Stories Set Forth with Fair Words

The Evolution of Medieval Romance in Iceland

Author(s) Marianne E. Kalinke

Language: English

Genre(s): Literary Criticism

  • March 2017 · 240 pages ·244x172mm

  • · Hardback - 9781786830678
  • · eBook - pdf - 9781786830685
  • · eBook - epub - 9781786830692

About The Book

This book is an investigation of the foundation and evolution of romance in Iceland. The narrative type arose from the introduction of French narratives into the alien literary environment of Iceland and the acculturation of the import to indigenous literary traditions. The study focuses on the oldest Icelandic copies of three chansons de geste and four of the earliest indigenous romances, both types transmitted in an Icelandic codex from around 1300. The impact of the translated epic poems on the origin and development of the Icelandic romances was considerable, yet they have been largely neglected by scholars in favour of the courtly romances. This study attests the role played by the epic poems in the composition of romance in Iceland, which introduced the motifs of the aggressive female wooer and of Christian-heathen conflict.

About the Author(s)

Author(s): Marianne E. Kalinke

Professor M.E. Kalinke (retired) was until May 2006 Trowbridge Chair in Literary Studies Emerita and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Germanic languages and Comparative Literature Emerita, University of Illinois.

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