Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture: The Translation and Transmission of the Story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse Literary Contexts by Stefka Georgieva Eriksen (review)

Stefka Eriksen’s notable first book derives from her doctoral research, produced under the auspices of the project, ‘Translation, Transmission and Transformation: Old Norse Romantic Fiction and Scandinavian Vernacular Literacy, 1200–1500’, at the University of Oslo (2007–11). The project investigated the transformation of literary genres within their social settings by combining historical and philological perspectives to emphasise the importance of manuscript culture and its context. Eriksen’s research took its cues from this framework and her study analyses attitudes to reading and writing by comparing three manuscript versions of one text – the Crusade story of Elye and his Saracen princess, Rosamunda – in three historical contexts (late thirteenth-century Flanders and Norway and early fifteenth-century Iceland).

In the first chapter, which defines her methodological approach, Eriksen states that one of her main concerns is philological and she asks: ‘what did writing and reading imply in the Middle Ages?’ (p. 7). In response to this question, the author formulates an approach that synthesises elements of traditional and ‘new’ philology (text-versions and materiality, text-generating, translating, and copying), discussions of orality and literacy, and translation theory, arguing that the text and context define each other. The study is thus based on three main principles: that each version of a text-work is an intelligent response to a previous version and all versions should be considered significant; that all aspects of a text (i.e., material and textual) should be taken into account when it is being interpreted; and that texts are conditioned by social, historical, and cultural contexts while at the same time responding to the potential communicative context.

Eriksen presents three methodical case studies in Chapters 2 to 4. Each begins with an outline of the historical context, which is followed by an analysis of the correspondence between aspects of the materiality of a manuscript (such as codicological structure, texts, illuminations, marginalia, rubrics, abbreviations, and punctuation) and the textual and literary aspects. This is done through an examination of the mise en livre, mise en page, and mise en texte.

The subject of the first case study is the only Old French medieval manuscript to contain the chanson de geste of Elye de Saint-Gille (BnF, MS FR. 25516). The examination of this manuscript leads Erikson to conclude that it was created by a coherent production unit, commissioned by a patron of high social status. Written within the Latin literary paradigm at a scribal centre of prestige (possibly in north-east France and related to the House of Flanders), and conforming to contemporary Old French chanson de geste characteristics in its layout, structuring, punctuation, and abbreviation, Eriksen demonstrates how these aspects, alongside the intricate structural strategies, suggest that it was created by a highly competent scribe and illuminator. Based on the correspondence between graphical and textual features, Eriksen argues that the story was meant to be performed; however, she stresses that this did not preclude private reading. This manuscript, Eriksen argues, was meant ‘to hover in between the spheres of literate and oral discourse’ (p. 100), suggesting that these domains were not diametrically opposed.

The second case study is of the thirteenth-century Norwegian version of Elíss saga appearing in De La Gardie 4-7 fol. This manuscript was produced in a dynamic literary milieu, possibly related to the royal court. Once again, Eriksen demonstrates how it appears to be a coherent entity, produced by different scribes and rubricators who worked in close cooperation. Eriksen skilfully illustrates how, even though it was produced during a time when the Norwegian court was under considerable influence from European politics and culture, the text was adapted to the norms of Norwegian scribal...