Mediaevalia

Volume 25, Issue 2, 2004

An Old French Romance and its Adaptations

Le Narrateur Amoureux de Parthonopeus Vanbloys

This paper consists of a comparative study of the figure of the narrator in the Old French Partonopeus de Blois and the Middle Dutch Parthonopeus van Bloys. The author focuses on two key passages which illustrate the way in which the translator both maintains and adapts the narratorial interventions in the text. In general, the figure of the narrator in the Middle Dutch poem is a faithful recreation of his French predecessor; however, there are some significant differences between the two. In the first passage the addition of a reference to Ovid illustrates the relationship between the poet and his medieval Dutch public. The second passage forms part of the translator's own original continuation of the story of the sultan Margaris, which sees a significant shift in the function of the narrator and the tone of his interventions.