The Origins of French Medieval Literature: Between Translation and Creation

Abstract

In this paper we intend to show the importance of the practice of translation in early French romance in the second half of the XIIth century. Emphasis is made on the way in which medieval clerics, based on their knowledge of Latin, language of culture, give the first steps in the writing of literary texts in the vernacular language. Thus, given the need to make known literary texts belonging to the Antiquity to the secular public that ignores Latin, the practice of translation emerges;  on its foundations is situated the birth of what we call today the "novel". The Lai de Narcisse will help as an example to illustrate the methods of translation used in the mid XIIth century times.