) and adultery (as seen in the Comte d’Artois), were not to be allowed to destabilize the social order.13

Brown-Grant’s view of the late romance has been nuanced by Michelle Szkilnik, who questions to what extent the late medieval romance was moralistic: ‘Mais ne peut-on pas penser aussi que, si la morale semble être sauve à la conclusion des romans, les normes prônées ont pu être mises en cause également?’14 In their article on the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson (1316–74), the historians Henric Bagerius and Christine Ekholst discuss St. Birgitta’s accusations of sodomy against the king and stress ‘the great importance of heteronormative sexuality manifested in marital intimacy’.15 According to Bagerius and Ekholst, the accusations provided evidence of Magnus Eriksson’s ‘inability to be master in his own marriage and consequently master of his realm’.16 The case of Magnus Eriksson could be compared to 11

12 13 14

15

16

Brown-Grant, ‘Adolescence, Anxiety and Amusement’, p. 63. According to Brown-Grant’s analysis, the Burgundian redaction presents a similar adaptation of the tale, reducing the ‘emphasis on the couple’s duplicitousness by introducing a lengthy and retrospective validation of Paris as chivalric hero and true aristocrat’. Brown-Grant, ‘Adolescence, Anxiety and Amusement’, p. 70. Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages, p. 215. Michelle Szkilnik, ‘Rosalind Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire’, p. 3. Henric Bagerius and Christine Ekholst, ‘En olydig sodomit: Om Magnus Eriksson och det heteronormativa regentskapet’, Scandia 73.2 (2007), 7–38 (p. 29). Bagerius and Ekholst, ’En olydig sodomit’, p. 29.

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Masculinity and Venus the troublesome masculine sexuality that Brown-Grant considers typical of many French romances of the later Middle Ages. Even though St. Birgitta lived long before Hans Brask and the Swedish version of Paris et Vienne, the importance of marriage remained significant for the Swedish aristocracy, and the translation in manuscript D 2 could be read as an attempt to insist on this importance. As we shall see, the moralistic tone of many late medieval French romances is present in the Swedish fragment as well. An early translation of Paris et Vienne was William Caxton’s printed version Paris and Vienne from 1485.17 Caxton, famous for having established the first press in England, introduced a great number of literary works into the anglophone literary awareness. Paris and Vienne was translated from the shorter French version; given that it appeared before the first French printed editions, it seems safe to assume that Caxton used a manuscript as the source for his work.18 Caxton’s edition was followed by two other English editions, published by Gherard Leeu (in 1492) and Wynkyn de Worde (c. 1505).19 Then, a reworked version, entitled Vienna, appeared in 1628, written by one Matthew Mainwaring (1561–1652).20 The literary scholar Helen Cooper, who has compared this later version with Caxton’s first edition, as well as with the French texts, draws attention to how Mainwaring expands the story and changes its ideology: The Marseillais Pierre de la Cypede was writing in a Mediterranean port facing both multicultural Spain and Islamic North Africa, and he treats the relationship of French and Moorish, Christian and Islamic, with some knowledge and delicacy. Mainwaring turns the binary pairing into a three-way opposition in which Catholicism and Islam are both cast as villainous, and a generalised Protestant Europeanness is taken as normative and natural.21

Thus, Cooper considers Mainwaring’s version to provide an example of how the boundary between the medieval and modern world did not necessarily imply ‘any enlarging of the mind’.22 Even though Mainwaring’s version is a text that is in many ways distinct from the rest of the tradition, it is interesting to note that rewriters of the tale in different linguistic and historical contexts have tended to move towards more explicit ideological interpretations. 17 18 19 20 21

22

The different translations – manuscripts and prints – are listed and described by Babbi, ed., Paris e Vienna, pp. 57–153. Cooper, ‘Going Native’, p. 25. The latter was the same printer that published Henry Watson’s version of Valentin et Orson, discussed in Chapter 3. Cooper, ‘Going Native’, p. 21. Cooper, ‘Going Native’, pp. 27–28. Cooper, ‘Going Native’, p. 34.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture The most complex transmission context of Paris et Vienne is the Italian tradition, with three manuscripts in Venetian and three in Tuscan, and as many as forty printed editions produced up until the end of the eighteenth century.23 While the preserved manuscripts contain a prose version of the tale, referred to as Paris e Vienna, the tale was then adapted into verse: first in 1571 by Mario Teluccini, then in 1626 by Angelo Albani.24 This verse adaptation formed the basis for at least 63 editions, published up until 1911.25 The Italian versions also contributed to the larger spread of the genre: the Yiddish, Armenian, Cretan and Russian versions all have an Italian origin. According to Babbi, this international success of the Italian tradition can be explained by the position of Venice in Europe, and its role as one of Italy’s printing centres, where many German printers also worked.26 Little has been written about the Swedish Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna. In 1955, the linguist Carl Ivar Ståhle dedicated a paragraph to it, in which he pointed out that the cross-rhymed verse was a novelty in sixteenth century Sweden.27 A longer essay was written by the literary scholar Karl-Ivar Hildeman in 1958, in which the Swedish fragment and its European context are discussed.28 In this essay, Hildeman argues that the cross-rhymed verse was the result of influence from the Danish rhymed chronicle, rather than Old Swedish verse literature, since the chronicle was written, like Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, in strophic form. Hildeman also highlights the Swedish translator’s insistence on how the protagonist, Paris, is educated, and argues that the function of the translation is to provide an educational programme or a conduct manual for members of the courtly youth.29 According to Hildeman, this didactic function should be linked to the bishop Hans Brask, whom he believes to have commissioned the translation, and the latter’s broader educational agenda for the Swedish aristocracy, in which he wanted French and Italian literature to elevate the customs of the court and enrich its interests.30 However, Hildeman considers it improbable that the Swedish translator used a French source text. Drawing attention to Anna Maria Babbi, ‘Destin d’amants: la réception de Paris et Vienne et Pierre de Provence et la Belle Maguelonne dans la littérature européenne’, in Le récit idyllique: Aux sources du roman moderne, p. 160. For a more detailed description of the different Italian manuscripts and prints, see Babbi, ed., Paris e Vienna, pp. 57–121. 24 Babbi, ‘Destin d’amants’, p. 160. 25 Babbi, ‘Destin d’amants’, p. 160. 26 Babbi, ‘Destin d’amants’, p. 161. 27 Ståhle, ‘Medeltidens profana litteratur’, p. 115. 28 Hildeman, Medeltid på vers. 29 Hildeman, Medeltid på vers, p. 31. 30 Hildeman, Medeltid på vers, p. 31. This was discussed more in detail in the introduction. 23

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Masculinity and Venus the closeness between it and the English and Dutch versions, he suggests instead that a Dutch text could have been the model, transmitted through a Low German intermediary. Strangely, Hildeman does not mention Märta Åsdahl’s previous work on the question of the sources of the Swedish translation. As a matter of fact, Åsdahl published, as early as 1945, a study on the romance in which she argued that a printed Low German version of Paris et Vienne, preserved at the university library of Uppsala in Sweden (Ink. 34:58 Fol. min.), was the Swedish translator’s source and that this text, in its turn, was a translation from Dutch.31 The Low German version was printed in Antwerp in 1488, also by Gherard Leeu, who had previously published one of the English editions (see above). Åsdahl’s hypothesis has not been challenged, but on the contrary supported by Axel Mante, who in 1965 edited the Low German version in question and provided further evidence for its role as a source for the Swedish translator. Mante, too, argues that the Low German text was a translation from a Dutch original.32 Apart from a number of close textual parallels between the Low German and Swedish texts, Åsdahl and Mante also draw attention to the fact that a copy of the Low German print was kept in Linköping, where Hans Brask was a bishop. Even though it is not known how the copy arrived in Linköping, it is considered likely that it was Brask who brought it there, after having purchased it during one of his journeys abroad.33 The hypothesis of a Low German source for the Swedish translation is particularly plausible if we consider Brask’s familiarity with Germany, not only from his time as a student in Rostock and Greifswald, but also from his work in Rome where he made important German contacts. It is probable that Brask came across the story of Paris et Vienne in Italy, where it was widespread, and that the Low German source text was provided by one of his many German contacts. Even if the direct source was Low German, the tale connects to a broader literary tradition with a French origin. This fits perfectly into the picture that we can discern of Brask’s travels, linguistic knowledge and literary intentions.

Tant fort et tant vertueulx: Masculinities and Mandom The history of gender has come into the mainstream of medieval studies. Yet, the focus has more often been on women rather than men. It was only in the 1990s that medieval men – considered specifically from 31

See Märta Åsdahl, ‘Die mittelniederdeutsche Version des Volksbuches von Paris und Vienna’, Niederdeutsche Mitteilungen 1 (1945), 50–65 (pp. 58–63). 32 Axel Mante, ed., Paris und Vienna: eine niederdeutsche Fassung vom Jahre 1488. Universitäts-Bibliothek, Uppsala, Inc. 34:58 (Lund: Gleerup,1965), pp. lv–lix. 33 Mante, ed., Paris und Vienna, pp. xxxvii–xxxviii.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture the perspective of their gender – started to attract more attention from scholars. Traditionally, the male gender has been defined as simply the opposite of that of the female, but modern scholarship has more recently tended to emphasise the diversity of the male gender, referring to masculinities rather than masculinity.34 In her book From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe, Ruth Mazo Karras analyses the formation of masculine identity in three separate spheres of the later Middle Ages: the court, the university and the craft workshop.35 In all these milieus, boys became men by testing and proving themselves against other men, and women were repeatedly used as tools in this process.36 Each milieu, however, presented its own variety of masculinity according to Karras. She links the chivalric masculinity to violence and shows how it was defined as the very opposite of femininity, while the masculinity of the university sphere, where men fought verbally, was more often opposed to bestiality. Finally, she describes the masculinity of the artisans, who competed economically, as being in opposition to the characteristics of childhood. In Karras’ chapter on the aristocratic context, which is most important for my purpose here, she considers physical combat as a means of impressing other men, and she underlines the importance of paternal ancestry and behavioural codes, such as dressing and table manners, when becoming a knight. She also highlights the importance of homosocial bonds between knights who have shared the same military experience: pairs (‘brothers-in-arms’) or groups of men that clearly excluded women. Even though the capacity to appeal to women was a fundamental part of chivalric masculinity, the women that the knights appealed to were above all ‘tokens in a game of masculine competition’.37 Karras’ study of late medieval masculinity might even be open to more nuance: the masculinity of each sphere could, for example, be considered as more heterogenic. However, her view of chivalric masculinity is sufficient to provide at least a background for the study of the male gender in the different versions of Paris et Vienne. Masculinity in the medieval Scandinavian context has been the subject of enquiry of several historians. For example, Bjørn Bandlien has drawn attention to the changing masculinities in the medieval Old West Norse society, as well as evolving attitudes towards love and marriage.38 Henric 34

35 36 37

38

One example of the focus on continuously changing and heterogenic masculinity is the volume of collected essays Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. Hadley. Karras, From Boys to Men. Karras, From Boys to Men, p. 11. Karras, From Boys to Men, p. 51. Bjørn Bandlien, Man or Monster? Negotiations of Masculinity in Old Norse Society, doctoral dissertation (Oslo: Faculty of Humanities, 2005); Strategies of Passion: Love and Marriage in Medieval Norway and Iceland (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005).

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Masculinity and Venus Bagerius has examined the interaction between political and sexual strategies in the Icelandic context, arguing that a homosocial pattern reflects ‘changing conceptions of male friendship in the aristocracy’. According to Bagerius, the aristocratic masculinity often implied a certain control of sexuality: ‘Chivalrous men seek each other’s company and the strong bonds between them often affect the way they act sexually. […] A chivalrous knight is able to control his sexual desires and he also considers the consequences of his actions.’39 In a recent book, the Swedish historian Agneta Ney has studied the legend of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, which holds a position of particular significance in Germanic and Old Norse mythology.40 Ney draws attention to how masculine ideals of the hero have been reshaped throughout history and adapted to different contexts. She distinguishes between the mythological hero and dragon slayer on the one hand, and the courtly knight on the other. The masculinity of the mythological Sigurðr is defined in relation to other men, whereas as a courtly hero his masculinity depends on his relationships with women, namely Brynhildr and Gudrun. Paris et Vienne presents a typical courtly male hero, whose identity is defined by his relationship with his beloved – but also, as we shall see, with his male friend. When looking closer at the fragmentary Old Swedish Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, the many occurrences of the notion of mandom are striking: it is used as many as six times in the 208-line fragment.41 It is useful to compare the use of the term here with how it is employed in the other texts discussed in this book. Even though it has seven occurrences in Herr Ivan, one has to consider that this is a much longer text and that mandom in this text remains – comparatively at least – a peripheral notion. In Flores och Blanzeflor, it is only used once and, in Namnlös och Valentin, three times. It is important to point out that the Old Swedish mandom has several meanings. It can refer to notions such as ‘human nature’ and ‘human dignity’, but also has the meanings of ‘masculine exploit’, ‘manliness’ and ‘masculinity’. The first use of the term appears in the seventh verse of the text, ‘baade aff mandom oc dygde claar’ (brilliant both in manliness and virtue), which refers to King Karl. The second occurrence is to be found in verse 25, ‘mandom oc miskunneligheet’ (manliness and mercy), which refers Henric Bagerius, Mandom och mödom: Sexualitet, homosocialitet och aristokratisk identitet på det senmedeltida Island (Göteborg: Institutionen för historiska studier, Göteborgs universitet, 2009), pp. 203–04. 40 Agneta Ney, Bland ormar och drakar: Hjältemyt och manligt ideal i berättartraditioner om Sigurd Fafnesbane (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2017). 41 All numbers and quotations are based on Edvard Klemming, ed., Svenska medeltids dikter och rim (Stockholm: Samlingar utg. av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1881–82), pp. 443–50. The translations were made in collaboration with Professor Henrik Williams of Uppsala University. 39

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture to the dauphin, Vienna’s father. The third appears in verse 117, ‘han war mʒ mandom dygde ffull’ (He had plenty of manliness and virtue), in a passage about the education of the young Paris. The fourth appears only six verses later, in verse 123, ‘och wngher fför räth mandom sin’ (and as young because of his manliness), which also refers to the young Paris, whom the dauphin dubs a knight. We find the fifth occurrence three verses later, in verse 126: ‘ther mandom skulde pröffues’ (where manliness would be tested), which refers to the places where one could find the knight, Paris. The sixth and final occurrence appears at the end of the Swedish fragment, in verse 199, ‘mandom oc riddherskapt’ (manliness and chivalry), and refers to the focus of Paris, who knows nothing of love as yet. I will return to the different passages in which these uses of mandom appear, but for now it is sufficient to note that the noun refers to men who have, or will shortly have, acquired power and chivalric fame: the king, the dauphin and Paris. Four of the six occurrences are related to the protagonist Paris. In addition to mandom, the Swedish fragment presents two closely related terms: manheet, a synonym, and the adjective manlig meaning ‘human’, ‘brave’, ‘masculine’. Once again, these terms do not seem to be the result of translation from the Low German source, but additions of the Swedish translator. The noun manheet appears in verse 143, ‘fför hans manheet man aff honom fand’ (for the manliness that one saw in him), and refers, again, to Paris. The adjective manlig is used in verse 158, ‘oc manlig swa til sinne’ (and manly in his mind), referring to Paris’ friend Edward. There are closely related terms in the Middle Low German text, such as ‘rike’, ‘mechtig’, ‘groet’ and Paris is described as ‘enen van den besten ridderen’ (p. 9) (one of the best knights).42 But the occurrences of mandom do not have one precise equivalent – rather they reflect an added emphasis on the part of the Swedish translator. In the shorter French version, the narrator refers to the young Paris as ‘tant fort et tant vertueulx’ (p. 58) and ‘vaillant en armes’ (p. 58),with references to his ‘grant proesse et hardiesse’ (p. 58) – expressions that are close to mandom.43 Nevertheless, the fact that the Swedish translator comes back to one and the same term six times in this short fragment creates a repeated stress that does not exist in the other texts discussed here.

42

The quotations from the Middle Low German text are taken from Mante, ed., Paris und Vienna. The translations from Low German are my own. 43 The quotations from the shorter French version follow Anna Maria Babbi, ed., Paris et Vienne: romanzo cavalleresco del XV secolo. Parigi. Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. fr. 20044 (Milano: Franco Angeli, 1992). The translations are my own.

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Masculinity and Venus

Aff gambla konunx slecte: Kingship and Knighthood The Swedish translation starts with a short prologue in which the narrator introduces the story that he is about to tell, as well as presents the main characters and the love theme: Här börias een lustelich historia aff en eddla Riddara i francariike ther heet pariis Oc then sköne Jomffru vienna then war en velldig herras dotter her godwart dallenson delphin i ffrankarike och bannerherre Och war han aff gamelt konunx slecte, holchen paris och vienna ledo mikin bedröffuilse oc motegang ffor troo höffuisk kerlech skull som the haffde them emellan oc kom dog alth til en good enda (p. 443) (Here begins a delightful story of a noble knight in France, whose name was Paris, and of the fair maiden Vienna, who was the daughter of a powerful man, Sir Godwart Dallenson, dauphin of France and knight, and he was of an old royal family. Paris and Vienna suffered great distress and misfortune for the sake of the true courtly love that they had between them, but all nevertheless ended well.)

As I have discussed elsewhere, the Swedish prologue presents several similarities with those written in Low German and English.44 However, a number of additions once again reveal a unique tone in the Swedish text that may be seen as characteristic of the translation more generally. First, while the Low German source text starts with the words ‘Hier beghynnet ene historie’ (p. 7) (Here begins a story) and the English, similarly, begins with ‘Here begynneth thystorye’ (p. 1) (Here begins the story), the narrator in the Swedish texts adds the adjective lustelich, which describes the kind of story he is about to tell.45 The word lustelich, with the meaning ‘pleasing’, ‘delightful’, has an erotic connotation that is important to bear in mind: the story that is about to be told, which is set in France and about a young and noble couple, is given an epithet that evokes sexual pleasure. Although the collection of texts in D 2 are marked by an interest in history, as shown by Jonas Carlquist, the translator signals that Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna has its own character, one which is not purely didactic.46 The adjective lustelich is neither used in Herr Ivan nor in Flores och Blanzeflor, but we find it in the prologue of Namnlös och Valentin, quoted in the previous chapter: ‘Her effter børiæs eth høffuist æuintyr aff Nampnlos Sofia Lodén, ‘Paris et Vienne and its Swedish Translation’, Medioevi 1 (2015), 169–85. 45 The quotations from the William Caxton’s English Paris and Vienne follow Leach MacEdward, ed., Paris and Vienne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957). The translations are mine. 46 Carlquist, Handskriften som historiskt vittne, p. 103.

44

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture och Falantin, aff all theres mandom, som the bedriffuo j theres daga; och ær lusteligit at høræ […]’ (p. 2) (Hereafter begins a courtly adventure of Namnlös and Valentin and of all their heroic achievements in their days, amusing to hear […]). This time, however, the adjective is employed in its adverbial form, referring to the effect that the tale will have on its listeners, while the tale itself is said to be courtly (‘høffuist’). The erotic connotation thus seems more distant. Even though the two prologues are far from identical, it is notable that the notion of mandom also appears in the prologue to Namnlös och Valentin. Another interesting element in the prologue of Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, related to lustelich, is the reference to ‘höffuisk kerlech’ (courtly love). It is commonly known that the expression ‘courtly love’, or amour courtois, is not really medieval but rather an invention of the nineteenthcentury medievalist Gaston Paris.47 The expression’s inclusion in the Swedish text therefore stands out, especially since höffuisk has no direct equivalent in the Low German version, which merely states ‘vmme der truwen leue’ (p. 7) (because of the true love); similarly, the English version uses ‘bycause of theyr true loue’ (p. 1) (because of their true love). The use of the Swedish expression needs to be examined within the context of the rest of the fragment and I will therefore return to it at the end of this chapter. As stated above, the shorter French version contains no prologue, but the longer version does. The length of the former’s prologue is considerably bigger than its Swedish counterpart. In its opening lines, we learn about the literary works that have influenced Pierre de la Cépède: ‘romans et croniques des ystoyres enciennes, [...] la vie de Lanceloit et de Tristain, de Floriment, et de Guy de Berrant (p. 392).48 The narrator then moves on to his main subject matter: Et comme ung chivalier, qui s’appelloit Paris, filz d’ung baron que l’om nommoit messire Jaques, fust amoureux de ladicte Vienne, si que pour l’amour d’elle il fist en sa vie mains beaulx faitz, comme vous pourres ouyr sa avant. Et pour tant quar la matiere me semble estre bien raisonnable et asses creable, et aussi que l’ystoyre est asses plaisant, quar belle chouse est oyr raconpter les beaulx faitz que les enciens firent jadis, cy ay entrepris a vous estrayre l’ystoire du langaige provencial en francoys. (p. 392) 47

See David Hult, ‘Gaston Paris and the Invention of Courtly Love’, in Medievalism and the Modernist Temper, ed. R. Howard Bloch and Stephen G. Nichols, Jr. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 192–224. 48 The quotations from the longer versions are from Kaltenbacher, ed., ‘Der altfranzösische Roman Paris et Vienne’, pp. 321–688. The translations are mine.

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Masculinity and Venus (And a knight, whose name was Paris and who was the son of a baron called Sir Jacques, was in love with this Vienne, which made him accomplish many beautiful things in his life, as you will hear. Because the matter seems sensible and reasonable to me, and because the story is also quite pleasant – for it is a beautiful thing to listen to beautiful accomplishments from before – I have undertaken to translate the story from the Provençal language into French.)

While the Swedish lustelich has no equivalent in the Low German prologue, it is important to note that the French narrator refers to the pleasure of reading and the fact that his tale is ‘plaisant’. Despite the philologically distant relationship between these two texts, the Swedish translation connects with the French text on this matter. In the prologue of the Swedish text, it is made very clear that paternal ancestry, crucial to the formation of chivalric masculinity according to Karras, is central and that kingship is also an important theme for the translator. Whereas Vienna’s father is the subject of detailed description in the text, including the mention of his full name, Godwart Dallenson, and the information that he came from France and was of an old courtly lineage, the Low German source is less elaborate, stating only the following about Vienna’s origin: ‘ene dochter des weldeghen heren Dolfynes’ (p. 7) (a daughter of the powerful Sir Dolfynes), which is also the case of the English text: ‘the daulphyns doughter of vyennoys’ (p. 1) (the daughter of the Dolphyn of Viennois). By adding the reference to France and to the father’s courtly lineage, the translator positions his story in a context of courtly romances, at the same time as setting the tone from the very beginning: it is, in other words, royal ancestry that legitimises the tale. The manuscript context is once again important here: Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna appears diegetically after Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, which tells the story of Duke Fredrik of Normandy and his route to royal power. The additions in the prologue make for a smooth transition between the two texts, not only by linking some ideological aspects but also through their common geographic origin: France. After the prologue, the Middle Low German text says the following about Vienna’s father, the Dauphin, who is directly associated with King Karles: In dien tiden koning Karles, des koninges van Vrank-riken, in den iaren ons heren M.CC. vnde en vnde seuentich, was in deme lande van Dolfynien in einer stad, gheheten Vyenna, en rike bannerhere, ghehe-ten Dolfyn, den men het her Godeuart Dallensone. Vnde was van koninghes geslechte vnde seer mechtich vnde groet an sik suluen van lande vnde van gude. Vnde was en klock, wis man, soe dat ene de koning seer leefhadde

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture vmme sijner wisheyt willen, soe dat sijnes ghelikes nicht enwas manck alle de ghennen, de in des koninghes rade weren. (p. 7) (At the time of King Karles, the king of France in the year of our Lord 1271, there was in the land of the Dauphin, in the city called Vienna, a wealthy knight, called the Dauphin; the man is called Sir Godeuart Dallensone. He was of royal descent and very powerful and noble with land and property. He was a clever and wise man. The king loved him much because of his wisdom and he had no equal among all the others that were in the kingdom.)

The Middle English text presents a passage that is similar in content, but shorter. The Swedish translator, on the other hand, makes several additions: J ffrancharike war en kung kung karl tha monde han heeta ganst dygdesaman bade gamal oc vng ää hwem thʒ lyster veta epte gudʒ byrd xijc aar oc lxx som the scriffua baade aff mandom oc dygde claar then stund han monde liiffua en bannerherre j hans land som man delphinien kalla bland kungens men oppa min sand tha war then ower alla hans nampn war her godwart dallenson aff gambla konunx slecte kung karl hylt aff honom mykin mon ffor andra riddere oc knecte aff land oc borge war han riik oc mectelig rikedoma kungen hylt honom mest när sig ffor raad til hwars mans fromma han war tyst oc dygdesam oc stadig i sin sinne han brade mʒ tokt a konunxstam oc loot sik altid finne til mandom oc miskunneligheet ä hwem som thʒ behöffde goduiligan oc aldrig mʒ fortreet han nogen man bedröffde (vv. 1–28) (There was a king in France whose name was King Karl, a very virtuous man both as an old and a young man, for whomever that wants to know, 1200 years after the birth of God and 70 as they write, brilliant

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Masculinity and Venus both in manliness and virtue. At the time he lived, there was a knight in his country, who was called the Dauphin among the king’s men, on my honour, who then was superior to everybody. His name was Sir Godwart Dallenson and he was of an old royal family. King Karl valued him a great deal over other knights and squires. He was wealthy when it came to land and castles, and great riches. The king kept him close to himself most of the time for advice for the benefit of everyone. He was taciturn and virtuous and had a steady mind, he represented his royal lineage with honour and always showed manliness and mercy towards those who needed it; he showed goodwill and never caused anyone vexation.)

The Swedish text thus prioritises the role of the king; Vienna’s father acquires authority through his royal connection to a much greater extent than in the other texts. There is no equivalent in the Low German or French versions of the verses that describe the great value of the king (‘ganst dygdesaman bade gamal oc vung / ää hwem thʒ lyster veta’, ‘baade aff mandom oc dygde claar’). Thus, while the other texts quickly move on to Vienna’s father, once the king is mentioned, the Old Swedish text tends rather to emphasise the role of the king as a good ruler from the outset. The description that is then given of the dauphin is another example of the Swedish translator’s insistence on courtly values. Even though the different texts refer to the fact that the dauphin was descended from a noble family (‘aff gambla konunx slecte’, ‘Vnde was van koninghes geslechte’, ‘& was of the kynges kynrede of fraunce’, ‘lequel estoit du lignage du roy de France’), the Swedish translator mentions twice how the dauphin had received the king’s praise (‘kung karl hylt aff honom mykin mon’, ‘kungen hylt honom mest när sig / ffor raad til hwars mans fromma’). Even though the greater part of the presentation of the dauphin in the Swedish text is close to the Low German text, the translator adds the two verses that refer to his behaviour with other men (‘goduiligan oc aldrig mʒ fortreet / han nogen man bedröffde’). Paris’ chivalric education also receives elaboration in the Swedish text. Let us first look at the description that the Low German version gives of the young man’s education: Desse ridder hadde en sone sere schoen, de hete Paris, den die vader in allen kunsten leet leren, wente dat he .xv. iar oelt ward. Dar-nae leet he ene leren, myt wapene[n] vnde myt ry-dende sick tho oeuende. Vnde nam soe sere tho, dat he in korten tijden waert || tho ridder gheslaghen bij [deme] Dolfijn. Al-soe dat nerghene torney vnde ridder-spel was, me vant ene dar mede. Soe dat he vnde sijn name auer alle lande be-kant ward.

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture Vnde ward ghepriset vor enen van den besten ridderen, de me wor wuste, wente he helt sijck to-male kostlick vnde blanck in den wapenen vnde was vrolick in der selschop. Vnde helt stede valken vnde haueke vnde hunde to iaghende vnde ouede des soe vele, dat id en greue edder en hertoch ghedan hadde, id hadde nuch gewesen, vnde quam aldus in kunt-schop der groten heren. (pp. 8–9) (This knight had a very handsome son, whose name was Paris, whom the father taught all sorts of skills, until he was fifteen years old. He then let him learn to use weapons and practise riding himself, and he learnt so well that, in a short time, he was dubbed a knight by the Dauphin. There was no tournament or jousting where he was not to be found. In this way he and his name became known across the whole country and he was praised as one of the best knights known anywhere, because he behaved very nobly, was skilled with weapons and was cheerful in company. And he always had falcons and hawks and dogs in hunt and practised so often, that it was as much as would a count or a duke. Thus he got to know the powerful lords.)

The Swedish translator gives a far more detailed description of the skills that a knight should acquire, and insists particularly on the masculine identity of Paris: Her iacob hadhe en wngan son baade ffager och skön mʒ alle huar man han hölt aff honom mon the monde honom pariiss kallä han hölt honom aff barndoom tiil alskons hoffwerk lära medh dyst torney oc riddars spiil och sik omgaa medh ära med steen mʒ stong och ffäktarij ther til monde han sik öffua mʒ springan oc mʒ brotarij ee hwem thʒ lyste pröffua han war mʒ mandom dygde ffull ee huar thʒ skulle wara bland selskap snak eller päninga oc gull thʒ wille han aldrig spara Thy wart han aff her delphin med ärlig tiänist fframtagen och wngher fför räth mandom sin aff honum til riddara slagen man ffan honom altid alla stadʒ ther mandom skulde pröffues fför sloth oc städher pa then platʒ ther torney skulde öffues

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Masculinity and Venus han hadhe sik saa bland alle the thʒ loff gaff man parise the man j torney kwnno see ath han reed aff mʒ priise paris elskade gerna iakt mʒ höker oc med hwndhe til kostelig örss tha war hans akt the han haffde alla stwndhe han brukade them saa innerligh bade mʒ ffalk och hesta ath rykthet gik i ffrankeriigh ath paris haffde the besta Thy wort han känd offuer alle landh bland herra och fförsta thäre fför hans manheet man aff honom fand the hade honom alle käre Thʒ haffde nog wäd en hertog riik sith ridderskap saa fföra aff the besta j ffrankeriik som paris monde göra mʒ clenod oc harnisk kostelic stofferat j thʒ besta mʒ hwite falcha aff fremmende riik oc aldre skönste hesta (vv. 105–52) (Sir Jacob had a young son, fair and beautiful in all respects; everybody valued him, they named him Paris. He [= Sir Jacob] saw to it that during his childhood he learnt different kinds of chivalry: jousting, tourneys and tournaments, and to behave with honour. With sling-shot and lance and fencing he had to practice, as well as with jumping and wrestling, and with whomever wished to attempt it. He had much manliness and virtue whenever it was needed. With conversation or with money and gold, he never wanted to hold back. Therefore, he was well honoured by the lord dauphin for his noble achievements and, in honour of his manliness, he was dubbed a knight at a young age. One always found him in the places where manliness would be tested. At castles and in cities and where there were tourneys; he behaved in company so well that they all praised Paris, who they saw participating in the tournaments to the end that he rode there with glory. Paris loved hunting very much, with hawks and with dogs. He thought about excellent horses all the time, and he used them so eagerly, both with hawk and horses, such that the rumour in France was that Paris had the best (horses). Thus he became known throughout the whole country, among lords and princes; for the manliness that they saw in him they all held him dear. Paris handled his knighthood as among the best in France as would be expected of a mighty duke, with treasures and costly armour adorned in the best way, and with white falcons from foreign lands and the most beautiful horses.)

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture As Hildeman has pointed out, the Swedish knight learns to wrestle and play chess, which is not the case in the Middle Low German or French versions.49 Apart from adding wrestling and chess to the list of chivalric activities, the translator also adds references to honour (‘och sik omgaa medh ära’) and, as noted above, mandom (‘han war mʒ mandom dygde ffull’, ‘och wngher fför räth mandom sin’, ‘ther mandom skulde pröffues’) and manheet (‘fför hans manheet man aff honom fand’). He also, once again, inserts a reference to the geographic context of France (‘ath rykthet gik i ffrankeriigh’). In the French versions too, the focus of Paris’ education is on chivalric skills. However, the shorter version presents one interesting difference: ‘Et son pere le faisoit enseigner en bonnes coustumes et en lettres en tant que cestuy Paris fust en l’aage de .xv. ans; et, aprés, le fist adresser et enseigner en armes’ (p. 58) (His father taught him good manners and letters until Paris was fifteen years old, and then he taught him about weapons). While both the German and French texts state that the young Paris started his chivalric education at the age of fifteen – which has no equivalent in the Swedish translation – the shorter French version mentions that he had previously been educated in the arts and letters (as seen above, the German text only contains a vague reference to how the father ‘allen kunsten leet leren’). A similar reference can be found in the Italian text: ‘imparare lezere e scrivere’ (p. 164) (learn to read and write).50 The education of the Swedish Paris is completely focused on chivalric skills, which sharply contrasts the literary education given to the children in Flores och Blanzeflor (see Chapter 3). While Floire and Blancheflor are generally described as very much alike, Paris’ masculinity actually sets him up in opposition to the female character of Vienna. His chivalric success is far removed from the female traits that the narrator associates with Vienna. However, Paris and Vienna have one thing in common: their beauty. Paris, for example, is ‘fager’ in the Swedish text, ‘schoen’ in the Low German and ‘moult beau’ (p. 58) in the shorter French version. Indeed, the Swedish narrator also pays close attention to Vienna’s physical appearance: Vienna vaxte daglige til mʒ växt oc skönheet lica oc ther mʒ dygd, iak säya vil ath i alt frankariike war ey then tiid en fägre möö thʒ skede mʒ gudʒ vilia war röd som roos oc smal som röö Medeltid på vers, pp. 30–31. There is no equivalent in the English version either. 50 The quotations from the Italian text follow Babbi, ed., Paris e Vienna. The translations are mine. 49 Hildeman,

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Masculinity and Venus oprunnen, hwiit som lilia ffor ffruor oc jomfrur bar hon priiss ath hon var skönst for alla (vv. 69–78) (Vienna grew every day in both growth and beauty, as well as in virtue; I would like to say that in the whole of France there was no fairer maiden at that time, for it was the will of God. She was red as a rose and slender as a reed, white as a lily. More than other ladies and maidens she was praised for being the most beautiful of all)

A similar passage exists in the Low German source, but it is interesting to note that in this text there is no direct equivalent of the Swedish dygd ‘virtue’. The longer French text, meanwhile, refers to the maiden’s ‘tres grant sciense’ (p. 394) (very great wisdom) and her ‘vertuz’ (p. 395) (value); the shorter French version speaks of her ‘gentillesse’ (p. 58) (nobleness) and ‘la grant dignité de son pere et de sa mere’ (p. 58) (the great dignity of her father and mother) and the English translation refers to Vienna’s ‘gentylnesse’ (p. 2) (nobleness). Furthermore, it is notable that only the Swedish text gives a more concrete description of the young woman’s beauty, saying that she was red as a rose and white as a lily – the French, Low German, English and Italian texts only note that Vienna is beautiful without providing further detail: ‘vthnemender schoenheit’ (p. 8) (extraordinary beauty), ‘souerayn beawte’ (p. 2) (sovereign beauty), ‘tres grande beaute’ (the longer version, p. 394) (very great beauty), ‘souveraine beaulté’ (the shorter version, p. 58) (sovereign beauty), ‘maravelgiosa belleza’ (p. 164) (marvellous beauty). The fact that the Swedish translator stresses not only Paris’ chivalric education but also Vienna’s beauty and moral dignity is significant: the opposition between chivalric masculinity and courtly femininity, as discussed by Karras, is thus particularly strongly expressed in the Swedish text. Although the two lovers have their beauty in common, the narrator chooses to present two very distinct portraits of them, each focusing on different aspects – something that distinguishes them considerably from Floire and Blancheflor.

Tant s’amoient que plus ne povoient: Friendship and Love As noted above, homosocial bonds were crucial in the construction of a medieval masculinity. As Marianne Ailes has pointed out, medieval men were defined in relation to other men.51 According to Ailes, the medieval 51

M. J. Ailes, ‘The Medieval Couple and the Language of Homosociality’, in Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. D. M. Hadley, pp. 214–37 (p. 214). On the role of friendship in medieval and Renaissance literature more generally, see Reginald Hyatte, The Arts of Friendship: The Idealization of Friendship in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1994).

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture views of male friendship were strongly influenced by the classical tradition and its associated notions of homoerotic friendship, as well as by both the classical and the biblical traditions’ notions of non-eroticised love between men.52 The most famous male friends in medieval literature are probably Roland and Olivier in the Chanson de Roland. While the genre of the chanson de geste frequently foregrounds these kinds of male couples, the romance genre tends rather to focus on heterosexual couples. However, this does not exclude several descriptions of male friends in the genre of romance, for example Tristan and Kaherdin in Thomas’ version of the Tristan story.53 At the beginning of Paris et Vienne, we are confronted with descriptions of two friendships – the first female (that between Vienne and Isabelle) and the second male (that between Paris and Edward). In order to understand the relationship between the two males, it is useful to consider first the two young female friends. The maiden Vienna was taken care of by a noble lady whose daughter, Isabelle, was brought up with Vienne. The girls’ education is much less central to the narrative than is Paris’ education. The Swedish text merely states: ‘the föddes op mʒ mykin vakt / ther til mʒ goda lära’ (v. 57–58) (they were raised with great care as well as with good education). The two girls become close friends. The Low German text describes this friendship as follows: ‘Vnde kreghen sick vnderlanghen soe leeff, dat de ene sunder die anderen nicht wesen mochte, vnde heten sik vn-derlanghe “sustere”’ (p. 8) (And received so much mutual love that they did not want to be without one another, and called each other sister). Once again, the passage is more elaborate in the Swedish text: oc aff opfödan fingo then act the ville ey aatskild vära the lecte sammen oc finge then maat ath ingen kunne them skilia skulle the skilias daag eller natt thʒ war fast moot theres vilia hwar thera hade the andra sa kär som hoon ware henne systher ath huad then enes var begär the andre ther aat lyster (vv. 59–68) (and the result of their upbringing was that they did not want to be separated; they played together to such an extent that nobody could separate them. If they were separated day or night, it was greatly against their will; each of them held the other so dear, as if the other were her sister, such that whatever one of them desired, the other wished for, too) 52 53

Ailes, ‘The Medieval Couple’, p. 216. Ailes, ‘The Medieval Couple’, p. 226.

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Masculinity and Venus Both texts refer to the girls’ love for each other and the fact that they call each other ‘sisters’, and they also contain the same reference to the fact that they did not want to be separated from one another. The two French versions present similar references, with the longer version stating: ‘Les deux pucelles estoient continuellement ensemble, et eurent une tres singuliere amour entre elles, si que l’une ne povait durer sans l’autre, et se nommoyrent seurs l’une l’aultre’ (p. 394) (The two maidens were always together and had a very particular love for each other, so that one of them could not be without the other, and they called each other sister); and the shorter: ‘et oult si grant amour entre ses deulx filles que l’une ne povait estre sans l’aultre’ (p. 58) (and there was such a great love between the two girls that one of them could not be without the other). However, only the Swedish text asserts that the desire of the one was also the other’s wish, thus emphasising even more resolutely the strong bonds between the two young women. The presence of the female friends at the beginning of the narrative foreshadows the longer passage to come about the male friendship between Paris and Edward. It quickly becomes clear that this male friendship is rather different in character from its female counterpart. The Low German text says: Oec helt he gro-te selschop mit eneme iunghen riddere in der stad, gheheten Eduwart. Vnde weren beide wol van eneme oeldere vnde hadden sik vnderlanghen herteliken lef. Vnde vorselden sik toe stekespelen vnde torneyen, besundergen de in Vrancrike gheholden worden. Vnde quemen nicht van den spelen, || se en hadden vorworuen ere vnde loff. Ock konden se spelen vp luten vnde anderen seydenspelen; men Paris was vele beter spe-ler dan Eduward. Eduward vriede na ener iuncfrowen in dem haue van Brabande. Paris wuste nocht nicht, wat leeue was. (p. 9) (He also had a strong friendship with a young knight from the city, called Eduwart. They were of the same age and genuinely liked each other. They joined competitions and tournaments, in particular those that were held in France. And they did not come back from the games without having won honour and praise. They could play the lute and other string instruments, but Paris was a much better player than Eduward. Eduward was in love with a maiden from the court of Brabande. Paris did not yet know what love was.)

The Swedish translation of this passage marks the end of the fragment in D 2. It is once again considerably longer than its source: 171

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture En vng riddere tha war ther man monde her edwart kalla then hade her paris synnerlig kär bland sina stalbröder alla han war vid aller som paris oc manlig swa til sinne bade stark oc ther til viis oc kunne vel holla inne vid sig siälff oc hemelig thʒ vener war til vilia thy lade the venskap mellan sig at them kunne ingen skilia the hade hwar annan aff hierta kär oc huar til annars besta thy waro the eens oc aldrig säär mʒ clednig oc mʒ hesta mʒ skafftauel oc strenge leek oc mesterlige siwnge engen aff them for nogon veek gambla eller än vnge The öffuade thʒ alt vnder sig oc brucade thʒ som meste alle daga hemmelig doc war paris then beste Edwartʒ kerlig ffallin war aff hog oc hierta baade j braband til en jomfru klar thy wart honum saa ath raade ath han wilde the Jomfru riik til äcteskap ath fryä oc lata sik om ath wara henne lik med henne til äcthe wya han dolde thʒ fför huariom man fför wtan paris al eena ath hans hugh saa heetlig bran alt til the iomfru reena paris war än wngher thaa aff amor han ey wiste thy radde han ther edwart ffraa och hoffwerk han mer priste han sagde til eedwart sälle myn huat kan thʒ yppara wära til mans lust aff hierta och sin än bruka hoffwerk mʒ ära Thʒ sade paris thy all hans akt war huargens ythermera än til mandom oc riddherskapt och sik prislik regera

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Masculinity and Venus han wiste ey aff huat wenus war eller amor hadhe inbära dog war wenus ther til ospar ath paris skulde thʒ lära med tidhen monde thʒ och saa ske sedan paris kom til manna ath ffor the ting han fför sagde ney them monde han sedan sanna (vv. 153–208) (A young knight was there then, and one may call him Sir Edward. Sir Paris held him particularly dear among all his friends; he was the same age as Paris and manly in his mind, both strong and also wise and capable of keeping things to himself and secret. The friends were delightful, thus a friendship was formed between them, so that nobody could separate them; they held each other dear and were each at the other’s service, therefore they were alike and never different whether in clothing or with horses, or with chess, string instruments or artistic songs. Neither of them surrendered to those either old or young. They kept busy as a result and practised constantly, every day alone, but Paris was always the best. Edward had fallen in love, both in heart and mind, with a fair maiden in Brabant. Thus he was given the advice that he should propose to the noble maiden and devote himself to be good to her and marry her. He hid it from all men, except for Paris. His mind burned so hotly, all for the pure maiden. Paris was still young then, of love he did not know, so he gave Edward the advice that he should value chivalric skills more. He said to Edward: ’My friend, what can be better for a man’s pleasure in heart and mind than to use chivalrous skills with honour?’ Paris said that, because all his thoughts were trained on nothing other than manliness and chivalry and how to behave honourably; he did not know what Venus was, or what meant. However, Venus was eager that Paris should learn. In the course of time that would also happen. When Paris became a man, he would accept things that he had refused before.)

Even though the female and male couples echo each other in the sense that they are both described as inseparable, they are diametrically opposed in other respects. While the young girls are said to be like sisters, Paris and Edward are not explicitly compared to brothers, even though we learn that they share the same traits: Edward is manlig, stark and viis, like Paris. Furthermore, while we only learn that Vienna and Isabelle played together – without hearing any detail as to what or how they played – the narrator is more precise when it comes to the male friends, whose shared activities are sophisticated: they are both interested in clothing and horses, at the same time as they play chess, instruments and sing together. Finally, contrary to the female couple, the description of the male friendship emerges when the question of love and marriage is raised: Edward confides in Paris about his love for a maiden and Paris advises him rather to focus on chivalric honour. 173

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture In both the Middle Low German and Old Swedish texts, meanwhile, the narrator informs us that the two young men liked each other very much and that they undertook a number of chivalric activities together, in all of which Paris surpassed Edward; both also relate Edward’s love for the young maiden and Paris’ ignorance of the matter of love. This information is also included into the English text. The modifications and additions in the Swedish text are, however, important. Whereas the shorter French version is close the Middle Low German, the longer one contains a number of elements that actually echo the Swedish text’s deviations. These elements are found in the first part of the equivalent passage in the French: Ledit Paris avoit ung sien compaignon, qu’il amoit de grant amour, et le tenoit moult chier. Ledit compaignon s’appelloit Eudardo; il estoit de la cite de Vienne. Paris le tenoit a son grant amy, quar ilz estoient nez tous deux en ung temps et en une saison. Et pour ce se fioit il moult en luy et luy disoit touz ses secretz et tout son courage. Ilz portoient robes semblans l’une a l’autre d’une couleur et d’une livree, si que entre eulx deux n’avoit nulle differance. Tant s’amoient que plus ne povoient. (p. 396) (This Paris had a companion of his own, whom he loved wholeheartedly and held very dear. This companion’s name was Eudardo, he was from the city of Vienne. Paris considered him his best friend, because they were born at the same time and in the same season. And for that reason he relied on him greatly and told him all his secrets and all about his bravery. They wore similar clothes, of the same colour and livery, so there was no difference between them. They loved each other more than possible.)

Both the French and Swedish texts refer to the fact that the two men could keep each other’s secrets, and both texts also describe the friends as alike, even in terms of clothing. None of these elements are present in the Low German text. One may wonder, therefore, whether these parallels between the French and Swedish versions are purely coincidental. The Swedish translator also makes additions that exist in neither the Low German nor the French texts. First, he adds a number of verses that describe Edward’s character: he is referred to as ‘manlig’, ‘stark’ and ‘viis’, adjectives that once again stress chivalric and masculine ideals. Second, while Paris gives no advice to Edward in the other versions, the Swedish Paris advises his friend to value chivalrous skills over marriage (‘bruka hoffwerk mʒ ära’) – a piece of advice that fits well with Paris’ previous education. Finally, the Swedish translator also develops what is said about Paris’ ignorance of love (‘han wiste ey aff huat wenus war / eller amor hadhe inbära’). Neither the French texts nor the Low German 174

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Masculinity and Venus version contain a similar reference to Venus and Amor. However, the English version says: ‘but Parys as yet knewe nought of amorouste but not longe after Venus the goddes of loue fyred his thouʒt with the hert vnto a noble yong lady’ (p. 3) (but Paris did not yet know of love. Not long after, however, Venus, the goddess of love, let his mind and heart burn for a noble young lady). Even though previous research suggests it is unlikely that the English text was the Swedish translator’s source, the mention of the goddess Venus underlines once again the complex relationship between the different European versions of the tale. Venus’ presence in the Swedish translation reflects the predominant role of love in the text: at the same time as the translator’s focus is on masculine ideals, these ideals are nonetheless clearly related to love. The final verses in the Swedish fragment are particularly interesting in this respect, since they explicitly link manhood with love: it is said that once Paris became a man, he would have accepted things that he had refused before (‘sedan paris kom til manna’ etc.) – since this comes immediately after the passage about Edward’s love for the maiden, it would seem to indicate that the things that Paris would now accept are closely linked to love and women. According to the narrator, Paris so far only knows of ‘mandom oc riddherskapt’. Even though the notion of mandom is not directly associated with love, the translation seems to hint that a man still needs to know about love. If we look at the subsequent passage in the longer French version, we find Paris’ monologue about his feelings for Vienna, whom he considers outstandingly beautiful but too noble for him to love. This passage echoes the Swedish prologue: ‘Ceste dame que mon cuer veult tant amer, veulhe je ou non, est de si noble sang et de si hault parente, que c’est contre toute raison que je la doye amer; mes mon cuer me efforce, donc il me convyent faire ce qu’il veult.’ Et pour ce l’amoit si cortoisemant et si couvertemant, que la dame, que pucelle estoit, ne s’en aparcevoit de riens, ne il n’estoit homme ne femme qui s’en aparceust de riens ne en sceust riens, fors Edardo, a qui il disoit touz ses secretz. (pp. 396–97) (‘This lady that my heart wants so much to love, whether I want it or not, is of such noble blood and high lineage that it is against all reason that I should love her; but my heart forces me, so it is suitable for me to do what it wants.’ And for that reason he loved her so courteously and so secretly that the lady, who was a maiden, noticed nothing, nor did any man or woman notice or know anything, except for Edardo, to whom he told all his secrets.)

Since Paris’ lineage is not as noble as that of his beloved Vienna, he does not declare his love but keeps it secret from everyone except Edward, 175

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture thus loving Vienna cortoisemant. Just as in the Swedish prologue, his love is thus said to be courtly.

Paris’ love for Vienna is not introduced to the Swedish audience, except by means of the prologue’s hints about it. If we follow the final lines that have been preserved, quoted above, this means that Paris, still ignorant of Venus, never truly reaches full manhood before the end of the translation, since to be a man, one apparently needs to know about love. The fact that the fragment in D 2 is followed by a number of empty folia indicates that the translation was intended to be longer. Nevertheless, the cessation at this specific point is not necessarily coincidental. It is possible that the translator had already made his most important points in the passage that he had translated, and thus there was no real need to continue. If we consider the other texts in the Swedish manuscript, discussed in the introduction to this book, none of them reflects a particular interest in the question of love, but rather they seem to turn on matters of history. The fact that Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna follows immediately after Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, a text that despite its comic tone presents many parallels with a mirror for princes, chimes very well with the focus on mandom, kingship and chivalry.54 Even though the modern scholar tends to consider the European tradition of Paris et Vienne as an idyllic romance about the love between two young people, the Swedish translation shifts the focus to masculinity – love becomes subordinated; this is not unusual in itself, but it claims a greater significance due to the nature of the masculine ideals that are elaborated: a true knight does not only need to be brave in battle but must also marry a worthy lady. While the love theme in the other versions is explored as a more of an independent literary motif, which is important for generating both aesthetic and social insights, the Swedish text places it in a more obviously social context, linking love very explicitly to masculinity. This echoes the Eufemiavisor, and in particular Herr Ivan, in which the translator emphasises that marriage with a courtly lady represents a sign of chivalric honour, rather than a source of joy and pleasure – in Chrétien’s romance, by contrast, both of these perspectives on marriage are valid (see Chapter 2). Despite the somewhat indefinite and fluid nature of gender, as highlighted in recent scholarship (as discussed above), Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna confronts us with an ideal version of chivalric masculinity that is tightly defined, and which corresponds well with Karras’ view of chivalric masculinity, in which paternal ancestry, behavioural codes and homosocial bonds between men represent essential ingredients. Similarly, 54

On the comic and didactic aspects of Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, see my ‘The Eufemiavisor: A Unified Whole’, pp. 176–88.

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Masculinity and Venus Vienna’s role in the tale appears to be a tool that contributes to the construction of Paris’ masculinity. The translator’s reference to ‘höffuisk kerlech’ should not be confused with the type of courtly love that tends to be associated with the troubadour lyric; it should be understood more literally, as the love of the courtly milieu – the love that the young men of the Swedish aristocracy needed to adopt as one of several ideals to which they should aspire. The very fact that the reference to ‘höffuisk kerlech’ was added to the Swedish prologue is revealing: the didactic focus of the Swedish translation, which Hildeman has linked convincingly to the commissioner Hans Brask, teaches us that love should be seen as an intrinsic part of chivalric culture. At the same time, it can be related to Brask’s wish to adopt a more continental culture in Sweden. Whereas Hertig Fredrik av Normandie is described as an adventure from the beginning, ‘Eth æuintyr thet byriæs hær’ (an adventure begins here), Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna is said to be ‘een lustelich historia’, thus adding to the scope of the content of D 2. The erotic connotation of the word lustelich ‘pleasing’ is important to stress – it certainly stands out in the manuscript context, which cannot be a coincidence. If we read D 2 as a collection of didactic texts speaking to the topics of history and masculine ideals, we should see the reference to love and Venus as connecting with a larger European courtly culture. Åsdahl’s and Mante’s hypothesis of a Low German source is particularly convincing when considering the fact that the German print was brought to Linköping where Brask was a bishop. When comparing the Swedish translation with the Low German text, the number of additions to the narrative in the Swedish version is striking: the supposed source text seems to have functioned as the starting point for a new and amplified version of the tale – even though the latter was never finished. The parallels that do exist between the Swedish fragment and the French, Italian and English versions do not contradict the hypothesis of a Low German source, but may give a more nuanced picture: it cannot be ruled out, indeed, that the Swedish translator had parallel access to one or several of these other versions as well. The Low German source should nonetheless be considered as intermediary since it was most likely the tale’s popularity in France and Italy that seduced Brask into commissioning his translation. Given the considerable number of manuscripts and printed texts that existed at the time when D 2 was written, however, it would be a difficult task to establish a definitive stemma of the whole European tradition – and this is probably no real detriment to scholarship in any case. Even though the exact origin might be more complex than scholars have so far argued, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna is interesting above all for its historical context. If Brask wrote half of the Swedish text himself, as Gunneng has suggested (see Introduction), the text’s cessation might 177

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture actually have been the product of a dramatic period in Swedish history more generally, perhaps even in Brask’s life more specifically. The central roles of honour and gender not only connect to the other texts discussed in this book but also to the more general aspects of medieval European culture, as described by Chris Wickham (see Chapter 1). Despite the fact that Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna was written later than the other texts, the effort to create a European cultural community through literature seems to remain a strong and conscious project. Once again, the Europeanisation in question is a civilising process, and the central love theme should also be understood in this light. Transmitted in a manuscript commissioned by the bishop who, until the end, struggled against the Reformation, and which was probably translated – at least partly – from an early Low German printed edition, the Swedish fragment straddles two important borders: that between the medieval manuscript culture and the age of print on the one hand, and between Catholic and Protestant Sweden, on the other. The abrupt ending of the translation, I suggest, might well reflect the very great difficulty of crossing these two borders.

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Conclusion: Found in Translation The French romance spread remarkably quickly across medieval Europe, and this contributed to the Europeanisation of culture that took place in the Middle Ages. One might even go so far as to say that the spread of the genre sheds light on the emergence of what is today understood as ‘Western literature’. The romance, however, reached medieval Sweden rather later than it did most other parts of Europe, including Norway, despite the close relationship of its literary tradition with Sweden’s. The chronological gap between Herr Ivan, Flores och Blanzeflor, Namnlös och Valentin, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna and their French originals is thus considerable. It seems clear, therefore, that the choice to translate these specific texts into Old Swedish was not motivated by their popularity on the European literary scene at the particular moments in history at which they were translated. Rather, they seem more likely to have been selected on the basis of their literary style and ideological content. Despite the different contexts in which the Swedish texts were written, all four texts are linked to the tradition of Old French verse romances and all, except Namnlös och Valentin, are written entirely in verse. This does not only differ considerably from the closely related Old West Norse tradition of prose sagas, but also from the tendency in late medieval France to rewrite verse romances into prose. The popularity of the Germanic verse form knittel stands out as a stylistic feature that links many Old Swedish texts – and not just those under consideration here –, at the same time as it reminds us of the significant influence of Germanic culture and tradition on medieval Sweden more generally. Due to the frequent exchange between the Swedish and Low German cultures and societies, German influences are in some ways much subtler than French ones, because they were already deeply knitted into Swedish culture. However, whereas the linguistic influences are mostly concrete and traceable, cultural influences can be more difficult to identify. The texts discussed in this book are derived from the French tradition, but the role of the Low German tradition as an intermediary tradition should not be underestimated. The Low German sources for Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna are the most obvious signs of German influence in the texts discussed in this book, but clearly they are not alone 179

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture in this. Even though Herr Ivan and Flores och Blanzeflor were at least partly translated from Old West Norse, the choice to opt for verse over prose in the Old Swedish texts is significant. It would almost certainly have been easier to write new prose translations in the very closely related Old Swedish language; the choice of the rhymed knittel verse thus connects the Swedish texts to German culture at the same time as it distances them from the Old West Norse tradition. Many scholars today study medieval translations in relation to their target cultures rather than their sources, which has created the rather unjust perception that the relationship between a translation and its source(s) is only associated with stemmatological questions, ones which have moreover already been explored exhaustively in previous, now rather dated research. However, even though the re-evalution of medieval translations as objects worthy of enquiry in their own right has led to stimulating discussions and shed new light on many texts, the question of sources remains essential in order to understand how translations evolve and develop. Instead of focusing on the linear movement from source to translation, therefore, in this book I have studied the Swedish translations in relation to their various direct and indirect sources on a less hierarchial level, positioning the larger European context as the key to understanding the texts’ different textual origins. When reading the Swedish texts both in relation to their sources and as an integral cog in their larger European context, the themes of gender and beastliness transpire to be among the most adapted and modified themes. The role of childhood is generally more peripheral; nonetheless, it plays a central role in Flores och Blanzeflor, in which it also casts light on questions of male and female identity. At the same time as this analysis has shown that the translations are better understood when related both to their sources and to their wider European context(s), it has also demonstrated that the Swedish texts can help us to understand better the French tradition of romance, since they present specific interpretations that do not contradict the French originals, but rather (re-)interpret them for the sake of internal coherence and ideological focus. Indeed, while the French romances are generally more nuanced and open to different kinds of interpretation, the Swedish texts all, in the four cases under consideration here, lay stress on core chivalric questions about courtliness and female/male identity. Thus, in Chrétien’s Le Chevalier au lion the portraits of courtly women are highly nuanced and subtle; in Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor childhood is presented as a sophisticated literary motif, rather than a clearly defined chronological period; in Valentin et Orson the hybrid character of the wild brother, between animal and human, is explored in detail by the French narrator. By contrast, the Swedish texts clarify and schematise these complex characters and aspects – a process that can be traced back, at least partly, 180

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Conclusion to Old West Norse and Middle Low German intermediate sources, but which, nevertheless, is also taken a step further in the Swedish versions. Similarly Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna, despite its fragmentary status, clarifies the meaning of the narrative by linking the love between man and woman to an ideal of masculinity. The different foci in the translations highlight the complexity and multifarious character of the French romance, and shed light on how it was read and understood in specific medieval contexts. When related to other European versions of the same narratives, the diversity of the genre becomes apparent at the same time as the stable core of the tradition reveals itself, thus establishing the central and defining features of a broad European literary legacy. In this book, we have seen that the Swedish Herr Ivan, when related to Le Chevalier au lion as well as several other European versions of Chrétien’s narrative, avoids the ambiguity of the French original, by presenting one specific reading that, importantly, does not contradict the romance, but rather homes in on some of its specific aspects. The female characters of Laudine and Lunete become more peripheral as their roles as female courtly women are schematised, while the lion, strongly associated with feminine qualities, acquires a more central role. Meanwhile, in Flores och Blanzeflor, the Swedish translator depicts Flores primarily as a knight – the childhood of the two lovers is separated from the rest, whereas the French Conte and other versions of the tale playfully interweave references to the protagonists as children throughout the narrative. By shifting the focus from how they were already lovers as children to how they played together, the Swedish text thus emphasises childhood as a separate period and the love theme becomes secondary to the chivalric adventure that Flores will undertake. In Namnlös och Valentin, the Swedish translator reduces the beastliness of the wild brother, while several other versions, such as the French prose rendition, prefer to explore the limits of human beings using the shape-shifting creature as a lens. The focus in the Swedish text thus seems to be trained on the opposition between civilisation and wilderness, in which the mastery of spoken language is presented as a key characteristic of courtly behaviour. Since Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna was never finished, any interpretation of the text requires caution. In the short fragment that was completed, the ideal of masculinity is linked to courtly love, which in this context should be understood literally, that is as the love between man and woman in a courtly milieu. The role of Hans Brask for the Swedish translation is significant, since it places the translation within a truly European perspective. Brask likely became familiar with French and Italian literature during his long periods abroad, at German universities and at the Curia in Rome. We know that he wanted to educate the Swedish public, and above all to introduce a more continental culture to Sweden. Even if we know less about the translation contexts of the three other texts, it 181

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture is tempting to suggest, based on the findings of this study, that similar motivations might underlie their genesis. Contact between the European courts in the Middle Ages was frequent and lively. Queens like Eufemia and Blanche were suitable matches precisely because they strengthened the ties between the Scandinavian courts and the rest of Europe. In the specific cases of Eufemia and Blanche, they most certainly brought their own cultural heritage with them to their new countries, and this may even have underpinned their marriages, since the Scandinavian courts needed to grow and gain importance internationally. The exact manner by which the romances arrived in Sweden remains unknown. We do not even know whether they were translated in Sweden or abroad. What is safe to assume is that the many Swedish students abroad became acquainted with romances in vernacular languages and acquired the skills needed to translate them. While poets such as Chrétien de Troyes and Hartmann von Aue could be considered as professional medieval poets, schooled in a highly Christian context, it seems likely that the Swedish translators were clerics who only occasionally devoted themselves to courtly literature. If I have dedicated only a little attention to the Christian focus of the Swedish translations, it is because this has already been thoroughly explored in previous research. Moreover, if we assume that the translators were more clerics than they were poets, then a bent towards Christianity is hardly surprising. When related to each other, particularly notable is the fact that the Swedish translations emphasise the role of the spoken language as part of courtly behaviour: the lion’s speech in Herr Ivan resembles that of the wild brother in Namnlös och Valentin. Similarly, in Flores och Blanzeflor, the translator stresses the oral character of the two children’s education, as opposed to the more written education mentioned in the French Conte and other versions. This focus on orality within the written texts is a stylistic feature that connects them. This could be linked to the often recurrent voice of the narrator or the frequent uses of direct discourse – features that deserve a study of their own, and which are thus beyond my remit here.1 But this may also tell us something about the reception context and the didactic focus. Mastery of spoken language may well have been an important ideal for the members of the Swedish court to aspire to; after all it is at them that these translations were most likely directed. While spoken language is given a central position, the love theme is given varying prominence in the different translations. As the prologue of Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna shows, love is not excluded from the discourse; it is simply explored less on its own terms and more in relation to other chivalric values such as masculinity. The many stylistic and 1

In my doctoral dissertation, I argued for the importance of the narrator’s voice in Herr Ivan, as well as the recurrent use of direct discourse, see Lodén, Le chevalier courtois, pp. 67–92.

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Conclusion ideological parallels between the Swedish texts, alongside the fact that they were often transmitted in the same manuscripts, speaks in favour of seeing them as constituting one genre. The fact that they have somewhat different generic origins – Arthurian romance (Herr Ivan), idyllic romance (Flores och Blanzeflor, Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna) and chanson de geste/chanson d’aventure (Namnlös och Valentin) – reflects the instability of literary genres when considered cross-culturally, as well as the ways in which new genres are born out of translation.2 If we consider the role of the Swedish texts in the multi-text codices in which they are preserved, it seems likely that they had not only a didactic function, but were also meant to entertain: together with other examples of fictional literature, such as Hertig Fredrik av Normandie or Karl Magnus, they most certainly provided the light needed to balance the shade of the typically heavier political or religious content. While this dual function of entertainment and didacticism has been stressed many times before, I suggest we should also recognise a third function, one just as important: their Europeanising function. Even though Sweden was in many ways an intellectual periphery in the Middle Ages, Herr Ivan, Flores och Blanzeflor, Namnlös och Valentin and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna must all be read as examples of a process of Europeanisation. Their common French origin – which in most cases seems quite distant when considered philologically – and their wide dissemination in medieval Europe are likely to have been two relevant factors when these texts were chosen for translation. Even though the French romances that were translated form a rather heterogenous group of romances, it was always the civilising aspects of these different narratives that caught the Swedish translators’ interest. Chris Wickham’s reference to honour, gender and religon as the central elements of medieval European culture applies well to the different traditions in question and reflects the fact that the Swedish translators operated on a European rather than a national scene.3 The theme of love is intimately linked to each one of these three themes; yet, it may better be considered as an independent element, fundamental in the Europeanisation process. At the same time as it remains closely associated with the source culture, it is adapted freely to different contexts. In the case of the Swedish translations, it is mainly linked to chivalric honour and masculinity. When considering the nascent European literary culture, one may also add 2

Silvère Menegaldo has argued that the French romance was born out of a translation process, ‘De la traduction à l’invention. La naissance du genre romanesque au XIIe siècle’, in Translations médiévales: cinq siècles de traductions en français au Moyen Âge (XIe–XVe siècles). Étude et répertoire 1, De la translatio studii à l’étude de la translatio, ed. Claudio Galderisi (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 295–323. 3 Wickham, Medieval Europe, p. 16

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French Romance, Medieval Sweden and the Europeanisation of Culture the fascination with animals and in particular the very limits between humans and animals as a motif of Europeanisation, at least when considering the wide dissemination of Valentin et Orson and other closely related narratives. The Swedish translations functioned, indeed, as a means of establishing a Swedish literary culture at the same time as connecting Swedish culture to a broader European context. Even though people travelled more than we tend to believe, and even though intellectual culture had no physical borders, medieval Sweden was not part of the core of medieval European culture. The ways in which the French romance was translated into Swedish show, on the contrary, a lack of a core cultural identity, in the sense that the translators needed to clarify rather than explore the ambiguities of their sources. Nevertheless, the position of Swedish culture on the intellectual periphery of medieval Europe facilitated a type of creativity that was only possible with the assistance of external influence. Using a term from the sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel, one may think of the Swedish literary tradition as a ‘stranger’ within the European literary tradition.4 The position of the Swedish translators in a cultural context distant from the source culture offered an opportunity for interpretations less coloured by previous experiences and expectations. Translation studies, and in particular polysystem theory, have highlighted the central role of translations in the shaping of new literatures. As Itamar Even-Zohar has argued, it is precisely when translations occupy a primary position in a literary polysystem that they tend to play an innovative role in the target culture.5 This applies perfectly to the Swedish context.6 When looking at the ways in which the texts have been adapted, the focus is on masculine ideals, while the feminine functions as a way of defining masculinity. Even though this applies to the French romance as well, the latter, to return to Gaunt’s words, ‘ostensibly elevates the feminine whilst underscoring its courtoisie with profound misogyny and Georg Simmel, ‘Exkurs über den Fremden’, Soziologie: Untersuchungen über dir Formen der Vergesellschaftung (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1908), pp. 509–12. 5 Inspired by Even-Zohar, Maria Tymoczko has argued that translation played a fundamental role in the passage from chanson de geste to romance, in ‘Translation as a Force for Literary Revolution in the Twelfth-century Shift from Epic to Romance’, in La traduction dans le développement des littératures: Translation in the Development of Literatures, ed. José Lambert and André Lefevere (Berne and Leuven: P. Lang and Leuven University Press, 1986), pp. 75–92. 6 For an analysis of the Scandinavian context in light of polysystem theory, see Massimiliano Bampi, ‘Centres et périphéries de l’Europe médiévale: traduction et dynamique de système’, in L’expérience des frontières et les littératures de l’Europe médiévale, ed. Sofia Lodén and Vanessa Obry (Paris: Champion, 2019), pp. 454–71. 4

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Conclusion pervasive concern with masculinity’.7 In the Swedish texts, the feminine is not especially elevated to start with. Even though women were certainly part of the literary audience, they do not seem to be the translators’ target audience. If we read these texts as examples of a Europeanisation process, however, the reference to a female public fits far more neatly, serving to associate the texts with the elevation of women, as well as with female patrons abroad. The references to Eufemia, Märta and Elin are not purely literary inventions after all. Nevertheless, they need to be read as a part of the texts’ literary style and ideology. The woman, the child and the animal can all in their way be considered to constitute the very opposite of man, and it is precisely this function that is emphasised in the Swedish texts, with their resolute focus on chivalry and masculinity. In sum, this book has shown that Swedish adaptations of French romance, which have so often been mistaken as naive, in fact present sophisticated, nuanced interpretations of their foreign source material. Indeed, this analysis of these deliberate and purposeful acts of adaptation demonstrates that there is far more to be found in translation than just indicators of local trends or tastes at particular historical moments; the evidence also, and importantly, provides robust testimony of a conscious and concerted effort towards a medieval Europeanisation of culture.

7 Gaunt,

Gender and Genre, p. 121.

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bibliography

Manuscripts Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. 102c in scrinio Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr 375 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1447 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1450 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12562 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 20044 Princeton, University Library, Garrett 125 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 2 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 3 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4a Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 4 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 45 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 47 Stockholm, Kungliga bibliotheket, Cod. Holm. Vu 73 Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reginensi Latini 1725 Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatini latini, 1971

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Bibliography des mises en prose: Roman, chanson de geste, autres genres, ed. Maria Colombo Timelli, Barbara Ferrari and Anne Schoysman (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014), pp. 297–305 ———, ‘Terror and Laughter in the Images of the Wild Man: The Case of the 1489 Valentin et Orson’, in Fifteenth-Century Studies 27, A Special Issue on Violence in Fifteenth-Century Text and Image, ed. Edelgard E. DuBruck and Yael Even (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002), pp. 238–56 Shahar, Shulamith, Childhood in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1992) Sif Rikhardsdottir, Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translation, Voices, Contexts (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2017) ———, Medieval Translations and Cultural Discourse: The Movement of Texts in England, France and Scandinavia (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2012) ———, ‘Translating Emotion: Vocalisation and Embodiment in Yvain and Ívens saga’, in Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature: Body, Mind, Voice, ed. Frank Brandsma, Carolyne Larrington and Corinne Saunders (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2015), pp. 161–79 Sif Rikhardsdottir and Stefka Georgieva Eriksen, ‘État présent: Arthurian Literature in the North’, Journal of the International Arthurian Society 1 (2013), 3–28 Simmel, Georg, ‘Exkurs über den Fremden’, Soziologie: Untersuchungen über dir Formen der Vergesellschaftung (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1908), pp. 509–12 Sjödin, Lars, ‘Hans Brask’, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 6 (1925–26), pp. 45–65 Småberg, Thomas, ‘Bland drottningar och hertigar. Utblickar kring riddarromaner och deras användning i svensk medeltidsforskning’, Historisk tidskrift 131 (2011), 197–226 Söderwall, Knut Fredrik, Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket, Svenska fornskrift-sällskapets samlingar 27: 1–2 (Stockholm: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1884–1918). Supplement by K.F. Söderwall, W. Åkerlund, K.G. Ljunggren & E. Wessén, Svenska fornskrift-sällskapets samlingarn 54 (Stockholm and Uppsala: Svenska fornskriftsällskapet, 1925–73) Ståhle, Carl Ivar, ‘Medeltidens profana litteratur’, in Ny illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria 1, ed. E. N. Tigerstedt (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1967), pp. 37–124 Stobaeus, Per, ‘Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell’, in Diocesis Lincopensis II. Medeltida internationella influenser – några uttryck för en framväxande östgötsk delaktighet i den västeuropeiska kultursfären, ed. Kjell O. Lejon (Skellefteå: Norma, 2005), pp. 168–208 Stock, Lorraine K., The Medieval Wild Man (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) Suard, François, ‘L’épopée française tardive (XVIe–XVe s.), in Études de philologie romane et d’histoire littéraire offertes à Jules Horrent, ed. Jean Marie d’Heur and Nicoletta Cherubini (Liège: Université de Liège, 1980), pp. 449–60 203

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Bibliography Sullivan, Joseph M., ‘Laudine: The Old Swedish Herr Ivan Adapts a Character from Chrétien’s Yvain’, Yearbook of the Society for Medieval German Studies 1 (2009), 50–75 ———, ‘Making the Woods More Negative and Praising Life at Court: Herr Ivan and the Hero’s Descent into the Forest’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture: Time, Texts and Cultural Transfer. Papers from a Symposium in Stockholm 11–13 October 2012, eds Olle Ferm, Ingela Hedström, Sofia Lodén, Jonatan Pettersson and Mia Åkestam (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2015), pp. 235–54 ———, ‘Rewriting the Exercise of Power in the Landuc Segment of the Old Swedish Hærra Ivan and Chrétien’s Yvain’, Neophilologus 93 (2009), 19–37 ———, ‘The Lady Lunete: Literary Conventions of Counsel and the Criticism of Counsel in Chrétien’s Yvain and Hartmann’s Iwein’, Neophilologus 85 (2001), 335–54 ———, ‘Youth and Older Age in the Dire Adventure of Chrétien’s Yvain, the Old Swedish Hærra Ivan, Hartmann’s Iwein and the Middle English Ywain and Gawain’, in Arthurian Literature XXIV: The European Dimensions of Arthurian Literature, ed. Bart Besamusca, Frank Brandsma and Keith Busby (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007), pp. 104–20 Szkilnik Michelle, ed., Idylle et récits idylliques à la fin du Moyen Âge, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 20 (2010) ———, ‘Pacolet ou Les infortunes de la magie’, Le Moyen Français 35–36 (1994), 91–109 ———, ‘Rosalind Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes (2008), available at: http://journals.openedition.org/crm/11464, accessed 25 March 2019 Taylor, Anna Lisa, ‘Where are the wild things? Animals in western European History’, History Compass 16.3, 2018, 1–12 Taylor, Jane H. M., Rewriting Arthurian Romance in Renaissance France: From Manuscript to Printed Book (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014) Tether, Leah, ‘Perceval’s Puerile Perceptions: The First Scene of the Conte du Graal as an Index of Medieval Concepts of Human Development Theory’, Neophilologus 94 (2010), 225–39 Tether, Leah, and Johnny McFadyen, eds, Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur’s Court in Medieval European Literature (Berlin and Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2017) Torfi H. Tulinius, ‘The Self as Other: Iceland and Christian Europe in the Middle Ages’, Gripla XX (2009), 199–216 Tymoczko, Maria, ‘Translation as a Force for Literary Revolution in the Twelfth-century Shift from Epic to Romance’, in La traduction dans le développement des littératures: Translation in the Development of Literatures, 204

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Bibliography ed. José Lambert and André Lefevere (Berne and Leuven: P. Lang and Leuven University Press, 1986), pp. 75–92 Vilhelmsdotter, Gisela, ‘Namnlös och Valentin – en prosaroman om en drottnings olycksöde’, in Den medeltida skriftkulturen i Sverige: genrer och texter, ed. Inger Larsson, Sven-Bertil Jansson, Rune Palm and Barbro Söderberg (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2010), pp. 262–77 Vincensini, Jean-Jacques, ‘Désordre de l’abjection et ordre de la courtoisie: Le corps abject dans Paris et Vienne de Pierre de la Cépède’, Medium Ævum 68.2 (1999), 292–304 ———, ‘Genres et conscience narrative au Moyen Âge. L’exemple du récit idyllique’, Le Moyen Âge contemporain: Perspectives critiques, Littérature 148 (2007), 59–76 Vincensini, Jean-Jacques, and Claudio Galderisi, eds, Le Récit idyllique: Aux sources du roman moderne (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2009) Vuagnoux-Uhlig, Marion, Le couple en herbe: Galeran de Bretagne et l’Escoufle à la lumière du roman idyllique médiéval (Geneva: Droz, 2009) Wallace, David, ed., Europe: A Literary History, 1348–1418, vol. 1 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016) Westman, K. B., ‘Brynolf Algotsson’, in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 1 (1918), p. 391 Wickham, Chris, Medieval Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016) Wiktorsson, Per-Axel, ‘Erikskrönikans diktare Tyrgils som skrivare och resenär’, Fornvännen 106 (2012), 345–48 ———, ‘On the Scribal Hands in the Manuscripts of Skemptan’, in Master Golyas and Sweden. The Transformation of a Clerical Satire, ed. Olle Ferm and Bridget Morris (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 1997), pp. 256–67 ———, ed., Schacktavelslek med Äktenskapsvisan (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et mediævalia, 2016) Woledge, Brian, Commentaire sur Yvain (Le Chevalier au lion) de Chrétien de Troyes, t. 1 (Genève: Droz, 1986) Wollin, Lars, ‘Chivalry and the Scriptures’, in The Eufemiavisor and Courtly Culture: Time, Texts and Cultural Transfer. Papers from a Symposium in Stockholm 11–13 October 2012, eds Olle Ferm, Ingela Hedström, Sofia Lodén, Jonatan Pettersson and Mia Åkestam (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2015), pp. 255–72 ———, ‘Kavaljerernas intåg – och översättarnas: Franska kulturnedslag i det medeltida Sverige’, in Langage et référence: mélanges offerts à Kerstin Jonasson à l’occasion de ses soixante ans, ed. Hans Kronning (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2001), pp. 695–707 ———, Svensk latinöversättning 1–2 (Lund: Blom, 1981–88) ———, ‘Translation and Interference by Translation in Old Nordic, II. 205

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Bibliography Old Swedish and Old Danish’, in The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the Nordic Germanic languages 1, ed. Oskar Bandle (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2002), pp. 1005–14 Würth, Stefanie, ‘Die mittelalterliche Übersetzung im Spannungsfeld von lateinischsprachiger und volksprachiger Literaturproduktion: Das Beispiel der Veraldar saga’, in Übersetzen im skandinavischen Mittelalter, ed. Vera Johanterwege and Stefanie Würth (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2007), pp. 11–32 ———, ‘Eufemia: Deutsche Auftraggeberin schwedischer Literatur am norwegischen Hof’, in Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik: 13. Arbeitstagung der deutschsprachigen Skandinavistik, 29.7–3.8.1997 in Lysebu (Oslo), ed. Fritz Paul (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2000), pp. 269–81 Zeldenrust, Lydia, The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020) Zumthor, Paul, Essai de poétique médiévale (Paris: Seuil, 1972)

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Index Page numbers followed by f refer to footnotes. adultery 154 Ailes, Marianne 169–70 ‘alien peoples’ 127 Alsnö stadga ordinance  36 Amicus och Amelia 20 amour courtois see courtly love amur, use of 14 ancestry 158, 163 Anderson, Benedict 31 Andreas And 38 Andries, Lise 135 ‘animal turn’ 126 animals bear motif 125, 128–34, 138, 148–9 lion motif 68–75, 82–3, 134, 147–8, 181 panther motif 146–8, 149–50 serpent motif 146–7, 148, 149–50 wolf motif 125, 128, 130–2, 149 see also beastliness; bestiaries anthropomorphisation 70, 72, 82 Arabic language 112 Arbesú, David 92 Ariès, Philippe 97 aristocracy 36–7, 156, 158, 159 Arthurian legend/romances 16, 33–5, 39–40, 47, 49, 183 Åsdahl, Märta 157, 177 Askeby 20 Augustine 79, 127 Backman, Agnieszka 9, 19, 25 Bagerius, Henric 154, 159 Bailey, Merridee L. 110 Bampi, Massimiliano 8, 18–19, 20, 22, 41, 93, 94

Bandlien, Bjørn 5f14, 19, 158 baptism, in Valentin et Orson 138 barber killing episode, in Namnlös och Valentin 143 barn, use of in Flores och Blanzeflor 99, 102 Barnes, Geraldine 8, 89, 90, 96, 100, 105, 107 Bartlett, Robert 33–4 bathing, in Herr Ivan 78–9 Bautista, Francisco 92 bear motif, in Valentin et Orson 125, 128–34, 138, 148–9 beastliness 135–40, 180, 181 beauty of children in Floire et Blancheflor 101 in Herr Ivan 60 in Paris et Vienne 168–9 Bellissant (in Valentin et Orson) 128–9 Bengtsson, Herman 9 Besamusca, Bart 3, 17 bestiaries 126, 132, 137, 147 Birger Magnusson, King of Sweden 36 Birgitta, St. 36, 154–5 ‘Birgittine-Norwegian’ 19 Bisclavret (Marie de France) 132 Biskop Henriks rim 21 Blanche of Namur 36–7, 182 Blancheflor name, in Floire et Blancheflor 99–101 borders 1, 2, 32, 39, 114, 119, 178, 184 Brask, Hans 7, 21, 41–2, 155, 156–7, 177–8, 181

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Index brass head apparition, in Valentin et Orson 144–8, 149 breastfeeding, in Floire et Blancheflor 104, 105–6, 113 see also milk Bridgettine Order 17 Brown, Amy 75 Brown-Grant, Rosalind 26, 27, 153–5 Brownlee, Kevin 122 Busby, Keith 3–4, 43, 50 Bynum, Caroline Walker 127, 149 Caluwé-Dor, Juliette de 68 Carlquist, Jonas 17, 21, 161 Carmina Burana 86 cathedral schools 39 Caxton, William 155 chanson de geste 6, 15, 16, 95, 120, 138, 170, 183 Chanson de Roland 110, 170 Charlemagne 18, 20, 22, 33, 95 charters 4, 33 Le Chevalier au lion (Chrétien de Troyes) 4, 28, 39, 47–83, 180, 181 bathing episode 78–9 chivalric honour 60–8 emotions, depiction of 51–68 eroticism 79 Hartmann von Aue’s adaptation of see Iwein Laudine, portrayal of 48, 51–68, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81 lion motif 68–75 love theme 58, 59–68, 75–81 Lunete, portrayal of 48, 52, 61, 75–81 Middle English translation see Ywain and Gawain Middle High German translation see Iwein Old Swedish translation see Herr Ivan Old West Norse translation see Ívens saga peace motif 79–80 revenge motif 58–9, 63 Sala’s adaptation of see Le Chevalier au lion (Pierre Sala) sorrow motif 53–64

vengeance motif 58–9, 63 Le Chevalier au lion (Pierre Sala) 47, 57, 61, 65–6, 72–3, 75, 78–9 Cheyette, Fredrik L. 79 Chickering, Howell 79 child–parent relationships in Floire et Blancheflor 102–10, 116 childhood in Floire et Blancheflor 97–110, 115, 116, 180 chivalry education 165–8 honour 60–8, 82, 176 masculinity 158 Chrétien de Troyes Le Chevalier au lion 4, 28, 39, 47–83, 180, 181 Érec et Énide 70 Christian themes 6 in Floire et Blancheflor 99–101, 105, 106 in Valentin et Orson 138, 141, 145 see also religion Christianization of Sweden 10 A Christmas Carol (Dickens) 119 Church 41, 42, 133–4 Cistercians 20, 37 Clarina (in Namnlös och Valentin) 128, 130, 139, 142 clerics, translation role of 182 clothing, in Namnlös och Valentin 143–4 Codex Askabyensis see manuscripts Collegium Upsaliense 38 Colombo Timelli, Maria 121 conduct manuals 82, 156 Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor see Floire et Blancheflor Cooper, Helen 121, 155 ‘courtly literature’ (hövisk litteratur) 16–17 courtly love 162, 177, 181 Crónica carolingia 91, 92, 98–101, 103, 105, 107, 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114–15 cross-rhymed verse 156 cultural identity, Europe 32–5, 44, 184 ‘cunning’, in Floire et Blancheflor 107

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Index Curtius, Ernst Robert 2 Dauphin (in Paris et Vienne) 152, 163–6 De sju sakramenten 18 Degnbol, Helle 90, 92, 93 Denmark 10 Dickens, Charles 119 Dickson, Arthur 120, 121, 123, 130–1, 135, 138, 141, 145 didactic literature 4, 11, 55, 156, 177, 182, 183 Didrikskrönikan 20 Dikten om Kung Albrekt 18 Diplomatarium Suecanum 4 Dominicans 37 Doutrepont, Georges 121 Dubost, Francis 70, 73 Edlich-Muth, Miriam 2–3 education in Floire et Blancheflor 110–17 for girls 170 in Paris et Vienne 156, 165–8 Edward (in Paris et Vienne) 171–6 Ekholst, Christine 154 Eleanor of Aquitaine 27 Elin Gustavsdotter (Sture), Lady 19, 22, 24–6, 185 Elíss saga 11 emotions, in Le Chevalier au lion 51–68 end-rhymed verse 12 enfant, use of in Floire et Blancheflor 98 Engelbrekt rebellion 40 engin (‘cunning’/’ingenuity’), in Floire et Blancheflor 107 entertainment 183 epic romances 50 Érec et Énide (Chrétien de Troyes) 70 Erex saga 11 Erik Magnusson, duke 11 Erik of Pomerania (Bugislav), King of Norway, Denmark and Sweden 40 Erikskrönikan 13–14, 86 eroticism in Herr Ivan 79

in Valentin et Orson 138, 148 see also sexuality Esclarmonde (in Valentin et Orson) 144, 145–6, 147 ethnic groups 32 Eufemia, Queen 4, 8, 11, 12, 24, 25, 26, 31, 86, 90, 92–3, 182, 185 Eufemiavisor 4, 23, 36, 86 composition purpose 11–12 sources of 5 vernacular, role of 43–4 European literature, category of 2–3 Europeanisation 31–45 and cultural identity 32–5 ‘Europe’ term 32–3 and Floire et Blancheflor 116 and Herr Ivan 82 historical background 35–44 Latin, role of 111 and love theme 183 and Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 178 and romance genre/ translations 179, 183 unity of medieval Europe 33 and Valentin et Orson 150, 184 Eustace legend 130 Even-Zohar, Itamar 8, 184 Félis, King (in Floire et Blancheflor) 102–3 female audience/readership 20, 23, 26–7, 28, 95, 185 female education 110, 170 female friendship 75–6, 170–1, 173 female roles, in the Middle Ages 34 femininity 184–5 Ferrari, Fulvio 9, 147 Fleck, Konrad 88, 89 Floire et Blancheflor 85–117, 151–2 ‘aristocratic version’ 88–9 beauty of children in 101 Blancheflor name 99–101 breastfeeding theme 104, 105–6, 113 childhood theme child–parent relationships 102–10 names for children 97–102

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Index Floire et Blancheflor (continued) Christian themes 99–101, 105, 106 ‘continental tradition’ 89 ‘cunning’ in 107 education theme 110–17 and Europeanisation 116 Floire name 99–101 French Conte and insular tradition 87–94 and genre 94–6 love theme 102, 110–14, 115–17 manuscripts 88, 89 Middle English translation see Floris and Blancheflour Old Swedish translation see Flores och Blanzeflor Old West Norse translation see Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr parental relations 102–10 ‘popular version’ 88–9 prologue of 94–6 source of 87, 88–9, 92 Spanish translation see Crónica carolingia stemma of 88–91, 115 versions of 85–6, 87, 88–91, 114–17 Flores och Blanzeflor 4, 14, 86, 92–4, 99, 100, 101–2, 109 childhood theme 103, 106–8, 115, 116 composition date 1 composition purpose 11 education theme 110–12, 114 love theme 96, 106, 114, 116 manuscript context 20, 22–3 religious references 94 source of 5 Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr 5, 90–4, 96, 99–100, 101, 102–3, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 112, 114, 115 Flores y Blancaflor see Crónica carolingia ‘Florez och Blanzeflor’ (Levertin) 85 Floris and Blancheflour 86, 89–90, 98, 101, 105, 107, 111, 115 Flóvents saga Frakkakonungs 11 Foehr-Janssens, Yasmina 152 folk-tales 123, 134, 135 Folkungar 82

forgiveness, in Iwein 66 France 3, 4, 33, 37, 47, 88, 97, 161, 163, 168, 177, 179 Franciscans 19 Frängsmyr, Tore 39 Frappier, Jean 70 French culture, influences on Sweden 4, 13, 14, 28, 37–9 French loan words 14 French romance genre 1–4, 16, 179, 180–5 Friedman, John Block 127 friendship, in Paris et Vienne 169–76 Fru Elins bok see manuscripts Fru Märtas bok see manuscripts Gaunt, Simon 3, 15–16, 94, 95, 184–5 gender 15–17, 26–7, 34, 82, 95, 152, 154, 157–8, 178, 180, 183 see also female ... ; femininity; masculinity; women genre/s 15–17, 21–2 Floire et Blancheflor 88, 94–6 instability of 183 Paris et Vienne 151–2 romance 2, 34, 179, 181 Valentin et Orson 121–2 Geoffrey of Monmouth 39 German culture, influences on Sweden 12, 13–14, 179 German loan words 13 Germany 2, 7, 13, 33, 157 girls’ education 170 Glauser, Jürg 24 goat’s milk, in Valentin et Orson 130 Grieve, Patricia 91–2, 95, 106 Griffin, Miranda 140 Guillaume d’Angleterre 130 Gunneng, Hedda 21 Gustav Algotsson 18, 22 Gustav Vasa, King of Sweden 42 Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway 10–11, 49, 90 Hákon V Magnússon, King of Norway 4, 11, 12 Hanseatic League 13 Hartmann von Aue see Iwein heraldry 68, 82

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Index Herr Ivan 4, 9, 31–2, 47–50, 94, 116, 126, 147, 181 bathing episode 78–9 chivalric honour 60, 62–3, 67–8, 81–2 composition date 1 composition purpose 11–2 epilogue of 12, 23–5 Laudine, portrayal of 53–5, 58, 81–2, 108 lion motif 69–70, 74, 82–3 Lunete, portrayal of 76–7, 78–9, 80–2 manuscript context 17–19, 22–5 prologue of 125 readership of 19 shame motif 63 source of 5, 50 Hertig Fredrik av Normandie 4, 7, 22, 23, 42–4, 125, 163, 176, 177, 183 composition purpose 11 source of 5 Hildeman, Karl-Ivar 42, 156–7, 168, 177 Historia de preliis 18 Historia dei dve nobilissimi et valorosi Fratelli Valentino et Orsone 148f83 Historia Sancti Olai 21 honour 34, 60–8, 81–2, 168, 176, 178, 183 hövisk litteratur (‘courtly literature’) 16–17 Hunt, Tony 68 hybridity 122, 127, 140, 149 Iceland 11, 39–40 idyllic love 117 idyllic romances 16, 88, 95, 98, 99, 110, 151, 152, 154, 176, 183 ‘imagined communities’ 31 incest 105, 116, 154 infante, use of in Crónica carolingia 98–9 Ingeborg (daughter of King Hákon V) 11, 86, 110 ‘ingenuity’ (cunning), in Floire et Blancheflor 89, 107 insular tradition, Floire et Blancheflor 87–94

Interfaces (journal) 2 Ireland 3–4 Isabelle (in Paris et Vienne) 170–3 Italian translations of Paris et Vienne 156, 157, of Valentin et Orson 148 Italy 33, 41, 42, 156, 177 Ivan Lejonriddaren see Herr Ivan Ívens saga 48, 49–50, 55, 63, 71, 77, 79 Iwein (Hartmann von Aue) 48, 49, 52, 56–7, 59, 60–1, 64–5, 66, 72, 74–5, 78, 80 Jansson, Valter 5, 8 Jean Bodel 16 Johannes of Nidaros 19 Johannis Gerardi 20 Jonsson, Bengt R. 18 Julens och Fastans träta 18, 22 Kalmar Union 40 Karl Magnus 18–19, 20, 22, 41, 183 Karlskrönikan 21 Karras, Ruth Mazo 158, 163, 169, 176 kingship, in Paris et Vienne 161–9 knighthood honour 60–8, 82 masculinity 158 in Paris et Vienne 161–70, 176 knittel verse form 5, 13, 22–3, 179, 180 Konung Alexander 18, 22 Krueger, Roberta L. 26, 95 Kung Christian Klippings krönika 21 lais (Marie de France) 11, 126, 132 Larrington, Carolyne 105, 110 Latin 31, 38, 111–12, 113, 115 Laudine (in Le Chevalier au lion) 48, 51–68, 76–8, 81–3, 108, 116, 181 ‘Alundyne’ name 52 friendship with Lunete 75 grief of 53–60 ‘Laudine’ name in manuscripts 51–3 Layher, William 8, 12, 43–4, 70 Leclanche, Jean-Luc 89 Leeu, Gherard 155, 157 Legender och visor (Levertin) 85 Levertin, Oscar 85, 86

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Index Lilla Rimkrönikan 18, 19, 20 Lindroth, Sten 13 Linköping 7, 38, 39, 41, 157, 177 lion motif 181 in Le Chevalier au lion 68–75, 82–3, 181 in Church symbology 134 in Valentin et Orson 147–8 literacy 110, 112 love in Le Chevalier au lion 58, 59–68, 75–81 and Europeanisation process 183 in Floire et Blancheflor 94–5, 96, 102, 106, 110–14, 115–17 idyllic love 110, 117 in Namnlös och Valentin 147–8 in Paris et Vienne 161–2, 169–76, 177, 178 in Swedish texts 182–3 Lucidarius 18 Lunete (in Le Chevalier au lion) 48, 52, 61, 75–82, 181 lustelich (‘pleasing’/’delightful’) term, in Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 161–2, 177 Lyon 121 Magnus Eriksson, King of Sweden 36, 40, 154–5 Magnus Ladulås (Magnus Birgersson), King of Sweden 6, 36 Maillet, Jacques 120–1, 123–4, 150 Mainwaring, Matthew 155 male friendship 159, 170–5 mandom (‘manliness’/’masculinity’) term, in Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 159–60, 168, 176 manheet (‘manliness’/’masculinity’) term, in Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 160, 168 manlig (‘brave’/’masculine’) term, in Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 160, 173, 174 Mante, Axel 157, 177 manuscripts 8–9, 17–26 Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnaeanske Samling, København Universitet,

Cod. AM 191 (Codex Askabyensis) 20, 23 Floire et Blancheflor 88, 89 Flores och Blanzeflor 20, 22–3 and genre 21–2 Helsinki, University Library, Cod. Hels. RIII 20 Herr Ivan 17–19, 22–5 Namnlös och Valentin 20, 22, 23 Paris et Vienne 153 Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 20–1, 23 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 2 manuscript (Spegelbergs bok) 20–1 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 3 manuscript (Fru Elins bok) 19, 22–3, 24–5 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4 manuscript 17–18, 22 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. D 4a manuscript (Fru Märtas bok) 18–19, 22, 23, 24–5 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 45 manuscript 20, 23 Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Cod. Holm. K 47 manuscript 19, 26 Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Cod. RA E 8822 manuscript 19, 22 Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatini latini, 1971 (V) 89, 92, 101, 105, 109, 115 Margaret, Queen 40 Marie de Champagne 27 Marie de France 11, 126, 132 marriage in Le Chevalier au lion 79 in Floire et Blancheflor 110 in Herr Ivan 60, 81 in Paris et Vienne 152 Märta Ulfsdotter er (Sparre av Hjulsta och Ängsö), Lady 18, Lady 18, 19, 22, 24–6, 185 masculinity 15 masculinity 15–6, 181–5

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Index in Paris et Vienne 151, 157–76, 176–8 Mélusine tradition 122, 126 metamorphosis theme, in Valentin et Orson 122, 125, 127, 136, 140–4, 148, 149 mettre en romanz, expression 28 Middle Dutch, Valentin et Orson translation 120 Middle English Le Chevalier au lion translation see Ywain and Gawain Floire et Blancheflor translation see Floris and Blancheflour Paris et Vienne translation see Paris and Vienne romance literature 50 Valentin et Orson translation see Valentine and Orson Middle High German 13 Le Chevalier au lion translation see Iwein Middle Low German importance of 13–14 as intermediary tradition 179–80 Paris et Vienne translation see Paris und Vienna Valentin et Orson translation see Valentin und Namelos milk, in Valentin et Orson 129–30 see also breastfeeding monastery, in Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr 91 monstrosity 127, 131, 132 Moran, Patrick 16 mother’s love theme, in Floire et Blancheflor 104–6 Möttuls saga 11 Munch, Peter Andreas 11 Namnlös och Valentin 6, 9, 13, 120, 124, 135, 136, 139–40, 142–6, 161–2, 181, 182 barber killing episode 143 composition date 1 generic origin of 16 lion motif 147–8 manuscript context 20, 22, 23 panther motif 146–8, 149–50

translation of 14 wolf motif 125, 128, 130–2, 149 national cultures 31 national literatures 1, 2, 12 Ney, Agneta 159 Nordic culture 39 Norse mythology 131 Norway 10, 11, 12, 179 nunnery 20, 23, 27, 91 Obry, Vanessa 98 Octavian 130 Old Danish 19 Old Swedish 10, 44 Le Chevalier au lion translation see Herr Ivan Floire et Blancheflor translation see Flores och Blanzeflor French loan words 14 German loan words 13 Paris et Vienne translation see Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna Valentin et Orson translation see Namnlös och Valentin Old West Norse 10 Le Chevalier au lion translation see Ívens saga didactic literature 4 Floire et Blancheflor translation see Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr riddarasögur 7–8, 11, 16, 24, 90 Strengleikar 11, 132 translations of romances 10–11 Om Danmarks kungar 17–18 oracle, brass head apparition 145 orality, in written texts 112, 182 orientalism 116 Orlando innamorato 42 Orme, Nicholas 86 Orson (in Valentin et Orson) 135–44, 148, 149 Orson de Beauvais 130–1 Ortalli, Gherardo 131 Österberg, Eva 97 Östergötland 10, 20 Otis-Cour, Leah 152 Ovid 114, 115, 127 Owein 39 owner-epilogues 25

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Index panther motif, in Namnlös och Valentin 146–8, 149–50 Parcevals saga 11 parental relations in Floire et Blancheflor 102–10, 116 Paris 5, 37–9, 121 Paris and Vienne 155, 161, 162, 163, 175 Paris e Vienna 156, 168 Paris et Vienne 7, 42, 151–78 beauty in 169 education theme 156, 165–8, 168–9 Edward, portrayal of 171–6 female friendship 170–1 French versions of 153–4 friendship theme 169–76 gender 152, 154 generic features of 151–2 girls’ education 170 Italian translation see Paris e Vienna kingship theme 161–9 knighthood theme 161–9, 176 love theme 161, 169–76, 177–8 manuscripts 153 marriage theme 152, 155 masculinity theme 157–76 Middle English translation see Paris and Vienne Middle Low German translation see Paris und Vienna moralistic tone of 153–7 Old Swedish translation see Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna Paris, portrayal of 162–3 sources of 153 versions of 151, 156 Paris, Gaston 91, 162 Paris und Vienna 157, 160, 161, 162, 163–4, 165–6, 168–9, 170, 171, 177 ‘Paske Flourie’ feast 99–100 Pastoureau, Michel 126, 131, 132–4, 136–7 paternal ancestry 158, 163, 176 Paulin, Lotta 86f6 peace, in Le Chevalier au lion 79–80 Peder Bengtsson 42 Pepin, King (in Valentin et Orson) 129, 137 peripheries, notion of 33, 39–40, 44–5, 116, 183–4

Peter Algotsson 5–6 Phila (in Namnlös och Valentin) 128 Pierre de la Cépède 153, 155, 162 Pierreville, Corinne 51–2 Pluskowski, Aleksander 131–2 polysystem theory 8, 184 print-languages 31 Prosaiska krönikan 18, 19, 20 Pyramus and Thisbe myth 73 Quérel, Danielle 122 Reformation 7, 178 Reiter, Virgile 93 religion in Flores och Blanzeflor 94 in medieval Europe 34 see also Christian themes; Church revenge motif, Le Chevalier au lion 58–9, 63 Riddar Paris och Jungfru Vienna 6, 7, 44, 151, 152, 156–7, 159–76, 181 cessation of 23, 176, 177–8 composition date 1 cross-rhymed verse in 156 and Europeanisation 178 friendship theme 171–5 historical context 41–2 incompleteness of 23, 176, 177–8 manuscript context 20–1, 23 prologue of 161–2, 163 sources of 157, 177 translation of 14 Riddar S. Göran 18 riddarasögur 7–8, 11, 16, 24, 90 Robert, Brother 50, 111 Robert d’Orbigny 88 Rohrbach, Lena 126 Roman de Floire et de Blancheflor 88 Roman de Mélusine 122 Roman de Renart 126, 132, 134 Roman mythology 131 romance genre 28, 179, 180, 181 origin of 2 riddarasögur 7–8, 11, 16, 24, 90 see also Arthurian legend/romances; French romance genre; idyllic romances romanz, use of 14

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Index Rome 13, 41, 157, 181 Romulus and Remus myth 131, 149 Ross, Margaret Clunies 40 royal ancestry 163 royal courts 182 Ruprecht von Orbent see Robert d’Orbigny Rügen 4 Sala, Pierre see Le Chevalier au lion (Pierre Sala) Salisbury, Joyce E. 126–7 Sancti Renoldi book 41 Saunders, Corinne 63f37 Scandinavian languages 10 Schacktavelslek 19, 20 Schwam-Baird, Shira 121, 134, 138, 143 Seelmann, Wilhelm 123, 135 serpent motif, in Valentin und Orson 146–7, 148, 149–50 Servet, Pierre 57, 72–3 sexuality 26, 154–5, 159 see also eroticism shame, in Herr Ivan 63 Sif Rikhardsdottir 8, 55, 66–7, 80 Sigge Ulfsson (Sparre av Hjulsta och Ängsö) 6–7, 18 Sigurðr Fáfnisbani legend 159 Simmel, Georg 184 Sir Perceval of Galles 50 sire, use of in Floire et Blancheflor 102–3 Själens och kroppens träta 18 Själens tröst 20, 86f6 Sju vise mästare 18, 20 Skämtan om abbotar 18, 19 Skara 6, 7, 38, 39 Södermanland 18 Sörlin, Sverker 39 sorrow, in Le Chevalier au lion 53–64 Spanish translation, of Floire et Blancheflor see Crónica carolingia Spegelberg, Hans 7, 21 Spegelbergs bok see manuscripts spoken language, in written texts 181, 182 Stobaeus, Per 41 Strängnäs 6

Strengleikar 11, 132 students, Swedish 38–9, 182 suicide 88, 106, 107 Sullivan, Joseph M. 9, 54–5, 58, 76 supernatural motifs, in Valentin et Orson 123, 144–8, 149 Sweden, in the Middle Ages borders 1f2 charters 4 Christianization of 10 cultural identity 2, 184 French cultural influences 4, 13, 14, 28, 37–9 German cultural influences 12, 13–14, 179–80 historical context 35–42 romance genre in 179 Scandinavian context 10 students 38–9, 182 see also Old Swedish Szkilnik, Michelle 121, 154 Taylor, Jane H. M. 47 ‘textual management’ 47 Torfi H. Tulinius 40 transformation see metamorphosis theme translation/s 1, 2, 4–7, 10–12 Europeanisation role of 183 gender and genre in 15–17 and orality 182 source relationship 180 study of 7–10 ‘textual management’ 47 see also Italian translations; Middle Dutch; Middle English; Middle High German; Middle Low German; Old Danish; Old Swedish; Old West Norse; Spanish translation Tristan de Nanteuil 141 Tristan tradition 111 Tristrams saga 10–1, 50 Trondheim 19 troubadour lyric 110, 177 Tungulus 18, 19, 20, 23 Um styrilsi konunga ok höfflinga 36

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Index University of Paris 37–9 University of Uppsala 39 Vadstena Abbey 17, 18 Valentin (in Valentin et Orson) 137–8 Valentin et Orson 119–50 bear motif 125, 128–34, 148 beastliness theme 135–40 brass head apparition 144–8, 149 Christian themes 138, 141, 145 clothing in 143 eroticism in 138, 148 and Europeanisation 150, 184 French versions of 120–1 generic hybridity 121–2 Italian translation see Historia dei dve nobilissimi et valorosi Fratelli Valentino et Orsone lion motif 147 love theme 144, 146, 148 Maillet edition 120–1, 123–4, 150 metamorphosis theme 122, 125, 127, 140–4, 148 Middle Dutch translation 120 Middle English translation see Valentine and Orson Middle Low German translation see Valentin und Namelos Old Swedish translation see Namnlös och Valentin Orson, portrayal of 135–40, 143, 149 prologue of 123–4 source of 120 supernatural motifs 123, 144–8, 149 Valentin, portrayal of 137–8 versions of 119–20 wild man motif 127, 134, 135, 137–44, 148–9 Valentin et Sansnom 6, 120 Valentin und Namelos 120, 123, 124, 128, 130, 135, 136, 139–48, 149–50 Valentine and Orson 119, 124, 129–30, 136, 148 Valvers þátter 11

‘vart mal’ (‘our language’), use of 12, 31–2 Västergötland 5, 10 vengeance motif, in Le Chevalier au lion 58–9 Venice 156 Venus (goddess of love) 175, 177 vernacular, role of 31–2, 43–4 verse forms cross-rhymed verse 156 end-rhymed verse 12 knittel verse form 5, 13, 22–3, 179, 180 Vincensini, Jean-Jacques 152 Wallace, David 2 Watson, Henry 124 werewolf stories 132, 144 Wickham, Chris 34–5, 183 Wiktorsson, Per-Axel 20 wild man motif, in Valentin et Orson 127, 134, 135, 137–44, 148–9 wolf motif, in Namnlös och Valentin 125, 128, 130–2, 149 Wolf, Werner 6, 147 Wollin, Lars 6, 9–10, 37 women audience/readership 20, 23, 26–7, 28, 95, 185 education for 110 friendship 75–6, 170–1, 173 in medieval romances 15–16 roles in the Middle Ages 34 Worde, Wynkyn de 124, 155 world literature 2, 3 Ysengrimus 132 Yvain (in Le Chevalier au lion) lion motif 68–75 love for Laudine 58–68 and Lunete 75–81 Ywain and Gawain 48–9, 50, 52, 55–6, 63–4, 66–7, 71, 74, 77–8, 79, 80 Zeldenrust, Lydia 3, 114, 122

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Studies in Old Norse Literature Already published 1

EMOTION IN OLD NORSE LITERATURE Translations, Voices, Contexts Sif Rikhardsdottir

2

THE SAINT AND THE SAGA HERO Hagiography and Early Icelandic Literature Siân E. Grønlie

3 DAMNATION AND SALVATION IN OLD NORSE LITERATURE   Haki Antonsson 4  MASCULINITIES IN OLD NORSE LITERATURE Edited by Gareth Lloyd Evans and Jessica Clare Hancock 5

A CRITICAL COMPANION TO OLD NORSE LITERARY GENRE Edited by Massimiliano Bampi, Carolyne Larrington and Sif Rikhardsdottir

6

THE MAPPAE MUNDI OF MEDIEVAL ICELAND Dale Kedwards

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