SEMINAR - HYBRID EVENT: Crossing Borders in the World of King Arthur

Abstract

The legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is associated with chivalric adventures, love stories and enchanted landscapes. It evokes fairy tales and fantasy and has been described as relatively far from the real world, reflecting ideals of the aristocracy rather than a societal reality. Yet, many Arthurian romances also show a strong interest in the external world, not least by depicting journeys throughout medieval Europe – in Brittany, England and Wales, but also in Greece, Ireland, Scandinavia and Sicily. Cultural and geographical peripheries are thus drawn into the Arthurian world, at the same time as the legend itself spreads to the European peripheries through translation. In my seminar, I will draw attention to the ways in which the Arthurian tradition crossed various borders and argue that it contributed to the creation of a cultural European community. I will discuss how romances crossed cultural and linguistic borders through translation and adaptation and how these same romances, written in different languages, describe protagonists who cross cultural and geographical borders.

För mer information och webinarielänk, se http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html.