Intrusion, Immersive or Irregular:

Often when we think of fantasy we think of far off places or some magical world completely removed from our own. We think of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia or J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Even J. K. Rowling’s wizards and witches are distinctly divided from and inaccessible to non-magical people. But what happens when this Other Place comes into contact with our world? Susanna Clarke explores this type of contact in her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Relating the adventures of two magicians in early nineteenth century England, the novel describes what happens when the magic of the Faerie realm interacts with our world or, more specifically, with England. The ultimate effect is one where each place does not exist independently of one another but rather are ontologically connected. Unpacking the particulars of this existential coexistence and identifying the exact nature of Clarke’s fantasy is no easy task. For this it is helpful to turn to Farrah Mendlesohn’s Rhetorics of Fantasy, a book dedicated to the classification of five different types that a fantasy work might fall into: portal-quest, immersive, intrusion, liminal and irregular. Despite the thorough detail that Mendlesohn achieves in outlining and explaining each category, Clarke’s novel remains exceedingly difficult to place. In addition to Mendlesohn’s book then, we must also turn to the outside influence of other primary texts, like the Middle English poem Sir Orfeo, to classify the intricate fantasy that is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Translation of “Sir Orfeo” into Spanish

Here we present a translation into Spanish of the medieval English poem titled “Sir Orfeo”, which was composed in the late 13th or early 14th centuries within the WestminsterMiddlesex area. Our main spur has been to disseminate it amongst the modern Spanish-speaking readers due to its literary beauty and its story, a story which is not certainly innovative; however, it is innovative as to the way its author has succeeded in adapting the classical or Ancient Greek myth to the medieval English mindset of the readers or listeners of the time so as to arouse their interest, entertain them and teach them with a didactic purpose. The poem comprises all the elements inherent to a prototypical lay (or lai): a knight-king, a love story, a physical and spiritual quest, the otherworld (or fairyland), and moral and spiritual values which should be taken into account by the audience. We have attempted to make the translation of “Sir Orfeo” into Spanish as faithful as possible regarding the original English poem in order to maintain its literary essence, freshness and character. “Sir Orfeo” was a very popular poem in its time, and there is no doubt that it will become popular again in the 21st century in the light of different perceptions and approaches.