2 - Charlemagne ‘Translated’: The Anglo-Norman Tradition

Summary

THE insular tradition of Charlemagne is concentrated in a small number of related core texts, repeatedly reworked in both languages. The theory that so few chansons de geste were translated into English during the Middle Ages because only certain texts were circulating in England in French is difficult to sustain, as noted in Chapter 1, for while fewer manuscript witnesses to the genre survive in insular than continental manuscripts, it is clear that other texts were known that have not survived or survive only in fragmentary form. At the very least we must admit to uncertainty; we cannot argue from an absence of surviving texts that a particular narrative was not known in England. Yet it remains striking that we have Middle English translations of only three chansons de geste: Fierabras, Otinel and the Chanson de Roland. This chapter is largely concerned with the engagement of the insular French versions of these narratives in their particular cultural and political milieux, including the manuscript contexts in which they are found.

Before turning to the major thematic concerns shared by the insular texts it is worth noting that there are also particularly strong thematic and narrative links connecting the original Old French texts which lie behind the insular narratives: Fierabras, Otinel, and both the chanson de geste and chronicle versions of the Roland narrative. Clear intertextual allusions invite us to read the Fierabras and Otinel material together, and both in conjunction with the matter of Roncevaux. Intertextual dialogue works in a complex way in the chanson de geste, as these narratives continue to be disseminated, at least in part, through oral performance as well as in manuscript; the written texts would continue to be received aurally. The texts are also particularly unstable and subject to remaniement, as noted in the Introduction. This allows ongoing debate and reconsideration of the themes raised by the narratives. As the texts are adapted and reinterpreted, the connections between them become more complex. In the continental tradition, the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle draws on the narrative found in the Chanson de Roland, while Otinel is best understood as a response to Fierabras.