Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 34
II. Royal Entertainment
Artus konungr var hinn forvitnasti madr ok vildi verSa viss allra
ti'denda, er gerdusk i riki hans, ok svå i odrum londum, (sar sem
hann måtti spyrja. (p. 2)
(King Arthur was the most inquisitive of men and wanted to be apprised of
all news of events which took place in his kingdom as well as in other lands,
where he might learn of them.)
If the author of Mottuls saga had substituted the name Håkon for Arthur
in the above passage, the statement might serve to explain the importa-
tion into Norway of French Arthurian romance. Surely the king whom
Matthew of Paris characterized as vir discretus et modestus atque bene
litteratus1 must have been well-informed of literary trends in other coun-
tries, and realized the advantage of emulating prestigious European
courts in literary matters. The cosmopolitan court that Håkon endeav-
ored to establish also “demanded its own literature. The older Norwegian
literature, consisting of sermons and saints’ lives together with a few
historical works, was no longer adequate for the educated courtiers and
their families.”1 2 Moreover, King Håkon must have recognized one im-
portant aspect of Arthurian literature: its characteristic blend of realism
and fantasy that had something to offer to everyone. The matiére de
Bretagne was a literature entirely appropriate “for the amusement of a
sovereign’s entourage, catering to the taste of ladies in their chamber and
the retainers in their hall, as well as the many people of varying nationali-
ty who gathered around the Norwegian king.”3 There is no consensus,
however, that Håkon’s program of translation was inaugurated chiefly
because of his appreciation of contemporary foreign - especially French -
1 Matthæus Parisiensis Monachi sancti Albani. Ed. Henry Richards Luard. D. D. Vol.
IV, A. D. 1240 to A. D. 1247 (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, or Chronicles
and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, 57 [London: Long-
man & Co., 1877]), p. 652.
2 Knut Helle, “Anglo-Norwegian Relations in the Reign of Håkon Håkonsson (1217-
63),” Mediaeval Scandinavia, I (1968), p. 108.
1 Dag Stromback, “The Dawn of West Norse Literature,” BONIS (1963), p. 20.
20