Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 37

of tales, novellae in the strict sense of the term; the author does not
thereby recommend emulation.
Through Håkon’s program of translation some of the best and most
popular French literature of the day became accessible to the Norwe-
gians. Since the events depicted in Arthurian literature take place in a
courtly milieu, the readers or listeners also gleaned information regard-
ing the “ideals and customs, accoutrement and ceremonials of chivalry”
as they obtained in the fantasy world of Arthur’s Table Round.10 None-
theless, the Arthurian romances are, above all, “examples of thirteenth-
century ‘light literature,’ books read first and foremost to pass the
time.”* 11
The various comments in the translated romances that they are intend-
ed to provide amusement and entertainment - Elis saga can be added,
which King Håkon had translated ydr til skemmtanar (‘for your amuse-
ment’)12 - come as something of a surprise considering the general disincli-
nation on the part of contemporary European authors to list amusement
as one of the objectives of their literary activity. For that very reason the
references to gaman ok skemmtan - not found in the French sources -
ought not to be dismissed out of hånd. On the contrary, they are note-
worthy since in French literature “il n’existe pas une seule æuvre des XIIC
et XIIIe siedes ou l’auteur prétende avoir écrit pour le plaisir de ses
auditeurs ... Au XIIe et au XIIIe siede, les auteurs de romans et les
auteurs épiques revendiquent d’autres intentions. Ils veulent instruire ou
édifier par un exemple, user utilement leur sens plutot que d’étre oisif.”13
Indeed, such is the case with the Arthurian literature which reached
Norway. The narrator announces his intention of telling once and for all
the correct and proper version of a tale, as does Chrétien de Troyes in
Erec et Enide, which Chrétien claims has been corrupted by other narra-
tors (vv. 4-5); so too the anonymous author of Le mantel mautaillié, who
10 Henry Goddard Leach, Angevin Britain and Scandinavia (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1921), p. 153.
11 Mattias Tveitane, Elis saga, Strengleikar and Other Texts. Corpus Codicorum Norvegi-
corum Medii Ævi, IV (Oslo: Selskapet til utgivelse av gamle norske håndskrifter, 1972), p.
34.
12 Eugen Kolbing, Elis saga ok Rosamundu mit Einleitung, deutscher Ubersetzung und
Anmerkungen (Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger, 1881), 116:7-9.
13 Omer Jodogne, “La parodie et le pastiche dans ‘Aucassin et Nicolette’,” Cahiers de
l'Association Internationale des Etudes Frangaises, 12 (1960), 55. (The same also in: Der
altfranzosische Roman, ed. Erich Kohler [Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,
1978], p. 291).
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