Middle English Romances in Translation

294 Pages·2015·2.967 MB·English

by  Kenneth Eckert

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MiddlE English t
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in translation
The popular romances of medieval England are fantasy stories of love at first sight;
brave knights seeking adventure; evil stewards; passionate, lusty women; hand-
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to-hand combat; angry dragons; and miracles. They are not only fun but indicate
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a great deal about the ideals and values of the society they were written in. Yet
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the genre of Middle English romance has only recently begun to attain critical l
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respectability, dismissed as “vayn carpynge” in its own age and generally treated
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by twentieth-century critics as a junk-food form of medieval literature. Chaucer’s n
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Tale of Sir Thopas has been assumed to be a satire of the romances’ clichéd formulas
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and unskilled authors. But the romances evidently enjoyed popularity among all si
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English classes, and the genre itself continued to flourish and evolve down to h
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present-day novels and movies. Whatever Chaucer and his contemporaries thought
of romances, they would have needed some personal familiarity with the stories
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and texts for comic tales such as Sir Thopas to be understood. r MiddlE English
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A century ago, Beowulf faced the same problem that the Middle English romances
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still face: no modern translations were published because few had heard of the
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poem– because there were no modern translations published. Where the romances l roMancEs

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have been printed, they have normally been reproduced as critical editions in their
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original language, or translated into heavily abridged children’s versions, but few
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have been published as scholarly close line translations with notes. This book is an
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attempt to remedy this by making some of these romances available to the student in translation
or lay reader who lacks specialized knowledge of Middle English, with the hope
that a clearer understanding of the poems will encourage not only enjoyment but
also further study.
amis and amiloun | athelston | floris and
Ken Eckert comes from Edmonton, Canada, and is Assistant Professor of English at blancheflor | havelok the dane |
Hanyang University (ERICA), Korea.
king horn | sir degare
Kenneth Eckert
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ISSBiNd 97e8-s9t0-o88n90e-3 3P9-7ress
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ISBN: 978-90-8890-339-7
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9 789088 903397 e

MIDDLE ENGLISH
ROMANCES

IN TRANSLATION
Sidestone Press

MIDDLE ENGLISH
ROMANCES

IN TRANSLATION
amis and amiloun | athelston | floris and
blancheflor | havelok the dane |
king horn | sir degare
Kenneth Eckert
© 2015 K. Eckert
Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden
www.sidestone.com
ISBN 978-90-8890-339-7
Layout & cover design: Sidestone Press
Cover images: Detail from King Horn, MS. Harley 2253, British Library;
Tristan battling fourteen knights, MS. Additional 5474, British Library.
Also available as:
e-book (PDF): ISBN 978-90-8890-340-3
Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
Textual Notes 19
Amis and Amiloun 21
Athelston 81
Floris and Blancheflor 103
Havelok the Dane 139
King Horn 209
Sir Degare 249
Works Cited 279
Index 287

Acknowledgments
In 1994 I was surprised to hear my now late Grandmother Eckert recite lines from the
Canterbury Tales which she had probably learned sometime during World War I. As
ever, when I write it is partly for her. As well, I owe thanks to teachers and professors
who have encouraged me over the years, especially Daniel Thurber (Concordia,
Nebraska); Catherine Eddy and Richard Willie (Concordia, Edmonton); William
Schipper (Memorial, Newfoundland); my dissertation director, John Bowers (U. of
Nevada, Las Vegas) and committee; and my friend Jacquie Elkouz at UNLV. In a book
of romances which are often deemed clichéd themselves I will forgo the tired one about
standing on giants and simply thank these people for setting me on a path.
In the production of this book I would like to thank Karsten Wentink and Corné
van Woerdekom at Sidestone for their kindness and guidance, as well as Hanyang
University, Korea for their support of research in Edinburgh and England in 2014. For
help I received in inspecting manuscripts I would additionally like to thank the rare
book people at the British Library, London.
For their permissions in clearing the use of public domain images and texts I would
like to acknowledge the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; The British Library,
London; the Heidelberg University Library; and the Council of the Early English Text
Society, Oxford.
Soli Deo gloria.
acknowledgments 7