Hawks and knights

This article explores the role of hunting birds in the definition of the knight in twelfth- and thirteenth-century French chivalric literature. After some introductory remarks on the identity-shaping role of hawks in the hunting practices of medieval aristocracy, the article focuses on the multi-faceted identity correlation between knights and hawks across romance and chansons de geste. The analysis of episodes drawn from various texts provides evidence of three levels of this human/animal relationship: the use of hawks as aristocratic and chivalric badges (Octavian, Enfances Vivien, Guillaume d’Angleterre); the use of hawks as visual doubles of knights (Anseÿs de Metz, Erec et Enide, Lai de Yonec); the representation of the link between knight and hawk as a flow of actions and values going in both directions of the human/animal divide (Jean Renart’s L’Escoufle). Through this analysis, the study demonstrates that chivalric literature established between knights and hawks a multi-layered and two-fold identity shift, which contributed to convey the ambiguities of the chivalric ethical model.

«Debates en torno al ocio en la narrativa anglonormanda: del Brut de Wace al Roman de Horn e Ipomedon»

Resumen: El trabajo analiza la recepción del problema planteado por el ocio, la recreantise, en la narrativa caballeresca de la Inglaterra anglonormanda. Esta cuestión, introducida por Wace en el Brut, fue abordada de manera célebre por Chrétien de Troyes en su primer roman, Erec et Enide. Sin embargo, como se desprende de la lectura del Roman de Horn de Thomas y de Ipomedon de Hue de Rotelande, en el ámbito insular este debate también goza de gran vitalidad, aunque recibirá un tratamiento diferente. La representación de un héroe ocioso lleva tanto a Thomas como a Hue a problematizar, por distintas vías, las convenciones narrativas propuestas por el roman como género. La resistencia manifestada por ambos autores hacia este modelo genérico será determinante en el desarrollo ulterior del género, tanto en dialecto anglonormando como en inglés medio, y constituye un testimonio de gran valor sobre las peculiaridades de la recepción del roman en la Inglaterra del siglo XII.Palabras clave: roman anglonormando, ocio, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.«Discussing idleness in Anglo-Norman narrative: from Wace’s Brut to the Roman de Horn and Ipomedon»Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze how the problem of idleness, i.e. recreantise, is addressed in Anglo-Norman chivalric literature. This question, introduced by Wace in his Brut, was notably handled by Chrétien de Troyes in his first romance, Erec et Enide. However, as it becomes evident from Thomas’s Roman de Horn and Hue de Rotelande’s Ipomedon, this discussion was also quite lively in the insular context. Representing an idle hero leads both Thomas and Hue to challenge, in different ways, the narrative conventions of the romance genre. The resistance evinced by the two authors towards this generic model would be highly influential on the later development of the genre in England, both in Anglo-Norman and Middle English, and affords a valuable testimony to the peculiarities of the reception of romance in twelfth-century England.Keywords: Anglo-Norman romance, idleness, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.