French romance was introduced to Norway in translation in the year 1226. The work in question was Thomas de Bretagne's Tristran, known in Old Norse as Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar. The saga, the only complete member of the Thomas branch of the Tristan legend, was translated at the behest of the Norwegian King Hákon Hákonarson (r. 1217–63) by a certain Brother Robert. Today the source text is extant solely in fragmentary form, while its other derivative text, Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, is incomplete. The Norwegian translation thus plays an extraordinary role in assessing the courtly version of the Tristan legend. Tristrams saga was followed by the translation of three of Chrétien de Troyes's romances, his Erec, Yvain and Perceval, the same three romances that were also the sources of German versions by Hartmannn von Aue and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Unlike the German versions, however, the Norse versions of Chrétien's romances did not generate indigenous Arthurian compositions in the North. Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar was a prolific source of motifs, however, not only for the riddarasögur, the Icelandic romances, an imported genre, but also for two Íslendingasögur, that is, Sagas of Icelanders.

In addition to the love-triangle motif, Icelandic authors of romance borrowed the ambiguous oath, the voyage for healing, the statue of the beloved and the abduction and restoration of the wife to her husband. Notable is the fact that when Tristan motifs were borrowed for the indigenous Icelandic romances, they remained the same. When Tristan motifs were incorporated into the Íslendingasögur, however, they underwent acculturation.