The Nordic Beowulf by Bo Gräslund (review)

‘intended’ to promote the beneficial quality of noble counsel (p. 137). Sullivan is doubtless right in arguing that the changes made in this adaptation of Hartmann’s Iwein must be connected to fifteenth-century (nostalgic, conservative) views of noble counsel, knight-on-knight combat, and the nature of the marital contract, especially in light of the fact that the Book of Adventures was compiled for Duke Albrecht. My one quibble with this interpretive framework is that these astute observations are too often couched in the language of authorial intention, an approach which some readers may find distracting. But this is a minor quibble when juxtaposed with the obvious expertise in Iwein/ Yvain and Iban scholarship that Sullivan demonstrates throughout this welcome contribution to Arthurian Studies.