Table Of ContentVarieties in Translation: Adaptation and Translation between French and
English Arthurian Romance
Euan Drew Griffiths
A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English
and Comparative Literature.
Chapel Hill
2013
Approved by:
Edward Donald Kennedy
Madeline Levine
E. Jane Burns
Joseph Wittig
Patrick O'Neill
UMI Number: 3594166
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Abstract
EUAN DREW GRIFFITHS: "Varieties in Translation: Adaptation and Translation between French
and English Arthurian Romance"
(Under the direction of Edward Donald Kennedy)
The dissertation is a study of the fascinating and variable approaches to translation and
adaptation during the Middle Ages. I analyze four anonymous Middle English texts and two tales
from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur that are translations and adaptations of Old French
Arthurian romances. Through the comparison of the French and English romances, I demonstrate
how English translators employed a variety of techniques including what we might define as close
translation and loose adaptation. Malory, in particular, epitomizes the medieval translator. The two
tales that receive attention in this project illustrate his use of translation and adaptation.
Furthermore, the study is breaking new ground in the field of medieval studies since the
work draws on translation theory in conjunction with textual analysis. Translation theory has forged
a re-evaluation of translation as a literary medium. Using this growing field of research and
scholarship, we can enhance our understanding of translation as it existed during the Middle Ages.
For the medieval writer, translation was a fluid concept, and modern theoretical approaches are also
highlighting the variety of approaches to translation. Thus, this project reveals that medieval
translation is not only a distinct and important literary genre, but also provides new ways to think
about translation and adaptation.
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To my parents, Ian and Carol Griffiths, thank you for your encouragement and support in the course
of my writing. To my dissertation advisor, Professor Edward Donald Kennedy, I am forever grateful
for your commitment to this project and honored to be your last graduate student advisee.
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Contents
Introduction .............................................................................. ................................................. 1
Chapter 1: The Prose Merlin and Of Arthour and Of Merlin:
a Translation and an Adaptation ........................................................................... 5
Chapter 2: Ywain and Gawain: a Translation and Adaptation of
Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain) ............................................... 43
Chapter 3: The Stanzaic Morte Arthur: an Adaptation of La Mort le Roi Artu....................... 81
Chapter 4: “The Tale of the Sankgreal”:
a Translation of La Queste del Saint Graal ........................................................... 122
Chapter 5: "The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthur Saunz Guerdon":
an Adaptation of an English and a French Romance ............................................. 158
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 190
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 194
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Introduction
As Roger Ellis writes in his preface to The Oxford History of Literary Translation in
English, “almost everything written in the medieval period could be presented as a translation in one
sense or another.”1 This dissertation will show in what "sense" we may view several medieval
English translations of French Arthurian romances. Today, we may have specific preconceptions as
to what constitutes a translation. For writers during the Middle Ages, the concept was more fluid. We
must, accordingly, take a different view of translation during this period. Translation was often
faithful to the source, and at other times it was not. We have, therefore, a variety of translation in the
Middle Ages that demonstrates varying degrees of difference and correspondence between a source
and its translation.
The growing field of translation theory provides the medieval scholar with new and exciting
ways to approach medieval works since originality generally consisted of adapting older works
rather than creating a story that was entirely new. Indeed, translation and adaptation were often
intrinsic to literary works created during the Middle Ages. Medieval “translation” could range from a
close translation (e.g., the English Prose Merlin) to a free adaptation (e.g., the stanzaic Morte
Arthur). Between these extremes, there are several types of translation. This idea is not exclusive to
the medieval period. As Eugene Nida argues “Traditionally, we have tended to think in terms of free
or paraphrastic translations as contrasted with close or literal ones. Actually, there are many more
grades of translating than these extremes imply.”2 Thus, some medieval translations may be nearer to
what we may define as close translation, whereas others vary so significantly in comparison to their
1 The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol. I to 1550, edited by Roger Ellis (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2008), 2-3.
2 “Principles of Correspondence,” Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti (New York:
Routledge, 2002), 153.
source that they become an adaptation. Others offer a combination of approaches including both
translation and adaptation.
Close translation can be determined by the degree of equivalence between source and text.
The term "equivalence," or an "equivalent translation," refers to the parity in both language and
narrative content between source and translation. When the author of the translated text follows the
source closely, it is evident in the lexical choices, structure of the narrative and, ultimately, the
minimal differences identifiable between the original and translation. By extension, the translation
mirrors the source, yet we may differentiate between them by the language used, i.e. Old French and
Middle English. In most other respects, the narrative remains the same, and the translation is,
therefore, an equivalent of the source.
By contrast, the more a text differs from its source will make it lean towards the label of an
adaptation. Although medieval translators may reference their sources and adhere to the main themes
of the original, an adaptation may still differ significantly from the source in both form and content.
Thus an English translator may eliminate the interwoven plots of a French source or translate from
prose to verse, since the latter was more popular for narratives in England until the mid-fifteenth
century. There may be significant omissions or a re-ordering of the narrative. In addition, the
translator may condense or “reduce” his source, which means that the narrative function of an
episode serves the same purpose, yet it does so without extraneous detail. This practice was
particularly in evidence with the English translators who dispensed with what they apparently
considered superfluous elements of their French sources to streamline the narrative. An adaptation is
freer in its use of the source. As I will demonstrate, medieval translators had considerably more
freedom than modern translators to change the works they were translating. This dissertation will
also illustrate the importance of the source to the translator. Even with obvious divergence from the
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source, a medieval author will still reference the authority of the original to add legitimacy to the
newer version.
The popularity of Arthurian romance in the Middle Ages spread tales of Arthur and the
knights of the Round Table across Europe, and they were translated into the region’s many
languages. Arthurian romance became popular first in France and then in other literary traditions.
Thus we find examples in Latin, Old French, Middle Dutch, Middle High German,
Norwegian/Icelandic, Anglo-Norman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Middle English.
This dissertation will study some French Arthurian romances that were translated into English. In
chapter one, I compare the English verse Of Arthour and Of Merlin and the English Prose Merlin to
their source, the French prose Merlin. This chapter will introduce and exemplify some of the primary
differences between an adaptation and a translation. Chapter two is a comparison of the English
Ywain and Gawain with Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain). The chapter explains
that Ywain and Gawain includes elements of adaptation and translation. Chapter Three examines the
stanzaic Morte Arthur in relation to La Mort Le Roi Artu. Here, I will demonstrate that the stanzaic
Morte is an adaptation of its source, yet the story bears distinct similarities in terms of narrative
progression. Chapters Four and Five are studies of two tales from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte
Darthur. Chapter four compares La Queste del Saint Graal to Malory’s The Tale of the Sankgreal
(Tale Six). The final chapter concerns the relationship of Malory’s The Most Piteous Tale of King
Arthur’s Death Sanz Guerdon (Tale Eight) to the English stanzaic Morte Arthur and the French La
Mort Le Roi Artu.
These examples of the variety in translation perform two significant functions. First,
medieval authors were proficient translators. They fully understood their sources and the language of
their sources. Medieval translators translated and adapted according to their own wishes and
aspirations for their version. English translators recognized that since even many members of the
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English upper classes could no longer read or understand spoken French, there was an audience for
English translations of Old French romances and sought to provide for this audience. Second,
Arthurian romances, although regarded as fiction, were associated and celebrated as a national
legend. Thus, the English authors perceived the importance in reaffirming the Arthurian legend, not
only as part of country's literary heritage, but also to enhance the stature of English as a literary
language.
As this dissertation will demonstrate, medieval writers made less of a distinction between a
translation and a work of literature. Moreover, it is the purview of this study to gain a better
appreciation of how and to what extent medieval writers used sources. By taking a selection of
romances that share a common root, i.e. the two English versions of the French Prose Merlin or
Malory's version of the Mort Artu in comparison to the stanzaic Morte, we may increase our
understanding of medieval conceptions of translation.
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Description:The dissertation is a study of the fascinating and variable approaches to translation and adaptation during the Middle Ages. I analyze four anonymous Middle English texts and two tales from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur that are translations and adaptations of Old French Arthurian romances. T
