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.

The Chanson des Chétifs and Chanson de Jérusalem
The Chanson des Chétifs and Chanson de Jérusalem

Author: Carol Sweetenham

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-22

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1317038738

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The First Crusade was arguably one of the most significant events of the Middle Ages. It was the only event to generate its own epic cycle, the Old French Crusade Cycle. The central trilogy at the heart of the Cycle describes the Crusade from its beginnings to the climactic battle of Ascalon, comprising the Chanson d’Antioche, the Chanson des Chétifs and the Chanson de Jérusalem. This translation of the Chétifs and the Jérusalem accompanies and completes the translation of the Antioche and makes the trilogy available to English readers in its entirety for the first time. The value of the trilogy lies above all in the insight it gives us to medieval perceptions of the Crusade. The events are portrayed as part of a divine plan where even outcasts and captives can achieve salvation through Crusade. This in turn underlies the value of the Cycle as a recruiting and propaganda tool. The trilogy gives a window onto the chivalric preoccupations of thirteenth-century France, exploring concerns about status, heroism and defeat. It portrays the material realities of the era in vivid detail: the minutiae of combat, smoke-filled halls, feasts, prisons and more. And the two newly translated poems are highly entertaining as well, featuring a lubricious Saracen lady not in the first flush of youth, a dragon inhabited by a devil, marauding monkeys, miracles and much more. The historian will find little new about the Crusade itself, but abundant material on how it was perceived, portrayed and performed. The translation is accompanied by an introduction examining the origins of the two poems and their wider place in the cycle. It is supported by extensive footnotes, a comprehensive index of names and places and translations of the main variants.

The Knight, the Cross, and the Song
The Knight, the Cross, and the Song

Author: Stefan Vander Elst

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2017-03-16

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0812293819

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The Knight, the Cross, and the Song offers a new perspective on the driving forces of crusading in the period 1100-1400. Although religious devotion has long been identified as the primary motivation of those who took the cross, Stefan Vander Elst argues that it was by no means the only focus of the texts written to convince the warriors of Western Christianity to participate in the holy war. Vander Elst examines how, across three centuries, historiographical works that served as exhortations for the Crusade sought specifically to appeal to aristocratic interests beyond piety. They did so by appropriating the formal and thematic characteristics of literary genres favored by the knightly class, the chansons de geste and chivalric romance. By using the structure, commonplaces, and traditions of chivalric literature, propagandists associated the Crusade with the decidedly secular matters to which arms-bearers were drawn. This allowed them to introduce the mutual obligation between lord and vassal, family honor, the thirst for adventure, and even the desire for women as parallel and complementary motivations for Crusade, making chivalric and literary concerns an indelible part of the ideology and practice of holy war. Examining English, Latin, French, and German texts, ranging from the twelfth-century Gesta Francorum and Chanson d'Antioche to the fourteenth-century Krônike von Prûzinlant and La Prise d'Alixandre, The Knight, the Cross, and the Song traces the historical development and geographical spread of this innovative use of secular chivalric fiction both to shape the memory and interpretation of past events and to ensure the continuation of the holy war.

The Knight, the Cross, and the Song
The Knight, the Cross, and the Song

Author: Stefan Erik Kristiaan Vander Elst

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2017-04-03

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0812248961

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Examining English, Latin, French, and German texts, The Knight, the Cross, and the Song traces the role of secular chivalric literature in shaping Crusade propaganda across three centuries.