Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 42

literature was translated not to provide a source of proper etiquette,30 a
handbook of chivalrous conduct, but rather to make available the litera-
ture considered de rigueur at other courts, and to expand the literary
horizon of the Norwegians. If the Arthurian romances were imported in
order to indoctrinate young men in the art of love, Håkon’s program
surely failed, for those portions so characteristic of French romance,
those sections that depict the process and progress of love - also a literary
cliché - usually received short shrift in the translations. Extensive de-
scriptions of court ceremonial, of dress, and of social niceties were con-
densed as well. There remained the knights, however, who set out to
battie giants, to rescue fair ladies and lions in distress, to slay dragons,
and to avenge insults to the royal honor, personified by King Arthur. In
the midst of ceaseless activity the fabled king plays a passive role, how-
ever.
Rudolf Meissner thought that King Håkon expected the Norwegian
listeners of the riddarasogur to compare the situation at his court with
that obtaining in the sagas. “Ein idealer konig wird ihnen vorgestellt,
konig Artus, unumschrånkt in seiner macht, ein muster an ritterlichkeit,
milde und sonstigen furstentugenden ... die horer vergleichen sich mit
den gestalten der dichtung und diese erscheinen ihnen als ideale vorbil-
der hofischer tugend und sitte.”31 That the figure of Arthur as depicted in
the riddarasogur has an exemplary character is open to question. In the
French sources themselves, notably in Chrétien’s works, the figure of
Arthur is an unusually passive one. Generally his presence merely signi-
fies royal authority, and only in the introductory part of Chrétien’s Erec
et Enide does Arthur himself initiate and orchestrate the course of
events.32 The passivity of Arthur’s person has been explained by pointing
out that the king as he appears in the romances is no longer a young man
who must needs give proof of his prowess. Instead, “Arthur doit rester au
milieu de sa cour qui suscite, enregistre et consacre les prouesses, qui est
le centre de la vie courtoise et du compagnonnage guerrier. Dans ces
conditions, le roi Arthur joue forcément un role un peu ingrat. Le pre-
stige d’un Gauvain, d’un Lancelot, d’un Perceval l’eclipse sa propre réputa-
30 Jon Helgason, Norrøn litteraturhistorie (Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1934), p.
211.
31 Die Strengleikar, pp. 119-20.
32 See Hildegard Emmel, Formprobleme des Artusromans und der Graldichtung (Bern:
Francke, 1951), p. 13.
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