Of Magical Beings and Where to Find Them : On the Concept of álfar in the Translated riddarasǫgur

This paper forms part of a doctoral thesis in Old Nordic Religions at the University of Iceland, which seeks to examine the use of Nordic supernatural concepts (such as jǫtnar, dvergar and álfar) in the Old Nordic translations of Old French, Occitan and Anglo-Norman chivalric and courtly romances and lais in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. This present article focuses on the use of the word “álfar” as a translation for the French word “fées”, considering not only the narrative purposes involved in the choice of such a word, but the potential influences on Icelandic folk beliefs that might have been caused by such a translation (as these translation were read out alongside more local narratives).https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-439400