The Birth of the Novel in Renaissance Poland through the Medium of German: Translations of Medieval Narratives in Sixteenth-Century Poland

Abstract

: The paper presents a case study of four Polish prose narratives from the sixteenth century – Melusine , The Emperor Otto , Maguelone , and Fortunatus – which were published at the height of the Polish Renaissance. The remarkable fact is that they presented to the Polish reader medieval epic stories, previously unknown in Poland, and became favourite reading for many generations. However, the matière de Bretagne came to Poland through the medium of German translations from French; only the fourth narrative, the anonymous Fortunatus , is of German origin. These fantastic adventures appealed to Polish readers, who found in them not only popular European motifs but also first attempts at prose fiction, which enables the discussion of cultural systems and values. While the first three novels represent the values of chivalric culture, Fortunatus aimed to describe the contemporary world and its rules. It is notable that these Polish prose narratives anticipated the development of the novel in the seventeenth century: the first modern novel, Don Quixote by Cervantes, in the form of a parody of medieval romances, questions the values of the bygone chivalric code. These sixteenth-cen-tury Polish narratives, translated from German, perform a similar function.