The Danish Translations of the Eufemiavisor and the Literary Polysystem of Medieval Scandinavia

Traditional handbooks of Danish literature often present medieval literature as a static collection of texts accidentally handed down to us. The polysystemic approach, instead, can help us reconstruct the socio-semiotic context of medieval Danish culture and single out the dynamics through which this culture developed from its early stage, still characterized by a dichotomy between written Latin literature and oral Nordic poetry, to a more rich and complex system, in which different genres coexist and interact. Two different sets of events play a crucial role in this evolution: the conversion to Christianity and the integration of the Danish cultural system into a broader Northern European cultural system. To this second and later process, in particular, is due the import of cultural goods from Sweden to Denmark and the translation into Danish of the Swedish Eufemiavisor.