Norse Romance II

The Knights of the Round Table is devoted to translations and adaptations of French narratives featuring King Arthur's knights. It contains prose translations of three of Chretien de Troyes's Arthurian romances: -vens saga, the Norse translation of Yvain; Parcevals saga and Valvens pattr ("The Tale of Gawain"), translations of Perceval; and Erex saga, an adaptation of Erec et Enide. While the first two works, produced in Norway, are fairly faithful to their sources, Erex saga diverges considerably in content and structure from the French source and most likely represents a thorough revision by an Icelander of what was originally a Norwegian translation. Additionally, the volume contains both an Old Norse translation and an Icelandic adaptation of the French Lai du cort mantel, the ribald story of a chastity-testing mantle at King Arthur's court. The Norse prose translation Moettuls saga was produced at the behest of the same King Hakon who ordered the translation of the Tristan legend. In the fourteenth century a rhymed version of the saga, Skkikkju rimur, was produced in Iceland.

The translators are: MARIANNE E. KALINKE, KIRSTEN WOLF, HELEN MACLEAN and MATTHEW JAMES DRISCOLL

Professor MARIANNE E. KALINKE teaches in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.