Résumé
In “The Study of Historical Film as Adaptation”, Patrick Cattrysse writes that “A study of the selection policy concerns the question: what (types of) source materials have been ‘selected’ (or not?) to be adapted and why? Subsequently, the second step deals with how the items that have been chosen for adaptation have actually been adapted and why.” In my communication, I aim at developing Cattrysse’s quote by studying the selection policy behind the historical drama television show The Last Kingdom and its sequel and conclusion The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die. They are the adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories, so there is already a first, “traditional” answer to Cattrysse’s first question. But it is possible to dig deeper. At the end of each novel, Bernard Cornwell adds “Historical Notes”, detailing what kind of sources he drew inspiration from. Therefore, The Saxon Stories are rooted not only in the author’s imagination, but also in other texts such as contemporary records (the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles or Asser’s Life of King Alfred) and medieval poems (Beowulf, the Battle of Maldon). By expanding our “selection policy” beyond the most obvious layer of the novels and acknowledging the existence of this intertextuality, it is possible to find traces of it in the adaptation – thereby finding a layer of intermediality that is only hinted at in Cattrysse’s quote.