La Geste Du Chevalier Au Cygne
La Geste Du Chevalier Au Cygne

Author: Berthault de Villebresmes

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9780817304638

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Berthault de Villbresmes, a prominent lawyer and adviser to Charles d'Orleans, completed this prose version of the first three branches of The Old French Crusade Cycle some time between 1465 and 1473. He undertook his "compendieuse translacion" of the Swan Knight story at the request of Charle's widow, Marie de Cleves. Daughter of Lamarck, Marie had a particular interest in this matter for the house of Cleves had claimed descent from Helias, the fabulous grandfather of Godfroy of Bouillon some time after the extinction of the house of Bouillon-Boulogne. It is tis particular interest that explains why Berthault's adaptation of the Old French epic matter stops short of the account of the Crusade proper even though the First Crusade continued at the time to be a powerful stimulus to the literary imagination.Berthault de Villebresmes's La Geste du Chevalier au Cygne will be especially welcome to all concerned with the recovery and study of late medieval literature and with the linguistic analysis of Middle French. The Old French Crusade Cycle consists of a series of nine volumes of epic poems that together form a cycle concerningnthe First Crusade and the legendary events associated with Godefori de Buillon. See index for a listing of the volumes published thus far in the series.

Godefroi de Buillon
Godefroi de Buillon

Author: Jan Boyd Roberts

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9780817308551

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Godefroi de Buillon is an edition of folios 1 through 60 of Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, fonds fran?ais 781, a prose version of the Old French Crusade Cycle dating from the close of the 13th century. It includes the Beatrix version of the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, Le Chevalier au Cygne, Les Enfances Godefroi, La Chanson dÕAntioche, Les ChŽtifs, and La Chanson de JŽrusalem. It is of considerable interest for the history of French literature because it is apparently one of the earliest mises en prose, preceded perhaps only by Robert de BoronÕs prose Merlin. The author explicitly refers to his purpose: ÒlÕai commenchie sans rime pour lÕestore avoir plus abregiet et si me sanle que le rime est mout plaisans et mout bele mais mout est longue [I undertook it without rhyme to have it shorter, for it seems to me that rhyme is beautiful but very long]Ó (1:3-5). In fact, he has rendered the original verse into prose by two distinct methods. The Swan Knight branches of the Cycle are severely abbreviated. Collation with the verse texts is impossible; individual verses are only rarely identifiable. On the other hand, the more historically based branches are the product of an almost verse for line dŽrimage, more often than not by the simple elimination of the second hemistich, as well as the elimination of repetitive, descriptive, and affective passages.