The reaction against medieval romances. Its Spanish forerunners

In Old Norse texts, the legend of the Varangian is part of a larger trend in a positive textual relationship between the Nordic world and the Byzantine Empire. In this article, the subject of analysis is the evolution of the Varangian legend through the character of one of the best known Varangians, King Haraldr of Norway. The development of the narrative of Haraldr, from the earliest near-contemporary narratives to high medieval and late medieval romances, will be traced and used to highlight the evolution of the discourse on the Varangians and the development of certain narrative stereotypes.

Download Full-text

Spenser's Art of War: Chivalric Allegory, Military Technology, and the Elizabethan Mock-Heroic Sensibility

Renaissance Quarterly ◽

10.2307/2861885 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 654-704 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael West

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Military Technology ◽

Secondary Importance ◽

Art Of War ◽

Medieval Romances ◽

Single Combat

In the medieval romances single combat was the knightly norm. The Italian chivalric epics sought to adapt this convention to the ideals of the Renaissance courtier. In Il Cortegiano, Frederico Fregoso explains “that where the Courtyer is at skirmishe, or assault, or battaile upon the land, or in such other places of enterprise, he ought to worke the matter wisely in seperating himself from the multitude, and undertake his notable and bould feates which he hath to doe, with as little company as he can.“’ But such displays of panache had little place in the massed infantry tactics that dominated the actual battlefields of the sixteenth century. It was disciplined self-restraint that made the Swiss and Spanish pike phalanxes so formidable, relegating cavalry to secondary importance. The Italian courtierknights had been rudely humbled, after all, when Charles XII invaded Italy in 1494 and deployed his excellent artillery.

Download Full-text

Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances. Florimond of Albany, Sir Colling the Knycht, King Orphius, Roswall and Lillian. Edited by Rhiannon Purdie. Pp. 290. ISBN: 9781897976364. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer (for the Scottish Text Society, Fifth series, no. 11), 2013. £40.00.

The Scottish Historical Review ◽

10.3366/shr.2014.0225 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 93 (2) ◽

pp. 295-296

Author(s):

Davina Brückner

Keyword(s):

Medieval Romances

Download Full-text

Percy's Essay “On the Ancient Metrical Romances”

PMLA ◽

10.2307/458240 ◽

1934 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 81-97

Author(s):

Leah Dennis

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

English Poetry ◽

The Third ◽

Medieval Romances ◽

Important Landmark ◽

The Subject ◽

Historical Function ◽

King John

The essay “On the Ancient Metrical Romances,” introduced into the third volume of Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), is an important landmark in the modern revival of interest in the medieval romances. Through the earlier part of the eighteenth century the infrequent comments on the romances had been incidental to something else (chivalry, for a conspicuous example) or had been concerned with theories, chiefly of origin, based on very little evidence. Of the romances themselves, little was known, but they were generally considered barbarous, uncultivated, and infantile. But in Percy's essay the subject is treated with some attempt at completeness, and includes not merely theories about their origin (though these are present) but a discussion of the romances themselves. Upon scrutiny, Percy's knowledge of the subject is found to be large, much larger than has been generally suspected, and toward the material he is seen to display a hesitating and diffident enthusiasm manifestly held in check by the disapproval of the current taste. A summary of his essay follows:The purpose of primitive poetry (according to Percy) was at first to record the valiant deeds and the genealogies of the race heroes; but as letters began to prevail, the bards gave over their historical function and devoted themselves to entertainment. From these songs of the Gothic bards are derived the romances of chivalry, which existed in their elements among the Teutonic peoples long before the days of the Crusades. Though romances first developed in France, the English had a native taste for this type of fiction, and there is reason to believe that they had romances of their own without French originals. These old romances throw light on the manners of the time and often have poetic merit. The publication of a judicious collection of them would thus be desirable. Our classical poets—Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser—abound in allusions that are understood only by a knowledge of romances. To illustrate these points Percy quotes a passage from Richard Cure de Lyon that explains an allusion in King John, and gives a detailed abstract of Libius Disconius, one of the romances found in his manuscript. A catalogue of such romances as he knows to be extant closes the essay.

Download Full-text