Medieval Romances Across European Borders

They were the bestsellers of their time; in the late medieval period, a number of shorter romances and tales, such as Floire et Blancheflor, Partonopeus de Blois, Valentine and Orson, and many others, enjoyed striking popularity across different regions of Europe. In this volume, scholars from across Europe and beyond examine the processes by which medieval romances were adapted across regional and national borders. By considering how the content, form, and broader contextualisation of individual romances were altered by the transition from one region to another, the chapters variously address the role translators, narrators, editors, and compilers played in adapting the tales to different cultural and codicological settings. In this context, they discuss not only the shifting plotlines of the tales, but also the points at which the generic features of the texts shift in response to changing cultural codes. In doing so, they raise broader questions concerning the links between genre, manuscript form, cultural assimilation, and the popularity of certain romance texts in different cultural communities.