Die mittelniederdeutsche Übersetzung des Valentin und Namelos und ihre Stellung im Polysystem Norddeutschlands

This paper analyses the Middle Low German version of the chivalric romance Valentin und Namelos as a translated text, adopting the basic theoretical framework advocated by ‘Translation Studies’, which foster a descriptive and interdisciplinary approach to translation. After a brief overview of the manuscript tradition, followed by a plot summary, and after having ascertained the impossibility to relate the text to its possible Middle Dutch model, special atten- tion is paid to the target context for which the translation was made, with reference to ‘Polysystem Theory’. According to this theory, developed by the Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar, every literary work and the literature to which it belongs should be considered not in isolation, but as part of a system.