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Norse Romance I: The Tristan Legend
Text with facing translation of the Scandinavian versions of the Tristan legend.
This is the first in a set of three volumes making available for the first time critical editions and translations of important medieval Arthurian texts from Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Devoted to the Tristan legend. It contains Geitarlauf and Janual, Old Norse translations of the French lais Lanval and Chevrefeuil; Tristrams saga ok Isöndar, Brother Thomas's Old Norse translation of Thomas's Tristan, dated 1226 and commissioned by King Hákon Hákonarson the Old of Norway; "Tristrams kvædi", a fourteenth-century Icelandic "Tristan" ballad; and the Saga af Tristram ok Isodd, a fourteenth-century Icelandic version of the Old Norse Tristrams saga ok Isöndar.
The translators ROBERT COOK, PETER JORGENSEN, JOYCE HILL, MARIANNE E. KALINKE.
Professor MARIANNE KALINKE teaches in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This is the first in a set of three volumes making available for the first time critical editions and translations of important medieval Arthurian texts from Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Devoted to the Tristan legend. It contains Geitarlauf and Janual, Old Norse translations of the French lais Lanval and Chevrefeuil; Tristrams saga ok Isöndar, Brother Thomas's Old Norse translation of Thomas's Tristan, dated 1226 and commissioned by King Hákon Hákonarson the Old of Norway; "Tristrams kvædi", a fourteenth-century Icelandic "Tristan" ballad; and the Saga af Tristram ok Isodd, a fourteenth-century Icelandic version of the Old Norse Tristrams saga ok Isöndar.
The translators ROBERT COOK, PETER JORGENSEN, JOYCE HILL, MARIANNE E. KALINKE.
Professor MARIANNE KALINKE teaches in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- GenresArthurian
306 pages, Paperback
First published September 16, 1999
33 people want to read
About the author
Marianne E. Kalinke
24 books2 followersMarianne E. Kalinke is professor emerita of Germanic languages and literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 14, 2015
I have read several English versions of the Tristan/Tristram legend, but it always seemed to underwhelm me. Too bad, because it is one of the great romance stories of the Middle Ages. So, after coming across this English rendering of an Old Norse version, I was happy to give it another go. I was not disappointed.
It is a prose version of a French original, and it reads beautifully. Whatever I missed before from this story I noticed here. This romance tells of a doomed love affair between a knight and a married queen after they accidentally drink a love potion. The lovers insist on having a clandestine affair under the king's nose, but because of his love for both Isolde and for Tristan, the king vacillates between taking revenge on them and forgiving them.
We have this Norse version to thank because it preserves for us the version by its author Thomas of Britain, whose original only survives in fragments. This volume also has a shorter version of Tristan, which may not be as good, but it's supposed to be a parody. (Although I would not have known that if I had not read it in the introduction.) There is even a short poem about the legend, as well as two lays by Marie de France: one has to do with Tristan, the other, Lanval, is a separate story about an Arthurian knight who falls in love with a fairy woman.
With all of this stuff in one volume, I see this book as a bit of buried treasure for enthusiasts of medieval romance.
It is a prose version of a French original, and it reads beautifully. Whatever I missed before from this story I noticed here. This romance tells of a doomed love affair between a knight and a married queen after they accidentally drink a love potion. The lovers insist on having a clandestine affair under the king's nose, but because of his love for both Isolde and for Tristan, the king vacillates between taking revenge on them and forgiving them.
We have this Norse version to thank because it preserves for us the version by its author Thomas of Britain, whose original only survives in fragments. This volume also has a shorter version of Tristan, which may not be as good, but it's supposed to be a parody. (Although I would not have known that if I had not read it in the introduction.) There is even a short poem about the legend, as well as two lays by Marie de France: one has to do with Tristan, the other, Lanval, is a separate story about an Arthurian knight who falls in love with a fairy woman.
With all of this stuff in one volume, I see this book as a bit of buried treasure for enthusiasts of medieval romance.
June 7, 2012
A superb text and English translation of the five Norse adaptions of the Tristan romances. Includes the Tristrams saga ok Isöndar, Geitarlauf, Janual, Tristram Kvædi and the Saga af Tristram ok Ísodd. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews