Adaptation and Translation Between French and English Arthurian Romance" (Under the Direction of Edward Donald Kennedy)
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Varieties in Translation: Adaptation and Translation between French and English Arthurian Romance Euan Drew Griffiths A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Edward Donald Kennedy Madeline Levine E. Jane Burns Joseph Wittig Patrick O'Neill © 2013 Euan Drew Griffiths ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract EUAN DREW GRIFFITHS: "Varieties in Translation: Adaptation and Translation between French and English Arthurian Romance" (Under the direction of Edward Donald Kennedy) The dissertation is a study of the fascinating and variable approaches to translation and adaptation during the Middle Ages. I analyze four anonymous Middle English texts and two tales from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur that are translations and adaptations of Old French Arthurian romances. Through the comparison of the French and English romances, I demonstrate how English translators employed a variety of techniques including what we might define as close translation and loose adaptation. Malory, in particular, epitomizes the medieval translator. The two tales that receive attention in this project illustrate his use of translation and adaptation. Furthermore, the study is breaking new ground in the field of medieval studies since the work draws on translation theory in conjunction with textual analysis. Translation theory has forged a re-evaluation of translation as a literary medium. Using this growing field of research and scholarship, we can enhance our understanding of translation as it existed during the Middle Ages. For the medieval writer, translation was a fluid concept, and modern theoretical approaches are also highlighting the variety of approaches to translation. Thus, this project reveals that medieval translation is not only a distinct and important literary genre, but also provides new ways to think about translation and adaptation. iii To my parents, Ian and Carol Griffiths, thank you for your encouragement and support in the course of my writing. To my dissertation advisor, Professor Edward Donald Kennedy, I am forever grateful for your commitment to this project and honored to be your last graduate student advisee. iv Contents Introduction .............................................................................. ................................................. 1 Chapter 1: The Prose Merlin and Of Arthour and Of Merlin: a Translation and an Adaptation ........................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Ywain and Gawain: a Translation and Adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain) ............................................... 43 Chapter 3: The Stanzaic Morte Arthur: an Adaptation of La Mort le Roi Artu....................... 81 Chapter 4: “The Tale of the Sankgreal”: a Translation of La Queste del Saint Graal ........................................................... 122 Chapter 5: "The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthur Saunz Guerdon": an Adaptation of an English and a French Romance ............................................. 158 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 190 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 194 v Introduction As Roger Ellis writes in his preface to The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, “almost everything written in the medieval period could be presented as a translation in one sense or another.”1 This dissertation will show in what "sense" we may view several medieval English translations of French Arthurian romances. Today, we may have specific preconceptions as to what constitutes a translation. For writers during the Middle Ages, the concept was more fluid. We must, accordingly, take a different view of translation during this period. Translation was often faithful to the source, and at other times it was not. We have, therefore, a variety of translation in the Middle Ages that demonstrates varying degrees of difference and correspondence between a source and its translation. The growing field of translation theory provides the medieval scholar with new and exciting ways to approach medieval works since originality generally consisted of adapting older works rather than creating a story that was entirely new. Indeed, translation and adaptation were often intrinsic to literary works created during the Middle Ages. Medieval “translation” could range from a close translation (e.g., the English Prose Merlin) to a free adaptation (e.g., the stanzaic Morte Arthur). Between these extremes, there are several types of translation. This idea is not exclusive to the medieval period. As Eugene Nida argues “Traditionally, we have tended to think in terms of free or paraphrastic translations as contrasted with close or literal ones. Actually, there are many more grades of translating than these extremes imply.”2 Thus, some medieval translations may be nearer to what we may define as close translation, whereas others vary so significantly in comparison to their 1 The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol. I to 1550, edited by Roger Ellis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 2-3. 2 “Principles of Correspondence,” Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti (New York: Routledge, 2002), 153. source that they become an adaptation. Others offer a combination of approaches including both translation and adaptation. Close translation can be determined by the degree of equivalence between source and text. The term "equivalence," or an "equivalent translation," refers to the parity in both language and narrative content between source and translation. When the author of the translated text follows the source closely, it is evident in the lexical choices, structure of the narrative and, ultimately, the minimal differences identifiable between the original and translation. By extension, the translation mirrors the source, yet we may differentiate between them by the language used, i.e. Old French and Middle English. In most other respects, the narrative remains the same, and the translation is, therefore, an equivalent of the source. By contrast, the more a text differs from its source will make it lean towards the label of an adaptation. Although medieval translators may reference their sources and adhere to the main themes of the original, an adaptation may still differ significantly from the source in both form and content. Thus an English translator may eliminate the interwoven plots of a French source or translate from prose to verse, since the latter was more popular for narratives in England until the mid-fifteenth century. There may be significant omissions or a re-ordering of the narrative. In addition, the translator may condense or “reduce” his source, which means that the narrative function of an episode serves the same purpose, yet it does so without extraneous detail. This practice was particularly in evidence with the English translators who dispensed with what they apparently considered superfluous elements of their French sources to streamline the narrative. An adaptation is freer in its use of the source. As I will demonstrate, medieval translators had considerably more freedom than modern translators to change the works they were translating. This dissertation will also illustrate the importance of the source to the translator. Even with obvious divergence from the 2 source, a medieval author will still reference the authority of the original to add legitimacy to the newer version. The popularity of Arthurian romance in the Middle Ages spread tales of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table across Europe, and they were translated into the region’s many languages. Arthurian romance became popular first in France and then in other literary traditions. Thus we find examples in Latin, Old French, Middle Dutch, Middle High German, Norwegian/Icelandic, Anglo-Norman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Middle English. This dissertation will study some French Arthurian romances that were translated into English. In chapter one, I compare the English verse Of Arthour and Of Merlin and the English Prose Merlin to their source, the French prose Merlin. This chapter will introduce and exemplify some of the primary differences between an adaptation and a translation. Chapter two is a comparison of the English Ywain and Gawain with Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain). The chapter explains that Ywain and Gawain includes elements of adaptation and translation. Chapter Three examines the stanzaic Morte Arthur in relation to La Mort Le Roi Artu. Here, I will demonstrate that the stanzaic Morte is an adaptation of its source, yet the story bears distinct similarities in terms of narrative progression. Chapters Four and Five are studies of two tales from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. Chapter four compares La Queste del Saint Graal to Malory’s The Tale of the Sankgreal (Tale Six). The final chapter concerns the relationship of Malory’s The Most Piteous Tale of King Arthur’s Death Sanz Guerdon (Tale Eight) to the English stanzaic Morte Arthur and the French La Mort Le Roi Artu. These examples of the variety in translation perform two significant functions. First, medieval