The history of European literature is one of transformation, refashioning and intertextual relations. Narrative modes and ideas spread across the continent, influencing and enriching existing native literary forms. As old poetic traditions either stagnated or died out, new literary modes were fashioned from pre-existing forms, which were combined with novel narrative structures and ideas from imported materials. The foreign literary conventions did not replace existing forms, but rather served as the impetus for the enrichment of the native literary language and of its poetic and thematic representation. While medieval literary heritage reflects the ideological and social structures from which it originated, it also transcends the moment in history through this intertextual exchange. It both preserves traces of ideologies of that culture and foretells changes that lie ahead. In the literary legacy of any given community a modern reader can thus discern patterns of cultural movement and transformation as they have been preserved in time.

The role that translations play in this cultural exchange is often neglected. While modern scholarship on translation recognises the impact of culture as fundamental to the translation process, medieval translations have frequently been judged by their capacity (or failure) to reflect and capture the essence of the source text. Recent criticism is, however, turning its focus increasingly towards reconceptualising the relationship of source and target texts in the Middle Ages in a manner that reflects the circumstances of medieval textual production.