Griseldis: Translation and Transformation of a European Story

The novella Griseldis, first written by Giovanni Boccaccio in his Decameron (Dec X, 10) in the 14th century, was translated and adapted in a lot of European languages, such as Dutch, German, English and French. Heinrich Steinhöwel translation into German in the 15th century was printed 14 times until 1500, nearly the same amount followed in the 16th century. The text was transformed as a ballad by Heinrich Nicolay (1810) and as a poem by Otto Heinrich von Löben (1819). In Dutch we can already see the first print in prose in the 15th century, and an explosion of prints for three centuries from then on. There was a Dutch song about Griselda, published in about 1750. In French, the story was printed in the 15th century, too, and rewritten as a fairy tale by Perrault in the late 17th century. In English, the story saved as a basis for Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale and was reprinted several times. In my paper I will present a survey of the European translations and transformations of this extraordinary story about the suffering and, at last, lucky life of a woman because of her patience, comparing the grades of aggregation in different countries and relating them to the cultural contexts.