This study examines the most characteristic features of the Scandinavian prose romances. The contrast between the translated and original chivalric sagas is illustrated on the Norwegian translation of the Song of Roland and on the late Icelandic re-working of Tristan. Our aim was to explain the changes in the context of the Old Norse culture as well as literary conventions. The Old Norse translations were partially shaped to satisfy the expectations of the target audience unused to the genre. The dissolving courtly ideals in the late-medieval Icelandic tradition are, according the author, rather similar to the development of the late German Artusroman than purely a sign of Scandinavian incomprehension of the concepts.