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(Peeters 1983)
"The translations preserve the dynamic, musical qualities of their oral-based originals, and are intended for both general and more specialised readers. Introductions and Select Bibliographies accompany each poem."--Jacket.
The epic tales of medieval France, called chansons de geste, or "songs of deeds", provided the chief means of cultural and imaginative expression in the French language for over one hundred and fifty years (c.1100-1250), during one of the most significant periods of social change in the history of Western civilisation. Yet they remain largely unknown to most English-speaking readers of the twenty-first century. In Heroes of the Old French Epic (Boydell, 2005) Michael Newth translated a selection of the traditional militaristic narratives dominated by male heroes. This oral-based epic genre was increasingly influenced by the ethos of romance, and the present volumeoffers full English verse translations of six more of these songs, each chosen this time to illustrate the range of roles gradually accorded to women in these originally militaristic narratives. Four key narrative roles have beenselected - woman as helpmeet, woman as lover, woman as victim, and woman as spiritual model - in order to illustrate some major changes in the social status of women that took place during the period of this popular genre's existence. These poems are a key witness to the final stages of the chansons de geste before they were overtaken by the new fashion for the fictions of courtly romance. Apart from "The Capture of Orange", which has never been translated into modern English verse, none of the poems have yet appeared in English translation.
This book focuses on the best-known and most frequently taught chanson de geste ("songs of heroic deeds") from medieval France, including the Song of Roland and the Voyage of Charlemagne.
Wolfram von Eschenbach (fl. c. 1195-1225), best known as the author of Parzival, based Willehalm, his epic poem of military prowess and courtly love, on the style and subject matter of an Old French "chanson de geste." In it he tells of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war but are finally routed. Wolfram's description of the two battles of Alischanz, with their massive slaughter and loss of heroes, and of the exploits of Willehalm and the quasicomic Rennewart, well displays the violence and courtliness of the medieval knightly ideal. Wolfram flavors his brutal account, however, with tender scenes between the lovers, asides to his audience, sympathetic cameos of his characters--especially the women--and, most unusually for his time, a surprising tolerance for 'pagans'.
This is the first translation into English of the Old French Chanson d'Antioche, a text which has long intrigued historians and literary scholars. Uniquely among epic poems, it follows closely a well-documented historical event - the First Crusade - and appears to include substantial and genuine historical content. The introduction assesses the history and status of the text, while the translation is provided with extensive annotation and with appendices on a different manuscript tradition and on real and fictional characters. The work provides a whole new perspective on crusading in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
This volume offers a broad and rich view of the tradition of Old French epic poetry, or chansons de geste, by providing an updated English translation of three central poems from the twelfth-century Guillaume d'Orange cycle.
"Fierabras and Floripas" relates the tale of two Saracen siblings who join forces with Charlemagne and his Peers. It was the most successful French epic tale - or chanson de geste - among audiences in medieval England, not excluding the great "Song of Roland," with which it shares much of the dynamism of their oral-based genre. Its expansive narrative explores both the limits of epic battle description and the usefulness of allegory to explore moral and spiritual issues. Two separate but successively performed original compositions, "La Destruction de Rome" and "Fierabras" are translated here. Both works belonged to a sub-branch of the "deeds of the king" song-cycle that focused on the legend and significance of the legendary relics of Christ's passion - relics that were exhibited annually at the abbey of St. Denis in Paris, where the poems themselves were probably composed and first performed. At a surface level the tale deals with the historical Saracen attacks on Rome in the ninth century and with Charlemagne's legendary campaigns of retribution across the Continent. As such "Fierabras and Floripas" pulsates with the full flow of epic themes, character types, dramatic and comedic elements, dynamic diction and verbal wit that were the life-blood of the chanson de geste. Newth's translation preserves the dynamic, musical qualities of the original text. His introduction places the tale in its historical context, analyses its allegorical nature and traces the remarkable survival of its key narrative elements in the Western consciousness of its own exceptionalism and superiority to the other. This volume is illustrated with thirteen original drawings from the Hannover, Niedersachsische Landesbibliothek, MS IV-578. A glossary of medieval terms, a select bibliography and generous extracts from the original work and from its literary afterlife are included in this edition. This volume will appeal to both the general and the more specialized reader, in and out of the classroom. 16 illustrations, glossary, bibliography.