001- titel (page).fm Page 1 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 8:50 AM SCRIPTA ISLANDICA ISLÄNDSKA SÄLLSKAPETS ÅRSBOK 62/2011 ––––––––––– REDIGERAD AV VETURLI ĐI ÓSKARSSON under medverkan av Pernille Hermann (Århus) Mindy MacLeod (Melbourne) Else Mundal (Bergen) Guðrún Nordal (Reykjavík) Rune Palm (Stockholm) Heimir Pálsson (Uppsala) UPPSALA, SWEDEN UntitledBook1.book Page 2 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM Tryckt med bidrag från Vetenskapsrådet © Författarna och Scripta Islandica ISSN 0582-3234 Sättning: Textgruppen i Uppsala AB Tryckning: Reklam & Katalogtryck AB, Uppsala 2011 UntitledBook1.book Page 3 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM Innehåll INGVIL B RÜGGER B UDAL, Who is “I”? Translation of riddara- sögur as a collective performance . 5 FINNUR F RIÐRIKSSON, Modern Icelandic: Stable or in a state of flux? . 19 SVANTE J ANSON, The Icelandic calendar . 51 Recensioner SUSANNE H AUGEN, anm. av Kormaks saga. Historik och över- sättning av Ingegerd Fries . 105 HEIMIR P ÁLSSON, rec. av Úlfar Bragason, Ætt og saga: Um frá- sagnarfræði Sturlungu eða Íslendinga sögu hinnar miklu . 109 HELGI S KÚLI K JARTANSSON, rec. av Rikke Malmros, Vikingernes syn på militær og samfund: Belyst gennem skjaldenes fyrste- digtning . 119 LASSE M ÅRTENSSON, rec. av Vår eldste bok. Skrift, miljø og bilet- bruk i den norske homilieboka. Bibliotheca Nordica 3. Red. Odd Einar Haugen och Åslaug Ommundsen . 125 RUNE P ALM, rec. av. Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2. From c. 1035–1300 (Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages II). Ed. Kari Ellen Gade . 131 ÚLFAR B RAGASON, rec. av Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cam- bridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga . 139 Isländska sällskapet: HENRIK W ILLIAMS & A GNETA N EY, Berättelse om verksamheten under 2009 . 145 Författarna i denna årgång . 147 UntitledBook1.book Page 4 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM UntitledBook1.book Page 5 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM Who is “I” 5 Who is “I”? Translation of riddarasögur as a collective performance INGVIL B RÜGGER B UDAL Translating a text is a written performance, an interpretation of the con- tent, language and tenor of a source text. Modern translation can be seen as “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message; first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida and Taber, 1974, 12). However, within the medie- val educational system, the work of translating and copying texts was also a writing exercise, and students were encouraged to modify and im- prove a chosen materia through a variety of techniques, thus adding to the meaning and altering the style. Through the constant rewriting of the narratives, multiple redactors leave their imprint on the text, and a medi- eval text can often be considered to be a truly collective work, a choir of voices. These voices are most easily identified in prologues and epi- logues, where the often formulaic authorial “I” might be individual or collective – and where the wording at times reveals information about the redactors’ or translators’ perception of their part or role in the trans- mission and transformation of the texts. 1 This article is based on a paper given at the conference “Performance and Performativity in Medieval Europe. Texts and Transformations” hosted by the Center for Medieval Stu- dies at the University of Bergen, August, 2010. 1 On the instability and variance of texts in a manuscript culture, see for instance Cerqui- glini (1989), Eloge de la variante and Zumthor (1972), Essai de poétique médiévale . Re- garding the authorial role in medieval texts, A.J. Minnis is essential, i.e. his Medieval Theory of Authorship : Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages (1984). Using Peter Lombard’s Libri Sententiarum , Minnis (1984, 94) illustrates the medieval awareness of both the textual movements through copying and editing manuscripts and the diversity of roles text redactors can assume, depending on their approach to their source texts. A dif- ferent approach is that of Sturges (1995) in the anthology Bakhtin and Medieval Voices (ed. Thomas J. Farrell) where he seeks to define “how the multiple voices in a medieval manu- script interact with each other” through using Bakhtin’s concept of modern polyphonic texts (1995, 126). On the genre of prose prologues in general, see e.g. Tore Janson (1964), Latin Prose Prefaces : Studies in Literary Conventions . UntitledBook1.book Page 6 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM 6 Ingvil Brügger Budal A mapping and categorizing of these voices in the prologues and epi- logues of a selection of riddarasögur , romances translated from Old French into Old Norse during the 13 th century, will give some under- standing of this particular group of text redactors’ attitudes towards their performance, i.e. towards their source texts, the work they were execut- ing and their audience. It is in particular the use of pronouns that can give an indication of how the translators perceived the texts and their own role in translating them. Are later text redactors’ voices present? How do they relate to and render the original narrators’ voices? Do they claim some kind of ownership of the texts, or do they seem to be cautious about do- ing this? Are both the original and potential new audiences included in the text? Are there chronological patterns? What happens to these voices over time? The advantages and limitations of the sources Within the stylistic conventions of different genres, the potential of vis- ible authorial voices varies greatly. The use of the translated riddara- sögur as sources limits the material to a single genre – although one could discuss whether this is actually the case with the riddarasögur. Nevertheless, within the Old Norse literature, the riddarasögur are gen- erally considered to be a genre set apart and their style is usually referred to as høvisk stil , courtly style. 2 Yet, the riddarasögur stem from a multi- tude of genres of Old French courtly literature. It is thus necessary to keep in mind that eventual stylistic differences, including the presence or absence of narrators’ voices, do not necessarily originate from Norse translators or text redactors, but could derive from the stylistic ideals of different Old French genres. However, the advantages of using these texts when looking for the voices of narrators and text redactors are numerous. First and foremost, they are all framed by a prologue and an epilogue, both narrative elements where it is likely that the narrators makes themselves heard. Secondly, they are translations, vernacular ren- derings of foreign sources and distant, exotic plots. As their written sources and action were out of the ordinary, the translators – or perhaps 2 See e.g. E.F. Halvorsen’s comparative study of Chanson de Roland and Karlamagnus saga where he introduces a tripartite division of the Old Norse Court Style (1959, 8–11). UntitledBook1.book Page 7 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM Who is “I” 7 later text redactors – might have felt moved or even obliged to comment upon not only the source itself, but the action of the story, the act of trans- lating and the circumstances surrounding their work. Last, but certainly not least, the time span of the primary manuscripts containing the rid- darasögur , dating from 1270 to 1650 provides information about the dia- chronic development of these voices. Neither the original translations nor their direct Old French sources are transmitted, and it is thus primar- ily the development of authorial voices in the translations themselves , and not in comparison to the known versions of their Old French sources, that are of interest here. It is necessary, however, to keep in mind that the genre and narrative structure of the Old French source texts will inevit- ably impact on the use of authorial voices in the translated riddarasögur , partially explaining eventual variations from riddarasaga to riddara- saga . The source material The riddarasögur -genre is commonly divided into two subgenres, the main dividing criteria being not stylistic differences, but rather geo- graphical origin: either foreign or domestic. The translated riddarasögur are linked to King Hákon Hákonarson and his court in Bergen. The genre itself and the imported stories were imitated and their motifs recycled in Iceland, giving birth to numerous indigenous riddarasögur .3 The source material used here is exclusively the translated riddarasögur . In chronological order, not in terms of the estimated date of transla- tion, but according to the manuscripts and their age, the riddarasögur in- cluded are: 6 The two riddarasögur found amongst other texts in De la Gardie 4–7, a manuscript dated to approximately 1270 and referred to as “our oldest and most important collection of so-called “courtly” literature in Norse translation”: 4 3 See for instance the entry on riddarasögur in Medieval Scandinavia (ed. Pulsiano and Wolf, 1993). The encyclopedia’s editors have chosen to present the riddarasögur material as a bipartite entry, where Geraldine Barnes presents the translated material and Marianne Kalinke presents the indigenous sagas. 4 This statement was made by Mattias Tveitane in his introduction to the photographic fac- simile edition of De la Gardie 4–7 (1972, 9). UntitledBook1.book Page 8 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 PM 8 Ingvil Brügger Budal 7 The Strengleikar -collection: A prologue and 21 translated short stories originating from the Old French lais -genre. Approximately half of the stories are translations of Marie de France’s writings. The majority of the other half origi- nates from the so-called anonymous lais , but some of these translated stories have no known Old French original. 5 7 Elis saga ok Rósamundu : A translation of an Old French chanson de geste, Elie de Saint Gille . The Old French source for the translation was most likely defective, and the Old Norse story breaks off mid-action in this manuscript.