Le Roman de Brut
Publication Date: April 28, 2010
Chapter: English Literature During The Middle Ages
The translation on Project Gutenberg actually sounds even more hilarious than the Norton translation of this scene (which is what I used for the comic's dialogue). It translates the repetitive speech as "I marvel very great, and disdain whilst yet I marvel." I think I'm gonna start using that in everyday conversation. Honestly, the Gutenberg translation may be better all around - it doesn't actually use that goofy repetition that's in the Norton. On the other hand, without the goofy repetition, I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun.
Anyway, here's Wace. He pretty much read Geoffrey's "History" and decided to he could do it even better. He translated the stories of Arthur and Brutus into his own native tongue while adding a bunch of crap to the story in the process. I say "crap," but Wace's "History" is actually better than Geoffrey's. This strikes me as the sort of situation that simply couldn't exist today. It'd be like if someone read Harry Potter and was like, "Pft, I could do that way better," before translating it into French and randomly adding in new scenes. Well, technically, I suppose people can still do that, they just can't sell it. Apparently in the 1100s, copyright law wasn't really in full swing.
Author: Wace • Year: 1155 • Source: Project Gutenberg
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About The Comic
Lit Brick is a comic started by Jodie Troutman in an effort to read the entire Norton Anthology of English Literature. Having eventually succeeded in that goal, it now features comics about all manner of random literature. For more of Jodie's work, visit longtalljodie.com!
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