Refractory Latin: Prismatic Translation in the Brendan Tradition

This article addresses a curious phenomenon: the refraction, or back-translation, of Latin texts through the vernacular back into Latin. It focuses on three distinct refractions of the Navigatio Sancti Brendani (ca. 800) via Benedeit's Old French Voyage de Saint Brendan (ca. 1118). Historically dismissed as devoid of interest and derivative, the Latin translations of Benedeit's poem, copied in France, Wales, and Portugal, offer a particularly rich record of the changing perceptions, positions, and abilities of Latin with regard to French from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. In Goliardic verse, Latin breaks with classical tradition and renovates its daring poetic abilities. In Cistercian houses, domestic Latin offers an open door to monastic readers and listeners. Prismatic translations in the Brendan tradition complicate the easy story of an inert and prestigious Latin, instead emphasizing its nimble response to the desires of its users.