The Cultural and Ideological Function of Charlemagne

The stories about Charlemagne and his political and military achievements that circulated widely in medieval Europe, both in Latin and in the various vernaculars, found a fertile ground in the territories of Northern Europe. Translation played a decisive role in the dissemination of such stories across the Nordic region. In this chapter, the cultural and ideological function of Charlemagne in three translated texts is analysed against the background of descriptive translation studies. The Old Norwegian Karlamagnús saga - itself a thirteenth-century compilation of translated texts about Charlemagne, mostly based on Old French chansons de geste mediated through Anglo-Norman - is the starting point of a dissemination process that includes the Old Swedish Karl Magnus and the Old Danish Karl Magnus' Krønike, both of which date to the late-medieval period.