Old Norse in Italy: From Francesco Saverio Quadrio to Fóstbræðra saga

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Old Norse texts and literary motifs have been circulating in Italian literature since an early period of its history. Already in the second half of the eighteenth century, we find evidence of the interest of some Italian intellectual circles in the cultural tradition of ancient Scandinavia. The aim of this article is to show how and why Italian culture “imported” Old Norse texts during the last two centuries, especially how the mandates of different projects determined which texts to translate, how to translate them, and how to present them to an Italian readership. In keeping with the theme of this special volume, particular attention is paid to the case of Fóstbræðra saga and the context of its appearance in Italian translation, including associated references to the twentieth-century rewriting of this saga by the Icelandic writer Halldór Kiljan Laxness.