The Riddarasögur in Modern English Translation

The Riddarasogur in Modern English Translation Whdst few would claim that the riddarasogur have received excessive attention from translators, the corpus of complete or substantially complete English versions of these sagas (recorded in the Appendix) is now large and diverse enough to merit attention in its o w n right. The focus of such an examination must, of course, be the translations themselves, but in their introductions translators often comment at least briefly on their approach to their task and the problems encountered; and many of the translations have been reviewed, sometimes in surprising detail and with no small measure of venom. O n the other hand, scholarly studies devoted to translation from the Norse and the practices of translators give the riddarasogur little or no attention, largely preferring to stay on the weU-trodden Islendingasdgur paths. W h e n one sets out to consider a literary genre, one almost inevitably runs up against the problem of deciding what lies within and outside the boundaries of the genre. The term riddarasogur is used here in a relatively broad sense, but one which enjoys fairly widespread acceptance. In other words it is not limited, to quote Geraldine Barnes, to 'a small group of works with identifiable sources in extant Old French romances, epics (chansons de geste), lais, and, in one instance, afabliau, which were translated at the court of King Hakon the Old of Norway in the middle of the thirteenth century',1 though one can readdy understand that for some purposes such a restriction would be desirable. But the conventional distinction between riddarasogur andfornaldarsogur ('sagas of ancienttimes')is accepted, although this distinction rests rather shakily on a division between Sromances the protagonists of which are non-Scandinavians and the action of which takes place mainly outside the Scandinavian world (the riddarasogur), as against romances with mainland Scandinavian protagonists operating mainly within a broadly conceived Scandinavian ambit (the fomaldarsdgur).2 Undoubtedly the distinction is very blurred in practice, and some of what is said in this paper would apply equally well to riddarasogur andfornaldarsogur. A particularly problematical case is pidreks saga af Bern, but the decision to exclude it from the ranks of the riddarasogur has inter alia the support of Edward 1 The riddarasogur and mediaeval European literature, Mediaeval Scandinavia 8, 1975, 140. 2 See Marianne Kalinke, Norse Romances (Riddarasogur), Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, ed. Carol J. Clover and John Lindow, Islandica 45, Ithaca and London, 1985, 317-26, 332; J6nas Kristjansson, Eddas and Sagas, trans. Peter Foote, Reykjavik, 1988, 341. 54 /. Kennedy Haymes, who in 1988 published the first complete English version of the compilation.1 Some readers will wonder why anyone would want to translate the riddarasogur into English or any other m o d e m language. After all, some of the best known riddarasogur (for example, Tristrams saga ok lsdndar, hens saga, Erex saga, Parcevals saga, Fldres saga ok Blankiflur, Karlamagnus saga) are usually regarded as themselves translations from more or less known French sources, so when w e look at translations of these sagas w e are arguably considering translations of translations. The evaluation of literary works is a notoriously subjective business, but there would surely be few willing to rank any of the riddarasogur amongst the great monuments of human literary achievement. Even editors and translators are sometimes open about the shortcomings of the works they are presenting. Thus at the beginning of her three-volume translation of Karlamagnus saga Constance Hieatt comments: 'It must... be admitted that the literary quality of Karlamagnus saga is, at best, secondary. That is, it is at best unlikely to attract the attention of any but scholars and serious students.'2 Particularly in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, translators of the Islendingasdgur ('sagas of Icelanders') and the konungasdgur ('sagas of kings') often saw themselves as making available sources with a valid claim to be regarded as historicady accurate accounts of the personages and events they described; and some translators at least had patriotic motives, seeking to heighten awareness of the courage and ideals of the kind of men and women who setded in the English Danelaw and contributed a vital element to...