Riddarasögur (Sagas of Knights) is a term used to designate a group of Old Norse-Icelandic prose texts from the 13th Century, many preserved in late Icelandic manuscripts.
The texts are either based directly on extant Old French texts (usually romances or epics) or original compositions, and are finally beginning to receive impartial scholarly attention from specialists in medieval Scandinavian studies.
UW-Madison will host a "Riddarasögur Colloquium: Exploring French-Scandinavian Literary Traditions in the Middle Ages" at the Pyle Center October 14-15.
The event is free and open to the public.
Twenty-two speakers from around the world will be presenting at the forum, representing Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the U.S.
The two-day program is available online: http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/Riddara.html
The interdisciplinary colloquium will place an important literary-historical topic in the contexts of new developments in medieval and cultural studies.
Norris J. Lacy, Edwin Earle Sparks Professor of French at Pennsylvania State University, will give a plenary lecture entitled “Writing in the Margins: Norse Arthurian Romance as Palimpsest.”