Table Of ContentT
HE
R O R
OLAND AND TUEL OMANCES
AND THE
A -N O
NGLO ORMAN TINEL
MIDDLE ENGLISH TEXTS SERIES
GENERAL EDITOR
Russell A. Peck
University of Rochester
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Susanna Fein Alan Lupack
Kent State University University of Rochester
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR
Anna Siebach-Larsen Pamela M. Yee
University of Rochester University of Rochester
CONSULTING EDITOR CONSULTING EDITOR
Thomas Hahn Victoria Szabo
University of Rochester Duke University
ADVISORY BOARD
Theresa Coletti Michael Livingston
University of Maryland The Citadel
Rita Copeland David Raybin
University of Pennsylvania Eastern Illinois University
Lisa Fagin Davis Lynn Staley
Medieval Academy of America Colgate University
Alexandra Gillespie David Wallace
University of Toronto University of Pennsylvania
Thomas Goodmann Bonnie Wheeler
University of Miami Southern Methodist University
The Middle English Texts Series are scholarly texts designed for research and classroom use.
Its goal is to make available to teachers, scholars, and students texts that occupy an important
place in the literary and cultural canon but have not been readily available in print and online
editions. The series does not include those authors, such as Chaucer, Langland, or Malory,
whose English works are normally in print. The focus is, instead, upon Middle English
literature adjacent to those authors that are needed for doing research or teaching. The
editions maintain the linguistic integrity of the original work but within the parameters of
modern reading conventions. The texts are printed in the modern alphabet and follow the
practices of modern capitalization, word formation, and punctuation. Manuscript abbre-
viations are silently expanded, and u/v and j/i spellings are regularized according to modern
orthography. Yogh (õ) is transcribed as g, gh, y, or s, according to the sound in Modern English
spelling to which the medieval pronunciation corresponds; thorn (þ) and eth (ð) are
transcribed as th. Hard words, difficult phrases, and unusual idioms are glossed either in the
right margin or at the foot of the page. Explanatory and textual notes appear at the end of the
text, often along with a glossary. The editions include short introductions on the history of the
work, its merits, and points of topical interest.
T
HE
R O R
OLAND AND TUEL OMANCES
AND THE
A -N O
NGLO ORMAN TINEL
Edited by
Elizabeth Melick, Susanna Fein, and David Raybin
r
A publication of the
ROSSELL HOPE ROBBINS RESEARCH LIBRARY
in collaboration with
the University of Rochester Department of English
and the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies
by
MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS
Kalamazoo, Michigan
2019
Copyright © 2019 by the Board of Trustees of
Western Michigan University
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Melick, Elizabeth, editor. | Fein, Susanna, 1950- editor,
translator. | Raybin, David B., 1951- editor, translator.
Title: The Roland and Otuel romances and the Anglo-French Otinel / edited
by Elizabeth Melick, Susanna Fein, David Raybin.
Other titles: Middle English texts (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
Description: Kalamazoo : Medieval Institute Publications, 2019. | Series:
TEAMS Middle English texts series | Includes bibliographical references.
| In Middle English and Old French with parallel English translation;
introduction and commentary in modern English. | Summary: “This edition
contains four Middle English Charlemagne romances from the Otuel cycle:
Roland and Vernagu, Otuel a Knight, Otuel and Roland, and Duke Roland
and Sir Otuel of Spain. A translation of the romances’ source, the
Anglo-French Otinel, is also included. The romances center on conflicts
between Frankish Christians and various Saracen groups. In addition to
Charlemagne and Roland, each romance features a Saracen character:
either the kind but loathsome giant Vernagu or Otuel, Vernagu’s handsome
and sharp-tongued nephew. The romances deal with issues of racial and
religious difference, conversion, and faith-based violence”-- Provided
by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019044356 (print) | LCCN 2019044357 (ebook) | ISBN
9781580443883 (paperback) | ISBN 9781580443890 (hardback) | ISBN
9781580444125 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814--Romances. | Roland
(Legendary character)--Romances. | Otinel (Legendary
character)--Romances. | Romances, English. | Narrative poetry, English
(Middle) | Romances, Anglo-Norman--Translations into English.
Classification: LCC PR2064 .R65 2019 (print) | LCC PR2064 (ebook) | DDC
821/.108--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044356
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044357
ISBN 9781580443883 (paperback)
ISBN 9781580443890 (hardback)
ISBN 9781580444125 (pdf)
r
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
ROLAND AND VERNAGU
INTRODUCTION 27
TEXT 33
EXPLANATORY NOTES 55
TEXTUAL NOTES 63
OTUEL A KNIGHT
INTRODUCTION 65
TEXT 69
EXPLANATORY NOTES 107
TEXTUAL NOTES 113
OTUEL AND ROLAND
INTRODUCTION 117
TEXT 121
EXPLANATORY NOTES 187
TEXTUAL NOTES 199
DUKE ROLAND AND SIR OTUEL OF SPAIN
INTRODUCTION 205
TEXT 211
EXPLANATORY NOTES 249
TEXTUAL NOTES 257
THE ANGLO-NORMAN OTINEL
INTRODUCTION 261
TEXT AND TRANSLATION 266
EXPLANATORY NOTES 353
TEXTUAL NOTES 363
BIBLIOGRAPHY 365
GLOSSARY 373
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In our joint work on this edition, Elizabeth Melick edited the four Middle English
romances, while Susanna Fein and David Raybin edited and translated the Anglo-Norman
Otinel. The introductions, notes, and bibliographical apparatus were created collaboratively.
Elizabeth is indebted to Kent State University’s Graduate Student Senate for awarding her
funds that allowed her to travel to London to consult manuscripts at the British Library. A
Donald Howard Fellowship from the New Chaucer Society also supported her stay in London
(which coincided with the 2016 NCS Biennial Congress in London). Elizabeth is grateful to
the librarians at the British Library, who provided digitized images and helped to arrange her
Manuscripts Room visit. She also thanks the many faculty of Kent State University who
supported this project with guidance and encouragement, particularly Wesley Raabe,
Christopher Roman, Robert Trogdon, Jennifer Larson, Judy Wakabayashi, Susanna, and also
David (as guest faculty). Finally, she is grateful to her friends, family, and partner Tyler
Ponder for cheering her on with tireless enthusiasm, making it possible for her to pursue and
complete this project.
David acknowledges the influence of Robert Hanning, who first introduced him to the
Song of Roland several decades ago, and the late Peter Haidu, with whom he discussed it at
length. Susanna is deeply grateful for the research support she receives from the Institute
of Bibliography and Editing, the English Department, and, especially, the Division of
Research and Sponsored Programs (led by Vice President Paul DiCorleto), of Kent State
University. A sabbatical leave in 2018 was an invaluable gift during the making of this
edition. David and Susanna both wish to thank Elizabeth for perceiving the need and
advocating for a modern edition of the Middle English Roland and Otuel poems. Her drive
caused them to see the importance of enabling students to discover these romances
alongside the chanson de geste of Otinel.
Together we acknowledge the generous support of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, which has permitted the Middle English Texts Series to flourish in its
prodigious production of more than ninety editions in hard and online versions. The
support of the Rossell Hope Robbins Library, University of Rochester, directed by Anna
Siebach-Larsen, and of the staff of Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan
University — Marjorie Harrington, Tyler Cloherty, and Director Theresa Whitaker — is also
very much appreciated. We are especially indebted to the sharp-eyed, dedicated,
incomparable editorial team at the Robbins Library — Pamela Yee, Ashley Conklin, Steffi
Delcourt, and Emily Lowman — who made this edition better than it would have been
otherwise. And, not at all least, we are enormously grateful to Alan Lupack, emeritus
director of the Robbins Library and himself the editor of the METS Three Middle English
Charlemagne Romances, and to Russell A. Peck, Executive Editor of pris, for their enduring
enthusiasm and good-sense feedback regarding this project.
vii
For their generous, wide-ranging gifts to Middle English studies,
we dedicate this volume to
Russell Peck
and
Alan Lupack
viii
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The legendary Frankish conqueror Charlemagne loomed large in the imaginations of
medieval English Christians concerned with crusades, empires, and national legacy.
Although feelings toward the French were less than friendly during the period of the
Hundred Years’ War (1337–1452), the English admired the illustrious exploits of
Charlemagne (742–814), King of the Franks and the Lombards and First Emperor of the
Romans, for his zealous dedication to the suppression of pagans. In this, he was regarded
a proto-crusader. The renown of Charlemagne, last of the Nine Worthies, is often cited in
Middle English writings, and, as shown by the surviving canon of ten romances featuring
the exploits of Charlemagne and his knights, his legends were often adapted into
adventures for the entertainment of English audiences. Of these, five belong to what is
called the Otuel cycle: The Siege of Milan, Roland and Vernagu, Otuel a Knight, Otuel and
Roland, and Duke Roland and Sir Otuel of Spain.1
THE OTUEL CYCLE IN MIDDLE ENGLISH ROMANCE
The tales of the Saracen knight Otuel and his uncle Vernagu deserve to be better known
because they offer important medieval literary models of the Saracen — that is, Muslim or
other pagan — as either hero or anti-hero. Versions of their story are deeply grounded in
the broader “Matter of France” tradition best known through the Song of Roland (Chanson
de Roland), an Anglo-Norman chanson de geste composed in the late eleventh or early twelfth
1The remaining five Charlemagne verse romances are: The Sultan of Babylon, two versions of
Firumbras, The Tale of Ralph the Collier, and the Middle English Song of Roland (DIMEV 1562, 1554,
972, 2596, 1819; NIMEV 950, 944.5, *593.8, 1541, 1132.5, respectively). The character Roland,
Charlemagne’s illustrious nephew, features prominently in eight of the ten Charlemagne romances,
that is, all except Siege and Ralph the Collier. Despite some imprecision, the term cycle is retained in
this volume because it is a recognized designator for the five romances that relate the Otuel
narratives. On the English Charlemagne romances, see Smyser, “Charlemagne Legends”; Ailes and
Hardman, “How English”; and Cowen, “English Charlemagne Romances.” There are also some later
English prose lives or romances that feature Charlemagne: Caxton’s Charles the Grete (1485) and The
Foure Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489), and John Bourchier’s The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux (printed by
Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1534) (Smyser, “Charlemagne Legends,” pp. 86–87, 98–100). There is also an
early printed verse romance: Capystranus (Wynkyn de Worde, 1515). A useful resource for
understanding the corpus of Middle English romance is the Database of Middle English Romance, ed.
McDonald, Morgan, and Nall.
1
