French Fantasies in the Medieval North: Translating Old French Romances at the Court of King Hákon Hákonarson of Norway

Old Norse translations of Old French romances played a critical role in introducing ideas of courtliness and chivalry and cultivating a shared European literary culture in thirteenth-century Norway. In this episode, scholar of Old Norse studies Mary Catherine O’Connor examines the reasons for translation, how these translations were produced, and a case study of one translated work to consider the role of cultural encounter as it is revealed through translation and literary transformation.

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