The Arthur of the Low Countries: The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature (Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages) 1786836823, 9781786836823

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ARTHUR Low Countries.qxp_Layout 1 14/12/2020 08:47 Page 1

A RT H U R I A N L I T E R AT U R E

The Arthur of the English edited by W. R. J. Barron The Arthur of the Germans edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake The Arthur of the French edited by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt The Arthur of the North edited by Marianne E. Kalinke The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature edited by Siân Echard The Arthur of the Italians edited by Gloria Allaire and F. Regina Psaki The Arthur of the Iberians edited by David Hook Arthur in the Celtic Languages edited by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe

Frank Brandsma is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Cover image: The battle of Salisbury Plain (left part of the image) and King Arthur, critically injured, who is transported from the battlefield (right part of the image). Miniature on folio 163v of MS The Hague, Royal Library, KA 20 (Jacob van Maerlant, Spiegel historiael).

GWASG PRIFYSGOL CYMRU UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

www.uwp.co.uk

THE

RTHUR OF THE

edited by

Bart Besamusca is Professor of Middle Dutch Textual Culture from an International Perspective in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

‘An accessible and comprehensive introduction to the enormous richness of Middle Dutch and Flemish Arthurian literature … it invites us into a world both familiar and strange, with familiar adventures and unique, idiosyncratic romances that offer new inflections to our understanding of European Arthurian literature. An indispensable addition to every medieval literary scholar’s library.’ Professor Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

The Arthur of the Welsh edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature

‘This long-awaited volume is a valuable contribution to Arthurian scholarship at large and the first major book-length study of this vital corpus, providing critical insight into the cross-connections with Arthurian literature in French and German and beyond.’ Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir, University of Iceland

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

‘This ground-breaking volume offers not only a very clear and complete status quaestionis of the study of medieval Dutch Arthurian literature, but also puts forward new perspectives on many research questions … to open up the scholarly discussions of the past and make future discussions more fructuous.’ Professor Remco Sleiderink, University of Antwerp

LOW COUNTRIES The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature EDITED BY BART BESAMUSCA AND FRANK BRANDSMA

In the medieval Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), Arthurian romance flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Middle Dutch poets translated French material (like Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and the Prose Lancelot), but also created romances of their own, like Walewein. This book provides a current overview of the Dutch Arthurian material and the research that it has provoked. Geographically, the region is a crossroads between the French and Germanic spheres of influence, and the movement of texts and manuscripts (west to east) reflects its position, as revealed by chapters on the historical context, the French material and the Germanic Arthuriana of the Rhinelands. Three chapters on the translations of French verse texts, the translations of French prose texts, and on the indigenous romances form the core of the book, augmented by chapters on the manuscripts, on Arthur in the chronicles, and on the post-medieval Arthurian material.

ARTHUR Low Countries.qxp_Layout 1 14/12/2020 08:47 Page 1

A RT H U R I A N L I T E R AT U R E

The Arthur of the English edited by W. R. J. Barron The Arthur of the Germans edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake The Arthur of the French edited by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt The Arthur of the North edited by Marianne E. Kalinke The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature edited by Siân Echard The Arthur of the Italians edited by Gloria Allaire and F. Regina Psaki The Arthur of the Iberians edited by David Hook Arthur in the Celtic Languages edited by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe

Frank Brandsma is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Cover image: The battle of Salisbury Plain (left part of the image) and King Arthur, critically injured, who is transported from the battlefield (right part of the image). Miniature on folio 163v of MS The Hague, Royal Library, KA 20 (Jacob van Maerlant, Spiegel historiael).

GWASG PRIFYSGOL CYMRU UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

www.uwp.co.uk

THE

RTHUR OF THE

edited by

Bart Besamusca is Professor of Middle Dutch Textual Culture from an International Perspective in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

‘An accessible and comprehensive introduction to the enormous richness of Middle Dutch and Flemish Arthurian literature … it invites us into a world both familiar and strange, with familiar adventures and unique, idiosyncratic romances that offer new inflections to our understanding of European Arthurian literature. An indispensable addition to every medieval literary scholar’s library.’ Professor Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

The Arthur of the Welsh edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature

‘This long-awaited volume is a valuable contribution to Arthurian scholarship at large and the first major book-length study of this vital corpus, providing critical insight into the cross-connections with Arthurian literature in French and German and beyond.’ Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir, University of Iceland

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

‘This ground-breaking volume offers not only a very clear and complete status quaestionis of the study of medieval Dutch Arthurian literature, but also puts forward new perspectives on many research questions … to open up the scholarly discussions of the past and make future discussions more fructuous.’ Professor Remco Sleiderink, University of Antwerp

LOW COUNTRIES The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature EDITED BY BART BESAMUSCA AND FRANK BRANDSMA

In the medieval Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), Arthurian romance flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Middle Dutch poets translated French material (like Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and the Prose Lancelot), but also created romances of their own, like Walewein. This book provides a current overview of the Dutch Arthurian material and the research that it has provoked. Geographically, the region is a crossroads between the French and Germanic spheres of influence, and the movement of texts and manuscripts (west to east) reflects its position, as revealed by chapters on the historical context, the French material and the Germanic Arthuriana of the Rhinelands. Three chapters on the translations of French verse texts, the translations of French prose texts, and on the indigenous romances form the core of the book, augmented by chapters on the manuscripts, on Arthur in the chronicles, and on the post-medieval Arthurian material.

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

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ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

X

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH LITERATURE

edited by

Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

CARDIFF UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 2021

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© The Vinaver Trust, 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-78683-682-3 e-ISBN 978-1-78683-683-0 The right of the Contributors to be identified separately as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Mark Heslington Ltd, Scarborough, North Yorkshire Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham, Wiltshire

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PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH THE VINAVER TRUST The Vinaver Trust was established by the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society to commemorate a greatly respected colleague and a distinguished scholar Eugène Vinaver The editor of Malory’s Morte Darthur. The Trust aims to advance study of Arthurian literature in all languages by planning and encouraging research projects in the field, and by aiding publication of the resultant studies.

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ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES Series Editor

Ad Putter I

The Arthur of the Welsh, edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts (University of Wales Press, 1991)

II The Arthur of the English, edited by W. R. J. Barron (University of Wales Press, 1999) III The Arthur of the Germans, edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake (University of Wales Press, 2000) IV The Arthur of the French, edited by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt (University of Wales Press, 2006) V The Arthur of the North, edited by Marianne E. Kalinke (University of Wales Press, 2011) VI The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature, edited by Siân Echard (University of Wales Press, 2011) VII The Arthur of the Italians, edited by Gloria Allaire and F. Regina Psaki (University of Wales Press, 2014) VIII The Arthur of the Iberians, edited by David Hook (University of Wales Press, 2015) IX Arthur in the Celtic Languages, edited by Ceridwen L ­ loyd-­Morgan and Erich Poppe (University of Wales Press, 2019) X The Arthur of the Low Countries, edited by Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma (University of Wales Press, 2021)

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CONTENTS

Preface

ix

Dedication

xi

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

xiii xv

Abbreviations

xvii



xix

Guidelines for the Reader

Introduction Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

1

1 The Cultural and Historical Context of the Low Countries Bram Caers and Mike Kestemont

7

2 French Arthurian Literature in the Low Countries Keith Busby and Martine Meuwese

31

3 The Manuscripts Bart Besamusca

45

4 King Arthur in the Historiography of the Low Countries Thea Summerfield

63

5 Translations and Adaptations of French Verse Romances: Tristant, Wrake van Ragisel, Ferguut, Perchevael, Torec78 Marjolein Hogenbirk and David F. Johnson 6 Indigenous Arthurian Romances: Walewein, Moriaen, Ridder metter mouwen, Walewein ende Keye, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet113 Simon Smith and Roel Zemel 7 Translations and Adaptations of French Prose Romances, Including the Lancelot Compilation Frank Brandsma 8 Arthurian Literature of the Rhineland Jürgen Wolf

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9 The Arthurian Legacy Geert van Iersel

204



General Bibliography

217



Index of Manuscripts

239



General Index

241

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PREFACE

The Arthur of the Low Countries is an important addition to the series Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. The purpose of the series is to provide a reliable and comprehensive survey of Arthurian writing in all its generic and linguistic diversity. For many years, the single-volume Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History, ed. Roger Sherman Loomis (Oxford, 1959) served the needs of scholars and students of Arthurian literature admirably, but it has inevitably been overtaken by advances in scholarship and by changes in critical perspectives and methodologies. The Vinaver Trust recognised the need for a fresh and up-to-date survey, and knew that a series of volumes would be required to do justice to the distinctive contributions made to Arthurian literature by the many different cultures of medieval Europe. In the multi-volume series as originally planned by the late W. R. J. Barron, Middle Dutch Arthurian Literature was allocated a single chapter, ‘The Medieval Dutch Arthurian Material’, in The Arthur of the Germans, edited by Silvia Ranawake and Harry Jackson (2000). Considering the richness and the diversity of medieval Arthurian literature from the Low Countries, this chapter, however good, could hardly do more than scratch the surface, and in 2015 the Vinaver Trust took the decision that a book-length treatment was needed. Two leading Arthurian scholars, Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma, were invited to oversee this new volume, The Arthur of the Low Countries. As the title indicates, the book, while focusing on Dutch-language Arthurian writings, also adopts a broader cultural perspective than the chapter in The Arthur of the Germans. Since French was a living vernacular in the Low Countries and since there was (and still is) no sharp linguistic border between Dutch and German, the book includes consideration of French-language and Low-German Arthurian writings. It also examines the influence of medieval Arthurian literature on post-medieval literature from the Low Countries. The series is mainly aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students and at scholars working in the fields covered by each of the volumes. The series has, however, also been designed to be accessible to general readers and to students and scholars from different fields who want to discover what forms Arthurian narratives took in literatures and languages that they do not know, and how these narratives influenced

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the linguistic and literary traditions that they do know. Within these parameters, the editors have had full control over the shape and content of their individual volumes. Ad Putter Professor of Medieval English, University of Bristol (General Editor)

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DEDICATION We dedicate this book to the memory of Willem Pieter (Wim) Gerritsen (1935–2019). He is the giant on whose shoulders Dutch and Flemish Arthurian scholars stand.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Compared to other fields of research in Dutch and Flemish medieval studies, Arthurian scholarship is not the largest area, but it is productive and rich, because the individual scholars know each other and work well together, also across the Belgian-Dutch border. This collaborative book is ample proof of that and we have greatly enjoyed cooperating with our colleagues. It did take a bit longer than expected, due to all kinds of circumstances, to complete this book and we are grateful to the University of Wales Press for its patience and its readiness to accommodate the amended time frames we were forced to propose. We would like to thank Imke de Gier (Academic Language Services) for correcting the chapters in this book that were written by non-native English authors and Karen Pratt for commenting on our introduction. We are grateful to our research assistant Roos Brands for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of the volume and to Harry Armstrong for compiling the first version of the General Index. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Vinaver Trust and the Utrechtse Stichting voor Literatuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (USLO), which made it possible to publish this volume.

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Bart Besamusca is Professor of Middle Dutch Textual Culture from an International Perspective in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. Frank Brandsma is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. Keith Busby is Douglas Kelly Professor of Medieval French Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Bram Caers is a Postdoc (NWO-Veni) in the field of Medieval and Early Modern Dutch Literature at the University of Leiden. Marjolein Hogenbirk is Lecturer in Middle Dutch Literature and the History of the Book at the University of Amsterdam. Geert van Iersel is Senior Lecturer at the Fontys University English Teacher Training Programme in Tilburg. David F. Johnson is Professor of English at Florida State University. Mike Kestemont is Assistant Research Professor in Digital Text Analysis at the University of Antwerp. Martine Meuwese is Lecturer in Art History (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. Simon Smith is Independent Researcher in Medieval Courtly Culture and Arthurian Romance. Thea Summerfield is former Senior Lecturer in Old and Middle English in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. Jürgen Wolf is Professor of Old German Philology (Middle Ages) at the PhilippsUniversität Marburg. Roel Zemel is former Senior Lecturer in Middle Dutch Literature at the Free University of Amsterdam.

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ABBREVIATIONS AS BL BnF BSB JIAS KB KBR MA NL Ntg ÖNB SBPK SpL TNTL UB UB ZfdA ZfdPh

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Archivio di Stato British Library Bibliothèque nationale de France Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Journal of the International Arthurian Society Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library of The Hague) Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library of Brussels) Le Moyen Âge Nederlandse Letterkunde De nieuwe taalgids Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz Spiegel der Letteren Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde Universitätsbibliothek (German, University Library) Universiteitsbibliotheek (Dutch, University Library) Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie

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GUIDELINES FOR THE READER In this book, the names of characters have been spelled according to their predominant form in Middle Dutch romance, so Lanceloet for Lancelot, Keye for Kay, and Walewein for Gauvain/Gawain. The title Lancelot–Grail Cycle refers to a total of five French prose romances consisting of the Estoire del Saint Graal, the Estoire de Merlin (and its Suite), the Prose Lancelot, the Queste del Saint Graal and the Mort le roi Artu. The tripartite core of the cycle is referred to as Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu in this volume. The individual romances are named Prose Lancelot, the Queste del Saint Graal and the Mort Artu. There is one general bibliography at the end of the volume, as well as two indexes. In the chapters, references to publications are given as author-year-page between brackets, with the full title in the General Bibliography. All online resources mentioned in this book were last accessed on 18 May 2020.

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INTRODUCTION Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma In 1951, Maartje Draak (1907–95) published Arthur en zijn tafelronde, an anthology of Middle Dutch Arthurian stories for high school pupils, one of the first of its kind (Gerritsen 2019, 154–6). Offering modern Dutch translations of unfamiliar medieval words in the margins of the page, she presents episodes of the texts to her readers without any introduction, providing general information on the genre and historical context at the end of the book. In that final chapter, she writes: Waardevolle verhalen hebben een heel lang leven, en omgekeerd: hun lange leven bewijst hun waarde. Soms duiken ze op in een ander milieu, soms lijken ze een eeuw te slapen, maar ze bezitten het vermogen om hun onvergankelijke waarheid aan telkens nieuwe geslachten van mensen te doen zien. De beste ervan kunnen zich bovendien steeds vernieuwen. In verschillende tijden kunnen ze geladen worden met verschillende problemen, de aandacht kan vallen op verschillende aspecten. Iedere generatie ‘haalt er iets uit’. (Draak 1979 (reprint of 1951), 116–17) (Great stories have a very long life, and their longevity proves their worth. Sometimes they re-emerge in a new environment, sometimes they seem to sleep for a century, but they have the power always to show their eternal truth to new generations of people. Moreover, the best of them are able to renew themselves time and again. In different times they may be made to present different issues, our attention may be drawn to different aspects. Each generation ‘takes something from them’.)

This book is about Draak’s subject, the Arthurian stories of the medieval Low Countries, their heyday in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and their afterlife. This corpus was for the first time introduced to international Arthurian scholarship in Roger Sherman Loomis’s Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History (Sparnaay 1959). Almost forty years later, the chapter in this book was updated in Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research, edited by Norris J. Lacy (Besamusca 1996a). More recent overviews appeared in the third volume in the series ‘Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages’, The Arthur of the Germans: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature, edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake (Besamusca 2000), in the introduction to King Arthur in the Medieval Low Countries, edited by Geert Claassens and David F. Johnson (Claassens and Johnson 2000), and in A History of Arthurian Scholarship, edited by Norris J. Lacy (Besamusca 2006). As yet, however, a major book-length reference work on Middle Dutch Arthuriana does not exist. As we were preparing our contribution ‘État présent: Arthurian literature in Middle Dutch’ for JIAS (Besamusca and Brandsma 2015), the plan for this book was made, stimulated by the welcome

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invitation from the Series Editor, Ad Putter. The fascinating Arthuriana in Middle and modern Dutch deserve a volume of their own in this authoritative series, since the texts have a special and intriguing position in the European Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages and in the vestiges of Arthurian culture today. The corpus of Middle Dutch Arthurian texts consists of translations from the French alongside original compositions. Verse predominates as the literary medium, yet there are also texts in prose. Sometimes the author is a famous or at least known Dutch poet, but more often the writers remain anonymous; the texts were composed in different regions and dialects; they were occasionally transmitted in single-text manuscripts, but mainly in collections of romances. The historical situation of the Low Countries and especially the multilingual culture of the county of Flanders was conducive to the emergence of romances in the vernacular, and from Flanders the texts moved east to the duchy of Brabant and other regions. Chapter 1 describes the historical background and analyses the social and cultural contexts. Although few patrons are known for Middle Dutch Arthurian texts, observations on where and when the romances were produced lead to the hypothesis that they were meant for a broad audience of cultured laymen, rather than for members of the highest court circles, who would enjoy their Arthurian tales in French. This audience is to be found in the circles where well-to-do city dwellers and nobility meet. Although issues of patronage often remain unresolved, it is possible to locate and date the texts with reasonable certainty. Likewise, we may reconstruct from the surviving fragments the texts that were composed at a certain time and in a particular area, even if they have come down to us only in an adapted version inserted into the showpiece of Middle Dutch Arthuriana, the Lancelot Compilation. This cycle of romances is preserved in a codex that came into being in Brabant around 1320 and is the object of much research and speculation. Originally a set of two volumes, only one codex has been preserved. In spite of this loss, the extant volume contains no less than ten of the nineteen Arthurian romances of the Low Countries that are known to us today. The multilingual culture of Flanders and the preference of the highest nobility for French as the language of culture led to the production of French Arthurian romances in this region. Well-known examples are Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and Manessier’s Perceval Continuation, composed for the Flemish courts of Philippe and Jeanne de Flandre, respectively. Manuscripts containing French Arthurian romances were also commissioned in Flanders. These codices form an important part of the Arthurian corpus, as Chapter 2 explains. The manuscripts and manuscript fragments of the Middle Dutch texts are discussed in the third chapter, ranging from the luxurious codex of which the fragments of Lantsloot vander Haghedochte are the remains to the rather shabby working copy of the Lancelot Compilation. Some texts, like the Graal–Merlijn romances by Jacob van Maerlant and the Merlin Continuation by Lodewijk van Velthem, have been preserved

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INTRODUCTION

3

both in Middle Dutch fragments and in a more or less complete form in a Middle Low German copy. In Chapter 3, pride of place goes to the intriguing Lancelot Compilation manuscript, now MS The Hague, KB, 129 A 10, which apart from revealing telling traces of the phases of its making also features unique annotations by a contemporaneous corrector. The words and signs the corrector added in the margins and interlinearly provide insight into the performance of a medieval story to a listening audience. In addition to the chivalric romances, references to and stories of Arthur are also found in Middle Dutch historiographical sources. The two authors already mentioned, Jacob van Maerlant and Lodewijk van Velthem, produced most of this material, but other chroniclers were also interested in Arthurian history. The fourth chapter discusses these texts. The analysis of the Arthurian romances in the central chapters (5–7) of this book is organised on the basis of the source material. As translations of French verse romances were the first Arthurian texts to be produced in the Low Countries, they come first in Chapter 5, followed by the original compositions that appeared in the wake of these translations, in Chapter 6. Many of the romances examined in these two chapters were included in the Lancelot Compilation, which in Chapter 7 is treated within the larger framework of renditions of the French prose romances. For the texts that were not based on French sources, the anthropological term ‘indigenous’ has been in use for some time in Dutch and Flemish Arthurian scholarship. It conveys the status of these texts adequately, as products of the imagination of Middle Dutch authors and original contributions to the Arthurian genre, following the generic pattern of the chivalric quest and making use of the standard cast of Arthurian characters, with special attention to Gauvain, called Walewein in Dutch. In Chapters 6 and 7, the striking appreciation for Walewein – evident in his recurring epithet ‘Father of Adventure’ – is illustrated. The various translations of the French Prose Lancelot (at least three independent renditions, possibly five) feature prominently in Chapter 7, together with the two text collections that could be described as a Merlin Cycle and a Lancelot Cycle which appear in the manuscripts Burgsteinfurt MS 28 and The Hague MS 129 A 10, respectively. The genesis of the Lancelot Compilation, to which much research has been devoted in the past few decades, is discussed here in full, with special attention to the role Lodewijk van Velthem played in this process. This author features in several of the chapters in this book. He owned the codex, may have been the compiler of the Lancelot Cycle and/or its corrector, and may even have read aloud from his codex to a listening audience. In Chapter 7, the final Dutch representative of the Arthurian genre, dating from c.1540, concludes the analysis of the medieval texts. This text is a prose rendition of the Merlin story produced in the form of an early printed book. It is exceptional as the only Dutch Arthurian text to make it to the printing press and because it is translated from English rather than French.

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Arthurian authors were accustomed to looking to the south for inspiration, yet there is also a considerable amount of material that tends eastward and is situated in the Germanic regions, especially the Rhineland. Chapter 8 takes up this issue, discussing texts like the Rhineland Merlin and the Middle Franconian Parcheval. It also examines the Blankenheim Lancelot manuscript, in which the story is said to be based on a Flemish source text. After the Middle Ages, it took a while for the Arthurian material to re-emerge and take up its cultural role again. Only in 1888, as Chapter 9 reports, did Arthur return to Dutch literature. Until the Second World War, Arthurian retellings appear incidentally, but after that, the production and diversity of Arthurian material grows exponentially, especially in media like the comic book and plays for children and adults. This final chapter proves, together with all the previous chapters, Draak’s words to be true. The Arthurian stories have the capacity to renew themselves and provide each new generation with new messages. Arthur is the ‘Koning voor eens en altijd’, the Once and Future King, as the title of a still popular Dutch translation of T. H. White’s classic calls him. Taken together, the chapters of this book reveal several tendencies, which are not all central to the argument in those chapters, but deserve to be mentioned and briefly explained here: •

• • • •

the meaning of the Arthurian tales for their contemporary audiences: • leadership and other lessons, • prodesse et delectare, • chivalry as a code of conduct; the importance of the father-motif in many of the texts; the key roles of Lanceloet and Walewein; the incorporation of most of the romances into a pseudo-historical framework (the Lancelot and Merlin Cycles); the tendency in Dutch and Flemish scholarship either to study one romance in detail or to focus on the Lancelot Compilation.

In many of the romances, exemplary leadership in military, political and domestic matters is presented to the medieval audience. These stories frequently contain educational elements. For the Graal–Merlijn texts by Jacob van Maerlant, a didactic function has quite convincingly been argued by scholars on the basis of its patronage and the author’s function as sexton of the church that was supported by the patron’s family. At Voorne in Zeeland, the seat of rather influential noblemen in the Holland court circles, Jacob may well have been in charge of educating a group of aristocratic boys, including the future Count Floris V. In his classroom, the story of Merlin and the young Arthur, with its lessons on how to gain and keep power and how to manoeuvre politically, would have been excellent educational material. Moreover, the figure of

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the father, often missing or unavailable to the protagonist, is an important motif in many of the romances and that would perhaps be a recognisable family situation for members of a young aristocratic audience. There are more stories which have a prominent didactic slant, like the lessons in courtliness provided by Walewein to the impetuous young knight Moriaen in the romance of the same name. In Torec, wise men in a ‘Chamber of Wisdom’ discuss how the nobility should behave. The utilitas of the texts, however, always goes hand in hand with delectatio: these are stories to enjoy, exciting and sometimes funny, about emotionally engaging characters. In a very general sense, the image of chivalry as it emerges from the Middle Dutch romances is that of a rather down-to-earth code of conduct, connected to the everyday life of the characters. The translation of the Queste del Saint Graal, for example, faithfully recounts the events of the Grail quest, but downplays the religious and biblical dimensions of the French original. The Walewein presents a flying chessboard as a worldly alternative to the Grail. In the Lancelot Compilation, no extra Grail romances or episodes were added (e.g. taken from the Perceval Continuations in French that were popular in Flanders), but stories about the worldly adventures of a young knight coming to Arthur’s court, about the great heroes Walewein and Lanceloet, rather than the lofty Galahad. Walewein is the main man in Middle Dutch Arthurian romance. In Penninc and Pieter Vostaert’s Walewein he is the protagonist, whereas in many other (French) romances he serves as a foil to other main characters. Even in the short Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet (Lancelot and the Stag with the White Foot) it is Walewein who steals the show, and in Walewein ende Keye Walewein proves to be the ideal Arthurian knight. The hypothesis that the alternation between Walewein and Lancelot was one of the guiding principles in the composition of the Lancelot Compilation helps explain the sequence of inserted romances, even when the dominating core texts based on the French Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu trilogy will keep us from calling the codex the Walewein and Lancelot Compilation. Whereas in French romance, the character of Gauvain loses prestige in texts like the Queste del Saint Graal and the Prose Tristan, no such thing happens in the indigenous Middle Dutch romances. Walewein rules. The appreciation of the Walewein figure is a good example of how Dutch and Flemish Arthurian scholarship could benefit from more comparative studies, with both the Middle Dutch corpus and the international Arthurian literature as material. Intertextuality, multilingualism, the processes of cyclification and the emotional impact of the stories have been studied within just such a framework and this focus has turned out to be productive and inspirational. The imagery of love and the ideology of chivalry as a (didactic) code of conduct could also be studied from this point of view. Fortunately, many romances are available in English line-by-line bilingual translations, thanks to the prodigious efforts of David Johnson and Geert Claassens:

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Walewein (Johnson 1992; Johnson and Claassens 2000a), Ferguut (Johnson and Claassens 2000b) and the five romances that are interpolated between the Queeste vanden Grale and Arturs doet in the Lancelot Compilation (Johnson and Claassens 2003). Baukje Finet-Van der Schaaf has published bilingual French translations of Moriaen, the Ridder metter mouwen and Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet (2009, 2012). Johan Winkelman and Gerhard Wolf have produced a bilingual German translation of the Walewein (2010). Since its start, in 1991, the series Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages has done much more than replacing the collective volume that was published under the same title, edited by Roger Sherman Loomis (and included a chapter on ‘The Dutch Romances’, Sparnaay, 1959). It offers in-depth and comprehensive overviews of the Arthurian legend in the various cultures of medieval Europe, allowing scholars to connect the Arthurian material in their own language to the Arthurian production of other cultures. It is our hope that this volume on the Arthurian legend in the medieval Low Countries will likewise serve the needs of both Dutch Arthurian scholarship, in presenting an up-to-date survey, and the international community, in facilitating access to a fascinating body of Arthurian manuscripts and texts.

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1 THE CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE LOW COUNTRIES Bram Caers and Mike Kestemont

1. Prologue The famous Manesse codex (Heidelberg, UB, Cod. Pal. germ. 848) features a series of full-page miniatures illustrating the monumental anthology of medieval lyrics that it contains.1 On one of these (fol. 18r), we find a dramatic depiction of the Duke of Brabant, John I, who leads his troops into the Battle of Worringen (5 June 1288). The image shows a crucial episode in the history of the Low Countries when the duke decisively defeated the Archbishop of Cologne in the Limburg Succession War. Arguably the most striking pictorial element in this image is the conspicuous dragon helmet covering John’s head. Scholars have been quick to identify this as a reference to King Arthur’s legendary helmet with an engraved dragon. The helmet was famously introduced into Arthurian lore in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, with a playful allusion to the Celtic name of Arthur’s father – the ‘pen-dragon’ or head of dragons. This well-known illustration is but one of the many attestations of the cultural prominence of Arthurian literature in the medieval Low Countries, pervading all layers of society, especially the highest nobility, who sought to identify with the Celtic leader on many occasions. It is not an exaggeration to state that the matière de Bretagne, as elsewhere in medieval Europe, was a defining characteristic of the Low Countries’ courtly culture during the high Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the Arthurian literary heritage extant from this part of Europe, and especially the specific historical context in which it arose, has not always received the international scholarly attention it deserves. In his acclaimed history of thirteenth-century vernacular Dutch literature, Frits van Oostrom, for instance, emphasised that the fact that the very first chivalric Grail romance was produced in the Low Countries merits a more prominent place in our collective cultural memory (Oostrom 2006, 218). At the very height of his fame, Chrétien de Troyes was asked by the Count of Flanders, Philip of Alsace, to write Perceval or the Conte du Graal, one of the most remarkable products of medieval Arthurian literature. Additionally, there are few places in the world where the medieval Grail legend is more alive than in Flanders, even today – in Bruges, for instance, the Procession of the

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Holy Blood has been held annually (with some exceptions) for over seven hundred years.2 To understand the unique contribution of the Low Countries to medieval Arthurian literature, it is crucial to gain insight into the complex political history of the region, taking account of its singular position on a linguistic and cultural crossroads. In the Middle Ages, the Low Countries consisted of an archipelago of local centres of political power, connected to each other through political alliances, marriages and intense cultural exchange. In the present contribution, we aim to introduce the reader to this complicated historical reality. At the core of our argument lies the observation that a defining feature of the Low Countries has been the region’s role as a mediator and link between different cultures and linguistic regions in Europe, most notably as an active interpreter between the Romance and Germanic spheres. 2. Geography and Politics The term ‘Low Countries’ (Du.: ‘Lage Landen’ – Fr.: ‘Pays-Bas’ – Ger.: ‘Niederlände’) is nowadays taken to roughly correspond to the territories of Belgium and The Netherlands – sometimes including the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg – seen from a historical perspective. In English, the term was coined only fairly recently, to distinguish the ‘Low Countries’ from ‘The Netherlands’, which only refers to a single country. The plural in ‘Netherlands’, however, already shows that the term covers a diverse set of regions. Indeed, the Low Countries never constituted a unified political entity in the Middle Ages so that the term is somewhat anachronistic. Only from the sixteenth century onwards, in the wake of political and ideological unification, did the usage of the singular noun ‘Nederland’ become widely accepted, after a period in which singular and plural were used interchangeably.3 Throughout the medieval period, however, the Low Countries never constituted an individual kingdom in its own right, such as the neighbouring states of England or France, as they were mostly part of either France or the German Empire.4 In fact, the area now known as the Low Countries in late medieval times was divided by the northernmost border between France and the Empire, with the eastern area answering to the Holy Roman Emperor, and the county of Flanders to the west, (mostly) answering to the King of France.5 Where then, does this idea of a ‘Low Countries’ come from? The origin of the Low Countries as an imagined territory between the Kingdom of France and the German Empire has its roots in the well-known division of the empire of Charlemagne among his grandsons in the treaty of Verdun in 843. Upon the death of Charlemagne’s heir Louis the Pious, the vast Frankish empire was divided into three roughly equal parts, each ruled by one grandson. The eldest, Lothar I, inherited what has been called ‘Middle Francia’, extending from the estuary of the great rivers in the north (Scheldt,

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Figure 1.1  Map of the Low Countries showing the border between Kingdom and Empire. Situation around 1300. Courtesy of literatuurgeschiedenis.nl, layers added by the authors.

Meuse and Rhine), to that of the Rhône in the south, including the north of the Italian peninsula, linking the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean. Further divisions among subsequent heirs, in 855 (Treaty of Prüm), in 870 (Treaty of Meerssen), and in the course of the tenth century, gave rise to the Duchy of Lower

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Lotharingia, a territory which in theory included the entire Low Countries east of the river Scheldt. At this point in time, the Low Countries were settling into the basic layout that would remain essentially unchanged for over five centuries: a loose collection of regions in the estuary of the rivers Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine, answering mostly to the Holy Roman Empire, and partly (only the county of Flanders, and only for part of its territory) to the King of France. However, the idea that most of these territories at some point in time formed part of one powerful and supra-regional duchy, such as Lotharingia, would continue to feed the imagination of princes and chroniclers for centuries.6 As will become apparent below, this early medieval history of the Low Countries also partly explains the differences in appeal of Charlemagne and Arthurian literature throughout the Low Countries.7 The Low Countries we speak of today is, however, an imagined territory that differs from the historical layout of Lower Lotharingia. For one, it does not stretch as far south as the old Duchy and neither does it include the County of Flanders which, historically speaking, did not always form part of Lower Lotharingia, answering instead to the French crown. To find the reason for this geographical shift, we have to move our focus from the early to the late Middle Ages. In 1384, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and brother to the King of France, married Margaret, daughter of Louis of Male and sole heiress to the County of Flanders. In less than a century, four generations of Burgundian dukes were to succeed in acquiring most of the Low Countries through marriage, inheritance, conquest or purchase. While the importance of their northern territories did not cease to grow, the dukes continued to rule over their home territories in Burgundy, in present-day eastern France. It was mainly Charles the Bold (ruled 1467–77) who actively sought to establish a land corridor between the northern territories and Burgundy, thereby effectively striving to restore the old Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, which used to cover exactly these regions (Vaughan 1973, 100–7). In 1473, when he entered into negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor to acquire a royal title for himself, it was also the old Duchy that formed the basis of his claims to royalty (Vaughan 1973, 151–2). Negotiations failed, however, and when Charles died in 1477, the incapacity of his young daughter and heiress Mary to defend the Burgundian territories against French invasions meant the definitive end of the ambition to unite the northern and southern regions of the Burgundian territories. Through inheritance, the northern territories passed into the Habsburg line, to Philip the Fair and then to Charles V, who decided in 1549 to formally unite them so that they would never be divided by questions of succession. This decision has been of vital influence to the perception of the ‘Low Countries’ as a cultural and political unity of sorts, even if it was to be rather short-lived in the context of the Eighty Years’ War. From the 1570s onwards, north and south definitively went their own ways, only to be united for a short time between 1815 and 1830.8 For the topic under discussion here, the crucial time period lies between the two formative periods of the Low Countries, as both a geographical and cultural unity, in

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the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. During this time, the region was divided by two important frontiers, one political, the other linguistic. As mentioned, generally speaking the river Scheldt divided the Low Countries into a western part (the greater part of the County of Flanders) answering to the King of France, and an eastern part (with all the other territories) falling under imperial authority. The eastern group included, in alphabetical order, the following main entities: Brabant, Frisia, Guelders, Gulik, Hainaut, Holland/Zeeland, Liège, Limburg, Loon, Luxembourg, Namur and Utrecht. Included among these regions was ‘Rijks-Vlaanderen’ (‘Imperial Flanders’), the part of the County of Flanders on the east bank of the river Scheldt, for which the Count of Flanders answered to imperial authority.9 This schematic overview requires at least two qualifications. One is that in the midst of the bigger players, certain smaller feudal domains of lesser political and historical significance succeeded in retaining relative independence for centuries. A good example is the city of Mechelen (Fr.: Malines), a separate seigneurial entity that constituted an enclave within the Duchy of Brabant. The second observation is that the various separate territories shifted their political allegiances according to military conflicts or matters of inheritance and succession. This is the case for the County of Hainaut, united subsequently with Flanders and Holland, but these shifts were also very important in the east of the region, for Guelders and Gulik, as well as in the territories surrounding the powerful and expanding prince-bishopric of Liège, or those territories coveted by the neighbouring Brabantine dukes (e.g. Loon, Limburg, etc.). For literary historians, these political developments can be crucial, as literature all too often travels along unexpected paths traced by family relations, diplomatic contacts and the like, or indeed in the footsteps of conquering armies.10 In discussing Arthurian literature, we have to turn our attention mostly to the Counties of Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, the Duchy of Brabant, and to the politically complex region of smaller and culturally interrelated domains in the region of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. These latter include the prince-bishopric of Liège, the territories of Loon, Limburg, Guelders, Gulik and the scattered smaller entities lying in between these bigger players.11 While these regions were loyal either to the King of France or the German Emperor, it is fair to say that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they all enjoyed a relative degree of independence from their respective sovereign authorities.12 For the regions protected by the Emperor, that is no surprise as the Holy Roman Empire did not have a tradition of enforcing imperial sovereignty in its vassal states. The empire was and, well into the nineteenth century, would continue to be a loose collection of semi-independent states loyal to one ruler only when it came to great military campaigns, the administration of justice and matters of religion. In France, however, authority worked altogether differently, with a king who actively sought to rule over the marginal parts of his kingdom. Though likewise governed through vassalage, it is fair to say that the sovereign enjoyed far greater authority – and was far more eager to enforce it – than in the Holy Roman Empire. Unlike in the

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Empire – at least theoretically speaking – kingship in France was also hereditary, which helped to strengthen claims to power (and family feuds) that spanned several generations. The complex relationship with the kingdom of France has had both positive and negative effects on the history of Flanders and that of the Low Countries. There were recurring conflicts between the regional and royal authorities, certainly when the County of Flanders developed into one of the most prosperous regions in the known world. At the same time, the cultural competition between the royal court and that of the Flemish counts and the dukes of Burgundy (or the courts of other vassals) has been the driving force behind some of the greatest achievements in the fields of art, literature and architecture, especially in the French-speaking medieval world, often employing artists from the Low Countries. The latter aspect is important. Before going into the several regions in any detail, we should look at another border that has defined the Low Countries in cultural terms, and continues to do so to the present day: the linguistic border between French and Dutch/German, or more precisely, the border between the Romance and Germanic dialects. The linguistic border was, and still is, subject to change, having shifted over time to the north as well as to the south.13 Speaking in modern geographical terms, this border runs through Belgium from the shores of the North Sea in northern France, east all the way to the river Meuse, where it bends south to pass through Luxembourg into the border regions of present-day France and Germany. In historical terms, it divided the Low Countries into a large, northern Dutch-speaking part, and a smaller French-speaking part in the south. Of course, if we look at the language division from a socio-linguistic point of view rather than from a merely geographical one, the story becomes far more complex. During the course of the Middle Ages, French increasingly became the lingua franca of the high nobility, gaining importance in the leading courts of the Low Countries even in Dutchspeaking regions.14 Because the use of French and Dutch differed greatly among various regions and in different contexts, we will deal with this question in more detail below. While less well-defined and less easily discernible, there is another linguistic border that ought to inform our understanding of the Low Countries: the more permeable transition area between the linguistic variants that would eventually develop into modern Dutch on the one hand and modern German on the other. In medieval times, the difference between both languages was less clear-cut and contemporary assessments of the situation are typically confusing. For quite some time now, scholars have thought of these linguistic variants in terms of a dialectal continuum.15 The easternmost dialect of the Low Countries, then, must have been difficult to understand for people living along the coast, but very easy for their neighbours to the east. This situation, while still sometimes occurring in present-day dialects, has gradually faded as standard varieties emerged, both in the Low Countries and in Germany, from the sixteenth century onwards.16

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Figure 1.2  Map of the language border between Romance and Germanic languages, indicating the regional variants of Middle Dutch in the Low Countries.

Sources indicate that contemporaries were well aware that they shared a common tongue but also noted the differences between regional variants. In medieval booklists, for example, some notaries have distinguished between Flemish and more eastern variants of Dutch (‘in flamingo’ versus ‘in theutonico’).17 In one notorious – and

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probably exaggerated – instance, a group of western Flemish Cistercians even asked the famous mystic John of Ruusbroec, who lived near Brussels in Brabant, for a Latin translation of one of his vernacular texts, because they purportedly could not understand his Brabantine dialect (Willaert 2010, 5–9). Likewise, Jacob van Maerlant, the so-called ‘godfather’ of Middle Dutch literature, provided a nice sample of the linguistic diversity of the multilingual setting in which he worked in his Sinte Franciscus leven (Life of Saint Francis): Ende om datic Vlaminc bem Met goeder herte biddic hem, Die dit Dietsche sullen lesen Dat si mijns genadich wesen Ende lesen sire in somich woort, Dat in haer land es ongehoort Men moet om de rime souken Misselike tonghe in bouken: Duuts, Dietsch, Brabants, Vlaemsch, Zeeus, Walsch, Latijn, Griex ende Hebreeus. Om vray thoudene rijm ende zin (Maximilianus 1954, ll. 125–33)18 (And because I am Flemish, I ask wholeheartedly that the people who will read this Dutch text will have mercy with me, when they read words which they are not familiar with in their lands. To find rhymes, one must search diverse languages in books – German, Dutch, Brabantine, Flemish, Zeelandic, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew – to keep correct the rhyme and meaning.)

Situated on the crossroads of both linguistic – and therefore also cultural – frontiers and great political blocks, the Low Countries can be said to have been a melting pot and a thoroughfare of cultural and political ideas throughout the ages. This intermediary position has allowed for the development of a unique literature, taking the middle ground between French and German high culture. This contribution will show how the Middle Dutch Arthurian romances, as a socio-historical phenomenon, can only be understood against this backdrop. It is fair to say, for example, that ‘most Middle Dutch authors were of Flemish origin’, and that most Arthurian stories were translated from Old French, but when we take into account the reception stages of manuscript production, the picture becomes much more complex.19 In the following sections, we will take a closer look at the most important regions in the Low Countries, with a special focus on the production and reception of Arthurian literature. We will show that Arthurian material was not introduced in the Low Countries in one go but that its circulation, reception and adaptation tell a nuanced story related to the complex make-up of the Low Countries and of local traditions of courtly culture and vernacular literature.

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3. The ‘River Lands’ of the Meuse and Rhine While the ‘river lands’ of the Meuse and Rhine did not form a united political entity in the Middle Ages, they are generally grouped together as an overlapping cultural area of mutually enforcing and influencing regions.20 Broadly speaking, this area includes the greater part of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the interrelated regions of Loon and Limburg, stretching east into the lands of Aachen and Cologne, and north along the valley of the Meuse towards cities such as Maastricht and Nijmegen and regions such as Guelders and Gulik. Certainly, in the early and high Middle Ages, these regions produced art of the highest quality in various media. Under the patronage of Charlemagne, who held court in the city of Aachen, and in the following centuries as well, the region fostered a rich culture that defied political and linguistic boundaries. In this context, authors such as Hendrik van Veldeke (second half of the twelfth century) were active, using the region as a gateway to some of the most important cultural circles in imperial Germany.21 Looking at this region from an Arthurian perspective, however, there is not much to report, certainly as regards the production of indigenous texts or translations. That fact alone is very interesting. While the region is home to some of the earliest verse narratives in Dutch – including Tristant (possibly late twelfth century22), Aiol (c.1200), Floyris ende Blantseflur (c.1170) – it seems to have missed out on the upsurge of narrative literature in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries entirely.23 The Tristant may well be the earliest example of a Middle Dutch adaptation of Arthurian fiction that has been preserved in material form (cf. Chapter 5); apparently it was not followed by other translations. Even in terms of manuscript reception in later centuries the region does not have much to offer. This is all the more surprising insofar as research has shown that epic material generally speaking migrated from west to east through the Low Countries, which should theoretically have brought at least some of the growing corpus of Arthurian texts to the Rhineland.24 Compared to the Duchy of Brabant, it took Arthurian literature much longer to take root in the ‘river lands’. Generally speaking, the region seems to have been fertile ground for the matière de France rather than Arthurian literature. It has been argued that this has to do with the important role of Aachen as the former capital of the Carolingian Empire and burial place of Charlemagne (Oostrom 2006, 129; Janssens 2007, 38–42). This, however, is not the entire story. It would be fair to say that in the heyday of Arthurian romance, the landscape of literary patronage in the region had changed as well. While Hendrik van Veldeke in the late twelfth century wrote for ecclesiastical patrons (his Sente Servas) as well as for noble ones, it would seem that in the course of the fourteenth century, the number of aristocrats investing in vernacular narrative literature – or at least in Dutch – had decreased considerably.25 Riverland nobles may have looked to the east more than to the west and may have been more engaged in literary circles in German rather than in Dutch. To the south, in the city of Liège, power was in

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the hands of a bishop. Literature here seems to have been predominantly religious or historical, and if not in Latin, then certainly in French. It is possible, however, that our image of Arthurian literature in these regions is influenced by the lack of extant textual witnesses. A hypothesis that provides food for thought even today was formulated by the Finnish scholar Pentti Tilvis in the 1950s.26 He argued that some of the most illustrious Arthurian texts in the German tradition, including Wolfram’s Parzival and Hartmann’s Erec, might not have been translated directly from the French originals, but rather from Dutch intermediaries. The territory bounded by the Rhine and Meuse may well have been a turning table for this material which, at least according to Tilvis, could be seen as the portal through which Arthurian material entered into German culture. Although Tilvis’s views remain speculative, if not controversial, there is manuscript evidence of epic material in High German containing rather peculiar ‘Dutchisms’ which could be easily explained by accepting the theory of a Dutch ‘Vorlage’ for these texts (Schlusemann 2000). Tilvis’s hypothesis, then, might explain the puzzling lack of extant vernacular manuscript material from the western part of the Low Countries around 1200 – especially given the region’s absolute dominance when it comes to textual production in later times – by assuming a more gradual growth of the epic genre in Flanders, of which the first stages have been lost. It would also give force to several signals in High German sources of a literary influence of Flemish material.27 Frits van Oostrom (2006, 218) has correctly stressed that, sadly, nothing of this ‘Atlantis’ has emerged so far. And, indeed, a recent discovery of German Prose Lancelot fragments lacking any significant ‘Dutchisms’ may well give rise to alternative explanations and again creates room for the possibility that the ‘Dutchisms’ were only introduced at a later stage of the tradition (Wirtz and Ziegeler 2018). The scattered manuscript evidence has until now never led to a scholarly consensus but we suggest that a more thorough study of literary influences in the early epic traditions may well bear fruit and shed light on these questions in the future. It could possibly increase our insight into the role of the ‘river lands’ as a cultural transfer zone between western and eastern literary developments.28 A better understanding of cultural relations in the broad contact zone between Dutch and German may also lead to the rehabilitation of hybrid rewritings of Middle Dutch narrative texts, some of which date to the fifteenth century and have been preserved in their entirety. While the popularity of the epic genre in the Low Countries was fading rapidly, some nobles apparently were still on the lookout for epic literature, underlining the role of the Low Countries as a revolving door of the genre in the cultural transfer between Romania and Germania (Besamusca and Willaert 2019). A case in point in the fringe contact zone between German and Dutch is the collection of Arthurian material owned by Everwijn of Bentheim in the early fifteenth century, containing copies of Arthurian texts originating in more western – more clearly Dutchspeaking – regions, such as Historie vanden Grale, Boek van Merline, and the Merlin Continuation (see Chapter 7).29 While Bentheim is too far north to be a part of the

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cultural zone of the ‘river lands’ as we see it in this chapter, the collection of Arthurian material does bear witness to the fact that the genre was still migrating from west to east as late as the fifteenth century. The collection is only one example of epic manuscripts that contain rewritings of Dutch narrative material in a language that takes the middle ground between Dutch and German. While the language of these eastern versions is often defunct to such an extent that it may have looked strange even to contemporaries, the fact that the manuscripts were made at all is interesting enough. Also, some of these sources are important to researchers of medieval Dutch literature because they constitute the only remaining complete extant Middle Dutch Arthurian texts. The fact that they most often contain very faithful copies into a Germano-Dutch hybrid makes them invaluable study material for gaining some idea of the Middle Dutch texts they were based on.30 4. The County of Flanders In the County of Flanders, evidence of the dissemination and knowledge of Arthurian literature does not only come from the texts and manuscripts themselves but also from other sources. There is strong evidence that Arthurian material must have circulated orally already in the early twelfth century and thus well before the start of the written tradition. A charter dating to 1118 mentions a lesser nobleman named ‘Walawaynus’ of Melle, a village near Ghent, which proves that Arthurian stories were known among the lesser nobility in the County of Flanders at a very early stage, as parents apparently named their children after Arthurian knights.31 Interestingly, it is also proof of the dissemination of specifically the Dutch version of the Arthurian stories, and not the French tales, as ‘Walawaynus’ or the later ‘Walewein’, is the Dutch variant of ‘Gauvain’, a linguistic shift quite similar to that from ‘Guillaume’ to ‘William’/‘Willem’.32 While these onomastic hints are interesting in themselves, there is more than enough literary evidence for the presence of Arthurian material in the county from the earliest beginnings of the genre. These beginnings, however, were predominantly in French. As mentioned above, the larger part of Flanders was a vassalage of the kingdom of France. Its rulers to a greater or lesser extent mirrored the royal court throughout the generations and cultural influences went back and forth in both directions. It has been noted that the highest nobility also embraced French as the language of refined culture from an early stage.33 In Arthurian literature in French, Chrétien de Troyes is the best proof of how both culture and literature circulated among the most notable French courts (see also Chapter 2). Starting off under the patronage of Marie of Champagne, the French poet worked for Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders (d. 1191), at the end of his career c.1185.34 Widely regarded as one of the most proficient and prolific authors of French Arthurian romances, he wrote at least one of his texts,

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Perceval or the Conte du Graal (c.1185) at the request of the Count of Flanders, who resided mostly in Ghent at that time (Fritz 1992, 276–80). Although Chrétien in all likelihood died before he was able to complete the text, the patronage alone shows how the Court of Flanders was a fertile, receptive context for French Arthurian literature. Indeed, the unfinished story invited continuation and extension by later authors, and most of these texts can also be related to the Flemish court, or can be situated in Hainaut, ruled by the same noble house at this point in time.35 The commissioning of romances points to the popularity of Arthurian material in Flanders and so does the high number of manuscripts, suggesting a vibrant secondary reception of the material, most often in contexts of nobility.36 Furthermore, the texts contain numerous intertextual references that hint at the fact that their audience in Flanders must have known other Arthurian romances in French. It therefore seems no coincidence that the County of Flanders produced by far the highest number of Arthurian texts in Dutch in the Low Countries. However, the contexts in which this vernacular literature was commissioned and read have been the subject of extensive discussion from the earliest beginnings of Middle Dutch Studies. Initially, it was believed that the aristocracy was mainly engaged with French literature and that the Dutch texts circulated among the lesser nobility at best, and more likely in circles of well-off patricians in the more powerful and wealthy cities of the County, such as Bruges, Ghent and Ypres (Besamusca 1998, 146; Berg 1998, 247–60). Over the years, however, scholarship has shifted towards a more nuanced position. Indeed, evidence suggests that the highest nobility, in the inner circle of the court of the counts, was probably most interested in literature in French.37 At the same time, there are indications that even in these circles there was a certain degree of bilingual reception. The 1417 booklist of Jan VI of Gistel, chamberlain to the count and as such one of the most important noblemen in Flanders, contains not only a reference to Chrétien’s Conte du Graal in French, but also mentions an item which may be interpreted as a (now lost) translation of Chrétien’s Chevalier au lion, reading as follows: ‘een dietsch bouc sprekende van ystorien van Ingeland ende van den ruddere metten leeuwe ende andren’ (a Dutch book speaking of histories of England and of the knight with the lion and others).38 This is not the only booklist that contains titles in different languages. It is therefore tempting to think that it was in the highest circles of nobles surrounding the court of the counts that Arthurian literature in its medieval Dutch guise eventually also found its way. The texts themselves, too, sometimes point towards a more nuanced reception of Arthurian material, both in French and in Dutch. The Middle Dutch Ferguut (before 1250; Caers and Kestemont 2011, 18), for example, a translation of Guillaume le Clerc’s Fergus (1200–33), at one point contains a reference to a character from Chrétien’s Conte du Graal, ‘den roden ridder’ (the red knight), who does not appear elsewhere in the Dutch text.39 Apparently, the author supposed that his audience was well aware of the Arthurian tradition in French, and specifically of the work of Chrétien (Janssens 1998, 268–9).

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At the same time, there are indications that the reception in both Dutch and French at least partly occurred in different circles. A case in point is the translation of the name Walewein from the French Gauvain, which occurred most widely and was already present in the oral circuit in the early twelfth century. The Flemish translator of Fergus apparently was not aware of this and translated Gauvain as Gawein in the following passage: Daer es mijn her Gawein Ende metten witten handen Ywein, Pertsevale ende Sagremort, Lanceloet ende sijn neve Bohort Agravein ende Gariet Mereagis ende Erec Mijn her Keye ende Leyvale Ende Laquis van Portegale Ende Walewein, .i. ridder van prise Ende menech ander ridder wise ([t]here is Sir Gawein / and Ywein of the White Hand, Pertsevale and Sagremort, Lanceloet and his nephew Bohort, Agravein and Gariet, Mereagis and Erec, Sir Keye and Leyvale and Laquis of Portegale and Walewein, a knight of renown, and many other accomplished knights.)40

This would indicate that his audience, or at the least the translator himself, was unaware of the identification of the linguistic alter-egos Gawein and Walewein (Janssens 1998, 269). This coincides in part with a contemporary reference to the audience of verse romances: in his Floris ende Blancefloer (mid-thirteenth century; Caers and Kestemont 2011, 24), the Middle Dutch translation of the Floire et Blancheflor (1150– 60; Ruby 1992), Diederic van Assenede asserts that he wrote his translation for ‘den ghenen diet walsche niet en connen’ (for those who do not understand French). While Floris ende Blancefloer is not an Arthurian text, the reference certainly indicates that there was a contemporary audience that was not proficient in French, or certainly not enough to enjoy courtly literature. For them, it would have been impossible to understand the subtle intertextual references pointing to earlier material (only) available in French. Still, it is tempting to look for this audience in court circles as well, since Diederic van Assenede was a clerk at the comital chancellery.41 Unfortunately, it is difficult to draw a clearer picture of literary patronage of Arthurian romance in Dutch in the County of Flanders, as no explicit references to patrons have been preserved.42 In the absence of a convincing quantity of manuscript evidence, scholars have sought other ways to explain the peculiar absence of references to noble patronage, in combination with the absolute numerical dominance of the County of Flanders in terms of textual production. Looking for other circles in which to place courtly literature in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, scholarship soon shifted its focus from the court to the cities, returning to a point initially made by W. J. A. Jonckbloet in the middle of the nineteenth century.43 Indeed, some of the Flemish cities were among the wealthiest and most densely populated in the known world.44 Contrary to Jonckbloet,

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however, modern scholarship does not draw a clear line between nobility and burghers, but attempts to provide a more nuanced view.45 Indeed, courtly and civic circles intermingled to a great extent. Nobles had residences inside city walls, engaged in urban politics and were increasingly active in international trade and real estate development.46 The court, moreover, formed an integral part of the urban society of Ghent, where it resided most of the time, and was not a closed milieu. At the other end of the spectrum, burghers, having acquired great wealth in prospering industries and international trade, sought to improve their position by marrying into noble families, or by ‘vivre noblement’ – living the noble life.47 The nobility in the Low Countries at this time was not a closed and well-defined estate and historians agree that upward (and downward) social mobility was quite possible. What better way, then, for urban commercial and political elites aspiring to noble status, than to commission ‘courtly’ literature and to engage in cultural activities that mirrored those of the court? While the ‘urban’ hypothesis is tempting and would certainly go a long way in explaining not only the many romances produced in Flanders but also the great number of manuscripts, it is not a given. Scholars have looked for references to urban life in narrative texts, or for values that are commonly associated with non-nobles, but tend to arrive at circular arguments.48 If the aim was to imitate noble life, why include or stress references to virtues associated with the urban elites, or with everyday reality in the bustling cities? Was it not precisely the description of exemplary court life that was sought after by aspiring burghers, rather than a reminder of their own humble background? For this reason, the search for ‘urban’ aspects in courtly literature to justify a reception in the cities might well be a quest in vain. 5. The Counties of Holland/Zeeland and Hainaut The landscape of Arthurian literature in the County of Holland, which included both Zeeland and Hainaut for part of the period under discussion here, is dominated by a single author: Jacob van Maerlant (c.1235–c.1290). After Frits van Oostrom’s awardwinning 1996 monograph Maerlants wereld, his biography is also firmly intertwined with the comital court of Holland. In the view of Van Oostrom, Maerlant, who probably hailed from the region of Bruges in the county of Flanders and enjoyed a clerical education in the same city, moved north to the island of Voorne in the mid-thirteenth century, where he was appointed sexton to a minor church in a hamlet called Maerlant, later part of the small town of Brielle. In this humble post, Maerlant went on to become the most prolific and influential author the medieval Low Countries have known. Hailed by later authors as ‘vader der dietsche dichteren algader’ (father of all Dutch poets), he produced an oeuvre that is without equal in Middle Dutch literature. Interestingly, his work also spans almost the entire breadth of literary genres at the time. The extent of his work and the pace at which he produced it, defy reason. While

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later in his career he was to decisively move away from fiction to focus solely on translating Latin works of science for an audience of laymen, he started off by writing (or indeed adapting) literary works, including ‘classical’ material (on Alexander the Great and Troy) and some Arthurian texts (see also Chapters 4, 5 and 7). Probably in 1261, he wrote the Arthurian diptych Graal–Merlijn, translated from Old French prose versions of Robert de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie and Merlin. Only a year later, Maerlant completed his Torec, a peculiar knightly tale that only survives in the Lancelot Compilation (see below). While it was most likely based on an Old French original, the source text has been lost and the evidence for assuming a French origin is based on a reference in an old catalogue.49 Most of Maerlant’s early works of chivalric fiction have been related to court circles in Holland, in the context of the shift of power from William II to his under-age son Floris V on the death of the former in 1256. In a military campaign against the Frisians – the arch-enemy of the County of Holland for centuries – the count was ambushed, fell through the ice on horseback and was allegedly clubbed to death by hostiles. The count’s son and heir, Floris V, inherited the county as a toddler aged two, and power was assumed by his guardians. It has been argued that many of the texts written by Maerlant in this period were in some way instrumental in the knightly education of the young count and his entourage of young nobles (Besamusca 2019). The Graal– Merlijn diptych, incidentally, was dedicated to Albrecht van Voorne, Viscount of Zeeland, and about the same age as the Count (Besamusca 2017, 123). Indeed, Maerlant’s early chivalric texts seem to share a focus on the coming-of-age of a young knight looking for a sanctioned path to a place at the court and may well have circulated in the comital court of Holland. As mentioned, Maerlant soon turned his back on the epic genre as such. Later in his life, he devoted himself to translating Latin texts into the vernacular, popularising knowledge that was traditionally restricted to the class of literate clergymen. Some of his later texts too, however, can be said to have served as an example for just rule. A case in point is the mirror for princes Heimelicheit der heimelicheden, which by its nature serves precisely this purpose. But also in his Spiegel historiael, an impressive, if incomplete, world history translated from Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale, he described many examples of kingship that were of interest to a young ruler. His world history was dedicated to Count Floris V himself and is dated around 1285. At this point in his life, Maerlant had returned to his native Flanders, where he was to die while writing, so to speak, around 1290. The Spiegel historiael (cf. Chapter 4) is interesting from the point of view of Arthurian fiction because it takes a middle position between fiction and history. While Maerlant explicitly discarded romances that were in circulation, naming mainly chansons de geste but also mentioning the names of Arthur and Lancelot, he did include a history of Britain that assigned a prominent role to King Arthur (Vries and Verwijs 1863, vol. III, parts III and IV). In discarding fictional romances by explicitly naming them, Maerlant sheds light on the literary

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tastes of his intended audience, as the named texts – some of which have been preserved only in French, some in Middle Dutch adaptations as well – were probably known to his initial readers and listeners. At the same time, Maerlant shows that already in the late thirteenth century, a distinction was made between, on the one hand, fictional tales surrounding Arthur and his court, and, on the other hand, the assumed historical core that gave rise to these stories. In his main source, Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale, Maerlant found little to his liking that dealt with British history. He took most of his material directly from Monmouth’s Historia, resulting in lengthy passages in his world chronicle that deal with Arthur and his role in British history (see also Chapter 4). In this way, the County of Holland/Zeeland was home to one of the most prolific and influential authors in Middle Dutch literature, who contributed greatly to the dissemination of the Arthurian genre, both in its epic form and in the form of true history. It is peculiar, then, to see that only very few remaining manuscripts with Maerlant’s texts were produced within the county itself. While Holland most likely was no hotbed of book production at this point in time (this would soon change), the state of the reception is in sharp contrast with the prolific nature of Maerlant’s literary production and the possibility has been raised that audiences in Holland ordered books elsewhere. His romances Torec and the Graal–Merlijn diptych, have been preserved in only very few manuscripts. Torec, as mentioned, survives only in the Lancelot Compilation (see below), while the diptych has left two text witnesses. An almost complete copy was made in Westphalia for Everwijn of Bentheim in the early fifteenth century (Chapters 7.1 and 8); another manuscript survives only in fragmentary form, and may well have been produced in the duchy of Brabant (Kienhorst 1988, 142–3 and 191). Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael and other vernacular learned works circulated all over the Low Countries, as is evidenced by the numerous mentions in library catalogues in the later Middle Ages.50 The eager reception elsewhere in the Low Countries, when compared to the different situation in the County of Holland itself, could add weight to the hypothesis that the audience for Middle Dutch literature, certainly where manuscript reception was concerned, is to be sought in prosperous cities, which would develop in the County of Holland only at a later stage. The development of Arthurian literature in the County of Holland, then, shows how initially patrons and audiences were very interested in Arthurian material, but also how the genre apparently failed to speak to broader audiences outside this initial reception circle. 6. The Duchy of Brabant At first sight, and certainly when compared to the high number of Arthurian texts produced in the County of Flanders, the Duchy of Brabant does not seem to have been a powerhouse of the genre. The dragon helmet of John I in the Manesse codex that

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opened this chapter, however, shows that Arthurian material must have been known, perhaps in French or in oral form, before the oldest manuscript evidence. Also, in a near-contemporary description of the Battle of Worringen (1288), the poet Jan van Heelu refers to the heroic feats of Arthurian knights such as Walewein, Perchevael and Lancelot, on several occasions, assuming their adventures were known among his audience.51 As far as we can deduct from the, sometimes problematic, localisations of original texts, just one Arthurian romance was written in the Duchy which is at the same time an intriguing exception (see below and Chapter 7) – Lodewijk van Velthem’s Merlin Continuation, a sequel to Maerlant’s Boek van Merline.52 Whereas in Flanders the court was actively engaged in commissioning Arthurian texts, at least French ones, nothing of the kind seems to have been the case in Brabant. This is noteworthy because the Brabantine ducal court certainly had a tradition of French literature. Like Flanders, Brabant spanned a territory that included a linguistic border, encompassing both Dutch-speaking and French-speaking territories. The language situation of the court has provoked some debate among scholars. It seems that, even if the situation differed under subsequent dukes and through the influence of marriages to ‘foreign’ noble ladies, there was a place for both Dutch and French at court throughout the history of the Duchy. It is interesting in this respect to refer again to the Manesse codex, which contains not only John I’s dragon helmet, but also poems that John I of Brabant wrote himself, in the vernacular.53 As his work is placed side by side with that of literary giants such as Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg and Hendrik van Veldeke, the ducal court purportedly was oriented both towards Romania and Germania, and may indeed have functioned as a meeting point of literary traditions as well. Indeed, John’s father, Henry III, is noted for having written some love poetry in French and his court welcomed minstrels and authors writing in French, who travelled between the courts of Northern France (Artois, Champagne) and the Low Countries (Flanders, Brabant). Under his rule, court literature seems to have been predominantly oriented towards French, but certainly later on literature in Dutch was commissioned by, or circulated in, court circles.54 The courtly interest in literature, however, apparently did not include a taste for the Arthurian. As opposed to the situation in Flanders, where the matière de Bretagne circulated in the highest circles, albeit in French, Brabantine preferences among the nobility seem to have been different. A well-known example of French literature at the Brabantine court, comparable to that of Chrétien de Troyes in Flanders, is that of court poet Adenet le Roi, who worked for the dukes in the second half of the thirteenth century.55 He is first encountered as a minstrel in the service of Henry III of Brabant (d. 1261), at whose deathbed Adenet claims to have been present in Cleomadès, wrote one of his most influential works, Berte as grans pies, in a Brabantine context, and sung the praise of Duke John I (d. 1294) in his Enfances Ogier, a text which he wrote for the Flemish count Gui de Dampierre (d. 1305).56 Like his contemporary counterpart Chrétien de Troyes, he moved relatively easily from one noble court to another.

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Unlike Chrétien, who was predominantly active in Arthurian romance, Adenet seems to have been a specialist of the matière de France. The fact that this subject matter apparently appealed more to the dukes of Brabant than the stories about Arthur comes as no surprise.57 The ducal house boasted a genealogical lineage that traced its origins all the way back to Charlemagne. This explains the contemporary textual production in the genre of historiography as well as in other, more unusual, epic genres such as crusader stories and pseudo-historical fiction used to glorify the history of the region and its dynasty. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the ducal court seems to have been predominantly interested in texts that helped legitimise its claims to an ancient lineage (Caers 2011, 241–4; Sleiderink 2007, 555ff). While chronicles literally traced back ancestry through the telling of stories about ancient forebears, romances helped create a framework within which the legitimisation of the ducal house could be given actual form. None of this means, however, that Brabantine audiences shunned Arthurian romance. When we focus on text reception in manuscript form, the picture becomes more nuanced. Indeed, there are some manuscripts with Arthurian material that are thought to have been produced in Brabant, one of which has been termed the ‘flagship’ of Arthurian romance in Middle Dutch: the Lancelot Compilation. A rather unappealing and modest book at first sight, this codex contains no less than ten Arthurian romances, rewritten and adapted so as to form a coherent cycle spanning the history of Arthur and his court, from his heyday to his death (cf. Chapter 7.7). Produced in Brabant approximately between c.1320 and 1325, it is centred on the Lancelot– Queste–Mort Artu trilogy, crucially given in verse form, and includes smaller romances that in some cases have no known French counterpart (Besamusca 2000, 214–22). All have been adjusted to fit into a grand narrative, suppressing anomalies between the separate texts. The collection is not complete – only the final third of the Lanceloet itself is in fact included – which strongly suggests that another volume might have preceded the compilation, but is now lost (if indeed it was ever initiated and completed). Curiously, it is Lodewijk van Velthem, the author of the only Arthurian romance in Brabant, who is also closely connected to this monumental anthology of Arthurian literature. While scholars do not agree on the exact nature of Velthem’s role in the production of this unique collection of texts, it is certain that he was involved, as his name is mentioned in the colophon. Given the introductory scope of this chapter, it suffices to point towards the fact that almost all of the texts in the Lancelot Compilation were originally written by Flemish authors. The manuscript, then, is an impressive witness to the overall eastward move of chivalric literature. It shows that the Arthurian material was known and sought after in the duchy but that it was borrowed from a neighbouring region rather than (re)translated locally.58 At the same time, this work inspired Velthem to write original Arthurian texts, or rather continue existing work by Jacob van Maerlant, apparently in response to a taste for Arthurian material in the

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duchy. With his Merlin Continuation, he is responsible for the only Arthurian romance in the Duchy of Brabant. He was also commissioned to complete Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael, displaying an equally keen interest in the Arthurian in the domain of historiography as his predecessor had done (see also Chapters 4 and 7.8). Apart from the monumental Lancelot Compilation, there is little evidence for manuscript reception of Arthurian material in Brabant. There are just two fragments containing material from Lanceloet, one of the ten texts included in the Lancelot Compilation. The other nine texts, if they have been preserved at all, are found solely in manuscripts produced in Flanders. Seen from this point of view, both the Lancelot Compilation and the popularity of the subject matter around the character of Lanceloet can be seen as an exception for the Duchy of Brabant, while the overall picture is poor. Still, as in Flanders, onomastic evidence does point to the fact that Arthurian fiction was known in the duchy.59 Scholars have pointed to the growing popularity of Arthurian names, certainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and there are also indications that the Arthurian subject matter was brought to the stage in some form or other in the duchy in the fourteenth century. Lanseloet van Denemerken, one of Europe’s first vernacular and secular plays preserved in writing, features a main character named Lanseloet. While he certainly is no Round Table knight, the use of the name in itself is interesting enough (Besamusca 1996b). The Brabantine circles in which Arthurian literature circulated, predominantly in a secondary reception stage, are difficult to ascertain. With a court occupied mainly with other literary genres, the audience for Arthurian manuscripts is to be sought elsewhere. In accordance with the Flemish situation, one might think of the top layer of urban society in cities such as Antwerp, Brussels, or even the independent enclave of Mechelen, where a Lancelot Stevens owned a house in 1352 (Beterams 1956), a Percheval van Rupelmonde was alderman in 1370, and subsequent generations of the Gottignies family were named Lancelot in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Eynde 1859). All of Brabant’s larger cities boasted a political establishment in which the nobility mingled with well-off burghers, an audience that may well have found Arthurian literature to its taste. Further research into the possible interrelations of manuscript production and reception contexts is therefore called for, which will sometimes have to re-address earlier dialectal analyses. It is also intriguing that Arthurian literature was apparently perceived differently from the other vernacular texts in the duchy. How this difference is to be explained, and whether and to what extent it reflects the existence of different literary tastes or a stratification among receptive audiences, remains to be explored.

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7. Epilogue Arthurian literature in Middle Dutch reached the peak of its popularity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. After this time, audiences apparently lost interest in the genre (Besamusca 2000, 188). Manuscript reception continued on the easternmost fringes of the Dutch language area (see above), but, in Middle Dutch proper, no text witnesses have been preserved from the fifteenth century. The introduction of the printing press presented new challenges for authors and publishers and changed the way vernacular literature circulated as well as the audiences it reached. In recent scholarship, the adaptation of medieval verse narratives for the printing press has received growing attention.60 While other titles in epic literature succeeded in reaching new audiences in printed form, Arthurian fiction strangely did not adapt (Besamusca 2015, 123–4). Not one Dutch Arthurian romance from the manuscript period made it to the printing press, be it in verse form or in the increasingly popular mode of prose. It may be important in this respect that the romance genre was notoriously late, much later than in Old French, for example, in being transcribed as prose (Besamusca 2013). In two cases, a Middle Dutch poet reintroduced the verse form in his adaptation of the Old French Prose Lancelot, and, while some fragments of a prose version remain, the ‘new’ mode never truly took root in the genre in Middle Dutch. Possibly, this stubborn refusal to embrace the prose form has been an obstacle in the survival of the Arthurian material into later centuries. Scholarship has drawn attention to only a single example of Arthurian fiction in prose in the sixteenth century. Crucially, this Historie van Merlijn (Antwerp: Simon Cock, c.1540) does not draw on the wealth of Dutch texts in the genre but was translated from an English source (Besamusca 2015, 124; Bruijn 2017, 85; cf. Chapter 7.9). The fact that the literary tradition of Arthurian fiction in Dutch ceased so markedly, while Carolingian material was adapted and rewritten in prose to be printed, is nothing short of a mystery. The genre of printed romances thrived on stories of adventure and knighthood, which would have made of the Arthurian world a rich source of inspiration at first sight. The stories of Charlemagne and his paladins were adapted to prose, found their way to new readers and continued to be a part of literary history in new forms, but Arthur and his knights remained stuck in their medieval verse manuscripts.61 The different paths of the matières de France and de Bretagne in later literary culture is a theme that deserves further study. Researchers for now have pointed towards a different perception among late medieval audiences of the stories of Arthur and those of Charlemagne. While the latter by and by were seen and portrayed as historically accurate, people were increasingly aware that the adventures of Arthur and his knights belonged to the world of (non-historical) fiction. This would also explain why the stories about classical historical figures such as Alexander the Great were successfully adapted to the printing press (Besamusca 2015). The doubts voiced by Jacob van Maerlant about the dubious value of fictional stories as early as

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the thirteenth century apparently materialised in the ‘nachleben’ of the genre as a whole. While printed editions in prose probably appealed mainly to broader audiences, literature in the vernacular continued to circulate in manuscript form for noble audiences in the context of the Burgundian court and its attendant circle of courtiers and aspiring nobility. The ‘vernacular’ in these instances was, of course, French. The subsequent Dukes of Burgundy had varying tastes in literature, but it is fair to say that they stimulated manuscript production on a level and a scale previously unseen in the Low Countries. However, these literary manuscripts, especially secular vernacular ones, are predominantly in French. Setting the example for nobles in their retinue, the dukes created a climate favourable to luxury book production (even if not all books produced for the nobility were luxury books) (Wijsman 2010). For Arthurian literature, however, the harvest is meagre. Apparently following (or indeed setting?) the example of literary taste in a broader sense, the ducal preference was mainly for ‘historical’ fiction on classical themes such as Alexander the Great, crusader stories and chronicles, including the matière de France. Slowly receding from view, both in elite circles and the broader public, Arthurian fiction seems to have been forgotten. No Thomas Malory succeeded in rekindling interest in the Low Countries, so that the rich legacy of the genre was only rediscovered by early philologists in the nineteenth century. Ever since, scholarship has shown a keen interest. Notes 1   This paragraph relies on Avonds 1998; for a discussion of John I and Worringen from the point of view of literary history, see Sleiderink 2003, 75–97. 2   On the procession’s medieval history, see Brown 2011. 3   See for example Schepper 2014, 17. 4   The online Encyclopaedia Britannica provides a useful introduction to English speakers, even if it is a little sketchy with respect to the historical context; see https://www.britannica.com/place/ Low-Countries. 5   Special mention has to be made of ‘Imperial Flanders’ (see below), an eastern part of the county Flanders which the count did not hold from the King of France but (mainly) from the German emperor; see Kestemont 2012 and 2014a. 6   Nowhere more so than in Brabant, which considered itself as the ‘heart’ of ancient Lotharingia. See, for example, Avonds 1982 and 2000, 13–20. For the genre of lyric, see Willaert 2011. A pleasant introduction to the topic, aimed at a broad audience, is Winder 2019. 7   It would seem that Lower Lotharingia continued to function to some extent as a cultural unity of sorts, even if it was deeply divided both in political and in linguistic terms. For epic literature, see Caers 2011, 223–51, and for lyric compare Willaert 2011. 8   A good introduction to the Eighty Years’ War, taking into account part of the medieval roots of the conflict, is Lem 2019. 9   This peculiar position probably stimulated an alternative literary culture in the region; see Kestemont 2014a.

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  See, for example, the well-studied case of Hendrik van Veldeke, who worked for different courts in the Empire, and whose Eneas was supposedly ‘stolen’, Willaert 1993, 6–11, and compare Janssens 2007, 115–45. 11   A precursor describing the cultural demarcation of this region is Tervooren 2006. It is worth mentioning that for the period under discussion here, the county of Hainaut formed a personal union with Flanders for most of the time between 1051 and 1278. After this time, it was acquired by another house (Avesnes), uniting it with the county of Holland from 1299 until 1356. 12   See for example Sleiderink 2015, 23. 13   Coolput-Storms 2000, 39. Note, however, that near the western border, the Dutch language was in retreat during the medieval period and lost much terrain to French – in the eighth century, for instance, the Germanic language area still reached as far as Boulogne-sur-Mer. See Ryckeboer 1997. 14   Coolput-Storms 2000, 40–2, deals mainly with the courts of Flanders, Brabant and Hainaut. For Flanders, compare Oosterman 2017, and, for Brabant, Sleiderink 2007 and 2015, 29–31. At the court of Holland, French gained importance on entry into the house of Avesnes, in 1280; see Meulen 2000. For a recent overview, see Peersman, Rutten and Vosters 2015. The contribution of Willem Frijhoff to this volume (115–40) shows that French continued to gain influence, also in the north, until Early Modern times. 15   See, for example, Berteloot 2000, and compare Tervooren 2006, 15–26, Willaert 2010 and Goossens 2011. 16   Compare Berteloot 2000 and Janssens and Marynissen 2008, 113–27. 17   For example, in the booklist of the Abbey of St Bavo in Ghent (County of Flanders), see Derolez et al. 1994–, t. III, 59–65; and compare Willaert 2010, 11. 18   Note that the passage might even contain a hint of subtle humour at the meta-level, because Maerlant couples the rhyme word ‘hem’ (him) with the dialectic variant ‘bem’ (am), which was a highly distinctive feature of Flemish dialects at the time. For the life and works of Maerlant, see Oostrom 1996a. 19   The citation is from Besamusca 2000, 187. On the dissemination of literature and differences between production and reception, see Caers 2011, who synthesises information on texts and manuscripts and their regional origin as studied by Kienhorst 1988, Berg 1983 and Klein 1995. On the question of originality when compared to the Old French tradition, see Besamusca 2000, 191–222 and 214–22 for indigenous romances; compare to Besamusca 2008, which takes the question of originality beyond Arthurian material. 20   Tervooren 2006 is indispensable as the first comprehensive, multilingual approach to literary production in the region. 21   See also Bruijn 2011, who nuances the cultural unity of the region. Janssens 2007 deals specifically with Hendrik van Veldeke, showing the extent to which he is considered to be the ‘father of literature’ both in Dutch and German (esp. 24–31). The question of Veldeke’s ‘appropriation’ by philologists in both Germany and the Low Countries is linked to debates on the original language in which Veldeke wrote his texts. These interlinked questions are known as the ‘Veldeke problem’ and continue to provoke debate. 22   The time of writing is unclear. Caers and Kestemont 2011, 13–14 provide a nuanced account of the arguments presented in favour of both an early as well as a later date. 23   Caers and Kestemont 2011, 13, provide the most recent chronological overview of the original texts of medieval verse epics. On the seemingly unsuccessful introduction of Arthurian literature in the easternmost parts of the Low Countries, see Caers 2011, 245. The apparent gap between the early epic literature and the very late reception of texts from other regions has been noted by Tervooren 2006, 108. 24   For epic literature, see Caers 2011; for lyric, compare Willaert 2010. 25   While the evidence is scarce, Sleiderink 2017, 212 seems to arrive at this conclusion. Bruijn 2011, 96–7, provides a chronological list of manuscripts and proposes the weakening of the court of Guelders as one of the turning points in literary patronage in the region. 26   See for example Tilvis 1951 and 1959. 27   Oostrom 2006, 217, quotes the Bavarian poet Neidhart, who scolded his peers for what he called ‘vlaemen mit der rede’, i.e. speaking in a Flemish tongue, before 1230. See also Lie 1991, 404. 10

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  Compare the similar call for further research by Schlusemann 2000.   Sodmann 1980 provides an edition of Maerlant’s Historie vanden Grale and Boek van Merline; cf. Kienhorst 1988, 66–7 and Schlusemann 2000, 99–100. See also Chapters 7.1 and 8. 30   This does not only hold true for Arthurian epic literature but even more for the Charlemagne epic, of which only a fraction has been preserved in Dutch. See, for example, Have 2005. 31   See especially Verbeke, Janssens and Smeyers 1987, 115–18, who also point to other names, such as Iwein and Brien. Compare the introduction to Besamusca 2000. 32   Janssens and Uyttersprot 2005, 264–8, discuss the onomastic evidence against the interesting backdrop of emigration from Flanders to Wales. 33   Coolput-Storms 2000, 42–9. Cf. Oosterman 2017. 34   A comprehensive introduction to Chrétien is Fritz 1992, 266–80. 35   Coolput-Storms 2000, 43–4, relates four Perceval Continuations to noblemen in the lineage of Philip. See also Oosterman 2017. 36   Some examples in Coolput-Storms 2000, 44. See also Chapter 2. 37   Coolput-Storms 2000, 44 refers to book lists of the counts that contain Arthurian material. For a comprehensive list of the book lists of the Flemish counts, see Derolez et al. 1994–, vol. III. 38   See Caers 2011, 240. The inventory was published in Derolez et al. 1994, vol. I, 183–5. For an introduction to the French text, see Fritz 1992, 274–6. 39   For a short introduction to Fergus, see Micha and Ruby 1992, 627–8. 40   The Middle Dutch passage and its accompanying English translation were taken from Johnson and Claassens 2000b, 194 (ll. 4, 317–26). 41   It is interesting that Floris ende Blancefloer has been entirely preserved in a composite manuscript that also contains the Middle Dutch Ferguut (Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191). It has been shown that both texts were bound together as early as 1400, indicating that contemporaries could well have been interested both in matière de Rome and de Bretagne (and in Brabantine and Flemish texts, incidentally). See Kienhorst 1988, 37, and the references mentioned there. 42   Sleiderink 2017 provides an analytical overview of literary patronage of Middle Dutch texts and points to the relative silence in Flanders (212). 43   See Besamusca 1998, who takes Jonckbloet’s hypothesis as a starting point. Caers 2011 has quantified the production of texts and manuscripts for the epic genre. 44   See, for example, Besamusca 1991a, 159; Biemans 1997, 275–93 and Oostrom 2006, 225. 45   Cf. Berg 1998, Besamusca 1991a, 157–62, Besamusca 1998, Oostrom 2006, 327–8, Prevenier 1994. 46   See in general: Prevenier 1994, and specifically for Flanders: Buylaert 2010. 47   Buylaert, De Clercq and Dumolyn 2011, 393–417; cf. for the literary historian’s perspective, Berg 1995, 206; Oostrom 2006, 226–7. 48   See, for example, Kuiper and Biemans 2004, 217, and the overview provided in Oostrom 2006, 227ff. A caveat as regards circular arguments is given in Besamusca 1998, 145–6. 49   Kienhorst 1988, 191, Oostrom 1996a, 130–2, Besamusca 2000, 210–11. 50   See Derolez et al. 1994–. For example, in vol. I, on Western Flanders, we find eight references to Maerlant’s chronicle. Cf. Biemans 1997, who has studied the extant manuscript material of the Spiegel historiael. 51   See the extensive discussion of Heelu’s literary references in Sleiderink 2003, 94–7. 52   See the case of Perchevael, which has raised doubt (cf. Kienhorst 1988, 164 and Berg 1983, 208–9; followed by Besamusca 2000, 205). We follow Caers 2011, 224–9 (note 4). 53   For John I’s lyric, see Willaert 2003, 97–114. 54   See the detailed study on Henry III by Sleiderink 2003, 57–73, and compare Sleiderink 2007. 55   For an introduction, see Ganshof 1992, 18–20. 56   See Sleiderink 2003, 64–5 (on Cleomadès) and 77–80 (on Enfances Ogier and Berte as grans piés). 57   See Avonds 1998, cf. Caers 2011, 243–4. 28 29

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  It is not uncommon for Old French texts to have been translated more often by individual poets. A clear-cut case is provided by the eastern (Rhineland) and western (Flemish) versions of the Floire et Blanceflor (see, for example, Kienhorst 1988, 55–8 and the literature mentioned there). But even within one region, there is evidence that independent translations may have existed alongside each other; compare the discussion on the different translations for the Old French name Gauvain into Middle Dutch, Walewein or Gawein (see above, and Janssens 1998, 269). 59   See the introduction above. 60   After a pioneering study by Debaene 1951, research has focused mainly on individual cases. Recent scholarship is more synthesising in method and looks for broader patterns. See, for example, Besamusca, De Bruijn and Willaert 2019. 61   By contrast, very little manuscript evidence remains of Carolingian epic material in Dutch; see Have 2005. The fact that Arthurian literature missed the shift to printed and prose versions may well have been crucial for the survival of the manuscripts. 58

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2 FRENCH ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES Keith Busby and Martine Meuwese

1. Introduction There is little question that in most of medieval Europe, romance literature in French provided models for emulation and adaptation for a good three centuries, beginning with Wace’s adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, the Roman de Brut, composed c.1155. The five romances of Chrétien de Troyes, the epi­ gonal verse romances in the tradition of Chrétien, and the prose corpus of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle, the Prose Tristan and its derivatives, were translated with vary­ ing degrees of faithfulness, and rewritten to accommodate the tastes and expectations of audiences and readers of different languages, from Spain to Sweden, from Italy to Iceland. In many of these regions, French was not a widely spoken vernacular and the transposition from French was a necessity for those who desired access to the fashion­ able literature in the langue d’oïl from the royal and noble courts which hosted and patronised the authors of Arthurian romance. In other regions, such as England and Italy, French was spoken and/or read by individuals and communities interested in the romances of Arthur and his knights, and there, manuscripts circulated freely in the language of origin.1 It is therefore quite legitimate to speak of a medieval Francophonia, which is much larger than the modern hexagon of France, French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland put together, stretching from Ireland in the West to Cyprus and the crusader states in the East, and which includes a number of bilingual or multilingual regions. A distinc­ tion must sometimes be made between vernaculars of the majority population and those of smaller yet culturally and politically dominant communities. In the British Isles, for example, the numbers of French speakers were relatively low compared with native speakers of English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, or Irish, but in England at least, liter­ ature in French assumes a proportionately inverse importance before the rise of English in the fourteenth century. French was the culturally prestigious language of a small elite. Few copies of Arthurian romances known to have been owned and to have circulated in England are written in Anglo-Norman (the dialect of insular French). This is significant insofar as it suggests the acquisition and reception of continental

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books by English royalty and aristocracy. On the ground, French was a language of commerce and diplomacy, two other possible channels for the stimulation of readers.2 The medieval Low Countries constitute a border area where French and Dutch were prevalent by virtue of geography and demographics as well as a region where the aris­ tocracy was in part francophone by birth and upbringing.3 Interesting comparisons could be drawn with Occitania and its borders to the North (Old French, the langue d’oïl) and to the East (Italian). The circulation in the Low Countries of Arthurian romance in French is evident enough, as it is elsewhere, from the adaptations into Middle Dutch (Oostrom 2009, 14–16). Reasons behind the demand for versions of Arthurian romance in languages other than French are complex and vary from one language area to another, and they are addressed with particular reference to the Low Countries elsewhere in this book. In the rest of this chapter, we will first address ques­ tions of patronage of French romance and ownership of its manuscripts in the Low Countries before considering the production of Arthurian manuscripts in the Southern Netherlands, essentially Flanders, Thérouanne and Arras, Hainaut, and Brabant. We do not aim to be exhaustive, but to show the prevalent patterns of patronage and production. 2. Patronage The first known dedication which associates the Low Countries with an Arthurian romance is arguably – in literary historical terms, at least – the most significant, for it concerns the last, unfinished, romance of Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval or the Conte du Graal. This is the first text to present the tale of Perceval and the Grail and had pro­ found and lasting consequences for the medieval and post-medieval development of Arthurian romance. Its prologue contains an unusually extensive dedication to Philippe d’Alsace, Count of Flanders, whose death in 1191 provides us with the terminus ad quem for the composition of the text (although it likely dates from a decade earlier). Chrétien sows the seed of his romance in the fertile ground of Philippe, more virtuous than Alexander the Great, just, devout, generous and charitable, as God knows. By writing at Philippe’s behest, Chrétien will not have wasted his effort in writing the best tale ever to have been told at a royal court: Ce est li Contes del Graal, Dont li quens li bailla le livre. Oëz comment il s’en delivre. (Busby 1993, ll. 66–8) (This is the Story of the Grail, of which the count gave him the book. Now hear how he acquits himself of his task.)4

The prologue has caused much ink to flow and its general import is not especially rel­ evant in the present context. Its intent may simply be to flatter by means of a comparison with Alexander (‘Flandre’ : ‘Alixandre’) or, as has been argued, to

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function as an expiatory confession by Chrétien on behalf of Philippe, whose life does not seem to have been as exemplary as the prologue suggests.5 What is significant is that Chrétien’s romance is dedicated to a prominent figure from the highest echelons of francophone society whose territories included some largely Dutch-speaking areas. In this sense, the case is paradigmatic of the dominance of literature in French of the time in milieus where it may have been a minority vernacular. Chrétien’s other known patron was Marie de Champagne, daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose virtues are lauded in the prologue of Lancelot or the Chevalier de la charrete (1169–71), the first and most influential telling of the adulterous tale of Lancelot and Guinevere. Philippe’s abortive wooing of Marie in 1182 may have provided the means of contact between him and Chrétien (McCash 2005, 18–19). Chrétien’s death, probably in the early 1180s, was neither the end of Perceval nor of the involvement of the Low Countries in the production of the romance. Before c.1230, four Continuations of Perceval were written, the last of which, by an other­ wise unknown poet called Manessier, is dedicated, in most manuscripts, to Jeanne de Flandre, daughter of Marie de Champagne (a daughter of Chrétien’s patron, Marie) and Baudouin VI, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, Emperor of Constantinople. Qui encore en cel païs va, La sepoulture puet veoir Sor quatre pilers d’or seoir, Si com Manesier le tesmoingne, Qui met a chief ceste besoingne El non Jehanne la contesse, Qu’est de Flandre dame et mestresse. (Roach 1983, ll. 42638–44) (Anyone who goes to this region can still see the tomb resting on four pillars of gold, just as stated by Manessier, who completed this task in the name of Countess Johanna, lady and mistress of Flanders.)

Manessier further links the whole Grail cycle (i.e. Chrétien’s romance and all of the Continuations) to Philippe while claiming an almost proprietary closure: Ai en son [i.e. Jeanne’s] nom finé mon livre. El non son aiol conmença, Ne puis ne fu des lors en ça Nus hons qui la main i meïst Ne du finner s’antremeïst. (ll. 42652–6) (I have completed my book in her [Jeanne’s] name. I began it in the name of her ancestor, but since then no one touched it or undertook to finish it.)

Jeanne and her younger sister, Marguerite, may have commissioned works in both French and Dutch in what was clearly a bilingual courtly context (Walters 1994). The Second Continuation of the Perceval, often attributed to Wauchier de Denain, may also be linked to Jeanne as Wauchier is known to have worked at her court, as well as at Marguerite’s, and at that of their uncle, Philippe de Namur. Wauchier seems to have been active c.1195–c.1215; his oeuvre also includes saints’ lives in prose, a translation

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of the first three books of Gregory’s Dialogues, and possibly the Histoire ancienne jusquà César. Although the attribution of the Second Continuation to him has been questioned, current opinion is largely in favour of his authorship.6 In any case, the ‘book-ends’ of Chrétien’s prologue and Manessier’s dedicatory epilogue (and the allu­ sion in the latter to Philippe’s patronage of the former) provide clear Flemish-Hainaut perimeters for the complex cyclical structure constituted by Chrétien’s ‘motherromance’ and the Continuations. It should also be pointed out that another continuation, by Gerbert de Montreuil (c.1225), interpolated between Wauchier and Manessier in two manuscripts (Paris, BnF, fr. 12576 and nouv. acq. fr. 6614; both copied in Arras, c.1275), further consolidates the cycle in the region, as Montreuil-sur-Mer (now actu­ ally some distance from the coast) is near Boulogne and Dutch-speaking territory in Flanders.7 Philippe’s patronage of Chrétien dates from the earliest period of French Arthurian romance in verse, while the composition of the Continuations is spread over the next half-century, which saw both the rise of the Chrétien-epigones as well as the extraor­ dinary rise of prose romance. Both types of romance had their influence on Middle Dutch literature through translations and adaptations of Chrétien’s Perceval (Perchevael), Guillaume le Clerc’s Fergus (Ferguut), Raoul’s Vengeance Raguidel (Wrake van Ragisel), the prose Lancelot–Grail Cycle as well as through original romances in Middle Dutch taking their cue from French models. As we shall show below, there is abundant evidence of ownership of French Arthurian romances in Dutch-speaking areas, but further evidence of patronage is more limited. The romance of Sone de Nansay has long been associated with the house of Brabant, but it is usually relegated to a footnote or at best a paragraph in histories of literature, mainly because of its peculiar treatment of the Grail theme.8 A new edition and recent studies have rehabilitated it to some degree, and one scholar has dated it to before 1267, arguing forcefully in favour of Aleida (Adelaide) de Bourgogne, widow of Henry III of Brabant, as its patron. Henry probably knew both Dutch and French (Henry 1948, 22–8). After his death in 1261, Aleida stimulated French literary culture at the court of Brabant and may have commissioned Sone de Nansay as a romance reflecting the ambitions and potential of her second son, John, who became duke in 1267.9 The court of Brabant in the Middle Ages is an example of how marriage alliances and politics could affect the prestige of vernaculars, leading either to the priority of one over the other or to simple coexistence. The ‘last Arthurian romance’ in French, Froissart’s Meliador (c.1365, revised c.1380) was written for Wenceslas of Luxemburg, Duke of Brabant.10 Manuscripts of French Arthurian romance are known to have been owned and to have circulated at the court of Brabant throughout the Middle Ages.11 In matters of patronage, composition and book ownership, as well as that of manu­ script production, it is important not to isolate the phenomenon of Arthurian romance, as important as it may be from the present perspective, from other genres and types of literature. Modern tastes for Arthurian romance may have weighted modern literary

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history in its favour, but the same readers and audiences who enjoyed its adventures also read and listened to non-Arthurian and allegorical romance, the chansons de geste, saints’ lives, Aesopic fables, edifying exempla and encyclopaedic treatises, amongst others. Artisans of the book also worked on all types of manuscript in the vernaculars and Latin. What is said here may therefore also be valid, mutatis mutandis, for the reception in the Low Countries of the whole Old French literary corpus of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and its manuscripts. 3. Ownership Ownership of manuscripts can be established by various means: ex libris and other marks of ownership in the books themselves, library lists, wills and post-mortem inventories, for example. These types of sources may skew the evidence to some degree as royalty and aristocracy are the most likely to have left records which have been preserved; archival evidence from the merchant class and bourgeoisie tends to be later and thinner on the ground. Book ownership in the Low Countries likely reflects the wide tastes of consumers, and for every Arthurian book owned, readers possessed several other types of manuscript, Latin as well as vernacular, devotional as well as secular.12 The earliest evidence of ownership of a French Arthurian manuscript in the Low Countries is the curious case of Brussels, KBR, MS 11145, of the prose Grail romance of Perlesvaus (c.1200?), commissioned by the ‘seigneur de Cambrein’ for Jean II de Nesle (1196–1239), castellan of Bruges from 1200 to 1224, whose death in 1239 provides us with the terminus ad quem for the manuscript: Por le seingnor de Neele fist li seingnor de Cambrein cest livre escrire q’onques mes ne fu troitiez que une seule fois avec cestui en roumenz, et cil qui avant cestui fu fez e[s]t si anteus qu’a grant poine an peüst l’an choissir la lestre, et sache bien misires Johan de Neele que l’an doit tenir cest contes cheïr, ne l’an doit mie dire a jant malantendable, quar bone chosse qui ert espendue outre [= entre] mauveses genz n’est onques en bien recordee par cels. (II, p. 73)13 (The Lord of Cambrin had this book written for the Lord of Nesle because this subject has only been treated once before in French, and this book is so old that one can barely make out the text, and my Lord Jean de Nesle should know well that this tale should be highly valued and not related to the unintelligent, for a good thing disseminated among bad people is never profitably remem­ bered by them.)

Cambrin is in the present Pas-de-Calais, a few kilometers east of Béthune and west of Lille. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, it belonged to the county of Flanders, and was in a region that was typically bilingual French-Dutch. The phrasing of the colophon gives pause, especially in light of Jean’s difficult relations with Jeanne’s court. In 1224, Jeanne had sought control over Bruges, entrusted to Jean, but Louis VIII decided in favour of Jean (Newman 1971, 38–41). The previous version of the tale referred to must be that of Chrétien, said to be almost impossible to read because

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of its age,14 and the closing phrase evokes the stony ground which Chrétien managed to avoid by sowing the seed that was his romance in the fertile ground of Philip. Is the Brussels manuscript of Perlesvaus a small engin de guerre in a quarrel between Jean de Nesle, the French monarchy and the house of Flanders, propagators of their own version of the Grail story? It is also possible that the militancy of the Perlesvaus reflects Jean de Nesle’s own crusading activity (Janssens 2017, 185). This modest manuscript is not illuminated and lacks completely the kind of decoration and general layout which characterises many other Arthurian books owned in the region in the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Another count of Flanders, Gui de Dampierre (d. 1305) is known to have commis­ sioned an unspecified Arthurian romance in prose, although his best-known commissions were of chansons de geste from Adenet le Roi. Gui’s son and successor as count of Flanders, Robert de Béthune (r. 1305–22), owned a ‘Livre de Merlin’ and fourteen other books according to a post-mortem inventory; the others include a Somme le roi, Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles Nostre Dame, ‘Godefroi de Bouillon’, saints’ lives, a Vie des pères and devotional items; some manuscripts are recueils which could have included Arthurian texts. It has been suggested that Gui’s second son, Guillaume de Termonde or Dendermonde (d. 1311) owned the splendid copy of the Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu that is now at New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke 229 (Thérouanne, c.1290–1300), which he may have commissioned (Coolput-Storms 2000, 44). Robert de Cassel (d. 1331), second son of Robert de Béthune and Yolande de Bourgogne, owned a copy of Chrétien’s Perceval and the Continuations that is now London, BL, Add. 36614 (as per his shield on fol. 110r), further reinforcing the links between the house of Flanders and the verse Grail cycle. The 1304 post-mortem inventory of Robert de Béthune’s rival Jean II d’Avesnes, Count of Hainaut (1280) and Holland (1299), lists ‘uns grand roumans a rouges couver­ tures ki parolle de Nasciien, de Mellin, e[t] de Lancelot dou Lach’ (a large romance in red covers which speaks of Nascien, of Merlin, and of Lancelot of the Lake), clearly some form of the Arthurian prose Lancelot–Grail Cycle.15 Robert II, Count of Artois, owned three Prose Tristan manuscripts in 1316 (Verbeke, Janssens and Smeyers 1987, 264). One of the great bibliophiles of the early fourteenth century was Robert’s daughter Mahaut, Countess of Artois and Burgundy (r. 1302–29). The surviving records relating to Mahaut’s expenses are quite extensive and show her buying in Arras in 1308 a ‘Histoire de Troie’ (Benoît de Sainte-Maure?) and a romance of Perceval. She main­ tained a residence in Paris, and was a regular customer of the Parisian libraires, Nicole and Thomas de Maubeuge. Other records show that she owned copies of such varied works as a Prose Tristan, Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde (this manuscript was written and illuminated at her castle of Hesdin), the Chroniques des rois de France, a Vœux du paon, an Enfances Ogier (Paris, BnF, fr. 12467), a Roman de Renart, a Roman de la Violette (Gerbert de Montreuil), saints’ lives, Marian miracles (by Gautier de Coinci?), as well as the usual psalters and books of hours.16

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A catalogue of the nineteen books of Guillaume I of Hainaut (III of Holland and II of Zeeland) datable to 1325–6 includes ‘un romanch de Lanselot’ and ‘un romanch de Merlin’ as well as ‘un romanch des vies Loherens et des novials’.17 In 1324, Guillaume’s agent, Jean de Florence, bought the Lorraine Cycle manuscript from Thomas de Maubeuge (with whom Mahaut had had dealings a few years before) in Paris. Guillaume’s library is particularly significant as his daughter, Isabelle, was to become the queen of Edward III of England (m. 1328); the ownership of these two Arthurian books situates them in the very highest social milieus of France, the Low Countries and England. Marguerite, Countess of Flanders and Burgundy (1350–1405) owned Paris, BnF, fr. 12560 (dated middle of the thirteenth century) of Chrétien’s Yvain, Lancelot and Cligés; Marguerite, whose mother was Marguerite de Brabant, may have inherited the book from her father, Louis de Male, Count of Flanders (Middleton 1993, 127–9). The 1384 inventory of Count Louis de Male not only mentions that he owned a ‘Merlin’, but also suggests that this text was considered appropriate for his children: ‘roummant de Merlin, que monseigneur donna ou envoya en warde à la demiselle qui garde lez enffans’ (a romance of Merlin which my lord gave or lent to the young woman who watches over the children) (Busby et al. 1993, 268, n. 177). There is also attested ownership of French Arthurian romances among the bour­ geoisie. A ‘Merlin’ is bequeathed by Jean Cole of Tournai to his son, Jean, in 1305; Jean also owned copies of the Lorraine Cycle, Garin de Monglane, the Chanson de Roland and Berthe as grands pieds; Colars de Saint-Quentin of Tournai left a ‘Lansselot’ in his 1347 will; and Pieron de Waudripont, likewise of Tournai, bequeathed a ‘romant de Natyen’ (the Estoire del Saint Graal?) in 1354.18 Ownership of Arthurian manuscripts in French was thus quite widespread among both male and female members of the aristocracy of the medieval Low Countries, particularly those with family (sometimes royal) connections outside the immediate region. Members of the merchant class possessed Arthurian books as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century. 4. Production of French Arthurian Manuscripts in the Southern Netherlands In the wealthy regions in northern France and the Southern Netherlands, where the nobility had a special predilection for Arthurian literature, the local artists, heavily influenced by the French style, became the first regular illuminators of Arthurian texts from the 1270s onwards.19 These manuscripts show ample evidence of commercial book production, with professional scribes and illuminators who often copied and illustrated the same Arthurian text more than once.20 Most of the scribes and illumina­ tors involved in the production of French Arthurian manuscripts from the Low Countries remain anonymous, but colophons and rubrics sometimes reveal their

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names, gender, the date or their whereabouts. The scribe Colins li Fruitiers, for exam­ ple, names himself on fol. 122rc at the end of Fergus in an unillustrated literary miscellany that includes the works of Chrétien de Troyes (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 472, copied in Flanders or Hainaut, third quarter of the thirteenth century): Colins li Fruitiers a a non. Jesus li face vrai pardon De ses peciés; mestiers li est, Car molt pecieres est. (Frescoln 1983, 247, var. l. 7012) (His name is Colin li Fruitiers. May Jesus truly forgive him his sins; he stands in need of this because he is a great sinner.)

This miscellany, written by several scribes, combines verse and prose romances (Merveilles de Rigomer, L’âtre périlleux, Erec, Fergus, Hunbaut, Bel inconnu, Vengeance Raguidel, Yvain, Lancelot, Perlesvaus, Le roman de Renart).21 Scribes and illuminators were not necessarily men. The gender of the scribe who wrote a colophon in a Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu manuscript made in Arras (Paris, BnF, fr. 342) is still under discussion.22 This colophon in a codex containing Agravain, Queste, Mort Artu and some ninety-five miniatures, mentions that the writing was finished on the Saturday after the octaves of the Trinity (i.e. 2 June) in 1274: Cis roumans fu parescris en l’an de l’incarnation nostre segnor mil deus cens et sixante et quatorse, le semedi apriès les octaves de le Trinité. Priés pour celi ki l’escrist. (The writing of this romance was finished in the year of our Lord 1274, on the Saturday after the octaves of Trinity. Pray for the one who wrote it.)

A colophon that starts in Latin and then switches to French in the densely illustrated Lancelot–Grail Cycle manuscript Bonn, UB, 526 mentions that Arnulfus de Kayo (Cayeux-sur-Mer?) finished copying the text in 1286 on the vigil of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist (28 August), an important feast in Amiens: Arnulfus de Kayo scripsit istum librum qui est ambianis. En lan del incarnation M.C.C.IIIIXXVI. el mois daoust le jour devant le s. Jehan decolate. Ici finist la mort dou roy Artu et des autres. Et tot le romans de Lancelot. (Verbeke, Janssens and Smeyers 1987, 212) (Arnulfus de Kayo from Amiens wrote this book in the year of the Incarnation 1286, in the month of August the day before the feast of the beheading of St John. Here ends the Death of King Arthur and others, and the whole romance of Lancelot.)

The remark that Arnulfus came from, or worked in, Amiens at the time of writing seems to indicate that he was normally based elsewhere. Alison Stones therefore localised the manuscript in Amiens, Cambrai or Thérouanne, as the style of the abun­ dant illumination suggests either of the latter cities. The same illuminator seems to have illustrated the Lancelot–Grail Cycle manuscript Paris, BnF, fr. 110. The scribe Arnulfus may or may not be related to the scribe Walterus de Kayo, who copied the Estoire del Saint Graal, Le Mans, Médiathèque municipale 354, c.1285 in Douai.23

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Pierart dou Tielt (active 1330–51) was the scribe, illuminator and binder of manu­ script Paris, Bibl. de l’Arsenal 5218, containing the Queste – without any of the other texts of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. According to the colophon on fol. 91v, the text of this manuscript was finished at Tournai in mid-August 1351: Chius livres fu parescrips, le nuit nostre dame en mi aoust l’an mil trois cens et li. Si l’escrips Pierars dou Tielt. Et enlumina et loia. Explicit li queste del saint graal. (Walters 1996, 339) (This book was completed the night of Our Lady in mid-August 1351. Pierart dou Tielt wrote, illustrated, and bound it. Here ends the Quest of the Holy Grail.)

This manuscript is one of the rare exceptions of an ecclesiastical commissioner of an Arthurian manuscript: Abbot Gilles li Muisis, a significant figure in the political and intellectual life of Tournai.24 Although Pierart had close ties to the Benedictine Abbey of St Martin at Tournai, amongst other things as the illustrator of the abbot’s opera omnia and as the abbey’s book restorer, Pierart was not a monk. It will be no coinci­ dence that the selection of scenes to be illustrated in this Queste manuscript has a different ideological focus; the miniatures place this manuscript within the framework of the history and community of the church (esp. the large miniature of the transub­ stantiation during the Grail mass) rather than Arthurian legend.25 Pierart also illuminated Latin chronicles, parts of a Roman d’Alexandre (Oxford, Bodl. Library, Bodley 264), copies of the Roman de la rose, Pamphile et Galatee and a Book of Hours. There is no evidence that Pierart copied and bound any of the other manu­ scripts he illuminated, and no other manuscript bears his signature. He collaborated with others, which suggests some sort of workshop practice. From the late thirteenth century onwards Lancelot–Grail manuscripts, sometimes bound in different volumes because of the text length, were often made in workshops that illustrated the same texts more than once. The above-mentioned Yale 229 manu­ script (Thérouanne, c.1290–1300) contains the final sections of the Arthurian Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu (Agravain, Queste, Mort Artu); the earlier part is now missing. As the dimensions, layout, script, pen-flourishing and style of the miniatures and marginal decoration are so similar to that of manuscript Paris, BnF, fr. 95 (containing amongst other things Estoire del Saint Graal and Merlin), both codices for a long time were considered to derive from the same set. The major painter is the same in both volumes and he also worked on the decoration of a Psalter (Stones 1996, 204–5). The occurrence of the shield of Flanders in the decoration may suggest owner­ ship by a member of the house of Flanders, perhaps Guillaume de Termonde, son of Gui de Dampierre.26 Manuscript fr. 95 was in the library of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, by 1407. While in Italy, the marginal decoration of fr. 95 was a source of inspiration for the decoration of a breviary made for Marie de Savoie, the eldest daughter of Count Amadeus VIII (1391–1439), Duke of Savoy, and Marie de Bourgogne. At the age of seventeen, she married Filippo Maria Visconti and became duchess of Milan. Patricia Stirnemann assumes that manuscript fr. 95 was deliberately

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chosen as a model since the chivalric tradition was important to both the court of Savoy and Visconti (Stirnemann and Ritz-Guilbert 2007; Ritz-Guilbert 2010). Another instance of a now dispersed Lancelot–Grail Cycle set made around 1300 is Oxford, Bodl. Library, Ashmole 828 (Lancelot), which originally was considered a counterpart to Paris, BnF, fr. 749 (Estoire, Merlin, Suite Merlin). However, the recently discovered Estoire fragments in the Bologna Archives (Bologna, AS, b.1 bis, n.9), which served as covers for notarial collections from 1620 to 1622, seem an even more likely counterpart to the Ashmole manuscript (Meuwese 2005a). Manuscript fr. 749, in its turn, is more closely related to the fragments of another Merlin manuscript in Turin (Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, MS L.III.12) that had a narrow escape in the library’s fire in 1904. The workshop that was involved in these Arthurian ‘serial copies’ can be linked to a group of four illustrated Roman d’Alexandre manuscripts from Flanders (Stones 1982, 2002). And what is more: not only on stylistic grounds but also on the basis of heraldry in the miniatures, a localisation in Flanders around 1300 for this group of manuscripts is likely. A set of three Lancelot–Grail Cycle manuscripts decorated by a team of illumina­ tors in the early decades of the fourteenth century, possibly somewhere near (bilingual) Saint-Omer or Ghent, provides another interesting corpus to study workshop prac­ tices. In many cases instructions for the miniatures are still visible on the pages; they reveal what was meant to be depicted. All manuscripts are written in the Picard dialect and they can be dated approximately by an inscription in one of the miniatures. Several artists of varying degrees of ability worked on this group of manuscripts, although the main painter was the same in all volumes. One of them contains miniatures inserted in the bottom margin at a later date, at the end of the fourteenth or in the early fifteenth century, probably at the request of a later owner.27 Written instructions to the illumi­ nator is often evidence of commercial book production, as are the mirroring of compositions, and multiple production of the same text. Although the manuscripts in this group have many features in common, each copy has a unique illustrative programme. If the surviving French Arthurian manuscripts made in the Southern Netherlands are a reliable guide, the Lancelot–Grail Cycle and its constituent parts were very popular between c.1270 and 1350. Several more or less complete sets are preserved, now sometimes dispersed. Even if produced in the same workshop, each manuscript is different. 5. Conclusion: Popularity and Prestige In the course of the thirteenth century, Flanders became a centre for Middle Dutch Arthurian literature. Jozef Janssens has suggested that the Middle Dutch Lanceloet agrees with the oscillating version which is found in the six manuscripts of the

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so-called BnF, fr. 122 group, including manuscript Yale 229, whereas Bart Besamusca assumes that the Flemish poet did not use any of the manuscripts in this group, but a version that has not survived (Besamusca 2003a, 22). The evidence presented above shows that the French Arthurian Lancelot–Grail Cycle circulated widely in the south­ ern Netherlands between c.1280 and 1320. Both the general interest for Grail texts in this region and the new crusader mentality, as promoted by Count Guy de Dampierre, may explain the popularity of (illuminated) manuscripts of these texts. They predomi­ nantly functioned in the French courtly milieu of the Dampierres in Ghent, where both patrons and commissioners of copies could afford expensive illumination and gained prestige by the manuscripts they owned. French Arthurian literature remained in circulation in the Low Countries throughout the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century, the renewed popularity of both the illumi­ nated book and French (prose) romance and chronicles at the Burgundian Court in Bruges caused a revival of French Arthurian literature in the southern Netherlands. Duke Philip the Good (d. 1467) was a great bibliophile; he expanded his grandfather’s library to over 800 manuscripts, among which were thirty-three Arthurian manu­ scripts. Copies of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle and the Prose Tristan, Guiron le courtois and Meraugis were popular at the Burgundian court. Between 1450 and 1460 Philip the Good probably commissioned prose adaptations of Chrétien’s Erec and Cligès, which survive as codices on paper. Inspired by the duke, the nobleman Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruuthuse, built a library of some 200 books, among which were seven Arthurian manuscripts (parts of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle, Prose Tristan, Petit Artus de Bretagne, Perceforest and Guiron le courtois).28 The Burgundian court was preoccupied with telling stories about the right to rule and questions of inheritance. According to the Burgundian court chronicler Olivier de la Marche, the young Charles the Bold (1433–77) listened to the heroic exploits of Lancelot and Gauvain being read to him by his attendants (Loomis and Loomis 1938, 126). French Arthurian manuscripts made in the Low Countries were not only read for pleasure, but also to promote a (sometimes political) message, usually with a view to claiming or consolidating power and independence. The often bilingual courtly context in which these manuscripts circulated, from the twelfth till the fifteenth century, paved the way for translations, adaptations and even indigenous Arthurian romances in Middle Dutch. 6. Digitised Arthurian Manuscripts Mentioned in this Chapter London, BL, Add. 10292–4: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_10292&index=0 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_10293&index=0 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_10294&index=0

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London, BL, Royal 14 E III: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_14_E_III&index=0 New Haven, Beinecke, Yale 229: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433279 Paris, Ars 5218: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100017d.r=5218?rk=64378;0 Paris, BnF, fr. 95: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000108b.r=%22Français%2095%22?rk= 64378;0 Paris, BnF, fr. 110: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b107231677.r=%22Français%20110%22?rk= 42918;4 Paris, BnF, fr. 122: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10533299h.r=%22Français%20122%22?rk= 21459;2 Paris, BnF, fr. 342: https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version =1.2&query=%28gallica%20adj%20%22Français%20342%22%29%20and%20dc. type%20all%20%22manuscrit%22&lang=en&suggest=0#resultat-id-1 Paris, BnF, fr. 749: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9058903h.r=fr.%20749?rk=85837;2 Paris, BnF, fr. 12560: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9060802j.r=fr.%2012560?rk=107296;4 Paris, BnF, fr. 12576: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105101697 Paris, BnF, naf 6614: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10089857g.r=6614?rk=85837;2 Notes   For an overview, see Tether and McFadyen 2017.   See, for example, http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/; for England, Short 2013 and SchmolkeHasselmann 1998. 3   Cf. Chapter 1. On the early development of the languages of the Low Countries, see Milis 2005 and Coolput-Storms 2000, 39–42. 4   Translations are ours. 1 2

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  The literature is extensive, but see, for example, Hunt 1971 and Vautier 2001.   See Corley 1987, 64–7; Szkilnik 1993, 7–10. On Wauchier, see now the contributions in Douchet 2015, especially Combes 2015, 115–18. 7   On these manuscripts, see Busby 1993 and Nixon 1993, 49–53. Still useful on Flanders in general is Stanger 1957. 8   The Grail is kept in Norway as part of Joseph of Arimathea’s evangelisation of that country. See Busby forthcoming. 9   Sone de Nansay, ed. Lachet 2014, and Lachet 1992; cf. Sleiderink 2003, 69–73. 10   See Bragantini-Maillard 2012. 11   See Sleiderink 2003, 131. 12   Details, including those of many owners listed here, are given in Stones 2013, 97–132 (‘Patrons and First or Second Owners’). 13   Nitze and Atkinson Jenkins 1932–7, I, 4–5 and II, 73–81. 14   We take this to mean that the writing was faded rather than that the actual language was hard to understand. 15   Janet F. van der Meulen has ingeniously argued that Jean’s son, Gui, bishop of Utrecht (1301–17) was the author of the enormously long Li ars d’amour, de vertu et de boneurté preserved in Brussels, KBR, MS 9543 (end of the thirteenth century.) and MS 9548 (beginning of the fourteenth century), and dedicated to a member of the family of Saint-Venant (Pas-de-Calais). See Meulen 2000, 59–63. This would extend the limit of medieval Francophonia, albeit somewhat tenuously, as far north as Utrecht. 16   The Rouses describe her as: ‘a vigorous, sometimes belligerent, woman of affairs who reads, really reads. She has the wit to know what she likes, the industry to search out where what she wants may be found, and the money to commission copies for her use’. See Rouse and Rouse 1990, 113. 17   See Meulen 2007, 507–8. Van der Meulen suggests that Guillaume may have been able to read Dutch. 18   See Coolput-Storms 2007, 541, who remarks that Godefroid de Naste (of Mons), whose context is in both Hainaut and Flanders, did not appear to own an Arthurian romance among his twenty-four books (there are, however, a Vœux du paon and an Athis et Prophilias in the list). 19   For a survey of manuscript illumination in the Southern Netherlands, see Smeyers 1999. 20   For example, Paris, BnF, fr. 12576 and nouv. acq. fr. 6614, both produced in the same workshop and mainly by the same scribe, probably in Arras, c.1275. See Busby 1993, 49–65; Busby et al. 1993, II, cat. 23 and 24. MS T is illuminated, while MS V is not. 21   See Busby et al. 1993, cat. 14 and Busby 2002, 42. 22   Alison Stones (e.g. in Stones 2013) assumes that the scribe was a woman as the spelling in the colo­ phon is ‘celi qui’ instead of ‘cil qui’. The most common reference in colophons for male scribes from this region is ‘celui qui’, however. Andreas Bräm identified the scribe of this colophon as male: see Bräm 1993, 83 n. 23. 23   See Stones 2013, cat. No. III-26, and III-121 n. 3, pp. 540–1: ‘Were the two related, and did both men come from Cayeux-sur-Mer in the comté de Ponthieu? At all events, the use of a place name as a patronimic … is common in the period’. 24   Cruse 2011, 182 deals with Pierart dou Tielt and Gilles li Muisis, a.o. emphasising that the Abbot had extensive contacts among the French nobility and that he met the French King Philippe VI in 1340. 25   Walters 1994, 363 mentions that by 1349 Abbot Gillis has turned blind; one of his greatest regrets was that he was not able to celebrate mass anymore. In 1351, after eye surgery, his eyesight has improved somewhat and he is allowed to celebrate mass again. This could explain the focus on the bishop cele­ brating the Grail Mass in one of the miniatures in the manuscript he commissioned. 26   Stones 2013, cat. III-124, 572 mentions that also the shield of Brabant occurs in the manuscript and that there are inconsistencies in the rendering of the arms that might point to Guillaume de Termonde. Hence there is no solid proof that Guillaume de Termonde commissioned or owned this manuscript. 5 6

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  The set consists of: (1) Olim Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, 1 / Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 215 / Manchester, The John Rylands University Library, French 1; (2) London, BL, 14 E III; (3) London, BL, Add. 10292–4. For an analysis of workshop practices in the three Estoire manu­ scripts, see Meuwese 1999. 28   For the prose adaptations see Taylor 1998. For the bibliophilic rivalry between the ducal library and that of Louis de Bruges, see Meuwese 2007. 27

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3 THE MANUSCRIPTS Bart Besamusca

1. Introduction Middle Dutch Arthurian romances have come down to us in manuscripts and a single printed edition, the Historie van Merlijn. Whereas the printed text will be discussed in Chapter 7, the characteristics of the manuscript tradition will be analysed here, against the background of the international production of Arthurian manuscripts. This comparative perspective is mainly informed by the research tool Arthurian Fiction in Medieval Europe (www.arthurianfiction.org), the rich overview of the French manuscript tradition by Roger Middleton (2006), and the discussion of the French, German, English and Dutch manuscript contexts of Arthurian romances by Keith Busby (2002, 2017). 2. The Corpus Middle Dutch literature includes nineteen Arthurian romances (Besamusca and Brandsma 2015, 27–9; see also the overview below). This corpus is dwarfed by the extant French Arthurian literature, which consists of around ninety texts (depending on what we identify to be a single, discrete text). The corpus is approximately half as voluminous as the English, German and Italian corpora, and is bigger than Arthurian romances in still other linguistic areas, such as northern Europe, which number twelve texts according to a recent overview (Rikhardsdottir and Eriksen 2013, 24–5). These nineteen Middle Dutch romances are almost all written in verse, with only two Middle Dutch Arthurian texts in prose (Middle Dutch Prose Lancelot and the Historie van Merlijn). This marked preference for verse is shared by authors of English and German Arthurian romances (Besamusca 2013; Busby 2017, 106), whereas prose romances are much more present in French and Italian literature and the corpus of Scandinavian literature consists almost exclusively of these. How this preference should be explained is still a matter of debate. Our understanding of Middle Dutch Arthurian literature is seriously hindered by the fragmentary and relatively limited manuscript transmission. An overview

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(Besamusca 1985a) shows, for example, that three romances are preserved in fragments only. The Tristant fragment (Vienna, ÖNB, Series Nova 3968) consists of just 158 lines (Kienhorst 1988, 192–3) of a text that must have been made up of thousands of verses, like the Tristan romances of Thomas and Béroul. The pitiful remnants of the Middle Dutch Prose Lancelot, transmitted in three folios (Lie 1987; Minnen and Claassens 2005), contain around 300 lines of the faithful Middle Dutch rendition of the enormous first part of the Old French prose trilogy Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu. The French Prose Lancelot also served as the source for the Middle Dutch author of the verse adaptation Lantsloot vander Haghedochte. The fragments of this romance amount to 6000 lines (Gerritsen 1987), whereas the text probably counted around 100,000 lines (Gerritsen 1987, 57–8, Kienhorst 1988, 94). The third Middle Dutch rendition of the French text, Lanceloet, survives as part of the Lancelot Compilation. Although a considerable portion of this text, around 37,000 lines, is available to us, it should be noted that the preceding lines, around 57,500 verses, are lost (with the exception of a small fragment), due to the fact that the first volume of the two-volume set that contained the Lancelot Compilation is no longer extant (Besamusca and Postma 1997, 12–13). Various other Middle Dutch Arthurian romances are only preserved in versions that are, in all probability, adaptations of the original text. This is the case for Torec, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet and Walewein ende Keye: they have solely survived in the Lancelot Compilation, in which they were reworked in order to fit the context of this text collection (see Chapters 5–7). The same may be true for Jacob van Maerlant’s Historie vanden Grale, which has only survived in a Low German rendition in the codex Burgsteinfurt (see Chapter 7). In this manuscript, Maerlant’s Grail romance is part of the Grail–Merlin trilogy that was created by Lodewijk van Velthem, who added his Merlin Continuation to Maerlant’s Historie vanden Grale and Boek van Merline. It could well be that Velthem adapted Maerlant’s Grail romance to prepare it for inclusion in the trilogy. This view is supported by the fairly recent suggestion that it was Velthem, instead of Maerlant, who interpolated the so-called Maskeroen episode in Maerlant’s Boek van Merline (Warnar 2009, 139–41). The modest manuscript transmission is clearly indicated by the small numbers of text witnesses of most Middle Dutch Arthurian romances. No less than eight texts have survived in a single copy: Ferguut, Historie vanden Grale, Torec, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, the Middle Dutch Prose Lancelot (various fragments, all part of the same codex), Lantsloot vander Haghedochte (sets of fragments from the same codex), Tristant and Walewein ende Keye. In addition, six romances are preserved in two (fragmentary) copies (including the variable text transmission in the Lancelot Compilation): Arturs doet, Boek van Merline, Moriaen, Penninc and Vostaert’s Walewein, Queeste vanden Grale and Ridder metter mouwen. Two romances have come down to us in three copies, including the text witnesses in the Lancelot Compilation: Lanceloet and Wrake van Ragisel. Judged by the (unreliable)

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manuscript transmission, the two Middle Dutch Arthurian romances that enjoyed the greatest popularity in the Low Countries were Velthem’s Merlin Continuation (four copies, including Burgsteinfurt) and Perchevael (five copies, including the Lancelot Compilation and two eastern manuscripts, see Chapter 8). Seen from an international perspective, the Middle Dutch Perchevael transmission is actually quite modest. Its source text, Chrétien’s Perceval, has come down to us in eighteen copies. The Norse translation of the French text, Parcevals saga, survives in twelve manuscripts, which are in part post-medieval. Like Perchevael, the Welsh Peredur is preserved in five copies. Located at the extreme ends of the Perceval transmission are the Middle English Sir Perceval of Galles, which has survived in a single manuscript, and Wolfram’s Parzival, which has come down to us in an astonishing eighty-seven copies (Busby 2017, 106). Wolfram’s reworking of the French romance clearly overshadows all other Perceval texts. Thanks to just four manuscripts, which are more or less complete, scholars of Middle Dutch are able to fruitfully study the corpus of Arthurian literature that was produced in the Low Countries. The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, takes pride of place, since it contains the Lancelot Compilation. The genesis of this still enigmatic text collection will be discussed in Chapter 7, together with the second manuscript that is of prime importance for Middle Dutch Arthurian studies, codex Burgsteinfurt. The other codices are both housed in Leiden’s University Library, under shelf marks Ltk. 191 (contains, amongst others, Ferguut) and Ltk. 195 (includes Walewein). They will receive ample attention below. 3. Dates of Production The earliest extant fragments containing Middle Dutch narrative literature date from around 1200. They are copies of Floyris ende Blantseflur, an unidentified romance that is provisionally called Henric ende Claredamie (Caers 2011, 225), and the Limburg Aiol (Klein 1995, 13, numbers 1–3). These fragments are roughly contemporaneous with the earliest surviving fragments of Old French Arthurian literature, which date from the final years of the twelfth century: the Sneyd fragments of Tristan and the Tours copy of Cligés (Middleton 2006, 22). The earliest extant text in Middle Dutch that is part of the Arthurian corpus was probably copied more than half a century later. It is the Tristant fragment that is preserved in Vienna (ÖNB, MS Series Nova 3968), dating from the second half of the thirteenth century (Klein 1995, 13, number 5). From the period up to around 1300, circa twenty copies, all of them incomplete, of Middle Dutch narrative texts have come down to us (Klein 1995, 13). These fragments include three Arthurian romances. In addition to the Tristant, there is a copy of the Wrake van Ragisel (Düsseldorf, UB, MS F 26,b and Leiden, UB, MS BPL 3085),

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dating from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, and three copies of Perchevael. These three Perchevael manuscripts were made in the last quarter of the thirteenth century (Luik, UB, MS 1333) and around 1300 (Prague, Museum for National Literature, MS 392/zl, and Düsseldorf, UB, MS K2: F 23). They testify to the early popularity of Chrétien’s last romance in the Low Countries. Most of the surviving copies of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances date from the first half of the fourteenth century. The great majority of these narratives are part of the Lancelot–Grail tradition in the Low Countries. As well as the Lancelot Compilation, made around 1320–5, fragments of Lanceloet (Brussels, KBR, MS II 115,3, and The Hague, KB, MS 75 H 58), Lantsloot vander Haghedochte (Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 1752; Marburg, Staatsarchiv, Bestand 147 Hr 1, Nr. 1; Mengeringhausen (Waldeck), Stadtarchiv, n.s.; Münster, Diözesanbibliothek, Bestand Studien- und Zentralbibliothek der Franziskaner, n.s.) and the Middle Dutch Prose Lancelot (Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek, MS 96 A 7, and Wezemaal, Pastorie Wezemaal, Archiv of the Sint-Martinuskerk, n.s.) remain. Other parts of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle are also preserved in fragments from the first half of the fourteenth century: Arturs doet (Antwerp, Rijksarchief, Sint–Catharinakapittel and Sint–Catharinakerk Hoogstraten, MS nr 2), and Merlin Continuation (Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 1107, Münster, Staatsarchiv, Depositum Landsberg–Velen, n.s.; Maastricht, Rijksarchief, Coll. 236 (olim 167 III 10)). Middle Dutch Arthurian romances that are not part of the Lancelot– Grail tradition and have survived in copies from this period are Ferguut (Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191), Moriaen (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 1059), both dating from around 1325–50, Ridder metter mouwen (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 818), copied in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, and Perchevael, copied around 1350. The manuscript that contains the complete Walewein is dated to 1350, as the colophon states: Dese bouc was ghescreven int jaer – Dat seggic ju wel vorwaer – Als men screef M CCC ende L mede God gheve ons sinen euwegen vrede! (Johnson and Claassens 2000a, ll. 11199–202) (This book was written in the year – this I say to you in all truth – as it is written M CCC and L as well. May God grant us His eternal peace!)

Although the extant manuscripts containing Middle Dutch Arthurian romances may well be unrepresentative, it is noteworthy that there seemed hardly any demand for copies of these texts in the western parts of the Low Countries after 1350. The evidence of the manuscript tradition is limited to some fragments from the second half of the fourteenth century: Queeste vanden Grale (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 636,4), Wrake van Ragisel (Düsseldorf, UB, MS F 26,a) and Walewein (Ghent, UB, MS 1629). This state of affairs is comparable to Arthurian literature in Old French. As Roger Middleton (2006, 54) states: ‘by the middle of the fourteenth century the copying of [French, BB] Arthurian verse texts seems to have been almost entirely abandoned.’

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After c.1350, the interest in French Arthurian literature focused exclusively on prose texts: ‘the copying of the prose romances … continued unabated through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries until print became the dominant medium’ (Middleton 2006, 54). The absence of an Arthurian prose tradition in the Low Countries (see Besamusca 2013) precluded a similar development in these regions. Middle Dutch Arthurian romances were no longer copied (and were not revived in printed form). It is probably no coincidence that the sole witnesses to fifteenth-century interest in Middle Dutch Arthurian literature, codex Burgsteinfurt (c.1422) and codex Blankenheim (1476), were produced for aristocratic circles in the eastern parts of the Low Countries, nowadays the border region of the Netherlands and Germany. Like the German nobility, they remained faithful to Arthurian verse romances (Besamusca and Willaert 2019, 57–66). 4. Places of Production Taking the extant manuscript tradition as evidence suggests that the cradle of Middle Dutch narrative literature was located in the eastern parts of the Low Countries. The earliest fragments preserving these texts were all copied in the Rhine–Meuse area, including Tristant (Caers and Kestemont 2011, 13–14; Caers 2011, 225; Winkelman 2013). However, when the total production of manuscripts containing Middle Dutch romances is taken into account, Flanders and Brabant were far more dominant (Caers 2011, 234). It is, unfortunately, not possible to be more precise about the locations in which the scribes worked. Due to a severe lack of evidence, we are unable to identify local centres of manuscript production. It is plausible that Flemish cities like Ghent and Bruges and Brabantine places such as Brussels and Antwerp housed numerous scribes, especially from the early fourteenth-century onwards, but it is difficult to connect them to individual manuscripts. In the case of the extant copies of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances it has been suggested, but not proven, that the five scribes who made the Lancelot Compilation around 1320–5 worked together in Antwerp (Klein 1995, 6–10). There is manuscript evidence that four of these scribes also copied other texts than the Lancelot Compilation (cf. Kestemont 2018). It has likewise been argued that the Ferguut scribe was a professional working in Brussels around 1325–50. Like the Lancelot Compilation scribes, he copied various other manuscripts that have come down to us (Kwakkel and Mulder 2001). In recent years scholars have studied when and where the authors of Middle Dutch romances worked and when and where the manuscripts of these texts were copied. This research revealed an interesting phenomenon (Willaert 2010, 13–25; Caers 2011). Flemish romances were both written and read in Flanders and some of them moved further eastwards, in particular to Brabant, where copies of these Flemish romances were produced. The reverse movement, however, does not occur, that is to

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say: romances composed outside Flanders were not then copied in Flanders (Caers 2011, 230–4, 238). For an explanation of this state of affairs, scholars have pointed to the apparent prestige of Flemish narrative literature. As a result, people outside Flanders were interested in these texts, while there was no need for Flemish audiences to look for romances elsewhere (Willaert 2010, 21–5; Caers 2011, 241). Many Middle Dutch Arthurian romances that were composed in Flanders are extant in copies from Brabant. Chief witness to this characteristic of the corpus is the Lancelot Compilation, consisting wholly of Flemish romances copied by Brabantine scribes. Some of these texts are also preserved in Flemish copies, thus showing that they were appreciated in their own region: Arturs doet (Antwerp, Rijksarchief, SintCatharinakapittel and Sint-Catharinakerk Hoogstraten, MS nr 2), Moriaen (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 1059), Queeste vanden Grale (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 636,4), Ridder metter mouwen (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 818) and Wrake van Ragisel (two copies: Düsseldorf, UB, MS F 26,b and Leiden, UB, MS BPL 3085; Düsseldorf, UB, MS F 26,a). Two Flemish Arthurian romances are extant in copies from Brabant outside the manuscript context of the Lancelot Compilation: Perchevael (Luik, UB, MS 1333) and Ferguut (Leiden, MS Ltk. 191). It is intriguing that, judging by the manuscript tradition, two Flemish Arthurian romances seem to have been read only in Flanders. Penninc and Vostaert’s Walewein is preserved in two Flemish copies (Leiden, MS Ltk. 195; Ghent, UB, MS 1619), the fragments of Lantsloot vander Haghedochte were once part of a single, Flemish codex (Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 1752; Marburg, Staatsarchiv, Bestand 147 Hr 1, Nr. 1; Mengeringhausen (Waldeck), Stadtarchiv, n.s.; Münster, Diözesanbibliothek, Bestand Studien– und Zentralbibliothek der Franziskaner, n.s.). Coincidence or not, both romances present a highly idealised Arthurian world. While Penninc and Vostaert created that world themselves, as authors, the poet of Lantsloot vander Haghedochte did so by heavily adapting his French source, the Prose Lancelot (Oostrom 1981; see Chapter 7). The two Arthurian romances that were composed in Brabant and only seem to have circulated there resemble contemporaneous chronicles, much more than Walewein and Lantsloot vander Haghedochte do. These texts are the Middle Dutch Prose Lancelot (Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek, MS 96 A 7, and Wezemaal, Pastorie Wezemaal, Archiv of the Sint-Martinuskerk, n.s.) and Lodewijk van Velthem’s Merlin Continuation (Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 1107, Münster, Staatsarchiv, Depositum Landsberg-Velen, n.s.; Maastricht, Rijksarchief, Coll. 236). They seem to fit in with the intense Brabantine interest in historiography (Heymans 1983; Caers 2011, 241). The Flemish court, on the other hand, favoured (French) romances, certainly in the thirteenth century (Collet 2000).

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5. Format and Appearance In a recent article, Jos Biemans (2012, 220–1) has provided a succinct description of the typical manuscript containing a Middle Dutch narrative text. Such a codex is modest, made of parchment, measures circa 230/280 x 160/200 mm, contains text copied in a textualis script in two columns of circa 40/50 lines per page, and has little decoration (simple red and blue coloured initials, penwork limited to the initials and hardly any illustrations). Codices preserving Middle Dutch Arthurian romances generally comply with this characterisation, as is the case for manuscripts that contain English and Norse romances. The corpus of French Arthurian manuscripts, on the other hand, includes, next to many modest copies, lavishly illustrated codices of, in particular, the Perceval Continuations, the Lancelot–Grail Cycle and the Prose Tristan (Middleton 2006, 20–1, 47–8; Busby 2017, 102–5). In German Arthurian literature, Wolfram’s Parzival stands out for often being extensively illustrated with miniatures (Busby 2017, 109). Although various Middle Dutch romances, in particular Charlemagne romances, have been copied in single-column manuscripts, not one of them is Arthurian (Biemans 2012, 232). This state of affairs is probably coincidental, since this type of Arthurian book existed elsewhere in Europe, as is demonstrated by two Perceval codices (Middleton 2006, 19). Among the texts that were copied in two columns it is surprising to find Lantsloot vander Haghedochte, because that romance counts much more lines than the other texts (Biemans 2012, 241–2). The Lantsloot codex measured 390 x 275 mm, which makes it comparable to the largest Chrétien manuscript, BnF, fr. 375, measuring 395 x 305 mm (Middleton 2006, 18). In spite of its large folios, the Lantsloot codex has a mise en page of just two columns of 52 lines each per page. As a result, and even though unillustrated (as far as we know), it is the single de luxe codex among Middle Dutch Arthurian manuscripts. Copied in three columns per page are texts like Lanceloet, the Merlin Continuation and the Lancelot Compilation (Biemans 2012, 234), as could be expected given their length. The odd one out in this category is the large manuscript, measuring 350/360 x 250 mm, that contained the Wrake van Ragisel. Since the text is copied in three columns of 56/57 lines per page, this Middle Dutch translation of the Vengeance Raguidel (6100 lines) needed no more than twenty folios to be written (Kienhorst 1999, 51). This makes it likely that this copy of the romance was not a single-text codex but part of a multi-text codex, preserving a text collection whose contents remain hidden for us due to the fragmentary state of the manuscript (Düsseldorf, UB, MS F 26,b and Leiden, UB, MS BPL 3085). Only two manuscripts containing Middle Dutch Arthurian romances are illustrated, albeit in a very modest way. In Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 191, preserving Ferguut, a historiated initial D (first letter of ‘Die’), nine lines high, indicates the beginning of the romance (fol. 1r). The image shows a standing knight in red armour, who holds a sword and a shield (Meuwese 2005a, 48). As his head and shield are damaged, the

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image cannot be interpreted unequivocally. The shield may have contained the coat of arms of the commissioner of the manuscript, which was erased later. Traces of silver suggest that the shield could originally have been silver white. In that case, the knight is likely to represent the romance’s protagonist, since he is called ‘die ridder metten witten scilde’ (Johnson and Claassens 2000b, l. 3885), the knight with the white shield (Meuwese 1996, 154). The second illustrated manuscript is Leiden, UB, Ltk. 195, containing Walewein. Here too, the illustration is restricted to just one image. On a single leaf of parchment, probably intended to be part of the manuscript right from the start, a full-page miniature (fol. 120v) shows the hero of the romance on horseback, following a floating chessboard in the direction of a mountain (Meuwese 2005a, 49). In the romance, this scene takes place after Walewein has left Arthur’s court and approaches the mountain that will suddenly gape open and close again when the hero is inside (Johnson and Claassens 2000a, ll. 242–60). The knight’s coat of arms, ‘argent, lion’s head gules’ (Meuwese 1996, 152), is depicted on his armour no less than seven times. The flying chessboard does not have pieces, unlike its description in the text, and consists of 7 x 8 rows, due to a drawing error (Meuwese 1996, 151–4). If we include Arthurian illustrations accompanying other types of texts than romances in our discussion, five images may be added to the two just discussed (Meuwese 1996, 155–60). Four of them are quite spectacular, images the width of three columns that show Arthurian scenes in Jacob van Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael (Mirror of History), a late thirteenth-century verse adaptation of Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale (see Chapter 4). They are part of the series of miniatures illustrating Maerlant’s world chronicle in MS KA XX of the Royal Library in The Hague, which was probably produced in Flanders around 1330 (Janssens and Meuwese 1997, 114–26, 133–5; Meuwese 2005a, 50–1). The images depict festivities at Arthur’s court (fol. 153v), the meeting of Walewein and the Roman commander Lucius (fol. 154r), the battle between Arthur and the Romans (fol. 154v), and the final battle between the armies of Arthur and Mordred (fol. 163v; see also the cover image of this book). The fifth Arthurian illustration that does not accompany an Arthurian romance shows the famous tryst beneath the tree scene of the Tristan tradition (Meuwese 1996, 158–60; 2005a, 57). It is a coloured pen drawing on fol. 155v of the Leiden paper manuscript Ltk. 205, produced in Holland in 1486. The codex contains an early fifteenth-century treatise on love, Der minnen loep (The course of love), written by Dirc Potter. He uses the Tristan scene to exemplify what he considers ‘good’ love, one of four types of love he distinguishes, the others being ‘foolish’, ‘licit’ and ‘illicit’ love (see Buuren 1994).

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6. Two Correctors One of the two contemporaneous correctors of Middle Dutch Arthurian texts offers insight into his activities at the end of the Ferguut copy he has been working on (Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191, fol. 1–32). Continuing the scribe’s prayer to be protected by God from misery (Johnson and Claassens 2000b, ll. 5590–2), the corrector adds: Ende alle diet hebben horen lesen Moeten met Gode vercoren wesen Ende hemelrike verlene hi mede Hem die dit screef ende scriven dede. Amen (ll. 5593–6) (And may all those who have heard it read aloud be among God’s chosen and may He moreover grant heavenly reward to him who wrote this and had it written.)

Following this indication of the aural reception of the text and the anonymous author and patron of the romance (or the scribe and commissioner of the manuscript), he addresses the person whom he has served: Here, hier hebdi van Ferragute Van beghinne ten inde al ute Ghecorrigeert van miere hant Over al soe waer ict vant In rijm, in vers, in ward messcreven. God van hemele moet u gheven Lanc lijf, ghesonde ende ere. Tuwen ghebode blijf ic vort mere. (ll. 5597–604) (My Lord, here you have the story of Ferguut, from beginning to end corrected by me wherever I found wrongly written rhymes, lines and words. May God in heaven grant you long life, health and honour. I will remain at your service forever.)

According to Jan Willem Klein (1995, 10), this corrector is identical to one of the two scribes who copied the Leiden fragments of the Merlin Continuation (Ltk. 1107) in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. Noticing that line 5603, ‘Lanc lijf, ghesonde ende ere’, is identical to a line in the colophon of Jan van Boendale’s Lekenspiegel, Willem Kuiper (1989, 72) has suggested that this Brabantine author could be the corrector of the Ferguut copy. The nobleman for whom he worked remains unknown. Research has confirmed the corrector’s categorisation of his activities: he focused on words, couplets and lines (Kuiper 1989, 71–215). Working his way through the text, he corrected on average once every 20/25 lines, which resulted in almost 250 corrections, without having access to another copy of the Ferguut or a manuscript containing the French Fergus. Focusing much more on the formal characteristics of the text than on its contents, he aimed in particular at writing correct rhyming couplets. When it is told, for example, at the beginning of the text that the queen wore a cloak of ermine (ll. 67–8), the corrector did not accept the imperfect couplet ‘coninginne’ : ‘hermine’, but produced a correct couplet by adding ‘fine’ (noble) after ‘coninginne’

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(Kuiper 1989, 81). At other moments, he noticed missing lines, as in the passage which describes how Ferguut ties his horse to a tree. Since the scribe did not copy the corresponding line to ‘Ferguut ghincker tsine ane knopen’ (Ferguut went to bind his horse fast, l. 1593), the corrector added a line in the right margin of fol. 10va: ‘Eer he woude danen lopen’ (before heading back on foot, l. 1594) (Kuiper 1989, 131–2). One of the single words that did not find favour in the corrector’s eyes was the preposition ‘bachten’ (behind). When, for example, Ferguut’s location was described as ‘bachten die ploech’ (behind the plough, l. 321), the corrector replaced, by means of erasure, ‘bachten’ by its synonym ‘achter’. As he removed the word systematically, he must have felt it to be overtly archaic or, more probable, too Flemish (Kuiper 1989, 91, 102, 108, 143). The second corrector to be discussed here certainly disapproved of Flemish idioms. While reading the Lancelot Compilation in manuscript The Hague, KB, 129 A 10, he frequently noticed that the Brabantine scribes had retained peculiarities obviously present in their Flemish exemplar (which was not on his desk). It concerns, for instance, forms such as the personal pronouns ‘soe’, ‘hie’ and ‘wie’ (she, he, we), that are replaced, albeit not systematically, by ‘si’, ‘hi’ and ‘wi’. Other corrections to the Flemish dialect include ‘ic bem’ (I am), changed to ‘ic ben’, deleting the letter ‘e’ in ‘goede’ (oblique case of ‘god’), and adding the prefix ‘ge’ to past participles (Gerritsen 1976, 49–50). The corrector of the Lancelot Compilation was obviously keen on scribal errors. These mistakes were made in particular by the first of the five scribes who copied the text. His careless attitude comes to the fore, for example, right at the beginning of the collection’s first romance, Lanceloet, when the narrator tells us that queen Guinevere was accompanied by some knights and a servant. The scribe wrote: Daer was die sciltknecht in die vart, Die ene brocke vorde daer bi Ende was der coning, die si Altoes met hare voren dede. (Besamusca and Postma 1997, ll. 46–9) (In the company was the squire, who led a hound that belonged to the king, which she always took with her.)

The corrector stumbled across no fewer than three errors. As the squire was not mentioned earlier, he changed ‘die sciltknecht’ into ‘oc een sciltknecht’ (also a squire). By means of expunction, he corrected the unfitting vowel in ‘brocke’, resulting in ‘bracke’ (cf. Old French ‘brachet’, ‘braquet’). Finally, he completed the misspelled ‘coning’ by adding ‘inne’ (‘coninginne’, queen). In addition to amending errors, the corrector frequently added words to enable a better understanding of the text. In these cases, he did not intend to change the contents, but made it more accessible. An example is the passage that announces the duel of two knights: ‘Dus begonsten si hem te gereiden / Om te joesteren onder hem beiden.’ (So, they started to prepare themselves in order to joust together, ll. 219–20.)

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In both lines, the word ‘te’ (to) was added by the corrector to make the sentence less concise. An additional explanation for these stylistic interventions has been proposed by Jos Biemans (2005). He interpreted them as part of the corrector’s goal to modernise the text. Adapting an old-fashioned verse romance, the corrector would have strived for a text that looked more like a modern prose romance. Biemans’s proposal elegantly accounts for the odd long lines that are sometimes the result of the corrector’s interventions. They may look strange in a verse text but are certainly not anomalous when dealing with an attempt at prosification. An alternative explanation for the corrector’s interventions is favoured by the majority of the scholars who studied the Lancelot Compilation. In their view, the indication ‘corrector’ does not adequately encompass large parts of his activities, that are unique to the medieval manuscript tradition. Continuing a line of reasoning set up by W. P. Gerritsen (1976), they argue that the corrector was preparing the text for oral delivery. In the left-hand margins of the columns, he added signs, like single, double and triple dots, and words, like conjunctions, vocatives and interjections that would facilitate his reading aloud of the text (Brandsma 2000a; Besamusca 2003a, 11–14; Brandsma 2003a, 215–17; Brandsma 2013). How this could have worked can be shown by analysing the passage in which a damsel visits the imprisoned Sagrimor (Besamusca and Postma 1997, ll. 1021–30): ende ay here . ende

Doe si een stuc hadde gestaen dare Seide Sagrimor tote hare: ‘Ic sterve van hongere, joncfrouwe, nu.’ ‘Hebbedi so groeten honger nu?’ ‘Jay ic, ic sterve sekerlike En hebbic niet teten haestelike.’ ‘Here, beit daer een lettel mede!’ Die joncfrouwe ginc en wech gerede. Si quam weder saen ende seide: ‘Here, gi sult eten sonder beide.’

([and] When she stood there for a while, Sagrimor said to her: ‘[ah] I am starving to death now, damsel.’ ‘[sir] Are you so hungry now?’ ‘Yes, I will surely die if I don’t have something to eat soon.’ ‘Sir, just wait a little longer!’ The damsel left instantly. [and] Soon she returned and said: ‘Sir, you may eat immediately.’)

For a medieval performer, these marginal additions must have been very helpful. In lines 2021, 2027 and 2029, the word ‘ende’ and the dot indicate the beginning of a new sentence. The interjection ‘ay’ in the margin of line 1023 prepares for an emotional tone (Brandsma 2015, 148–9), and the word ‘here’ in front of line 1024 announces a change of speaker. It is assumed that these additions were meant to be voiced, but they may also have functioned as signposts only, as is definitely the case with the marginal dots. The performance hypothesis is challenged by a type of intervention that, according to Gerritsen (1976, 42), looks like ‘a neat little cryptogram’. Although these

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corrections, which are so complicated as to require a closer look, are not numerous, it is hard to imagine them adequately assisting a performer, even in his preparation phase. One way of explaining them is by assuming that MS 129 A 10 was not meant to be a performer’s copy but served as the exemplar of a manuscript in which all corrections and additions had to be (or were) incorporated (Klein 1998, 106–9, 113–14). This assumption is supported by the poor quality of codex 129 A 10. The palimpsests, mended tears, holes and damaged corners may point at a codex that served as a working copy (Besamusca 2003a, 8–11; see also Chapter 7). A captivating aspect of the corrector’s interventions is that they are limited to just four romances in the Lancelot Compilation: Lanceloet, Perchevael, Queeste vanden Grale and Arturs doet. The other six romances show no sign of the corrector’s work. Scholars were unable to provide an explanation for this phenomenon until Jan Willem Klein (1990) argued that MS 129 A10 was produced in phases. He demonstrated that at a certain moment in the genesis of the codex the four romances were considered to form a text collection, as indicated by their decoration. The corrector worked on this sequence of four texts before the final contents of the text collection, consisting of ten romances, was established. This means that he was active while the codex was being produced, and that, for some unknown reason, the six romances that were included in the text collection at a later stage never found their way to his desk (see also Chapter 7). Another intriguing feature of the corrector’s work concerns the frequency of his interventions. Whereas he quite heavily edited Lanceloet, his corrections and additions became less frequent in the other three romances. By the time he had reached the final text, Arturs doet on folio 201r, his interventions were rather sparse, and they stopped near the end of the romance, on folio 230r. How can we account for this characteristic of his work? One might assume that he got tired with the job. It is more likely, however, that he worked under pressure of time. This opinion can be linked to the phased production of MS 129 A 10. It is conceivable that he had to hand in the manuscript that contained the four texts at a certain point, probably because it was decided to add more romances to the collection. In order to meet the deadline, he reduced his interventions, but to no avail. Having reached the end of column c of folio 230r, well before the end of Arturs doet on folio 238r, his activities stopped completely: he probably had to part with the manuscript. Nowhere does the corrector provide a clue with regard to his identity. Scholars have suggested two candidates. One of them is the Brabantine author Jan van Boendale, who has also been proposed as the corrector of the Ferguut codex. Since the hands of the two correctors are not identical, one of the two suggestions is certainly wrong (Klein 1998, 119 and 122–3, note 61). The second candidate is Lodewijk van Velthem, who was the owner of MS 129 A 10. His role will be discussed in Chapter 7.

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7. Two Text Collections French Arthurian verse romances have come down to us in two types of manuscripts: single-text codices and multi-text codices (Busby 2017, 98). The same goes for Middle Dutch Arthurian narratives, albeit that the fragmentary manuscript transmission precludes firm statements. While evidence for single-text codices is limited, four more or less complete multi-text manuscripts lend themselves to analysis. Next to the text collections in the codices The Hague, KB, 129 A 10 and Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek, MS 28, which will both be discussed in Chapter 7, Middle Dutch Arthurian romances are included in Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191 and Ltk. 195. MS Ltk. 191 is a composite volume, consisting of six single-text codices. All of them came into being around the middle of the fourteenth century (Lieftinck 1948, 10–14). The first manuscript (fol. 1–32) contains the Ferguut, copied by a single scribe. The second codex (fol. 33–58) preserves a Middle Dutch adaptation of the Old French Floire et Blanchefleur, written by the Flemish poet Diederic van Assenede. One of the two scribes who copied Floris ende Blanchefloer also produced the third codex (fol. 59–84), which contains a Middle Dutch verse rendition of Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea. The fourth codex (fol. 85–94) holds a collection of fables, Esopet, written by a single scribe. Copied by two scribes, the treatise Bediedenisse van der misse (the meaning of the Mass) forms the contents of the fifth manuscript (fol. 95–103). The sixth codex (fol. 104–46), finally, preserves another treatise, the Dietsche doctrinael (Dutch treatise on ethics), which may have been written by Jan van Boendale. This adaptation of Albertus of Brescia’s De amore et dilectione Dei was copied by a single scribe. Since some scribes worked in each other’s vicinity and we know, as mentioned earlier, that the Ferguut scribe copied other manuscripts, it is conceivable that these six manuscripts resulted from a network of professional book producers. On folio 32v, right after the end of Ferguut, a hand that can be dated to around 1400 (Lieftinck 1948, 11, 14) copied lines from the beginning of the Dietsche doctrinael (Kuiper 1998, 174). This proves that the Ferguut codex and the sixth codex of the volume were combined at the end of the fourteenth century. We do not know, however, if the other manuscripts were also involved at that time. Neither can we reconstruct the original order of the codices. What we do know, on the basis of the book cover, is that the current order was established in the second half of the seventeenth century at the latest (Kuiper 1989, 172–3). A shared feature of the texts in MS Ltk. 191 is their form: they are all verse texts. On the basis of their contents, however, one may wonder if any organisational principle underlies the text collection. Since we are dealing with romances, verse narratives, including fables, and treatises, it is far from easy to point out a common denominator, or to discover a reason behind the sequence of texts. In a recent article, on which the following paragraphs are based, a logic of distribution has been proposed (Besamusca 2018, 23–8).

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Looking at the text collection from a generic point of view, one may detect a subdivision in three parts. Ferguut and Floris ende Blanchefloer are representatives of the romance genre. These texts are, moreover, thematically linked, since both narratives deal, in essence, with love. They are followed by two other texts, which are stories, or tales, but not romances. The main characters of the third text, Der ystorien bloeme, are apostles, instead of knights or love-sick young men. More importantly, Der ystorien bloeme is a narrative with an edifying character, which is stressed in the text’s prologue. The author announces that he will tell of people [die] vor ons leefden in erdrike Ende lieten exemple waerlike Ons, dat wi hem volghen na. (Oudemans 1857, ll. 9–11) (who lived before us on earth and provided us with examples in order that we should imitate them.)

The word ‘exemple’ also features in the prologue of the fourth text in the codex. With Esopet, we move from saints’ lives to fables. This narrative genre is characterised by its explicit blending of recreation and instruction. Accordingly, the prologue of Esopet states: Ic sal v hier exemple maken Van beesten recht of si spraken Maer merket ende hoert Meer die redene dan die woert. (Stuiveling 1965, ll. 17–20) (I will present examples of animals as if they could talk, but pay more attention to the meaning than to the story.)

The final two texts in the text collection are not narratives. The Bediedenisse van der missen and the Dietsche doctrinael are treatises, offering straightforward instruction. While the Bediedenisse van der missen deals with religious aspects of daily life, the Dietsche doctrinael focuses on intellectual and moral matters. Two romances that were primarily intended to offer recreational pleasure are followed by two narratives that were geared towards edification, as exemplified by the use of the word ‘exemple’ in their prologues, and by two prescriptive treatises that were meant to instruct their readers. Genre classifications reveal a movement in the text collection from recreation to instruction. The order of the texts in the text collection recalls Horace’s Ars poetica, which greatly influenced the medieval understanding of the function of literature (Olson 1982, 20). Generic features point to a logic of distribution in line with Horace’s concept of blending benefit and enjoyment, utile dulci, albeit in this case presented in the reverse order of entertaining romances followed by edifying tales and instructive treatises. The text collection that is preserved in MS Ltk. 195 is far less varied, consisting of just two romances (Lieftinck 1948, 16–18). Copied by a single scribe around 1350, the first single-text manuscript (fol. 1–119) of this composite volume contains the long verse narrative Heinric en Margriete van Limborch, which focuses on the love

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between Margriete, daughter of the duke of Limburg, and Echites, prince of Athens. The second single-text codex (fol. 120–82), that dates from 1350, preserves the Walewein, copied by two scribes (cf. Dalen-Oskam and Van Zundert 2007). This manuscript opens with the single leaf of parchment that shows the full-page miniature that was discussed earlier (fol. 120v). On fol. 120r, a hand that is not identical to the scribes of MS Ltk. 195 copied the concluding seven lines of Heinric en Margriete van Limborch. Since this hand can be dated to the second half of the fourteenth century, it is certain that the two romances were brought together already in medieval times. At least five, partly overlapping, reasons may have prompted the decision to combine the two manuscripts. First, just the wish to collect courtly verse texts may have led to the genesis of the composite volume. Secondly, the convenient size of the combined manuscripts, 182 folios as a result of copying two romances of considerable length, may have incited the creation of MS Ltk. 195. Thirdly, Heinric en Margriete van Limborch and Walewein may have been brought together because both romances were popular, as testified by the manuscript tradition of the former text (Wachter et al. 2001) and the literary influence of the latter (Besamusca 1993). They may have been combined, fourthly, because they are indigenous romances. The fifth reason for the existence of MS Ltk. 195 may be the shared features of Heinric en Margriete van Limborch and Walewein. Both romances are not only long, they also have a complex narrative structure and were composed on the basis of a large variety of narrative sources. 8. Conclusion The manuscript transmission of the corpus of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances is nicely mirrored by Lanceloet. For one thing, a large portion of the text, c.37,000 lines, has been preserved, as noted at the beginning of this chapter. The pitiful remnants of the Middle Dutch Charlemagne romances, for example, shrink into insignificance when compared to this number of verses (Besamusca 1983a; Have 2005, 2011). For another, however, calculations show that around 57,500 lines of Lanceloet are lost. They reflect the modest survival rate of the totality of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances. 9. Manuscripts Online The following manuscripts are digitised: The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10 https://www.kb.nl/themas/middeleeuwen/lancelotcompilatie

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Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191 http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1598537 Leiden, UB, Ltk. 195 http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1595077 Leiden, UB, Ltk. 205 http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1608717 Fragments of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances which are digitised may be found by consulting https://nl.wikisource.org/wiki/Lijst_van_gedigitaliseerde_Middelnederlan dse_handschriften_en_drukken_in_binnen-_en_buitenlandse_bibliotheken (updated regularly) 10. Overview: Manuscripts and Print This overview, which lists all known codices and fragments of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances, is a corrected version of the appendix which was published in JIAS, 3 (2015), 27–9. Arturs doet The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 201r–38r Antwerp, Rijksarchief, Sint-Catharinakapittel en Sint-Catharinakerk Hoogstraten, MS nr. 2 (fragment) Ferguut Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 191, fol. 1–32 Historie van Merlijn Brussels, KBR, Oude druk V.H. 27526 A (printed fragments) Jacob van Maerlant, Historie vanden Grale Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek, MS 28 (B 37), fol. 1r–13r Jacob van Maerlant, Boek van Merline Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek, MS 28 (B 37), fol. 13r–62v Münster, Staatsarchiv, Depositum Landsberg-Velen, n.s. (fragment) Jacob van Maerlant (?), Torec The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 190r–200v

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Lanceloet The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 1r–99v Brussels, KBR, MS II 115–3 (fragment) The Hague, KB, MS 75 H 58 (fragment) Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 188r–90r Lancelot (Prose) Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek, MS 96 A 7 (fragments) Wezemaal, Pastorie Wezemaal, Archiv of the Sint-Martinuskerk, n.s. (fragment) Lancelot Compilation The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10 Lantsloot vander Haghedochte Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 1752 (fragment) Marburg, Staatsarchiv, Bestand 147 Hr 1, Nr. 1 (fragments) Mengeringhausen (Waldeck), Stadtarchiv, n.s. (fragment, lost) Münster, Diözesanbibliothek, Bestand Studien- und Zentralbibliothek der Franziskaner, n.s. (fragments) Lodewijk van Velthem, Merlin Continuation Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek, MS 28 (B 37), fol. 62v–229r Leiden, University Library, MS Ltk. 1107 (fragments) Maastricht, Rijksarchief, Coll. 236 (fragment) Münster, Staatsarchiv, Depositum Landsberg-Velen, n.s. (fragments) Moriaen The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 116r–28v Brussels, KBR, MS IV 1059 (fragments) Penninc and Pieter Vostaert, Walewein Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 195, fol. 120–82 Ghent, University Library, MS 1619 (fragments) Perchevael The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 100r–15v Düsseldorf, UB, K 2: F 23 (fragment) Brussels, KBR, MS II 115–2 (fragment)

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Liège, UB, MS 1333 (fragments) Prague, Museum for National Literature, 392/zl (fragments) Queeste vanden Grale The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 129r–58v Brussels, KBR, MS IV 636–4 (fragment) Ridder metter mouwen The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 167r–77v Brussels, KBR, MS IV 818 (fragment) Tristant Vienna, ÖNB, MS Series Nova 3968 (fragment) Walewein ende Keye The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 178r–87v Wrake van Ragisel The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10, fol. 158v–66v Düsseldorf, UB, Dauerleihgabe der Stadt Düsseldorf, F 26,a and F 26,b (fragments) Leiden, UB, MS BPL 3085 (fragments)

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4 KING ARTHUR IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE LOW COUNTRIES Thea Summerfield

1. Jacob van Maerlant The first references to King Arthur in Middle Dutch works of a historical nature are found in the writings of the Flemish author Jacob van Maerlant, born in the environs of Bruges c.1230. Some thirty years later he was appointed sexton of the church of St Peter in the hamlet of Maerlant (also: Merlant) on the island of Voorne in Zeeland, roughly 100 kilometres north of Bruges (Oostrom 1996a, 19–147). Apart from being charged with the usual tasks that devolved on sextons, it is likely that Maerlant acted as tutor to the young, fatherless Albrecht, Lord of Voorne and Viscount of Zeeland, and possibly also to the young, also fatherless, Count Floris of Holland and Zeeland,1 and that his writings were primarily intended to instruct and entertain his pupils. It is in Voorne that he wrote the first three texts of what was to become an extensive corpus. After eight to ten years in Voorne, Maerlant settled in Damme, the bustling harbour of Bruges. There he wrote works on a variety of subjects, ending with a mirror of history, the Spiegel historiael, dedicated to Count Floris. He died around the turn of the century. As it has been claimed that in Maerlant’s work a shift may be traced in his attitude towards the Arthurian past (Gerritsen 1981), it is important to review Maerlant’s comments on Arthurian legends and King Arthur’s role in history in his three early works before embarking on his historiographical chef d’oeuvre, the Spiegel historiael. Maerlant’s first work, Alexanders geesten (The Deeds of Alexander the Great), written between c.1257 and 1260, is an adaptation in rhymed couplets of the Latin Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon. It has a small number of references to King Arthur. In the prologue Maerlant declares that by the side of Alexander’s exploits all other famous wars pale into insignificance, including those of Charlemagne and Arthur and Gawain’s adventures (Franck 1882, ll. 47–56). Then, at the end of Book V, he takes issue with all those who in the past had made books about Arthur and Charlemagne, referring in connection with the latter to the story about Partonopeu of Blois and his commander Sornagur. They would have done better to extol the actions of Alexander, he adds (Book V, ll. 1210–12).

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King Arthur is thus given equal status with Charlemagne, but Maerlant is censorious about stories featuring these kings, and especially about those focusing on the knights closest to them (Gawain, Partonopeu). He also leaves no doubt that he considers both kings to be inferior to Alexander. Finally, the people from ‘Baertanien’ (Britain) are condemned as being silly (‘dul’) as some of them believe that King Arthur will return (ll. 1802–4).2 On the whole, then, Maerlant does not seem overly impressed at this stage by what he knew about King Arthur. And yet with his next two works (c.1261) he positions himself right on the edge of the legendary Arthurian landscape. The first was a Grail story: a translation of an anonymous Old French prose adaptation of Robert de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie, followed by the Old French Prose Estoire de Merlin,3 which relates the story of Merlin’s conception and birth, the sword in the stone and Arthur’s coronation. The second was a translation of the romance of Torec, featuring a mature, active and physically strong King Arthur and the adventures of his knight Torec. As Chapter 5 describes, it is a fully fledged Arthurian romance, replete with castles, damsels in distress, and magic. Maerlant’s Old French source, Torrez, le chevalier au cercle d’or, does not survive.4 Nor does his Torec survive as an independent text: it is extant only as the penultimate romance in the collection of Middle Dutch romances known as the Lancelot Compilation (see Chapter 7).5 Although Maerlant clearly had reservations about the Grail story (Gerritsen 1981, 369–73), he appears to have entered into the spirit of the Merlin story and of the romance of Torec with gusto. Unless the two Arthurian works were later reworked heavily by continuator and compiler Lodewijk van Velthem (see below), it is fair to say that Maerlant provided his readers and young audience with entertaining, flowing and often humorous romances. After Torec, Maerlant left Voorne for Damme. King Arthur and his knights continued to feature in the works he wrote there, not least in his last work, the Spiegel historiael.6 The Spiegel historiael is an adaptation in rhymed couplets of Vincent of Beauvais’s massive Speculum historiale. Maerlant worked on it from 1284 to 1289 (Oostrom 1996a, 370). It is divided into four parts, each part in turn being divided into a number of books with clearly rubricated chapters and explicit references forwards and backwards.7 Maerlant translated and adapted Parts I (c.1284) and III (c.1285) but proved unable to finish Part IV. When he stopped, probably c.1289 with the words that he needed a rest,8 he had reached c. 1107 AD (IV, Bk 3, Ch. 33, ll. 32–8). In 1300 Part II was given to the clerk Filip Utenbroeke to translate, and in 1315 Part IV was finished by Lodewijk van Velthem, who added a largely contemporary Part V a year later (see below). Earlier we saw that Maerlant was critical in his first work, Alexanders geesten, of romances featuring King Arthur or Charlemagne. In his later works his critical attitude regarding this subject became almost obsessive. For example, in his ultra-pessimistic prologue to his Sinte Franciscus Leven, Life of St Francis (written 1276–83), he attributes much of the world’s ills to people’s propensity for ‘boerden’

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and ‘favelen’ (low level fictions and fables) (ll. 10, 47, 50, 62), specifically those about Tristan, Lancelot, Perceval and Galehaut (ll. 33–5).9 The Spiegel historiael offers many similar comments. In the Prologue to Part I, readers are promised truth, fine educational examples and morally suitable entertainment, without such detrimental elements as the ‘boerde’ of the Grail story, the lies about Perceval, the nonsensical tale about Lanval (one of the lais by Marie de France) and many other ‘valscher sagen’ (false stories). Part III includes c.1400 lines devoted to the story of the Saxon invasions and the rise and reign of King Arthur, interspersed with comments on the relative merits of Maerlant’s sources. Merlin plays an important role; Maerlant describes his detection of the two dragons and what they stood for, Merlin’s removal of gigantic stones from Ireland to England, and his predictions about the future, especially about Arthur’s conquests. Prophecies, Maerlant explains, are divine knowledge divulged to special mortals, like Balaam in the time of Moses, and are to be taken seriously (III, Bk 5, Ch. 14, ll. 104–14). Arthur is always described in glowing terms: mild and loyal, a true Christian, powerful, benevolent and pious (III, Bk 5, Ch. 32, ll. 72–6), a great conqueror besides, aided by his sword Calabrunus and spear Reu, his shield with the image of the Virgin Mary on the inside, and his father’s helmet with the dragon atop (III, Bk 5, Ch. 49, ll. 54–62). Words cannot describe the feasts that he organises (III, Bk 5, Ch. 50, ll. 1–70). He kills the rapist giant of Mont-St-Michel (‘Richoene’), who, as he tells his men, is similar to the one called ‘Rithon’ who had once asked for Arthur’s beard to add to his cloak (III, Bk 5, Ch. 51, ll. 80–110). Next, he deals with a Roman bailiff called Felloen (III, Bk 5, Ch. 52, l. 9), and defeats the Roman army, sending Lucius’s body, embalmed, to Rome by way of tribute (III, Bk 5, Ch. 54, ll. 12–20). However, the fight against Mordred is one that he cannot win (III, Bk 6, Ch. 29–30); Arthur receives a fatal injury (‘dootwonde’, III, Bk 6, Ch. 30, l. 60) and is taken to an unknown island. Maerlant concludes that since then no one has surpassed Arthur in courage, generosity, piety or Christian virtue (III, Bk 6, Ch. 30, ll. 80–4). Throughout Maerlant proves himself to be a great storyteller, writing with an eye to lively, visual detail, such as tents being pitched, men waiting for sunrise before battle (III, Bk 5, Ch. 53, ll. 41–6) or King Arthur crouching among the rocks to catch the giant by surprise (III, Bk 5, Ch. 42, ll. 86–8). Maerlant’s Latin source is likely to have been Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (below: HRB), although he never refers to it by name. Perhaps he used the First Variant Version, which lacks the reference to Geoffrey’s name found in the Vulgate version.10 In addition, Maerlant sometimes cites ‘dWalsch dicht’ (the French poem), by which he may mean the Estoire de Merlin that he had translated earlier, but he may also have used a French history (or pseudo-history, in Maerlant’s view) rather like Wace’s Roman de Brut, for example for information on Stonehenge, by Maerlant called ‘The Dance of the Giants’.11

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Maerlant devotes a great deal of space to passionate discussions about the primacy of his sources for Arthurian material. It is a subject that, as we saw earlier, occupied him throughout his life. He impresses on his readers time and again that it is only the Latin text that can be trusted, as the French (‘walsch’ or ‘romance’) accounts are full of falsehoods. Stories featuring individual knights like Lancelot, Perceval, Agravain (III, Bk 5, Ch. 49, ll. 16–19), Galehaut, King Ban of Benoic and Bohort (of Gannes) (III, Bk 5, Ch. 54, ll. 51–4) are dismissed as ‘boerden’ about invented characters with fictitious names (‘geveinseder namen’, l. 55). In the process Maerlant betrays that he was well acquainted with the romances of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. However, not everyone in King Arthur’s entourage is dismissed: ‘the good Gawain’, false Mordred, and Kay, ‘who is mocked so mercilessly by the French’, are mentioned in ‘sine jeesten’, his Latin source, and can, therefore, in his view be trusted to have played a historical role (III, Bk 5, Ch. 49, ll. 20–4). W. P. Gerritsen (1981) has argued that Maerlant’s passionate rejection of information from French sources, whether history or romance, is due to Maerlant’s belated discovery of Geoffrey’s HRB. This certainly is a possibility and may have fanned the flames of the distrust of fiction already present in Alexanders geesten. There may, however, also have been something else at stake. In Part III an almost pleading tone can be heard when Maerlant writes ‘put more belief in my rendition of the history in Latin’ (III, Bk 5, Ch. 31, ll. 67–72). Later, in Part IV, in his famous chapter 29, entitled ‘Tscelden jegen die borderes’ (Railing against the storytellers), devoted to contrasting Latin historiography and vernacular romances, Maerlant is more explicit. There he argues that the seductive stylistic and rhetorical methods used by these romance authors ‘murder’ true histories (‘Vraye ystorien vermorden met sconen rime, met scoenre tale’, III, Bk 1, Ch. 29, ll. 2–3), and worse, that they sometimes even give pride of place to someone from Arthur’s or Charlemagne’s retinue rather than to the heroic king or emperor himself.12 Summing up he writes: Arthur was in sinen stonden Die beste vander tafelronden, Hoe si van Lancelote zinghen Ende van Willemme van Oringen. (IV, Bk 1, Ch. 29, ll. 55–8) (Arthur was in his time the best [man] of the Round Table, whatever they may sing about Lancelot and William of Oringen [Guillaume d’Orange].)

The danger that Maerlant fears is that the event-driven, spectacular fictional romances will eclipse the drier, enumerative fact-based histories, and that the protagonists of the romances will eventually usurp the place properly belonging to the real heroes of the past: the kings and emperors. The idea that Arthurian romances with their French background, increasingly popular at the time, would come to be considered as history, as recording real events that had really happened, clearly was anathema to Maerlant. Could it be that such notions were ‘in the air’ around the turn of the fourteenth century, at a time when Arthurian romances were collected, for example by Maerlant’s

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continuator Lodewijk van Velthem? As we shall see, Velthem took the extent to which Arthurian lore might be considered ‘serious history’ to an entirely different level. 2. Lodewijk van Velthem, Continuator From 1312, Lodewijk van Velthem was the parish priest of the church of St Lawrence in Velthem, a village in Brabant, near Louvain.13 Earlier he appears to have been part of the retinue of John I, Duke of Brabant. His literary activities are confined to continuations of works by Maerlant: he completed Part IV of the Spiegel historiael in 1315–16, wrote a contemporary Part V in 1316–17, and continued Maerlant’s Boek van Merline in 1326–7. It is important to bear in mind that Velthem was also the owner of the Lancelot Compilation, a large collection of Arthurian romances. It must have been something of a relief to Lodewijk van Velthem to be able to write independently about contemporary history.14 He had been asked to continue Part IV of the Spiegel historiael in 1315, but admitted that he had found translating from Latin difficult (IV, prologue, ll. 21–40).15 Frequently he rewrote, rather than offering a close translation (Warnar 2009). On completion, he continued writing without much of a break about events between c.1248 and 1316, thus adding a Part V to the Spiegel historiael. As regards form and style, it was made to resemble the earlier parts closely in its use of rhymed couplets, a division into books (six, to which another two books were added later) and chapters, as well as explicit references forwards and backwards. Part V is generally referred to in English as the Continuation, a title I will use here. Its accounts of the connection between Arthurian legends and King Edward I of England and its references to Arthurian romances generally in Books 2 and 3 have aroused much scholarly interest and controversy.16 In Book 2 of the Continuation, Velthem famously describes festivities that Edward I is said to have organised to celebrate at the same time both his marriage to Eleanor of Castile and the death in battle of his uncle Simon de Montfort, leader of the baronial revolt of 1260–5. The partisan account of the revolt, heavily biased towards preserving the rights of – in Velthem’s presentation – the young and innocent crown prince Edward (Summerfield 2015, 40),17 is the catalyst of the Arthurian adventures that follow. The celebrations consist of three games (Velthem refers to each of them as a ‘spel’): first a tournament (II, ll. 1180–267), followed by a banquet (II, ll. 1268–637) during which Edward and his knights, the latter pretending to be Knights of Round Table, are presented with martial challenges, and finally a third ‘spel’ consisting of the dramatic execution of these challenges, all of which refer to the political conflicts that King Edward was involved in at the time (II, ll. 1793–2114). The banquet in particular led to far-reaching speculative scholarly assumptions, a process stimulated by Velthem’s obvious ‘historical blunders’, such as dating the king’s wedding to 1265, eleven years after the actual date of the marriage (1254). The search for historical

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occasions and venues where the (unrecorded) celebrations might have taken place, unfortunately led to a complete disregard of the literary context of Velthem’s Continuation.18 After a brief mention of the public wedding celebrations (a mere fifteen lines), Velthem devotes some 500 lines to the more private celebrations at court, for which King Edward and his knights assume the personae of King Arthur and his knights. In the course of his lively and detailed account, with a great deal of dialogue, Velthem reminds his public that what happened during the celebrations at the Edwardian court was ‘just like the stories that we have often read’ (II, 1276–7: … ‘dat wi gelesen / Dicke hebben’). In the course of the first ‘spel’, the tournament (II, ll. 1180–262), the knight pretending to be seneschal Kay is humiliatingly unhorsed by twenty young opponents who have secretly cut his saddle girth. This is his punishment for always being so badtempered, they declare, although no one is hurt, and it is all done for fun. Clearly Velthem was inspired by the portrayal of Kay in Arthurian romances generally, but more specifically by the romance of Torec, which also features a group of twenty young men and cut saddle girths. As we saw earlier, Torec is one of the romances that is included in the Velthem-owned Lancelot Compilation. The banquet that follows (II, ll. 1268–637) had, according to Velthem, been organised by the king himself, who, in true Arthurian style, as Velthem stresses explicitly, declared that he would not start on his dinner until some miracle happened.19 When he raps on a window, three ‘Arthurian’ knights appear. The first one is covered in blood, and urges ‘Gawain’ to attack ‘the city of Cornwall’ and the king to avenge himself on the Welsh; the second is tied hand and foot, and, when ‘Lancelot’ unties him, he is presented with a letter stating that he is now bound to revenge himself on the King of Ireland. Explicit directions are given for finding Ireland: they must ride across England and Wales, and when Lancelot appears worried by the challenge, ‘Gawain’ and the king, speaking for all his knights, promise they will help him when the ‘spel’, i.e. the game, is executed on the ‘plein’, i.e. the playing area (II, ll. 1419, 1432). Finally, a third knight appears who raises the level of hilarity to an even higher pitch: he has been made to look like a ‘loathly lady’. In fact, Velthem states, he was just like the ugly damsel in Perchevael, another of the romances in Velthem’s Lancelot Compilation. The ‘lady’ greets, by name, Lancelot, Perceval, Gawain, Mordred, Kay, Agravain and Gareth, ‘as well as all the others sitting here’ (II, ll. 1504–7) and tells Perceval to go to Leicester and revenge himself on Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.20 After a short break the challenges are acted out in a performative way on what is referred to as a ‘lant’ (II, l. 1410) or ‘plein’ (II, l. 1419), that is, an open space. It concerns a sequence of peripatetic enactments, with the use of props, as was traditional in the Low Countries at this time (Frank 1972, 163–5). In other words they are not, as Loomis (1953, 119–20) assumed, a garbled account of actual battles and campaigns.

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First ‘Gawain’ storms the ‘city of Cornwall’ and ‘beheads’ its inmates; the king, with the assistance of his knights, vanquishes the Welsh, burning their boats (on the boats, see below). Having ‘ridden’ round, the company finds that the ‘King of Ireland’ has fled, and when ‘Perchevael’ approaches the ‘castle of Leicester’ two squires come out to hand him the keys and to invite him in. Inside there is an abundance of food, drink and music, and even the queen is present. After two days of celebrations, all return home.21 The account of the festivities thus presents us with references to Arthurian legends (Kay’s bad temper, the king refusing to eat until something special has happened), the political conflict with Simon de Montfort (Gawain and Perchevael’s challenges) and the later conflict with the Welsh (the king’s challenge), and, more puzzlingly, with the King of Ireland. However, as the story of the tournament betrays the influence of Torec, and the loathly lady comes straight from Perchevael, the need for challenging the Irish king can also be traced back to romances in the Lancelot Compilation, namely to the stories of the Knight with the Sleeve (Ridder metter mouwen), and Moriaen. In these romances the Irish king is portrayed as a cruel and pillaging invader. In Ridder metter mouwen Arthur is besieged by the Irish king, who does homage, but still treacherously contrives to imprison four of Arthur’s knights. In Moriaen the Irish king imprisons Arthur’s queen, is captured and becomes Arthur’s vassal.22 What we see is that imperfectly remembered or conveyed aspects of the baronial conflict of fifty years earlier and of the Welsh wars of the 1270–80s are mixed by Velthem with the contemporary literary context of the Arthurian romances in his possession that were known by his readers or audience: he stresses that these are stories that ‘we’ have often read (II, ll. 1276–7). This aspect of the Continuation is further enhanced in the continuation of Edward’s Arthurian adventures in north Wales in Book III. The beginning of Velthem’s account of these adventures appears inspired by news of Edward I’s large-scale road-building operations in 1277, along the northern coast of Wales, where constant attacks from the sea by the Welsh (remember the burning of the Welsh boats in the second dramatised ‘spel’!) endangered the construction of the castles that were being built there. To this end, huge swathes of forest had to be cleared, the justification being that the woods harboured robbers and murderers (Linnard 1982, 21–9 and Davies 1987, 334–5, 339). Velthem describes these woods as dense, primeval and long since uninhabited, a ‘merciless forest’ or ‘woude sonder genade’, exactly, as Velthem points out (III, ll. 1474–5), like the forest of the same name in the romance of the Knight with the Sleeve (Ridder metter mouwen) in the Lancelot Compilation (Johnson and Claassens 2003, 218–19, l. 546). The king and his men enter the forest with trepidation and are led by a deer and birds to a number of adventures. First there is a magic spring which produces lightning, fog, darkness and a hailstorm when the water is touched with a spear (III, ll. 1576–639), a story clearly based on Chrétien de Troyes’s Yvain (Summerfield 2011).

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Next a link is forged once more with the conflict with Simon de Montfort: the king recognises one of Montfort’s knights who, back in London, had harassed his mother. He grabs hold of the knight with his powerful arms, leaving the impression of his fingers and chainmail on the knight’s neck, and lifts him bodily off his horse – King Arthur’s habitual way of dealing with antagonists, according to the romance Torec (Johnson and Claassens 2003, 718–19, ll. 3681–8). As they continue through the mysterious woods, the king and his men next encounter a series of objects, all of them huge and rusty: a shield, a helmet and sword, a coat of mail. The king concludes that he had heard that ‘wild and cruel giants’ lived in these woods in Arthur’s time, and that they had clearly been too much even for Arthur’s (also very big and tall) knights. They had fled and had left their weapons behind. In fact, this is exactly the story told in Ridder metter mouwen: Si liten haere helme ende haer swerde daer Ende worden gewont oec, dats waer. Met pinen mochten si ontgaen, Sine waren doet ofte gevaen. Dit hetet tFelle Woud sonder Genade. (Johnson and Claassens 2003, ll. 542–6)23 (They left their helmets and their swords there and were wounded as well, it’s true. They were hard pressed to escape without being killed or captured. This is called ‘the Perilous Wood without Mercy.’)

Proof of the outsize physique of Arthur’s knights is next found by one of Edward’s men, who staggers into a cave to sleep off a drinking bout. When he awakes, he finds that the cave is filled with huge bones emanating a sweet smell. All are summoned to the cave, where King Edward concludes that these are the bones of Arthur’s knights who had been fatally wounded in the final battle with Mordred (III, ll. 2271–367). Velthem adds that this is exactly as Maerlant wrote in Part III of the Spiegel historiael – an accurate reference (III, Bk 6, Ch. 30, l. 63), thus adding an authoritative source with which his readers were familiar.24 The discovery of the bones concludes King Edward’s Arthurian adventures. Although Velthem is the continuator of Jacob van Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael and as such part of that historiographical project, as far as the historicity of the Arthurian past and the value of Arthurian romances are concerned, he is anything but a continuator. Rather, all the episodes that link King Edward I with King Arthur in the Continuation may be regarded as refutations of Maerlant’s stance on the subject of Arthurian romance as being nonsensical tales of no historical value, made-up tales (‘favelen’, ‘boerden’) by inferior rhymesters. Velthem offers tangible evidence that King Arthur and his knights roamed the forests along the coast of north Wales, and that this forest was just as dangerous as had been described in the romances that ‘we’, his readers and listeners, were familiar with. By linking the Arthurian past and a taste for Arthurian romances with King Edward, a greatly esteemed king in Brabant, father of the Duke of Brabant’s wife Margaret and a regular and a welcome visitor, he adds

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status and credibility to his arguments.25 For Velthem the world of Arthurian romance, and in particular of the romances in his possession, was as much part of Arthurian history as anything recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the only source about the Arthurian past Maerlant trusted. In the process Velthem uses King Arthur and King Edward as vehicles for the expression of his ideas about ideal relations between a king and his knights (Summerfield 2015, 43–4, 52) and on the current political situation in Brabant.26 In 1326–7, Velthem embarked on another continuation of one of Maerlant’s works, the Boek van Merline, which is discussed in Chapter 7. There, too, political purposes pervaded his work (cf. Sleiderink 2009). This is the last work we know of by this interesting and, in a subtle way, conceptually independent and polemic continuator. 3. Arthur among the Nine Worthies King Arthur’s undisputed stature in western historiography is illustrated nowhere better than by his inclusion in poems listing the Nine Worthies, three classical, three Jewish and three Christian heroes.27 The tradition is generally considered to have ori­ ginated with the poem Voeux du Paon by Jacques de Longuyons (1312–13), but it is likely that its roots were older (Anrooij 1997, 57, and references there). In the Low Countries, this literary tradition is manifested in two unrelated Middle Dutch poems, a short and a long one. The two poems survive only in fifteenth-century copies. In the short poem about the Nine Worthies, entitled Van den neghen besten, Arthur is portrayed in eight lines as the king of a wealthy court where jousts and tournaments were held.28 He was a mild and pious man, on occasion unwinding ‘Our Lady’s banner’. He is introduced as Arthur ‘van aventueren’, and well-known as King of Britain. Arthur is said to have died in 540 AD, ‘but no one knows where’ (ll. 49–56). The long poem about the nine worthies numbers 709 lines, but breaks off in the account of Godfrey of Bouillon.29 In it, Julius Caesar and King Arthur receive the fullest treatment: 120 lines each. In the prologue the author announces that he has ‘many stories in memory’, among them the British and English histories (‘jeesten’) about Arthur, but that he never came across Perceval, Lancelot, Tristan and Galehaut in them, about whom the French tell tales (ll. 1–27). Medieval sources attributed the long poem to Jacob van Maerlant and recent research argues that the attribution is correct, in which case the poem would antedate the Voeux du Paon (Anrooij 1997, 55–73). Certainly the prologue has all the hallmarks of Maerlant’s writings; the romance personae mentioned are even identical with the four listed by Maerlant in his prologue to his Sinte Franciscus Leven (see above). The story of Arthur, without a single mention of any Arthurian knight, provides highlights based in some distant form on the Spiegel historiael and the HRB. However, the different order in which

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events are recorded and the many slightly different details suggest that the author did indeed compose the poem from memory, as he states in his prologue (line 1). After a list of Arthur’s conquests (ll. 487–96), we hear of the giant ‘Rycoene’ and his request for Arthur’s beard.30 It is not mentioned where this giant lives. Next Arthur has to fight the invading Lower Saxons ‘who are now called Frisians’, who want to chase him out of Britain (ll. 510–12). Arthur manages to disperse them, but one group of enemies positions itself on a mountain from which they throw down rocks on Arthur and his men below. However, by holding his shield with the portrait of the Virgin Mary above his head and by loudly invoking her name (‘Ave Marie!’), he manages to chase all the invaders from Britain ‘which is nowadays called England’ (ll. 538–9), killing 500 men. The account of the stones was probably inspired by the story in the HRB about the giant of Mont-St Michel, who pelted the British boats with huge boulders.31 Having successfully rid his country of the Saxons, Arthur receives a request from the Roman Emperor Leo for tribute and sets out for Burgundy (ll. 542–7) and Bretagne (ll. 558–9). There he kills an enormous, this time nameless, giant who earlier had raped and killed a gentlewoman (560–4). This is the sad story of Helena and the giant on the Mont-St Michel, although neither name is mentioned. Arthur moves on towards Paris, pitching camp on an island.32 Arthur is victorious in a fight with the Roman ‘bailliu’ (bailiff) sent to demand taxes. This man is named Felloen (Villain). After a major battle which is said to have cost many kings and counts their lives, all are sent to Rome, carefully embalmed, by way of tribute. Both in the HRB and in the Spiegel historiael it is only Lucius’s body that is sent to the Senate in Rome.33 Then news reaches Arthur that Mordred has asked the ‘Frisian Saxons’ to return to aid him in his coup d’état; in the ensuing battle Mordred is killed, but Arthur receives a fatal wound, for which the same word is used as in the Spiegel historiael: ‘dootwonde’ (Vries and Verwijs 1982, III, Bk 6, Ch. 30, l. 62), and passes on his land and his crown to his nephew Constantine (ll. 590–3). This happened, the author says, in the year of Our Lord 542. 4. Arthur in Later Historiography The long Nine Worthies poem has in its turn left its imprint on the portrayal of King Arthur in the later historiography of the Low Countries, while sometimes influence from the Spiegel historiael is evident. I will limit myself here to a brief discussion of Herald Beyeren’s early fifteenth-century vernacular Wereldkroniek and Latin Chronicle of the English Kings and the mid fifteenth-century Goudse Kroniekje (Short Gouda Chronicle). Herald Beyeren, earlier called Herald Gelre,34 is especially famous for his Wapenboek (also known as the Armorial de Gelre), described by Maurice Keen (1984,

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140) as being ‘with little doubt the finest of all armorial books of the middle ages’. The Herald’s account of King Arthur in his Wereldkroniek (fol. 55v–57r) refers to ‘Inghelscher hystorien’, English histories, and lists his devotion to the Virgin Mary and her image on his shield, his conquests, the giant who had raped and killed a young noblewoman, and the Roman ‘Fellon’ who comes to demand tribute and is vanquished by Arthur in single combat on the Ille Notre Dame.35 The Roman general Lucius is also vanquished, and sent to Rome, embalmed, as are all the great lords who fell with him, a detail clearly derived from the Nine Worthies poem. Next, we hear of the giant Rion who wished to add Arthur’s beard to his collection. He is killed, with the many giants that were with him. Finally, Arthur receives a fatal wound (‘doet wonde’) and is taken to the Happy Island (‘Gheluckich Eylant’) where he will remain forever’ (fol. 57r). After a eulogy (Arthur was unsurpassed in Christian virtue, compassion, wise and sensible advice, loyalty and benevolence), the author mentions that the English believe that Arthur will return and one day be King of England again.36 Arthur is now firmly associated with England, while none of the knights of the Round Table is mentioned.37 The Herald’s Latin Chronicle of the English Kings has little to say about Arthur. It was written 1400–5,38 numbers 325 lines of which 170 lines (34–204) deal with Brutus’s ancestry and conquest of the island, after which King Arthur is summarily dealt with in barely five lines: crowned in 516 AD, ruled 26 years, no known grave, but is said to have been taken to the island of Avalon (lines 287–92). The chronicle then jumps to 1348 and the reign of Edward III. It would seem that after Brutus, the author abandoned an ambitious plan, quickly introduced not-to-be-missed Arthur, and then went on to supply brief references to recent English kings and events, ending with Richard II (l. 312). Roughly a century after the Wereldkroniek a number of histories referring briefly to King Arthur were published, now also in early printed form. All relied heavily on earlier works.39 The so-called Goudse Kroniekje is a good example. Written c.1440 by an anonymous author and first printed in 1478 by Gheraert Leeu in Gouda, it is a chronicle of the history of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht up to the author’s own time. Two continuations (up to 1456 and 1477) and variations among the manuscripts have resulted in a complex textual history.40 In one of the manuscripts41 an extensive passage describes the reign of King Arthur.42 In it we find many familiar elements, but also a new addition. Referring vaguely to ‘die engelsche historie’, the author writes that Arthur was very powerful, and one of the Nine Worthies. Many countries were subject to him, with the notable exception of the ‘wilde wrede slauen diemen nu Hollanders hiet’ (the wild, cruel Slavs now called Hollanders; Nieuwenhuyzen 1856, 349). The author adds that they were obliged to follow Arthur’s commands, but otherwise would be free, without having to pay taxes – unlike nowadays, he adds ruefully. Reference is made to Arthur’s devotion to the Virgin Mary and to his murder of a giant who had raped and killed seven(!) young women. A Roman called Fecon is sent to

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collect tribute, which results in a battle with the Roman army. Arthur is victorious and Lucius and ‘alle die grote heren die dede hi balsamen’ (all the important lords he had embalmed), as in the long Nine Worthies poem and the Wereldkroniek. Next we hear about the giant Rycon and his wish to add Arthur’s beard to his mantle. He and his giant mates are also killed by Arthur. Then one day the king is given a ‘dootwonde’, without reference to Mordred. About his death the author writes that Arthur went away to the Happy Island where, as people say (‘alsmen seghet’), he will stay forever. There never lived a king comparable in virtue, in benevolence, good advice and all things reasonable, in loyalty and in compassion and in all Christian ways. Arthur is thus portrayed as the ideal Christian king of England. By way of a concluding remark the author writes that the English believe that Arthur did not die and will return to be king of England once again. The dependence on earlier literature is obvious, while the few small differences are predictable: praise of the (economic) freedom of the ancestors, something ruefully admitted as being a thing of the past, and that common feature of oft-repeated information: exaggeration (seven women raped). Here, too, King Arthur is associated with England rather than Britain. 5. Conclusion In the historiography of the Low Countries, King Arthur plays a modest role. He is mostly regarded as a famous king of the past, rather than as the centre of a court of noble knights. In fact, where knights of the Round Table are mentioned, it is not always in a positive way. The first author to write about King Arthur, Jacob van Maerlant, is deeply mistrustful of the historical credibility of stories about the king’s entourage, while acknowledging Arthur himself as a noble and powerful king. In his Spiegel historiael, an extensive and skilfully translated and adapted work written in the late thirteenth century, he includes frequent passionate outbursts to attack Arthurian romances and their authors, a feature already present in his first work, Alexanders geesten. His earlier gullibility concerning some stories in his Historie vanden Grale and Boek van Merline (but not all of them, nor the books in their entirety) clearly riles him, and prompts him to enter a forceful retraction towards the end of his involvement with Arthur in the Spiegel historiael. Thirty years later his continuator, Lodewijk van Velthem, becomes a propagandist for the inclusion of Arthurian romance in the history of the past in his Continuation, effectively Part V of the Spiegel historiael. He cleverly uses the prestigious King Edward I as a force to link past and present, romance and historiography. In later Middle Dutch historiography King Arthur is depicted as an English, rather than a British, king. His knights play no role at all; they are often not even mentioned.

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Negative comments about romances featuring King Arthur’s knights, such a striking aspect of Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael, are only found in the prologue to the long Nine Worthies poem, possibly also by Maerlant. All later texts are interdependent, but ultimately based on Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael and the long poem about the Nine Worthies; innovations are limited to comments stressing the special position of Holland and the odd exaggeration. In the process King Arthur becomes an English king of great repute, his British origins and his famous knights having gradually receded into oblivion. Notes   Floris V was born in 1254; Albrecht’s precise date of birth is unknown, but Van Oostrom assumes that ‘he cannot have been much older than Floris, as he does not appear independently in the records until 1261’ (Oostrom 1996a, 127–8; my translation). 2   This comment was translated directly by Maerlant from his exemplar, clearly with approval, where it had been added as a gloss: Janssens 1996a, 109 and references there. 3   Between the two translations the indigenous debate poem Maskeroen was inserted; see Oostrom 1996a, 41–6. 4   According to an extant inventory, Torec at one time formed part of the library of Charles VI (1380– 1422); see Pickford 1960, 281. 5   Text and translation in Johnson and Claassens 2003, 562–727. Summaries in Claassens and Johnson 2000, 232–6 and Besamusca 2003a, 127–30. 6   Vries and Verwijs 1982. On surviving manuscripts and fragments, see Biemans 1997. 7   Part I (8 books, 529 chapters, 32,000 lines): Creation to the death of the Emperor Claudius in AD 57; Part II (7 books, 461 chapters, 42,000 lines): to the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD; Part III (8 books, 462 chapters, 40,000 lines): to Charlemagne c.800; Part IV (8 books, 191 chapters, 14,000 lines by Maerlant): to 1100, continued to c.1256 by Lodewijk van Velthem (26,000 lines). See Berendrecht 1996, 131–2 and Oostrom 2006, 525–6. 8   ‘Ende verstaet dat Jacob moet / Van Merlant rusten terre stede / Vander vierder paertijen mede’ (And understand that Jacob van Merlant must have a rest now, having reached this place of the Fourth Partie), IV, Bk 33, Ch. 34, ll. 31–3. See also Oostrom 1996a, 366–70. 9   Maximilianus 1954, I, 55–6; also at www.dbnl.org/tekst/maer002pmax01_01/. 10   See Reeve and Wright 2007, Wright 1988, xl–xli. 11   Maerlant refers to the ‘Dans vanden Gyganten’ and an ‘edel kerchof’ (Dance of the Giants; a noble cemetery) for knights and squires who had been falsely accused (III, Bk 7, Ch. 19, ll. 64–76). In Wace’s Roman de Brut Merlin refers to the stones as the Giants’ Dance (‘la carole / que gaiant firent en Irlande’); the water with which the stones are washed has healing properties; see Weiss 2002, 202–5. Maerlant’s Boek van Merline refers to ‘a rich and special cemetery’ near Salisbury that will be made with Merlin’s help, see Sodmann 1980, ll. 6595–601. The HRB only refers to a stone circle known as Stanheng near Salisbury, where Uther Pendragon and other kings were buried; see Reeve and Wright 2007, 254–5 and Wright 1988, 175 (‘infra structuram lapidum, que Saxonica lingua Stanheng nuncupatur, iuxta Ambrii sepelitur’). 12   It should be noted that, whereas Maerlant never mentions his Latin source by name where it concerns King Arthur, he lists specifically named Latin sources for information on Charlemagne: Einhard, Sigebert of Gembloux and Turpin (IV, Bk 1, Ch. 29, ll. 14–18). 13   For a detailed overview of Velthem’s life and works, see Besamusca, Sleiderink and Warnar 2009, 7–30. 1

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  Part V is extant separate from the earlier parts of the Spiegel historiael in MS Leiden, UB, BPL 14 E. See Linden et al. 1906–38. References are to book and line number (as in II, 1234). Also at https:// www.dbnl.nl/tekst/velt003spie02_01/. 15   Vries and Verwijs 1982, vol. III, in particular 411, note 1, are scathing in their comments on Velthem’s lack of accuracy in translating Vincent of Beauvais’s Latin. 16   See for a more detailed discussion Summerfield 2015. 17   In fact Edward (born 1239) was in his early to mid twenties at the time of the revolt. 18   Most influential in this respect was Loomis 1953, esp. 119–21; earlier also Loomis 1939 (91–2); Chotzen 1933 (venue suggested (50): Blythe, 1256). See also Biddle 2000 (venue suggested (386): Winchester, 1290). 19   For a translation of the tournament and banqueting episodes by Geert H. M. Claassen and David F. Johnson, see Munby, Barber and Brown 2007, 244–69. For translated extracts, see also Biddle 2000, 378–86. A paraphrase may be found in Loomis 1939, 91–2, based on a translation made for Loomis by Adriaan Barnouw, his Dutch colleague at Columbia University, New York. The Welsh episodes are found paraphrased in Chotzen 1933, 45–7. For the last part of the ‘spel’, consisting of the enactments of the challenges, no translation is available. An article discussing this episode, which will include a translation, is in preparation by the author. 20   Velthem’s association of Montfort with the ‘castle’ of Leicester is one of his many assumed ‘ana­chronisms and blunders’; cf. Loomis 1953, 119. 21   For a more detailed account, see Summerfield 2015, 45–6. 22   For Ridder metter mouwen, see Johnson and Claassens 2003, 196–367, here ll. 2838–3171 and 3302–466 (the deliverance of the four knights by Yvain and his lion). For Moriaen, see Paardekooper-van Buuren and Gysseling 1971 and www.dbnl.nl, ll. 4152–549. For English summaries of Moriaen, see Besamusca 2003a, 73–83 and Claassens and Johnson 2000, 209–15. 23   The term ‘wout sonder genaden’ also occurs in line 558. 24   King Arthur’s bones are first described as huge by Gerald of Wales, who reports that the abbot of Glastonbury showed him Arthur’s huge skull and shin bone; cf. Thorpe 1978, 281–4. 25   On contacts between Brabant and England, see Summerfield 2015, 38–9. 26   There a twelve-year-old successor to the duchy was – in Velthem’s view – in danger of being robbed of his dynastic rights, very much like ‘young’ King Edward fifty years earlier in Velthem’s version of events; see Summerfield 1998 and 2015, 40–1. 27   Generally Hector, Alexander and Julius Caesar; David, Joshua and Judas Maccabeus; Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon; see Schroeder 1971. 28   The short poem is extant in MS The Hague, KB, KA CX, fol. 1r–2r, dated 1475–1500, entitled Van den neghen besten, in Pauw 1893–7, 599–601. See also https://www.dbnl.nl/tekst/_neg002npau01_01/. 29   The long poem survives in three manuscripts, none of which is complete. Cf. Anrooij 1997, 58. The text used here is based on Brussels, KBR, 837–845, dated 1460–70, entitled Hier volghet een goet dicht van den IX besten, in Pauw 1893–7, 596–635 and https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_neg002npau02_01/. References are by line numbers. 30   Cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 226–7 (the giant is named Ritho) and Vries and Verwijs 1982, III, Bk 5, Ch. 51, ll. 99–111 (the giant is called Richoene). 31   Cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 224–5: ‘nam siue mari siue terra illum inuadebant, aut naues eorum ingentibus saxis obruebat …’ (whether they approached by sea or land, he … sank their boats with great boulders …). 32   Cf. Reeve and Wright 2007: Paris is mentioned only later (232–3); Arthur is said to have pitched camp on an island near Autun (Augustudunum) (‘super ripam fluminis castra sua metatus est’, 228–9); according to the Spiegel historiael Arthur finds Felloen within Paris and fights him in single combat on ‘the island called Yle’ in the Seine (Vries and Verwijs 1982, III, Bk 5, Ch. 52, ll. 6–9, 19–22). 33   Cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 248–9; Vries and Verwijs 1982, III, Bk 5, Ch. 54, ll. 12–28. 14

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  Herald Beyeren’s real name was Claes Heynenzoon (c.1345–1414); he was herald to Count Willem I of Gelre (Gelderland) (1364–1402) and to Duke Albrecht of Beyeren (Bavaria), Count of Holland (1358–1404). 35  The Wereldkroniek exists in two versions; neither has been edited. Here the text from MS The Hague, KB, 128 E 10 has been used. I thank Jeanne Verbij-Schillings for kindly providing the transcription of the Arthurian section. See also her discussion in Verbij-Schillings 1995, 75–6. 36   On sources used, see also Verbij-Schillings 1995, 75. 37   When discussing Alexander’s deeds, Herald Beyeren states that these were far superior to those of Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain and Charlemagne, a passage borrowed directly from Maerlant’s Alexanders geesten; see Verbij-Schillings 1995, 170. 38   Verbij-Schillings 1999, 51 (date), 142–50 (diplomatic edition of the text), 258–63 (facsimile). In the page and line numbers I have included the paragraph beginning ‘Iaphet iunior filius’, which in my view belongs with the chronicle. 39   For an overview of their treatment of King Arthur, see Marel 1987. In addition to its discussion of the Gouda Chronicle, it refers to the Chronicon comitum Hollandiae et episcoporum Ultraiectensium by Johannes a Leydis, dated c.1500, which states that Arthur never managed to subdue the people of Holland (186); Fasciculus temporum by Jan Veldenaer (1480), with literal citations from the Wereldkroniek and the Spiegel historiael (187), and the Divisiekroniek by Cornelius Aurelius (1517), in which the Arthurian episode is a literal copy of Veldenaer (187–8). 40  See http://www.narrative-sources.be/naso_detail_nl.php. 41   Manuscript Arnold, Leiden, UB, Ltk. 1564; dated 1450–75. 42   The passage was edited in Nieuwenhuyzen 1856. 34

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5 TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS OF FRENCH VERSE ROMANCES: TRISTANT, WRAKE VAN RAGISEL, FERGUUT, PERCHEVAEL, TOREC Marjolein Hogenbirk and David F. Johnson

1. Introduction The oldest Arthurian texts in Middle Dutch are all based on Old French sources. A severely battered folio containing a text in which Tristan features prominently could well be the oldest textual witness of the Middle Dutch tradition (Vienna, ÖNB, Series Nova 3968). The folio is from a manuscript from the Meuse-Rhine region and written around the middle or the last quarter of the thirteenth century.1 Following this initial period of popularity, no further Middle Dutch chivalric romances appear to have been composed in the south-eastern part of the Low Countries. Eastern redactions of a number of Middle Dutch texts do exist, however, such as the Perchevael described in this chapter, but they are all from a later period (cf. Chapter 8). By the middle of the thirteenth century the centre of gravity of the Middle Dutch Arthurian tradition lay in the west, in Flanders, where King Arthur and his knights must already have featured prominently in an oral Dutch tradition at the beginning of the twelfth century (see Uyttersprot 2004, 175‒81). The first Flemish romances are, like the Tristant, translations or adaptations of Old French sources. The Wrake van Ragisel (The Avenging of Ragisel), Ferguut and Perchevael were all composed before 1250, probably in that order. The Torec is presumably some ten years younger. These Flemish texts are, for the most part (Ferguut being the exception), preserved as fragments, but their manuscript transmission is more extensive than that of the Tristant because they have also all been transmitted in complete, abridged form in a fourteenthcentury Brabantine manuscript. The Flemish texts therefore enjoyed an audience for some time that, as witnessed by the manuscripts, seems to have moved somewhat to the east. This popularity may have had something to do with the fact that these romances, far from being slavish translations of their Old French sources, are the products of a unique and innovative adaptation process, which, in each subsequent phase of reception, functions within a new manuscript context. This chapter is concerned with the Middle Dutch translations of Old French Arthurian verse texts, presented in their presumed order of composition and with attention to the subsequent phases in often complex adaptation processes.

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2. Tristant: A Battered Fragment Only one Middle Dutch textual witness of Tristant has survived, a fragment consisting of 158 verses referred to as the Lower Frankish, Guelders or Limburg Tristan fragment.2 The scribe was active in the Guelders-Venlo-Kleve region, or perhaps somewhat more to the north in Guelders near Arnhem-Nijmegen-Elten. It is possible that the fragment hails from the courtly circle of Otto II, Count of Guelders (1229– 71), although we have no way of knowing this for sure.3 Together with other Old French romances preserved fragmentarily (Aiol, Floyris ende Blantsefluor), the Tristant belongs to the narrative literature of the Maasland, the earliest corpus of chivalric literature in Middle Dutch (Oostrom 2006, 182–5). It is quite possible that the original Middle Dutch version of the Tristant also originated in this region where the borders of Romania and Germania met. The earliest reference to Tristan in Middle Dutch is also from this region, namely in one of Heinric van Veldeke’s ‘minneliederen’ (love lyrics), presumably from the period 1170–90. In this song Veldeke compares himself to the lover Tristan who was inescapably bound to Ysolde against his will. Heinric’s own beloved may well be grateful that he did not drink a love potion, but rather gives his love to her freely and thus loves her better than Tristan loved Isolde (Oostrom 2006, 151; Winkelman 2013, 183). The text of the Guelders fragment preserves the end of the Tristan story and corresponds to the version by Thomas d’Angleterre, the so-called ‘version courtoise’, which is usually dated c.1170–5 and which has survived only in an incomplete form. Thomas deviates at the end of his romance from his predecessors, among whom is the poet Béroul. This latter’s version of the story – also preserved fragmentarily – survives in a complete adaptation by Eilhart von Oberge. It is precisely a brief passage from Thomas’s divergent ending that we find in the surviving Middle Dutch fragment. Based on the format of the fragment – two columns of forty-six lines each – it is not possible to determine whether we are dealing with part of a complete Tristan romance or an episodic poem about the death of the hero. This could well correspond to the text about the end of Tristan that is missing in another adaptation of Thomas’s version produced by Gottfried von Strassburg.4 Summary In the fragmentary text Tristant and his companion Kardine meet a splendidly equipped knight. He tells them that he, too, is named Tristant and that he is on his way to Arthur’s court in order to ask for aid, for his lady love has been kidnapped by ‘di Stolte van dien Verwornen Holte’, the Haughty Knight of the Impenetrable Forest (Winkelman 2013, ll. 15–16). Tristant, who does not reveal his identity, offers to help the knight, but not until the next day, to which the knight furiously replies that, were his namesake Tristant still alive, he would have been ready to help immediately. Thereupon Tristant decides to accompany the knight at once to the castle of the

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Haughty Knight. There they slay two brothers of the chatelain but are overwhelmed by a larger force. A number of lines are missing in the fragment but the French story tells us that the other Tristant is slain in the ensuing fight and that the real Tristant, mortally wounded by a poisoned spear, manages to escape. Before the fragment breaks off, we learn that Tristant consults Kardine and that he sends his companion to Cornwall to fetch Ysolt; after all, only she can heal him with her ointments and herbs. Tristant versus Tristan A comparison of Thomas’s version with the fragment reveals that the Middle Dutch adaptor followed his French source closely. Given the similarities between the two texts it is unlikely that he was composing from memory or an oral version of the Tristan story; instead he would have used a written French source from which he borrowed a great number of new-fangled terms pertaining especially to love and war, such as ‘amie’ (l. 21) and ‘batalie’ (Wyss 2010, 72; Winkelman 2013, 183). But the poet was by no means a slavish translator. He abridged or deleted passages that he felt distracted from the main narrative, such as the lamentations of the foreign knight for his kidnapped lady love, and his tears when he mourns the supposed death of Tristant. The inapposite nickname born by the strange, tall and broad-shouldered knight in the French text, namely ‘le Naim’, the Dwarf, was also deleted by the adaptor. Ultimately these changes resulted in a more straightforward and rationally structured episode. It is worth drawing attention to another unique aspect of the Middle Dutch text here. In Thomas’s version the foreign knight explicitly seeks help on the matter of love from the pre-eminent lover himself, Tristan ‘l’Amoureux’. In the Guelders Tristant the knight is on his way to King Arthur’s court (‘Di hoge koning Artus’, the high King Arthur; Winkelman 2013, l. 31) in Britain, seeking help from the Round Table. However, he encounters Tristant and his companion Kardine on the continent, in Brittany. In this version Arthur and Mark are contemporaries. It is possible that the poet drew from other oral or written versions of the Tristan story in which Arthur played a role without realising that the geographical coordinates of his own story were inconsistent. Another interesting aspect of both the French and the Middle Dutch texts is the fact that the foreign knight seems to believe that his namesake is dead and that his soul is with God in heaven, and that his death is still mourned in story and song. Tristant is therefore not portrayed as an adulterous sinner. The motif of Tristant’s supposed death can also be found in other texts, for instance in the Prose Tristan, in which the rumour concerning Tristan’s demise (while he still lives) casts the world into deep mourning (Winkelman 2013, 190). If our author did indeed know the Prose Tristan, which is dated to c.1230–5 (Baumgartner 2006, 325), we have a terminus post quem for the Tristant. Profound mourning for the death of Tristan is also to be found in the Flemish Arthurian romance Ridder metter mouwen (The Knight with the Sleeve) from the

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second half of the thirteenth century, when a messenger to the court of Arthur reports that ‘Tristram, die goede’ (Tristan the good, Johnson and Claassens 2003, ll. 66–75) has died for love of Ysaude, his uncle’s wife, whereupon she too succumbs out of love for him (see Chapter 6). Arthur, their contemporary, sets out for their funeral in great sorrow, accompanied by nearly all the knights of the Round Table, whereby the author frees the way for the appearance of the story’s eponymous hero, who, like Tristan, is driven by love, but unlike him is no adulterous lover.5 3. Wrake van Ragisel: Walewein under Pressure The Wrake van Ragisel (henceforth Wrake) is a translation of the Old French Vengeance Raguidel, an episodic Arthurian romance of 6182 octosyllabic lines, generally dated to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century (Roussineau 2004, 7–8). Featuring Gauvain as its main protagonist, it has long been attributed to the medieval poet Raoul de Houdenc (c.1170–1230), but this has been called into question.6 The translation of this French poem was probably made in the border region between Flanders and Brabant in the first quarter of the thirteenth century.7 The Wrake has come down to us in an incomplete form, preserved in both fragments and one complete manuscript (the Lancelot Compilation, The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10). Fragments Leiden, UB, BPL 3085 (formerly: Cologne, Historisches Archiv, W 317*) and Düsseldorf, UB, F 26,b once belonged to one and the same manuscript which is thought to date from the late thirteenth century (Gerritsen 1963, 54, 287–9). The remaining fragments (Düsseldorf, UB, F 26,a) come from a single codex produced at least half a century later in Flanders. Together these fragments contain over one thousand lines of text. They were described and edited by W.P. Gerritsen (1963, 51–5 and 274–337).8 In what follows, we refer to the translation of the Vengeance Raguidel as it is preserved in the surviving fragments as the ‘Middle Dutch translation’ in order to distinguish it from the version preserved in the Lancelot Compilation. Both of these are what we might call ‘adaptive translations’, although the compilation version may also be characterised as an abridgement with additional material. The willingness and confidence with which Middle Dutch poets freely and creatively altered their Old French sources to serve their own ends is clearly demonstrated in the case of the Wrake. In this text we can discern at least two layers of adaptation, each employing a variety of rhetorical techniques – at times diametrically opposed to one other – to achieve their desired results. Where the original translator of the Vengeance Raguidel expanded his source by adding descriptive details, dialogue and instances of amplificatio, the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation version reversed many of these expansions. Gerritsen’s exhaustive comparison of the nearly 1000 lines found in the fragments revealed that the compiler worked from a copy of the Middle Dutch translation, rather than from the Old French poem (Gerritsen 1963, Johnson

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and Claassens 2003). For the reader’s convenience, we include a summary of the Wrake which incorporates elements of both versions; the differences between the two are discussed below. The italicised sections of this summary correspond to material added to the compilation version by the compiler. Summary The besiegers of a castle owned by a damsel are driven off by Galaat. Walewein slays the fleeing party and the lady of the castle is told of Walewein’s heroic deeds and falls in love with him. The castle is named Galestroet in honour of Galaat. In an effort to lure Walewein to her castle, the Damsel of Galestroet imprisons Walewein’s brother Gariet. King Arthur and his court are celebrating Easter at Kardoel when a ship runs ashore containing the corpse of a knight with the truncheon of a lance in his chest. A letter explains that whoever can pull the truncheon from the knight’s body must avenge him with it, assisted by whoever can remove the rings from his fingers. Walewein succeeds in removing the truncheon, no one at court can remove the rings. An unknown knight eventually manages to take them and rides off. In an attempt to retrieve them himself, Keye is ignominiously defeated. In his quest to find the rings, Walewein is at the castle belonging to Maurus, the Black Knight. This knight captures and decapitates all knights who pass that way in the hope of one day killing Walewein, who had won the hand and captured the heart of his lady love, the Damsel of Galestroet, at a tournament. Walewein defeats him in combat and grants him mercy. Walewein then rides to the Damsel of Galestroet’s castle where he is warned by a chambermaid that the Damsel intends to kill him and advises him to pretend to be Keye. The Damsel welcomes Walewein and shows him a small window with a guillotine-like device, which she says she intends to use to kill Walewein. Walewein escapes with Gariet and they flee to the castle of Maurus to which the Damsel of Galestroet then lays siege. Once she learns that Walewein and Gariet have escaped during a counter-attack, she abandons the siege. Travelling to Kardoel with Gariet, Walewein falls in love with Ydeine, a lady whom he saves from abuse at the hands of another knight, while Gariet falls for Ydeine’s niece. News from court reaches them: a magical mantle which shrinks if worn by an adulterous lady has humiliated the entire court, save one, the companion of Carrados. Back at court Walewein admits he has forgotten the truncheon and he must defend himself against the sarcastic remarks of Keye. Next, the knight Druidein arrives and claims Ydeine for himself, whereupon Walewein challenges him to a combat which is to take place forty days hence at the neutral court of King Bandemagus. Following this, Walewein asks the queen whether she has any insights into the thoughts of women. The queen responds by telling him that the thoughts of women are so complicated that he who seeks to understand them must be mad. Nevertheless, Walewein decides to use the intervening days before the combat to find answers.

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During that time he encounters a king of diminutive stature with magical powers to whom Walewein reveals that he is trying to understand the thoughts of women, which this king thinks the height of foolishness. He offers Walewein lodging at his castle and tells him the story of how the short king’s wife cheated on him with the lowliest of servants. This story, says the king, should be enough for Walewein to know the thoughts of women, nonetheless he arranges for a test involving Walewein’s own companion, Ydeine. The Dwarf king transforms Walewein into a diminutive knight and in this guise Walewein tests Ydeine, who fails miserably. Despite her betrayal, Walewein again falls for her charms and forgives her any wrongdoing. The following morning Walewein and Ydeine leave for the court of Bandemagus. On their way they pass a knight who exchanges glances with Ydeine. Shortly thereafter he catches up with them and claims her. He convinces Walewein to let Ydeine choose her companion; she then accuses Walewein of indifference and chooses to go with the unknown knight. Walewein manages to defeat this knight in combat and reclaims Ydeine. At the court of Bandemagus Walewein easily defeats Druidein but cedes Ydeine to him nonetheless, and advises him never to believe her. Meanwhile the Black Knight, having secured the aid of King Arthur, lays siege to the castle of the Damsel of Galestroet. She then proposes a battle of champions to settle the matter. Disguised as Lord Bayneel vander Roetsen of Scotland, Keye presents himself as her champion, is defeated by Maurus, and narrowly escapes death by revealing his true identity. Gariet insists that the treacherous and disloyal Keye be slain, but Maurus cannot bring himself to execute a member of the Round Table. Following on from this, the marriage between the Damsel of Galestroet and Maurus takes place and Gariet returns to court to report on the events that have taken place. After leaving the court of Bandemagus, Walewein finds the ship which had brought the corpse of Ragisel to Kardoel and sails to Scotland in it. He is greeted by Ragisel’s companion, who has vowed to wear her clothes inside out until her friend Ragisel is avenged. Ragisel had been slain by Gygantioen, who possesses magical weapons. Walewein is told that this woman’s neighbour, the knight Ydier, had removed the rings and, moreover, is in love with Belinette, the daughter of Gygantioen. Only the man able to kill Gygantioen will be permitted to have his daughter. In a fierce battle, Walewein defeats the evil knight, with Ydier’s help, and following some negotiating with the barons of the land, Belinette is given to Ydier in marriage. When everyone has returned to Arthur’s court, Ydier is made knight of the Round Table. Then, Lanceloet, who is still upset because of the queen’s humiliation with the shrinking mantle, provokes a quarrel with Ydier. The ensuing fight is then broken up by Bohort before any serious harm is done. Lanceloet and Bohort set out together. Lanceloet asks Bohort to recount the events of the shrinking mantle for him. Bohort assures Lanceloet that the queen’s disgrace has hardly been noticed because of the arrival of Maurus and Gariet. Bohort and Lanceloet then find Dodineel in the forest, gravely wounded from having tried to

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liberate a damsel held with her hair entwined in the branches of a tree. A hidden bell had given away his attempts to set her free and subsequently he had been attacked by four knights. Lanceloet, Bohort and Dodineel return to the damsel. While Dodineel climbs the tree, the four knights appear. Two of them are killed and one is thrown to the ground with a broken arm. The fourth one escapes. The damsel is set free. She had been imprisoned because she had brought food to Lyoneel, who was being held captive by eight knights. Together they travel to Karmeloet where the queen warmly receives Lanceloet. The Middle Dutch Translation Reflected in the Fragments Gerritsen has concluded that the Middle Dutch text was based on an Old French redaction that must have been closely related to the text in the Middleton manuscript (Gerritsen 1963, 59–72 and 147–8). Norbert de Paepe (1965, 84–9, especially 89) argues that the points of difference between the Vengeance Raguidel and the Middle Dutch text are undoubtedly the result of the translator’s work. He was a creative adaptor, working with intelligence, skill and creativity to alter – and improve – his Old French source. He made several basic kinds of changes to the story (Gerritsen 1963, 85–147, especially 148–51). The most important change is expansion: the Middle Dutch text was some 32 per cent longer than the original. But this added length was not the result of new, interpolated material; rather the poet tells the story differently, in a more expansive style. The translator’s chief goal seems to have been the intensification of the narrative. Rearranging the order of events, replacing indirect speech with new dialogue, and the addition of first-person addresses to his audience all contribute to this overall effect. Another type of change involved the poetic technique of amplificatio. There are numerous examples of passages in which the poet has given his imagination free reign. Often these passages concern well-known Arthurian topoi, such as descriptions of a joust, a meal at court, or a marvellous bed (Gerritsen 1963, 149). One example of such an amplificatio ad descriptionem is the scene in which the castle of the Black Knight is besieged. The comparison of the Old French and the Middle Dutch text shows how the Dutch poet produces a much more lively, detailed and logically ordered description of the actual assault. Where the author of the French romance seems to have been content with an economical description, the Middle Dutch poet makes changes that ratchet up the tension and excitement at this juncture in the poem and expands the episode to twice the original length (Gerritsen 1963, 103–18). Another form of amplification is the Middle Dutch poet’s practice of inserting dialogue where none is present in the Old French, which intensifies the interactions between characters and paints a more vivid picture of, for instance, the Damsel of Galestroet as a fierce and determined woman capable of taking charge (Gerritsen 1963, 106–8).9 Moreover, the translator presents Walewein as a courtly lover, rather than the womaniser and failed lover he is depicted as in the French poem.10

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The Middle Dutch Adaptation in the Lancelot Compilation The existing Middle Dutch translation was inserted into the Lancelot Compilation (The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10). Gerritsen compared the compilation version with the earlier Middle Dutch translation, as well as with the Vengeance Raguidel (Gerritsen 1963, 171–93; 193–261).11 He showed that the compiler abridged passages that the earlier Flemish poet had amplified (for examples see especially Gerritsen 1963, 189– 91 and Johnson and Claassens 2003, 14–17).12 The sheer number of passages deleted or paraphrased by the compiler might lead one to believe that his purpose was simply to make the poem shorter. The Old French original totalled 6182 lines and, in Gerritsen’s estimation, the Middle Dutch translation will have been approximately 8,160 lines. The compilation version is just 3400 lines long, so if the compiler was adapting and abridging the Middle Dutch translation – and not working from the Old French source – his efforts resulted in a pretty severe abridgement. However, none of these cuts involved matter essential to the main storyline. It concerns an observation by a character here, a minor figure deleted there. And yet simply shortening the narrative does not seem to have been the compiler’s primary goal, for he added a significant amount of material to the story, including four interpolated chapters. He did so with purpose and intent, and, we would argue, in a way that calls attention to his skill as a storyteller and poet. With respect to his abbreviation of the text that also brought about changes to the story, the compiler appears to have been motivated by a desire to iron out narratological inconsistencies. Having stripped his source of as much extraneous material as he saw fit, the compiler then added new episodes where it served his larger goal of fitting the Wrake into the Lancelot Compilation. He composed new verses, either to paraphrase passages he did not wish to eliminate entirely, or to aid in his efforts to add an interlace structure to the story. In so doing he brought it in line with the larger narrative structure of the compilation, for instance by inserting formal switches (see Brandsma 1992, 189–90). Likewise, the compiler added a number of passages of varying length to create links with the text that immediately precedes the Wrake in the Lancelot Compilation, namely the Queeste vanden Grale, thus strengthening the ties of this adapted text with the compilation as a whole (see especially Besamusca 2003a, 101–3 and Gerritsen 1963, 217–33). It seems as well that the compiler found it hard to tolerate unresolved narrative threads, so he took pains to tie these off (Gerritsen 1963, 237–44; Besamusca 2003a, 104–5). In the chapter entitled ‘Van Maurus ende van Gariette’ (Concerning Maurus and Gariet, ll. 2025–426), inserted after Walewein’s battle with Druidein, the compiler tells of the fates of Maurus, the maidservant from Karmeloet, the Damsel of Galestroet, and Gariet, all of whom had disappeared from the narrative in both the Vengeance Raguidel and the Middle Dutch translation, just after the news that the Damsel had lifted her siege of the Black Knight’s castle. This interpolated chapter tells us what becomes of them. Galestroet’s maidservant is, at the last moment, saved by Gariet and

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Maurus from execution, Maurus wins the hand of the Damsel by defeating the treacherous Keye (who adopts the ridiculous alias Sir Bayneel vander Roetsen), which in turn paves the way for them to be married. With the insertion of this episode another, decidedly negative, thread is added to Keye’s narrative here. The compiler rounds off this thread when Arthur is told about these adventures and both Ydier and Gariet recount all of Keye’s actions. The Wrake proper ends with mocking laughter at the expense of the seneschal (Gerritsen 1963, 246–50), a scene that links this romance thematically with a romance appearing later in the compilation, namely Walewein ende Keye, and other narratives inserted between the Queeste and Arturs doet (The Death of Arthur) in the compilation (see Chapter 6).13 A striking interpolation was added by the compiler following the episode of the trial of the mantle, one that appears to strengthen the theme of misogyny already evident in the Vengeance Raguidel, and, like the chapter that precedes it, concerns the inconstancy of women (see Chapter 7). The interpolation is entitled ‘Hoe Walewein wilde weten vrouwen gepens’ (How Walewein wanted to know the thoughts of women, ll. 1475–894; see summary above). Besamusca (2003a, 103–4) argues that this scene excuses the impulsive behaviour of Walewein when it comes to love by highlighting the unfaithful nature of women (immediately preceding this interpolated episode, this same point is driven home by the infamous shrinking mantle scene; see summary above). As Besamusca and others have noted (for references, see Besamusca 2003a, 104), the Old French text portrays Walewein as an uncourtly and boorish womaniser. Passages that are unremittingly damning in this regard in the Old French have been softened in the original Middle Dutch translation, but even more so in the compilation version, and together these changes portray Walewein in a much more positive light. This is entirely in line with one of the most prominent themes in the Lancelot Compilation as a whole, namely the exaltation of Walewein, frequently at the cost of Lanceloet.14 Moreover, the compiler added two further chapters to the end of his adapted version that do not appear in the Old French original, both of which contribute to the larger plan of the Lancelot Compilation. In the penultimate chapter of the compilation version, ‘Hoe Lanceloet vacht jegen Ydire’ (How Lanceloet fought against Ydier, ll. 2977–3142), the test of the mantle is elaborated upon. Lanceloet is obsessed with the shame the mantle has brought upon the queen. When he sees a damsel wearing a mantle, he becomes infuriated and attacks her companion, Ydier. Fortunately, Bohort intervenes successfully. This episode does not reflect well on Lanceloet. In the final chapter (ll. 3143–414), Lanceloet and Bohort continue on their way once Bohort has conveyed Lanceloet’s apology to Ydier. When Bohort assures Lanceloet that the queen has not been shamed, this narrative thread comes to an end. It is clear, however, that on the higher compositional level of the compilation, her infidelity, brought to light by the test of the mantle, required a response from her lover, Lanceloet. His love for her is, after all, one of the most important themes in the Lancelot Compilation. Moreover, both of these chapters highlight a number of important characters in the

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Lancelot Compilation: Lanceloet, Bohort and (to a lesser degree) Dodineel. The foregrounding of such characters serves to increase the internal coherence of the compilation. Lanceloet’s actions here, in a story primarily about Walewein, provide insight into one of the compositional principles at work: the alternating adventures of the two heroes in the compilation, Lanceloet and Walewein. Additionally, the first seventy-four lines of the compilation version constitute a chapter inserted by the compiler and as such are a departure from the original Old French text. It is here that we are provided with an explanation as to why the Damsel of Galestroet loves Walewein. In his account of how the besiegers of ‘der Joncfrouwen Casteel’ (Castle of the Maidens) had been driven off by Galaat and then killed by Walewein, the narrator includes a clear reference to the Queeste vanden Grale (Besamusca 2003a, 101–2). The lady of the castle falls deeply in love with Walewein when she realises that it was he, the most courtly and handsome knight alive, who had performed this heroic deed. Having tried but failed to find him, she captured his brother, Gariet, hoping to lure Walewein to her castle. The compiler further reinforces this link with two additional references to these events (ll. 558–71 and 768–79). This demonstrates that the Wrake is one of the romances singled out for interpolation at a very early stage in the genesis of the compilation (Besamusca 2003a, 101–2). Finally, the compiler adds a faux etymology which identifies the castle mentioned in the Queeste vanden Grale – ‘der Joncfrouwen Casteel’ – as the same one held by the damsel, but renamed ‘Galastroet’ in honour of its saviour, Galaat. All of these additions strengthen the link between these two stories, and as such reinforce the larger structural integrity of the compilation as a whole. Finally, the placement of the Wrake in the Lancelot Compilation right after the Queeste, in which Walewein is a negative character and a sinner, is of great importance thematically. The decidedly positive light it casts on Walewein carries through a theme initiated in the romances before the Queeste (Perchevael and Moriaen) and extends through three of the remaining four interpolated romances that appear before the final act of Arturs doet.15 4. Ferguut: The Surprising Career of a Farmer’s Son At the beginning of the thirteenth century the French author Guillaume le Clerc wrote a romance concerning Fergus, the Knight with the Splendid Shield, as a literary critique of Chrétien de Troyes’s oeuvre.16 The romance responds in particular to Chrétien’s unfinished Conte du Graal, written c.1185 for Philip I, Count of Flanders. Ferguut’s shield functions, in the phrasing of D. D. R. Owen, as ‘the talismanic substitute for the Grail’ (Owen 2006, 428). Fergus is preserved in two thirteenth-century Picardian manuscripts (Zemel 2006, 227–33). A redaction of type A, as preserved in Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 472,

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forms the basis for the Flemish romance, which is known by the title Ferguut. This Middle Dutch adaptation is preserved in just one manuscript witness. It is the first text in a Brabantine miscellany containing six very disparate single-text items, all of which date to the middle of the fourteenth century (Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191) and which were probably bound together at some point by the end of the century. The first folio of the manuscript, where the Ferguut begins, shows an historiated initial in which the hero is depicted with an (originally white) shield. The Ferguut in the Leiden manuscript has been modified in some 250 places by a Brabantine corrector, who also modernised the text.17 The Middle Dutch romance itself is dated to c.1240 but may well be somewhat older than this (Caers and Kestemont 2011, 218). That the text contains no references to other Middle Dutch Arthurian romances is an argument for such an early dating.18 Another is that Arthur’s nephew is called Gawein in the Ferguut. The more usual Middle Dutch variant of the name, Walewein, however, does appear once in a list of the knights of the Round Table (Johnson and Claassens 2000b, l. 4325), but, according to Willem Kuiper, this is probably a later scribal addition.19 This might also indicate an isolated context of origin, one more oriented toward the French. Like the Wrake van Ragisel, Ferguut was possibly written in the area between Flanders and Brabant (see Chapter 1). Based on linguistic, stylistic and literary-historical arguments, Willem Kuiper (1989, 68–9; 300–1) has situated both the text and its patron in this region. He put forward Arnulf IV, and later his son, as possible patrons. Arnulf was peer to the Count of Flanders and advisor to the Countess Johanna of Flanders (for whom Manessier wrote his Continuation to Chrétien’s Perceval). He was married to the French noblewoman Alix de Rozoy. The couple were members of the highest aristocratic circles in Flanders. This identification cannot, however, be substantiated; the question remains as to the extent to which a concrete reception context can be determined by the language of a text. We are just as much in the dark when it comes to the author of the Ferguut. Researchers cannot even agree on the question of whether we are dealing with one author or two. Up to line 2592 the romance is a slightly abridged translation of the French source; thereafter it is a much freer adaptation of the French. Based on research into its versification and rhyming technique, as well as syntax, vocabulary and spelling, Kuiper argues that Ferguut must have been written by two authors. The first part, for instance, has a great many more assonating rhymes and French words than the second. According to this reconstruction, the poem will have been completed, perhaps years later, by a second author who did not have the French exemplar at his disposal.20 Although the dual-author theory has been accepted by most scholars, the view, supported by stylometric research, that we may be dealing with a single author cannot be dismissed out of hand.21 This poet did not simply retell the story, but made his own choices as he proceeded, in particular with respect to the ironic sophistication of the completed romance. In the second part of the romance we encounter a series of

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connected deviations in the resolution of the love story that point toward a deliberate and creative adaptation of the source. We will say more about the characteristics of the Ferguut below, as well as about a number of striking differences with the Old French source text, but first we offer a brief summary of the contents of the Middle Dutch romance. Summary The story begins with a prelude in which the knights of the Arthurian court set out to hunt the white stag. The hunting party finds itself on the land of the wealthy farmer Somilet, who is married to a noblewoman. When they pass his castle, their eldest son is ploughing the field. He ceases his ploughing and, when he realises who the knights are, he decides to go to Arthur’s court to become the king’s advisor. Upon his arrival at court, dressed in the old armour given to him by Somilet, the boy rides straight into the hall. Hanging from his saddle are the severed heads of two thieves he defeated on the way there. He identifies himself as Ferguut and offers his services to Arthur. Keye mocks him for this but Gawein defends him. At his request he is dubbed a knight and, now in Arthur’s service, rides out to defeat the Black Knight, the court’s most bitter enemy. On his way to his battle with this foe he finds lodging at the castle of the uncle of the fair Galiene who confesses her love for him at his bedside that night. When Ferguut does not respond to her advances she flees. Following his victory over the Black Knight, Ferguut returns, but Galiene is no longer at her uncle’s castle. Now it is his turn to fall under the spell of love, and so he rides out with one goal in mind: to find Galiene. A long journey ensues. After three adventures which do not bring Ferguut any closer to Galiene, he goes mad and wanders aimlessly in the forest for two years. The tide turns when he is healed by a magic fountain and a dwarf tells him how to find Galiene: he must acquire the White Shield. At the castle where the shield is found he fights both the giantess Pantasale and the dragon guarding the White Shield. Later he arrives at the castle of her gigantic husband and defeats him as well. In the process he frees two captive damsels. He also tames the giant’s horse, Pennevare, who becomes his new mount. He has become lord of the castle and now has the White Shield in his possession. Ferguut stays in the castle for four months in the company of the damsels before he once again begins to long for adventure. From the damsels he learns about Galiene and the siege of her castle, Rikenstene, by Galarant, who intends to conquer her by force. As ‘die ridder metten witten scilde’ (The Knight with the White Shield, l. 3885), he fights two heroic battles for Galiene and Rikenstene, but after the fight he retires to his castle. When Galarant attacks in the hero’s absence, Galiene forestalls her demise by proposing a winner-takes-all battle between her champion and two opponents. Galiene sends her maidservant Lunette to Arthur’s court to look for a champion. The maiden returns with empty hands and passes Ferguut’s castle along the way. She

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tells him about the situation and Ferguut arrives the next day just in time to free Galiene by defeating Galarant and his nephew Macedone. Following his heroic performance, Ferguut once again retreats to his castle without identifying himself. Now attention shifts to Galiene, who takes the initiative to travel to Arthur’s court to find a husband to administer her lands. She no longer wishes to wait for Ferguut. He must now act, but he knows nothing of Galiene’s initiative. Quite by accident he learns from a dwarf, however, that Arthur has declared a tournament with the hand of Galiene in marriage to the knight who takes top honours; he then sets out for Arthur’s court. As the Knight with the White Shield he defeats first Keye, and then all the knights of the Round Table with the exception of Gawein, to whom he gives his horse as a gift. When he removes his helmet, he is recognised as Ferguut. In the end Galiene receives as her prize the man who had rejected her earlier. The Originality of the Middle Dutch Adaptation Readers familiar with Arthurian literature will recognise the intertextual game that the Old French Fergus plays with Chrétien de Troyes’s oeuvre. Guillaume borrows the worldly theme of love versus martial prowess from Chrétien’s earliest romances, while at the same time rejecting Perceval’s spiritual, Christian chivalric path from the Conte du Graal (Zemel 2006, 93–136). The Flemish author, writing some fifty years later, did not have such a specific intertextual reading in mind. Neither does the character of Perceval in the Ferguut evoke associations with the bumbling young hero in the Conte du Graal any longer; rather Perceval is by now a fully fledged hero who has completed the quest for the Holy Grail (Zemel 2011, 43): Een goet ridder was Pertsevael, Hi vant dat precioes grael, Dat noit eer man en mocht vinden. (ll. 5333–5)22 (Pertsevael was a good knight, he achieved the precious grail, which no man had ever done before.)

The Scottish topographical features and colourful names that are a meaningful part of the fabric of the Fergus and which symbolise the development of the hero, have disappeared from the Middle Dutch text, especially in the second part (Zemel 1991, 169–77). Ferguut is simpler and a different type of romance from Fergus. Its author’s goal was not the creation of a carefully constructed composition in relation to Chrétien but rather the skilful telling of a fast-paced version of the story, taken from the Fergus but given an original treatment in the translation.23 Up to the changed ending, the romance reads like an account of the spectacular career of an unusual hero, a youth, ‘des dorpers sone’ (the villain’s son, l. 313), who begins his career on the land of his father behind the plough but then becomes a knight. As the Knight with the White Shield he eventually becomes the best knight in the world. The first part of the Ferguut is a translation with abridgements. By no means an adaptation courtoise, its primary aim is abridgement and simplification as far as the

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literary elements are concerned, and ultimately it amounts to an account of a romance hero’s dream career (Zemel 1991, 341–53). The romance’s attraction lies to a great extent in the extremely vivid and frequently humorous, often cartoonish, descriptions of Ferguut’s experiences and battles and in the strategic application of litotes, diminutives and hapax legomena. For example, when Ferguut, half starved, sits down at table with fifteen robber knights without saying a word and begins to help himself to the repast meant for them, one of their number remarks dryly: ‘Ens niet die hoefste vanden lande’ (He’s not the most courteous in the land, l. 2639), an understatement lacking in the Old French. And the giant’s club, a tree trunk, is euphemistically referred to as ‘boemkijn’, sapling (l. 3524), or ‘hameidekine’, little battering ram (l. 3533), while the giantess wields a ‘seisekijn’, little scythe (l. 3365).24 Moreover, the Flemish poet livens up his text by adding a great deal of direct speech and a selection of extremely original expletives and humorous expressions. Examples are to be found in the passage in which the naive Ferguut greets the hideously ugly giant with ‘vrouwe scone’, fair lady (l. 3371), and in which Galarant mockingly addresses Ferguut as ‘her driten sone’, sir son of a whore (l. 4694). The second part of the Ferguut has a tripartite structure: the first section recounts the quest for the White Shield, which Ferguut acquires in the castle of the giantess and is compelled to defend in the castle of the giant (ll. 3161–814). Next follows the battle for Rikenstene, which culminates in the victory over Galarant and Macedone (ll. 3865–4890). The last part is devoted to the tournament that ends with the hero’s marriage to Galiene (ll. 4979–5589). In order to move from one part to another, Ferguut must continually be goaded into action by others. Unlike Fergus, he is not a hero driven by love. Indeed, he goes for some time without giving so much as a single thought to Galiene. Thus, after completing the quest for the White Shield, Ferguut allows himself to be pampered at the giant’s castle for four months by the two damsels living there, whose lovers had been slain by the giants. It is only after some time has passed that Ferguut asks whether there are other adventures to be had. He then learns that Galiene, who lives just seven miles away, is under siege. The build-up to Ferguut’s second stint in service to Galiene is also original. Ferguut is passing the time in the woods near the giant’s castle when he learns from Lunette, Galiene’s passing maidservant, that she seeks a champion to fight on her behalf in an uneven fight. Lunette expresses her displeasure by remarking that Galiene is in love with an idiot whom she has only seen once. As she takes her leave, Ferguut proffers that her beloved will no doubt ride to her rescue (l. 4527). There is nothing to indicate, however, that Ferguut had been overly concerned with Galiene’s fate and yet again he must be goaded by someone else to save her. But he is not hereby prompted to immediate action, but rather retires once again to his castle after having defeated Galarant and Macedone. Galiene’s maidservant is called Arondele in the Old French. Like the girl in the Middle Dutch text this character is modelled on Lunette from the Chevalier au lion,

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but the Flemish author recognised this connection and reinforced it by using the same name that appears in Chrétien’s romance (Zemel 1993, 195). This change would not be a meaningful one if (a part of) the audience were not also familiar with this text, which was known in Flanders, probably in French as well as in Middle Dutch.25 The girl’s name is thus a specific intertextual signal that provides us with an indication concerning the Middle Dutch author’s intentions: like Chrétien in the Chevalier au lion he is ironising ‘all’s well that ends well’ as the standard ending of a love romance. This is especially evident in the characterisation of Galiene. At the beginning of the third episode Galiene takes the initiative and in surprising fashion once again sets in motion the events which Ferguut’s lack of action have brought to a standstill. Suddenly her love for Ferguut seems to have cooled; she no longer wants to wait for him and rides to Arthur’s court in order to ask the king to look for a husband to administer her lands. Thereupon the king announces a tournament with Galiene as main prize.26 Galiene would love to have the Knight with the White Shield but she does not recognise him as Ferguut. She appears to have forgotten Ferguut, which creates some suspense concerning whether the two will be united in the end.27 Ferguut must now make haste if he wishes to have Galiene as his wife. After all, according to the narrator, women are changeable: (Galiene) heft gelaten staen haer wenen. Soe siet wel dat het niet enwout: Hen es geen dinc, hen vercout. Ferguut mach wel so lange merren Dat sijn rapen selen berren: Wijfs herte en es niet van stale. (ll. 4979–85). (Galiene has left off her weeping. She realises that it will do her no good: there is no passion that does not lose its heat. Ferguut may well delay so long until his turnips have burned. A woman’s heart is not made of steel.)

By means of the litotes in the last line and the popular saying that precedes it, the narrator underscores the irony and alludes to Ferguut’s poor decision in retreating anonymously after his final victory against Galarant and Macedone. When Galiene appears at court, everyone is deeply impressed by her beauty. This episode, too, shows signs of an ironising style. Whereas Arthur is happy because it has been such a long time since he saw such a beautiful woman, the queen is jealous: ‘Genoevere hads selve groet verdriet,/ Want jegen hare en was si niet’ (Genoevere herself was despondent, for compared to her she was plain, ll. 5035–6). King Arthur adds insult to injury with a response that is anything but chivalrous when Galiene asks him for a husband. No man at court is good enough for her; he would want her for himself, but alas, he’s already married! (ll. 5057–60).28 Thereupon Arthur uses royal funds to sponsor a tournament for Galiene’s hand, at which Ferguut, disguised as the White Knight, will ultimately defeat and wound even the best knights of the Round Table. But things have not yet reached that stage because

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Ferguut knows nothing of Galiene’s initiative. Once again, he must be prompted by others to take action. It is only by chance that he hears of the tournament from a miniknight, a dwarf, who is also infatuated with the beautiful Galiene and hopes to catch a glimpse of her. Once again Ferguut is called a ‘sot’ (fool), this time by the dwarf, because he has been dallying in his forest instead of riding to the tournament. This comical scene (ll. 5101–44), which does not appear in the Old French, is a typical example of the Middle Dutch poet’s creative originality (Zemel 2011, 44, 51). When Ferguut hears about the tournament, he thinks first of ‘chevalerie’, on his long-awaited revenge on Keye (l. 5148). It is only once he is on his way to Arthur’s court that he realises that he may well lose Galiene due to his own stupidity: Hoe dicke riep hi: ‘Galiene, Salic u nu moeten verliesen? Wel haddic gesproken den riesen Dat ic naesten niet en voer tote u Ten Rikenstene; dats mi leet nu. Hets dicke geseit, dats waer sprake: Blode man quam noit te hoger sake.’ (ll. 5152–8) (How often did he call out, ‘Galiene, am I now to lose you? I acted like such a fool that I did not go to you before at Rikenstene; I regret that now. It is often said, and a true saying: “Cowards never do great deeds”.’)

As a member of the side consisting of ‘die van buten’ (outsiders) in the tournament, Ferguut embarrasses Arthur and his knights. He is victorious at the end of twelve days in his new identity as the Knight with the White Shield. Gawein is the only one he does not defeat, but the latter does not escape the ironising eye of the Middle Dutch author. Arthur’s nephew behaves in a most unsporting way when he insists upon entering the lists to defend the reputation of his friends. Everyone advises against it, even Arthur, and, to Gawein’s great shame, all the ladies at court, because they all believe that he will lose. When Ferguut, recognising Gawein, neither moves nor lifts a finger to take part in the joust, Gawein impatiently urges him on.29 Ferguut refuses to fight Gawein and instead gives him a horse, whereby he demonstrates his superiority and spares the most famous knight of the court a likely defeat (Zemel 2011, 47–52). By the time the tournament has ended in the Middle Dutch romance, Galiene has lost all direction. She hangs her head in shame when she recognises Ferguut as the victor. The parallel with Laudine in the Chevalier au lion, who feels just as uncomfortable, is impossible to deny. Galiene gets the man whom she had banished from her thoughts and for whom she had no longer wished to wait: the youthful knight who had previously rejected her when she had shamelessly gone to him at night to confess her love (Zemel 1988–9, 276–8). In the end, then, it is Galiene who is most severely ironised. The narrator ends the love story with the words: ‘Elc en haette anderen niet sere’ (Each held little hate for the other, l. 5559). By means of yet another litotes he suggests that all will be well in love after all. The conclusion of the Ferguut is thus an ironic

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version of the traditional romance ending. Using his humorous style and the original ending of the romance of Ferguut and Galiene, the talented Flemish author has created a romance which offers much more than the story of a spectacular chivalric career. 5. Perchevael: From Perchevael Narrative to Romance of Walewein Perchevael is a translation/adaptation, dating to before 1250 and preserved both in fragments and as an adaptation of that translation in the Lancelot Compilation.30 The Middle Dutch Adaptation The Conte du Graal is the only one of Chrétien de Troyes’s romances for which a Middle Dutch version is extant. Perchevael is a translation which bears the hallmarks of an adaptation. Although scholars have pointed to a localisation in several different regions, Flanders seems the most likely place of origin (Caers 2011, 225, note 4). The direction of transmission seems to have run west to east, whereby we possess a Brabantine copy and two Ripuarian fragments, which date to the thirteenth century. The fragments come from four different manuscripts and comprise a little over 1100 verses in total.31 Table 5.1 provides an overview of the fragments, with the corresponding episodes from Chrétien’s romance. As is the case with many French manuscripts in which Chrétien’s romance is accompanied by one or more of its Continuations, the translation/adaptation probably included the First Continuation of the Conte du Graal as well. Although the First Continuation, also known as the Continuation Gauvain, is not to be found in the extant fragments, a portion of it is preserved in the later Perchevael adaptation in the Lancelot Compilation, which is based directly on the fragments. So, the First Continuation Table 5.1  Overview of the dating, localisation and contents of the fragments. Liège, UB, MS 1333

Brussels, KBR, MS II 115,2

Düsseldorf, UB, K.2: F 23.

Prague, PNP-Strahov-392/zl.

c.XIII-d

c.XIV-a

c.XIII-d?

c.XIII-d/c. XIV-a

North-West Brabant/ Flemish

Flemish

Middle Franconian

Middle Franconian

736 lines

158 lines

192 lines

71 lines

CdG, ll. 1239–397: initial Court episode; Perchevael arrives at Gornemant’s castle.

CdG, ll. 5571–5839, 6166–491: Maiden with the Short Sleeves; Scaveloen (=Escavalon); Walewein’s oath; Good Friday episode.

CdG, ll. 6989–7160: Greoreas, Male Pucele

CdG, ll. 6323–35, 6345–60, 6368–83, 6395–407: parts of the Good Friday episode.

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probably formed a part of the translation, and from the adaptation we may conclude that it concerns the so-called long redaction of the French text. All of the Perchevael fragments are based on one and the same Middle Dutch translation. There are some idiosyncratic differences in the way in which the fragments relate to the Old French source text, for example, in the extent of abridgment or addition of new elements. It appears that the Prague fragments correspond most closely to the Old French, whereas the fragments from Düsseldorf are furthest removed from it (Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 67). The translation is, on the whole, a rather faithful one, down to the level of word choice, but is certainly not slavish. It shows traces of adaptation, such as abbreviation and amplification, all of which reveal the intentions of the author. Above all, this poet wanted to retell the story of his source in a clear and lucid fashion, but, whether intentionally or unintentionally, his many, for the most part minor, changes gave it a different tone.32 Due to the resultant unique character of the text it is impossible to determine which of the French redactions of the Conte du Graal it corresponds to. The Middle Dutch author focused on the essence of his Old French source and made the story less complicated. To this end the first-person narrator makes a more frequent appearance with his explanatory observations than in Chrétien. Moreover, the poet has abbreviated digressions that have no direct bearing on the action, such as the religious instruction that Perchevael receives from his hermit uncle in the Good Friday episode. The Flemish author also reduces the number of passages where strong emotions are expressed.33 Such abbreviation is not applied with equal measure throughout, however. Walewein’s hunt for the stag and his sojourn in Scaveloen, for example, are actually expanded when compared to the source. It is striking that the ironic exaggeration so characteristic of Chrétien’s portrayal of Gauvain has disappeared in the Middle Dutch and has been replaced by a much more straightforward description. An example of this is found in the episode which takes place in Tintavel (Tintagel) with the Maiden with the Short Sleeves in the Brussels fragment, from which the discrepancy in age, and the charming yet ironic aspects that accompany it, have disappeared entirely. In this episode Walewein is an unambiguously chivalrous hero, who performs a service for a ‘normal’ damsel.34 The result is that Arthur’s nephew is a much more exemplary knight in the Middle Dutch version than in the French. Perchevael’s depiction diverges as well for here he is not as naive and childish as his Old French counterpart. As a result, the contrast between Chrétien’s two protagonists is much less stark in the Middle Dutch, which in turn has led to the near complete loss of this meaningful distinction. Apart from abbreviations and differences in emphasis, the translation also exhibits a number of splendid examples of amplificatio. The best-known passage is to be found in the description of the market at Scaveloen, which is twice the length of the original. The scenario as it appears in the Old French is expanded with lively details, such as the names of exotic foods and spices and precise designations for a variety of fine

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woollen materials for the manufacture of exquisite clothing. The art of enamelling, a craft not practised in Flanders, has on the other hand been deleted, presumably because it was thought irrelevant for a Flemish audience. The presence of so many details, both added and deleted, in the description of the annual market has led to the supposition that the poet must have had the bustling trade and textile town of Bruges in mind when he wrote it, although this remains impossible to prove.35 A number of scholars have labelled the translation/adaptation an adaptation courtoise, pointing out correspondences with other, particularly German-language, versions of Old French romances which, however, often deviate more extensively from their sources than the Middle Dutch texts do.36 Similar techniques to the ones in this type of adaptation are to be found in the fragments containing the Wrake van Ragisel (see above). More specifically, the Perchevael is characterised by a certain degree of faithfulness to its source, on the one hand, and by strategic abbreviations and expansions designed to liven up and, in some instances, correct, the Old French text. The emphasis is placed more on telling a good, fast-paced and lucid story, however, than on replicating the often enigmatic and tongue-in-cheek humour and irony that are the hallmarks of Chrétien. The characters are therefore less ambiguous, but also more one-dimensional than in the Old French. When it comes to Walewein this may have been an intentional aim. The translator has a particular interest in him, especially for his deeds of martial prowess and the courtly treatment he receives, and he frequently makes cuts in order to bolster Walewein’s image. This leads to an unambiguously courtly portrayal of Walewein, another similarity with the Wrake (see also Chapter 7). The Adaptation in the Lancelot Compilation The interest in Walewein is also the most important characteristic of the fourteenthcentury adaptation of the Flemish translation contained in the Lancelot Compilation. This Brabantine adaptation preserves only the adventures of Walewein, followed by the first part of the First Continuation, which is also entirely devoted to Arthur’s nephew. The only episode in Walewein’s narrative thread in which Perchevael features, the Good Friday episode, is nowhere to be found in the compilation. And yet Perchevael does play a role, together with other Arthurian knights, in the adaptation, namely in two series of episodes written and inserted by the compiler. These apocryphal adventures comprise approximately forty percent of the entire romance and are structured using the same interlace technique found in the preceding Lanceloet (the translation of the Old French Prose Lancelot). They alternate with Walewein’s quest and fill the gap in the Conte du Graal, where many knights leave the court after the announcement of adventures by the Loathsome Damsel, but nothing is said of their whereabouts.37

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Summary The compilation Perchevael begins in traditional fashion with a festive gathering at the court of King Arthur. Perchevael and his brother Acglavael are also present. A loathsome damsel then arrives who brings word of adventures to be had at castle Orglieus and the mountain of Montesclare, where the Sword-with-the-Two-Rings is also to be won. Walewein wants to set out immediately for Montesclare but must first ride to Scaveloen because Ginganbrisiel, who arrived at court just after the loathsome damsel, had challenged him to appear for a combat. The compiler inserts the first series of adventures: Keye and Acgravein are taken prisoner at castle Doloreus and Ywein and Gariet are defeated by a superior number of knights at castle Orglieus. Finally, Mordret and Griflet, having received many wreaths and roses from the amorous damsels at the castle of Montesclare, are taken prisoner.38 Perchevael, who had departed from court on his own, without direction, succeeds in freeing Keye, Acgravein, Ywein and Gariet, and sends their opponents back to court to submit themselves to Arthur. After a detour to Tintavel, where Walewein participates in the tournament on behalf of the youngest daughter of Lord Tybaut of Tintavel, Walewein arrives in Scaveloen, where he flirts with the lord’s sister and where his combat against Ginganbrisiel is postponed for a year. He promises to go in search of the Bleeding Lance, but sets out first for Montesclare, where twenty knights have constructed a gallows upon which Mordret and Griflet are to be hanged. Walewein frees his companions and defeats the tyrant who is laying siege to the damsel of Montesclare. They are subsequently attacked by an entire army, but Perchevael and the knights he liberated arrive just in time to lend their support. That evening Walewein proves he is worthy to possess the Sword with the Two-Rings and the damsel of Montesclare declares herself his for all time. Walewein, however, continues on his quest for the Bleeding Lance and, as the story tells us, for the Grail as well, on the roads of Galoie. What ensues follows the Old French source with the hero’s encounters with the rude Evil Damsel, Greorias, Griromelant and Walewein’s sojourn at the Castle of Wonders, where he also meets his mother, grandmother and sister Clariane. The duel between Walewein and Griromelant is ultimately called to a halt after a full day’s fighting, whereupon Clariane and Griromelant secretly marry. When Walewein learns of this, he departs in a rage. At this juncture – in the meantime the story follows that of the First Continuation – the compiler inserts a second series of adventures. A group of knights, among them Keye, Dodineel, Tristram, Perchevael and Acglavael, promise to search for Walewein for a year. In their first adventure Keye and Dodineel are defeated by an exceptionally strong, unknown knight. A duel with Tristram ends undecided because the knight is called away by a damsel in service of the Lady of the Lake. The unknown knight is revealed to be Lanceloet. Subsequently Tristram receives a message and departs without delay: his beloved and wife (sic!) Ysolde is in labour and his presence at home

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is required at once. In the adventures that follow the compiler ties up a number of narrative threads left dangling in Chrétien’s romance. Perchevael sets out alone, despite his brother Acglavael’s objection that he is too young for a quest.39 Ultimately Perchevael liberates the Evil Damsel, Chrétien’s ‘male pucele’, from her tyrannical friend, after which she is known as the Good Damsel. Acglavael, too, received a role from the compiler: he slays Greoreas, Walewein’s old enemy. Next the compiler picks up Walewein’s narrative thread with an abbreviated version of his visit to the Grail Castle from the First Continuation, where he fails to repair the broken sword and receives neither further information about the Grail, nor about the procession that he witnessed there. Next Walewein fights Dyandras, whose father was slain by Walewein and who hates him passionately. However, the fight ends undecided and is postponed until Walewein returns to Scaveloen. The compiler now shifts back and forth between a group of Arthur’s knights who, with the help of Perchevael and Acglavael, save a damsel in a final, joint adventure. Then, because a year has nearly passed, and the knights have failed to find Walewein, they return to court. In the last chapter Walewein faces two knights in combat, Ginganbrisiel and Dyandras. Arthur’s attempts to settle the matter fail and Walewein fights heroically against his two opponents, aided by his ever-increasing strength, which waxes in the afternoon as the sun follows its course.40 As vespers approaches, just as Walewein’s strength has doubled, he finally defeats his two foes. The treacherous Dyandras is slain, whereas Ginganbrisiel agrees to Arthur’s intervention and is pardoned. Walewein is escorted back to court in triumph. Walewein as Hero; Perchevael as Connecting Link This conclusion clearly reveals the intentions of the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation: he has transformed the Flemish adaptation into a Walewein romance. He excised most of Perchevael’s narrative thread and used a number of episodes from the First Continuation, among which were Walewein’s failed Grail adventure, which is presented as merely a temporary set-back. His host at the Grail Castle tells him that he has not yet accomplished what he must: Want noch en hebdi niet gedaen Datment u mach laten verstaen. Maer in secgere niet toe el, Gine moges noch verdinen wel. (Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, ll. 4613–16) (For you have not yet done what you must to earn the knowledge. But I shall say no more about it for you shall come to deserve it.)

In the compilation, however, it will be revealed in the Queeste vanden Grale that Walewein is not one of the chosen Grail heroes. The compiler followed his source faithfully in the episodes which he took from the Flemish adaptation, but in such a way that he excised anything that did not have a

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direct bearing on Walewein’s narrative thread. The long description of the market in Scaveloen mentioned above, for instance, has been replaced by a brevitas formula. The compiler also took pains to make the romance fit smoothly within the structure of the tripartite core of the compilation. He added the two interlaced series of episodes in which groups of knights, all of them heroes from the preceding Lanceloet, experience adventures in which, at the same time, loose narrative threads are tied up. In this way a number of negative minor characters with whom Arthur’s nephew had previously had dealings in the Conte du Graal are dispensed with once and for all by the knights of the Round Table. Ultimately this contributes in a positive way to Walewein’s reputation. In many of the interpolated adventures Perchevael appears as hero and saviour of others, but compared to Walewein he remains a subordinate figure. Thus, it was not the character Perchevael that prompted the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation to choose this romance for inclusion in his cycle, though this knight nevertheless opened up useful possibilities for integrating the text at an appropriate place in the narrative cycle and subsequently to link it up with its neighbouring texts, the Lanceloet and the Moriaen, which was inserted at a later date (see Chapter 7).41 Finally, the compiler expanded the ending of Walewein’s quest by some 500 lines in order to provide him with a glorious victory.42 Here the Middle Dutch text deviates sharply from the Old French First Continuation, where Arthur manages to placate the opposing sides and the unequal combat is called off. Lanceloet, the hero of the preceding portion of the compilation, plays a very minor and not very flattering role in the Perchevael, certainly compared to Walewein, for he appears only briefly and fights incognito against his comrades, until he is called away suddenly. In this romance, which was the first to be inserted in the Lancelot Compilation, the compiler provides insight into what will become an important theme of the entire cycle: the alternating adventures of the two main heroes in the compilation, and the exaltation of Arthur’s nephew, Walewein. 6. Torec: A Multi-Layered Adaptation The fifth and final romance interpolated after the Queeste vanden Grale and before Arturs doet in the Lancelot Compilation is a text that has survived only in this text collection: Torec (Johnson and Claassens 2003, 562–727: 3856 lines). Unlike the Wrake and Perchevael, we are not able to compare the Torec with either a surviving Old French text, or a pre-existing Middle Dutch adaptation, for neither text has been preserved. But whereas those other adaptations were penned by anonymous Dutch poets, in this case we know who was ultimately responsible for the adaptation that underlies this text: the well-known Flemish poet and historiographer, Jacob van Maerlant. That an earlier Middle Dutch version did indeed exist – and was used by the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation – can be deduced from a remark in the prologue of Jacob van Maerlant’s Historie van Troyen, where he states that he also wrote ‘Merlijn / Ende

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Allexander uijtten Latijn, / Toerecke ende dien Sompniarijs, / Ende den corten Lapidarijs’ (Merlijn and Allexander from the Latin, Toerecke and the Sompniarijs, and the short Lapidarijs; Pauw and Gaillard 1889–92, I, 2, ll. 57–60). Between references to his extant Graal-Merlijn, his Alexanders geesten and his (non-extant) books on dreams and stones, we find a reference to his Toerecke. Thus Maerlant (c.1235–90) is currently credited with the composition of the Middle Dutch Torec, which he probably completed in the year 1262 (Oostrom 1996a, 81–147). The link between the French source mentioned at line 2378 (‘Also alsict int Romans hore’, As I have heard it said in French)43 and Jacob van Maerlant is rendered explicit by the fourteenth-century catalogue in the Louvre, which, when describing the collection of Isabelle of Bavaria, refers to a ‘Torrez chevalier au cercle dor, rimé, bien historié et escript’ (Torrez, knight of the circlet of gold, in rhyme, well told and written; cf. Oostrom 1979). The phrase ‘chevalier au cercle dor’, in particular, leaves little doubt as to the nature of this French text. But while we may know that there was indeed an Old French source and an intermediate Middle Dutch adaptation, in the absence of either of these texts any attempt to analyse in depth the adaptation techniques of the compiler would seem fruitless. Observations on any aspect of the compilation version of this text will inevitably be constrained by questions concerning which of (at least) three authors was responsible for them: the unknown French poet, Maerlant, or the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation. As Besamusca writes, ‘Anyone studying Torec unavoidably skates on very thin ice’ (Besamusca 2003a, 131; 2011a, 298). Summary King Briant of the Red Island finds a beautiful maiden, Mariole, in a tree in a forest. She wears a golden circlet which brings great good fortune to whomever possesses it, and for years the knights of the Round Table had endured much suffering in their unsuccessful attempts to find it. Briant marries Mariole, but the circlet is stolen by Bruant van den Montagne, who oversees the division of property among three orphaned sisters. The eldest daughter chooses first, and takes the circlet. This results in Queen Mariole becoming destitute, her husband dying, and her casting out to sea the little daughter born after his death. The child is found and raised by King Ydor of the Baser River who names her Tristoise and later takes her as his wife. Torec is born as a result of this marriage and at his birth his mother laughs for the first time. When he turns twenty, she shows him the letter that came with her as a foundling and tells him of the stolen circlet. The young man at once decides to set out in search of the circlet, and his mother then laughs for the second time. Torec experiences several adventures, freeing a damsel from seven robber knights, overcoming an Evil Custom held by twelve evil knights, and jousting with a Black Knight, who mysteriously disappears in the middle of the fight. Torec meets and befriends Melions, who directs him to Bruant’s castle. Torec slays the giants and lions who defend it and he and Bruant fight the next day. Torec wins, but not before he is

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wounded with a poisoned sword. Bruant informs Torec that the circlet is in the possession of his wealthy and single sister-in-law. She has vowed to marry only a knight who has defeated the entire Round Table. Only she can heal Torec’s wounds. Torec realises that she is the only woman for him and is escorted by Bruant’s knights within sight of Castle Fort. In the surrounding forest he encounters the enchanted knight Claes van den Briel, who suffers being hunted and beheaded, sometimes as many as four times a day. Torec defeats him and has the enchantment removed. He next manages to lift the siege of the castle of the Damsel of Montesclare, who shows her gratitude by throwing him in the dungeon. The story now shifts to Melions, who mourns the death of his beloved. He wins a tournament and defends King Morligant’s daughter against an unwanted suitor, Raguel. He challenges him to a fight, but after a draw they become friends. Torec, now out of prison, listens to the Damsel of Montesclare’s story and takes his leave, whereupon an ogre suddenly carries her off. Torec ignores her cries for help. He next jousts with a Red Knight who disappears, like the Black Knight before him. He then defeats a robber knight, a former member of Arthur’s court banished for stabbing Keye. Next morning Torec fights two duels at the Ford of Adventure against a huge Black Knight, he loses the first but wins the second, and spares the knight’s life. Finally, Torec arrives at the castle of Druant. After a vicious battle in which both knights are grievously wounded, Torec overcomes Druant and is healed of his earlier wound (caused by Bruant’s poisoned sword). The story switches again to Melions, who embarks with Raguel on a quest to free King Morligant’s daughter. They succeed, but Raguel betrays Melions and takes credit for the rescue, claiming the king’s daughter as his reward. However, Melions manages to return to court and the truth is revealed. The king orders his daughter to marry Melions. Raguel is executed. Meanwhile Torec leaves Druant’s castle and encounters a White Knight, who mysteriously disappears during the fight. He then meets a damsel who has lost her thirty castles to King Arthur for failing to appear at court. Torec takes up her cause and rides to Tintagel, but Arthur stands by his verdict. The only knight to disagree with the unjust treatment of the damsel is Walewein. Torec defeats Ywein in a trial by combat, wins back the damsel’s estates, and rejects an offer to join the Round Table. Subsequently Torec defends the honour of a damsel against the Red Knight, defeating him in single combat, and then defeats ten more knights harassing the servants of Ydras, lord of a castle where he then finds lodging. Ydras takes him to an island where, we learn later, the mysterious knight – an elf in disguise and a relation of Torec’s – is lord over a marvellously beautiful castle which houses the ‘Chamber of Wisdom’. Torec spends three full days there, drinking in the wisdom and moral teaching expounded upon by the men and women present, who conduct their debates on the virtues and lack thereof in the dealings of the ruling classes. Torec is magically transported back to where he had boarded the enchanted ship.

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Riding forth on his quest to find Miraude and the golden circlet, Torec has two further adventures before reaching his goal, both of which involve his capture and similar conditions for his release: in the first he must win a tournament disguised as his captor; in the second he must fight a duel against the ubiquitous Red Knight, who has plagued the family of the chatelaine whose giants Torec had slain. Torec sets out once again to find the castle of his beloved when he meets and is challenged by a knight who turns out to be the one who had disappeared three times in the middle of a fight. He is Torec’s great uncle, who also led him to the ‘Chamber of Wisdom’. He finds Miraude, who reveals that she will marry him only if he can overcome all of the knights of the Round Table. Walewein rigs the ensuing fight by having them all cut their saddle girths. Torec unhorses all present, but they must ride to Arthur’s court in order to finish the challenge. On the way Miraude is abducted but Torec succeeds in rescuing her. Torec must now face the entire Round Table. Walewein again obligingly persuades his comrades to cut the girths of their saddles so that they are all unhorsed at the first shock. But Torec’s victory is not complete. He now refuses to concede until he himself has been unhorsed. Arthur himself rides out in disguise to fight him but succeeds in unhorsing him only by the most unconventional and unchivalrous means: he grabs Torec in a bear hug and wrestles him to the ground. The poet explains that Walewein, Perchevael and Lanceloet had barred Arthur from all tournaments, due to his invincibility. Torec rides to court with Miraude. At the wedding feast Miraude wears the golden circlet and Tristoise laughs for the third and last time. Torec ascends the throne, and with that his romance comes to an end. An Unconventional Arthurian Romance Anyone expecting a traditional Arthurian romance will be somewhat disappointed. The hero is an outsider, who does not belong to the Arthurian community and ultimately refuses to join it. The story lacks many of the conventional links to the world of Arthurian romance that characterise the genre, and, while it may end at Arthur’s court, it certainly does not begin there. Moreover, over a quarter of the story has been related before Arthur and the knights of the Round Table make any significant appearance. Merlin and Arthur’s knights are mentioned at the very beginning of the narrative, as the author explains the nature of the golden diadem or circlet worn by Mariole, but even this brief mention is cast in terms of a failed quest that reflects negatively on Arthur’s court: Dits ene dinc daer vele an leget Ende daer Merlijn af hevet geseget, Ende daer die vander tavelronden Hebben alsoe langen stonden Haer lijf daer ombe geaventurt, Ende soe menech leet besuert, Ende noch nie mochten gewinnen. (Johnson and Claassens 2003, ll. 43–9)

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TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS OF FRENCH VERSE ROMANCES  103 (The circlet is a matter of some importance and one that Merlijn has spoken of, and about which the knights of the Round Table have for so long and so frequently risked their lives and endured so much suffering, and despite their efforts could not succeed in achieving.)

The first real, major reference to Arthur and his knights comes in ll. 1259–84, when Mabilie of Montesclare explains to Torec that she had provoked a siege of her castle to have a pretext to ask Arthur to intervene, in the hope of thus finding a suitable husband. In the episode describing Torec’s fight with the robber knight (ll. 1328–88) we get a second, fairly marginal reference to the Arthurian community, namely that the knight has been banished by Arthur because he attacked Keye in revenge for an insult. The first direct contact between Torec and Arthur takes place about halfway through the story (ll. 1925–2085), when Torec enters the lists for an anonymous damsel who has been unjustly treated by Arthur and his knights. She had arrived too late at a session of the court, only to discover that the knights of the Round Table had already assigned her inheritance of thirty castles to Arthur. Torec proves the injustice of this decision by defeating Ywein in single combat. It is remarkable that in this passage Walewein alone steps forward to say that he had not agreed with the decision, having been absent at the time (ll. 1962–4; more on this episode below). Then it is only towards the end of the story that the Arthurian community truly comes to the fore, when Torec must meet the requirements of Miraude’s vow and defeat all the knights of the Round Table (ll. 3100 ff). Speculating on the Old French Torrez – Connections and Influences While the Old French original is lost to us, we may safely assume that in the broadest terms the main structure of Torec is to be attributed to the anonymous French poet. In its current form in the Lancelot Compilation, the romance exhibits a tripartite structure consisting of introductory episodes, followed by three readily identifiable phases and a series of concluding episodes that wrap up the narrative.44 Jeanette Koekman (1988a) posits that all three are phases of Torec’s quest, which begins as a quest for revenge (to retrieve the golden circlet stolen from his mother), but is transformed into a quest for love (Torec’s pursuit of Miraude). In addition to this tripartite division, two separate yet interconnecting worlds may be detected: the chivalric space, in which Torec, Arthur and the other characters move, as well as a parallel otherworld evoked by its numerous fairy-tale elements (the golden circlet, Torec’s elfish great uncle, etc.).45 In a detailed study, Zemel (2001) identifies a number of parallels with several Old French texts, which he characterises as ‘intertextual play’ on the part of the Old French poet. Such parallels include those with the ‘conte mélusinien’ (Torec’s grandmother, ll. 1–70), with the Tristan (e.g. the name Torec’s mother receives at baptism, i.e. Tristoise, ll. 133–71), with Chrétien’s Conte du Graal (the episodes of Mabilie of Montesclare, ll. 756–999 and 1225–1305) and with his Chevalier au lion (e.g. in Torec’s combat with Ywain at King Arthur’s court, ll. 1925–2076). This latter especially illustrates

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how the Torec manipulates and rearranges material drawn from elsewhere to create new meaning. As Besamusca (2011a, 308–9) explains, the Torec rewrites an episode in Chrétien’s Yvain in which the eponymous hero fights on behalf of a damsel in a just cause. In the Torec, it is the outsider hero who takes up the cause of a damsel wronged by Arthur and his court, and he defeats Ywain in the judicial combat, who, as Besamusca notes, is ‘acting as the champion of injustice’ (2011a, 309). Similarly, Besamusca reinforces the connection between Torec and the Conte du Graal.46 He argues that a passage in the Mabilie of Montesclare episodes – where Mabilie, the Damsel of Montesclare, tells Torec that she has fruitlessly sent a messenger, the hideous damsel, who announces adventures in the Conte du Graal, to the court of Arthur requesting aid (ll. 1270–84) – matches what is found in Chrétien’s Perceval better than it does anything in the Perchevael version of that poem in the Lancelot Compilation (see above).47 The passages in question must have been penned by the poet of the Old French source.48 Maerlant’s Additions That the Torrez was essentially a story about the development of a young nobleman destined to rule provides us with the clearest motivation for Maerlant’s choice in adapting it. That his aims were didactic is abundantly clear, just as it may be possible to identify who his intended audience must have been: the young Floris V, Count of Holland (d. 1296) (Oostrom 1996a, 130–2).49 Among the passages identified by critics as likely additions to the Old French text inserted by the Flemish poet is the episode in which Torec travels to a strange castle in the ‘scep van aventuren’ (Ship of Adventures), and there visits the ‘camere van wijsheiden’ (Chamber of Wisdom), where Torec attends a number of conversations in which men and women discuss the cardinal virtues fortitudo (bravery), prudentia (prudence) and temperantia (moderation), the knightly virtues courtoisie (courtliness) and largesse (generosity), and love (ll. 2246– 2625). Gerritsen (1979, 85, note 39), moreover, points out that the virtue of iusticia (justice) is absent. Van Oostrom (1996a, 238–41) observes the critical tone of the didactic conversations in the ‘camere’ and considers them to be recognisably Maerlantian. Also attributed to Maerlant is the brief passage where Torec encounters a figure named Claes van den Briele (ll. 672–752). The name of this enchanted knight is un-Arthurian and utterly Dutch, with the cognomen ‘van den Briele’ containing an unmistakable reference to the town of Brielle, which also covered the hamlet Maerlant on the island of Voorne in Holland, where Maerlant lived for a few years and where he wrote his Torec and his Graal–Merlijn. It would seem that Maerlant was here referring to someone from his personal circle, but there is no scholarly consensus about the significance of this historical allusion. Finally, another possible innovation wrought by Maerlant in his source text might well be that final scene in which Torec jousts with King Arthur (ll. 3628–724). At this

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juncture Torec has to all appearances fulfilled the condition of his beloved – that she will only marry the knight who has unhorsed all the knights of the Round Table (ll. 643–9) – and can claim her hand, for there are no more knights at Arthur’s court willing to fight him. An unexpected narrative twist arises when Torec responds to Arthur’s invitation to ride with him to his court by replying that he will only do so if they can unhorse him first (ll. 3634–8). At this point Arthur steps up to challenge Torec to single combat. That this is likely to be an interpolation emerges from the disruption of the narrative logic here: all along the condition for winning Miraude’s hand and travelling to Arthur’s court has been total victory over Arthur’s knights; stipulating a defeat as a new condition comes out of the blue and is diametrically opposed to the terms established earlier. Moreover, when Arthur steps forward to accept the challenge, he unhorses Torec in a most unusual, even unchivalrous way: he rides at Torec, takes him in a bear hug, and throws him to the ground (3662–70). This, it seems, is Arthur’s modus operandi, and, to make matters worse, ll. 3685–94 note that he was in the habit of throwing his opponents over his saddle and riding off with them. All of the greatest knights of the Round Table had been treated in the same way and for this reason he has been banned from participation in all tournaments. Van Oostrom (1996a, 249–51) explains how the inclusion of this ‘combat’ between Torec and Arthur highlights his bravery and martial prowess, even as it sets generic conventions on their head. In Van Oostrom’s view, the representation of Arthur as a ruler who can overcome all his knights fits well with Maerlant’s notion of the ideal monarch. Questions do arise concerning this attribution, however. For instance, if Maerlant is using Torec as a ‘mirror for princes’, why have him lose a ‘joust’ so close to the end of the story?50 The possibility that this interpolation came from the hand of the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation deserves serious consideration. As such, it could be seen as an addition meant to counter somewhat the negative image and marginalisation of Arthur and his court in the rest of the poem. Alternatively it can also be read as a further, somewhat subtle indictment of Arthurian ideals. More on this below. Traces of the Compiler’s Hand As Johnson and Claassens (2003, 41) note, passages where the compiler may have trimmed the text he inherited from Maerlant are difficult to identify and extremely speculative. In other texts in the compilation where there is material for comparison, we know that he had little interest in colourful details and lengthy descriptions. The extremely discursive ‘Camere van Wijsheiden’ episode discussed above would have been a likely candidate for the compiler’s knife. Assuming that the compiler did indeed shorten this section might account for the missing virtue of iusticia among the cardinal virtues as noted above. Moreover, the brevitas formula that appears at the end of the passage is suggestive, to say the least: Eer die dach leet al geel, Waser gewiest menech ordeel

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MARJOLEIN HOGENBIRK AND DAVID F. JOHNSON Van so menegerhande seden, In caent gesecgen teser steden. Derre materie es noch vele, Dies cortict u metten bispele. (ll. 2594–9)

(Before the day was done many a judgment was passed concerning such a great variety of subjects that I cannot recount them here. The subject matter is so vast, therefore I have shortened it with these examples.)

We are on only slightly firmer ground when we consider the compiler’s possible additions. A convincing case has been made for the narrative thread concerning Melions being an addition by the compiler (Hogenhout 1976, 109–19, 152; Besamusca 2003a, 133). Entirely devoted to the knight Melions (defeated by Torec at ll. 399–509), this thread comprises two entire chapters (ll. 1004–223 and 1620–905). At first blush, Melions’s adventures have no internal, narrative connection with the story of Torec. Moreover, Besamusca (2003a, 133) justly describes the start of this narrative as ‘awkward’. Mere days after Torec finds Melions sleeping in the lap of his beloved, she has suddenly died and the mourning knight is sunk in despair. Melions’s nephew Helijn manages to get him back on the path of adventure (ll. 1004–27). While this somewhat ham-fisted plot twist may not be entirely convincing, it is in line with similar interventions employed by the compiler elsewhere in the narrative cycle, and it reveals an equally typical and ubiquitous tendency on the compiler’s part, namely the desire to tie up loose threads in the narrative (see also his interventions in the Wrake van Ragisel and Perchevael). At the conclusion of this narrative thread the Damsel of Montesclare marries Melions’s nephew Helijn, while Melions himself marries the king’s daughter he has liberated from the abducting ogre (ll. 1868–901). Thus characters who play a greater or lesser role in the story of Torec himself are written out of the story in a natural way.51 Hogenhout (1976, 99–101) identifies further additions by the compiler. He considers Walewein’s trick to have Torec unhorse all of Arthur’s knights by having their saddle-girths compromised to be one such addition.52 Without this trick the notion that a single knight would defeat all the knights of the Round Table would be a singularly disturbing one, especially in the context of the compilation as a whole. Torec in the Context of the Lancelot Compilation Torec appears at the end of a series of romances interpolated between the Queeste vanden Grale and the final act of the Arthurian drama, Arturs doet. As such, it constitutes the final set of adventures in Logres before Arthur’s realm disintegrates. And yet these adventures are not centred on Arthur or his knights. In fact the poem as a whole casts them in a decidedly negative light. As noted above, the quest for the golden circlet mentioned at the very outset is couched in terms of Arthurian failure. Then the injustice of Arthur’s court is highlighted by the judicial affair concerning the damsel who has been disinherited on a technicality, and in truth only one of Arthur’s knights

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emerges here with his reputation more or less intact: Walewein. To add insult to injury, when Torec defeats Ywain in defence of the disenfranchised damsel, he categorically refuses to join Arthur’s court; nor does he do so at the end of the text when the adventures have come to a close and he has finally wedded his lady love, Miraude. The romance isn’t about Arthur and his knights, really. The compiler makes this abundantly clear in the linking passage he inserted at the end of Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, the romance that immediately precedes the Torec: Nu latic hier af die tale staen Ende sal u vertellen alsict vernam Hoe Torec irst ter werelt quam Ende hoe hi daerna quam te hove Ende ward een riddere van groten love. (ll. 852–6) (Now I shall leave off this story and tell you, as I have heard it, how Torec first came into the world, and how he afterwards came to court.)

The story remains that of the development of a young knight who gains enough renown, wisdom and experience – at times in contrast to and at the expense of the Arthurian court – to rule in his own right both his wife’s kingdom and that of his father. At the end of this poem Torec, the ‘knight of great renown’, disappears utterly and completely from the narrative, never to be mentioned again. Why, then, was this text included in the compilation at all? One answer to this question involves the tendency mentioned frequently in this chapter, namely the inclination to exalt or rehabilitate Walewein.53 All but one of the five interpolated romances appearing after the Queeste vanden Grale do this to some extent or another, and it is certainly the case that they serve to give a positive boost to Walewein’s reputation following his misdeeds as recounted in the Grail story. That Torec portrays Walewein in his now familiar rehabilitated role may not be sufficient cause to explain the presence of such an unusual romance in such a prominent position. Put in another way, we may at the very least be justified in positing that its nature and very inclusion at precisely this juncture in the manuscript may be seen to create new meaning, whether or not the compiler intended it to do so or chose the text for this reason. Johnson (2008, 97–9) surveys five possible reasons for including these interpolated romances: simple expansion of a court entertainer’s repertoire, Wolfgang Iser’s ‘inviting gap’ theory, historisation, deferral of closure, and the valorisation of Walewein. None of these are mutually exclusive, nor are we ever likely to be able to say with any certainty which ones the compiler specifically had in mind. Johnson suggests that the inclusion of the Torec at this juncture in the cycle constitutes a commentary on the familiar trajectory of Arthurian ‘history’, in that it ‘presents a contrasting vision of uncorrupted knighthood that exposes the weakness of Arthur’s court’ (Johnson 2008, 106). Just as Walewein stands out in the Torec as the only one of Arthur’s knights with an ounce of integrity, so too it is undeniable that at this point in the compilation a decidedly negative, critical light is cast upon Arthur and his court.54

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Other critics have commented on this feature of the poem, including Heeroma (1973a), Zemel (2001), Bundel and Claassens (2005), Echard (2007), Johnson (2008) and Claassens (2009). Besamusca (2011a) sums up this view as follows: Critics have related the weakness of Arthur’s court in Torec to the place of this narrative in the Lancelot Compilation. In their view, it is no coincidence that the tale precedes Arturs doet, the Middle Dutch translation of the Mort Artu. They argue that the interpolation of Torec precisely at this point constitutes a prelude to the downfall of Arthur’s realm in the compilation’s final romance. By criticising Arthurian values, Torec underlines the decay of the Arthurian world, which will be undeniably apparent in Arturs doet.55

Critics may disagree on the extent to which this negative portrayal extends, or on precisely which passages reflect poorly on Arthur and his ideals, but there can be no doubt that the Torec gives us, in Besamusca’s words, ‘a double-edged image of Arthur [which] is certainly not at odds with Arturs doet, [and] which features Arthur both as a superior leader and a weak one’ (Besamusca 2011a, 321). With the exception, then, of Walewein, in the Torec ‘the Arthurian court seems to have lost its idealised status,’ which, with ‘this knight of exceptional renown’ having left the stage once and for all, constitutes an apt way to end the adventures of Arthur’s knights and set the scene for the final act: Arturs doet. 7. Conclusion It will come as no surprise that two of the most famous romances in the Arthurian tradition were translated into Middle Dutch: Thomas’s Tristan and the Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes. The tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde was known not just in the south-eastern region of the Dutch-speaking areas but also in other parts of the Low Countries, even though no other Tristan fragments have come down to us (Besamusca 2000, 204). Since Chrétien dedicated his Conte du Graal to Count Philip of Flanders, it has been closely associated with the northern-most province in the kingdom of France, where both French and Dutch were spoken. It is, however, striking that only Chrétien’s last romance, including a portion of the First Continuation, has been preserved in Middle Dutch and not his earlier romances, although it is likely that our perception has been skewed by the transmission.56 Less easy to explain, however, is why a number of less prominent texts, which don’t seem to have enjoyed a very wide dissemination, such as Fergus and the Vengeance Raguidel, and maybe *Torrez, were translated into Flemish.57 A common feature of these romances is that they assume a critical attitude toward the chivalric ideology of the Arthurian court and align themselves with the Conte du Graal and the Continuations, which are strongly regional works. When we consider the adaptation techniques employed by the Middle Dutch authors we may observe a number of similarities amongst the romances discussed in this chapter. Although they are closely aligned with the French and more often than

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not rather faithful translations thereof, these romances are less complex and ambiguous, but more realistic, and their authors place a greater emphasis on recounting a good, fast-paced story, sometimes even correcting their French sources. They do this in a more than capable fashion, as witnessed by, for example, the passage in which the Perchevael poet describes the market at Scaveloen: it is here even more true-to-life and colourful than in Chrétien’s romance. On the other hand, the romances are also more one-dimensional than their exemplars. In both the Perchevael and the Wrake van Ragisel the keen focus on Walewein is striking: the ironic, tongue-in-cheek humour and the baldly negative description of Arthur’s nephew in the Vengeance Raguidel appear to have been somewhat neutralised in the Wrake and have disappeared almost completely in Perchevael, although it is difficult to draw solid conclusions due to the fragmentary transmission of the Flemish romances. The placement of this kind of emphasis aligns this translation with original Flemish romances, such as the Walewein, Moriaen and Walewein ende Keye.58 It seems that from the very beginning the authors of the texts discussed in this chapter took a stand in their translations against the anti-chivalric nature of their sources, placing a greater emphasis on the story and its exemplary qualities. This may have also been the case with the Tristant and the Torec. Ferguut is a special case in that, on the one hand, it shares to some extent the same translation and adaptation tendencies found in the other romances, but on the other it exhibits the kind of creative, playful individuality so typical of the younger, indigenous Flemish romances. The original and humorous style of the romance makes it one of the highpoints of the Middle Dutch tradition. The Perchevael, Wrake, Torec and Ferguut were incorporated into Brabantine text collections. Ferguut is included in a composite volume (Leiden, UB, Ltk. 191) in which fictional romances gradually make way for didactic and religious material (see Chapter 3). The other texts have been radically reworked in order to function within the thematic structure of the Lancelot Compilation, the great cyclical history of the rise and fall of the Arthurian realm. They all demonstrate the flexibility of the Arthurian romance as a genre that, from the thirteenth century on, found, in Middle Dutch no less, an enthusiastic audience. Notes   On the dating of the fragment, see e.g. Kienhorst 1988, vol. 1, 198 and Winkelman 2013, 183. See also Caers and Kestemont 2011, 14. 2   See Besamusca 2000, 203–4; Oostrom 2006, 182–5; Wyss 2010. 3   This localisation comes from Johan Winkelman in his edition with (modern Dutch) translation and commentary: Winkelman 2013, 183–4. This publication also includes editions of Aiol and Floyris ende Blantsefluor. A digital version of the edition can be found here: https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_ tri001tris02_01/_tri001tris02_01_0007.php. 4   Winkelman 2013, 184–5. For the description of the Old French texts in relation to their German adaptations, see Wyss 2010. 1

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  See Smith 2016a, 155–70.   For instance, extensively by Gerritsen 1963, 51–5 and 274–337. 7   Cf. Caers and Kestemont 2011, 18. 8  Gerritsen’s study of the Wrake van Ragisel remains the most comprehensive one to date. This portion of our chapter is based largely on Gerritsen’s work and we have also drawn from the introductory material concerning this romance found in Besamusca 2000, 207–9; Johnson and Claassens 2003 and in Claassens and Knapp 2010. 9   For discussions and examples of the translator’s adaptation techniques, in English, see Besamusca 2003a, 96–8, and Johnson and Claassens 2003, 14–18. 10   See Besamusca 2003a, 96–8 for a detailed comparison on this point. 11   See also Besamusca 2003a, 93–105 for an exhaustive analysis of the compiler’s adaptation of this text. 12   A strong case has been made identifying Lodewijk van Velthem as the compiler. See also Chapter 7 in this volume. 13   For more on the connections between the Wrake van Ragisel and Walewein ende Keye, see especially Hogenbirk 2004, 50, 152–3, and Hogenbirk 2003, 165–75. 14   See elsewhere in this chapter in the discussions about Perchevael and Torec, and in Chapter 6 (Moriaen, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, Walewein ende Keye). 15   See the discussions of these romances in this volume, as well as Chapter 7. 16   For the Fergus see Zemel 2006. On its relations with Chrétien, especially chapters 2 and 3. 17   Kuiper 1989, ch. 2. On the text collection, see Chapter 3 of this volume. 18   Ferguut itself appears to have exerted an influence on two original Middle Dutch chivalric romances: the thirteenth-century Flemish Arthurian romance Walewein ende Keye and the fourteenthcentury Brabantine Roman van Limborch. See Hogenbirk 2011, 52–4 and Wachter 1998, 181–97. 19   Besamusca 1982. 20   Kuiper 1989, 217–301; Johnson and Claassens 2000b, 3–6 and Kuiper and Claassens 2010, 318–22. Like Kuiper, Mike Kestemont localises the second half of the Ferguut somewhat more to the east, namely in the region of Gaasbeek, and posits a connection to Maria van Oudenaerde, one of Arnulf’s daughters, who was married to Godfried of Brabant. See Kestemont 2014b, 97. 21   See Kestemont 2013a, 236, and Meder et al. 2018. 22   Quotations and translations from the Ferguut are from the most recent edition, with English translation, by Johnson and Claassens 2000b. 23   Zemel 1991, part B, 181–353, presents a detailed comparison of style and contents between part 1 of the Ferguut and the Old French source. 24   On the humorous style of the Ferguut, see Rombauts et al. 1982, 35–9; Uyttersprot 2004, 45–8; Oostrom 2006, 272–4. 25   Chrétien’s romance was known in Flanders. See among others Besamusca 1994; Smith 2008, especially 45–6 and Hogenbirk 2004, 73–7. See also Chapter 1 of this volume. 26   Her portrait has more psychological depth in the Old French, where she develops from foolish maiden to wise, emancipated woman, who moreover manipulates King Arthur and ensures that the tournament will lead to her having the Knight with the Splendid Shield as her husband. She knows that it is Fergus beneath that disguise. For a discussion of the ironising attitude with respect to love in the Middle Dutch text, see Zemel 1988–9, 277–9 and Zemel 1993, 194–7. 27   Kuiper and Claassens 2010, 126 see in the Ferguut, as also in the Fergus, the very same return to the overriding love theme introduced by Chrétien. It is precisely at the end of the romance that the adaptor follows his own path. 28   See also Zemel 1993, 194. 29   In the French romance Gauvain is not looking for a tough fight, but for companionship with Fergus, whom he wishes to take with him to court. Insiders know that he was once successful in doing so with Perceval, but, as mentioned before, many references to Chrétien’s romance have disappeared from the 5 6

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Ferguut. Cf. Frescoln 1983, ll. 6731–79. For more on the irony pertaining to Gauvain at the end of the French romance, see Zemel 2006, 217–25. 30   The texts of both fragments and adaptation are found in Oppenhuis de Jong 2003. This edition also contains a thorough study of the Flemish translation/adaptation in the Lancelot Compilation. The current chapter is especially indebted to this study. An edition plus German translation of the text of the fragments is Schmid and Strijbosch 2020. 31   The information in this chart is derived from: Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 15–21; Kienhorst 1988, vol. 1, 164–8; Caers and Kestemont 2011, 18–9; Pérennec 2010, 180–9. 32   Besamusca 2003a, 62–3 emphasises the faithful rendition of the Old French source, but does not pursue the differences in tone. 33   Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 70–1; Pérennec 2010, 185. On emotions in the adaptation, see especially Brandsma 2010a, 157–71. 34   See Oppenhuis de Jong 1998 and 2003, 97–8. 35   See Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 84–7, and the earlier criticism listed there. 36   See e.g. Pérennec 2010, 185–8. 37   On the structure of the compilation Perchevael, the interpolations and the compiler’s technique, see Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 135–91. 38   The adventure of Montesclare was claimed by Gauvain in the Conte du Graal. 39   This is strange, because in the first series of interpolated adventures he had appeared as a saviour and a fully developed courtly hero. It is likely that this inconsistency occurred during the complex insertion process of the Perchevael. See Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 164–6. 40   The motif appears for the first time in Walewein’s fight against Griromelant, derived from the First Continuation. The compiler uses it again in the Montesclare adventure. See Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 128, 142. 41   Three folios of the Perchevael have been lost. It is possible that these pages contained the Good Friday episode of the Conte du Graal. See Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 176–8. See for the embedding of the Perchevael in the Lancelot Compilation, Chapter 7 of this book. 42   On the variant ending in the compilation, see Oppenhuis de Jong 1999. 43  The line numbers of text and translation cited here refer to the edition found in Johnson and Claassens 2003. 44   For more on the structure of the poem, see Besamusca 2011a, 302–6. See Koekman 1988a and 1988b for more on the way in which these three phases relate to the hero’s development. 45   See Besamusca 2011a, 300, as well as Morey 2007. For a more detailed discussion of the folklore elements in the romance, which include the prehistory of the diadem and the character of Torec’s great uncle, see Besamusca 2011a, 299–302 and Besamusca 2014. 46   See Besamusca 2003a, 131 and 2011a, 309, with references to earlier literature. 47   See p. 97 of this chapter. In the compilation Perchevael the siege of the Damsel of Montesclare’s castle is lifted by Walewein, Perchevael and other knights of the Round Table, and the Damsel declares herself Walewein’s. 48   In 2003 Besamusca acknowledged the possibility that the episode might be attributable to Maerlant after all, but in light of a description of an Old French manuscript in which the Old French Torrez and Chrétien’s Perceval had already been combined (‘Le livre du Chevalier cercle d’or et de Parcheval le Galoy’), he concluded definitively that this link to Chrétien had been the work of the Old French poet (2011a, 310–11). See also Kerth 2007. 49   This is an identification not shared by all critics. See Besamusca 2011a, 313. 50   For this and other questions, see Bundel and Claassens 2005, 310–15. 51  For more on the Melions episodes, see especially Koekman 1988a and 1988b, in addition to Besamusca 2003a and 2011a. 52   Summerfield 2015, 42 discusses parallels with Velthem’s Spieghel historiael (Fifth Part), which is an argument in favour of his role as compiler of MS 129 A 10.

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  On this tendency in general, see Besamusca 2003a, 167–9 and 189, and Johnson 2008, 99–100. For this phenomenon in specific, interpolated romances, see Johnson 2008, 100–2, Besamusca 2011b (on Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet) and Hogenbirk 2004 (Walewein ende Keye). 54   The elements and episodes that contribute to the negative depiction of Arthur and his court are the following: the reference to the failed quest of Arthur’s knights to find the golden circlet (ll. 43–9); (possibly) Torec’s fight with the ‘vogaet’, a knight arguably unjustly banished from Arthur’s court (ll. 1328–88); Torec’s defence of a damsel who has unjustly been deprived of her castles on a technicality, including Arthur’s tenacious reluctance to admit any fault (ll. 1925–2085); arguably, the relevant parts of the Chamber of Wisdom episode in which the evils of the ruling aristocracy are laid out for Torec in lessons that are meant to school him on how not to behave. That Arthur and his court are shown to be guilty of some of these sins later on in the romance cannot escape the reader’s notice. There is less agreement on the valence of a final episode, described above, the one in which Torec jousts with Arthur and is defeated by him by most unusual means. Johnson 2008 reads this as a poor reflection on Arthur’s honour that reveals another crack in his veneer of respectability; Oostrom 1996a and Besamusca 2011a, 315–21 interpret the episode as a straightforward depiction of Arthur’s superiority as king and warrior. Be that as it may, there is enough evidence to warrant the position that this most unusual of Arthurian romances intentionally incorporates at the very least a partially critical view of Arthur and his court. 55   Besamusca 2011a, 319. See further references there in the notes to views of specific critics on the matter. 56  The Chevalier au lion and the Chevalier de la charrete may also have been known in Middle Dutch versions. See Chapter 1. 57  The Vengeance and Fergus have been copied together in MS Chantilly 472, which is a Picardian, northern manuscript. 58   See Chapter 6 of this book. 53

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6 INDIGENOUS ARTHURIAN ROMANCES: WALEWEIN, MORIAEN, RIDDER METTER MOUWEN, WALEWEIN ENDE KEYE, LANCELOET EN HET HERT MET DE WITTE VOET Simon Smith and Roel Zemel

1. Introduction In the second half of the thirteenth century, five Middle Dutch Arthurian romances, which are not translations from the French but original creations, were written in Flanders. Of these texts, Walewein is considered to be the magnum opus of Flemish Arthurian literature. In his prologue, the author announces ‘ene scone avonture’ (a beautiful story), which he could not find in French (Johnson and Claassens 2000a, ll. 1–7). With these words he draws attention to the originality of his romance vis-à-vis the French tradition (Besamusca 1993, 175). The other indigenous Arthurian narratives written in Flemish are Moriaen, Ridder metter mouwen (The Knight with the Sleeve), Walewein ende Keye (Walewein and Kay) and the short story Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet (Lancelot and the Stag with the White Foot). These four texts were adapted in order to be included in the Lancelot Compilation, which was put together around 1325 (see Chapter 7). In this chapter Walewein will be discussed first, followed by sections on the other four texts, corresponding to the sequence in which they are placed in the Lancelot Compilation. Given several references to French Arthurian literature, we can assume that the Flemish texts were written for readers and listeners who were familiar with this literature. Obviously, the authors chose to write in Middle Dutch in order to distinguish themselves from their French predecessors. With regard to the characters, narrative structure and ideology, however, they follow suit. Though new heroes are introduced, like Moriaen and the Knight with the Sleeve, they interact with the standard Arthurian ‘cast’ of characters in adventures that follow generic patterns. The homogeneity of the indigenous romances with respect to these generic elements proved to be important and useful when it came to inserting four of the five texts into the Lancelot Compilation (cf. Chapter 7). Characteristic of the Flemish tradition is the focus on Walewein, as Arthur’s nephew is called in Middle Dutch. In four of the original texts he plays a principal role. He is

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the protagonist of both Walewein and Walewein ende Keye, while Moriaen includes a lengthy episode in which Walewein acts as the hero. And when the eponymous hero of Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet gets himself into trouble, Walewein comes to the rescue and brings the adventure to a favourable end. Flemish versus French, or Walewein versus Gauvain: this contrast applies to Walewein ende Keye, as becomes evident in a comparison with the Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes. In the second part of that romance, Gauvain becomes the protagonist for the first time in Chrétien’s oeuvre. With subtle irony the narrator recounts how time after time Arthur’s nephew fails to accomplish his aventures. In Walewein ende Keye, on the other hand, the narrator describes with praise how this hero accomplishes one aventure after another. Most likely, the author wrote this romance to demonstrate that Walewein is worthy of his Middle Dutch epithet ‘der avonturen vader’ (the Father of Adventure). 2. The Knight, the Fox and the Princess: Walewein Walewein is the hero in a romance of more than 11,000 lines, written in Flanders around the middle of the thirteenth century. The romance is preserved in a manuscript from 1350 (Leiden, UB, MS Ltk. 195). According to its epilogue, Walewein was written by two authors. One poet by the name of Penninc started the work and Pieter Vostaert contributed about 3300 lines to complete the romance. This would mean that the second author took over around line 7872. This observation is confirmed by means of a digital method to detect differences in the usage of high frequency words (DalenOskam and Van Zundert 2007; Kestemont 2013a, 31–3). The authors of a recent article on Walewein hold a different view (Hugen and Warnar 2017). They situate the point of takeover at line 7674 and attribute the episode about the hero’s love affair entirely to Vostaert. However, there seems no reason to doubt Vostaert’s own counting in the epilogue. When he took over the writing, he simply continued Penninc’s account of the love affair of Walewein and Ysabele, the heroine of the romance. With David Johnson’s edition and English translation of Walewein (1992), ‘the most original of the Middle Dutch Arthurian romances [came] under the attention of the international scholarly community’ (Gerritsen 1996a, 227). This resulted in a special volume of Arthurian Literature dedicated to Walewein, in which scholars from outside the Netherlands studied the romance (Besamusca and Kooper 1999). A concise summary of the story is given here. Janssens (1994, 114–17) provides a more elaborate account. Summary The romance opens with a miraculous event at court. When King Arthur and his knights sit together after the meal,

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Hebben si wonder groot vernomen: Een scaec ten veinstren in comen Ende breede hem neder uptie aerde. Hi mochte gaen spelen dies beghaerde. (Johnson and Claassens 2000a, ll. 47–50) (they witnessed a great marvel: they saw a chess-set fly in through the window and settle itself on the floor. He who wished might play as he pleased.)

The magical object soon flies outside again, after which Arthur swears an oath: whoever brings him this chess-set will inherit the throne. Walewein sets out to obtain it. After a battle with dragons inside a mountain, he arrives at the castle of King Wonder, the owner of the chess-set. The king is willing to give it to his guest, on the condition that Walewein will bring him the Sword with the Two Rings, which is in the possession of King Amoraen. When Walewein stays at Amoraen’s castle, this king tells him about his burning love for the daughter of King Assentijn, the beautiful Ysabele, who lives in the distant land of Endi. Amoraen gives the sword to Walewein, and in exchange he has to bring him Ysabele. On the bank of a river near Endi, Walewein meets Roges, a prince magically transformed into a fox by his stepmother. Guided by the fox, Walewein passes the river through a tunnel, after which he puts to the miraculous sword the hundreds of guards of Assentijn’s fortress. Eventually the king manages to overpower Walewein and imprisons him. In the meantime, Ysabele has fallen in love with the hero. With a clever trick she frees Walewein in order to make love to him. A peeping Tom informs Assentijn, whereupon both Walewein and Ysabele end up in the dungeon. The ghost of the Red Knight, an opponent previously slain by Walewein and whose salvation he had cared about, helps them escape. Walewein then sets out for the return journey with Ysabele and Roges. Upon their arrival at the castle of Amoraen, they learn that the king has died, so Walewein does not have to give up his sweetheart. By way of King Wonder’s castle, where the sword is exchanged for the chess-set and Roges regains his human form, ‘Walewein and his fair love’ (l. 11,047) travel to Arthur’s court, where the hero delivers the chess-set to his uncle. The romance is structured by the hero’s quest. Walewein undertakes a journey there and back, and in between there is the episode set in Endi. Just over halfway into the romance his invasion of Endi begins, followed by the longest episode of the story (ll. 6042–8446). The poets have enlarged the quest with all kinds of adventures accomplished by the hero on the way. After his stay at Amoraen, for example, Walewein fights the Red Knight for maltreating a damsel. The narration of this episode takes up more than 1200 lines (ll. 3676–4915). On the way back to Arthur’s court, Walewein kills the son of a duke, who tried to abduct Ysabele. After that, Walewein and Ysabele stay with the victim’s father, who imprisons them upon learning what happened. This time the hero and his sweetheart escape by Walewein’s knocking a jailer’s brains out (ll. 8531–9406).

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Walewein undertakes a threefold quest to obtain a magical object. He begins his journey in search of the chess-set that appeared at court, then he sets out to obtain the miraculous sword, and lastly he makes for Endi to carry off the beautiful princess. This narrative structure is typical of a fairy tale. Maartje Draak’s 1936 dissertation discusses the relationship between romance and fairy tale in Walewein. ‘The Middle Dutch Roman van Walewein’, Draak explains, ‘is a fairy tale recast as an Arthurian romance’ (Draak 1936, 1). In her study she compares Walewein’s quest with several versions of the fairy tale that underlies the romance. This tale corresponds to type 550 in the catalogue of Aarne and Thompson: ‘Search for the Golden Bird’. One version of the story occurs in the Kinder- und Hausmärchen of the Grimm Brothers (number 57). This version opens with a golden bird that steals apples from the garden of a king. When his older brothers fail, the king’s youngest son sets out to catch the bird. His guide and helper is a prince who is bewitched into a fox. The hero fails to capture the bird, after which he has to obtain a golden horse. Again he fails. He then has to abduct the beautiful princess who lives in a golden castle. For the third time the hero fails. He is imprisoned, but may regain his freedom by digging off a high mountain in front of the castle. This task is achieved by the fox. After that the hero sets out on his return journey with the fox and the princess. As Draak demonstrates, the authors of the Middle Dutch romance have made many changes to the fairy tale. The hero of the fairy tale is a youth, who repeatedly disregards the fox’s advice even though he needs the fox’s help to accomplish his quest. Penninc, the first author of the romance, has selected as his hero Walewein, who in the literary tradition is the nonpareil of Arthur’s court. Living up to his reputation, Walewein acts as the glorious hero of the story. Accordingly, the fox has a limited role as his helper. Roges only appears in the last stage of Walewein’s quest. In his criticism of Draak’s method Willem de Blécourt (2008) states that the fairy tale reconstructed by Draak as the source of the romance was not composed before the beginning of the nineteenth century. Jelmar Hugen (2017a, 453–63) rejects Draak’s theory by pointing out the minor role of the fox in the romance. However, the hero of the romance undertakes a search for a wondrous object that the king desires, to succeed he has to abduct a beautiful princess, and a prince transformed into a fox helps him. We can therefore assume that the authors of Walewein have elaborated a fairy tale-like story into a romance (cf. also Gerritsen 2019, 248–50). When the hero arrives at the castle of Amoraen, this king is honoured to receive Walewein as his guest. He praises ‘the Father of Adventure’ on account of his custom of defending those in need (ll. 3164–218). A few times Walewein demonstrates this, as in his fight with the Red Knight, whom he challenges in order to protect the ill-treated damsel. In the first part of the romance the narrator calls attention to Walewein’s exemplary chivalric behaviour. That is why Jozef Janssens interprets the romance as ‘a mirror of courtliness’ which ‘offers a plain idealization of the principal character and straightforward propaganda for the courtly life’ (Janssens 1994, 121). To modify

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this characterisation, Johan Winkelman (2004) demonstrates that the hero does not pass muster as courtly lover. At first Walewein worships Ysabele, but later he is quite ready to relinquish her to King Amoraen (ll. 9408–19, 9563–7). In her doctoral dissertation, Veerle Uyttersprot (2004) analyses Walewein’s conduct, paying attention to irony. The hero may enjoy a reputation as perfect knight, but in combat he repeatedly uses excessive violence. A good example is Walewein’s invasion of Endi. In a comic tone, and in the style of the chanson de geste, the narrator describes how the hero brutally kills or mutilates a vast number of opponents (ll. 6158–701; Uyttersprot 2005; Zemel 2005, 34–5). In a monograph on the role of Gauvain in Old French, Middle High German and Middle Dutch literature, Bernhard Schmitz discusses the hero’s conduct in Walewein at length (2008, 206–62). In his view, the role of the protagonist changes in the course of the story. Walewein sets out on a quest in service of the court, but when he falls in love with the beautiful princess in Endi, he turns into a hero pursuing a personal goal. In the last part of the romance, when he returns to deliver the chess-set to King Arthur, Walewein reverts back to his initial role as a representative of the court. When Walewein, by order of King Amoraen, sets out for Endi to abduct Ysabele, he performs a task which is improper for an Arthurian hero (Zemel 2010, 4–7). However, there is no reason for criticising this action because of the excessive guard that Assentijn, King of Endi, has placed over his daughter. He guards Ysabele in a castle enclosed by twelve walls and every gate is patrolled by eighty well-armed men. It is part of the irony in the romance that this defence is no match for the strength and tactics of the hero. Once in the dungeon, Walewein changes his tune. Like a troubadour, he laments his love for Ysabele, for whom he is ready to die (ll. 7689–733). That proves unnecessary because Ysabele, who eavesdrops on Walewein, is greatly moved by his words and sets him free. With the hero’s lament the narrator switches to the theme ‘hero in love’. He proceeds to describe how Walewein and Ysabele experience their love together: full of joy at first, but later, as in the dungeon of the duke whose son Walewein has killed, also with sadness. With some exaggeration, the narrator relates the misery the lovers endure in prison. Take the manner in which Ysabele embraces her lover: ‘With her tears she wetted his face so that he could have washed himself with them’ (ll. 9166–70). Here, the narrator’s tone suggests that love is not altogether a serious subject in this romance. The authors of the romance borrowed various narrative elements from French literature, in the expectation that their public would recognise these borrowings and reflect on their intention. A telling example is discussed by Bart Besamusca (1993, 44–8). The opening scene of Walewein, with the appearance of the chess-set, shows a similarity to an event in the Queste del Saint Graal, the French prose romance that recounts the quest for the Holy Grail. This sacred object miraculously appears to Arthur and his knights, sitting at dinner, and provides them with food before it vanishes from sight.

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Thereafter Gauvain is the first knight who vows to set out in quest of the Grail. When we compare the two scenes, it seems that the chess-set in Walewein functions as a profane counterpart of the Grail, in reaction to the religious theme of the Queste. In the French romance, Gauvain struggles in vain: he acts as a hardened sinner and is excluded from ‘aventures’ related to the Grail (Busby 1980, 347–56). In the Middle Dutch text, by contrast, Arthur’s nephew is the chosen hero to accomplish the quest for the chess-set gloriously. Upon his arrival at the river that he has to pass to reach Endi, Walewein sees a bridge ‘sharper than a razor’ (ll. 4952–63). Who would fail to think here of the ‘Pont de l’Espee’ (Sword Bridge) in the Chevalier de la charrete by Chrétien de Troyes (Putter 1999)? The hero of this romance, Lancelot, performs a remarkable feat by crossing this bridge on all fours in order to rescue his beloved lady. After seeing a similar bridge, Walewein reacts quite differently. He believes that his steed prefers to cross the river swimming and he himself would not cross the bridge for anything (ll. 4964–9, 5043–50). Swimming is not an option, however, since the river is by nature extremely perilous (l. 4946). No less than three times does Walewein inspect the water, but, to his amazement and sorrow, flames rise up from the water every time (ll. 4970–5093; Gerritsen 1996b). Later on, the fox Roges offers an eschatological elucidation about the river and the bridge (ll. 5818–56). The river is Purgatory, Roges explains, and he shows the hero how souls, tainted with sin, in the shape of black birds cross the bridge and bathe in the river to be cleansed before ascending to heaven. How the fox invents such things (cf. Zemel 2010, 19–20)! For Walewein, Roges indicates another route to the other side. He leads the hero through a tunnel underneath the river. At the tenth gate of Endi, Walewein is forced to surrender, whereupon Ysabele takes action in a way that is unseemly for the heroine of a courtly romance. For love of Walewein, the invader who has just played havoc among the gate-keepers in her father’s castle, Ysabele cunningly devises his escape from prison. Her role is similar to that of the Saracen princess in the chanson de geste (Zemel 2010). Ysabele leads her hero to the most beautiful chamber ever made. There Ysabele desires to enjoy with him the delights of love (ll. 7853–6). The authors of Walewein have written a masterly romance about a quest that is unusual within the genre. But what is the point in this story of Walewein’s quest? At the beginning, the romance is all about marvels (cf. Verbeek 2007, 33–8). Arthur and his knights witness ‘a great marvel’ (l. 47): a chess-set – its pieces alone worth more than Arthur’s entire realm – flies into the hall through a window. This miraculous occurrence sets the story in motion. It casts a spell on the king, as is apparent from the reward he offers to the knight who brings him the chess-set: this knight will become his heir to the throne (ll. 66–76). Walewein goes in pursuit of the marvellous object, which flies in front of him (cf. the illustration in the Leyden manuscript on fol. 120v, see also Chapter 3). In so doing, the hero arrives at a sky high mountain where he has to fight four small dragons and their big mother. The mountain is also of a marvellous

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nature. It opens, after which the chess-set enters, with Walewein following closely. Immediately the mountain shuts again and the hero finds himself locked up within it (ll. 244–64; Brandsma 2017, 418–19). Later on, Walewein is the guest of King Wonder. The narrator explains his name with the information that this king can adopt the shape of any animal on earth (ll. 783–9). A peculiar role in the story of Walewein’s quest is reserved for a marvellous character: Roges the fox. The narrator introduces the fox in line 5158 and presents him as lord of a hortus conclusus. There Roges tells Walewein about his youth (Eekelen 2000, 135–9). After the death of Roges’s mother, his father, King of Ysike, remarries a lady who subsequently attempts to seduce the handsome prince. When Roges rejects her, she accuses him of rape. The king, believing her, intends to execute his son, but Roges’s two maternal uncles prevent this, after which the stepmother turns the prince into a fox as an act of revenge. She determines that Roges can only regain his human form if he sees King Wonder, his son Alidrisonder, Walewein and Ysabele together. The fox’s tale runs on for more than four hundred lines (ll. 5328–755). Speaking as an omniscient narrator, Roges inserts a new story into the larger tale of Walewein’s quest (Eekelen 2000, 136). The narrative of the fox corresponds with a tale of the type ‘Wife of Potiphar’ (cf. Winkelman 2004, 337–41; Hugen 2017a, 458–9). In some versions of this tale, the seductress is the hero’s stepmother. In accordance with such a version, Roges tells a story with a marvellous end, to explain why he has been changed into a fox. His human form can only be regained by seeing the four characters just mentioned all together and the fox tells Walewein what he has done to bring this about (ll. 5756–94). He had the orchard planted on the riverbank near Endi to await the arrival of Walewein, whom Roges considers the sole knight brave enough to invade Endi and abduct Ysabele. Walewein promises his aid to release the fox from his bewitchment (ll. 5868–71). In other words, the hero aims to provide a happy ending for Roges’s story. This ending takes place at the castle of King Wonder. There Roges’s second metamorphosis occurs, this time from fox back into handsome young man (ll. 10,921–33). The authors of the romance have connected the story about Walewein to the narrative of Roges the fox. To accomplish his quest, Walewein has to get into Endi because of Ysabele. The metamorphosis of the fox will only occur when Walewein returns to King Wonder together with Ysabele. Therefore, the fox is eager to help Walewein get into Endi, and with the fox as ‘his companion’ Walewein enters the tunnel (ll. 6082– 3). What makes this romance special is the pair Walewein and Roges: the knight and the fox who help each other. As soon as Walewein, Ysabele and Roges meet King Wonder and his son, the narrator relates that the fox changes his shape. Thus the romance shows that the success of Walewein’s quest first of all benefits his friend Roges the fox.

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3. A Hero in Search of his Father: Moriaen In the second half of the thirteenth century, a Flemish poet introduced a remarkable character in Arthurian literature: in Moriaen, the eponymous hero is a young, blackskinned knight. The original romance is lost (apart from a small fragment), but an adaptation of the story, more than 4700 lines long, is inserted in the Lancelot Compilation. In this cycle, the text precedes the Queeste vanden Grale, a Middle Dutch translation of the Queste del Saint Graal (Besamusca 2003a, 73–91). Here follows a short summary of this version (an extensive summary is provided by Claassens and Johnson 2000, 209–16). Summary An injured robber knight arrives at King Arthur’s court, sent there by Perchevael, who has defeated the knight in combat. Arthur expresses his grief over Perchevael’s absence, after which Walewein vows to go in search of him. Lanceloet accompanies Arthur’s nephew. After a few days they meet a tall black knight in black armour, who is called Moriaen. When Lanceloet refuses to answer his questions, Moriaen challenges him to a duel, but Walewein puts an end to the fight. Moriaen then tells his story. He is in search of Perchevael’s brother Acglavael, who has fathered him on a damsel in Moriane and left her before he was born. When Walewein tells him that he and Lanceloet are searching for Perchevael and Acglavael as well, Moriaen decides to accompany the two knights on their quest. The three knights arrive at a crossroads, where a hermit informs them as to the roads they can take. Walewein chooses the road that leads to the Land of Injustice, where he kills a knight for ill-treating a damsel. After that he stays the night at the castle of the landlord, the father of the knight he has just slain. When the son’s body is carried in, it starts to bleed, which proves that Walewein killed him. The next morning, the lord of the castle devises a plan to take revenge. He says goodbye to his guest, but on the road Walewein is ambushed and captured by his knights. They bring him to the crossroads in order to execute him by breaking his body on the wheel there. At this point, the narrator turns to Moriaen, who has chosen the road that leads to the sea. Because of his fear-inspiring complexion, he cannot find sailors willing to ferry him to the other side. He returns to the crossroads and arrives just in time to save Walewein. While both heroes are staying with the hermit, Walewein’s brother Gariet arrives with bad news about Arthur. The king has been captured by Saxons and an Irish army has invaded his kingdom. Gariet also informs them that Perchevael and the wounded Acglavael are staying in their uncle’s hermitage, which is on the other side of the sea. Thanks to a stratagem devised by Gariet, he and Moriaen succeed in crossing the sea by boat. The two knights ride to the hermitage where Moriaen finds Acglavael and reveals that he is his son. When Acglavael’s wounds are healed, he will accompany Moriaen to his homeland and marry his mother. In the meantime, Perchevael, Moriaen and Gariet resolve to fight Arthur’s enemy.

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The narration now switches to Lanceloet, who has chosen the road that leads to a region infested by a terrible monster. Lanceloet kills the beast, whereupon a knight badly wounds him. This false knight is banking on a marriage with the lady of the land as the reward for killing the monster. His plan fails when Walewein arrives, who slays him on Lanceloet’s request. Together, the two companions ride to the crossroads, where they meet Moriaen, Gariet and Perchevael. The five knights set out for Arthur’s realm, where they defend a castle against the army of the Irish king. By means of a sortie they capture this king, which results in Arthur’s release. Finally, Moriaen goes to fetch his father. Together with Walewein, Lanceloet and Perchevael, father and son travel to Moriane where the hero forces the nobles of the country to recognise his mother as their liege lady. Her marriage to Acglavael brings the story to a happy end. Other romances inserted in the Lancelot Compilation show that the compiler regularly added new episodes to his source texts. In Moriaen, that is possibly the case for the Lanceloet episode (Besamusca 2003a, 89–90). Here the narrator gives a short account of Lanceloetʼs adventure in the land laid waste by the monster (ll. 3971–4131). An addition like this would fit in with the compilerʼs predilection for Walewein (cf. Chapters 5 and 7.7). After his victory over the beast, Lanceloet gets into trouble with the false knight, resulting in Walewein stepping in to help him out. He deals with the traitor and takes care of the healing of his wounded friend. It is assumed that the compiler modified the Flemish romance about Moriaen in the matter of the identity of the hero’s father. Some inconsistencies in the text suggest that originally Moriaen’s father was Perchevael (Besamusca 2003a, 84–7). Moreover, in the prologue of the story the narrator refers to books in which Perchevael fulfils that role (ll. 4–5). Perchevael as a father does not fit in the compilation, however, because in the Queeste vanden Grale, which comes immediately after Moriaen, Perchevael and Galaad die as virgins for the sake of the Grail quest (ll. 10–13). For this reason, the compiler has attributed the paternity to Acglavael, Perchevael’s brother. This means that in the original romance Moriaen was in search of his father Perchevael. In this way, the author linked his story to Perceval’s quest in the last romance of Chrétien de Troyes. A knight begets a son in a foreign land and leaves before the child’s birth. The son later learns who his father is and sets out in search of him. The literary motif of the ‘Vatersuche’ (Search for the father) underlies the story of Moriaen (cf. Lee 1957, 10–11, 140–5). The author combined it with a quest for a missing knight that is characteristic of the Prose Lancelot (Besamusca 1993, 114–16). Walewein and Lanceloet depart from Arthur’s court in quest of Perchevael. On the way they meet Moriaen, who is also searching for him. The hero’s father has never returned to his beloved in Moriane. As a result, the hero’s mother has lost her estate and Moriaen is, to his disgrace, called ‘vaderloes’ (fatherless, l. 715): he cannot prove who his father is. In

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order to end the family’s misfortune, Moriaen must make his father Perchevael marry his mother. The romance is characterised by a realistic presentation of the action. The hero does not experience adventures in the setting of a fairy tale, as is the case in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Moriaen discovers where he can find his father by gathering factual information. Together with other knights he acts for the sake of a concrete purpose: to wage war against a hostile army to save Arthur’s realm. In the spatial setting of the search for Perchevael, the ‘wegescede’ (crossroads, l. 940) where the hermit lives functions as a place of departure and return (Brandsma 2017, 420–2). This is the case for Walewein, Moriaen, and later for Moriaen and Gariet together. A cross stands at the crossroads that marks the frontier of Arthur’s territory. Written on it is a warning for the knight who ventures beyond this point (ll. 938–54). Arthur’s kingdom Bertangen (Britain) borders on a region where great injustice prevails (l. 1041). This topography is connected with an important theme in the story: hostility to Arthur’s knights. Walewein enters this region, a risky undertaking that ends badly for him. To torture Walewein, the knights in the Land of Injustice bring him back to the crossroads, ‘dor alle der gerre scande / Die tArturs hove behorden’ (to dishonour all knights of Arthur’s court, ll. 2304–5). In this way they want to take revenge for the death of their lord’s son. King Arthur, too, is teetering on the brink of ruin. Gariet tells about the king’s misfortune when he arrives at the hermitage where Walewein and Moriaen are staying. A Saxon force has taken Arthur prisoner while he was out hunting. At the same time, the King of Ireland has invaded his kingdom (ll. 2948–96). With his report of this war, the poet conveys a political message about Arthur and his knights (Besamusca 1993, 110–14; Zemel 1996, 310–12). At the beginning of Moriaen, Arthur declares that his throne depends on his knights: Ic hadde lant ende crone verloren Over menegen dach te voren, En hadden mine ridders gewesen: Bi hen benic al genesen. (Finet-Van der Schaaf 2009, ll. 371–4) (I would have lost my land and crown long before this, but for my knights: thanks to them I have always been saved.)

The second part of the romance is an illustration of these words. While Walewein and Lanceloet are away in search of Perchevael, the Irish king invades Arthur’s realm. His people are helpless, because there is no one to protect them. But Walewein and the others return to launch a counter-offensive. They devote themselves to liberating Arthur’s country and to saving his throne. In order to show a world in decline, the author presents descriptions of destruction, poverty and ruin (Zemel 1996, 307–12), like the account of the misery brought about by the Irish king in the episode of the war against Arthur (ll. 4195–217). The King of Ireland has pillaged the land and made many a widow or orphan. For fear of violence,

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men, women and children flee, driving their cattle ahead and carrying their possessions with them. Here, the author presents a pitiful picture of the consequences of war for the people in Arthur’s land. The protagonist of Moriaen is a striking appearance in medieval literature (Hogenbirk 2009b; Heng 2018, 200–11). He comes from Moriane, the country of his mother, where the people are ‘black as soot’ (l. 768). Sometimes Moriaen’s complexion produces a comical scene, such as when the sailors at the shore, seeing his face, sail away in fear because they take him for the devil come from hell to torment them (ll. 2398–430). When Walewein and Lanceloet meet Moriaen, the narrator presents the black hero as a good and handsome knight (ll. 765–72; Brandsma 2019, 33–6). The young hero is certainly a little hot-headed, as is evident from his eagerness to fight whoever fails to inform him about his father (ll. 720–34). Walewein urges Moriaen to abandon this bad habit and teaches him to behave chivalrously (ll. 912–33). It is the duty of knights to fight evil, and Moriaen spectacularly puts this into practice by rescuing his admired teacher (Hogenbirk 2009b, 56–9). He takes up arms against the knights in the Land of Injustice, who were intent on torturing Walewein to death. The narrator reports this in the style of the chanson de geste: in a hyperbolic tone he calls attention to the hero, who cuts many opponents to pieces (ll. 2503–95). When Walewein calls on Moriaen for help, he addresses him as ‘live geselle’ (dear friend, l. 2491) and continues: ‘Ic ben u geselle Walewein’ (It is me, your companion Walewein, l. 2494). His words bespeak a desire for friendship that is shared by the black knight. The sight of Walewein’s distress gives the hero strength in the fight for his friend. After Moriaen has found his father, he takes action in the war against the King of Ireland, together with Walewein and the other knights of Arthurʼs court. They undertake the defence of a castle and when they make a sortie into the camp of the besiegers Moriaen initiates the battle which leads to victory (ll. 4427–31). Later on, in Moriane, the hero wields his sword once more, this time against those who refuse to recognise his mother as their liege lady. Filled with anger, he kills fifteen of these lords (ll. 4606– 16). At the end of the romance, Moriaen settles his affairs like the hero of a chanson de geste. In Moriaen too, Walewein is called ‘der aventuren vader’ (the Father of Adventure, l. 323). The narrator first mentions this title of honour when Arthur’s nephew swears to set out in search of Perchevael. In the episode set in the Land of Injustice, elaborately narrated in over 1100 lines (ll. 1213–2340), Walewein is the hero. Most likely, the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation has taken this episode in full from his Flemish source. The events narrated here are the dramatic highlight of the story (Heeroma 1973b, 186–92). The hermit at the crossroads says of the lords in the Land of Injustice: ‘Diere best mach doeter wors’ (the most powerful act the worst, l. 1043). This is borne out by the two adventures that Walewein encounters there. The episode opens with the scene of a

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knight beating a damsel in a terrible way. With an appeal for chivalric conduct towards women, Walewein attempts to bring this knight to reason. However, he persists in his bad behaviour, for which he has to pay with his life. Characteristic of the conduct of Walewein’s opponent is an abuse of power (Besamusca 1993, 102–5). The cruel knight considers himself above the law because his father is the lord of the country. He wanted the damsel to be his friend, but she was reluctant because she wished to look after her father, who had been reduced to poverty. Thereupon, the rejected knight abducted the damsel from her father’s castle. For the sake of the damsel, Walewein fights this injustice, for which he has to pay in the next adventure. He gets lodging for the night at the castle of the lord whose son he has killed. The narrator then announces ‘an excellent tale’ (l. 1689) and describes how the lord of the castle ‘behindeleke’ (cunningly, ll. 1850, 1866) plots his revenge. When it has become obvious what Walewein has done, this lord protects his guest against the rage of his knights by locking the tower where the hero is staying the night. But at daybreak, he consults with his knights about the best way to take revenge for the death of his son. The lord is faced with a dilemma. If he lets the knight who killed his son go unharmed, it would be a disgrace to him. A similar disgrace would, however, occur if he were to kill his own guest (ll. 1992–2005). For this problem, the lord devises a solution which enables him to respect the right of hospitality in appearance. He shows his unsuspecting guest out, after which a large group of his knights ambush Walewein outside the lord’s territory and take him prisoner. In this adventure, Walewein is the victim of betrayal and violence. The author of Moriaen has composed his romance in connection with the story of Perceval in the Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes (Besamusca 1993, 96–100; Zemel 1996, 312–15; Hogenbirk 2014, 59–64). His protagonist is the son of Chrétien’s hero. A link to Chrétien’s romance is made early in the story (ll. 201–38). The injured knight who arrives at court tells Arthur that he was defeated by a Welshman in red armour. The king states that this knight is Perchevael, who is unfortunately away on account of a quest for the Grail and the Lance. On his way, Perchevael has sent many a defeated opponent to Arthur’s court. Arthur’s words refer to the last part of Chrétien’s story about Perceval ‘le Galois’ (the Welshman). Following his departure from court, halfway into the romance, Perceval has already been looking for an answer to questions about the Grail and the Bleeding Lance for five years, and during that period he has sent dozens of defeated knights to Arthur. The final episode in the story of Perceval takes place on Good Friday. On that day, the hero enters the chapel of his uncle, a holy hermit, to whom he confesses to obtain remission of sins. Whether or not Perceval continues his quest, Chrétien does not recount. At the opening of Moriaen, Perchevael is still on his quest. Later, Gariet provides Walewein and Moriaen with new information about Perchevael (ll. 3054–83). He has become a hermit and, living in his uncle’s hermitage, is doing penance for his sins. Perchevael has learned that he will never find the Grail and the Lance, on account of

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the sin committed towards his mother: when he left her, she died of grief. At the beginning of the Conte du Graal, Perceval’s mother falls in a faint on the ground at her sonʼs departure. Later on, his cousin and his uncle, the hermit, tell Perceval that his mother then died of grief, which they consider a sin committed by him. The poet of Moriaen presents this sin as the cause of Perchevael’s failure to achieve his quest. Perchevael’s career does not end at the hermitage, however, for Moriaen leads him to the country of his mother to marry her. In a remarkable way the author of Moriaen incorporated the quest of Perceval as told by Chrétien in his romance, but with an important difference: in his version this quest comes to nothing. The Flemish poet puts an end to the quest that Perceval undertook in the Conte du Graal. We may interpret this outcome as a criticism of the turn Chrétien took in his romance (Zemel 1996). When Perceval in the Conte du Graal departs from the court for the sake of the Grail and the Lance, he chooses an enigmatic goal that cannot be achieved by deeds of chivalry. In his last romance, Chrétien calls attention to the dark side of ‘chevalerie’. The poet of Moriaen, on the other hand, presents a chivalric programme that serves Arthur and his kingdom. ‘Let us turn back to the ideals of Arthurian knighthood’, such is the message of the romance that recounts ‘van Moriane dat scone bediet’ (l. 26), the beautiful story about Moriaen. 4. Love’s Ordeal: Ridder metter mouwen In the latter half of the thirteenth century, a Flemish poet wrote an Arthurian romance about perfect love. Of this story, known nowadays as the Ridder metter mouwen (The Knight with the Sleeve), only 320 partly illegible lines in a fragment of a fourteenthcentury manuscript survive (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 818), as well as an adaptation of more than 4000 lines interpolated into the Lancelot Compilation (edition: Johnson and Claassens 2003, 196–367). A comparison of these two versions shows that, by means of a division into chapters with transitional formulas, the compiler adapted the text to the narrative technique of interlace that characterises his Arthurian collection. Furthermore, he abridged his source text considerably. Yet, notable contradictions and other irregularities indicate that the compiler probably inserted new episodes into the second part of his adaptation (Smith 2008; 2010, 65 ff.; 2016b, 192–5; 2019). He possibly even reworked the structure of the romance in the process: the hero and heroine’s marriage, now celebrated halfway into the story, seems to have formed the apotheosis of the original romance (Smith 1989, 115 ff.). This hypothesis has been called into question (Besamusca 1993, 130; 2000, 219; 2003a, 114–15; Sullivan and Wyatt 2014, 118 note 6, 126–7 note 66). The following extensive summary, however, clearly shows that the second part of the extant text (ll. 2237–4020) constitutes a peculiar continuation to the first part.

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Summary King Arthur, residing at Kardoel for Pentecost, learns that Tristan and Iseult have died. On his way to the funeral, he meets a nameless young man who requests to be knighted. Arthur sends him to the queen, who has stayed behind in Kardoel with the wounded seneschal Keye, to await his return. Once there, a Red Knight is found maltreating a damsel outside the walls. Keye urges the queen to knight the young man immediately, and Clarette, Countess of Spain and niece of Walewein, instructs him in chivalric mores. She also grants the bachelor a white sleeve in token of her romantic interest. The ‘Knight with the Sleeve’, in his pursuit of the Red Knight, overhears Keye calling him a bumpkin. Once defeated and sent back to Kardoel, the Red Knight praises his victor’s prowess and proclaims the hero’s intention to avenge Keye’s insult. Clarette is informed of the young knight’s wish to earn her love. After staying the night with Egletine, a chatelaine who secretly falls in love with him and puts forward her brother Cephalus as his squire, the hero ends up at the Forest without Mercy, from whence the foremost knights of the Round Table were once ignominiously expelled. A damsel who was robbed here warns him: giants and a deceitful dwarf terrorise the woods. She seeks Arthur’s help against her wicked stepfather, who has usurped her estate. The hero promises to help her if necessary, and he then enters the forest entirely alone. Gazing at Clarette’s sleeve, the protagonist slips into a reverie, after which Venus plants a Tree of Love in his heart, bearing fruits that symbolise different aspects of ideal love. Deaf to a triple challenge, the musing lover is knocked out of his saddle by another Red Knight, Elyconas, whom he slays after a second glance at Clarette’s sleeve. Darkness, thunder and lightning follow. Next, the hero successively kills a lion and the dwarf serving Elyconas’s brother Amelant, lord of the forest, who is also defeated. The robbed damsel travels to Kardoel, which is subsequently attacked by giants from the Forest without Mercy. The hero rushes to Clarette’s aid, accompanied by Amelant, who appeases his giants and pays homage to his vanquisher. After Amelant has left, the Knight with the Sleeve, exchanging glances with Clarette from a distance, rejects an invitation to court: he is determined to revenge himself on Keye first. An opportunity presents itself when Keye attempts to get the hero to court using force. The knight easily overthrows the seneschal, who immediately begs for mercy. Unexpectedly, the hitherto flawless hero severely wounds the seneschal with his sword and then departs. In a combat with the robbed damsel’s stepfather, the knight, once more inspired by his love for Clarette, succeeds in killing the felon. Battered and wounded he seeks refuge in a monastery, where he is persuaded to take vows. He joins the order, on condition that he may leave should the opportunity arise to win Clarette. Arthur desires the Knight with the Sleeve to return to his court, but the hero is nowhere to be found. Therefore, the king announces a three-day tournament for

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Clarette’s hand. The novice monk, suffering from love-sickness, hears of the competition. His abbot gives him leave to participate, provided he wears his cowl over his armour. A martial monk duly appears in the jousts, fighting like a devil and defeating an overwhelming majority of competitors. On the final day, the triumphant hero reveals himself: he throws off his cowl and fixes Clarette’s sleeve to his coif. At the post-tournament celebration, an unmarried queen notices that the winner resembles her former lover. The hero tells her that he was abandoned as a child. After attending school, he went searching for his father until he was knighted. He is told then that the queen is in fact his mother. She also reveals his name: Miraudijs (l. 2208). The hero’s father, a distinguished knight serving her father, vanished long ago without a trace when it became apparent that she was pregnant. The Knight with the Sleeve is instantly crowned king in his mother’s land. True nobility, the narrator stresses, cannot be concealed. With Arthur’s consent Miraudijs marries Clarette, extending his rule to Spain. We hear that he lived long and happily ever after (l. 2236). The second part of the romance starts with Arthur holding court once more. Keye’s nephew Galyas accuses the hero of maltreating his uncle, taunts him by calling his father a cowherd and exacts a judicial duel, which is to take place after forty days. The Knight with the Sleeve (whose baptismal name is never mentioned again) leaves court. Earlier, the narrator described how Clarette and her husband travelled to Arthur’s court together, but now the hero suddenly pretends to return to his wife in Spain, concealing his determination to find his father. He discovers that the elder knight is kept incarcerated at Mauregaert, a castle whose five evil lords are hostile to Arthur. With cunning and force, the hero penetrates the stronghold and liberates his father and many other knights, but then finds himself besieged by the troops he had locked out. In the meantime, the King of Ireland invades Britain, where Arthur finds himself cornered when his best knights leave to defend Clarette, who is besieged in Spain by a rejected lover, the King of Aragon. After their rescue mission, Arthur’s knights rush back to Britain with Clarette and the captured king. They manage to slow down the Irish attack on Karlioen, but it is the Knight with the Sleeve who, after defeating the besiegers of Mauregaert and accompanied by his father and other knights, secures a decisive victory and imprisons the Irish king. In their duel the protagonist defeats Galyas, whom he grants mercy. Then the Irish king, having faked his subjection to Arthur, seizes an opportunity to deceitfully abduct the hero, his father, and three knights of the Round Table to Ireland. Dressed as an itinerant minstrel whose lion performs tricks, Ywein (Yvain) liberates them. Setting sail to Britain, the knights end up in a port which belongs to the hero’s mother. She is besieged by the King of Cornwall, who hopes to force her into marriage. The hero’s parents are reunited and instantly joined in matrimony, even before the groom defeats the aggressive wooer in single combat. A celebration follows, where the lady’s vassals recognise her husband as their lord. In due course, so they are informed, the Knight with the Sleeve will succeed his parents.

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The whole company now travels to Karlioen. Clarette joyfully welcomes her husband, Arthur is given an account of the knights’ adventures and the hero’s parents learn how their son has refuted the allegation made by Galyas. All ends well for the Knight with the Sleeve. The second part of the romance shows abundant traces of adaptation, most likely by the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation. A linear narrative structure is replaced by an interlaced one; the once solitary Knight with the Sleeve, whose real name is consistently withheld, now shares the stage with Arthur’s knights; the love theme, completely dominant so far, is exchanged for a father quest; and in consequence, Clarette only features as a minor character (Wuttke 2006, 142 ff.). Equally striking are several contradictions in this part of the story. The narrator has Clarette accompany her husband to Arthur’s court, even though later on it turns out that she has stayed behind in Spain (ll. 2243–5, 2342–4). The hero’s absence from the group of her rescuers is explained by these knights with an odd excuse: he is said to be ill (ll. 2942–5). Once she has arrived at Arthur’s court, however, Clarette does not inquire where her husband is, and later on the knight shows no surprise at encountering his wife there (ll. 3176 ff., 3218–23). The narrator announces a follow-up on the captured King of Aragon, but this narrative thread is missing (ll. 3299–301). In the last seven hundred lines, the hero plays no significant role. And surely the most striking incongruity: the knight, crowned king for life at the end of part one (ll. 2198–205, 2233–6), is downgraded to crown prince at the end of the story as we know it (ll. 3980–5). There is no reason to assume that the hero’s father quest and the reunion of his parents were added by the compiler, but the interlaced narrative threads of Keye’s nephew Galyas, the kings of Ireland and Aragon and Ywein with his lion presumably were. In the first part of his adaptation, the compiler seems to have made the hero settle his score with Keye using excessive force, paving the way for the seneschal’s nephew as plaintiff. The judicial duel Galyas enforces, creates an inviting gap of forty days, in which the protagonist accomplishes his father quest and which also accommodates for the adventures of other knights. In these adventures, the companions of the Round Table, up until then surpassed by the superior hero, regain some of their glory. With these adaptations, the compiler has aligned the form and content of the Flemish story with the Lancelot Compilation as a narrative cycle. In the fourteenth-century poem Van der feesten een proper dinc (About the Feast: A Choice Bit), the Knight with the Sleeve is mentioned in a list of sorely tried lovers, including Aeneas, Tristan and Partonopeus (Vekeman 1981, l. 197). In the compiler’s source text, exemplary love seems to have been the alpha and omega of a story that led the hero along a path of chivalric deeds and a test of nobility, culminating in a happy ending of marriage and lordship. The view that true nobility cannot be concealed, expressed in a sententia (ll. 2212–15), constitutes an important motif in the romance. But its main theme is the ordeal of striving for perfect, enduring love (Smith 2016a).

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In a little treatise on the subject (ll. 676–712), an unusually mild Lady Venus does not strike the hero with arrows or fire. Instead, she plants an allegorical, ever-blossoming Tree of Love in his heart. The fruits of the tree symbolise aspects of true devotion. Some are bitter, since love brings along suffering and sorrow, but others are sweet, as love provides courtliness and joy. Exemplary love is amply demonstrated in the Ridder metter mouwen by Miraudijs and Clarette, whose meaningful names (which evoke the noble emerald and clarity, respectively) illuminate their virtue (Smith 2014). Both the fatal passion of Tristan and Iseult, borne to their graves in the opening episode of the romance, and infatuated love such as Lancelot’s, are eclipsed by the hero and heroine’s harmonious, domesticated love, endorsed by King Arthur and resulting in marriage. In contrast to Chrétien’s romances, there is no tension here between knighthood and love. Quite the contrary: in the Flemish romance, the power of love inspires chivalry, which in turn, in a gradually evolving symbiosis, nourishes mutual love. As a token of love, and subsequently figuring in the hero’s coat of arms, Clarette’s white sleeve constitutes the central object in the romance. Like Yvain’s lion in the Chevalier au lion, it is ‘intimately associated with the hero’s identity and the story’s meaning’ (Lacy 1980, 17). In Chrétien’s romance, however, we encounter a named knight who acquires his sobriquet only after improving on his chivalry, while the nameless foundling in the Ridder metter mouwen earns his cognomen almost instantly. It is the revelation of his true name and ancestry which constitutes the reward for the hero’s subsequent toils (Smith 2004, 55–6). As a foundling, the Knight with the Sleeve is a remarkable Arthurian protagonist. The Flemish poet borrowed this background, as well as several other motifs, from an Old French romance of adventure, Richars li Biaus (Stempel 1914, XII–XXI, XXVIII; Smith 1988; Besamusca 1993, 131–5). The author has also drawn on other texts. If not on the Dis dou Chevalier a le Mance, an early fourteenth-century poem by Jean de Condé which shares little more with the Ridder metter mouwen than its title (Finet-Van der Schaaf 2012, 24–5, 29–30; Smith 2016a, 10, 14–15), then more likely on the Moniage Guillaume or its Middle Dutch translation, Willem van Oringen. In this chanson de geste, the hero also secures an exit clause when entering a monastery. As a monk, he also fights like a devil against an overwhelming majority, afterwards leaving the monastery for good. The Flemish author frequently alludes to other Arthurian narratives, as attested by the deaths of Tristan and Iseult and references to Chrétien’s romances (Besamusca 1993, 136 ff.; 2003a, 109–13; Smith 2016a, 17–19). By mentioning the names of Erec and Yder in the opening episode (l. 23), the narrator hints at Erec et Enide. Clarette, as Guinevere’s lady-in-waiting, Walewein’s relative and the hero’s beloved, calls to mind Soredamor in Cligés (who is also given a telling name). Like Lancelot in the Chevalier de la charrete, the pensive Knight with the Sleeve finds himself deaf to a triple warning, which enables an assailant to knock him from his horse. This attack and the thunderstorm that emerges are all reminiscent of Calogrenant’s and Yvain’s

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adventures in the forest of Broceliande in the Chevalier au lion. And like Perceval in the Conte du Graal, the protagonist of the Ridder metter mouwen must suffer Keye’s mockery, subsequently avenging himself on the seneschal in an echo of Perceval’s reprisal. Just as the author’s choice of Clarette as a second Soredamor contributes to the love theme, the allusions to Chrétien’s Grail romance serve a literary purpose. Together with the young knight’s unexpected and temporary retreat to a monastery (Smith 2005a, 53–5; Wuttke 2005), these references to a story that introduced religious chivalry in Arthurian romance direct our attention to the hero’s knightly progress. In Chrétien’s unfinished masterpiece, Perceval’s quest ends in a hermitage, suggesting the prospect of a Christian renewal. For the Knight with the Sleeve, a foundling trained in letters and therefore destined for a spiritual career, the monastery is but a brief stopover, an antechamber for one born to be knight and lover, who has to cultivate patience but ultimately finds lasting happiness in worldly love. In this way, the Flemish poet elegantly takes a stand against religious chivalry (Smith 2016a, 78–85). What he confronts head-on, is the Church’s ban on tournaments. In a burlesque variation on the well-known motif of a knight fighting incognito, the author has his hero joust as a lovestruck monk in a tournament for the hand of an alluring damsel (Smith 2005a, 50 ff.). The poet also shows himself to be familiar with Arthurian romances in Middle Dutch, as attested by allusions to Ferguut (Smith 2005b), Walewein (Draak 1936, 170–3; Besamusca 1993, 151–5, 184; Smith 2016a, 51–2; 2017, 9–34), and the Prose Lancelot; this last text possibly in a Middle Dutch version (Smith 2016a, 211–13, 254). Perhaps the author knew Moriaen, whose hero also embarks on a father quest (cf. Stempel 1914, XXIV–XXVII; Besamusca 1993, 155–8; Hogenbirk 2014, 66–8), and maybe Torec as well (Smith 2016a, 238–9, note 32). A few examples will illustrate the poet’s intertextual approach. Whereas Ferguut in the eponymous romance actually begins his chivalric career as a boorish churl, Keye in the opening episode of the Ridder metter mouwen unjustly calls the protagonist a bumpkin. In Ferguut, the heroine Galiene, head over heels in love with the hero, suffers from insomnia at night, as does the minor character Egletine in the Ridder metter mouwen, and with her (in a humorously exaggerated take on the scene in Ferguut) a crowd of ladies-in-waiting (ll. 463–506). While these parallels may also refer to the Old French Fergus, three allusions to the Walewein indisputably show Flemish influence. Both Walewein and the Knight with the Sleeve defeat ‘a strong robber knight wearing red armour who is attacking his victim with a whip’ (Besamusca 2003a, 113); each of the two protagonists takes care of the spiritual welfare of a knight in agony; and both heroes encounter devils dragging along the souls of villains they previously killed. These parallels prove that the author created an indigenous Flemish romance. Clarette’s lesson in chivalric mores (ll. 175–91), the little treatise on courtly love, and several proverbs and sententiae suggest that the poet aspired to offer utilitas

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(Smith 2016a, 27–9). However, the intertextual layer of the Ridder metter mouwen, as well as the frequent application of humour and a ‘poetics of surprise’ (Smith 2005b; 2016a, 91–138, 147–9), indicate that the author primarily intended to provide his audience with delectatio: sophisticated literary entertainment. The character named Cephalus, probably drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, suggests an author with a clerical background. He may have written his romance for recipients who, in view of their preference for native Flemish literature and the aristocratic values that inform the narrative (Smith 2016a, 19–25), most likely belonged to the lower urban and rural gentry, young would-be knights among them (Smith 2016a, 233–5). As the intertextual references indicate, at least part of this audience must have been well-versed in both French and Middle Dutch literature. The Ridder metter mouwen enjoyed some fame in its time, as its interpolation in the Lancelot Compilation and the reference in Van der feesten een proper dinc attest. Some other texts also show familiarity with the romance. In the fifth part of the Spiegel historiael (Mirror of History), written in 1315–17, Lodewijk van Velthem recounts adventures allegedly experienced by the British King Edward I in a marvellous Welsh ‘Forest without Mercy’, perhaps modelled on the Ridder metter mouwen (Summerfield 2009, 197 ff.; 2011; 2015, 48 ff.). The character name Düctelas / Ductulas in the romance Heinric en Margriete van Limborch (c.1312–25) appears to be taken from the Flemish Arthurian romance, where Ductalas (ll. 37, 539) presumably derives from a contraction of Old French ‘duc Ta(u)las’ (Wachter 1998, 73–6). Finally, Elyconas and Amelant may have served as models for two brothers whom the knight Echites fights in the romance just mentioned (Wachter 1998, 79–81). Whether the Flemish poet of a fourteenth-century romance of adventure, Joncker Jan uut den Vergiere, also borrowed from the Ridder metter mouwen, as has been posited (Priebsch 1931), remains to be established. A peculiar feature of the Ridder metter mouwen is the unusually limited and somewhat disappointing role played by Walewein, who is generally hailed as a paragon of knighthood in Flemish Arthurian romance (Smith 2017, 3–53). In the Lancelot Compilation, however, this downgrading of Arthur’s famous nephew is amply compensated by his rescue of Clarette from the King of Aragon (Smith 2019), and even more so by his brilliant role in Walewein ende Keye, the next story inserted into the cycle. 5. Honour Restored: Walewein ende Keye The Lancelot Compilation contains the only surviving version of Walewein ende Keye. In manuscript The Hague, KB, 129 A 10, the story’s 3664 lines (edition: Johnson and Claassens 2003, 368–523) fill exactly one quire. Dialect features indicate that the text derives from a Flemish source, written in the second half of the thirteenth century

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(Hogenbirk 2011, 55–6). The existence of an older version is also substantiated by the appearance of Perchevael (l. 3451), who had died in the Grail romance Queeste vanden Grale, which precedes Walewein ende Keye in the compilation. The Flemish romance was almost certainly not translated from a lost French source, as is attested by literal borrowings from the Middle Dutch Ferguut (Hogenbirk 2011, 52–4) and by a trademark of the Flemish Arthurian tradition: the story confirms the glorious reputation of Arthur’s nephew, Walewein. This hero and his adversary, Arthur’s seneschal Keye, lend their names to the present-day title of the romance. Here follows a summary of the text as preserved in the Lancelot Compilation. Summary King Arthur holds court and appoints Walewein as governor. Keye, jealous and supported by twenty like-minded companions of the Round Table, falsely accuses Walewein of bragging: he is said to have boasted that he could achieve more adventures in a single year than all the other knights together. While Arthur listens to this allegation, Walewein is praying in the chapel after having dreamt about a lion that tore out his heart. Back at court, Walewein denies the allegation, emphasising not to consider himself the best knight. When, on account of Keye’s twenty witnesses, Arthur cannot readily believe him, Walewein leaves court. He puts his fate in God’s hands and announces he will return only if rehabilitated. Walewein accomplishes seven adventures, each one increasing in difficulty. A damsel, locked in a well by her lover Morilagan as punishment for her admiration of Walewein, is freed by the hero, who defeats the knight and brings to an end his habit of impaling the heads of slain opponents on stakes. Next, Walewein stays the night at a nearby castle, avoiding to share his bed with the liberated damsel. The host plots to avenge his brother Morilagan, but Walewein overpowers him. Because this man’s beloved withholds her favours until he presents her with Walewein’s head in a casket, the hero agrees to help his host out by briefly inserting his head in the box. Later on, Walewein kills a dragon that ravaged a country. Led before the king by a friendly seneschal, the hero politely declines the reward, i.e. to marry the princess and become heir to the throne. After each adventure, Walewein commands friends and former enemies with their followings to appear at Arthur’s court in Kardoel on St John’s Day (24 June, a year after Keye’s allegation), and to await his return there. In the meantime, Keye and his confederates have sallied forth to outshine and humiliate Walewein. They intend to accomplish more adventures than he, sparing no one. After an uneventful week, the band reaches the castle of Brandesioen. They are refused entry, because Keye will not give his name. Furious, the seneschal challenges the lord of the castle to a duel, but he suffers a disgraceful defeat at the hands of Brandesier, a squire dressed in his lord’s suit of armour. Nevertheless, Brandesioen is deceitfully captured and sent to Kardoel as a trophy. While Keye and his henchmen

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besiege the fortress, Brandesioen complains to Arthur. The king orders Gariet, Lyoneel, Hestor and Acglavael to secretly teach Keye a lesson. They overpower the seneschal and his followers and lock them up in Brandesioen’s castle, with the exception of one knight who lost his life and four others who managed to escape. After the departure of Gariet and his companions, the fugitive knights discover that their castigation was ordered by Arthur. Pretending to be the king’s messenger, one of them talks Brandesioen into releasing the captives. Near Kardoel, Keye and his confederates are provided with lodgings. The seneschal learns that Arthur wants him punished for Walewein’s departure, but he is counting on the queen to reconcile them. His non-adventure has taken almost a year. The narrative switches back to Walewein. The hero defeats a haughty duke (like himself a king’s sister’s son), who has proclaimed himself the best of all knights. Walewein is supported by a count’s young son, and the two become friends. Next, Walewein subjects Gorleman, a lord who makes his guests fight to earn board and lodging. Because this knight secretly draws strength from a magic well, their combat lasts three days. Walewein ultimately triumphs when Gorleman’s sister, head over heels in love with him, discloses her brother’s secret. Subsequently, two giants who wreak havoc and compel three hundred ladies into hard labour, are forced to submit to the hero. Finally, Walewein provides the King of Portugal, who is at war with the superior King of Aragon, with a triumphant victory in an elaborately described tournament, where the hero reigns supreme as commander-in-chief of the Portuguese troops. In the end, Arthur’s nephew brokers peace between the belligerent monarchs. Walewein, who has continued to order friends and vanquished enemies to await his return in Kardoel, stays until St John’s Day at a hermitage near Arthur’s court. All those whom Walewein has sent there, including the corpse of the dragon, the three hundred liberated women and thousands of knights, arrive simultaneously at the royal residence. Their numbers make Arthur believe his castle is under siege. Then Walewein’s return is announced. The hero is welcomed with joy and honour, while the king curses Keye. The court convenes, Walewein reconciles Morilagan and his beloved, and all the vanquished knights tell Arthur about Walewein’s achievements. They hand over their estates to the king and receive them back as fiefs. When the guests depart, word arrives that the seneschal and his henchmen are on their way. Walewein’s new friends, informed about Keye’s allegation, prepare him a warm welcome. Keye is wounded by the once-haughty duke and flees to the hermitage. His accomplices confess their deceit, Arthur wishes the seneschal to the devil. Walewein thanks his friends, after which they return to their homes. In the opening episode of Walewein ende Keye, verbal acts constitute the central action (Claassens 2005, 208; 2010b, 293; Hugen 2017b). Keye, who feels passed over, attempts to harm Walewein’s reputation with a false accusation: with his boasting, Arthur’s nephew has allegedly shamed the court. While the seneschal thus charges his

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rival with pride, Walewein is on the chapel floor, praying humbly to God. The contrast is striking. Back at court, Walewein instantly perceives his slanderer’s intent: ‘Ay Keye, quaet cleppere ende fel, / Dicke hebdi gestaen na min onnere!’ (Ah Keye, evil, false gossip, you have often sought to dishonor me!, ll. 128–9). The romance is all about the opposition between pride and humility (Hogenbirk 2004, 116–21; 2011, 32–9). The stakes of the unusual conflict, originating within the court itself, are honour and shame (Putter 2007). That Walewein’s honour is at stake, is made clear when Keye and his henchmen decide to ride out ‘Om Waleweine te doene tachter / Ende te merre sinen lachter’ (in order to disgrace Walewein and increase his dishonour, ll. 1101–2). King Arthur does not get the time to resolve this conflict. Walewein immediately announces his departure. The hero does not stake his hope for rehabilitation on his king, but he turns to Providence instead: ‘Mijns gescie dat God gebiet’ (May God work his will upon me, l. 156). The question is, how can Walewein’s honour be restored? Following Keye’s allegation, the hero had assured his uncle: ‘Van algader derre dinc / Benic onsculdech, ende oec der daet / Die Keye op mi seget, die quaet’ (of all these things I am innocent, especially the deed which the wicked Keye accuses me of, ll. 110–12). What, then, does he mean with his vow ‘I shall not return to court, / In ben volcomen derre daet / that the evil Keye has alleged I made’ (ll. 158–60)? The second line has been translated as ‘until I have fulfilled the boast’ (Johnson and Claassens 2003, 375): by accomplishing more adventures within one year than anyone else, Walewein would seem eager to live up to his alleged bragging (Bundel and Claassens 2005, 308). Keye, too, interprets Walewein’s words in this way, and sallies forth to outdo his rival (ll. 1092 ff.). However, it seems most unlikely that Walewein intends to prove true Keye’s allegation of pride with a show of pre-eminence. Moreover, the hero knows nothing about any competition, and his rehabilitation requires some sort of proof that Keye’s accusation is false. Therefore, a more plausible interpretation is that Walewein vows not to return to court until his innocence of boasting is proven and his honour restored (Hogenbirk 2011, 33–4). The conclusion of the romance will demonstrate how the hero’s innocence, after and also by means of many adventures, is established beyond any doubt. ‘The best knight encounters the most adventures’, that is how it works in Arthurian romance (Hogenbirk 1994, 63). Walewein trusts that God will provide him with plenty of adventures and, as a solitary quester, he finds three in a single week. Keye, by contrast, feels entitled to adventures (ll. 1107–8), yet finds none. With his band he travels around to no avail, and in the end he brings about an adventure himself. While Walewein fights evil and pride, restores ordo and sends defeated opponents as witnesses to Kardoel, Keye creates inordinatio both within and outside Arthur’s court. The sole witness he sends to his king, Brandesioen, testifies that he has been severely wronged by Keye. The actions of Walewein and Keye produce a striking contrast. First in the chapel and later in his fight with a giant (ll. 2533–7), Walewein shows his deference to God.

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In his conduct towards others, he expressly displays humility (ll. 113–20, 1049–51, 1972–4, 2983–5). Some scholars have denounced these demonstrations as insincere: driven by ‘a very self-centred goal’, the hero is taken to pursue ‘personal fame and prestige’ (Bundel and Claassens 2005, 308–9). However, Ad Putter recognises an ‘accomplished rhetorical performance’ in Walewein’s humble avowal of innocence before Arthur: when the hero asserts that, as ‘een onvolcomen man’ (an imperfect man, l. 119), he has no occasion to boast of anything, he makes skilful use of ‘the humility topos’ (Putter 2007, 62, 63). Walewein’s thoughtful conduct here and elsewhere in the story will have been appreciated by a noble audience, even if a tension exists between his words and his intentions. Not only in deeds, but also in words does Keye prove himself to be Walewein’s opposite. With his ‘valscher tongen quaet’ (evil, lying tongue, l. 600) he attempts to ruin the hero and deviously directs his henchmen into perjury. Later, in his malicious quest, the seneschal suddenly changes his tune. Unrestrained, he insults Brandesier, calling him ‘quade besceten horstront’ (vile horse turd, l. 1142). A strikingly incompetent instructor himself, he nevertheless tells the squire Brandesier to mind his language (l. 1145). Ironically, the seneschal will soon be so chastised that he is unable to speak (l. 1476). In this story, Keye is a jealous liar, who deserves to be repeatedly wounded in combat. Characters as well as the narrator call him a traitor, and Arthur will curse his seneschal twice, as in line 3656, where he shouts: ‘Laettene ten duvelvolen gaen’ (the devil take him!). This is fitting, since according to the Gospel of John (8:44), the devil is the father of lies. By contrast, Walewein, whose epithet ‘Father of Adventure’ (ll. 627, 3346) may have provided inspiration for the writing of Walewein ende Keye, is praised unanimously. And rightly so, because he assists those in need and defeats the fiercest of opponents. Graciously and with great foresight, he forgives vanquished enemies. He also befriends many people, and he even effects two reconciliations: one between kings and one between lovers. According to most Arthurian scholars, the hero is flawless. ‘In Walewein ende Keye’, Bart Besamusca observes (2003a, 120), ‘Walewein is irreproachable, even where it concerns women’. That is remarkable for a knight known as a ladies’ man. In this Flemish romance, Walewein never answers to his reputation as womaniser, even though the narrative features several young ladies (Perry 2007, 48–52). Haunted by Keye’s allegation and intent on restoring his honour, the hero is primarily interested in rescuing the women he encounters: he refuses to sleep with the damsel freed from the well and after killing the dragon he declines to marry the princess. Only when Gorleman’s sister wakes the knight in the morning, love seems in the air: ‘Hi namse in sinen arm daer naer / Ende cussese daer an haren mont’ (He then took her into his arms and kissed her on the mouth, ll. 2287–8). Contrary to what might be expected, this promising start is not followed up. In the evening, the damsel, who has fallen in love

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(l. 2356), escorts her guest to his lodging, but instead of getting into bed with him, she provides him with martial counsel. After Walewein has won his combat with Gorleman, the damsel is never heard of again. In his final adventure, Walewein moves within a man’s world. At the tournament in Aragon, which resembles a war, women are absent. Walewein ende Keye is clearly written from a male perspective (Hogenbirk 2004, 77) and focuses on masculine bonding. One example is Walewein’s friendship with the count’s young son, reminiscent of Gauvain’s semi-erotic affection for the Maiden with the Little Sleeves in de Conte du Graal (Hogenbirk 1999, 178–91; 2004, 64–7; 2005a, 16–19). Another example is Walewein’s attachment to Gringalet: his steed and faithful companion is ‘a substitute for the lack of a permanent girlfriend’ (Hogenbirk 2007, 76). Walewein ende Keye presents the most idealised Walewein in the entire Middle Dutch Arthurian tradition (Hogenbirk 2005a, 23). Still, Katty De Bundel and Geert Claassens (2005, 305) have questioned whether Walewein truly acts as a perfect hero. In their view, the story’s apotheosis raises some doubt, because Walewein aims at a celebration of his own merit. By ordering witnesses of his achievements to appear at Kardoel simultaneously and in great numbers, the hero is working towards monumental acclaim. From day one, he assembles witnesses, who are to present themselves at Arthur’s court just before his return. It is indeed tempting to criticise Walewein for pursuing self-glorification (cf. Bundel and Claassens 2005, 309). However, his conduct is ‘fully in accordance with the biblical precept of modesty: “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth” (Proverbs 27:2)’ (Johnson and Claassens 2003, 32; Claassens 2005, 207–8). Moreover, with his methodical arrangements the hero shows insight into ‘strategies of honour’: his ‘careful orchestration of his own comeback’ fits in a shame culture, is entirely honourable for a newly appointed governor, and enables him ‘to convert Kay’s attempt to diminish his honour into an unrivalled opportunity to increase it’ (Putter 2007, 64, 74). Walewein’s triumphant homecoming, narrated at the conclusion of the romance, raises the idealisation of the hero to new heights (Hogenbirk 2004, 105). In this episode, speech acts take centre stage once more. With seven adventures, God has granted Walewein plenty of witnesses who not only praise him, but who also force Keye’s false witnesses to confess their perjury. As a result, Walewein is cleared of the charge of pride. His honour, peaking after his recent adventures, is publicly restored. Walewein’s rehabilitation is complete. The ‘perfect knight’ has put an end to inordinatio outside Arthur’s court, while his attestors have undone Keye’s disturbance of the ordo within Kardoel. By acting humbly and defeating pride in others (with the arrogant duke’s subjection as climactic mise en abyme), Walewein’s deeds-to-be-proud-of have somewhat paradoxically demonstrated his innocence from pride, of which the accuser himself is shown to be guilty. In passing, the ‘Father of Adventure’ has not only proved himself deserving of his epithet, but he also has provided substance for the boast of which he had been falsely accused. Furthermore, in his undertakings as

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commander-in-chief, strategist and peacemaker, Walewein has shown himself an excellent governor. And finally, his former enemies’ fealty to Arthur considerably strengthens the king’s power. What about the seneschal? Keye’s plot against Walewein brings shame on Arthur’s favourite. And Keye’s ‘mesaventure’, followed by Brandesioen’s complaint, dishonours Arthur’s court. But in the end, it is the seneschal himself who suffers the greatest and lasting disgrace. His attempt to return to Kardoel results in his third defeat in a row: the duke, formerly Walewein’s most conceited and haughty opponent, gives Keye his just deserts for his ‘grote quaet / Ende die valscheit’ (great evil and slander, ll. 3572–3). The seneschal has fallen from the king’s favour; his conspiracy to deprive Walewein of his new position as governor has backfired completely. In Walewein ende Keye, the hero earns the greatest honour, while his accuser is punished with injuries, shame and exile. The author of Walewein ende Keye, evidently familiar with the generic conventions of Arthurian romance, has cast Walewein in a role that is usually reserved for a young new knight. Distressed by Keye’s offensive words, Arthur’s nephew leaves court, sends his regards to all except the seneschal, and commands vanquished opponents to appear at Kardoel. The poet frequently alludes to French romances, at least in his narration of Walewein’s adventures (Hogenbirk 2004, 24, 86). Three examples will suffice here. The episode in which the hero rescues three hundred ladies exploited by two giants, clearly echoes a similar adventure of Yvain in the Chevalier au lion. Like the Vengeance Raguidel (or its Middle Dutch version, the Wrake van Ragisel), the Flemish romance features a jealous black knight who impales the heads of slain opponents on stakes, as well as a lady who has set her heart on Walewein’s head. Finally, Walewein’s heroic performance as dragon-slayer alludes to the story of Tristan and Iseult (Besamusca 2003a, 120–1; Hogenbirk 2004, 60–3; 2011, 51–2). With references such as these, targeted at connoisseurs, the author favourably contrasts Walewein with well-known French heroes, in particular his French counterpart Gauvain, who is frequently treated with irony. The poet also demonstrates familiarity with chansons de geste. In the opening episode of Walewein ende Keye, the role of the seneschal is modelled on the traitor in epics of revolt, while the tournament episode has the belligerent Walewein act like an epic hero (Hogenbirk 2004, 77). Like the allusions to French Arthurian romances, these borrowings from the chansons de geste foreground Walewein’s excellence (Hogenbirk 2004, 106). Marjolein Hogenbirk has classified Walewein ende Keye as a pedagogical romance: ‘while the evil Keye and Walewein’s opponents serve as a warning, the humble Walewein should be imitated, because in all respects he is a perfect knight’ (Hogenbirk 2000, 172). Humour helps in getting this message across (Hogenbirk 2003; 2004, 126; 2005b). A case of situational humour in the opening episode, probably meant to facilitate the audience’s identification with the otherwise brilliant hero, is a description of

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how the sleeping Walewein battles a dreamed lion, only to land painfully on his bedroom floor (ll. 69–80). Poet, patron and the primary audience of Walewein ende Keye remain unknown to us. The story’s reception was possibly multiplex: in a didactic tone, the author seems to address young aspiring knights, who should imitate the exemplary hero, while more experienced, multilingual connoisseurs may have appreciated the poet’s ingenious intertextual allusions (Hogenbirk 2004, 123–6, 167–8). One example of the poet’s finesse is the comic play on Walewein’s adventure in the Vengeance Raguidel. Whereas in that romance Gauvain’s head threatens to land in a casket severed from its body, in Walewein ende Keye the hero casually sticks his head in the shrine, free from any danger (ll. 736–61). In the Queeste vanden Grale, the second core text of the Lancelot Compilation, Walewein’s role as paragon of worldly chivalry is far from glorious. The compiler seems to counterbalance this negative image by including in his cycle (adaptations of) romances in which the ‘Father of Adventure’ shines as model knight. In the case of Walewein ende Keye, the compiler may not have left it at that. Hogenbirk (2004, 132 ff.; 2011, 43–9, 55–7) points to codicological, linguistic and narrative peculiarities in the text to argue that both Keye’s non-adventure (ll. 1087–832) and the seneschal’s final defeat and exile (ll. 3564 ff.) were inserted into the story by the compiler. By darkening Keye’s character, the adaptor raised Walewein’s already impressive profile. The two interpolations add to the contrast between Walewein and Keye as hero and anti-hero, an extreme contrast unique in Arthurian romance (Hogenbirk 2004, 164; cf. also Chapter 7.7). As Hogenbirk concludes, Walewein ende Keye originally must have been a substantial text, fleshed out with characterisations, descriptions and allusions, ‘a true Walewein romance … with Keye in the role of provocateur’ (Hogenbirk 2004, 140). The compiler has abridged and adapted the story in order to make Keye the perfect foil for Walewein, to adjust the narrative to the technique of interlace in his cycle, and to exactly fill one quire in the compilation manuscript. No one knows what the original Flemish story looked like, without Keye’s nonadventure, his unexpected return to court, his final defeat, and his flight into exile. How was Walewein’s innocence proven, if Keye’s accomplices were not forced to confess their perjury? And equally puzzling: was it really the compiler who had Arthur banish the seneschal, thereby introducing an inconsistency with the next story in his cycle, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, where Keye is suddenly restored to favour? Hogenbirk (2011, 57) rightly stresses that gaps remain in our understanding of this outstanding Flemish romance, Walewein ende Keye.

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6. A Wedding Postponed: Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet Summary After Arthur’s court is disbanded at the beginning of the story, a damsel arrives with a little white dog. She announces that her liege lady, a queen, will marry the knight who brings her the white foot of a hart that lives in a forest enclosed by a wall and guarded by seven lions. Guided by the dog, seneschal Keye sets off on the quest, but fails because he does not dare to cross a turbulent river. Lanceloet, however, does accomplish this feat. With difficulty he kills the lions and, after the dog has struck down the stag, he takes possession of the white foot. Severely wounded, he requests a passing knight to deliver the trophy to the queen. Maliciously, the nameless villain gives the battered knight another whack, leaves him for dead and makes off to the queen to demand the prize for himself. Horrified at the prospect of marrying such an ugly fellow, the queen consults with her vassals. They recommend postponing the marriage for two weeks. In the meantime, Walewein has set out in search of Lanceloet. Guided by God he finds him, is told of the assault, delivers his companion to a doctor and rushes to the queen. There he puts a stop to the wedding preparations, kills the traitor in a judicial duel and informs the queen that it was Lanceloet, the best and most handsome knight, who obtained the white foot. Walewein receives a warm welcome and spends the night in a royal bed. The next morning, he returns to Lanceloet and leads him to the queen as soon as the knight’s wounds have healed. Walewein informs the queen that Lanceloet wishes to postpone the marriage until his relatives have arrived. Whether she likes it or not, she has no choice but to grant this. Lanceloet is relieved, because he has his own queen to love. Soon the two knights return to Arthur’s court, where they are joyfully received and recount their adventures to the royal couple. The central motif in narratives like these is the hunt for a deer, usually white, which guides the hero to a fairy who desires him as her lover. This motif occurs in lays such as Guigemar, Graelent and Tyolet, as well as in the Perceval Continuation by Wauchier and again in the Didot Perceval (Jongen 1980). In the latter two texts, the hero encounters a fairy-like damsel whose love he can win by delivering to her the head of a white deer, to be tracked down with the help of her white dog. In the Middle Dutch narrative summarised above, it is the white foot of a stag that is to be obtained to win the favours of a beautiful queen. In this short story, the motif of the hunt for ‘the Stag of Love’ (cf. Thiébaux 1974) is combined with elements from the dragon-slayer (folk)tale, well-known from Tristan and Iseult’s love story, and also occurring in Moriaen and Walewein ende Keye. In the folktale, a dragon devastating a kingdom is killed by a brave hero, whose triumph wins him the princess’s hand in marriage. However, an impostor threatens to make off with the prize by presenting the dragon’s head at court. With the tongue of the monster, which he hacked off earlier, the hero proves himself the rightful suitor and the marriage is celebrated.

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The sole surviving version of the Middle Dutch story is found in the Lancelot Compilation. Here, the narrative consists of 851 lines, divided into three chapters (edition: Johnson and Claassens 2003, 524–61). The caption for the third and longest chapter reads in translation: ‘How Walewein came to Lanceloet’s aid and fought a battle on his behalf’ (ll. 478–9). The modern title of the story, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet (Lanceloet and the Stag with the White Foot; hereafter Witte Voet), originates in the nineteenth century (Paris 1888, 113–18). Several features indicate that the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation did not compose Witte Voet himself. Contrary to generic conventions, the plot does not begin with Arthur holding court, but afterwards. It is possible that the compiler modified the opening episode, because a full court assembly draws to a close at the end of Walewein ende Keye, the romance that precedes Witte Voet in the cycle. Another peculiarity is the unexpected presence of seneschal Keye, who was banished from court at the end of Walewein ende Keye, but now claims an adventure for himself. The narrator somewhat awkwardly explains the seneschal’s abrupt return by stating that the queen spoke for him (ll. 79–87). Witte Voet also bears traces of abridgement: the fact that Lanceloet fights the lions on horseback but emerges from the battle on foot, for example (ll. 202, 225), may have resulted from this. On the other hand, some lengthy passages, such as a description of the stag’s hortus conclusus, seem to have escaped truncation (Hamburger 1971; Zemel 1992, 92; Besamusca 2003a, 126). A detail in the description of Walewein’s royal bed indicates that the story probably derived from a source written in the thirteenth century: Al hadde hi gedragen crone Tote Akers inden selven dage, So mochte hire wel sonder sage Op hebben gelegen harde wel. (Johnson and Claassens 2003, ll. 746–9) (Though he had worn the crown of Acre that very day, he might well have lain on it without reproof.)

The fortress of Acre in the Holy Land was lost to Christianity in 1291. It is unlikely that after this catastrophe an author would have referred to the stronghold in a positive comparison. Therefore, the reference can be taken as terminus ante quem for the lost original (Draak 1979). Currently, Witte Voet is dated to 1225–50 because of its archaic syntax (Caers and Kestemont 2011, 20). Witte Voet bears many resemblances to the second part of the Old French Lai de Tyolet. The first 320 lines of this lay (cf. Burgess and Brook 2007), written in the early thirteenth century, describe how the eponymous hero, after growing up in a forest, makes his appearance at Arthur’s court. In the second part (384 lines), Tyolet encounters an adventure similar to Lanceloet’s. Still, there are many differences. In Tyolet, it is not a messenger but a marriageable princess who presents herself at court. A failed attempt to hunt the stag is undertaken by Lodoër and other, nameless knights instead of Keye. In the end, it is not Lanceloet but Tyolet who completes the quest and receives

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the prize: he does agree to marry the princess. In both narratives, Gauvain/Walewein rushes to the wounded hunter’s aid, but in Tyolet there is no duel with the impostor. Tyolet verbally forces the false claimant to confess, after which the shamed knight is granted forgiveness. And unlike the queen in Witte Voet, whose distress is narrated at length, the princess in Tyolet practically disappears from view after her arrival at Arthur’s court. Several details also differ. In Tyolet, the stag does not reign over an Edenic hortus conclusus, as is the case in Witte Voet (Tersteeg 1984, 117 ff.; Zemel and Besamusca 1999, 208–10). Furthermore, Tyolet does not hunt the stag with the dog’s help, but he lures his prey to him with a magic whistle. Finally, the lions only attack him after he has cut off the stag’s white foot. This is a deviation from the dragon-slayer story, where the dragon has to be killed before the trophy can be gained, as well as from Witte Voet, where Lanceloet’s unfortunate predecessors were slaughtered by the lions (ll. 190–4, 412–13, 499–501), as they were not destined to obtain the stag’s foot (Pallemans 2007, 355–7). Two views about the relationship between Tyolet and Witte Voet exist. According to an old theory, which emphasises the differences between the narratives, both stories derive from a common source (e.g. Paris 1888; Entwistle 1923; Draak 1979). Recent insights, however, suggest that the author of Witte Voet took his inspiration from Tyolet and created an indigenous composition. This current scholarly consensus allows the differences between the narratives to be read as significant authorial decisions (e.g. Janssens 1989, 338–9; Zemel 1992; Zemel and Besamusca 1999). Some researchers discuss whether Tyolet (either the French lay or a now lost Middle Dutch translation) may have been adapted by the compiler of the Lancelot Compilation (Pallemans 2007; Johnson 2008, 101; Finet-Van der Schaaf 1994, 247; 2012, 274–5). However, this hypothesis does not account for the peculiarities pointing to an earlier version of Witte Voet. Other scholars argue that the compiler must have changed Witte Voet’s conclusion. It is certainly striking that Lanceloet’s adventure, unlike Tyolet’s, and despite the fact that it is ‘fundamentally a bridal quest’ (Besamusca 2011b, 370), does not culminate in marriage. Knowing Walewein ende Keye, the compiler was familiar with an episode in which Walewein slays a dragon yet declines the hand of the princess promised in reward. Earlier in the Lancelot Compilation, in Moriaen, it is Lanceloet who performs the role of dragon-slayer. He kills the monster and finds himself in an alternative version of the Witte Voet storyline: an evil knight nearly finishes him off and takes as a trophy not the dragon’s head, but one of its feet (!). Rescued by Walewein, who beheads the impostor on the spot, Lanceloet could not care less about the damsel who had offered herself as a prize. Was this particular adventure of the famous knight written by the author of Moriaen? Or was it inserted in its adaptation by the compiler (cf. p. 121), with Walewein ende Keye and especially Witte Voet in mind? In the context of the Lancelot Compilation, Lanceloet loses face in Witte Voet, because he apparently has learnt nothing from his unfortunate experience in Moriaen (Johnson 2008, 101).

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One can go further still. It is conceivable that the compiler had Lanceloet dodge marriage not only in Moriaen, but also in Witte Voet: in the Lancelot Compilation, a wedding would be incompatible with Lanceloet’s love for queen Guinevere (Paris 1888, 114). William J. Entwistle (1925, 203) posits that bridal-quest narratives ‘cannot end in a satisfactory manner unless by a marriage and a reign’. This assumption has generated the hypothesis that in the original, thirteenth-century Witte Voet ‘Lanceloet … ultimately married the queen’ (Claassens 2000, 183; cf. also Claassens 2010b). That Lanceloet ‘is not prepared to rule out a marriage’ (Besamusca 1996c, 117), seems implicit in his ready acceptance of the quest and in his message to the marriagefocused queen, which the impostor fails to deliver. In this message, Lanceloet requests that … si nembermer man ne name Vor dat hi tote hare quame. ‘Segt hare dat si wel doe Altoes beide spade ende vroe. Ic heb mi gepient so sere Om die doget ende om die ere Die ic van hare hebbe gehort.’ (ll. 267–73) (no one was to marry her until he came to her. ‘Tell her that I wish her well, at all times. I have gone to such lengths on account of the virtue and honour I have heard others attribute to her.’)

‘Perhaps the relationship between Lanceloet and Genevre did not feature in the older version of Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet’, as Bart Besamusca (2003a, 127) proposes, arguing: ‘This would explain why Lanceloet leaves the court to win a rich bride, as well as his fear after his fight with the lions that the lady will marry someone else.’ Yet, the notion that Lanceloet would have set out with the intention to marry, is undermined by line 147, which stresses that the knight is exclusively ‘in quest of honour and renown’ (Zemel 1992, 85, 87; Besamusca 2011b, 367 ff.). Geert Claassens recognises the compiler’s voice in the narrator’s moralising tone, which is prominent throughout Witte Voet. Supposedly editing out Lanceloet’s marriage, the compiler would have emphasised ‘a very simple lesson in good versus bad chivalry’ as embodied by Walewein and the impostor, thus attempting ‘to blur the violations of the original story’: a tale that would have ended in marriage (Claassens 2000, 184). Notwithstanding the adaptor’s didactic focus, Claassens (2010b, 298) considers Witte Voet ‘eine amüsante Schöpfung’ (an entertaining creation). Would it then not be conceivable that in this story, obviously ‘a fiction that calls … much attention to itself as fiction’ (Twomey 2007, 97–8), the omission of a marriage precisely constitutes the comic punchline? Humorous intent is manifest in the behaviour of the queen, who, keen for a husband, has herself offered as reward at Arthur’s court, even though she rules over many brave knights (l. 384). Why could she not pick a suitable husband from them? Keye, the first quester, turns out to be decidedly below par. Looking for an excuse to abort the

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mission, this coward attempts to kill the guiding dog and when that fails, he reports ill. Enter Lanceloet. Barely arrived at court, he departs in a hurry and is markedly lighthearted, even singing (l. 152). It is very likely that irony was intended here (Besamusca 2011b, 367). The same goes for the outcome of Lanceloet’s quest, because the hunter becomes the victim and then suddenly poses as a lover possessed by ‘amour de loin’ (Zemel 1992, 87). Furthermore, the remarkable fact that the stag, like the one in Tyolet, is far from entirely white, ‘verges on parody of the Otherworld motif’ (Twomey 2007, 96). And surely no one can suppress a smile at the conflict between decorum and emotion in lines 430–2, where the distressed queen has to converse with a pretender she abhors: ‘done die joncfrouwe vernam, / Begonste si te weenne sere / Ende seide: “Willecome, here”’ (when the damsel saw him, she began to weep bitterly and said: ‘Welcome, my lord’). The author pokes fun at the expectations of his audience, obviously familiar with the matière de Bretagne. Just as if she were a fairy in a lay, the marriageable queen presents herself by means of an unusual stag as the stake in an Otherworld quest. She had repeatedly beseeched God for a suitable husband (ll. 348–51), but apparently she also tries to speed things up by getting herself a groom in fairy-tale style. However, her plan backfires spectacularly: first her hand is claimed by the unsightly impostor, and later on, when she is all too pleased with the handsome Lanceloet, her hoped-for spouse gives her the slip. The circumstance that Lanceloet is bound in love to Guinevere, makes his quest ridiculous from the start: it would have been wiser to let this adventure pass (Zemel 1992, 88; Zemel and Besamusca 1999, 207). The outcome of Lanceloet’s enterprise is that he gets knocked about by a pack of lions and an evil knight, and that the lovelorn queen will get her husband when pigs fly (ll. 819–20). Her rescuer Walewein, now spokesman of Lanceloet, turns out to be a herald of disenchantment. All this makes Witte Voet a comic variation of the traditional bridal quest. It is a ‘parody … on an Arthurian fairy tale’ (Zemel and Besamusca 1999, 205), which deliberately excludes a happy ending through marriage. After line 279, Lanceloet’s prominent role in Witte Voet is played out and from line 479 onward Walewein takes over as protagonist. This makes his role in the narrative twice as large as Lanceloet’s, rendering the caption ‘How Walewein came to Lanceloet’s aid and fought a battle on his behalf’ more descriptive of the plot than the modern title, Lanceloet and the Stag with the White Foot. Lanceloet’s rash adventure, ending up with his need for help, results in a narrative void. ‘The real hero: Walewein’ fills the vacuum (Besamusca 2003a, 125), and his performance is masterful. In the opening episode, the poet already anticipated Walewein’s prominence by mentioning his name before Lanceloet’s. Later, the author has Arthur’s nephew hail his companion as the best and most handsome knight alive (ll. 693, 695), whose great deeds are unrivalled (l. 701). But this eulogy is less suitable to the object than to the subject, whom the narrator showers with epithets and predicates previously attributed to Lanceloet. And rightly so! Where ‘Lanceloet indulges in chivalry for chivalry’s sake’ (Twomey

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2007, 106) and undertakes ‘a foolish venture’ (Besamusca 2000, 209), omitting the connection between chivalry and love (Zemel and Besamusca 1999, 207), Walewein’s valorous deeds serve amicitia, iustitia and ordo. A double narrow escape, from death and from marriage, is Lanceloet’s lot, but Walewein shines as saviour and problemsolver: he brings his wounded friend to a doctor, settles scores with the depraved knight (ll. 532–3), saves the queen from an unhappy marriage, and helps Lanceloet wriggle out of an unwanted wedding. The glorification of Walewein in Witte Voet constitutes criticism of Lanceloet, the knight who is superior to Arthur’s nephew in the core texts of the Lancelot Compilation, yet maintains a relationship with Guinevere that will ultimately contribute to the downfall of Arthur’s kingdom (Zemel 1992, 97; Johnson 2008, 102). In Witte Voet, it is clearly not Lanceloet who excels as ‘the ultimate paragon of knighthood’ (Besamusca 2003a, 168), but Walewein. Unlike his French counterpart Gauvain, who is often treated critically, Walewein in Witte Voet is surely ‘the positive and successful hero of the text’ (Besamusca 2000, 210). Given the compiler’s preference for Arthur’s nephew, this would have been one more reason to include the narrative in his cycle. Nothing short of mysterious is a distant relative of Witte Voet. In the Cancionero de Romances, a Spanish songbook printed in Antwerp in 1550, a text is preserved entitled Tres hijuelos había el rey (Three sons the king had), also known as Lanzarote y el ciervo de pie blanco (Lancelot and the Stag with the White Foot). It is a ballad of twenty-seven couplets which, after an obscure opening about the king and his three magically transformed sons, narrates how a damsel, declaring her hope for marriage, requests Lanzarote to bring her the stag with the white foot. Lanzarote leaves with his hounds and learns from a hermit that the stag has passed by, in the company of seven lions and a lioness that has just given birth. The animals have left behind a bloody trail of dead knights, so the recluse informs Lanzarote. He wishes to hell a certain dueña de Quintañones (Dame One-Hundred-Years-Old), whom he holds responsible for the slaughter and apparently also for Lanzarote’s quest (cf. Tersteeg 1984; Sharrer 1988; Besamusca 2011b). What is so intriguing about this cryptic ballad, which may derive from a longer, fourteenth-century source text (Spanish scholars posit a lost tale in a French or Spanish Prose Lancelot, cf. Entwistle 1923, 444 ff.; 1925, 208–9; Contreras Martín 2015, 292), is that it contains parallels to both Tyolet and Witte Voet. For example, as in Tyolet, it is not a messenger but the marriageable woman herself who initiates the quest and, as in Witte Voet, it is Lancelot who engages in an adventure that has already claimed victims. The ballad also contains elements included in both stories, such as the Arthurian hunt for the white-footed stag with the prospect of marriage, as well as elements deviating from the two narratives: Lanzarote is requested to bring the stag, not only its white foot, and no actual confrontation with the stag and the lions takes place, which means that both the impostor drawn from the dragon-slayer tale and

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Gauvain/Walewein as rescuer remain absent (Besamusca 2011b, 371–3). The Spanish ballad is probably related to both Tyolet and Witte Voet, but since no intermediate texts have been preserved, the exact nature of this dependency is elusive (Chicote 2002; Gracia 2015, 20–1; Alvar 2015, 229–32). Of the five indigenous Arthurian texts discussed in this chapter, Witte Voet is presumably the oldest one, and certainly the shortest. Its poet obviously valued quality over quantity, and a fine job he did. For all its brevity, Witte Voet qualifies as a gem of Arthurian storytelling. 7. Conclusion Neither the prologue nor the epilogue of Walewein mention for whom Penninc and Vostaert wrote their romance or who commissioned it. The other texts discussed in this chapter are inserted in the Lancelot Compilation, and these edited versions contain no information about the patrons of the original romances. The question is therefore: for which audience did the authors of indigenous Arthurian literature in Flemish write their works? A connection with the count’s court is unlikely because, especially during the reign of Gui de Dampierre (1278–1305), this court patronised literature written in French (Coolput-Storms 2000). In studies about patrons and audiences of thirteenth-century Flemish literature, scholars have presented various options, such as the Flemish speaking nobility or the urban elite of prosperous cities such as Ghent and Bruges. But why should we try to connect our texts to a specific social class? There is more reason to reflect on the literary knowledge of the intended audience (cf. also Chapter 1). As we have seen, Flemish authors reacted to French Arthurian literature, especially in Moriaen and the Ridder metter mouwen. The poets of these romances invite the audience to understand their works as a response to the story of Perceval in Chrétien’s Conte du Graal. Flemish poets also frequently present narrative elements which invite a comparison with other French romances. For example, on his way to Endi the hero of Walewein arrives at a bridge that is similar to the Sword Bridge in Chrétien’s Chevalier de la charrete. This similarity is accompanied by a difference in reaction between Walewein and Lancelot on seeing the bridge. In contrast to the French hero Lancelot, Walewein does not dare to cross the river by this route. In order to get to the other side, he needs Roges the fox as his guide, a character that in a French romance would be unthinkable. The authors of Walewein have succeeded in creating a highly original romance about Arthur’s nephew, taking every liberty with regard to the rules of the genre. We may assume that the authors of indigenous Arthurian literature in Flemish wrote for an audience well acquainted with Arthurian literature in French. Their romances were directed at a public that listened to narratives written in Flemish, in connection

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with the highlights of French literature. The authors’ choice to compose new Arthurian texts in Flemish can be seen as an act of emancipation. In the county of Flanders, French was the language of culture after all. French-speaking authors wrote for the Flemish nobility, who also commissioned copies of French Arthurian texts (cf. Chapters 1 and 2). In the second half of the thirteenth century, poets in Flanders brought about a change: they created Arthurian literature in Flemish. To attentive listeners these poets told their tales in competition with their French predecessors. (Sections 1 (Introduction), 2 (Walewein), 3 (Moriaen) and 7 (Conclusion) were written by Roel Zemel. Simon Smith wrote sections 4 (Ridder metter mouwen), 5 (Walewein ende Keye) and 6 (Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet). Their Dutch text was translated into English by Roos Brands.)

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7 TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS OF FRENCH PROSE ROMANCES, INCLUDING THE LANCELOT COMPILATION Frank Brandsma

1. Introduction In 1880, Johannes van Vloten published his edition of what he called Jacob van Maerlants Merlijn (the Merlin text by Jacob van Maerlant), based on the so-called ‘Steinforter Handschrift’ (manuscript Burgsteinfurt). Where other scholars had found it difficult to persuade the noble owner of the manuscript to give them access to it, Van Vloten went in person to the castle in Burgsteinfurt and was even allowed to take the manuscript home and prepare his edition. The manuscript consists of paper leaves and dates from the first half of the fifteenth century. Apart from Maerlant’s Grail and Merlin texts and the Merlin Continuation by Lodewijk van Velthem, the manuscript contains, on its final folio, a list of books owned by ‘Joncher Everwijn van Guterswick, greve to Bentheim’. The list is written by the manuscript’s second scribe, and the name refers to count Everwijn of Bentheim (1397–1454), who possessed: Ten ersten dit boeck merlijn jtem twe nye boke van Lantslotte vnde eyn olt boek van Lantslotte | vnde jtem de olde vermaelde Cronike |vnde josaphat |vnde sunte Gregorius leygende |vnde dat schachstaffels boeck |van sunte Cristoffers passije jtem van allexander | jtem de markgreue willem |jtem perceuale | (Sodmann 1980, 425) (First item, this book Merlijn; also two new books of Lantslotte and an old book of Lantslotte, and also the old illustrated chronicle; and Josaphat; and Saint Gregory’s legend, and the book of chess, the passion of Saint Christopher; also [a book] of Alexander; also [the book of] the margrave Willem; also [a book of] Percevale.)

This country gentleman certainly had a rather nice collection of medieval narrative texts by the middle of the fifteenth century. Religious tales (two saints’ lives and the story of King Josaphat), a chronicle, a book on chess (probably based on the allegorical work by Jacobus de Cessolis), and two books on heroes (Alexander, Guillaume

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d’Orange) were brought together with several Arthurian texts. Presumably all of these texts were in the vernacular, Middle Dutch or Middle Low German. The titles generally use name variants that lie close to the Middle Dutch forms, e.g. Willem and Percevale. If, in the latter case, the book was a version of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s romance, the title would probably have been more Parzival-like. Chapter 8 will discuss the eastward distribution of romances made in Flanders or Brabant, and the role of the Low Countries as a kind of transit zone (cf. also Chapters 1 and 2), which explains the presence of these ‘Dutch’ texts in this aristocratic library in what is now Germany. In this chapter, the combination of Merlin and Lancelot texts is important, since all of these are translations/adaptations of French prose romances. Intriguing as well is the indication of ‘new’ and ‘old’ books of Lancelot, since it reflects the fact that there were several Middle Dutch translations of the Prose Lancelot available in the Low Countries: there are two translations in verse and one in prose, and there may have been more, as section 6 will explain. What would ‘old’ and ‘new’ have meant for Count Everwijn and the maker of the list? Does it indicate verse and prose texts, or more traditionally oriented adaptations versus more faithful and therefore innovative translations, or does it reflect the relative newness of the book in the library, referring to the acquisition of different manuscripts? A final possibility is that it refers to the material and means that paper manuscripts (like this Burgsteinfurt codex) were ‘new’ in contrast to the older parchment ones. Of all the texts named, only the Merlin book has survived, as far as we know. In a so-called ‘Umschreibung’, the Burgsteinfurt manuscript contains the almost complete version of some of the earliest translations of French prose romances, made by Jacob van Maerlant around 1262, and the complete text of the 1327 translation by Lodewijk van Velthem of the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin.1 In the chronological order of the creation of the texts, Maerlant’s Grail and Merlin works will be discussed first in this chapter (sections 2 and 3), followed by the three Lancelot translations (sections 4–6), the Lancelot Compilation (section 7), Velthem’s Merlin Continuation (section 8) and finally the only printed Arthurian text, the Historie van Merlijn (section 9). 2. Jacob van Maerlant, Historie vanden Grale: A Translator’s and Educator’s Qualms In the prologue, the author/translator calls himself ‘Jacob de coster van merlant’ (Sodmann 1980, l. 37: Jacob the sexton of Merlant). In the years 1257–62, the most productive writer in Middle Dutch, Jacob van Maerlant, was working as the church caretaker in a little town on the peninsula of Voorne-Putten (in the southern part of the modern province of South Holland). The village of Maerlant has long since been incorporated into the town of Brielle. In the thirteenth century it was just a mile or two

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from a castle that was the seat of quite an important noble family, the Lords of Voorne. It is to a member of this family that Jacob dedicates his work: Albrecht van Voorne. At the time, Albrecht was quite young (he signed his first documents as Lord of Voorne in 1261) and Jacob expresses his hope, in the prologue, that he may become a man who will bring repute and honour to his community and to God (Sodmann 1980, ll. 42–6). Frits van Oostrom has suggested that the Historie vanden Grale was made for and used in an educational programme for young noblemen of Holland and Zeeland, in which Maerlant played the learned teacher’s role (Oostrom 1996a, 127–36). The future count of Holland, Floris V, was part of this group, as was the aforementioned Albrecht, the Lord of Voorne-to-be, and another of Maerlant’s later patrons, Nicolaes van Cats. The texts Maerlant made in Voorne provided his pupils with inspirational models of great heroes and rulers. Before the Grail and Merlin texts, Maerlant translated the biography of Alexander the Great, and afterwards he made the Historie van Troyen (History of Troy), and an Arthurian romance called Torec. A mirror for princes called the Heimelijkheid der heimelijkheden (Secret of Secrets), based on the Secretum secretorum, may, according to Van Oostrom, also belong to Maerlant’s Voorne production. All of these works contain educational material in an easily accessible form. The ‘Chamber of Wisdom’ episode in Torec (cf. Chapter 5), for instance, exemplifies the value of wise counsellors, whereas the ins and outs of being a good ruler are demonstrated time and again in all the tales. It may be a telling detail that in the Grail text, the narrator addresses his intended audience as ‘kinder’ (children, l. 543), which may indicate children, but also adolescents (Besamusca and Brandsma 1998), and which reflects the teacher–pupil relationship of Maerlant and his primary audience. At the beginning of the Merlin story, an additional lesson will be presented in the form of an episode that does not appear in Maerlant’s source: the so-called Mascheroen trial (ll. 1608–2582). This episode may have been added by Maerlant, or maybe by the continuator, Lodewijk van Velthem.2 It describes how the devil’s advocate Mascheroen comes before Christ and asks Him to be more strict towards mankind who keep on sinning and ought to end up in hell. Christ is about to concede to Mascheroen’s request when Mary intercedes and defends mankind. One of her arguments is that He himself became man as her son and as a child drank from her breasts. Christ then gives in to his mother’s plea and continues to allow sinful people to atone for their sins and, by showing true repentance, to go to heaven or purgatory rather than straight to hell. The religious lesson in this episode would fit quite well in the assumed educational situation. One further didactic example Maerlant sets in his Grail text is his scrupulous commitment to finding the truth in his source material. His prologue evokes the image of three books on the author’s table. The first manuscript contained, in Old French prose, Robert de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie and Merlin; the second text was a book on Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, made by a Flemish priest, and the third book was the ‘vulgate’ Latin Bible, to be precise: the Gospel texts of Christ’s Passion. The book on

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the Harrowing, which Maerlant considered to be so untrue and wrong that a priest could not have written it, prompted him to find and tell the story of the Grail properly. Since the first part of Robert de Boron’s Joseph describes Christ’s last days and Crucifixion, Maerlant was able to check the French text against the Gospel truth. He discovered that Robert often gave a false rendition of the events and corrected the tale accordingly. When the French text differs from the Bible in its story of Simon the leper, for instance, the narrator states ‘ick late de historie staen / van den romanse vnde telle iv voert / der waeren ewangelien woert’ (I will ignore the story in the French [text] and tell you the words of the true Gospel, ll. 252–4; cf. Sleiderink 2010, Brandsma 2018). As long as the story covered biblical ground, Maerlant was able to maintain this critical attitude and create a kind of mixed text, part De Boron, part Gospel. The Grail is introduced in the Joseph when the body of Christ is taken down from the Cross and prepared for the grave. The blood that flows out of His wounds is poured into a vessel that was also used at the Last Supper, which then becomes the Grail, even though this name is only bestowed on it later when Joseph has taken it into the desert. Robert de Boron’s complicated and somewhat confused narration of the events after the Resurrection baffled Maerlant and we see him trying to bring things in line with historical and biblical sources on the actions of the Romans. Two folios are missing from the manuscript at his point, which makes it hard to assess whether Maerlant succeeded in creating a coherent and truthful story.3 After this gap of more than 300 lines, the text has moved away from the Gospel and Maerlant now allows himself to follow the French source and its narrative of the adventures of Joseph and his followers in the desert, without his earlier qualms and critical remarks. In a key episode, God’s voice from heaven prompts Joseph to use the Grail to test the loyalty of his followers, some of whom are grumbling about the length and tribulations of their stay in the desert. He places the vessel on a special table and only the loyal people experience extreme joy in its presence, causing the disloyal to leave and go their own way. Joseph’s brother Broen explains the name of the mysterious vessel: He zegede dat vat dar wij aff ontfaen Hebben gracie vnde glorie Vnde dat wij leuen sunder vernoije Dar wij aff eten dat zoete mael Dat sal van genaden hieten de grael (Sodmann 1980, ll. 777–81) (He said: ‘The vessel that gave us grace and honour, and made us live without sorrow, from which we eat this sweet food, will because of its mercy be called the Grail.’)

The table has an empty seat between Joseph and Broen, signifying Judas’s place at the Last Supper, as the voice from heaven explains. When the stubborn spokesman of the grumblers tries to sit in this chair, he is sucked down into oblivion. The motif of the perilous seat is born in this episode. The Grail table is the second in a series of three tables (as Merlin will explain later to Uther Pendragon): the table of the Last Supper is

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the first in the series and the Round Table the third. In the Grail story, Robert de Boron (and Maerlant after him) thus set up long thematic lines which were to return time and again in the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. The combination of texts in the Burgsteinfurt manuscript is actually quite remarkable in this respect, since it brings two translations of Robert de Boron’s work together with a translation of a typical component of the cycle, the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin. This configuration is uncommon in the French manuscript tradition. In most cyclical manuscripts, the early history of the Grail is given in the Estoire del Saint Graal, a revision of the Joseph that is far more elaborate and strongly connected to the Queste del Saint Graal. Robert’s Joseph and Merlin were composed in verse, but soon (around 1200) rewritten in prose. Maerlant states at several points that his source (made by ‘mijn her robrecht van barioen’, my lord Robrecht of Barioen, l. 1560) was in prose (‘sunder rime’, without rhyme, l. 1562). So, in the 1260s a manuscript with the prose Joseph and Merlin was available in Voorne for some time. It may have contained more texts, in particular the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin, which follows the Estoire de Merlin in most cyclical manuscripts, and perhaps even the Lancelot– Queste–Mort Artu trilogy. More research is needed here, but O’Gorman’s work on the manuscript tradition of the Joseph, as well as Micha’s and Füg-Pierreville’s on the Estoire de Merlin in connection to Robert de Boron’s other texts and in connection to the cycle, indicates that it is prudent to think of Maerlant’s source manuscript as containing only the Joseph and Merlin.4 When Lodewijk van Velthem made his translation of the Suite-Vulgate some sixty years later (cf. section 8), he most probably used as his source a different manuscript than the one Maerlant translated from in Voorne, even when Velthem was probably also working in Voorne for Albrecht’s successor at the time. Maerlant’s versification of a prose original was one of the first of its kind in Middle Dutch Arthuriana and other translators were to follow in his footsteps. Maerlant’s Grail romance shows us a conscientious translator, intent on giving his (young) audience the most truthful story he can come up with (Brandsma 2018). The mysterious Grail and its connection to Christ’s Passion, the Grail table in the desert and the urgency of finding out who is loyal and who is not, the divinely guided journey of the Grail to Britain; all of these elements make for an interesting and edifying story. For the young noblemen Maerlant was instructing, however, things would really have become exiting when the story of Merlin, the birth of King Arthur and the sword in the stone began, as the next section will describe. The Grail story concludes with a promise. The French source indicated that there were more tales of the Grail, to be found in what Maerlant calls ‘Dat grote boeck vanden grale’ (the big book of the Grail, l. 1587).5 Since he does not have this big book at his disposal, Maerlant lets the story rest, but if he were to find it in French, he promises: Dat he dat in ryme sonder valsch Also vere oeck dijchten zal

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FRANK BRANDSMA Dat dit boeck wirt versamelt al Want em der pinen ne verdroet Aldus so endet dat eirste boeck (Sodmann 1980, ll. 1603–7)

(That he will write that [story] in verse truthfully, in order to complete the whole book [of the Grail], because the effort never displeased him. Thus ends the first book.)

3. Jacob van Maerlant, Merlijn: Enter the King As mentioned above, the Mascheroen trial with its religious message is placed between Maerlant’s translations of Joseph and Merlin. The return of the frustrated devil Mascheroen to his colleagues in hell gives extra zest to the beginning of the Merlin story, as it begins in Robert de Boron’s work with the plan of the demons to create an anti-Christ in order to lure more souls into perdition.6 Since one of the devils is able to have sex with women, they search for a suitable mother-to-be. A virtuous girl is brought to despair as the devils first make her parents commit suicide and then make her sister cause her so much sorrow that, one night, she forgets to say her prayers as her confessor advised her to do. That night the devil sleeps with her and Merlin is conceived. His demonic father gives him the knowledge of the past which is to be used to mislead people. However, the devils have underestimated the strength of the girl’s Christian faith. She immediately tells her confessor what has happened to her and he instructs her on how to atone for her unintentional sin. Her prayers and devotion make God interfere in the devilish scheme: he gives the child the knowledge of the future, to be used to do good instead of evil. Since she is unmarried, pregnant, and unable to say who fathered her child, Merlin’s mother-to-be is put in prison. Her trial and probable execution are postponed until the child is born. The baby is very hairy (like his father). He is baptised Merlin after his grandfather. When Merlin is ten months old and about to be weaned he already looks like a two-year-old toddler. To everyone’s surprise, Merlin then speaks and reassures his mother that he will save her. And so he does, defending her in court like a brilliant lawyer, making such clever use of his knowledge of the past that the judge has to admit that he himself does not really know who his own father is. Mother and child are set free. Throughout this difficult period, the mother’s confessor had been a great help and support. His name is Blasijs (Fr Blaise) and he is soon enlisted by Merlin to become his scribe. Merlin makes him write down the events in the Grail section, including the Mascheroen episode, as well as everything that had happened up until then. Since he has sworn to tell the truth, Merlin’s report is the trustworthy eyewitness source of Blasijs’s book, which is why it is called Merlin’s book (Brandsma 1996). What we read are in fact Merlin’s words as dictated to Blasijs. This source fiction, as constructed by Robert de Boron and Maerlant, is in line with the suggestion of veracity and

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completeness that the Lancelot–Grail Cycle will build up in different ways. In the Estoire del Saint Graal, what we read is taken from a booklet provided by Christ, whereas in the Prose Lancelot special scribes record the eyewitness narratives of the knights’ adventures as they return to court. Merlin will go back time and again to Blasijs to update his report. In the French text, the scribe is installed in Northumberland. In the Middle Dutch translation, this location is at one instance translated with ‘merlant’ (l. 4758), the place where the translation is actually being made by Maerlant, who may have seen parallels between Blasijs and himself as provider of Merlin’s story (Besamusca and Brandsma 1996, 121). Book 3, as it is called in the text (in the chapter heading above l. 4174, in Sodmann 1980), describes Merlin’s dealings with Utegier (Vortigern), and later Uter (Uther Pendragon). The usurper Utegier arranges the death of the rightful king, Moynes, and forces Moynes’s younger brothers, Pandragoen and Uter, to flee to the continent. To defend himself against these youngsters who may come back to claim the throne, Utegier brings Saxon allies to Britain and begins to build a tower, which collapses time and again. When Merlin is brought to this location, he explains that there are two dragons fighting in the ground beneath the stronghold. Uncovered, a white dragon (signifying the heirs to the throne) defeats a red one, which represents Utegier. Similarly, Pandragoen and Uter defeat Utegier and his Saxons and burn the usurper in his tower. Now Merlin comes into his own as adviser to the king, briefly working for Pandragoen, but mainly for Uter. In his role as adviser, knowledge is Merlin’s tool, as is shown, for instance, in the battle of Salisbury against the Saxons. In an exemplary military operation, which may have provided a good lesson in strategy to Maerlant’s audience of young noblemen, Pandragoen and Uter first cut off the Saxons’ escape route to their ships, then force them onto unfavourable terrain and surround them, before attacking and destroying them. Merlin tells King Pandragoen what to do and where to send Uter, and during the battle he provides a terrifying flying dragon to scare the Saxons and rally the British troops. According to the French text, Maerlant says, Pandragoen died that day, and no Saxons survived the battle. Uter is then chosen by the nobles to be king. He takes on the name Uter Pandragoen, to honour his brother and in reference to the battle dragon. Merlin provides him with a dragon banner. In order to boost Uter’s prestige, Merlin advises him to undertake two symbolic works: he lets Merlin bring giant stones from Ireland and erect the Giant’s Circle (Stonehenge) as a monument for Pandragoen’s grave on Salisbury plain, and he creates the Round Table, following Merlin’s instructions. Here the thematic line of the three tables and the empty seat is taken up and elaborately explained to Uter by Merlin, with many predictions on what is to happen in the future, when the next king (Arthur) will rule. An interesting addition to the French source is Maerlant’s remark that the apostles chose in Judas’s place ‘Eynen de der stat werdich was / Dat is van triere mathias’ (someone worthy of the seat, that is Mathias of Trier, ll. 6981–2).7 This is in

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line with Maerlant’s ‘biblical’ corrections of the French source in the Grail section, since the Acts of the Apostles (1: 21–6) describe how Matthias was chosen to replace Judas. The Round Table at Uter’s court seats fifty knights, who, like the people at the Grail table, never want to leave again. The empty seat is stubbornly tested once more and another person is sucked into oblivion. While this is happening, Merlin makes himself scarce by visiting Blasijs and working on his narrative, well aware of the fact that he, when present, would be suspected of manipulation. He will employ the same tactic of absence in the sword in the stone episode. As regards the conception of Arthur, the Uter-as-Gorlois mummery (by means of a herb known to Merlin) and the night spent with Ygerne in Tintagel, Robert and Maerlant do not deviate very much from the original account in Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Merlin does make Uter swear beforehand that the child conceived will be entrusted to his care and he selects the foster parents, Kay’s mother and father (Antor). Ygerne’s confusion about her last night with Gorlois/first night with Uter is used to shame her into giving up the newborn baby. Antor’s wife gives her own son Kay into the care of a wet nurse in order to breastfeed the child christened Arthur (l. 9002). As ‘Robrecht van Barioen’ (l. 9032) writes, Uter lived for a long time, until he fell ill and, after a last victory against the Saxons, left the kingdom without obvious successor, although he himself knew from Merlin that his son was growing into a wise and brave man. Robert de Boron introduced into this narrative Arthur’s secret upbringing as well as the iconic scene in which the hidden prince becomes king: the sword in the stone episode. This may have been one of the elements that attracted Maerlant, his patron and his primary audience to this story. As the nobles and common people pray in the London cathedral during Christmas, a stone appears in the churchyard. It carries an anvil in which a sword is stuck. On the sword are guldene boecstaue de segeden dat De dat zweerd treckede vt der stad He solde by den wille onses heren Coninck sijn myt groter eren (ll. 9525–8) (golden letters which stated that he who pulled out the sword would, by the will of our Lord, be king with great honour.)

Arthur pulls the sword from the anvil on the stone and duly becomes the new king. Time and again he proves his regal nature, especially when it comes to ‘largesce’ (l. 9981–98). He is gentle (‘myld’, l. 9998) and noble (‘van hogen moede’, l. 10000), and he will rule in peace for a long time. The last words of the French original state ‘Ensi fu Artus esleüs a roi et tint la terre et le regne de Logres lonc tans en pais’ (Füg-Pierreville 2014, par. 121, ll. 54–5). The text in the Burgsteinfurt manuscript follows this sentence almost to the end: ‘Dus was artur koninck gekoren / De dat lant van Logres vnde de steden lange hilt met groter …’ (Thus Arthur was chosen king and he ruled the land of Logres and its cities for a long

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time in …, ll. 10080–2). In Maerlant’s original version, the final word no doubt was ‘vreden’ (peace), but the Burgsteinfurt manuscript has the opposite ‘onvreden’ (un-peace, war, l. 10082). Velthem’s continuation is indeed a long narrative of unrest and war, as section 8 will explain. Maerlant’s Boek van Merline is a tale that would have warmed the hearts of any medieval audience and must have appealed to the young nobles in the Voorne circle in particular, some of whom – like Floris and Albrecht – were growing up without a father. A cruel usurper is defeated by means of the divine knowledge of a superior wizard, the rightful rulers are restored and manage to free their land from invaders.8 Presented as coming from the main protagonist/eyewitness’s own mouth, the narrative suggests reliability and provides all kinds of lessons, from strategy to the advantages of rewarding loyal subjects. It shows with authority that God’s plan, in this case invested in Merlin and his divine knowledge, will eventually come to be (cf. the sequence of the three tables) and that the righteous and good will be rewarded, even if it takes unexpected means like the sword in the stone. As a critical translator, Maerlant enhanced the reliability of the Grail-and-Merlin tale by checking it wherever possible against the Gospel truth and correcting Robert’s version accordingly. In later times, Maerlant would strongly prefer Latin to French sources and use Geoffrey’s Historia to describe the Arthurian era in his Spiegel historiael, but for the Grail–Merlin tale his French prose source worked well enough (cf. the epilogue to the Grail story, quoted above).9 That he chose verse to translate a prose original suited his proven craftsmanship as a versifier and was fitting as regards similar texts in this field in the Low Countries at this time, like the Conte du Graal translation and the Wrake van Ragisel (cf. Chapter 5). Some of the translators of the Lancelot story from the Lancelot–Grail Cycle made the same choice and created rhymed renditions. 4. Lantsloot vander Haghedochte: Fragmented Splendour The word ‘haghedochte’ means ‘cave’, an underground area or burrow. Lancelot du Lac in this Middle Dutch translation, probably made in (Western) Flanders around 1260 (cf. Chapter 1), has a somewhat different origin, which fortunately is explained in the first fragment that remains of the Lantsloot manuscript. It summarises how Merlin’s lover appropriated his magic, locked him up in a hawthorn hedge in a forest in Cornwall, and then brought the kidnapped baby Lancelot to her abode, the ‘haghedochte’ (Gerritsen 1987, l. 144). As in the French original, the child has no name and is called ‘beautiful foundling’ (‘scone vondelinc’, l. 164), ‘prince’ (‘conincs kint’, l. 165) or ‘beautiful orphan’ (‘scone wise’, l. 169) by the fairy lady who raises him and by her people, who live in forests and woods, ‘Aldus segghen ons die walsche jeesten’ (so the French tales tell us, l. 173). After this reference to the source, the narrator/ translator explains what the ‘haghedochte’ is:

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FRANK BRANDSMA Ende die haghedochte was el niet (Dar ghi of hebt gehord tbediet) Dan al gader toverien, Salmen der rechter waerheit lien. Beneden den berghe een luttelkijn Dar die coninc Ban sinen fijn Hadde ghenomen doe hi bleef doot, Dar stont een ghesate groot Van husen ende van zalen Die wel rikelijc mochten betalen; Dat was der joncfrowen al. (Gerritsen 1987, ll. 180–90)

(And the cave (of which you have heard the story) was nothing else than a magical illusion, if one were to tell the exact truth. A little below the hill where King Ban made his end when he died, there was a big settlement of houses and halls of considerable wealth; all of that belonged to the damsel.)

So, the cave is just an illusion, to hide what we now would call a resort. The fragment shows a number of special features of this translation, like the tendency to ‘rationalisation’ and the elaborate and thoughtful conversation with the listening audience. Before we go into these aspects, however, more information on the manuscript and its status is required. The discovery of the manuscript fragments reads like a detective story in Gerritsen’s chronological overview (1987, 3–20). Two tiny strips were found and sent to Leyden professor Matthias de Vries in 1882, who mistakenly identified them as fragments of the lost first book of the Lancelot Compilation. In 1933, Willem de Vreese reported that two more leaves of the manuscript had been found in Münster and a lot more material (almost 5000 verses in 29 fragments) had come to light in the Marburg archives, discovered by Friedrich Meuser, whose dissertation on the fragments was finished in 1939. Just four copies of this thesis were made. The manuscript folios were individually used as folders for documents from the duchy of Waldeck, which explains why we have mainly separate double leaves, rather than consecutive sets of pages. After the Second World War, Meuser hoped to publish his work, in collaboration with the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde in Leyden, but this never came to pass because of his busy job as a teacher and all kinds of delays on the Dutch side. He died in 1967. By then the edition was taken over by Klaas Heeroma and his aide A. J. Persijn. The delays were far from over, however, and, although Heeroma did write a series of articles on the text and its poet, it would take until 1987 for the edition by W. P. Gerritsen to appear. Two milestone publications by Gerritsen’s promotor Maartje Draak had by then made the Dutch Arthurians very eager to study the Lantsloot text. These articles (Draak 1954 and 1976a) both resulted from lectures at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and eventually inspired the Academy to adopt the so-called Lancelot project, with the purpose of editing and studying the three Middle Dutch Lancelot translations and the Lancelot Compilation. Draak 1954 clearly shows how exceptional it is that the Prose Lancelot was translated at least three times into Middle Dutch verse and prose

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(and maybe even five times, if we take references to a Dutch source in two German Lancelot manuscripts into account; cf. Chapter 8). She points out that the Lantsloot translator used another version of the French text than the version used for the verse translation in the compilation. Comparison of the two verse texts, which is possible since they overlap for about 1000 lines of the Lantsloot fragments, also shows that they were made independently. Draak also discovered that the prose translation in the Rotterdam fragments (to be discussed in section 6) is not based on any of the two verse texts. Again, there is a passage which overlaps with both verse translations, as will be discussed below. Her elaborate description of what has come down to us also highlighted the challenge of studying the texts, their relation to the French manuscript tradition and to the German Lancelot texts. Yet it took a second publication (Draak 1976a) to really get things going by enlisting Utrecht scholars such as Wim Gerritsen and Frits van Oostrom to the Lancelot cause, with Orlanda Lie, Bart Besamusca, Ada Postma and Frank Brandsma following in their wake in the 1980s and 1990s. The preparation of new editions for the Dutch Lancelot texts has come a long way but, as yet, the work remains unfinished: editions of the final section of the Lanceloet in the compilation, and of the compilation Queeste vanden Grale and Arturs doet, are still works in progress. The series, moreover, has moved from books to web-editions. Gerritsen’s work on the Lantsloot edition and especially the comparison of the text with the French original, which was the central part of Frits van Oostrom’s 1981 PhD thesis, revealed the exceptional quality and status of this text and its carrier. Even in its fragmented form, the manuscript looks splendid as well as expensive: high quality and very neat writing on top quality parchment, in two columns with wide margins, decorated with red and blue initials, and the text structured with frequent paragraph signs. There are, however, no illustrations of any kind in the preserved fragments. As far as the fragments allow us to see, the Lantsloot translation of the Lancelot was not complete. The coverage ends just before the beginning of the so-called ‘Agravain’ section in the French text. In many French manuscripts, this was where a new volume began, even though this point does not actually correspond to a new part of the Lancelot story (Brandsma 2003b). This is fortunate as well as strange. Fortunate, since the final 1000 lines preserved in the Lantsloot fragments correspond to sections of the first 5000 lines of the other verse translation and even overlap with one of the fragments of the Middle Dutch prose translation. Strange because it does not make sense to start translating the final part of the Lancelot story and then stop in the middle of an elaborate quest for Lancelot. The most probable explanation is that the poet’s French source was incomplete and indeed just the first half of a set of manuscripts where the dividing line between parts was the ‘Agravain’ point (Sommer 1979, V, 3; Micha 1978–83, IV, LXX). Although the exemplar the Lantsloot translator used has not come down to us, Van Oostrom (1981, 9–47) has demonstrated that it belonged to the ‘BN 1430’ group in the Prose Lancelot tradition, which switches from the ‘long’ to the ‘short’ version at Sommer, IV, 123, then has the ß-version of the Prose Charrette,

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and the long version after that. Of course, this correspondence can be checked only intermittently, since there are so many lacunae between the fragments. The extant Lantsloot text provides important and lovely episodes from the Lancelot story, like the description of the place where Lancelot grew up (fragment I, quoted above), the first impression the nameless young knight makes on the queen (fr. VII), the suicide of Arthur’s mistress, the enchantress Camille (fr. XVI), Galioot’s (Galehaut’s) dream (fr. XVII), Lancelot conquering the Doloreuse Tor (fr. XXII, XXIII), the Sword Bridge (fr. XXVII) and Gawain at the Under Water Bridge (fr. XXIX), Arthur’s hunt (fr. XXXV), and many more. One example may suffice to get a taste of the Lantsloot author’s storytelling. This is how the Sword Bridge is presented (Gerritsen 1987, ll. 3820–30, 3852–64): Daer lach die brugghe van den swerde Over die riviere diere liep Harde donker ende diep. Die brugghe was scarp als een scermes Die daer lach over twater dwers Ende daer Lantsloot over liden woude. Hine liets niet om enen berch van goude Diene hem gave altemale, Hine soudse riden al toter zale, Waert met crachte of met liste, Daer hi die coninghinne wiste. … [Mar] si was boven scarp Ghelijc den egghe van enen swaerde. Die ridder die niet ne spaerde Dur anxt van gherande dinghe, Hi ghinker op sitten scerdelinghe Ende hilt hem metten handen voren. Dat hi dede moghedi horen: Hi ghinc metten benen roeien, Hi achte luttel opt vermoeien. Hi sach emmer ten torne waert (Alse vele te min was hi vervaert) Daer die coninghinne was in; Dat verblide sinen sin. (There lay the sword bridge over the river that ran very dark and deep there. The bridge was sharp as a razor, which was lying there across the water and which Lancelot wanted to cross. Not for a mountain of gold, that would be given to him, would he refrain from riding all the way, by force or by cunning, to the castle where he knew the queen was to be found … On top, the bridge was sharp, however, like the edge of a sword. The knight did not hesitate out of any kind of anxiety, he straddled the sword and held on with his hands in front. You may hear what he did: he began to row with his legs, not caring about getting tired. All the time, he looked towards the tower (and was the less afraid) where the queen was, which made him feel happy.)

Comparison of the Lantsloot text with the French source (and where possible with the other Middle Dutch versions) shows that, in general, the Lantsloot works at the textual

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level of the ‘paragraph’ (blocks of 10 to 20 verses), where the other two translations work from the sentence or even the word (Brandsma 2003a). The Lantsloot poet takes in a section of the French original of around ten sentences and then casts the information in those lines into rhyming couplets. This results in an adaptation rather than line-by-line or word-for-word translation and allows the poet a measure of freedom in his narration and verse-making. There are far fewer stop-gap verses in his work than in the other verse translation (l. 3829 above is the only such line in the 24-line passage). Van Oostrom’s full comparison of all the fragments with the source material revealed three major tendencies in the changes made. Lantsloot (1) tends to give more attention to manners and courtliness, (2) eliminates the chronicle-like format (with precise chronological and geographical information) of the prose original and (3) shows an eagerness to explain what is happening (rationalisation, Van Oostrom calls this). This latter tendency is evident in the quoted example in the explanation of where the sword was, what it looked like, the problem it posed and the way Lancelot moved to get across. This information is by no means absent in the original, but the Dutch poet foregrounds it. The chronicle-like, rather impersonal narration of the Prose Lancelot, which for instance does not feature a first-person narrator, is not taken over, as the poet uses a more traditional narrative style, in which communication with the audience is an important factor (cf. l. 3858 above). The storytelling and the structuring of the text by means of paragraph signs make the narrative easy to follow, far easier than the prose original. The three tendencies make the Lantsloot text, as Van Oostrom explains, rather conservative. He concludes that ‘On the Old French side, Arthurian romance had a tradition of over fifty years when the Lancelot en prose came into being; this makes the need for profound innovation plausible. In the Middle Dutch literary domain, however, it is quite probable that the function of Lantsloot, though certainly not the first Arthurian romance, was more that of a work meant to initiate its audience into the Arthurian genre’ (Oostrom 1981, 243). If Lantsloot initiates the audience, the other two translations may also be characterised as making audiences more familiar with Arthurian romance and the innovations in the Prose Lancelot, as will be discussed in the next sections. Given the ‘Arthurian’ situation in Flanders in the second half of the thirteenth century, as described in Chapter 1, characterising Lantsloot as a ‘trailblazer’ is somewhat problematic, however, and calls for further research. Van Oostrom’s work and Gerritsen’s 1987 edition put Lantsloot firmly on the Arthurian map for scholars, even if the fragmentary nature of the text (and the absence of a line-by-line English translation) remains an issue. Lantsloot is taken into account in comparative studies, for example of the role of the narrator (Faems 2006) or the presentation of direct discourse (Brandsma 1998), and in comparisons of this version with the second verse translation, preserved in the Lancelot Compilation (Janssens 1992; Besamusca and Brandsma 1994, Brandsma 2007a). Janssens (1992; see also

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Putter 1999) has suggested that Lantsloot has influenced Penninc, the poet of Walewein, in his description of the sword bridge and that he may have coined the phrase ‘der avonturen vader’, as praise for Walewein (Hogenbirk 2004, 110–16). It is, however, the idea that the Lantsloot translator was also the creator of two other texts that has attracted most scholarly attention. The Lantsloot translation was made in (Western) Flanders, around 1260 (cf. Chapter 1), by an anonymous author who probably also created two indigenous romances: Karel ende Elegast, a Charlemagne romance, and Moriaen (cf. Chapter 6). None of these texts mention their maker, but stylistic similarities point to their being made by the same poet. This idea was first put forward by Heeroma, the would-be editor of Lantsloot, in a series of articles published posthumously (brought together in Heeroma 1973b), in which he argued that he ‘heard’ correspondences between the texts. His thesis was at first rejected as too subjective, but later scholars like Van Oostrom (1988) and Besamusca (1993, 27–8) were of the opinion that the idea had been dismissed too rashly. Recently, Mike Kestemont (2013a, 199–272) used stylometric analysis of the rhyme words to study the Middle Dutch texts. His findings quite firmly show a strong resemblance between these three texts and suggest that Lantsloot may have been the first-made of the three, followed by Moriaen, and finally Karel ende Elegast. Next to Maerlant and Velthem, this anonymous, productive author apparently was an important player in the making of romance in the Low Countries, especially since Besamusca (1993; 2003a) has shown that Moriaen has some intertextual references to Walewein (cf. Chapter 6). The Lantsloot–Moriaen connection is thus enriched with a Walewein– Moriaen link, forming a network of related romances, long before Moriaen was included in the Lancelot Compilation (cf. section 7). 5. Lanceloet–Queeste vanden Grale–Arturs doet: Translated Faithfully in Verse A second verse translation of the Prose Lancelot was produced in Flanders, most probably around 1280. Small fragments show that this translation covered the Queste del Saint Graal and Mort le roi Artu books of the French text as well, as is also evident from the full version that has come down to us in the Lancelot Compilation. Comparison with the French original (in its different variants for sections of the Lancelot) reveals that this verse translation, in its compilation version, follows the original very closely. This strong correspondence with the source text also indicates that the maker of the compilation, who did not consult the French source, did not significantly change the 60,000 lines of this verse translation that make up the core of his Arthurian Summa. Since the content of the three books of the ‘second’ translation is important for this section as well as for section 7 (the Lancelot Compilation), a summary of the texts will precede the discussion of the characteristics and research issues of the translation.

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Only the final third (Part 3) of the translation of the Lancelot section of the trilogy has been transmitted to us in the compilation manuscript. The summary will therefore start at this point, even though there is a small fragment from a somewhat earlier part of the French text, as will be discussed below. Summary Lanceloet Section 1: The great Lanceloet quest (Book II, ll. 1–32,396; M II, LIII–VI, C, 80; S IV, 301–V, 332)10 During a hunt, a week after Whitsuntide, Lanceloet disappears. He was wounded when he prevented a weeping knight from abducting the queen but did not return to court. Believing Lanceloet might be dead, the queen sends out Walewein (Gauvain/ Gawain) and nine knights to search for him. Lanceloet has been led away by an elderly lady who wants him to fight for her kin. When Lanceloet has recovered from his wounds, he is poisoned. He is cured by a damsel who falls in love with him. Her unrequited love almost kills her and Lanceloet but she is saved by his promise to be her knight. Lionel and Bohort find Lanceloet at this point and Lionel brings news of his well-being to court and queen. Lanceloet also learns that the weeping would-be abductor was Bohort. In order to force Lanceloet to return to court, a big tournament is planned for the Sunday a week after ‘la Magdalainne’ (the feast of Mary Magdalene), on July 29. Once recovered, Lanceloet fights for the family of the lady who led him away, defeating – without being recognised – several knights who take part in the Lanceloet quest. After this fight he is abducted by three queens who want to force him to marry one of them but he escapes with the help of a damsel. He then ends up in the Grail Castle (as did Walewein earlier on in this quest), sees the Grail and is misled into sleeping with the Grail King’s daughter. The Grail hero Galaat is conceived that night. When Lanceloet discovers the deception in the morning, he leaves, grieving. On his way, he finds out that Hestor is his half-brother. The maiden who healed Lanceloet is abducted but Lanceloet is able to rescue her (and her virginity) before her captors rape her. Afterwards he gets caught in a magical adventure in the form of a joyous company that cannot stop dancing. Lanceloet manages to break the magic dance and returns to court in time to be successful, incognito, in the announced tournament. Only after his victory does he reveal his identity. Arthur’s scribes record the adventures of the four quest knights who have returned. In his report, Lanceloet makes no mention of his encounter with the Grail King’s daughter. Lanceloet and Guinevere speak of the negative consequences their relationship will have for Lanceloet’s chances in the Grail quest; Lanceloet considers their love his raison d’être. Soon he leaves the court again with Walewein, Gaheriet and Bohort, in order to find the many knights who did not return from their quest (e.g. Hestor, Lionel, Yvain). Lanceloet ends up in the prison of Morgaine le Fay (Arthur’s sister), where he

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will remain for two winters and a summer. He depicts the events of his love for the queen on the walls of his room; Morgaine realises that the pictures will enable her to reveal the illicit relationship to Arthur. Meanwhile, the other quest knights roam the realm in search of Lanceloet. One Sunday in May, Lanceloet escapes. He hears about the adventure of the Forbidden Hill and fights the knight defending this hill. They are evenly matched, until Lanceloet recognises his opponent’s weapon: it is Galehot’s sword, which he himself once sent to Bohort. Lanceloet then stops the fight. The knight who has defeated, and now releases, so many of Arthur’s knights on this hill, is indeed Bohort. Lanceloet learns that the Grail King’s daughter has given birth to a son and correctly assumes that the child is his. He heals a knight who can only be cured by the best knight in the world. Arthur convenes his court at Whitsuntide. Slowly the dispersed knights return to court. After a meeting with Lanceloet at the tournament of Penigue, Bohort returns to the Grail Castle, where he does better than Walewein during a night in the Adventurous Palace but is still unable to bring these Grail adventures to an end. He returns to court. Lanceloet is the last to arrive at Whitsuntide. Finally, everyone has returned. King Claudas of Gaule has insulted the queen by imprisoning a messenger she sent to the Lady of the Lake and, as this calls for revenge, Arthur decides to go to war on the continent. Section 2: The War against Claudas (Book II, ll. 32,397–35,470; M VI, CI, 1–CV, 30; S V, 332–77) The adventures of the knights are recorded before the army sets out for Gaule. At first, Arthur and Lanceloet stay in Logres while Walewein and the others successfully fight Claudas’s army. The Romans help Claudas, but all of them are defeated when Arthur and Lanceloet come to the continent. The crowns of their regained ancestral lands are offered to Lanceloet, Bohort and Lionel. They refuse to take this responsibility, preferring to remain free agents as Arthur’s knights errant. With Arthur, they return to Logres. Section 3: Lanceloet’s madness (Book II, ll. 35,471–36,947; M VI, CV, 30–CVIII, 30; S V, 377–409) At the Whitsuntide court, the Grail King’s daughter brings her young son to Camelot. Once again, Lanceloet is tricked into sleeping with her. This time the queen finds him in bed with her. She banishes him from court. Lanceloet goes insane and flees into the woods. Lionel, Bohort and Hestor set out to search for him, soon followed by Walewein and thirty-one others. One of those knights is Agloval, who after two years comes home to his mother and his younger brother Perceval. Agloval takes Perceval to court, where great deeds are said to be in store for him. Perceval meets Hestor and joins the Lanceloet quest.

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Here the Dutch text breaks off. The French text continues with the healing of Lancelot by the Grail. After a long sojourn with Pelles’s daughter on an island near the Grail Castle, he returns to Arthur’s court in the company of his son Galaat who will stay at a monastery nearby until the time for the Grail quest arrives. The Queeste vanden Grale (Bk III, ll. 1–11,160; S VI, 3–199; ed. Pauphilet 1949) begins with a prologue in which the first-person narrator explains that he will translate this story from the French (ll. 1–8), describing how all of Arthur’s knights leave his court to search for the Grail, which has appeared before the Round Table at Whitsuntide. Lanceloet’s son Galaat is predestined to find the Grail. His name appears on the Perilous Seat, in which he sits without being harmed, and he is the only one able to pull a sword from a floating stone. Once the knights have departed, their behaviour determines their success or failure in the quest. There are tests for pious knights like Perceval and Bohort, whose chastity and devotion to God are tested. Galaat effortlessly passes any test laid in his path and brings to a close many adventures, in keeping with the predictions for the Grail hero. For almost all the others, a hopeless and adventure-less roaming keeps them from getting near the Grail. Walewein represents these worldly knights. His efforts only result in killing a number of his Round Table companions, to his great shame. Lanceloet has an intermediate status: he has lost the opportunity of success granted to him at birth (hence his baptismal name: Galaaz/Galaat) through his love for the queen but shows great remorse. He even abjures Guinevere and does severe penance for his sins. As a reward he is allowed to accompany his son for a while. Bohort, Perceval and Galaat represent the heavenly knighthood and they eventually find the Grail. Christ appears before them and explains that the Grail is the dish of the Last Supper. He urges them to go to Sarras. There, Galaat is allowed to look into the Grail and to see its mystery, before he is taken to heaven, together with the Grail. Perceval becomes a hermit. Bohort keeps him company until Perceval dies two years later and then returns to Arthur’s court where his account of the Grail quest is written down by the clerks. Arturs doet (Bk IV, ll. 1–13,054; S VI, 203–391; ed. Frappier 1954) is the final text in the cycle. The translation begins with a long prologue (ll. 1–296), absent in the French original. The first-person narrator speaks about sin and the value of prayer, before beginning his ‘jeeste’ (story, l. 296) and returning to the narrative as it is in the Mort Artu. Lanceloet falls back in love with Guinevere. The animosity between the Lanceloet clan and Walewein and his kin grows. Agravain is keen to reveal Guinevere’s adultery. Morgaine le Fay shows Arthur the drawings Lanceloet made in his prison cell and thus informs him of the illicit relationship. The lovers are caught together one evening. Lanceloet manages to escape but Guinevere is condemned to the stake. When she is taken to the pyre, Lanceloet and his

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companions attack her guards. They kill Agravain, Guerrehet and, accidentally, Gaheriet as well. Walewein swears to avenge the death of his brothers on Lanceloet. Even when the queen has returned to her husband at the request of the pope and Lanceloet has voluntarily gone into exile in Gaule, Walewein keeps urging Arthur to wage war on Lanceloet. Arthur’s realm is entrusted to Mordret and the king crosses the Channel to fight Lanceloet. The war reaches a climax when Lanceloet defeats and mortally wounds Walewein in a duel. On his way back to Logres, Arthur routs the Romans once more and then hears that Mordret has usurped power in his kingdom. Arthur prepares to fight his illegitimate son. In a dream, he sees himself thrown down from his high position on Fortune’s wheel. His demise is unavoidable. He kills Mordret in the final battle but receives a deadly wound as well. Arthur makes Girflet throw Excalibur into a lake, where a hand catches the sword before it touches the water. Mortally wounded, Arthur is taken to Avalon by Morgaine and her ladies. Three days later, Girflet finds his tomb. Lanceloet is informed and returns to Logres to defeat Mordret’s two sons. Like Guinevere, he dedicates his life to God. He becomes a hermit until angels carry his soul to heaven. Bohort buries Lanceloet next to Galehot. This translation, as it has been preserved in the Lancelot Compilation, consists of some 60,000 lines. There is no doubt that we only have the second half of the original text. In a fragment of 396 lines (Brussels, KBR, MS II 115–3) the translation for a section from the first half has come down to us (editions: Serrure 1861; Besamusca and Postma 1997, 116–37). It gives an episode from the Prose Charrette (S IV, 155/19– 174/3; M III, XXXVI, 1–XXXVII, 24; ed. Hutchings 1974, 1/1–42/4), describing how Lanceloet lifts the lid of a tomb in a churchyard, revealing that he is predestined to free the people imprisoned in Gorre, but is unable to approach a burning tomb. The latter adventure is reserved for the knight who will sit in the Perilous Seat at the Round Table. A voice from the burning tomb admonishes Lanceloet that his own sinfulness (the ‘luxurien’, lust, l. 223, of his relationship with the queen) and a similar sin his father committed (adultery) have rendered him unworthy of the Grail quest. This is a crucial episode in the Charrette section, since it reveals that although Lanceloet still is the best knight in the world, his sinfulness will become problematic when the Grail comes into play. This theme will return several times in the text before the actual Grail quest begins (Brandsma 1992, 100–4; 2010b, 182–95). A small sample will show how the second verse translator worked (cf. Besamusca 1985b, 309). After Lanceloet has opened the first tomb, the French text says (in the ß-version, which is closest to the translator’s source): et cil esgarde ens et voit le cors d’un chevalier tot armé et voit sor lui .I. escu d’or a une vermeille crois, et s’espee ert dalés lui. (M, XXXVII, 32)

The translation (in the Brussels fragment) gives the same information in rhymed couplets:

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Hi sach in ward ende hi vant daer Enen doden lichame daer naer Van enen doden riddere, gewapent doe Ende enen scilt op hem licgende toe Van goude met enen cruce roet. Ende sijn swerd lach bi hem al bloet. (Besamusca and Postma 1997, ll. 77–82) (He looked inside and he found there a dead body of a dead knight, in armour and with a shield lying upon him as well, of gold with a red cross. And his sword was lying near him uncovered.)

Although it takes six lines of verse to translate two prose lines, the information is the same, and apart from the rhyme words and some changes in the sequence of statements, the Dutch translator does not add anything. Besamusca has demonstrated by means of a full comparison of the fragment and the compilation version with the source text that, whereas the Lantsloot poet composed his rendition by the ‘paragraph’, the translator in the Lanceloet-section worked currente calamo, sentence by sentence (Besamusca 1985b; 1991b, 35–74; Brandsma 2003a). This means, for instance, that when the translator discovered an incorrect detail or error in his previous lines, he did not go back to correct the earlier lines but added a correction or remark in the lines he was currently working on. Besamusca (1985b) gives the example of the closed tomb. The translator has Lanceloet putting back the heavy lid, which causes a problem a little later when monks come to collect the corpse. The translator adds at this point that the body was already placed outside the tomb, where he could also have gone back and corrected the earlier passage in order to keep the tomb open. The Brussels fragment dates from 1320–5. The text is in a Brabantine dialect and was written by a scribe, called B by scholars, who also appears in the Lancelot Compilation. The layout resembles that of the compilation in having three columns of verse, but each column has 66 lines (where the compilation has 60 or 61 lines). This makes it less likely that it represents the lost first volume of the compilation. Its miseen-page resembles that of another fragment of the Lanceloet-section of this translation (The Hague, KB, 75 H 58), which also has three columns of 65 or 66 lines.11 This fragment, corresponding to the text on folio 73v, c, 28 – folio 74v, c, 55 in the compilation manuscript and based on the same Middle Dutch exemplar, may have belonged to the same codex as the Brussels fragment, although it was written by another – unknown – scribe, not by B. The single folio bears the number 44, which allowed Jan Willem Klein to reconstruct the set-up of the codex it belonged to (Klein 1997, 89–90). Given the regular number of columns (3) and lines (66) on each page, some 17,000 verses would have preceded those of the fragment, yet in the compilation Lanceloet the corresponding text starts at line 27,310. This indicates that the Hague fragment belonged to the second part of a two-volume codex, whereas the Brussels fragment is all that remains of its first volume. In this codex, the break between the volumes fell later in the Lanceloet narrative than in the compilation manuscript, where we are fortunate to be able to compare its first 5500 lines with corresponding fragments of

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Lantsloot and the prose translation (cf. Besamusca and Gerritsen 1992, 20). Since we have no indication of the relative position of the Brussels folio in the first volume, it is impossible to determine what this volume contained, although it is safe to assume it held the translation of the Charrette and even the whole Lancelot section of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. The translation is based on a manuscript that was related to the BN 122 group in the French manuscript tradition, one that oscillates between the long and short version (Besamusca 1991b, 15–34). Given the similarities between the fragments and the fact that both give an originally Flemish text in a Brabantine dialect, it seems probable that both this manuscript and the compilation manuscript came from the same – maybe Antwerp? – team of scribes, as Draak assumed (Draak 1976b; Klein 1997, 94–7). Van Oostrom has suggested that the two fragments belong to the dedication copy of the compilation that was to be presented to Gerard van Voorne (Oostrom 1992, 62). This would explain the slightly better quality of the parchment, the larger inner margins, and the tidier scribal work. The second verse translation follows the French prose far more closely than Lantsloot. Where the Lantsloot poet often inserts the familiar first person narrator to guide the audience in the complex narrative, this translator takes his cue from the original.12 For the transition from one narrative thread to the next, in the French organised by means of the ‘Or dist li contes’ formula (Kennedy 1986, 161–78, calls this a ‘formal switch’), the translator invents his own variant, featuring ‘davonture’ (the story, with the connotation of being a tale with many adventures). This formula is consistently used in Lanceloet, Queeste and Arturs doet. In the Lanceloet, the first three transitions/Or dist li contes-formulas are rendered like this: l. 425 l. 1055 l. 1271

Nu maect davonture cont (three-lines-high initial letter, blue) (Now the story makes known) Nu doet davonture verstaen (three-lines-high initial letter, red) (Now the story lets it be understood) Nu gewaget davonture das (three-lines-high initial letter, blue) (Now the story relates that)

As in the French text, the story narrates itself, an important feature in the construction of veracity and reliability in the French text and therefore also in this translation (Brandsma 2007b). This does, however, not mean that the first-person narrator is as absent in the translation as he is in the original. Just before a new strand starts with the ‘davonture’ phrase, ‘I’ or ‘we’ is quite often used to round off the previous chapter, in phrases like ‘Nu laten wi dese tale staen’ (Now we will let this tale be, l. 421) or ‘Nu sal ic van hare die tale … leggen neder’ (Now I will set down her story, ll. 1050–1 ), to give just the corresponding passages of the first two lines quoted above. The lines

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preceding the third example (l. 1271) show that sometimes the impersonal ‘davonture’ is used here as well, in combination with ‘we’: ‘Nu swiget davonture van desen / Ende vort sullen wi lesen …’ (Now the adventure speaks no more about them and to continue we will read [about], ll. 1267–8). This rather conspicuous combination of ‘ic’/’wi’ and ‘davonture’ is present in all three ‘core’ texts and also in a small fragment of the Arturs doet translation (Antwerp, Rijksarchief, Sint-Catharinakapittel en Sint-Catharinakerk Hoogstraten, MS nr. 2; cf. Croenen and Janssens 1994).13 Besamusca considered the combination a stylistic idiosyncrasy which convinced him that the three core texts were all made by one and the same translator (Besamusca 2003a, 47). There are, however, also arguments for the hypothesis that two poets were involved, one who created Lanceloet and Arturs doet and another responsible for the Queeste. Jozef Janssens found that in the Queeste the French original is often misunderstood and misrepresented (Janssens 1992, 33), an opinion supported by the current editor, Willem Kuiper.14 Kestemont’s analysis of the rhymes, which might shed light on this issue, actually complicates things even further, since it reveals a difference between Lanceloet–Queeste, on the one hand, and Arturs doet, on the other hand (Kestemont 2013a, 219–35). There is an addition of some 300 lines to the start of the Arturs doet translation in play here as well: the text begins with a new, almost prayer-like prologue, absent in the French original. Based on the first chapter of Hugh of Saint-Victor’s De Modo Orandi, it discusses the value of prayer, pious reflection and compunction, urging the reader to refrain from sin and trust in God’s omnipotence and mercy (Besamusca and Lie 1994; Besamusca 2003a, 48–51; Hogenbirk 2018). The ‘ic’ connects this text to the Arturs doet translation by asking forgiveness for the sins he has committed, in his life and in his writings (l. 291, ed. Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk IV, ll. 277–96) and then begins the narration of how Lanceloet and the queen rekindle their sinful relationship. This addition, based on a different kind of source, may prove helpful in learning more about the intentions, and perhaps also the identity, of the translator. Thus, as things stand at this moment in time (2020), the translation may be the work of one, two, or even three translators. Regardless of this, the threefold Flemish translation was already a cohesive whole when it came to the desk of the maker of the Lancelot Compilation. What he did with it will come to the fore in section 7. First, there are yet other translations to be discussed, those in prose. 6. Prose Translation(s): One, Two, or even Three? A codex from the second quarter of the fourteenth century contained a Middle Dutch prose translation of at least the final third of the French Lancelot. All that remains of this codex are three small fragments, some 400 lines in total (Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek, MS 96 A 7; Wezemaal, Pastorie Wezemaal, Archiv of the

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Sint-Martinuskerk, n.s.). The editors of the Wezemaal fragment describe the dialect as a mixture of Brabantine and Flemish, rather characteristic for Antwerp and Malines/ Mechelen (Minnen and Claassens 2005, 170). The full pages of the manuscript preserved in Rotterdam show two columns of 41 lines on each side of the leaf. These so-called ‘Rotterdam fragments’ were studied in great detail by Orlanda Lie (1987), who showed that this very faithful word-by-word translation was based on a redaction of the French original that differed from those underlying the two verse translations. So, all three translations were made independently. For one fragment, the prose translation can be compared to both verse translations, Lantsloot and Lanceloet, while the other two fragments have a parallel in the Lanceloet only. The comparison reveals that, apart from the obvious absence of rhyme, the wording of the prose is quite different. The prose translator worked at the level of words, where the Lanceloet poet focused on the rhyming couplet and the sentence, and the Lantsloot adapter based his rendition on the paragraph (Brandsma 2003a). A German prose translation, preserved in Cologne (Stadtarchiv, MS Best. 7020 (W*) 46) mentions in its colophon that it was based on a source in Flemish (‘inn flemische geschrieben’). In Chapter 8, this translation will be discussed in more detail. By comparing the Blankenheim text to the different variants of the French original and combining these results with the French sources from which the different Dutch translations derive, Lie (1991) was able to prove that the Blankenheim-redaction is based on a different French variant than those used for the three translations. This implies that there was a fourth Middle Dutch translation, of which no Middle Dutch traces have been discovered, so far. This is ghost translation number 1. Nor is this all, as Caers and Kestemont have mentioned in Chapter 1 in their discussion of Tilvis’s work (p. 16). There may have been another, fifth, translation, underlying the Heidelberg version of the Middle High German Prose Lancelot. Whether the Finnish scholar Pentti Tilvis was correct in recognising Middle Dutch word forms in the Heidelberg Lancelot and whether these were indeed caused by a Franconian rendition of a Dutch intermediary translation remains to be verified and investigated further. If there was such a Dutch text, it is ghost translation number 2. This issue is discussed further in Chapter 8. In their 2011 overview of the dating of Middle Dutch chivalric romances, Caers and Kestemont call the prose translation ‘one of the most fascinating yet hardest to date works’ (35) and then quote the communis opinio, as formulated by Brandsma (2003a, 205): It is generally assumed that the two rhymed versions preceded the prose version, although there is as yet no conclusive evidence for this. The three independent translations of the Old French prose Lancelot might therefore represent a gradual introduction of its literary innovations, such as the use of prose and the use of li contes as an impersonal narrator, into Middle Dutch literature.

Placing the three translations in a sequence of acculturation does justice to the way the Lantsloot translator has adapted the innovative French text to tell the story in a more

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traditional way, with a prominent narrator and in verse. The Lanceloet then, while still in verse, sticks more strongly to the French way of presenting the tale. The final stage would then be to take over the prose form as well and make a word-by-word translation. It does seem to make sense to see the prose form as a later development and the verse as conforming to the literary standard for Arthurian stories, as evidenced by Maerlant’s works. Where prose was sometimes used in religious texts or scientific treatises, in Middle Dutch Arthurian literature the prose translation of the Lancelot story is unique in using this form. The first of the two Rotterdam fragments describes how Walewein is invited by a damsel to take part in a tournament and does so the next day. During the fighting a red knight (Hestor incognito) appears and attacks Walewein’s companions just when they are taking a pause. Lie (1987, 42 and passim) calls this episode the ‘The Chastel del Moulin episode’; it corresponds to lines 3012–14 of the verse translation in the compilation (Besamusca and Postma 1997). First the French text (the ‘short’ version in Sommer, cf. Lie 1987, 39–69) will be quoted, then the Dutch prose (with Lie’s translation) and then the corresponding lines from Lanceloet, the verse translation in the Lancelot Compilation. … et il sen uait ades encontre chiaus qui mesires Gauuain auoit aidies . Si lor lasse corre le cheual . et abat le premier que il encontre et puis le secont & puis [le tiers] & le quart . ne nus ne lencontre que moult ne le redoute . Et cil qui sont deuers monseignour Gauuain en sont si esbahi ca poi quil ne senfuient . Lors dient les dames qui sont as fenestres que li vermauls cheualiers fa[i]soit tant darmes que tout uaincoit le tornoiement . Et tant que mesires Gauuain en sot les noueles . qui sestoit ales esuenter dehors le tornoiement . Si li dist vns valles . que laiens a le meillor cheualier quil onques veist . (S IV, 337/35–42; cf. M II, LXV, 15) Doe voer die rode ridder jegen die gene daer mijn here Walewein mede was. Ende doe reet hi onder hen met sinen orse ende stac den eersten of die hi ontmoette, ende den andren also, ende daer na den derden. Ende nieman en was daer hine ontsagene. Ende mijns heren Waleweins gesellen die waren so versaget dat sie welna gevloen waren. Doe seiden die vrouwen die ten venstren lagen van den castele dat die rode riddre al verwonne. Doe was mijn here Walewein buten gevaren hem vercoelen. Ende doe quam een garsoen die hem seide dat daer ware een roet riddre, die beste van alder werelt. (Rotterdam, ed. and tr. Lie (1987), 196–9, ll. 67–75) (Then the red knight charged against those in whose company Gauvain was. And he charged into them with his horse and unhorsed the first whom he encountered and then the second and then the third. And there was no one who did not fear him. And the companions of my lord Gauvain were so frightened that they almost fled. Then the ladies who were leaning out of the windows of the castle said that the red knight would be the victor of all. In the meantime my lord Gauvain had gone outside to cool off. And then a page came who informed him that a red knight, the best in the world, was there.)

Lancelot Compilation (Besamusca and Postma 1997), ll. 3179–201:

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Ende hi stac vanden perde vromelike Die irst in sijn gemoet quam daer, Den andren ende den derden daer naer, So datten alle diene saegen Sere duchten ende ontsagen. Ende die waren an Waleweins side, Worden gesconfiert tien tide, Dat luttel goet gebrac van dien Sine hadden hem geset an tflien, So dattie joncfrouwen die laegen Ten venstren ende den tornoy saegen, Den roeden riddre groeten prijs leiden an Ende seiden dat hi den tornoy verwan, So dat mijn here Walewein horde Van desen vrouwen een deel die worde, Die een deel uten tornoye was gevaren Om hem te vercoelne tuwaren, So dat hem een knape seide dare Dat inden tornoy een ridder ware, Dien besten dien hi oyt hadde gesien.

Although it cannot be ruled out that the readings of the French original differed for the two translations, it is intriguing to note that the prose version uses 107 words and the verse 140, a difference of 33 words, or 31 per cent of the total number of words in the prose. In the literal translation of the verse text that follows below, material that is ‘extra’ in comparison to the prose redaction is given in italics: And he rode towards those to whom my lord Walewein belonged as well and attacked them bravely and powerfully threw of his horse the first person he met there, and the second and then the third, so that everyone who saw him feared him and was afraid of him. And those who were on Walewein’s side were scared at the time and it would not have taken much more or they would have started to flee, in such manner that the damsels who were at the windows watching the tournament, praised the red knight highly and said he was winning the tournament, in such manner that my lord Walewein heard some of the words of the women when he had left the tournament to cool himself off, in truth, and then a page told him that in the tournament there was a knight, the best he had ever seen.

The italics are only a rough indication of the difference between the two texts, but they do reveal how new material is inserted into the narrative to make the lines fit and create rhymes. In content, however, the only significant addition is that Walewein hears the damsels praising the red knight.15 No mention of this is made in the prose text. The word order of the French text is often still recognisable in the Dutch prose, and far less so in the verse translation. In the text of the second fragment, which was called the ‘Virgin Love Covenant Episode’ by Lie (1987, 73), Lanceloet speaks with the damsel who healed him from poisoning. He has promised to be her knight but is kept from loving her by his loyalty to the queen. This passage is also found in the second translation (compilation text: Brandsma 1992, ll. 12,800–13,007).

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The Wezemaal fragment, finally, is damaged in such a way that we only have one of the two columns on both sides of the single leaf. The two separate passages describe the preparations for the war against Claudas (Arthur insists on accompanying Lanceloet to the continent, and a little later, the sending of a messenger to Frolle). The two passages correspond to Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk II, ll. 34,867–90 and ll. 34,958– 96, respectively. Just three fragments of the prose translation yield a mountain of questions and unresolved issues with regard to the sequence of translations, the two ghost texts, and the uniqueness of the prose format. The Dutch situation of perhaps five independent translations does, however, make abundantly clear how popular the story of Lancelot was. Five Old French manuscripts must have made their way to the Low Countries and somehow neither these originals nor the translations they prompted seem to have encountered each other in a significant way. This makes it all the more interesting that, in contrast to these isolated texts and manuscripts, we will discuss, in sections 7 and 8, Middle Dutch Arthurian texts that have been brought together and combined into two larger works, the Lancelot Compilation and the Merlin Cycle, two text collections that are moreover connected to each other in many ways. 7. The Lancelot Compilation: An Arthurian Treasure As the introduction to Chapter 6 explained, it is quite remarkable how strongly Middle Dutch authors adhered to the Arthurian story mode and material in their own productions. Together with the actual translations from the French (cf. Chapter 5) this leads to a fairly homogeneous corpus of Middle Dutch verse romances, with the same setting (Arthur’s ambulant court), scenarios and rules of play, and a cast of characters with quite specific traits and behaviour. The similarities, intertextual connections (cf. Besamusca 1993) and homogeneity are important conditions that allowed the maker of the Lancelot Compilation to bring together, in a coherent story with one timeline, an existing translation of the prose cycle (Lanceloet–Queeste–Arturs doet), translations/adaptations like the Wrake van Ragisel and Perchevael and indigenous texts like Moriaen, Walewein ende Keye and Ridder metter mouwen. This was an ambitious and complex project, of which we probably do not have the final result, but rather a ‘work in progress’ version. While Chapter 3 has described The Hague, KB, MS 129 A 10 as an Arthurian manuscript in some detail, here we will focus on ‘the making of’ and discuss the key questions (How?, Who? and Why?) in recent compilation studies. As has been explained in Chapter 3, MS 129 A 10 is the last volume of what may have been a two-volume codex. In the prologue to this volume, the narrator/compiler asks God’s assistance and refers to the wonderful stories he has presented earlier: God die makere es alre dinc Dat nie was of lijf ontfinc,

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FRANK BRANDSMA Die moet mi helpen in derre noet. Maria, moeder maget goet, Staet mi bi in allen dingen, So dat ic te poente volbringen Moete dit boec na sijn recht. Hier voren hebbic u verplecht Van vele scoenre avonturen, Mar wildi vort int lesen duren, Ghi sult nu horen scone die jeesten, Bede van rouwen ende van feesten, Van ridderscape groete daet, Van selsieneheden menich baraet, Die dese partie hevet in. Nu hort hier int begin. (Besamusca and Postma 1997, ll. 1–16)

(God, who is the creator of all things that ever were or were given life, must help me in my heavy task. Mary, beneficent Virgin mother, help me in all things, that I may bring this book to an end properly. Before this I have told you many beautiful adventures, but if you will continue reading, you will hear beautiful stories, both sad and joyful, of many chivalrous deeds, [you will hear] many entertaining stories of astonishing things, which this section contains. Now hear its beginning.) (tr. Brandsma 2007b, 131)

The remaining volume starts with the final third of the Lanceloet (cf. the summary in section 5). The story of chivalrous deeds and astonishing things takes 241 folios in the manuscript, made of parchment of poor quality, which gives it the impression of a cheap working copy, rather than a well-made dedication copy. The compiler has combined the existing Flemish verse translation of c.1280 (cf. section 5) with no less than seven originally independent, episodic Arthurian texts in an intriguing process of rewriting and insertion. The great advantage of the ‘work in progress’ state of the manuscript is that it still reveals many traces of the compiler’s activities. Folios have been moved to another place in the codex and passages have been added to connect texts and quires to one another. The presence or absence of chapter headings is revealing and so are the distribution of the scribal hands and the activities of the contemporaneous corrector (cf. Chapter 3). Codicological research has been the most productive and reliable tool in discovering the phases in the making of the compilation. Once again, Maartje Draak (cf. section 4) led the way. Her 1954 plea to study the Lancelot texts contained as an appendix a codicological overview of MS 129 A 10 (Draak 1954, 32–46). At the time, as a footnote reveals, she had already spotted the irregularities in the manuscript around folio 99, yet it took until 1985 before she put forward in print her ideas about the role this folio played in the compilation process (Draak 1985). In her article, Draak showed that there must have been several phases in the construction of the text collection. In her footsteps, codicologist Jan Willem Klein was able to discover more about its genesis (Klein 1997). This research is ongoing (cf. Smith 2016c) but Klein’s

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description still constitutes the point of reference and will form the basis for the description of the making of the compilation here. The Lancelot codex has quires of five folios as its building blocks. With three columns of 60/61 lines per page, a quinio can hold 3600 to 3660 lines of verse. The manuscript in its current form has 26 quires, but not all of these are regular quinios. Most of the regular quires are found in the Lanceloet, Queeste and Arturs doet sections, which led Klein to assume that the original plan was a manuscript with only these texts (with the missing part of the Lanceloet filling the first, now lost, volume). There were five scribes involved (hands A–E), of whom scribe B did most of the work by far. B probably was the ‘work leader’ (Klein 1997, 100), helping out and checking on the other four scribes. Whether he was also the actual compiler, the architect of the whole collection, is a point of contention, to be discussed later. While scribes A–D were working on the Lanceloet, B may have already been copying the Queeste and Arturs doet quires. At the latest during the writing down of the Queeste, the plan for the insertion of additional texts must have come up, since this romance contains references forward (to the Wrake van Ragisel) and backwards (to the Perchevael) that only work when the texts referred to are part of the whole.16 At least two texts were to be added, therefore, and the easiest way to do this was to insert complete quires, preferably quinios, into the stack of quires in the making. After ten regular quinios, the Lanceloet copy was almost finished. What remained to be copied did not amount to 3600 lines and would not fill a complete quinio. In the first quinio of the Queeste, scribe B therefore did not start on the first folio but left three folios and one column open. The remaining Lanceloet verses would fit in this left-open space. In the final page of quinio X, folio 98v, the scribe (E) wrote more lines than the usual 60 or 61 per column.17 He thus succeeded in ending the quire at the point where the current narrative thread could be tied off: the knights Hestor and Perchevael are on the road again after some adventures in their Lanceloet quest. The first lines on the next leaf, of a new quire, could introduce a new narrative thread (cf. section 5), but it was now also possible to insert one or more quires with new text. All of this indicates that after folio 98 the insertion of an extra romance was made possible. A booklet of two quires, containing the compiler’s adaptation of the Perchevael, was to be placed after quinio X. After the two new quires, the Lanceloet would be taken up again, filling the quinio with the beginning of the Queeste. The stack of quires on the work table could thus be divided into ten Lanceloet quires to the left, and, to the right, the Queeste (and Arturs doet) quires, with the first pages left blank to accommodate the final Lanceloet section. Viewed codicologically, placing the Perchevael quires on the right-hand stack with the left-hand stack placed on top, would have resulted in a regular codex, once the remaining Lanceloet section was copied on the blank pages of the Queeste quire. This is, however, not the current state of affairs in the manuscript where, after folio 98, the Lanceloet continues on a single leaf, glued to quire X, and then breaks off. In

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the bottom margin of folio 99v, scribe B wrote the first line of the quire that was to follow. The first page of the next quire (folio 100r), however, gives the beginning of the Perchevael. It is folio 99r that proved the key to solving this riddle: Draak discovered that this is a palimpsest. The first two columns have been almost completely scraped clean, apart from the final verses of column b, which belong to the Lanceloet. New text of the compiler’s making was written on the cleaned surface, but by means of UV-light, Draak was able to read the underlying verses and found that these were the final 120 lines of the Perchevael. These very lines now appear on folio 115, the final leaf of the Perchevael, which has an irregular layout (fewer lines of verse and two columns instead of three). So, folio 99 originally had a quite different place in the manuscript: it was the leaf on which the Perchevael ended and the Lanceloet recommenced. The chapter heading in the bottom margin (‘Hoe Lanceloet weder in sinen sin quam’; How Lancelot came to his senses again) and the lines from the bottom of column b onwards clearly belong to that text. Thus, in the first phase of the compilation’s making, the entire Perchevael was placed within the Lanceloet narrative. Now, the codex was ready to undergo further steps in the production process: Klein suggests that the first version was provided with coloured initials, paragraph signs and penwork decoration (Klein 1997, 109). This was phase 1 in the making of the compilation. Phase 2 began with the placement of folio 99 in its current position. The final two lines of folio 98v were erased and replaced by four lines, linking to a new episode of the compiler’s making that replaces the Perchevael ending in columns a and b of folio 99r. This new episode filled the two erased and now blank columns with a description of how Perchevael and Hestor continued their Lanceloet quest, spent the night with a hospitable hermit and were informed that half a year ago the still quite insane Lanceloet stayed nearby (Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk II, ll. 36,598–704). A formal switch then brings Lanceloet’s narrative thread back to the fore, in the original Lanceloet lines of folio 99 (ll. 36,705–947). The result was that the Lanceloet narrative continued and was brought to an end on three more leaves (that have now disappeared from the codex) and that only then the Perchevael started. This romance has thus been moved from a position within the Lanceloet to one right after that text. There are indications that the Perchevael has been reworked at this stage, from a two quinio booklet to a ternio – with a shortened text – and a quinio. Folio 115, with its irregular layout, was made to replace folio 99 as the final Perchevael leaf. The resulting Lanceloet– Perchevael–Queeste–Arturs doet set went to the corrector (cf. Chapter 3), who is absent in the other six inserted texts in the preserved version of the compilation. That the Queeste and Arturs doet (up to folio 230) show the corrector’s hand, proves that both texts were already written at this moment in time. They formed, to refer to the ‘visual’ reconstruction given above, the bottom half of the righthand stack on the compiler’s work table. What made Phase 2 necessary? Klein focuses on the codicological information the codex provides and has no answer here. The explanation may lie in the contents rather

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than the quires. It was quite ambitious to try to insert a complete romance with its own interlace structure (narrative threads of Perchevael, Walewein and a number of other knights on a Walewein quest are active; the formal switches between them follow the Lanceloet format, cf. Brandsma 1992, 176) into the interlaced narrative of the final Lanceloet section. Where this text does have its large ‘chapters’, with court scenes concluding phases of diverging and then converging narrative threads, the opening forced on the compiler by the quire set-up of the Lanceloet and Queeste did not correspond to such a major dividing line or court scene. The interlaced narrative is in full swing, with Lanceloet roaming around in a state of madness (caused by having been caught in Pelles’s daughter’s bed by the queen) and with Lionel, Bohort and the Hestor–Perchevael team out on a quest for him. Four narrative threads are in play when the entire Perchevael narrative is inserted. In addition, the compiler added a Lanceloet episode and a Hestor adventure of his own making to the Perchevael storyline.18 This was a daring feat: to pick up characters/narrative threads from the preceding Lanceloet story meant that the inserted romance was tightly woven into the larger interlace structure. The use of formal switches of the Lanceloet format in the Perchevael adaptation also indicates that the inserted narrative was to resemble the Lanceloet to the point of indistinguishability. This certainly works on the formal, look-a-like, level, but the compiler overplayed his hand, since the personal status of the Lanceloet character in the added Perchevael episode does not match his status in the Lanceloet. In modern terms: there is a continuity error. Lanceloet was still quite insane when his thread was closed off in the Lanceloet, yet now he appears compos mentis and fighting fit in the compiler’s interpolation, defeating a number of Round Table knights incognito, yet quite recognisable. His name is given in l. 4052 (Oppenhuis de Jong 2003). Lanceloet’s recovery will be described only later in the narrative, as the chapter heading on folio 99, quoted above, shows. The part of the Lanceloet that first was to follow the Perchevael reveals the continuity error, since it immediately starts with a description of Lancelot’s madness (Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk II, ll. 36,705–7). Perhaps the chapter title is evidence for the compiler/scribe B’s awareness of this issue. The discovery of the continuity error may well have been a reason for the compiler to abandon Phase 1 and move to Phase 2.19 The Hestor episode is less problematic in this respect, even though Hestor’s situation (captive) differs from his status at the end of folio 98 (on the road with Perchevael).20 More things went wrong in this stage, since the final three Lanceloet folios never seem to have made it (back) into the codex. Their loss is all the more unfortunate, since references to certain episodes that are now absent from the texts as we have them indicate that the compiler added some more material to the translation, for instance sections about Perchevael and Aglovael recovering the ancestral land they lost, and about Lancelot’s eventual return to Arthur’s court.21 Although Phase 2 ended with a four-text codex that underwent correction, this was not to be the final product. The reference forward to the Wrake in the Queeste

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indicates that this text was still to be added, and there are codicological similarities between the new ternio of Perchevael (present in the Phase 2 product and ‘corrected’) and the Moriaen that suggest that these texts were copied at the same time. The absence of corrections in the Moriaen shows that this text was not yet inserted in Phase 2. Oppenhuis de Jong has argued that the evident sanity of the Lanceloet character in Moriaen requires the hero’s recovery to be narrated before this story starts (Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 182–6). This was already achieved in Phase 2, where the Lanceloet ending preceded the Perchevael, so after this phase Moriaen could follow Perchevael straight away. This is now indeed the case, even though the first two folios of the Moriaen have accidentally been bound in reverse order into the codex. The last lines of folio 115 connect the final court feast of the Perchevael, from which the titular hero was absent, to the initial court scene of Moriaen, which describes the arrival at court of a knight sent by Perchevael. This leads to a quest in which Walewein and Lanceloet encounter the Moorish knight Moriaen (cf. Chapter 6). Moriaen ends again in a court scene, which connects to the court scene at the beginning of the Queeste. From the original quinio that was to contain the Lanceloet ending and Queeste beginning, only seven Queeste leaves remained after the Phase 2 operation. These leaves were now combined with three Moriaen folios to form a new quinio (number XIV). Simon Smith (2016c) has recently argued that initially the romance of the Ridder metter mouwen was meant to precede the Queeste. In the remaining phase(s), however, after Moriaen was connected to the Queeste, the court scene of the Wrake van Ragisel was ‘clicked’ onto the Queeste ending, as planned already in Phase 1. After this operation, there are two possibilities: 1. Walewein ende Keye followed the Wrake. This means that its current follow-up (the one-quire-romance of the Ridder metter mouwen) was inserted later. 2. The Ridder metter mouwen followed the Wrake and was in turn followed by the quaternio plus two folios of Walewein ende Keye. In any case, the codex now has the sequence Wrake–Ridder metter mouwen–Walewein ende Keye, followed by a quinio (and some extra leaves) with the texts of Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet and Torec. After that, we are back to the regular quinios of Arturs doet. The whole compilation, notwithstanding the trial-and-error complexity of its making, looks like a coherent and consistent narrative of Arthur’s time. The apparent cohesion arises from what Povl Skårup (1994, 78–80) has called ‘signaux cycliques’: the texts in the manuscript are made to look alike, and therefore seem to belong naturally together. There is no difference in form (rhymed couplets) or layout (with the exception of the initials) between the component texts, and the interlace structure features strongly in all of them. This is, next to the quire-making-and-shuffling, the

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area where the compiler was most active. As the few remaining fragments of original versions of four inserted romances show, these texts did not have the interlace format: there were no transitional formulas to indicate the move from one narrative thread to the next and sometimes the story consisted of only one narrative thread. By adding the formulas where possible and useful (or sometimes at ‘fake’ transitions, where a narrated thread is continued) and by adding episodes of his own making, opened and closed with transitional formulas, the compiler made all of the texts look the same.22 Even the characteristic combination of ‘ic’ and ‘davonture’ in the formal switches (as discussed in section 5) returns time and again. The Melions thread in Torec (cf. Chapter 5) and the Lanceloet episode in Moriaen (cf. Chapter 6) are examples of episodes the compiler wove into the narrative. Even more helpful to the cyclification process was the standard court scene at the beginning and the end of episodic Arthurian romances. The insertion-by-court-scene of Moriaen after Perchevael was already mentioned above. This method allowed the compiler to virtually merge the ending of text A with the beginning of text B, suggesting continuity in the story of King Arthur and his knights. At the end of Moriaen, Walewein, Perchevael and Lanceloet hurry back to Arthur’s court, to be in time for the Pentecost meeting, where – at the beginning of the Queeste – Galaad will arrive. This method of insertion by court scene/quire became the standard procedure for the rest of the compilation process (Brandsma 2000b). The other episodic texts may all have been pre-prepared after Phase 2 as almost ready-made quires with court scenes at both beginning and end. This allowed for insertion at different points. Other factors came into play there. Apart from Lanceloet’s recovery mentioned above, the prime reason for inserting Moriaen before the Queeste is that Perchevael plays an important role in this text and does not survive the Grail quest. As mentioned above, the inclusion of the Ridder metter mouwen may only have been considered and executed as the final action in the compilation. Although seemingly safe, the click-in-place method has its risks, since the continuity of the narrative between one court scene and the next could turn up awkward elements. Comparable to Lanceloet’s unexpected sanity in Perchevael are the resurrection of Perchevael in the Ridder metter mouwen and that of King Baudemagus in the Wrake van Ragisel (Besamusca 2003a, 174). The latter inconsistency is quite ironic, since Baudemagus is killed by Walewein in the Queeste and in the following Wrake welcomes Walewein to his court. Here again, we sometimes see the compiler discover an inconsistency and repair it, while others went undetected. At the end of Walewein ende Keye, Keye is banished from court because of his atrocious behaviour (cf. Chapter 6). The next text, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, however, features Arthur’s seneschal prominently in an unsuccessful first attempt to accomplish an adventure advertised by a damsel. Right after the beginning of the story, the compiler has inserted an explanation for Keye’s unexpected return: ‘Earlier the

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previous morning – that is before the damsel had arrived – Keye had come to the court, for you have just heard how unwelcome he had made himself there. Now he was reconciled, of that you may be sure, for his lady the queen had restored his peace and friendship with the king and Walewein. So he was once again at court …’ (Johnson and Claassens 2003, ll. 79–87). It is probably no coincidence that this reparation appears so close at the beginning of the text; it still belongs to the initial court scene connecting the two texts. The complex process of compilation will no doubt continue to keep Arthurians busy in the years to come, but for the purpose of this chapter and book, it is preferable to leave the ‘how?’ behind and turn to the ‘who?’ and ‘why?’ questions. As to the person(s) in play, we are fortunate that a note in red ink on the final leaf reveals who owned the manuscript. Folio 238r states ‘hier indet boec van lancelote dat heren lodewijcs es van velthem’ (here ends the book of Lancelot which belongs to Sir Lodewijk van Velthem).23 Lodewijk was a priest and author, living from c.1270 to at least 1327 in Brabant and Flanders. His ‘last name’ refers to a small village near Louvain. Velthem, as he is commonly called, wrote a continuation to Maerlant’s Graal–Merlijn (more about this in the next section) and added a fourth and fifth ‘Partie’ (part, section) to Maerlant’s world history, the Spiegel historiael (Mirror of history), bringing the report of current affairs in the world up to 1317. As author, Velthem has already featured prominently in Chapter 4. In the making of the compilation, several roles have been assigned to Velthem (Biemans 2009, 234–6, 256; Kestemont 2013a, 215). Apart from owning the manuscript, he may have been the compiler and/or scribe B (whose hand executed the compiler’s additions and changes) or the corrector (whose hand is quite different from B’s and the other scribes). Reading aloud from the manuscript (for which the corrector’s interventions prepared the manuscript) could also have been a functional role of the manuscript’s owner, especially since this is a working copy, rather than a luxury exemplar. The low status of the manuscript and the corrector’s annotations actually made Jos Biemans suggest that Velthem, who probably was not a professional scribe like B, was the corrector and that his own hand is therefore visible in the manuscript. In Biemans’s view (2005; cf. also Gerritsen 1992) the corrector’s changes are an attempt to create a different kind of medieval verse, more prose-like. This would be in line with Velthem’s activities as author/translator, of course, but only explains part of what the corrector is doing. Most of his marginal and other notes indicate where a sentence begins, where a character starts speaking in a dialogue, and all of these are still best understood as facilitating the oral performance of the story (Gerritsen 1976; Brandsma 2000a; 2013; forthcoming). The corrector even works with signals such as dots in the margin, which are useful for the reading eye as signposts for new sentences, but do not make much sense with regard to the idea of new forms of versification. Still, both explanations of the corrector’s activities are by no means mutually exclusive. They go together quite

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well, especially when we see the manuscript as Velthem’s personal copy which he used when he read aloud to an audience. A personal copy would also provide the material for Velthem’s stylistic experiments. The last word has by no means been said in this matter, especially since other scholars seem more and more convinced that Velthem was the compiler. Hogenbirk (2009b) and Kestemont (2013a) are the most recent contributions to the debate and provide new perspectives. Whereas codicological arguments were predominant in discovering how the compilation was made, the identification of the compiler relies on stylistic analysis and the assumption that an author is identifiable by his or her personal style. For medieval texts such as the compilation, the way rhymes are constructed, the preference for favourite line fillers and other formulas as well as high frequency words and specific turns of phrase may reveal who the author is, provided there is a ‘signed’ text by this author, where his authorship is established beyond any doubt. In the footsteps of scholars like Te Winkel (1881), Franck (1901) and especially Besamusca (1991b), Hogenbirk (2009b) first isolated the verses that may be ascribed to the compiler (e.g. inserted episodes, such as the Hestor–Perchevael adventures mentioned above, or passages connecting the inserted texts) and then compared this corpus to other Middle Dutch works, using the CD-rom Middelnederlands (1998) which gives digital editions (more or less up to modern standards) and is easily searchable. Her analysis of personal favourites at word level showed that there are a few words (adverbs like ‘nu’ (now) and ‘saen’ (right away) that the compiler used often, and so did Velthem. When it comes to phrases such as ‘wet vorwaer’ (know for sure) or ‘sijt seker das’ (rest assured) a similar pattern came to the fore: both the compiler and Velthem used three of these phrases significantly more often than other authors (or anonymous ones) did in similar texts. A preference for a specific rhyming couplet (‘Godweet’ : ‘gereet’) was another feature that Velthem and the compiler had in common, as well as quite specific longer formulas such as those closing a narrative thread or describing how a character reveals his name: ‘ic beent, X’ (it’s me, X). All of these results pointed to Velthem’s work as stylistically closer to the compiler’s texts than any other Middle Dutch text/author. Still, as Hogenbirk rightly concluded, the data does not with absolute certainty make Velthem’s work state ‘ic beent’ (it’s me), the compiler. In a way, Hogenbirk’s analysis and method are halfway between ‘old school’ textual analysis and new methods in digital humanities. Kestemont goes all the way in this and uses stylometric analysis of rhymes in particular for author recognition in the whole corpus of Middle Dutch narrative texts. One of the chapters of his inspiring dissertation deals with the compilation (Kestemont 2013a, 211–42). His analysis reveals significant differences between, on the one hand, those texts in the compilation that the compiler most probably left untouched (the Lanceloet–Queeste–Arturs doet trilogy, based on an existing translation, and Moriaen) and, on the other hand, the inserted romances prepared/formatted for inclusion in the cycle (cf. Kestemont 2013a,

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220). The interpolated romances as a whole (Moriaen excepted; and Kestemont does not isolate specific sections like Hogenbirk did) turn out to resemble Velthem’s work far more than the other parts of the compilation. In his conclusion, Kestemont states between parentheses that the compiler most probably is Velthem (242). So, both Hogenbirk and Kestemont support the identification of the compiler with the author of parts IV and V of the Spiegel historiael , as well as the Merlin Continuation. The latter text is also close in time (finished in 1327) with the compilation manuscript (dated around 1325), owned by Velthem. His presence in the literary context from which the compilation emerged is undeniable, and, if both Biemans and Hogenbirk/Kestemont are on the right track, quite a few of the possible roles are played by Velthem: owner, compiler, corrector and possibly also performer. Like the ‘how?’ and ‘who?’ questions discussed so far, the third and final issue in this section has been subject to much deliberation, and here too an absolute and final answer is hard to come by. Why was the compilation made? The compiler has brought together almost all the Middle Dutch Arthurian romances of his time. As far as we know, only two romances (Ferguut and Walewein, cf. Chapters 5 and 6) have not been included in the compilation. The chronological set-up of the Lanceloet–Queeste– Arturs doet trilogy and its implicit claim to tell the complete (his)story of Arthur’s times invited readers of separate romances to consider how to position that text within the larger narrative (Koekman 1991). The compiler provided an answer to that question, opening up the narrative between Lanceloet and Queeste and between Queeste and Arturs doet in order to place the separate stories on a timeline. He created a coherent cycle in which the seven inserted texts found their place within the framework of the trilogy. For an audience interested in Arthurian stories, the compilation is an attractive omnibus, or as Caers and Kestemont call it in Chapter 1, a ‘grand narrative’ (p. 24). The manuscript as we have it, with the corrector’s signposting to facilitate oral performance, seems the perfect book for evening after evening of enjoyable adventures and more serious tales, like the Queeste and Arturs doet. Given Van Oostrom’s ideas about the educational function of Arthurian romance, a didactic purpose is also imaginable, especially in combination with Velthem’s Merlin Continuation (section 8). Episodes like the ‘Chamber of Wisdom’ in Torec (cf. Chapter 5) cater perfectly to educational purposes. Some of the additions to the framework may provide clues to a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the compilation process. The compiler’s prologue to the Moriaen, for instance, refers to the idea that all good Arthurian stories should be included in the ‘Lancelot’. The text says: Ic wane die gene die Lancelote maecte, Dat hem in sijn dichten vaecte, Dat hi vergat ende achterliet Van Moriane dat scone bediet. (Finet-Van der Schaaf 2009, ll. 23–6) (I ween that he who made the tale of Lancelot and set it in rhyme forgot, and was heedless of, the fair adventure of Morien.) (Weston 1901, 18)

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The ‘forgetfulness’ is remedied many times over in the compilation, since this argument also applies to the other six inserted texts, and even to the minor episodes the compiler has woven into his narrative. These episodes have mostly been discussed in Chapters 5 and 6 on the individual romances, but one telling example will be analysed here, since it hints at other aspects of the compiler’s motivation. Within the Wrake text, in which Walewein’s lover Ydeine turns out to be easily seduced by another knight, a brief episode is added under the intriguing title ‘Hoe Walewein wilde weten vrouwen gepens’ (How Walewein wanted to know the thoughts of women).24 The exemplary lover Walewein finds out that his girlfriend is not as faithful as he would like her to be. He is changed into a charming dwarf and in this disguise goes to Arthur’s court to test Ydeine’s loyalty. She is smitten with the little man and invites him to have a game of chess. The person who wins the game will be allowed to do with the loser what he or she wants. The dwarf wins and ends up in Ydeine’s bed that night. They have intercourse four times and he even makes Ydeine give him a ring she received as a gift from Walewein. The ring will later provide proof of her infidelity. This addition, cleverly woven into the Wrake-story at a point where Walewein is bound to worry about this issue, reveals a thematic strand of an antifeminist nature. A similar attitude is discernible in Velthem’s Merlin Continuation, as will be discussed in section 8. The episode also demonstrates how the compiler added more to the text collection than just complete romances. He has also inserted smaller episodes, sometimes based on existing material (in this particular episode a French source is mentioned), sometimes probably of his own making. The episodes might be inserted within the romances or tacked onto their endings or beginnings. Following the Wrake, there are two more episodes, both again connected to female characters, but now featuring Lanceloet rather than Walewein. In the first of these, the fidelity test of the mantle mentioned in the main narrative is rounded off by showing Lanceloet’s reaction to the queen’s disgrace in the mantle test: at first furious and later attenuated (since few people have remarked on her experience). The second episode describes how Lanceloet, Bohort and Dodineel rescue a damsel, whose long hair has been tied into a tree as punishment for helping Lionel escape. It is followed by a link to the next story, the Ridder metter mouwen (Besamusca 2003a, 103–5). Enriching the storyline with more Arthurian material is what the compiler seems to do whenever feasible, but is there a guiding idea behind this? The episodes just discussed concern both Walewein and Lanceloet and the companionship and (in general) friendly competition between these two leading knights has been considered as being key to the organisation of the compilation. In his 1963 study of the Wrake, W. P. Gerritsen suggested that the compiler may have wanted to alternate the leading roles of Lanceloet and Walewein in his additions to the cycle.25 The two Lanceloet episodes added to the Wrake are a good example of this, since they follow on from a romance in which Walewein is the main protagonist. The Wrake itself followed on

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from the Queeste in which Lanceloet plays a far more prominent role than Walewein. After the Wrake, the Ridder metter mouwen (inserted later) gives neither of the two knights a leading role, but after that Walewein is the main man again in Walewein ende Keye, whereas Lanceloet takes the lead in the next text at first, Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, which then has Walewein rescuing his friend (cf. Chapter 6). In general, the inserted romances paint a more favourable picture of Walewein. This is a general tendency in non-French Arthuriana, in contrast to the devaluation of Gauvain in the French prose texts (Besamusca and Quinlan 2012, 198–206; Busby 1980). Although it does not explain everything, the Lanceloet–Walewein alternation works as a kind of super-interlace, on the level of episodes/romances rather than narrative threads, and as such connects to another, possibly motivational, aspect of the compiler’s work: the all-pervading use of the narrative technique of interlace and its most prominent feature, the narrative switch. By inserting these transitional formulas, and sometimes even complete narrative threads (like that of Melions in Torec, cf. Chapter 5) in the inserted romances the compiler has given all the texts the same outlook. At some points, the formula is used even when there is no actual switch to another thread (‘fake’ transitions, see above). The texts all seem to look alike and thus give the impression of belonging together as one large coherent story. The clicking-in-place of the romances by means of court scenes is based on the same interlace principle and thus also strengthens the idea of cohesion. For a storymaker and connector like the compiler, the versatility of the narrative technique may have been a challenge and a pleasure in itself. Even when his narrative toolkit works mainly on the surface or outer edges of the story – there is no safeguard against internal inconsistencies, which do occur, as mentioned above – it does the job of elegantly turning texts of quite diverse origin into a cycle. As the first phases of the compilation’s making, as well as, for instance, the flawless insertion of the ‘Vrouwen Gepens’ episode into the Wrake indicate, the compiler’s ambitions went even further, but the ‘tour de force’ of completely intertwining narratives (Lanceloet and Perchevael) turned out to be over-ambitious. Thus, in the final phase, resulting in the manuscript as it is now, the compiler settled for looks rather than complexity, for what could perhaps be called window-dressing, yet it yielded a complete and functional grand narrative. Like the French Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu, the compilation leads its audience from an Arthurian world in which love is the key inspirational factor to one where worldly love is condemned and finally even causes the downfall of Arthur’s kingdom. In this regard, the five texts inserted after the Queeste are in a somewhat ambivalent position.26 Four of the five (the exception being Walewein ende Keye) originated as verse tales of love and adventure in the tradition of Chrétien and his epigones, yet are here placed after a recalibration of the courtly ideology within the Grail quest. Apart from little ‘tweaks’, such as inserting the misogynistic episode on what motivates women in the Wrake (discussed above), the compiler has chosen not to change the

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theme of the stories: courtly love and personal reputation ‘return’ as the main motivations of the protagonists. This even leads to an inconsistency: Lanceloet has sworn to end his relationship with the Queen in the Queeste and has done penance to atone for his sins, but in Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet that very relationship is presented as the reason why Lanceloet cannot marry the lady whose hand he has won (cf. Chapter 6). Positioned after the moment the Grail has gone to heaven, but before the Mort Artu/Arturs doet story starts and explains that the adventures of Logres are over, the set of five inserted texts in the compilation are in a kind of thematic limbo, ambivalent in their pre-Queeste ideology of courtly love, which comes combined with a degree of criticism of this ideology (the ‘Vrouwen Gepens’ episode) and of the internal conflicts in the group of Arthur’s Round Table knights (Walewein ende Keye). Further research is required to better understand the ideological position of each of the five texts and the thematic connection(s) between this quintet and the core texts.27 The only imaginable alternative to placing the five stories between the Queeste and Arturs doet would have been to add them to the two texts already inserted before the Queeste, thus giving seven tales after the ending of Lanceloet. However, as discussed above, things were already much too complicated at that point in both the manuscript and the narrative/interlace. Also, the Queeste–Wrake connection was already planned and perhaps even put in writing in already finished quires, so the compiler could not but make the most of the pragmatic and superficially unproblematic option of putting the five stories where they are now. The beginning of Arturs doet (cf. section 5) does make clear that the Arthurian world is about to change. The devotionally worded prologue, probably added already in the Flemish translation, urges the audience to prayer and reflection upon their sinfulness and the story that follows makes more than clear how sinful relations such as the love affair between Lanceloet and the Queen lead to disaster.28 The adventures of Logres, which were in place in connection with the Grail quest, are now replaced by tournaments. The Arthurian world falls back on its old values, which no longer work, and it all falls apart as the relationship between Lanceloet and Guinevere becomes public. All too human themes like jealousy and vengefulness now emerge as the clans of Lanceloet and Walewein come into conflict and Mordret betrays King Arthur, his father. Although the compiler may have not been aware of the status of the ‘new’ prologue as an edition to the French source, he left it in place as a fitting start to the final instalment of the long tale. There is another element in Arturs doet that fits the more serious, moralistic tone set by the prologue: a description of Arthur’s war against the Romans from the Flemish translation has been replaced by a slightly modified version of the description of the same events from Jacob van Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael (which in turn is based on Vincentius’s Speculum historiale and supplemented with details from Geoffrey’s Historia). Besamusca (2003a, 51–6) has interpreted this exchange, which unfortunately seems to have resulted in the loss of one folio, as a way of ameliorating

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Walewein’s final moments, since, in this version, he dies fighting valiantly against Mordret’s army, at Arthur’s side. The alternation and altercation of the two most famous knights, which may have inspired the sequence of the quintet of inserted romances, climaxed in Walewein’s stubborn attempts to avenge the death of his brother Gariet, accidentally killed by Lanceloet when he rescued the Queen from the stake. In their final duel, Lanceloet gave Walewein a head wound. He more or less recovered but in the Mort Artu the head wound, made worse by blows suffered fighting the Romans, eventually causes his death. He dies in bed, soon after arriving back in Britain with Arthur.29 By replacing the translation of this version with Maerlant’s, the compiler has given Walewein a more glorious end. After this, the compiler added no more episodes or romances and his work seems to have been done. The compilation concludes with an epilogue which may be interpreted as closure to both Arturs doet and the whole cycle. It may in part already have been in place in the Flemish translation. The first-person narrator/author comes forward once more and says: Ende aldus nemt inde al die sake Daer ic af hebbe gehouden sprake. … Dies makics een inde van al, Soe dat hier nieman af spreken sal Vortmeer in genen dingen, Hine salre logene toe mingen. Ende haddicker af vonden ander saken In hadde dus niet laten min maken. Gode en Marien, der maget soeten, Biddic dat sijt mi vergeven moeten, Oftic logene hebbe doen verstaen, Daer ic iet ane hebbe mesdaen! Amen (Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk IV, ll. 13,039–40 and 13,045–54). (And thus all the things that I have spoken of come to an end …Thus I end it all, in such a way that no one will say more about this, unless he adds lies. And if I had found other stories related to it, I would not have stopped my writing. To God and Mary, the sweet Virgin, I pray that they may forgive me when I have communicated lies, by which I have done wrong. Amen.)

This epilogue is followed by the owner’s mark discussed above, which connects the manuscript firmly to the author Lodewijk van Velthem. The ‘Book of Lancelot’, originally in two volumes, is finished. The epilogue confirms the compiler’s aim of being complete (cf. the Moriaen prologue), but also adds the wish to tell the story correctly, without lies. As in the pious prologue of the Lanceloet at the beginning of the remaining volume, and chiming in with the prologue to Arturs doet, divine support and forgiveness is asked for. The notion that someone might come up with the idea of adding more comes across as slightly over the top. After all, this volume consists of some 89,000 lines of verse (and the lost volume(s) held at least 57,500) … Still, the compiler’s prayer to

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Mary that he ‘may bring this book to an end properly’ (ll. 6–7, quoted at the beginning of this section) has been answered and the audience has indeed been treated to ‘beautiful stories, both joyful and sad, of many great chivalrous deeds’ (ll. 12–14), as the prologue to this volume promised. In the most recent history of Middle Dutch literature, Frits van Oostrom has characterised the Lancelot Compilation as ‘een van de waanzinnigste, maar ook bijzonderste producten die de Europese Arthurroman heeft voortgebracht’ (one of the most bizarre, yet exceptional products of European Arthurian romance) and ‘het meest omvattende arthuriaanse epos ter wereld’ (the most comprehensive Arthurian cycle in the world).30 Its construction in phases, the fiddling with the quires, the work of the corrector, the combination of different story-types, and the creative use of interlace to make texts look like they belong together, the compiler’s possible motives … there are so many intriguing aspects to this manuscript that it is no wonder it has kept Dutch Arthurians busy since Draak called on them to study it more than half a century ago. The compilation will no doubt continue to do so, especially because the projected edition, which had more or less come to a standstill, is to be completed by Frank Brandsma, Willem Kuiper and Marjolein Hogenbirk, with the support of the Huygens ING Institute of the Royal Academy in Amsterdam. The new web-edition of the final part of Lanceloet, the Queeste and Arturs doet will bring about new research and yield new insights.31 The Lancelot Compilation was not the only set of Arthurian texts that existed around 1325 in the Low Countries. There was also a Merlin cycle, again based on French prose texts. Jacob van Maerlant’s parts of this cycle have already been discussed in sections 2 and 3 and it is therefore time to look at the contribution Lodewijk van Velthem made to it. 8. Lodewijk van Velthem’s Merlin Continuation (1327): The Prequel Completed This section brings together several themes from this chapter and the volume as a whole. The author Lodewijk van Velthem is also discussed in Chapter 1, in the section on Brabant, in Chapter 3 on the Middle Dutch manuscripts, and in Chapter 4, where a brief biography is given and Velthem’s work on the Spiegel historiael is analysed. His connection to the compilation emerged in the previous section. In section 3, it was already mentioned that Velthem added a continuation to Maerlant’s Graal–Merlijn. This diptych concerns us in the penultimate section of this chapter on translations of French prose sources, since Velthem’s source was the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin, which, together with the Merlin story up to Arthur’s coronation, forms the Estoire de Merlin in the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. Velthem’s recurrence and prominence here makes abundantly clear that he is a key figure in Middle Dutch Arthuriana. In recent years, his work has received much more attention and appreciation, where previously his texts, written in Maerlant’s

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slipstream, were often considered to be of mediocre originality and stylistic quality. Recent articles, like Sleiderink 2018 and a whole Velthem volume (Besamusca, Sleiderink and Warnar 2009) have sketched an interesting new image of Velthem as translator and author. The recurring keyword in the reappraisal is ‘ambitious’ (Sleiderink 2005). Like quite a few other Dutch scholars, Sleiderink believes Velthem is the compiler (Sleiderink 2018, 66; Oostrom 2009, 34). Thea Summerfield has characterised Velthem in his historical writings as ‘this interesting and, in a subtle way, conceptually independent and polemic continuator’ (Chapter 4, p. 71). As in Maerlant’s case, the contrast between the author’s modest position in society (sexton; village priest) and his important, prestigious and extensive literary production is surprising and hard to understand from a modern perspective. Perhaps the author’s day jobs were more valued at the time? There is also is an indication, uncovered in 2009 by Hildo van Engen, that by the time Velthem made the Merlin translation, he may have had an income as canon (quite a step-up from village priest) of the new chapterhouse in Brielle, assigned to him around 1316 by Gerard of Voorne, to whom he may have offered his Spiegel historiael continuation (Engen 2009). It was for Gerard’s father Albrecht that Maerlant made his Grail–Merlin romances, which Velthem now completed with his Vulgate Merlin translation. He may have worked at Brielle or Voorne at this time. The work was finished just before Easter in 1327. It is most likely that at Voorne a copy of Maerlant’s work was available for Velthem to edit and connect his own work to. The final line of Maerlant’s text was definitely changed, turning the word ‘vrede’ (peace)’ into ‘onvrede’ (war), as discussed in section 3. Velthem also added a transitional passage, announcing the story of many conflicts after Arthur’s coronation, and a prologue at the start of his own translation. He asks God and Mary to provide him with wisdom and good sense as he undertakes to ‘volmakene’ (make complete, l. 10413) the work that Jacob van Maerlant started.32 The prologue continues as follows: Nu wil Heer Lodewyck, sijt seker des, Van Velthem dit voert wtgeven Na dat int Walsc es bescreven; Want nu ierst gaet an die dinck Van Merline ende van den koninck, Hoe dat Artur begon regneren Altemale by Merlijns leren. (Vloten 1880, ll. 10418–24) (Now Sir Lodewijk of Velthem, be sure of that, will continue this (tale) as it is written down in the French; because only now the story starts of Merlin and the King, how Arthur began his rule with the help of Merlin’s lessons all the way.)

The ‘Walsc’ Velthem mentions, was a manuscript of the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin which combined readings of the long version with variants of the ‘shortened’ (but not the ‘short’) version, as Besamusca (1991b, 142–52) established on the basis of Micha’s work. The only edition we may use to compare the Middle Dutch and French texts is Sommer’s (vol. II: Estoire de Merlin; translated in Lacy et al. 1992–6 by

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Rubert T. Pickens). As translator, Velthem followed his source closely, versifying the French prose in conventional rhymed pairs and at some points livening up and clarifying the text (Besamusca 1983b, 33–9). The first line of the quote above features a rather prominent, and notorious, element in the translation: ‘sijt seker des’ is a stopgap, filling out the line and providing the rhyme word, without adding actual meaning to the sentence (Besamusca 1991b, 159). The interlace in the Suite-Vulgate comes with the usual formal switches and the way Velthem rendered these strongly resembles the Lanceloet–Queeste–Arturs doet format, with a first-person narrator popping up to tie off the narrative thread, and ‘davonture’ (the story) and here sometimes also ‘die historie’ (the history), at the start of a new chapter. As owner of the compilation manuscript, Velthem was obviously familiar with this specific format of the formulas and he may have aimed to make his Merlin text look and sound like the compilation in this respect. The same goes for the use of chapter headings, which are found in all the three texts in Burgsteinfurt and also in the so-called Munster fragments of the Middle Dutch version of Velthem’s text.33 The ‘Book of Merlin’ that he was creating in 1327 would have connected perfectly to the, now lost, first volume of the compilation codex. More research with regard to the chapter headings and formulas is required, and these should also take into account the numerous references forward in Velthem’s Merlin text, since these do not always have an equivalent in the French source. Since Velthem does not deviate from the Suite-Vulgate story, the main plotline is the slow consolidation of Arthur’s power in battles with the barons, like the Kings Lot and Uriens, who do not accept him as their sovereign.34 Arthur must also fight the Saxons, who have again invaded the Kingdom, as well as the infamous collector of royal beards, King Rioen. Arthur’s vassals from across the Channel, the Kings Ban and Bohort, are his staunch supporters and fight at his side. Merlin advises Arthur, yet also finds time for some travelling and goes to Rome to help the Emperor discover that his wife is unfaithful and that his capable seneschal is actually a lovely damsel, ready to marry him now that he is single again. Near the end of the text, Merlin falls in love. His lover (the later Lady of the Lake) makes him divulge all his magic secrets and then uses these to imprison him forever in a magical hawthorn. The sons of the revolting barons choose Arthur’s side, so we see Ywain and Gawain (in the Burgsteinfurt version and probably due to the German scribe rather than Velthem, Arthur’s nephew is called ‘Gawyn’ instead of ‘Walewein’) and also his brothers perform their first deeds of arms. Arthur’s nephews become a fighting force to be reckoned with and will later dedicate themselves to the Queen as ‘the Queen’s Knights’. Eventually (after some 20,000 lines of verse), this internal strife within the families of the vassals leads to reconciliation with Arthur and to a lasting peace. Together, the British are able to defeat and chase away the Saxons. As a young man and king, Arthur is an active fighter, resembling the way he performs in Geoffrey’s Historia far more

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than the ‘roi fainéant’ of later parts of the Lancelot–Grail Cycle. His prowess and good looks help him win the heart of King Leodegan’s daughter Jenovre (Guinevere). As a wedding gift, Arthur’s father-in-law gives him the Round Table as well as the Knights of the Round Table, who were residing at his court. In person, Arthur defeats King Rioen and, in an excursion to Lausanne, a gigantic cat. As a precursor to the War against the Romans episode in the Mort Artu/Arturs doet part of the cycle, Arthur and his men fight the Romans, first in Britain and then on the continent. Gawain manages to kill the Roman Emperor. After the victory, Arthur sends the Emperor’s body to Rome as the only tribute the Romans may expect from him. There is comic relief as well, in an episode resembling the Wrake-insertion on ‘Vrouwen Gepens’, discussed in section 7. Gawain is turned into a dwarf again, this time as punishment for failing to greet a damsel courteously. In this shape he finds and speaks with the imprisoned Merlin, who tells him he will not be able to escape and will never see Arthur again. Gawain’s normal shape is restored when he rescues the aforementioned damsel from would-be rapists. When he swears to obey her in all things, he feels his body grow out of the dwarf armour he had now donned. Restored, he returns to court with the sad news of Merlin’s fate. The wizard’s role is played out, his book is finished. Velthem closes his translation off with a personal epilogue: Van Merline (en) vindic niet meer bescreven In dat Walsc, ende om die saken En willics niet meer in Dietsce maken, Want hem hevet een wijf gevaen, Daer he nemmer en mach ontgaen, No emmermeer vernemt van hem man; Wat mach men daer meer af secgen dan? Negeen dinc, so help my God, Dan dat hi was een fijn sot; Al heet hi vroet ende conde vele, Nochtan heeften een wijf, by horen spele, Datsi hem toende menechfoude, Bracht int nette daer si woude; Daerby en was met niet so vroet man, Opdat daer wives herte alteen leide an, Si en hoendene wel int leste. (Vloten 1880, ll. 36,192–207) (About Merlin I have found no more in the French text, and therefore I will write no more about him, because a woman made him a captive in a prison he may never escape, and no one will ever hear from him again. What difference would it make to say more about it? Nothing, so help me God, apart from saying that he was a complete fool, even when he is considered wise and could do many things. Nonetheless a woman, by her tricks, which she played on him frequently, has brought him in the net; there never was a man so wise who, if a woman set her heart to it, would not be put to shame by her in the end.)

Velthem also states that his work was finished just before Easter in the year 1326, which would be 1327 in our calendar. The quoted lines give a remarkable evaluation

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of Merlin’s life, which in some ways resembles the somewhat misogynist character of the ‘Vrouwen Gepens’ episode. Velthem clearly did not appreciate that women are able to seduce even the wisest man (as could be expected from a village priest or canon of his times). All the more pity that we do not have the first volume of the compilation manuscript, since it would have started with Lanceloet’s birth and his abduction by Merlin’s lover, as this very woman is the Lady of the Lake. What Velthem would have thought of her, we will never know. At Easter in 1327, Sir Lodewijk van Velthem, who owned the final volume of the compilation and called it ‘the book of Lancelot’, may have had on his desk the multi-volume Middle Dutch equivalent of the complete Lancelot–Grail Cycle, from Maerlant’s version of the Grail story to Arturs doet, enriched with at least seven more romances and numerous episodes. Two thirds of this material have come down to us, one way or another, and notwithstanding the many problems and unresolved issues involved, this is a luxury Dutch Arthurians have learned to appreciate, from Jonckbloet, Van Vloten and Maartje Draak right up to the current generation of Arthurians. 9. The Historie van Merlijn (c.1540): The Remains of a Printed Book Apart from Velthem and his audience, one more group of people may have seen the ‘Book of Merlin’ combined with a – or even more – ‘Book(s) of Lancelot’: the family members of the count of Bentheim. As discussed in section 1, the library at Burgsteinfurt did contain ‘two new books of Lantslotte and an old book of Lantslotte’ after all. None of these ‘Lancelots’ can be identified as the remaining volume of the Lancelot Compilation, however, since that codex was, probably since the middle of the fifteenth century, part of the library of the Nassau-Orange family, now the Dutch royal house (Besamusca 1985a, 27). Arthurian manuscripts and stories remained popular in the fifteenth century in the Rhineland, as the next chapter will show, but less so in the other parts of the Low Countries. They do not seem to have made it to the printing press in the sixteenth century, with one exception. Around 1540, the Antwerp printer Simon Cock published the Historie van Merlijn (History of Merlin), of which two quires have come down to us, eight leaves in total, containing four woodcuts. The fragments are now in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels (KBR, Oude druk V.H. 27526 A). The text has been edited once (Kronenberg 1929) and was studied thoroughly by Pierre Pesch (1985) and Elisabeth de Bruijn (2017). Pesch mentions that the catalogue of the Utrecht city library in 1608 lists a set of prose texts containing a story of Merlin printed in Antwerp in 1588. This book no longer exists, but it may have been a second printing of the Historie. Where other medieval adventure stories were printed and reprinted many times, the Merlin story obviously was not a commercial success. The first of the two quires (called B, since it was the second quire of the original book) describes how Vortigher is chosen king and intends to kill Uther and Pandragon,

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the rightful heirs to the British throne. He strengthens his position by marrying the daughter of the Danish king Angis and decides to build a stronghold. In the other quire (the fourth, called ‘D’), we are told that Merlin is born and, just six months old, manages to defend his mother successfully against the accusation of adultery by demonstrating that the judge himself was the product of adultery. Vortigher’s messengers then come to take Merlin to their lord. During the trip, Merlin laughs three times. The reasons for his laughter are unclear, as the quire ends. The translation contains two long, rhymed dialogues, embedded in the prose narration (Kronenberg 1929, 25–8; Bruijn 2017). The events described in the two quires correspond in terms of content to the story told in Maerlant’s Boek van Merline, but the creator of the printed version did not use a Middle Dutch manuscript of that romance as his source. The Dutch prose text, as Pesch has shown (1985, 305–15), is translated from an English edition by Wynkyn de Worde, called A lytel treatise of ye birth and the prophecye of Marlyn, printed in London in 1499 and again around 1510. This prose work is a variant of the Middle English verse text Of Arthour and of Merlin. It was therefore by way of the English Merlin tradition that the story was printed in Antwerp, in a very ‘modern’ way at the time, by using a printed text rather than a manuscript as its source. As regards general differences between the English and Dutch versions, De Bruijn (2017, 88–96) has found that the Dutch version tends to pay less attention to action scenes in favour of foregrounding romantic elements, especially in the verse passages, and sometimes tones down the wickedness of characters like Vortigher. The different layout of the Dutch text (structured with initials and chapter headings) looks more helpful for (first-time) readers. The book was illustrated with woodcuts and printed decorations, which are, like print, ‘modern media’ elements. Since the specific blocks of the illustrations were also used in other (dated) books by Simon Cock, it is now certain that he was the printer and that he produced this version of the Historie van Merlijn between 1534 and 1544 (Pesch 1985, 316–23). Some of the woodcuts in Cock’s Merlijn were previously used by the printer Jan van Doesborch, who is well known for his links to England: he worked in London for a while and produced twenty books for the English market (Bruijn 2017, 84; Franssen 1990). Although no Merlijn has survived from his printing press, Van Doesborch is assumed to have been the first printer of the text, between 1511 and 1515 (Franssen 1990, 42–3, 60). Cock’s version would then be a reprinting, prolonging the printed life of the Merlin story in the Low Countries for at least one more generation. The hundred-thousands of lines that resulted from the translation and adaptation of French prose sources in the Low Countries were all produced in a relatively short period. If we estimate the active working timespan of an author conservatively at twenty-five years, there were only three or four creative generations, from just before

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Maerlant up to Velthem, followed by a period of scribal activity as manuscripts were copied and re-copied for some time. From the thirteenth century on, many generations of listeners will have enjoyed Arthurian stories, both as episodic and, increasingly, as ‘historical’ narratives, but by the sixteenth century, Arthur, Lancelot and the Grail were no longer to the taste of printers and their Dutch audiences. Notes 1   The Middle Low German text is a word-by-word rendition of the Middle Dutch original, as is corroborated by a comparison of this version with the small fragment of the Middle Dutch Boek van Merline manuscript and several fragments of the Merlin Continuation that have been preserved, cf. Sodmann 1980, 41–9 and Besamusca and Brandsma 2015, 27 (Maerlant) and 28 (Velthem). 2  This material has also come down to us separately in an Oxford manuscript and as a ‘play of Mascheroen’, incorporated in the narrative of Mariken van Nieumeghen (Mary of Nimwegen), printed circa 1515 by Willem Vorsterman in Antwerp. Maerlant’s source around 1261 most probably was a Latin version (Processus iudiciarius or Litigation Mascaron contra genus humanum) that he may have come to know during his education in the chapter school of Sint Donaas in Bruges, cf. Oostrom 1996b, where the proto-dramatic elements in the text are stressed. There is a caveat here: Geert Warnar has suggested that the whole episode, or at least a part of it, was inserted not by Maerlant, but by Lodewijk van Velthem when he added his translation of the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin to Maerlant’s text in 1327 (Warnar 2009, 139–41). This suggestion deserves further investigation, especially since there is a substantial retrospective reference to the Mascheroen tale further on in the Boek van Merline (ll. 4110–6). 3   According to Van Vloten (1880, VII), the reluctance of the manuscript’s owner to allow access was due to his earlier experience: he lent the manuscript to a Dutch reverend, whose children tore out and destroyed the two folios, creating the gap in the text. 4   O’Gorman 1971, esp. 172–3: Maerlant’s exemplar has not been preserved yet was related to family y in group q of the prose versions in O’Gorman’s stemma; cf. however also Leonardi 2017. The two thirteenth-century manuscripts in this group of six MSS contain only Joseph and Merlin, whereas two fourteenth-century manuscripts combine the Joseph with the Estoire del Saint Graal (which doubles up the narratives of the Grail origins) and then also contain a Suite-Vulgate (O’Gorman 1971, 147–57). Maerlant’s Graal–Merlijn contains readings that are specific to the so-called α-version, which fits best in the Robert de Boron Cycle (Joseph–Merlin–Perceval). Eleven of the forty-two MSS in this group have the Joseph–Merlin combination, like Maerlant’s source. Cf. also Füg-Pierreville 2014, 18–23. 5   Robert de Boron announces four more subjects/books (none of which have survived, if they ever existed), the making of which he postpones in order to first tell the story of Merlin, cf. O’Gorman 1995, 333–7. 6   The most recent edition, with modern French translation, is Füg-Pierreville 2014. 7   Cf. Füg-Pierreville 2014, par. 70, l. 60–1; no mention is made of Mathias in the variants she gives. 8   In a review of Van Oostrom’s Maerlants wereld, Paul Wackers (1996) has argued that kingship (and especially that of young kings) is a strong common denominator in Maerlant’s early work. The idea that the Merlin story could be used for educational purposes is also indicated in Chapter 2, where it is mentioned that Louis de Male sent a Merlin manuscript to the ‘nanny’ of his children (p. 37). 9   Cf. Chapter 4. In his Rijmbijbel (ll. 30899–901), finished in 1271, Maerlant uses the word ‘legion’ to indicate a group of 6666 men, even though his source text says nothing of the kind. Since this is how ‘legion’ is used in the Historia Regum Britanniae, Janssens (1996a) has interpreted the word as an indication that already some time before 1271, Maerlant knew Geoffrey’s text. In the Boek van Merline, however, Maerlant follows his French source in referring people who want to know more about Britain to

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another book, ‘brutus boeck’ (l. 4186), said to be translated from the Latin into French by ‘Meyster mertijn … van rore’ (Master Martin of Rore, l. 4187–8). 10   This summary is based on Brandsma 1992, 23–30 and Brandsma 2010b, XIX–XXV; cf. also Claassens and Johnson 2000, 202–6; 216–22; 236–44. The indication of the first section as Book II is based on the prologue of the text in the Lancelot Compilation. The editor of the editio princeps of the compilation, W. J. A. Jonckbloet, numbered the different parts of his edition as ‘books’ (Jonckbloet 1846–9) and restarted numbering the verses in each book, so the first line of the Queeste vanden Grale is Book III, line 1. The new edition of the compilation text (Besamusca and Postma 1997; Besamusca 1991b; Brandsma 1992; Postma 1998) covers ll. 1–26636 of the Lanceloet (Bk II). The digital editions of the rest of Bk 2 and the other two books are work in progress. The abbreviations S and M used in the summary and elsewhere in this chapter refer to Sommer 1979 (S) and Micha 1978–83 (M), respectively. 11   This fragment was edited in 1976 by Maartje Draak (1976b), who considered the scribe to be linked to the compilation (scribe B). This idea has not found support so far but the connection of the two rather similar fragments (Brussels and The Hague) and the fact that Brussels was written by scribe B firmly puts both of them in the circle/workshop where the compilation MS was produced. 12  In Lantsloot, the first-person narrator is often found just before and after the rhymed chapter headings. At four of these instances (ll. 215–16, 3047, 4354, 5002), the word ‘avonture’ does pop up but refers to the adventures that are narrated rather than the tale/source itself. 13   There also is a fragment of the Queeste section (Brussels, KBR, MS IV 636, 4), a strip of parchment which belongs to yet another manuscript of two columns of thirty-seven lines (Klein 1997, 91–2), dating from the second half of the fourteenth century. 14   Email and verbal communication by Kuiper to the author, August 2017. 15   Both translations leave out the fourth opponent downed by the red knight. 16   The reference forward consists of a summary of how a lovesick lady will capture and torture Gariet in order to lure Walewein to her court (Jonckbloet 1846–9, Bk III, ll. 2577–98; the reference backwards is found in ll. 3441–51 and concerns the lost homeland of Perchevael and his brother Aglovael (this episode is now lost, it was written on three Lanceloet folios that have disappeared from the codex)). 17   Cf. Klein 1997, diagram on p. 57; the numbering of the folios is slightly out of order, since there are folios numbered 20 and 20a, and 70 and 70a, in quires III and VIII. Quire X starts with folio 89 and ends with folio 98. See also Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 168, note 10. 18   The Lanceloet episode (ll. 3847–4057 of the edition Oppenhuis de Jong 2003; ll. 40,794–41,005 of the Jonckbloet edition) is found in the second part of the Perchevael, in the quinio that survived the revision round (in contrast to the first part that was reduced to a ternio). 19   Oppenhuis de Jong (1996, 361 and note 28) is not convinced by this argument, stating that the Lanceloet episode does not give certainty with regard to his sanity/insanity, but she offers no alternative explanation. 20   Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 180; ll. 4729–821. 21   Oppenhuis de Jong has tried to reconstruct what was added in the lost leaves, cf. Oppenhuis de Jong 2003, 171–85. 22   For the ‘fake’ transitions/formulas, cf. Brandsma 1992, 191–3. They occur six times in the Wrake, five times in the Ridder metter mouwen, five times in Walewein ende Keye, once in Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet and eight times in Torec. 23   For the translation, see Besamusca 2003a, 11. Cf. Oostrom 2009, 34, where the final part of the phrase is translated as ‘by Lodewijk van Velthem’. Van Oostrom stretches the actual meaning of the phrase (as given in Besamusca’s faithful translation) too far when he states there: ‘With these words Velthem appears to be taking credit for a remarkable 250,000 lines of Middle Dutch verse’. 24   Johnson and Claassens 2003, 112–31; Besamusca 2003b. 25   Gerritsen 1963, 252, 259–60; cf. also Zemel 1992 and Besamusca 2003a, 166–7. 26   Besamusca discusses the ‘essence’ of the compilation in the final pages of The Book of Lancelot (2003a, 185–9). In his opinion, the key issues are ambivalence and cohesion. The contrast between

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appreciation of courtly love, in some of the romances and in the Lanceloet, and its disavowal in other episodes and stories and in the Queeste–Arturs doet, creates ambivalence in the cycle. 27   Cf. Bundel and Claassens 2005, who argue that inserted romances like Walewein ende Keye and Torec contain indications that the Arthurian courtly world is no longer working properly. These ‘signs of the times’ confirm the message of the Grail quest that earthly chivalry has lost much of its value and thus prepares for what is to come in Arturs doet. See also Smith 2019. 28   Besamusca and Lie (1994) have argued that this treatise was added to Arturs doet already in the 1280 translation, rather than by the compiler. Cf. also section 5, Warnar 2009, 141 and Hogenbirk 2018, where it is argued that the compiler may be responsible for inserting this prologue. 29   Mort Artu, ed. Frappier 1954, par. 163, 165–7, 172–4. 30   Both quotes, Oostrom 2006, 314. 31   Books like volumes IV–VII of the Dutch Lancelot Texts series are no longer feasible in the internet age. There already is, next to a book edition, a digital edition of Walewein ende Keye (http://waleweinendekeye.huygens.knaw.nl/path) made by Marjolein Hogenbirk in collaboration with W. P. Gerritsen. The new editions will become available through the website of Huygens ING. 32   The only available edition for Velthem’s translation is Vloten 1880. Although Van Vloten used the Burgsteinfurt manuscript’s Germanic ‘Umschreibung’ he presents a Middle Dutch text, reconstructing the wording of the text as he thought Velthem wrote it down in 1326–7. This makes the edition unreliable when it comes to the spelling of individual words and rhymes but not with regard to the content of the story. 33   Besamusca 1983b, 36; comparison of the Middle Dutch fragments with the ‘Umschreibung’ shows that the latter is a faithful copy, albeit in another dialect. There also are fragments in Leiden and Maastricht (Kienhorst 1988, 140–3); one of the Leiden fragments also has a two-line chapter heading, in red. 34   Pickens 2006, summary of the story on 284–9. A summary of Velthem’s Merlin Continuation is given in Claassens and Johnson 2000, 198–202.

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8 ARTHURIAN LITERATURE OF THE RHINELAND Jürgen Wolf

1. Introduction The place name Rhineland designates the West German Marches located between present-day France and Germany, the interference zone between the Romance and the German languages, a space situated amidst the greatest economic centres of the Middle Ages, namely Aachen, Cologne and Trier in the East, and Antwerp, Liège and Maastricht in the West (Tervooren 2006, 327–40, esp. 329 and Figure 78, dialect map). Thanks to Helmut Tervooren’s compendium Van der Masen tot op den Rijn, the Rhineland is again garnering interest as an interdisciplinary field of study among German and Dutch scholars following a long period during which it received relatively little attention. This region is particularly significant to Arthurian scholarship because the French, Middle Dutch and Middle High German Arthurian traditions intersect there. In previous research, scholars have repeatedly wondered whether Arthurian lore and literature, rather than having been imported directly from Frenchspeaking regions into the Middle High and Middle Low German language areas, arrived instead – at least in part – by way of the ‘nidderen lande’, the Low Countries, where Arthurian stories circulated early on (Tervooren 2006, 105). Transmission of the early Middle High German Arthurian classics – Eilhart von Oberge’s Tristrant (c.1175), Hartmann von Aue’s Erec (c.1180) and Iwein (c.1200), Ulrich von Zatzikhoven’s Lanzelet (after 1194), Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival (after 1204) and Titurel (c.1215), as well as Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan (c.1210) – via the Low Countries can now with certainty be ruled out. The first contact was established directly with the French-speaking region, where some indications, such as the account of the translation of Lanzelet (see below) may point to the Royal English Court of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Court of the Count of Flanders as points of contact. The Arthurian tradition did not gradually migrate from the West (France) or the Northwest (England) through the Low Countries towards the East but rather, Arthurian accounts appeared quite suddenly at various German courts and were in all probability inspired by Old French original works transmitted through personal connections, original works that are explicitly identified in a number of Arthurian romances as the ‘welsche buoch’ (French book). Ulrich von Zatzikhoven describes one such illustrative scenario in Lanzelet:1

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Hûc von Morville hiez der selben gîsel ein, in des gewalt uns vor erschein daz welsche buoch von Lanzelete. (Wolf 2008, 264, ll. 9338–42) (One of the hostages was named Hugh de Morville who owned the French book of Lanzelet with which we became familiar.)

A better perspective on the Rhineland is made possible by attributing less significance to the theoretical approach of the eastward spread of the Arthurian tradition. A sober reassessment of firmly established knowledge is more expedient. This information points to the existence of three distinct varieties of the Arthurian tradition in the Rhineland: first, the direct translations of Old French texts; second, the reimportation of the Old French classics via the Middle Dutch and Middle High German adaptations; and, third, the continuous tradition of scholarly Latin Arthurian texts found in monastic libraries. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, which underpins the entire Arthurian tradition of the Middle Ages, was present at least since the beginning of the thirteenth century among the standard historiographical works in more distinguished monastic libraries – even on the Continent – (especially in the Cistercian monasteries).2 The following sections of this chapter consider these three variations of the Arthurian tradition of the Rhineland in relation to three important texts as well as three corresponding characters who figure centrally in the Arthurian tradition of the region: Merlin, Perceval and Lancelot. 2. Merlin Merlin was largely absent in the Middle High German Arthurian tradition until the late Middle Ages, while he was widely recognised in the Rhineland as one of the central figures of the Arthurian world at an earlier stage (Brugger-Hackett 1991, 202–30; Schmidt 1998, 61–83). He first emerged as a tangible figure in the 1220s as the Cistercian monk Caesarius of Heisterbach (near Königswinter on the Rhine) gives account in his Dialogus Miraculorum (Stange 1851) of a rex arcturus, King Arthur (Dialogus Miraculorum 12, VII), as well as of a propheta Britannorum, a British prophet, named Merlinus (Dialogus Miraculorum 3, VII).3 The Latin context traces the correct conduit for Arthurian reception in the Rhineland. Text transmission of the Merlin figure via Old French verse texts can be ruled out as can Middle Dutch or Middle High German texts. Merlin appears in Chrétien’s romances only once, in Erec et Enide, and then as a minor character (Roques 1990, l. 6631). Jacob van Maerlant wrote his Boek van Merline forty years later (c.1261) while Merlin was and remained an unknown quantity in German-speaking regions. Caesarius sourced his information directly through the monastic heritage from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia, present in many monastic libraries on both banks of the Rhine, and perhaps also expanded

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on it by drawing on Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini. 4 Once established in the Rhineland, the Merlin figure developed a momentum of its own there, in contrast to other Germanspeaking regions. The role played in the development of the Merlin figure in the Rhineland by the popular Middle Dutch Merlin texts, such as Maerlant’s Boek van Merline, his Spiegel historiael, as well as by the extensive Merlin passages from Geoffrey’s Historia, however, remains unclear. The Rheinischer Merlin (Merlin of the Rhineland) appears to derive from such Rhinelandish source material.5 This short text about Merlin, the introduction of which is damaged and illegible, forms part of a unique parchment manuscript which is dated to 1330–50 and was formerly archived in Lüftelberg Castle (currently Berlin, SBPK, MS germ. quart. 1409).6 It contains brief accounts of Merlin’s baptism, ‘Doi wulde hei gerne cristen sin’ (He wished to become Christian, l. 13), his life as a hermit in the forest and his renown as a soothsayer, accounts which piqued the interest of Arthur’s court (ll. 41 ff.). The final and most important scene recounts Merlin’s prophecies of the deaths of Richard the Lionheart – the King of England – and a German Emperor Heinrich (probably Heinrich VI). Here is explicitly revealed that Merlin had received the gift of prophecy from God: Christus Merline gaf die genade inde hette in erkoren (Beckers and Bauer 1991, ll. 211–12) (Jesus Christ granted mercy to Merlin and chose him.)

A direct source of the text has not been clearly identified. Textual indications suggest its sources are Robert de Boron’s Merlin and its derivatives, as well as Geoffrey in general.7 The author, who was probably not from Lüftelberg – the dialectal features of the text instead point to the Aachen-Julich-Cologne region – clearly draws on the aforementioned Rhineland source material. This text is striking in that it combines the Merlin story, characterised by its Christian focus, with the legend of St Lüthild from the local Lüftelberg tradition. The legend, which was originally propagated among the circles of the Cistercian Order in the thirteenth century, narrates how this local folk saint, a noblewoman, dedicated her life to the service of Christ in the face of considerable opposition and how she performed numerous miracles. The stories of Merlin and Lüthild are connected, through a reference in the Rheinischer Merlin, to nuns who died shortly after Merlin: Die vurgenanten beslossene wiif Ersturven in kurten dagen gare. (Beckers and Bauer 1991, 214–15) (The aforementioned nuns died a few days later.)

The legend also relates: ‘daß die an Merlin offenbar gewordene Gnade und Macht Christi sich auch späterhin noch durch viele Wundertaten manifestiert habe, unter anderem auch an der hl. Lüthild’ (that the grace and power of Christ revealed to Merlin were later also manifested through numerous miracles to St Lüthild, among others;

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Beckers and Bauer 1991, 408). Moreover, Hartmut Beckers points out that the village Merl near Lüftelberg Castle was known in the thirteenth century as ‘Merloe’ and goes on to observe that the place name could stand etymologically in direct relation to Merlin. Even while a discernible impact of this peculiar Merlin–Lüthild legend outside local lore has not been established, it nevertheless demonstrates that Merlin and Arthur’s court were present as known quantities within the contemporary Arthurian heritage of the Rhineland. 3. Parcheval The Middle Franconian Parcheval, an adaption of Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval (Conte du Graal), is based word-for-word on a thirteenth-century Middle Dutch translation of Chrétien’s romance, known as Perchevael. Only short fragments have been preserved from this Middle Franconian rendition of the Middle Dutch translation: two strips of a double folio kept in Prague (Strahov Library, Inv. No. 392/zl),8 as well as a single folio in Düsseldorf (UB, MS fragm. K 2: F 23),9 encompassing approximately 260 lines from Chrétien (Perceval, ll. 6323–408, 6989–7160) which correspond almost word-for-word with the corresponding passages in the younger Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation.10 As is the case with the Blankenheim Lancelot manuscript (see below), it appears the patrons could no longer understand the Middle Dutch text, even though many passages were perfectly comprehensible. Consequently, they commissioned a translation into their own Middle Franconian or Ripuarian dialect.11 This lost original text is likely attributable to the thirteenth century, as the preserved derivative fragments date to c.1300 (Prague) and c.1350 (Düsseldorf). Whether it can be dated to the beginning of the century, as Bob Duijvestijn (1989, 305) proposes, is, in view of its decidedly modern linguistic forms, rather unlikely. It follows that the Middle Franconian Parcheval is older than the Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation (Besamusca 2000, 200–2) and must derive from the latter’s predecessor, a Middle Dutch Perchevael. It is surprising that the Middle Franconian Parcheval does not reference Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, given the incredible popularity of this Middle High German best-seller of the heyday of courtly literature. It is likely the reviser was entirely unaware of Wolfram’s romance. Indeed, this situation accords perfectly with the overall picture of the somewhat isolated Arthurian tradition in the Rhineland. On closer observation, this finding fits into the overall pattern of the presence of the Arthurian tradition in the Rhineland in that the Middle High German Arthurian manuscripts hardly played a role there. At any rate, the thin coverage of relevant Middle High German texts in the region would indicate as much.

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4. Lancelot The Prose Lancelot came to the attention of audiences in the Rhineland perhaps even earlier than Parcheval did. Analogous to the Middle Franconian Parcheval, a Middle Dutch Lancelot rendition of the French source was translated into a local language, in this instance into the Moselle Franconian dialect. Helmut Tervooren refers in this context to a secondary ‘Ripuarisation’ of an original Middle Dutch text.12 The sole surviving fragment of this Lancelot, dated to the middle of the thirteenth century, is located in Munich and consists of one incomplete folio assembled from two strips (BSB, Cgm 5250/25). Another Franconian folio in Marburg (Staatsarchiv, Hs. 11,2) dated to the mid-fourteenth century is also worth mentioning. A double folio and three pieces of another folio in Amorbach and Mespelbrunn (Amorbach, Prince Leiningen Archive, no call number; Mespelbrunn Castle Archive, no call number)13 are the remnants of an earlier thirteenth-century translation, but show no Franconian characteristics, unlike the Munich and Marburg fragments. Nothing can be said with certainty regarding the extent of the entire translation – a possibly larger Middle Dutch translation that may have served as its model (perhaps a forerunner of the later Lancelot Compilation) – or regarding a more comprehensive translation project.14 The provenance of the Blankenheim Lancelot manuscript of the former library of Blankenheim castle (presently Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Best. 7020 (W*) 46) points to a corresponding setting two centuries later, that is, the Arthurian tradition of the Rhineland.15 This excerpt, the ‘Knight of the Cart’ section of the Middle High German Prose Lancelot dating to the third quarter of the fifteenth century – according to a note on the inner side of the binding this manuscript was completed in 147616 – goes back directly to an Old French original. However, the author reports discovering and using a Middle Dutch ‘buchelin’ (little book) as his source: Diß buchelin zu einer stonden Hain ich jnn flemische geschrieben fonden Von eyme kostigen meister verricht, Der es vß franczose dar zu hait gedicht. Dwile das alle dutschen nit konden verstan Habe ich vnnutzeliche zcijt darzu versließen vnd gethan Biß das ich es herczu bracht hain. Deo gratias. (fol. 354va; Menne 1931–7, 21) (I once found this little book in the Flemish language, written by an outstanding master who had translated it from the French. Because not all Germans can understand it, I spent a lot of precious time working on it until I had brought it there (into German)).

The author translated the text from Middle Dutch into German, well aware it was originally an Old French work.17 Beckers believes the Blankenheim Lancelot manuscript originated in the literary circles of Heidelberg, who had a keen interest in the Lancelot story, and suggests it could provide a piece missing from the extensive Lancelot codex compiled there

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(Heidelberg, UB, Cpg 147).18 Only later would this ‘Knight of the Cart’ section have been included in the Manderscheider Collection through the involvement of Count Wirich VI of Daun. However, the presence of the distinct Rhine-Franconian Ripuarian dialect in the Blankenheim Lancelot manuscript, which contrasts with the South Rhine-Franconian dialect of the Heidelberg compilation, as well as the overall character of the codex, present challenges to his hypothesis. For these reasons, as Peter Kern argues, it is more likely the text originated in the circles of the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim.19 The background of the collection is particularly compelling because the Blankenheim Lancelot is inserted into a larger text collection intended from the outset as a unified collection consisting of French and pseudo-French texts: 1r–166v Pleier, Tandareis und Flordibel 167v–278v Pontus und Sidonia 280r–354r Prose Lancelot In all likelihood, the patron aimed to bring together French classics of chivalric literature into one volume, whether authentic or pretended – a French source is feigned in Pleier’s Tandareis und Flordibel. In the process, the scribe made good use of anything that came to his attention and this might have included a Middle Dutch partial translation of a French Prose Lancelot, which then, in turn, needed to be translated into the patron’s Rhine Franconian dialect. However, in opposition to Beckers’s thesis, the presence of Arthur or Lancelot appears to have played no direct role in this connection. The overall conception of the Cologne text collection points in another direction. The three closing passages (‘Explicits’) of the text offer exempla for the way to reach the kingdom of heaven (‘hymmelrich’) (Tandareis und Flordibel, fol. 166v,b) as a guiding principle. 5. General Characteristics A wide-ranging Arthurian tradition of varied intensity and impact and which draws on various sources is evidenced in the Rhineland. Latin historiography, particularly represented by Geoffrey’s Historia and perhaps his Vita Merlini, is equally present alongside the French romances and their Middle Dutch and occasionally Middle High German adaptations, whereby Middle Dutch texts were evidently regularly drawn upon and Middle High German sources only rarely turned to. The presence of German Arthurian sources in the Rhineland is represented only by a small number of RhineFranconian or Ripuarian manuscripts, such as two Tristan manuscripts: Cologne, Historical Archive, Best. 7020 (W*) 88, containing Gottfried’s Tristan and a derivation by Ulrich of Türheim (dated 1313); and Cologne, Historical Archive, Best. 7020

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(W*) 87, containing Gottfried’s Tristan and a derivation by Heinrich von Freiberg (dated c.1420–30). Six Parzival manuscripts provide additional examples: Berlin, SBPK, mgf 734 no. 6 and Munster, Diocesan Library, Inventory of the central research library of the Franciscan Order, no call number (first half of the fourteenth century); Berlin, SBPK, mgf 1394 (end of the thirteenth century); Borken (Westphalia), Municipal Archive, no call number, and Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History Münster, Ms. 459 (mid-fourteenth century); Göttingen State and University Library, 4° Cod. Ms. philol. 184:Ia (early fourteenth century); Hamburg, State and University Library, Cod. germ. 6 (c.1451); Leeuwarden, Tresoar, MS 150 HS ltr. F (fourteenth century). The Arthurian romances certainly did not offer the aristocracy of the Low Countries and the Rhineland many reference points for their own genealogical and geographic import and obviously did not generate much interest among them as a consequence. That Hartmann von Aue, who popularised the Arthurian literature in German-speaking regions beginning in 1180, describes historical details of the area and praises the local aristocracy only in his legend Gregorius (‘ze Henegouwe / ze Brâbant und ze Haspengouwe’, in Hainaut, Brabant and the Haspengouw; Mertens 2004, ll. 1575 ff.) may be indicative of this phenomenon. We do not find such established historical and geographical references in his Arthurian texts Erec and Iwein and generally the Low Countries and the Rhineland do not play a geographical or genealogical role in the German Arthurian classics, aside from Wolfram’s reference to the Knight of the Swan saga: Loherangrin’s tragic defeat in Brabant at the conclusion of Parzival (Lachmann, Nellmann and Kühn 1994, stanzas 823–7, 826, 828). Wolfram’s genealogical allusion to the House of Brabant was incidentally so successful that Parzival’s son Loherangrin became the subject of a derivative epic between 1283 and 1289 that did not even draw on Old French or Middle Dutch sources: Lohengrin, composed by an anonymous Bavarian author whose main focus was not Brabant, Antwerp or the ‘nidderen lande’ but instead German Imperial history. That many of the Arthurian stories were fictitious was known at least since the emergence of Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael, ‘Die loghene van Perchevale / Ende andere vele valscher saghen’ (The lies about Perceval, and many other untrue stories; Vries and Verwijs 1982, I,I Prologue, ll. 56–7), and while the fictionality of Wolfram’s Parzival may have been ambiguous in the Rhineland, Hartmann’s works retained more of a fictional character there due to the paucity of regional geographical and local dynastic references. Even though the potential of substantial literary finds promised otherwise, what can be established from this wide-ranging portfolio is that no distinct and independent regional Arthurian tradition developed in the Rhineland. Apart from Wolfram’s Parzival, it is likely that Middle High German Arthurian romances of whatever stripe did not enjoy exceptional popularity in the Rhineland, contrasting strongly with the phenomenally widespread impact of these texts in the neighbouring Bavarian, Alemannic and (East) Middle German language areas. Was there a Rhinelandish

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reservation against the perhaps too novelistic German Arthurian variants? On the contrary, it appears that general reservations against Arthur in the Rhineland were not a factor. As a matter of fact, one can observe as much in the Hanseatic League Hall of Cologne City Hall. Here, King Arthur figures prominently above the heads of the Councillors of Cologne and their guests in the carving of the Nine Worthies. Also, in 1445 an Arthurian round table is recorded to have taken place in Cologne (Wolf 2009, 81). For the aristocracy of the Rhineland – the patricians of Cologne in particular – Arthur was more than merely a handsome hero; he and his knights served as exemplary figures and as ideal chivalric role models. Unlike in the West, Arthurian figures in the Rhineland were not viewed as ancestors with whom an association was expedient, and, unlike in the East, they were not purely romantic heroes. The exemplary dimension of the Arthurian characters discussed here shaped the Arthurian tradition in the Rhineland in yet another unexpected context; the Cistercian monk Caesarius of Heisterbach enticed his brethren with stories about Arthur and Merlin, which were heightened by the holiness at the centre of the Rheinischer Merlin, and which provided an aura of Christian perfection for the local Saint Lüthild. The crucial role played by the Cistercians in the reception of Arthurian lore and literature in the Rhineland is compelling. However, whether the Middle High German Prose Lancelot can be placed in such a Rhinelandish-Cistercian context, as has been suggested by various scholars,20 remains uncertain. Pentii Tilvis remarked that ‘some of the most illustrious Arthurian texts in the German tradition, including Wolfram’s Parzival and Hartmann’s Erec, might not have been read directly from the French originals, but rather from Dutch intermediaries. The lands around Rhine and Meuse may well have been a turning table of this material’.21 It should be noted that this thesis cannot be sustained. It is more likely that completely independent Arthurian traditions based on the Old French Arthurian texts developed in the West – the Low Countries – and in the East – Germany – initially at the end of the twelfth and in the course of the thirteenth centuries. In the fourteenth century these traditions increasingly merged. Numerous manuscripts, which fall into the interference zone between Middle Dutch, Middle High and Middle Low German, as well as some direct translations, show there was mutual knowledge of the respective Lancelot, Parzival, Tristan and Merlin traditions at the courts and in the cities of the entire Meuse-Rhine region. However, an almost nostalgic interest is suggested because the golden era of the Arthurian knights had drawn to an end, especially since Maerlant had demystified many of these heroes in his Spiegel historiael,22 with the exception of the ‘real’ historical Arthurian heroic figures, Merlin and King Arthur himself. Merlin, in Lüftelberg, and Arthur, in the Hanseatic League Hall of the Cologne City Hall, can accordingly be honoured as emerging heroes. (Translated by Roos Brands and Robert Whitley.)

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Notes   For corresponding evidence, see Wolf 2008, 263–5.   For the reception of Geoffrey on the Continent, see Crick 1989. Cistercian provenance is indicated by the Manuscripts nos 14, 17, 19, 38, 70, 75, 79, 112, 126, 128, 143, 151, 188, 208 and 210. 3   See Langosch 1978 and Tervooren 2006, 59–60. 4   See Crick 1989, especially Manuscripts Nos 56 (Basel), 75 (Salem), 82 (Low Countries), 102 (Cologne-Trier region), 104 (Brabant), 117 (?), 183 (Metz), 196 (Flanders), 209 (Trier), 213 (Würzburg). 5   For an edition and milestone research, see Beckers and Bauer 1991. See also Beckers 1987; 2004 and Tervooren 2006, 106. 6   For a description, see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/5304. 7   For a detailed source study, see Beckers and Bauer 1991, 69–83. 8   For a description, see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/1325; see also Besamusca 1985a, 53–4 and Figure 20, and Schmid and Strijbosch 2020, 9, passim (edition 51–4, Figures 14–15). 9   For a description, see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/6816; also Besamusca 1985a, 54–5 and Figure 21, and Schmid and Strijbosch 2020, 8, passim (edition 55–60, Figures 16–17). 10   See Oppenhuis de Jong 2003 for an edition of the text and a general discussion. For scholarly overviews, see Duijvestijn 1989 and Tervooren 2006, 105. The Prague fragment is edited in Zatočil 1968 and Schmid and Strijbosch 2020, 51–4, and the Düsseldorf fragment in Pauw , 73–4, 89–99, and Schmid and Strijbosch 2020, 55–60 respectively. Schmid and Strijbosch 2020 present a new edition of the Middle Franconian Parcheval with a modern German translation and an analysis of the Prague and Düsseldorf as well as the Brabantian fragments in Brussels (KBR, MS II 115,2) and in Liège (UB, MS 1333), which together comprise approximately 1200 verses. 11   Both fragments feature striking Ripuarian idiosyncrasies; see Zatočil 1968, 258–67 (for the fragment preserved in Prague) and Besamusca 1985a, 54 (about the fragment in Düsseldorf) and generally Schmid and Strijbosch 2020, 11–14. 12   Tervooren 2006, 105: ‘eine sekundäre Ripuarisierung eines ursprünglich mittelniederländischen Textes’. 13  For a description, see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/1324; and http://www.handschriftencensus.de/1317 (Amorbach and Mespelbrunn) and http://www.handschriftencensus.de/1979 (Marburg). See also Schneider 2005, 187. 14   For an overview of the Lancelot tradition, see Rothstein 2007, 38, 77–84. See also Tervooren 2006, 104–5; and for Old French prototypes, see Wirtz and Ziegler 2018, 347–57. 15   For a description see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/5215. See also Menne 1931–7, 20–1 (Nr. 16), Beckers 1990, 71–2 (Nr. 28) and Gattermann 1993, II, 1298 (Nr. 2434). For a comprehensive overview, see Tervooren 2006, 104–5 and Rothstein 2007, 36–7 and 86–128. 16   See Kern 1975, 43 for an edition of the note. 17   For this reason it is repeatedly argued that this Cologne manuscript evidences a Middle Dutch intermediate stage in the transmission of the German Prose Lancelot. See e.g. Schlusemann 2000. For a review of this discussion, see Rothstein 2007, 26–7 (esp. p. 26, note 69). 18   For a description, see http://www.handschriftencensus.de/4895. 19  Kern 1975, 43–5. The context of the Middle Franconian dialectal proximity of the Munich Fragment Cgm 5250/25 is also referenced. 20   See Beckers 1989, 30 and Heinzle 1984, 107–10. The Cistercian hypothesis is challenged in more recent scholarship. According to Steinhoff’s presentation of the current research status: Despite the propagation of a spiritual chivalric ideal and prevalent Cistercian thought, especially about the quest and less so about the establishment of the monastery, a group of lettered clerics at one of the main aristocratic courts comes to mind, at which the audience of the epic would also be placed. (Steinhoff 1995, 761–2.) See also Rothstein 2007, 11–12, 29–30. 21   Chapter 1, p. 16. 1 2

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 Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael was well known to German audiences through the Oberdeutsche Prosaauflösung of the fourteenth century. Three manuscripts are preserved: Berlin (SBPK, mqg. 2018; vicinity of Nuremberg c.1430); Gotha (University of Erfurt – Forschungsbibliothek, Cod. Memb. I 172; Southern Rhein/Franconian 1350–70); and Vienna (ÖNB, Cod. 2902; Middle German; 1438). 22

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1. Introduction This chapter traces the development of Arthurian fiction in the Netherlands and Flanders since the end of the Middle Ages. We will see how, after several centuries of neglect, the Matter of Britain was rediscovered by Dutch (NL) and Flemish (FL) writers. We will also see how it has subsequently been used in novels, plays and comic strips, as well as in music, radio plays and film. Finally, we will witness how the Arthurian story matter in literature and drama has come to be associated primarily with young audiences, after a long period during which Arthurian works were often aimed at a general audience or adults.1 The chapter takes a comprehensive approach, providing brief discussions of a wide range of works.2 In so doing, it aims to facilitate further inquiry in this area: a comprehensive overview of modern Arthuriana from the Dutch-speaking part of the Low Countries has thus far been lacking, and many of the works here discussed appear thus far to have escaped the attention of Arthurian research. 2. After the Middle Ages In about 1540, the Antwerp printer Simon Cock published a chapbook which has become known as the Historie van Merlijn (The Story of Merlin). This prose translation of the Middle English romance Of Arthour and of Merlin appears to have been the last work of Arthurian fiction to appear in the Dutch language until the late nineteenth century (Kronenberg 1929; Debaene 1951, 121–4; Pesch 1985; Janssens 1987, 304–7; Bruijn 2017).3 This is not to say, however, that in the intervening centuries Arthur was wholly forgotten. In texts and images of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Arthur continued to feature as one of the Nine Worthies (Anrooij 1997, esp. 167–96). The Amadis de Gaule cycle was published in Dutch between 1546 and 1625, eventually numbering 21 volumes (Selm 2001, 13–43).4 In the eighteenth century, an interest in Middle Dutch literature developed, albeit of a predominantly linguistic and antiquarian nature. Notable in this context is the acquisition of the manuscripts containing Walewein and

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Ferguut by the linguist and book collector Balthazar Huydecoper, who used them for his research on Middle Dutch. Yet, in the absence of text editions and easily accessible descriptions, access to, and knowledge of, texts like Walewein and Ferguut remained limited to a small group of scholars and collectors (Buck 1931, 1–92, esp. 20–7; Buijnsters 1984; Janssens 1987, 303–4). Studies of the development of early Dutch literature began to appear in the nineteenth century, introducing Arthurian materials to a wider audience (Buck 1931, 93–236, esp. 209–36; Janssens 1987, 304–6). Laurens Ph. C. van den Bergh briefly discusses the Dutch Arthurian romances and their context in his 1837 De Nederlandsche volksromans (The Dutch Chapbooks, 174–6). Barthold H. Lulofs’s 1845 Handboek van den vroegsten bloei der Nederlandsche letterkunde (Handbook of the First Flowering of Dutch Literature) contains an introduction to, and excerpts from, the Middle Dutch romance Ferguut (178–86). Willem J. A. Jonckbloet elaborately discusses the Middle Dutch Arthurian romances and their literary context in the second, third and fourth book of his Geschiedenis der Middennederlandsche dichtkunst (History of Middle Dutch Poetry, 1851–5). Text editions of Arthurian romances, too, were becoming available, largely thanks to Jonckbloet (Janssens 1987, 305–6). After centuries, the scene was set for the return of the Arthurian subject matter in the arts. 3. Literature until the Second World War Arthurian literature made its return to the stage in 1888.5 In that year, Gerardus Henri Betz (NL) published three ‘sketch[es] [taken from Middle Dutch literature] in modern language and form’ in the literary magazine De Nederlandsche Spectator.6 They were based on the thirteenth-century Walewein by Penninc and Vostaert (Janssens 1987, 307). Betz would subsequently develop these sketches into a full adaptation of the romance, published as Walewein in 1890. Other works in which Arthurian texts were drawn on or retold would soon follow. In 1895, Williswinde appeared, a collection of six poems by Louis Couperus (NL), two of which concern Arthurian characters: ‘Viviane’, which tells of Lancelot’s raising by the Lady of the Lake, and ‘Ginevra’, which evokes the moment at which Lancelot is first captured by Guinevere’s beauty. New Arthurian works from outside the Netherlands and Flanders also began to make their way to Dutch-speaking audiences, as is illustrated by the 1869 publication of Tennyson’s idyllen van den koning, a translation of Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King by Soera Rana.7 In 1906, an anonymous translation was published of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: Old Stories Re-Told, the forty-third volume in William Thomas Stead’s Books for the Bairns series. Titled Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Tafelronde: geschiedenissen uit ouden tijd (King Arthur and the Knights of the Round

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Table: Stories from long ago), it would be reprinted several times over the following decades. In the 1910s and 1920s, multiple Dutch authors produced their own story collections containing one or more Arthurian tales. In 1915, Teunis Pluim (NL) published Middeleeuwsche heldensagen (Medieval Heroic Folk Tales). Amongst other, non-Arthurian, texts, it contains an adaptation of Lohengrin, and a brief account of Arthur’s life and death titled ‘Arthur’. A similar collection titled Nederlandsche sagen en legenden (Dutch Folk Tales and Legends), by Josef Cohen (NL), appeared in 1917. It includes one Arthurian text: a brief adaptation of the Middle Dutch romance Ferguut. In 1920, Sagen van Koning Arthur en de Ridders van de Tafelronde (Folk Tales about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table) was published.8 This collection, by Nelly Montijn-De Fouw (NL), contains retellings of various Arthurian romances, amongst which Chrétien de Troyes’s Chevalier au lion, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Two years later, Het groot vertelselboek (The Great Storybook), by Nienke van Hichtum (NL), appeared. Containing a story about Gawain’s exploits in the wars against the pagans, titled ‘Van de jongens die tot ridder werden geslagen’ (About the Boys Who Were Knighted), it may have been the first children’s book by a Dutch or Flemish author to draw directly on the Arthurian tradition.9 In 1924, a complete Arthurian children’s novel appeared: Dirk L. Daalder’s adaptation of Ferguut (NL), titled De wonderlijke geschiedenis van Ferguut (The Miraculous History of Ferguut). It was one of a growing number of Arthurian compositions to be published as separate works. These were often either texts inspired by the story of Tristan and Isolde, or adaptations of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. Arthur van Schendel (NL) published an adaptation of Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan, titled Tristan en Isolde: Een liefdesroman (Tristan and Isolde: A Love Novel), in 1920. In 1921, Pieter C. Boutens (NL) published a collection of forty-two poems written from the perspective of Isolde, titled Liederen van Isoude (Songs of Isolde). Stijn Streuvels (FL) published Tristan en Isolde, a book based on the 1484 German chapbook Tristant und Isalde, in 1924. The same chapbook was also the source for the 1941 De ware geschiedenis van Tristan en Isolde (The True History of Tristan and Isolde), by Johan W. F. Werumeus Buning (NL). The first of the adaptations of Parzival was Parcival, by Marie Koenen (NL), published in 1920. Parzival: Een zeer oude legende (Parzival: A Very Old Legend), by Juul Bovée (FL), appears to have come out in 1926.10 It was aimed directly at children, published in a series titled Onze jongens- en meisjesboeken (Our Books for Boys and Girls). A brief adaptation of the Parzival was included in Do Jenny-Ariëns Kappers’s Parcival: Een beschouwing over de betekenis van het V.C.J.B. Insigne (Parcival: A Reflection on the Meaning of the Emblem of the V.C.J.B., NL), which appeared in 1935. Parzival’s Graaltocht (Parzival’s Quest for the Grail), by Frans C. J. Los (NL), was published in 1936. Each of these four works draws particular attention to the religious aspect of Parzival, presenting the hero as a model Christian. In the first three works, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s lapsit exillis is replaced with the

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concept of the Grail as a chalice containing drops of Jesus’s blood, further highlighting the spiritual nature of the hero’s quest. The fact that established authors like Boutens, Buning, Couperus, Koenen, Van Schendel and Streuvels wrote works in the Arthurian tradition shows that it had been accepted as a valid context for literary expression. The vitality of the tradition was demonstrated also by its use as a vehicle for vehement social and political commentary by Louis Couperus and Pieter H. van Moerkerken (NL). In the final two years of the First World War, Couperus serialised Het zwevende schaakbord (The Floating Chess Board) in the Haagsche post.11 In this tragi-comic sequel to the Walewein, the hero sets out to relive the events narrated in the medieval romance. Yet it all proves but an illusion; the adventure and wonder of the past are lost. What remains are mass warfare and memories of a more innocent world. Van Moerkerken’s 1938 poem De bloedrode planeet, of Merlijns laatste visioen (The Blood-red Planet, or Merlin’s Last Vision) similarly engages with the idea of lost innocence. Here, however, disaster may still be averted. The poem describes how, in a final vision, Merlin sees the Martians destroy their world in an orgy of violence, after having grown proud through scientific and technological advances. In a clear reference to the circumstances leading up to the Second World War, the poem implies that the same lot may befall the planet Earth, although hope is proffered by the eternal workings and teachings of God. 4. Literature after the Second World War A small number of Arthurian texts were published during the war. De ware geschiedenis van Tristan en Isolde has already been mentioned. Retellings of Lohengrin, Parzival, Tristan and Isolde and the Walewein appeared in Het heldenboek: sagen en legenden (The Book of Heroes: Folk Tales and Legends) by Leo Roelants (FL),12 published in 1943. Since the end of the Second World War, Arthurian works have continued to appear at a steady pace. The majority fall into one of three categories: magic-realist novels, works that tell the story of the Arthurian world from its inception until its end, and retellings of individual romances and tales. Most of the magic-realist novels referred to above were written by Hubert Lampo (FL). In the 1967 novel De Heks en de Archeoloog (The Witch and the Archaeologist), the Grail Quest symbolises the main character’s search for self-knowledge. Discussions about the nature and history of the Grail feature prominently in Wijlen Sarah Silbermann (The Late Sarah Silbermann), Zeg maar Judith (Just Call Me Judith) and De Elfenkoningin (The Queen of Fairies), published in 1980, 1983 and 1989 respectively.13 Maria Jacques (FL) also drew on the Grail tradition in her 1978 novel De Visserkoning (The Fisher King). In it, a statue of the Fisher King serves as a link between the protagonist and her late husband. Narratives of the rise, heyday and fall of the Arthurian world have proved a popular genre to work in. Though largely based on the Lancelot–Grail Cycle and the

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Post-Lancelot–Grail tradition, they also sometimes draw on other sources, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Walewein. Dirk L. Daalder (NL) published De Ridders van de Tafelronde (The Knights of the Round Table) in 1952. Jaap ter Haar (NL) published the mildly rationalised De geschiedenis van Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Ronde Tafel (The History of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) in 1962. In 1973–5, Frank Herzen (NL)14 published his Ridders van de Tafelronde (Knights of the Round Table) in the children’s magazine Donald Duck. The stories were published in book form in 1982. Hans Petermeijer (NL) published Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Ronde Tafel (King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) in 1999. Mark Tijsmans (FL), lastly, published De ridders van de Ronde Keukentafel (The Knights of the Round Kitchen Table) in 2012. In this novel, which was later adapted as a musical, all of the main characters, excepting Merlin, are children. While the same does not apply to the other works discussed in this paragraph, Tijsmans’s choice is emblematic for a characteristic they all share: they are aimed directly at children. Retellings of individual Arthurian narratives are likewise often written for young audiences. Works to which this applies are Jaap ter Haar’s 1967 novels Parcival and Tristan en Isolde: De geschiedenis van een noodlot (Tristan and Isolde: The History of an Unhappy Fate, NL), Ingrid Biesheuvel’s 2014 adaptation of Ferguut (NL), Lies van Gasse’s 2019 Een held: naar Gawein en de Groene Ridder (A hero: Based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, FL), Agave Kruijssen’s Arthurian novels (NL), and Simone Kramer’s Arthurian stories (NL). Kruijssen published Lancelot: Ridder van de Ronde Tafel (Lancelot: Knight of the Round Table), based on Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet, in 2001; Walewein: Ridder van de Ronde Tafel, based on the Walewein, in 2003; Merlijn (Merlin), based on Jacob van Maerlant’s Boek van Merline, in 2005; Perceval en het Geheim van de Graal (Perceval and the Secret of the Grail), based on Perchevael, in 2007; and Afscheid van Arthur (Farewell to Arthur), based on parts of the Lancelot Compilation, in 2010. Simone Kramer published Van Parcifal tot Beowulf¸ which includes the stories ‘Tristan en Isolde’ (Tristan and Isolde) and ‘Ridders van de Ronde Tafel’ (The Knights of the Round Table) in 2011. Reynier Molenaar’s adaptation of Joseph Bédier’s reconstructed Roman de Tristan et Iseut (NL), titled Tristan en Isolde: Het klassieke liefdesverhaal (Tristan and Isolde: The Classic Love Story) appeared in 2015, and is at least nominally aimed at children.15 Exceptions to the rule are Frank Herzen’s adaptations of Culhwch ac Olwen and Breuddwyd Rhonaby, which he published in his 1975 book Arthur in Wales. The tendency for modern-day Arthurian narratives to be aimed at children is apparent also from the body of works that do not fit into the categories discussed above. In 2002, the Dutch department store chain De Bijenkorf published a book titled Verhalen van de Ronde Tafel (Tales of the Round Table). It contains stories inspired by the Arthurian tradition, written by prominent children’s authors, amongst whom are

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Paul Biegel (NL), Agave Kruijssen (NL) and Henk van Kerkwijk (NL). A fair number of children’s novels have also appeared. In Frank Herzen’s 1983 novel Het zwaard van Brittannië (Britain’s Sword, NL), the son of ‘Artos’ sets out to retrieve Excalibur to defeat the Saxons, yet ultimately realises that it cannot bring peace. Luc Descamps’s 2002 novel De thuiskomst (The Home-coming, FL) is the story of a modern-day boy who travels back in time with the wizard Merlin and subsequently becomes King Arthur. Descamps also wrote the 2005 novel De grot van Merlijn (Merlin’s Cave), which similarly concerns a boy who journeys to the past and meets Merlin. In Wilma Verweij’s novel Westervenster (Window to the West, NL), published in 2002, two teenagers become the guardians of a magic tome previously protected by Merlin. De Legende van de Vijf (The Legend of the Five), Het duistere ritueel (The Dark Ritual) and Strijd om het zwaard (Fight over the Sword), published in 2010 and 2011, are novelisations of the first and second series of Het Huis Anubis en de vijf van het magische zwaard, discussed under ‘Film, Television and Radio’ below. Koning Arthur, by Marc Veerkamp (NL), is the 2016 novelisation of the musical of the same name, discussed under ‘Drama’. One work that is not aimed at children is Willem Brakman’s 1984 short story ‘Artorius’ (NL), published in his book Een familiedrama (‘A Family Tragedy’). This subversive and irreverent account of the begetting and birth of King Arthur is, however, very much an exception to the rule. 5. Comic Strips The first Dutch comic strip is widely deemed to be Reizen en avonturen van Mijnheer Prikkebeen (1858), a translation of Julius Kell’s Fahrten und Abenteuer des Herrn Steckelbein by J. J. A. Gouverneur.16 The new medium gained in popularity in the 1920s, when Dutch and Flemish newspapers began to publish both foreign and locally produced comic strips (Helden 2013b, 39–44; Saeger 1986, 205–6). It appears not to have been until after the Second World War, however, that the first comic strip to draw on Arthurian materials made its appearance in a Dutch-language publication. In May 1945, the Flemish children’s magazine Bravo began publishing the light-hearted comic strip Lancelot, by Willy Vandersteen (Hooydonck 1988, 3–9). The plot of the comic strip, which ran until 1946, is only remotely related to those of medieval Lancelot narratives: the titular character frees a princess called Alwina, is knighted, has various adventures, and settles down with the princess. Light-hearted and whimsical takes on the Arthurian world, its characters and motifs would continue to make appearances in Dutch and Flemish media, especially from the late 1960s onwards. In 1959–60, the newspaper De Telegraaf published Koning Hollewijn en de Ronde Tafel (King Hollewijn and the Round Table), by Marten Toonder (NL). One of a series of mildly socially critical comic strips, it features a storyline in which the titular character seeks to improve contact between himself and

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his people by reinstating the Round Table. In 1969–71, the magazine Pep published three stories by Dick Matena and Lodewijk Hartog van Banda (NL) about ‘Ridder Roodhart’, a pompous knight of the Round Table, and his companion Bombardon. Translations of the French comic Chevalier Beloiseau (1972–5) by Michael ‘Mike’ Stockdale and Christian Blareau, titled Floortje, appeared in the Dutch and Flemish editions of Kuifje, the Dutch-language version of the magazine Tintin, in 1973–5, as well as in Kuifje Pockets 9 and 10 (1975). The year 1974 saw the first appearance of Gwenny en Florian (Gwenny and Florian) by Ben Verhagen (NL), in the magazine Taptoe. The series, which ran until the 1980s, features two plucky children living at the court of King Arthur, whose adventures involve much magic and numerous strange creatures. In 1983, Het Bretonse broertje (The Breton Little Brother) appeared, the 192nd instalment in the long-running Flemish Suske en Wiske (‘Suske and Wiske’) series created by Willy Vandersteen. Written and drawn by Paul Geerts, it employs a storyline in which fairies use Merlin’s magic staff to bring a puppet to life. Rik Dewulf (FL) published six stories about a self-seeking, as well as rather cowardly, Arthur in Suske en Wiske and Kiekeboe familiestripboeken in 1990–4. The title of the series is, simply, Koning Arthur (King Arthur).17 In 2003, Tom Bouden and Kim Duchateau (FL) published Herman, de roze lichtrode ridder (Herman, the pink light–red knight), a parody and implicit criticism of De rode ridder, which is discussed below. In a play on the traditional motif of male heroes freeing and then marrying young women, it features an openly homosexual knight in Arthur’s service who frees, and then spends the rest of his life with, a prince. In 2004, Walter Bruneel (FL) published a collection of gags titled King Arthur & the Comalot: Waar halen ze het? (How do they [come up with this stuff]?). They feature King Arthur and his entourage as furry creatures, whilst Excalibur is a talking sword with a liking of alcoholic drinks. In 2015–17, new gags appeared on Facebook, yet unlike their predecessors they were available exclusively in English.18 In 2008, finally, Wim Swerts, Luc van Asten and Tom Bouden (FL) published Het bloed van Merlijn (Merlin’s Blood), issue 7 in the series En daarmee basta (And there’s an end of it).19 The plot involves criminals attempting to clone Merlin from what they believed to be his blood, only to discover that the blood is that of a pig. Comic strips of a more heroic nature, too, have appeared in Dutch and Flemish media. They are often translations of foreign productions, as is the case for the series Arthur by the French artists David Chauvel, Jérôme Lereculey and Jean-Luc Simon (1999–2008).20 We also find translations of comic strips of Walloon origin, such as Arthur in het legendarische koninkrijk (1991), a one-shot by Philippe Delaby and Yves Duval originally titled Arthur au royaume de l’impossible (Arthur in the Kingdom of the Impossible), and De koene ridder (1966–2001), the Dutch version of François Craenhals’s Chevalier Ardent.21 Early examples of heroic Arthurian comic strips written originally in Dutch are Wigberths wraak (Wigberth’s Revenge) and De onwillige held (The Reluctant Hero), two albums from Hans G. Kresse’s Eric de

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Noorman (Eric the Norseman) series (NL) that were published in 1961 and 1962 respectively. They were followed in 1964 by Koning Arthur (King Arthur), the first of over eighty albums in the De rode ridder (The Red Knight) series by the Vandersteen Studios (FL/Walloon) to feature Arthurian characters.22 In 1965, Hugo de Reymaker (‘Hurey’) and Jacques Acar (FL/Walloon) collaborated to produce De nieuwe avonturen van Lancelot (Lancelot’s New Adventures), a comic strip which would only be published in 2015.23 With the exception of Arthur and Arthur au royaume de l’impossible, the comic strips discussed in the previous paragraph use their Arthurian materials very freely. This is less the case for Lancelot and Gawein en de Groene Ridder (Gawain and the Green Knight), two stories by Frank Herzen and Gerrit Stapel (NL) that first appeared in the magazine Taptoe in the early 1980s, and were published in comic book form in 1986. While Lancelot draws loosely on materials first found in the works of Chrétien de Troyes, De Groene Ridder is a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in which Gawain is the unqualified victor. Another comic strip which remains fairly true to medieval models is Excalibur by Minck Oosterveer (NL), which was published in 1998. This one-shot narrates how Arthur, leader of the Romanised Celts, and involved in a war against the Anglo-Saxons, receives Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Like the aforementioned Arthur and Arthur au royaume de l’impossible, the work reflects what appears to have been a minor trend in European comic books of the last few decades: a focus on Arthur as a Celtic hero first and foremost. 6. Drama Arthurian drama was slow to take off in Flanders and the Netherlands. A few plays were written in the decades preceding and following the Second World War. Marie Koenen (NL), who had published the novel Parcival in 1920, wrote a play with the same topic and title for the Catholic ‘De Graal’ (The Grail) movement. It was performed in 1930 (Derks 2007, 258). Jan van Lumey (NL)24 published a play titled De tooverbron: Een spel in vijf bedrijven (The Magic Fountain: A Play in Five Acts) in 1932.25 The text draws primarily on Chrétien de Troyes’s Yvain, and centres around the themes of longing, desire, betrayal and falsehood. In 1959, finally, August de Nolf (FL) published his play De Graal: Het spel van Parzifal in vier bedrijven (The Grail: The Play of Parzival in Four Acts). Yet while Arthurian plays were written in the Netherlands and Flanders from a fairly early stage, it would take until the 1980s for them to become a regular feature of Dutch and Flemish drama. In recent decades, only a few Arthurian drama productions have targeted primarily adult audiences. A translation of Tankred Dorst’s Merlin, oder das wüste Land was performed by the Dutch RO Theater in 1985 (Scholten 1985). In 1987, the Folkloristisch Danstheater (NL) performed Reidans van Heldendaden (Round Dance

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of Heroic Deeds), a dramatic dance performance inspired by Arthurian narratives and motifs (Delboy 1987). Flemish and Dutch adaptations of Eric Idle’s Spamalot, finally, were performed in 2011 (Janssen 2010; Janssens 2017, 29). Productions whose target audience consists of children or families have been numerous. Narcis (NL) performed Wouter ten Pas’s Koning Arthur (King Arthur) in 1985. It presented a telling of the story of Arthur’s rise and fall for children (Buijs 1985). In 1989, De Broertjes (NL) performed their Door ’t dak (Through the Roof), about Arthur’s childhood and his becoming the King of England (De Groot 1989). Frank Groothof (NL) and a small group of actors and musicians performed a musical titled Koning Arthur in 1998–9. It used Merlin’s involvement with Arthur’s birth and upbringing to question the idea that sometimes the end might justify the means.26 King A, by Inèz Derksen and others (NL), was performed by Het Laagland in 2002 and again in 2012. By blurring the lines between the actors and the characters they portrayed, the play thematised the meaning of chivalry in the modern age.27 The play’s modernity was evident also from its use of the Round Table as a symbol for the striving for democratic government and gender equality (Deuss 2002, Prop 2012). Theater Top (FL) first performed their play Kleine Arthur, Grote Koning (Little Arthur, Great King) in 2003. In it, Arthur had to demonstrate his worthiness of the crown by protecting, rather than killing, a harmless dragon.28 Merlijn en het mysterie van Koning Arthur (Merlin and the Mystery of King Arthur), a musical by Frank Affolter and Lars Boom (NL), was staged by Affolter Productions in 2005–6. Inspired by both T. H. White’s Once and Future King and Steve Barron’s 1998 film Merlin, it set Arthur’s childhood against the backdrop of a clash between Druidism and Christianity.29 In 2011, the Pedrolino puppet theatre company (FL) created and performed the play Het zwaard van koning Arthur, in which the main character had to retrieve the stolen sword Excalibur (Pedrolino, mfasseur 2011). I&L Entertainment staged the musical Arthur en de strijd om Camelot (Arthur and the Battle for Camelot) by Leon van Uden and Bas van den Heuvel (NL) in 2012–15. It told the story of a modern-day boy who ended up in ancient Britain, and set out to find the sword Excalibur. His experiences in the Arthurian world helped him deal with his real-world problems.30 An adaptation of this musical, titled Arthur en het zwaard in de steen (Arthur and the Sword in the Stone), was staged by the ASK theatre company in 2018 (ASK–Theater 2018). Theater te Water (NL) performed the play Koning Arthur, by Just Vink, in 2015. It focused on Arthur as a man who dedicated his life to a fight for peace and, similarly to King A, conceived of the Round Table as an instrument of democracy.31 In 2016, a play of the same name was performed by Theater Terra (NL). Written by Sytze Schalk and Marc Veerkamp, it presented a series of adventures leading up to Arthur’s kingship. Notable about this production was that it paid special attention to the troubled childhood of Arthur’s half-sister Morgan. In October 2017, a musical based on Mark Tijsman’s De ridders van de Ronde Keukentafel was first performed. Nearly all of the characters were played by children (Vlaams Musical Magazine

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2017). Like many of the other plays discussed here, it testified to the continuing vitality of Arthurian theatre by responding to contemporary concerns and preoccupations. 7. Film, Television and Radio When, in 1932, David Butler’s 1931 film A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was released to Dutch cinemas as De radio-ridder (The Radio-Knight), it was hailed by the reviewer of the Haagsche Courant as ‘een rijkdom … van vermakelijke scènes, koddige contrasten, die eenig is in zijn soort’ (a wealth … of entertaining scenes, droll contrasts, which is unique in its kind; Haagsche Courant 1932). Foreign films about Arthurian characters, such as Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 King Arthur, have continued to be distributed in the Netherlands and Belgium. Yet the Netherlands and Flanders have never developed an Arthurian cinema of their own. The situation is different for television and radio, where various productions have featured Arthurian figures or motifs. Adaptations of Samivel’s La grande nuit de Merlin appear to have been broadcast by both the NIR (FL) and the VARA (NL), in 1948 and 1952 respectively.32 In 1951, the NIR broadcast three radio-plays written by E. Vandevelde (FL) that were based on Arthurian narratives: Parzival, de laatste behoeder van de Graal (Parzival, the Last Guardian of the Grail); Merlijn, de tovenaar (Merlin, the Wizard); and Walewein. The first two plays were based, respectively, on Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, and on the Lancelot–Grail Cycle tradition surrounding the birth and education of Arthur. The third play was a brief adaptation of the Middle Dutch romance of Walewein.33 Similarly true to the Arthurian tradition was the 1983 production De legende van Koning Arthur, a series of radio plays broadcast by the KRO (NL), which was based on the BBC’s 1979 TV series The Legend of King Arthur.34 Television productions have generally been freer in their use of Arthurian materials than the radio plays discussed above. In the 1965 Flemish television series Johan en de alverman (Johan and the Gnome), set in pre-industrial Flanders, a young village doctor meets a gnome from Avalon, here a subterranean realm ruled by King Alberic. In the course of various adventures, the gnome helps Johan win the hand of the girl he loves, while Johan helps the gnome return to Avalon. Het zwaard van Ardoewaan (The Sword of Ardoewaan), another Flemish production which was first broadcast in 1972, revolves largely around a nobleman who is identified as the rightful heir to the throne of Ardoewaan when he draws a sword called Bragnit from a wooden beam. Unlike Arthur, however, he decides not to accept the lordship, becoming a knight-errant instead. The 2010–11 Belgian-Dutch coproduction Het Huis Anubis en de vijf van het magische zwaard (The House of Anubis and the Five of the Magic Sword), finally, is a children’s soap series in which five teenagers have to work together to keep Excalibur

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out of the hands of a band of ‘donkere druïden’ (dark druids) and, later, Morgana le Fay. Although these three television productions are often far removed from the medieval tradition, they do testify to its enduring cultural impact. In addition, they illustrate how Arthurian narrative has come to be associated with children’s fiction since the end of the Second World War. 8. Music Through performances and recordings of various kinds, the Netherlands and Flanders have had a wide exposure to foreign musical productions utilising Arthurian concepts and themes. This is, for instance, illustrated by the success of the American rock band Kamelot,35 and by performances of Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, or the British Worthy in 1954 (Waarheid 1954), 2009 and 2015.36 Original works, too, exist, although they appear to be small in number. In 1939, the composer Willem Pijper and the poet Simon Vestdijk (NL) began working on Merlijn, an opera centred around the figure of Merlin. Pijper, who died in 1947, never completed the music score, yet the libretto was finished, and published in 1957.37 It thematises the role of the artist, as well as posing questions about the nature of reality, by implying that the Arthurian world exists thanks only to Merlin’s invention. Merlin escapes its confines in the last scene, attaining a state of unity with Viviane; a being whom Vestdijk identified as the embodiment of Merlin’s soul, longing for ‘spontaneïteit en oorspronkelijke zuiverheid’ (spontaneity and original purity), in a letter dated 26 March 1957 (Dijk and Vestdijk 1992, 13). Reminiscent of Merlijn in its use of Arthurian materials to explore the nature and bounds of experienced reality is Arthur: Koning van een nieuwe wereld (Arthur: King of a New World), by Huub Oosterhuis and Stijn van der Loo (NL), which was released on CD and in book form in 2013. This poem set to music presents to its readers and listeners a series of monologues, conversations, letters and visionary texts ascribed to members of the Arthurian court, joined by fluid conceptions of Arthur, the Grail and the Round Table. Past and present, memory and vision conflate in a search for redemption and final joy whose conception and construction are reminiscent of T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land. Mention should finally be made of two projects by the Dutch rock band Kayak. In 1981, the band explored the subject of Merlin and his role in the Arthurian world, on their album Merlin. The band revisited the subject not long after their reformation in 1999, adding new songs to develop a full narrative of the rise and fall of the Arthurian world (cf. Haagsma 2003). The result was the rock opera Merlin: Bard of the Unseen. While the lyrics were in English, the opera was only performed in Dutch theatres.

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Notes   Some clarification with regards to my usage of the terms ‘Flemish’ and ‘Walloon’ may be in order. I use the term ‘Flemish’ (FL) to refer either to (1) a Belgian work or medium which uses the Dutch language as its sole or primary means of communication or to (2) a Belgian artist or author who works solely or primarily in the Dutch language. The term ‘Walloon’ is used if the work or medium utilises French rather than Dutch, or the artist or author works solely or primarily in the French language. It should be noted that various comic strips have been published in the two major languages of the Belgian federation almost simultaneously, making the distinction between a Flemish and a Walloon work substantially less relevant. A case in point is the comic strip Chevalier Ardent, titled De Koene Ridder in Dutch, which first appeared in both the French-language and Dutch-language editions of the Tintin/Kuifje magazine in 1966. 2   Occasionally direct translations from languages other than Dutch will be mentioned to contextualise the production and spread of modern Arthurian fiction in the Netherlands and Flanders. For considerations of space, translations, including those from Middle Dutch, will not otherwise feature in this chapter, however. 3   A reprint of the Historie van Merlijn may have appeared in 1588 (Debaene 1951, 124). 4   Amadis de Gaule, or Amadís de Gaula in Spanish, is a cycle of chivalric romances which enjoyed widespread success in sixteenth-century Europe. The titular character grows up in post-Arthurian Britain, a fact which is explicitly referred to in the first book. Various motifs and the use of the interlace technique betray the influence of Arthurian romance (Selm 2001, 1–12). The fact that Amadis appears on an early nineteenth-century print depicting famous literary, historical and religious figures suggests that he still enjoyed some popularity at that time (print and description published online by the Rijksmuseum, https:// www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-OB-204.327). 5   The following discussion of modern Arthurian literature has benefited greatly from the overviews provided by Janssens 1987 and 1996b, and Besamusca 2000, 222–3. 6   ‘Schets[en] [uit de middelnederlandsche letterkunde] in nieuwerwetsche taal en vorm’. 7   Pseudonym of Isaac Esser. 8  While Sagen van Koning Arthur does not mention its publication date, the work was announced as a newly published book in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant of 16 November 1920 (Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant 1920). 9   Marie Koenen’s Bretonsche Legenden (Breton Legends), published in 1927, has been assumed elsewhere to also draw its inspiration from Arthurian traditions (Janssens 1987, 308; Janssens 1996b, 124). It consists entirely of pious tales drawn from Breton history and folklore, however. 10   This is the year of completion as stated by the author. The book was later republished as Parzival: Een oude sage (1931, Parzival: An Old Saga) and Parzival: Een oude legende (1933, Parzival: An Old Legend). Parzival: Een zeer oude legende is the title of the 1928 edition and thus likely that of the original. 11   The novel was published in book form in 1923. 12   Pseudonym of Leo van Tichelen. 13   Hubert Lampo also produced a photo book about the Arthurian legend with Pieter Paul Koster. It is titled Arthur (1985). 14   Pseudonym of Frans W. H. van Emmerik. 15   Molenaar’s immediate source was Marie Louise Loke’s 1903 translation of Joseph Bédier’s Tristan, De Roman van Tristan en Isolde (NL). 16   Kell’s book was itself a heavily adapted version of Rodolphe Töpffer’s 1845 Histoire de M. Cryptogame (Brok 1984; Helden 2013a, 19–22). 17   The stories were never published independently, despite intentions to the contrary (private corr­espondence with the artist, 6 May 2017). 18   The original collection appeared in both English and Dutch (private correspondence with the artist, 26 April 2017). 1

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  The series was broadly based on a Flemish sitcom of the same name, which ran from 2005 until 2008. 20   The first six parts were published by the Belgian publisher Talent between 1999 and 2004. The Dutch publisher Silvester published the complete series, in a new translation, in 2007–8. 21  While this series concerned a knight who served a King Arthus and featured a seemingly allknowing mage reminiscent of Merlin, it did not, generally, draw on traditional Arthuriana. 22   See esp. albums 19–45. While many later albums feature the figure of Merlin, they only occasionally feature other Arthurian characters, and are rarely based on established plots or motifs. The development of the series, its general plot lines and its use of pre-existent characters and motifs are discussed in Wispelaere et al. 2011. 23   It is not clear whether Acar, who usually worked in French, used Dutch when he collaborated with De Reymaker, yet the printed text is in Dutch. 24   Pseudonym of Jan Josef Fock. 25   I have not been able to establish whether it was also performed. 26   Most of the music was by Henry Purcell, which has led to the misconception that it is an adaptation of King Arthur, or the British Worthy (see e.g. Hiu 1999, Roodnat 1998). 27   Inèz Derksen, private correspondence, 4 June 2017. 28   Gert Boullart, private correspondence, 1 June 2017; also Theater Top. 29   Frank Affolter, personal interview, 14 April 2019; also Hermens 2005 and Affolter Productions. 30   Leon van Uden, private correspondence, 31 May 2017; also I&L Entertainment. 31   Just Vink, private correspondence, 1 June 2017; also RTVOOG, 2015. 32   ‘Samivel’ was the pseudonym of Paul Gayet-Tancrède. Not much can be found about these radio programmes, recordings of which are unlikely to survive. De Tovernacht van Merlijn (Merlin’s Night of Magic) appears in the 13 January 1948 radio listings of Flemish newspapers, while De Nacht van Merlijn (Merlin’s Night) appears in the 12 April and 9 June 1952 radio listings of Dutch newspapers. A description of De Nacht van Merlijn in the Katholieke Radio-Gids of 7 June 1952 confirms that it was an adaptation of Samivel’s story. As all of the listed actors were Dutch, it is unlikely that this was the same production as that broadcast by the NIR (John van Houten, private correspondence, 17 September 2017). 33   Copies of the scripts are held by the Royal Library of Belgium. They include the dates of broadcast on the cover. 34  The text was translated by Max Schuchart (Waarheid 1983), who was also responsible for the Dutch translations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and T. H. White’s Once and Future King. 35   Kamelot performed almost yearly in Belgium and the Netherlands between 2010 and 2015 (Kamelot). On 13 April 2019, their official Dutch Facebook page had 2,493 followers (https://www.facebook.com/kamelot.netherlands). 36   The 2009 performance by Xynix Opera was also broadcast on television by Brava NL. The 2015 performance, by Vox Luminis and La Fenice, was likewise broadcast on Dutch television, by AVROTROS. It has since been published to Youtube (AVROTROS Klassiek, 2015). 37   An earlier version was prepared for publication in 1939, yet held back at the last moment at the request of Willem Pijper (Dijk and Vestdijk 1992, 8–9). 19

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Primary Texts Beckers, Hartmut (ed.) and Gerd Bauer (trans.). 1991. Der rheinische Merlin. Text, Übersetzung, Untersuchungen der Merlin- und Lüthild-Fragmente. Nach der Handschrift Ms. germ. qu. 1409 der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin (Paderborn: Schöningh). Besamusca, Bart (ed.). 1991b. Lanceloet. De Middelnederlandse vertaling van de Lancelot en prose overgeleverd in de Lancelotcompilatie, vol. 2 (Assen: Van Gorcum). Besamusca, Bart and Ada Postma (eds). 1997. Lanceloet. De Middelnederlandse vertaling van de Lancelot en prose overgeleverd in de Lancelotcompilatie, vol. 1 (Hilversum: Verloren). Bragantini-Maillard, Nathalie (ed.). 2012. Jean Froissart, Melyador, roman en vers de la fin du XIVe siecle (Geneva: Droz). Brandsma, Frank (ed.). 1992. Lanceloet. De Middelnederlandse vertaling van de Lancelot en prose overgeleverd in de Lancelotcompilatie, vol. 3 (Assen: Van Gorcum). Busby, Keith (ed.). 1993. Perceval ou le Conte du Graal (Tübingen: Niemeyer). CD-rom Middelnederlands. 1998. (The Hague, Antwerp: SDU, Standaard). Croenen, Gotfried and Jozef D. Janssens (eds). 1994. ‘Een nieuw licht op de Lancelotcompilatie? De betekenis van het pas gevonden fragmentje van Arturs doet’, Queeste, 1, 3–11 and 108–25. Draak, Maartje (ed.). 1979. Arthur en zijn tafelronde. (The Hague: Nijhoff). Finet-Van der Schaaf, Baukje (ed. and trans.). 2009. Le Roman de Moriaen (Grenoble: Ellug). Finet-Van der Schaaf, Baukje (ed. and trans.). 2012. Récits arthuriens en moyen néerlandais (Grenoble: Ellug). Franck, J. (ed.). 1882. Alexanders Geesten van Jacob van Maerlant (Leiden: Sijthoff). Frappier, Jean (ed.). 1954. La Mort le roi Artu. Roman du XIIIe siècle (Geneva: Droz and Lille: Giard). Frescoln, W. (ed.). 1983. Guillaume le Clerc, The Romance of Fergus (Philadelphia: Allen). Füg-Pierreville, Corinne (ed. and trans.). 2014. Le Roman de Merlin en Prose, edited from MS Bibl. Français 24394 (Paris: Champion). Gerritsen, Willem P. (ed.). 1963. Die Wrake van Ragisel. Onderzoekingen over de Middelnederlandse bewerkingen van de Vengeance Raguidel, gevolgd door een uitgave van de Wrake-teksten (Assen: Van Gorcum). Gerritsen, Willem P. (ed.). 1987. Lantsloot vander Haghedochte. Fragmenten van een Middelnederlandse bewerking van de Lancelot en prose (Amsterdam: North Holland). Heymans, J. G. (ed.). 1983. Van den derden Eduwaert, uitgegeven met een inleiding over de Brabantse historiografie tussen ca. 1270 en ca. 1350 (Nijmegen: ALFA). Hogenbirk, Marjolein (ed.). 2011. Walewein ende Keye. Een dertiende-eeuwse Arturroman, overgeleverd in de Lancelotcompilatie (Hilversum: Verloren). Hutchings, Gweneth (ed.). 1974. Le roman en prose de Lancelot du Lac. Le conte de la charrette (Geneva: Slatkine). Johnson, David F. (ed. and trans.). 1992. Roman van Walewein (New York and London: Garland). Johnson, David F. and Geert H. M. Claassens (eds and trans.). 2000a. Dutch Romances, vol. 1: Roman van Walewein (Cambridge: Brewer).

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Amorbach, Prince Leiningen Archive MS n.s.: 198 Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica MS 1 (olim): 44 Antwerp, Rijksarchief MS Sint-Catharinakapittel en SintCatharinakerk Hoogstraten, Nr. 2: 48, 50, 60 Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz MS mgf 734, 6: 200 MS mgf 1394: 200 MS mqg 1409: 196 MS mqg 2018: 203 Bologna, Archivio di Stato MS b.1 bis, n. 9: 40 Bonn, Universitätsbibliothek MS 526: 38 Borken, Municipal Archive MS n.s.: 200 Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België MS 837–845: 76 MS 9543: 43 MS 9548: 43 MS 11145: 35–6 MS II 115–2: 61, 94, 202 MS II 115–3: 48, 61, 165, 192 MS IV 636–4: 48, 50, 62, 192 MS IV 818: 48, 50, 62, 125 MS IV 1059: 48, 50, 61 Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek MS 28 (B 37): 3, 46, 47, 49, 57, 60, 147, 148, 150, 151, 154, 187, 189, 191 Chantilly, Musée Condé MS 472: 38, 87, 112 Cologne, Stadtarchiv MS Best. 7020 (W*) 46 (Blankenheim): 4, 49, 168, 197–9, 202 MS Best. 7020 (W*) 87: 199–200 MS Best. 7020 (W*) 88: 199

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Düsseldorf, Universitätsbibliothek MS Dauerleihgabe der Stadt Düsseldorf, F 26,a: 48, 50, 62, 81 MS Dauerleihgabe der Stadt Düsseldorf, F 26,b: 47, 50, 51, 62, 81 MS K 2: F 23: 48, 61, 94, 197 Ghent, University Library MS 1619: 48, 50, 61 Gotha, University of Erfurt – Forschungsbibliothek MS Cod. Memb. I 172: 203 Göttingen, State and University Library MS 4° Cod. Ms. philol. 184:Ia: 200 Hamburg, State and University Library MS Cod. germ. 6: 200 Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek MS Cod. Pal. germ. 147: 168, 199 MS Cod. Pal. germ. 848 (Manesse codex): 7, 22, 23 Le Mans, Médiathèque municipale MS 354: 38 Leeuwarden, Tresoar MS 150 HS ltr. F: 200 Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek MS BPL 3085: 47, 50, 51, 62, 81 MS Ltk. 191: 29, 47–54, 57–8, 60, 88, 204–5 MS Ltk. 195: 47, 48, 50, 52, 58–9, 60, 61, 114, 118, 204–5 MS Ltk. 205: 52, 60 MS Ltk. 1107: 48, 50, 61 MS Ltk. 1564: 77 MS Ltk. 1752: 48, 50, 51, 61 Liège (Luik), Bibliothèque municipale MS 1333: 48, 50, 62, 94, 202 London, British Library MS Add. 10292–4: 41, 44 MS Add. 36614: 36 MS Royal 14 E III: 42, 44 Maastricht, Rijksarchief MS Coll. 236: 48, 50, 61

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Manchester, The John Rylands University Library MS French 1: 44 Marburg, Staatsarchiv MS 11,2: 198 MS Bestand 147 Hr 1, Nr. 1: 48, 50, 51, 61 Mengeringhausen (Waldeck), Stadtarchiv MS n.s. (lost): 48, 50, 51, 61 Mespelbrunn, Castle Archive MS n.s.: 198 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Cgm 5250/25: 198, 202 Münster, Diözesanbibliothek MS Bestand Studien- und Zentralbibliothek der Franziskaner, n.s.: 48, 50, 51, 61 MS Bestand Studien- und Zentralbibliothek der Franziskaner, n.s.: 200 Münster, LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte MS 459: 200 Münster, Staatsarchiv MS Depositum Landsberg–Velen, n.s.: 48, 50, 60, 61, 187 New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MS 229: 36, 39, 41, 42 Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 828: 40 MS Bodley 264: 39 MS Douce 215: 44 MS French d. 16 (Sneyd): 47 Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal MS 5218: 39, 42 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France MS fr. 95: 39, 42 MS fr. 110: 38, 42

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MS fr. 122: 41, 42, 166 MS fr. 342: 38, 42 MS fr. 375: 51 MS fr. 749: 40, 42 MS fr. 1430: 157 MS fr. 12467: 36 MS fr. 12560: 37, 42 MS fr. 12576: 34, 42, 43 MS nouv. acq. fr. 6614: 34, 42, 43 Prague, Strahov Library/Museum for National Literature MS 392/zl: 48, 62, 94, 197 Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek MS 96 A 7: 48, 50, 61, 167–8 The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek MS 75 H 58: 48, 61, 165, 192 MS 128 E 10: 77 MS 129 A 10 (Lancelot Compilation): 2, 3, 24, 47, 49, 54–7, 59–62, 81, 111, 131, 138, 171–80, 183, 189, 192 MS KA XX: 52 MS KA CX: 76 Tours, Bibliothèque municipale MS 942: 47 Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria MS L.III.12: 40 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek MS Cod. 2902: 203 MS Series Nova 3968: 46, 62, 79 Wezemaal, Pastorie Wezemaal MS Archive of the Sint-Martinuskerk, n.s.: 48, 50, 61, 167–8, 171

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GENERAL INDEX

adaptation courtoise 96 adaptation technique 81, 84, 85, 88, 90–1, 95–6, 108–9, 156, 158–9, 190 Adenet le Roi 23, 24, 36 Berte as grans pies 23, 29, 37 Cleomadès 23, 29 Enfances Ogier 23, 29, 36 Affolter, Frank and Boom, Lars 216 Merlijn en het mysterie van Koning Arthur 212 Aiol 15, 47, 79, 109 Albertus of Brescia De amore et dilectione Dei 57 Albrecht of Beyeren (Bavaria), Count of Holland 77 Albrecht van Voorne (Viscount of Zeeland) 21, 63, 75, 149, 151, 155, 186 Aleida de Bourgogne 34 Alexander the Great 21, 26, 27, 32, 63, 64, 149 Alix de Rozoy 88 Amadeus VIII (Duke of Savoy) 39 Amadis de Gaule 204, 215 amplificatio 81, 84, 95 antagonism Lanceloet–Walewein 5, 86, 87, 99, 107, 114, 143–4, 181–2, 184 Antwerp 25, 26, 48–50, 60, 144, 166–8, 189–91, 194, 204 Armorial de Gelre, see Herald Beyeren, Wapenboek Arras 32, 34, 36, 38, 43 Ars d’amour, de vertu et de boneurté, Li 43 Arnulf IV of Oudenaarde 88, 110 Arnulfus de Kayo 38 Arturs doet 6, 46, 48, 50, 56, 60, 86–7, 99, 106, 108, 157, 160, 163, 166–7, 171, 173–4, 176, 179–80, 183–5, 187–9, 193 ASK theatre company Arthur en het zwaard in de steen 212 Athis et Prophilias 43 âtre périlleux, L’ 38 audience 2, 18–20, 22, 24, 25, 50, 113, 145–6, 208–9, 211–12, 214 ‘aventuren vader’, see Father of Adventure

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B (main scribe of the Lancelot Compilation) 165, 173–4, 178, 192 Barnouw, Adriaan 96 Baudouin VI (Emperor of Constantinople) 33 Beckers, Hartmut 197, 198–9 Bediedenisse van der misse 57–8 Bédier, Joseph Roman de Tristan et Iseut 208, 215 Bel inconnu 38 Benoît de Sainte-Maure 36 Bergh, Laurens Ph. C. van den De Nederlandsche volksromans 205 Béroul 46, 79 Besamusca, Bart 41, 86, 100, 104, 106, 108, 117, 135, 142, 157, 160, 165, 167, 179, 183, 186, 192 Betz, Gerardus Henri Walewein (adaptation) 205 Biegel, Paul 209 Biemans, Jos 51, 55, 178, 180 Biesheuvel, Ingrid 208 Blécourt, Willem de 116 border areas 11–14, 31–2, 194–5 Bouden, Tom and Duchateau, Kim Herman, de roze lichtrode ridder 210 Boullart, Gert 216 Boutens, Pieter C. 207 Liederen van Isoude 206 Bovée, Juul Parzival: Een zeer oude legende 206 Brabant, Brabantine 2, 7, 11, 13–15, 22–5, 27–9, 32, 34, 37, 43, 49–50, 53–4, 56, 67, 70–1, 76, 78, 81, 88, 94, 96, 109–10, 148, 165–6, 168, 178, 185, 200, 202 Brakman, Willem Een familiedrama 209 Bräm, Andreas 43 Brandsma, Frank 157, 168, 185 Breuddwyd Rhonaby 208 Broertjes, de Door ’t dak 212 Bruges 7, 18, 20, 35, 41, 44, 49, 63, 96, 145, 191 Bruijn, Elisabeth de 189

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Bruneel, Walter King Arthur & the Comalot: Waar halen ze het? 210 Brussels 14, 25, 35–6, 43, 48–50, 60–2, 76, 94–5, 125 Bundel, Katty de 136 Busby, Keith 45 Butler, David A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 213 Caers, Bram 168, 180 Caesarius of Heisterbach 195, 201 Dialogus Miraculorum 195 Cancionero de Romances 144 Chanson de Roland 37 chansons de geste 21, 35, 36, 117–18, 123, 129, 137 Charlemagne 8, 10, 15, 24, 26, 29, 51, 59, 63–4, 66, 75–7, 160 Charles V 10 Charles VI of France 75 Charles the Bold 10, 41 Chauvel, David, Lereculey, Jérôme and Simon, Jean-Luc Arthur 210 Chevalier Beloiseau 210 chivalry, chivalric 3–5, 7, 21, 24, 40, 78–9, 90, 92, 94–5, 102–3, 105, 108–10, 116, 123–6, 128–30, 138, 142–4, 168, 172, 185, 193, 199, 201–2, 212, 215 Chrétien de Troyes 2, 7, 17, 18, 23, 29, 31–8, 41, 47–8, 51, 69, 87–8, 90, 92, 94–6, 103, 108, 110, 111, 114, 118, 121–2, 124–5, 129, 182, 195, 197, 206, 211 Chevalier au lion (Yvain) 18, 69, 91–3, 103, 104, 112, 129–30, 137, 206, 211 Chevalier de la charrete (Lancelot) 33, 112, 118, 129, 145, 211 Cligés 37, 41, 47, 129 Conte du Graal (Perceval) 2, 7, 18, 32, 47–8, 87–8, 90, 94–6, 98–9, 103–4, 108–9, 111, 114, 121, 124–5, 130, 136, 145, 155, 197 Erec et Enide 38, 41, 129, 195 chronicle 3, 22, 24, 50, 63–71, 73–5 Chroniques des rois de France 36 Claassens, Geert 1, 5, 105, 136, 142 Claes Heynenzoon, see Herald Beyeren Claudius (Roman Emperor) 75 Cohen, Josef Nederlandsche sagen en legenden 206 Colars de Saint-Quentin of Tournai 37 Colins li Fruitiers 38 colophon 24, 35, 38–9, 43, 48, 53, 168 comedy, see humour

12 Indexes ALC.indd 242

comic strips 209–11 compiler 3, 64, 81–2, 85–7, 96–100, 105–7, 110–11, 121, 123, 125, 128, 138, 140–2, 144, 171–86, 193 corpus of Middle Dutch Arthurian texts 2, 45–6, 60–2 Cornelius Aurelius Divisiekroniek 77 corrector (of MS 129 A 10) 3, 54–6, 172, 174, 178–80, 185 corrector (of MS Ltk. 191) 53–4, 88 Couperus, Louis 207 Het zwevende schaakbord 207 Williswinde 205 courtly, courtliness 5, 7, 14, 19, 20, 23, 33, 41, 59, 79, 84, 86–7, 96, 104, 111, 116–18, 129–30, 159, 182–3, 193, 197 Craenhals, François Chevalier Ardent (Walloon original) 210 De koene ridder (Dutch translation) 210 Culhwch ac Olwen 208 cycle 2–5, 24, 33–4, 36–7, 99, 106–7, 109, 120, 128, 131, 138, 140, 144, 151, 163, 171, 176–7, 179–82, 184–5, 188, 191, 193, 204, 215 Daalder, Dirk L. De Ridders van de Tafelronde 208 De wonderlijke geschiedenis van Ferguut 206 Delaby, Philippe and Duval, Yves Arthur au royaume de l’impossible (Walloon original) 210 Arthur in het legendarische koninkrijk (Dutch translation) 210 Derksen, Inèz 216 King A 212 Descamps, Luc De grot van Merlijn 209 De thuiskomst 209 Dewulf, Rik Koning Arthur 210 didactic function, focus 4, 5, 21, 58, 104, 109, 129–30, 137–8, 142, 149–50, 155, 180 Didot Perceval 139 Diederic van Assenede Floris ende Blancefloer 19, 57 Dietsche doctrinael 57–8 Dirc Potter Der minnen loep 52 Dorst, Tankred Merlin, oder das wüste Land 211 Draak, Maartje 1, 4, 116, 156–7, 166, 172, 174, 185, 189, 192 dragon 7, 22–3, 65, 75, 89, 115, 118, 132–3, 135, 137, 139, 141, 144, 150, 153, 189, 212

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GENERAL INDEX

dragon-slayer 137, 139, 141, 144 drama (Arthurian) 211–13 Duijvestijn, Bob 197 dwarf 80, 83, 89, 90, 93, 126, 181, 188 Echard, Siân 108 edifying function, see didactic function Edward I of England 67, 68–71, 74, 76, 131 Edward III of England 37, 73 Eilhart von Oberge Tristrant 79, 194 Einhard 75 Eleanor of Aquitaine 33, 194 Eleanor of Castile 67 Eliot, T. S. The Waste Land 214 Emmerik, Frans W. H. van 215 Eneas 28, 128 Engen, Hildo van 186 Entwistle, William J. 142 epilogue 33, 34, 114, 155, 184, 188, 198 Esopet 57, 58 Esser, Isaac 215 Estoire de Merlin 64–5, 151, 185–6 Estoire del Saint Graal 37, 38, 39, 151, 153, 191 Everwijn of Bentheim 16, 22, 147–8 fairy 139, 143, 155 fairy tale 103, 116, 122, 143 father 4, 5, 7, 14, 20, 23, 28, 37, 41, 63, 65, 70, 90, 98, 107, 115, 118–24, 126–8, 130, 135, 152, 154–5, 164, 183, 186, 188 Father of Adventure (Walewein) 3, 114, 116, 123, 135–6, 138, 160 Ferguut 6, 18, 29, 34, 46–51, 53–4, 56–8, 60, 78, 87–94, 109–11, 130, 132, 180, 205–6, 208 Filip Utenbroeke 64 Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan 39, 40 Finet-Van der Schaaf, Baukje 6 First Continuation (Continuation Gauvain, Continuation of Conte du Graal) 94, 96–9, 108 Flanders 2, 5, 7, 8, 10–12, 17–23, 25, 27–9, 32, 34–40, 43, 49–50, 52, 78, 81, 87, 88, 92, 94, 96, 108, 110, 113–14, 146, 148, 155, 159, 160, 178, 194, 202, 204–5, 211, 213–15 Flemish 2–5, 12–14, 16, 18–19, 23–5, 28–30, 34, 41, 49, 50, 54, 57, 63, 78, 80, 85, 88, 90–2, 94–6, 98–9, 104, 108–11, 113–14, 120–1, 123, 125, 128–32, 135, 137–8, 145–6, 149, 166–8, 172, 183–4, 198, 204, 206, 209–13, 215–16 Floire et Blancheflor 19, 30, 57 Floris V, Count of Holland 4, 21, 75, 104, 149

12 Indexes ALC.indd 243

243

Floyris ende Blantseflur 15, 47, 79, 109 Fock, Jan Josef 216 Forest without Mercy 69, 70, 76, 126, 131 Franck, Johannes 179 Frijhoff, Willem 28 Frisia 11 Frisian(s) 1, 72 Froissart, Jean Meliador 34 Füg-Pierreville, Corinne, 151 Fuqua, Antoine King Arthur 213 Garin de Monglane 37 Gasse, Lies van Een held: naar Gawein en de Groene Ridder 208 Gautier de Coinci Miracles Nostre Dame 36 Gayet-Tancrède, Paul see Samivel Geerts, Paul Het Bretonse broertje 210 Gelre 72, 77 Geoffrey of Monmouth 65, 71, 196, 199, 202 First Variant Version of the Historia Regum Britanniae 65 Historia Regum Britanniae 7, 31, 65–6, 154–5, 183, 187, 191, 195–6, 199 Vita Merlini 196, 199 Gerald of Wales 76 Gerard van Voorne 166, 186 Gerbert de Montreuil Perceval Continuation 34 Roman de la Violette 36 Gerritsen, W. P. 55, 66, 81, 84–5, 104, 110, 156–7, 159, 181 Ghent 17, 18, 20, 28, 40, 41, 48–50, 61, 145 Gheraert Leeu 73 giant 23, 65, 70, 72–6, 89, 91, 100, 102, 126, 133–4, 137, 153 Gilles li Muisis 39, 43 opera omnia 39 ‘Godefroi de Bouillon’ 36 Godefroid de Naste (of Mons) 43 Godfrey of Bouillon 71, 76 Godfried of Brabant 110 Gottfried von Strassburg 23, 79 Tristan 79, 194, 199, 200, 206 Goudse Kroniekje 72, 73 Gouverneur, J. J. A. Reizen en avonturen van Mijnheer Prikkebeen 209 Graelent 139 Grail (the object) 5, 7, 32–4, 36, 39, 41, 43, 46, 48, 64–5, 87, 90, 97–8, 107, 117–18, 121,

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124–5, 130, 132, 147–52, 154–5, 161–4, 177, 182–3, 186, 189, 191, 193, 206–8, 211, 213–14 Gregory the Great 34, 147 Grimm, Brothers Kinder und Hausmärchen 116 Groothof, Frank Koning Arthur 212 Guelders (Gelre) 11, 15, 28, 72, 77, 79, 80 Gui, bishop of Utrecht 43 Gui de Dampierre (Count of Flanders) 23, 36, 39, 41, 145 Guigemar 139 Guillaume I of Hainaut (III of Holland and II of Zeeland) 37, 43 Guillaume de Termonde 36, 39, 43 Guillaume d’Orange 66, 129, 147 Guillaume le Clerc 87, 90 Fergus 18, 19, 29, 34, 38, 53, 87, 90–1, 108, 110, 112, 130 Guiron le Courtois 41 Gulik 11, 15 Haar, Jaap ter De geschiedenis van Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Ronde Tafel 208 Parcival 208 Tristan en Isolde: De geschiedenis van een noodlot 208 Hainaut 11, 18, 20–2, 28, 32–4, 36–8, 43, 200 Hartmann von Aue 200 Erec 16, 194, 201 Gregorius 200 Iwein 194, 200 Hector 76 Heeroma, Klaas 108, 156, 160 Heinrich VI (of Germany) 196 Heinrich von Freiberg 200 Heinric en Margriete van Limborch 58–9, 110, 131 Hendrik van Veldeke 15, 23, 28, 79 Sente Servas 15 Henric ende Claredamie 47 Henry III, Duke of Brabant 23, 29, 34 Herald Beyeren 72, 77 Chronicle of the English Kings 72 Wapenboek 72 Wereldkroniek 72, 73, 74, 77 Herzen, Frank Arthur in Wales 208 Het zwaard van Brittannië 209 Ridders van de Tafelronde 208 Herzen, Frank and Stapel, Gerrit Gawein en de Groene Ridder 211 Lancelot 211

12 Indexes ALC.indd 244

Hichtum, Nienke van Het groot vertelselboek 206 Hier volghet een goet dicht van den IX besten, see Van den neghen besten ‘Histoire de Troie’ 36 Historie van Merlijn 26, 45, 60, 148, 189–91, 204, 215 ‘Hoe Walewein wilde weten vrouwen gepens’ 86, 181–3, 188–9 Hogenbirk, Marjolein 137–8, 179–80, 185 Hogenhout, J. 106 Holland 4, 11, 13, 20–2, 28, 36–7, 52, 63, 73, 75, 77, 104, 148, 149 humour 28, 64, 91, 94, 96, 109–10, 117, 130–1, 137, 142, 207, 210 Horace Ars poetica 58 Hugen, Jelmar 116 Hugh de Morville 195 Hugh of Saint-Victor De Modo Orandi 167 Huis Anubis en de vijf van het magische zwaard, Het 209, 213 Hunbaut 38 Huydecoper, Balthazar 205 Idle, Eric Spamalot 212 images 7, 39, 51–2, 88, 118, 189–90 Imperial Flanders 11, 27 interlace (entrelacement) 85, 96, 99, 125, 128, 138, 175–7, 182–3, 185, 187, 215 intertextuality 18, 19, 90, 92, 103, 117–18, 124–5, 129–32, 137, 138, 140–1, 145, 160 Isabelle, queen of Edward III 37 Isabelle of Bavaria 100 Iser, Wolfgang 107 Jackson, W. H. 1 Jacob van Maerlant 3, 20–2, 24–5, 28, 46, 63–7, 70–1, 74–5, 100, 104–5, 111, 148–55, 160, 169, 185, 186, 191 Alexanders geesten 63–4, 66, 74, 77, 100 Boek van Merline 16, 23, 29, 46, 60, 65, 67, 71, 74–5, 147, 150–5, 190–1, 195–6, 208 Graal–Merlijn 2, 4, 21, 22, 29, 100, 104, 147, 148–55, 178, 185–6, 191 Heimelicheit der heimelicheden 21, 149 Historie van Troyen 99, 149 Historie vanden Grale 16, 29, 46, 60, 74, 148–52, 189, 191 Rijmbijbel 191 Sinte Franciscus leven (Life of Saint Francis) 14, 64, 71

08/12/2020 12:15



GENERAL INDEX

Spiegel historiael 21, 22, 25, 29, 52, 63–7, 70–2, 74–7, 156, 178, 183, 196, 200–1, 203 Torec (Toerecke) 5, 21, 22, 46, 60, 64, 68–70, 75, 78, 99–108, 110–12, 130, 149, 176–7, 180, 182, 192–3 Jacobus de Cessolis 147 Jacobus de Voragine Legenda aurea 57 Jacques, Maria De Visserkoning 207 Jacques de Longuyons Vœux du paon 36, 43, 71 Jan I of Brabant, see John I, Duke of Brabant Jan VI of Gistel 18 Jan van Boendale 56, 57 Lekenspiegel 53 Jan van Doesborch 190 Jan van Heelu 23, 29 Jan Veldenaer Fasciculus temporum 77 Janssens, Jozef 40, 116, 159, 167, 191 Jean, son of Jean Cole (of Tournai) 37 Jean II d’Avesnes (Count of Holland) (Count of Hainaut) 36 Jean II de Nesle (Count of Soissons) 35–6 Jean Cole (of Tournai) 37 Jean de Condé Dis dou Chevalier a le Mance 129 Jean de Florence 37 Jenny-Ariëns Kappers, Do Parcival: Een beschouwing over de betekenis van het V.C.J.B. Insigne 206 Johan en de alverman 213 Johanna of Flanders 2, 33, 35, 88 Johannes a Leydis Chronicon comitum Hollandiae et episcoporum Ultraiectensium 77 John I, Duke of Brabant 7, 22–3, 27, 29, 34, 67 John II, Duke of Brabant 70 John of Ruusbroec 14 Johnson, David F. 1, 5, 105, 107, 112, 114 Jonckbloet, W. J. A. 19, 29, 189, 192 Geschiedenis der Middennederlandsche dichtkunst 205 Joncker Jan uut den Vergiere 131 Joseph of Arimathea 4 Julius Caesar 71, 76 Karel ende Elegast 160 Kayak Merlin 214 Merlin: Bard of the Unseen 214 Keen, Maurice 72

12 Indexes ALC.indd 245

245

Kell, Julius Fahrten und Abenteuer des Herrn Steckelbein 209, 215 Kerkwijk, Henk van 209 Kern, Peter 199 Kestemont, Mike 110, 160, 167–8, 179–80 Klein, Jan Willem 53, 56, 165, 172–4 Koekman, Jeanette 103, 111 Koenen, Marie 207, 211 Bretonsche Legenden 215 Parcival 206, 211 Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Tafelronde: geschiedenissen uit ouden tijd 205 Kramer, Simone Van Parcifal tot Beowulf 208 Kresse, Hans G. De onwillige held 210 Eric de Noorman 210 Wigberths wraak 210 Kruijssen, Agave 209 Afscheid van Arthur 208 Lancelot: Ridder van de Ronde Tafel 208 Merlijn 208 Perceval en het Geheim van de Graal 208 Walewein: Ridder van de Ronde Tafel 208 Kuiper, Willem 53, 88, 110, 167, 185, 192 Laagland, Het 212 Lacy, Norris J. 1, 186 Lampo, Hubert Arthur 215 De Elfenkoningin 207 De Heks en de Archeoloog 207 Wijlen Sarah Silbermann 207 Zeg maar Judith 207 Lampo, Hubert and Koster, Pieter Paul Arthur 215 lance 82, 97, 124, 125 Lanceloet 24–5, 40, 46, 48, 51, 54, 56, 59, 61, 99, 157, 160–9, 171–6, 179–80, 182–5, 187, 192, 193 Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet 5, 6, 46, 61, 107, 110, 113–14, 138–46, 176–7, 182–3, 192, 208 Lanceloet–Queeste–Arturs doet 56, 160–7, 171, 173–4, 179–80, 187 Lancelot (German Prose) 16, 168, 198, 201–2 Lancelot (Middle Dutch Prose) 45–6, 48, 50, 157, 167–71, 198 Lancelot (Spanish Prose) 144 Lancelot Compilation 2–6, 21–2, 24–5, 46–51, 54–6, 61, 64, 67–9, 81, 85–7, 94, 96–100, 103–9, 111, 113, 120–1, 123, 125, 128, 131–2, 138, 140–2, 144–5, 147–8, 156,

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THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

159–60, 164–5, 167, 169, 171–85, 189, 192, 197–8, 208 Lancelot–Grail Cycle 31, 34, 36, 38–41, 48, 51, 66, 151, 153, 156, 166, 185, 188–9, 207–8, 213 ‘Agravain’ 38, 39, 157 Lancelot–Queste–Mort Artu (trilogy) 5, 24, 36, 38–9, 46, 151, 182 Mort Artu 38, 108, 160, 163, 183, 184, 188 Suite–Vulgate du Merlin 148, 151, 185–7, 191 Lancelot Stevens 25 Lanseloet van Denemerken 25 ‘Lansselot’ 37 Lantsloot vander Haghedochte 2, 46, 48, 50–1, 61, 155–60, 165–6, 168, 192 Lanzarote y el ciervo de pie blanco 144 Legend of King Arthur, The (TV series) 213 legende van Koning Arthur, De 213 Lie, Orlanda 168–70, 193 Liège 11, 15, 62, 94, 194, 202 Limburg 7, 11, 13, 15, 47, 59, 79 lion 18, 52, 76, 100, 126–9, 132, 138–44 ‘Livre de Merlin’ 36 Lodewijk van Velthem 2, 3, 24, 46, 56, 64, 67–71, 74–6, 110, 149, 151, 160, 178–80, 184–9, 191–3 Merlin Continuation 23, 46–7, 50, 61, 147–8, 151, 155, 181, 185–9, 193 Spiegel historiael (Continuation/Part V) 64, 67–71, 74–6, 111, 131 Lohengrin 200, 206–7 Loke, Marie Louise De Roman van Tristan en Isolde 215 Loomis, Roger Sherman 1, 6, 68 Loon 11,15 Lorraine Cycle 37 Los, Frans C. J. Parzival’s Graaltocht 206 Lothar I 8 Lotharingia 10, 27 Louis VII 33 Louis VIII 35 Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruuthuse 41, 44 Louis of Male (II) (Count of Flanders) 10, 37, 191 Louis the Pious 8 Lowe, Alexandra Penrhyn De Legende van de Vijf 209 Het duistere ritueel 209 Het Huis Anubis en de vijf van het magische zwaard 209 Strijd om het zwaard 209 Lulofs, Barthold H. Handboek van den vroegsten bloei der Nederlandsche letterkunde 205

12 Indexes ALC.indd 246

Lumey, Jan van De tooverbron: Een spel in vijf bedrijven 211 Luxemb(o)urg 8, 11, 12, 34 Maastricht 15, 48, 50, 61, 193, 194 magic 64, 69, 82–3, 89, 101, 115–16, 133, 141, 144, 155–6, 161, 187, 207, 209–11, 213, 216 Mahaut, Countess of Artois and Burgundy 36 Manesse codex 7, 22–3 Manessier 33, 34, 88 Perceval Continuation 2, 33, 34, 88 Marco Polo Devisement du monde 36 Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant 70 Margaret of Flanders 10 Marguerite III, Countess of Flanders and Burgundy 33, 37 Marguerite de Brabant 37 Maria van Oudenaerde 110 Marie de Bourgogne 39 Marie de France Lais 65 Marie de Savoie 39 Marie of Champagne 17, 33 Marie of Champagne (Empress of Constantinople) 33 Mary of Burgundy 36 Maskeroen (Mascheroen) episode 46, 149, 152, 191 Matena, Dick and Banda, Lodewijk Hartog van ‘Ridder Roodhart’ 210 matière de Bretagne 7, 23, 26, 29, 143, 204 matière de France 15, 24, 26–7 matière de Rome 29 Maubeuge, Nicole and Thomas de 36–7 Mechelen (Malines) 11, 25, 168 ‘Merlin’ 37 Merlin Cycle 3, 4, 171, 185 Merveilles de Rigomer 38 Meulen, Janet F. van der 43 Meuser, Friedrich 156 Micha, Alexandre 151, 186 Middleton, Roger 45, 48 misogyny 86, 181, 188–9 Moerkerken, Pieter H. van 207 De bloedrode planeet, of Merlijns laatste visioen 207 Molenaar, Reynier 215 Tristan en Isolde: Het klassieke liefdesverhaal 208 Moniage Guillaume 129 Montijn de Fouw, Nelly Sagen van Koning Arthur en de Ridders van de Tafelronde 206

08/12/2020 12:15



GENERAL INDEX

Moriaen 5, 6, 46, 48, 50, 61, 69, 87, 99, 109, 113–14, 120–5, 130, 139, 141–2, 145–6, 160, 171, 176–7, 179–80, 184 Narcis 212 narrative structure 3, 85, 87, 103, 106, 113, 115–16, 125, 128, 166, 182 Neidhart 28 Nicolaes van Cats 149 Nine Worthies 71–5, 201, 204 Nolf, August de De Graal: Het spel van Parzifal in vier bedrijven 211 O’Gorman, Richard 151, 191 Of Arthour and of Merlin 190, 204 Olivier de la Marche 41 Oosterhuis, Huub and Loo, Stijn van der Arthur: Koning van een nieuwe wereld 214 Oosterveer, Minck Excalibur 211 Oostrom, Frits van 7, 16, 20, 28, 75, 104–5, 149, 157, 159–60, 166, 180, 185, 191–2 Maerlants wereld 20, 191 Oppenhuis de Jong, Soetje 176 Otto II, Count of Guelders 79 Ovid Metamorphoses 131 Owen, D. D. R. 87 ownership of manuscripts 3, 4, 29, 31, 34–9, 41, 43, 56, 67, 147–8, 178, 180, 184, 187, 191, 195, 198 Paepe, Norbert de 84 Pamphile et Galatee 39 patronage 2, 4, 15, 17–19, 21–2, 28–9, 31, 32–5, 41, 43, 53, 88, 138, 145, 149, 151, 154–5, 166, 197, 199 Parcevals saga 47 Parcheval (Middle Franconian) 4, 111, 197, 198, 202 Pas, Wouter ten Koning Arthur 212 Pedrolino puppet theatre company Het zwaard van koning Arthur 212 Penninc and Pieter Vostaert 5, 46, 50, 61, 114–19, 145, 160, 208 Walewein 5, 6, 46, 47, 48, 50, 52, 59, 61, 109, 113–19, 130, 145–6, 160, 180, 204–5, 207–8 Perceforest 41 Perceval (Continuations) 2, 5, 18, 29, 33–4, 36, 51, 88, 94, 96–9, 108, 111, 139 Perchevael (Middle Dutch) 29, 34, 47, 48, 50, 56,

12 Indexes ALC.indd 247

247

61, 68–9, 78, 87, 94–9, 104, 106, 109–11, 171, 173–7, 179, 192, 197, 208 Percheval van Rupelmonde 25 Peredur 47 performance 3, 55–6, 178, 180, 214, 216 Perlesvaus 35, 36, 38 Persijn, A. J. 156 Pesch, Pierre 189–90 Petermeijer, Hans Koning Arthur en de ridders van de Ronde Tafel 208 Petit Artus de Bretagne 41 Philip I (of Alsace), Count of Flanders 2, 7, 17, 29, 32–4, 36, 87, 108 Philip the Bold 10 Philip the Fair 10 Philip the Good (Duke of Burgundy) 41 Philippe VI (King of France) 43 Philippe de Namur (I) 33 Pickens, Rubert T. 187 Pierart dou Tielt 39, 43 Pieron de Waudripont (of Tournai) 37 Pijper, Willem and Vestdijk, Simon 214, 216 Merlijn 214 Pleier, Der Tandareis und Flordibel 199 Pluim, Teunis Middeleeuwsche heldensagen 206 Pontus und Sidonia 199 Post Lancelot–Grail tradition 208 Postma, Ada 157 Processus iudiciarius or Litigation Mascaron contra genus humanum 191 prologue 32–4, 58, 63–5, 71, 75, 99–100, 113, 121, 148–9, 163, 167, 171–2, 180, 183–4, 186, 192, 193 prophecy 65, 195–6 Prose Tristan 5, 31, 36, 41, 51, 80 Purcell, Henry 216 King Arthur, or the British Worthy 214, 216 Putter, Ad 2, 135 Queeste vanden Grale 6, 46, 48, 50, 56, 62, 85–7, 98–9, 106–7, 120–1, 132, 138, 157, 163, 166–7, 173–7, 180, 182–3, 185, 192, 193 radio-ridder, De 213 Rana, Soera Tennyson’s idyllen van den koning 205 Ranawake, S. A. 1 Raoul de Houdenc 35 Vengeance Raguidel 34, 35, 38, 51, 81, 84–6, 108–9, 112, 137–8 reading 54–5, 90, 172, 178 Reidans van Heldendaden 211

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248

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

Reymaker, Hugo de and Acar, Jacques 216 De nieuwe avonturen van Lancelot 211 Rheinischer Merlin 196, 201 Richard the Lionheart 196 Richars li Biaus 129 Ridder metter mouwen 6, 46, 48, 50, 62, 69, 70, 80, 113, 125–31, 145–6, 171, 176–7, 181–2, 192 RO Theater 211 Robert II (Count of Artois) 36 Robert de Béthune (Count of Flanders) 36 Robert de Boron 21, 150, 151, 152, 154–5, 191 Joseph d’Arimathie 21, 64, 149–51 Merlin 21, 149, 151–2, 154, 196 Robert de Cassel 36 rode ridder, De 211 Roelants, Leo Het heldenboek: sagen en legenden 207 Roman d’Alexandre 39, 40 Roman de la rose 39 Roman de Renart 36, 38 Roman van Heinric en Margriete van Limborch 58–9, 110, 131 ‘romanch de Lanselot’ 37 ‘romanch de Merlin’ 37 ‘romanch des vies Loherens et des novials’ 37 ‘romant de Natyen’ 37 Round Table 25, 66–7, 73–4, 80–1, 83, 88, 90, 92, 99–103, 105–6, 111, 126–8, 132, 151, 153–4, 163–4, 175, 183, 188, 201, 205–6, 208–10, 212, 214 Samivel 216 De Nacht van Merlijn 216 De Tovernacht van Merlijn 216 La grande nuit de Merlin 213 Schalk, Sytze and Marc Veerkamp King A 212 Schendel, Arthur van 207 Tristan en Isolde: Een liefdesroman 206 Schmitz, Bernhard 117 Schuchart, Max 216 scribe 37–9, 43, 49, 50, 53, 54, 57–9, 79, 147, 152–3, 161, 165–6, 173–5, 178, 187, 192, 199 Secretum secretorum 149 Sigebert of Gembloux 75 Simon Cock 189, 190, 204 Historie van Merlijn 26, 45, 60, 148, 189–91, 204, 215 Simon de Montfort 67–70 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 206, 208, 211 Sir Perceval of Galles 47 Skårup, Povl 176 Sleiderink, Remco 28, 29, 186

12 Indexes ALC.indd 248

Smith, Simon 146, 176 Somme le roi 38 Sommer, Heinrich Oskar 186 Sone de Nansay 34 Stead, William Thomas Books for the Bairns 205 King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: Old Stories Re-Told 205 Steinhoff, Hans-Hugo 202 Stirnemann, Patricia 39 Stockdale, Michael ‘Mike’ and Blareau, Christian Floortje 210 Stones, Alison 43 Streuvels, Stijn 207 Tristan en Isolde 206 Summerfield, Thea 111, 186 Swerts, Wim, Asten, Luc van and Bouden, Tom Het bloed van Merlijn 210 Tennyson, Alfred Idylls of the King 205 Tervooren, Helmut 28, 194, 198 test 83, 86, 128, 150, 154, 163, 181 Theater Terra 212 Theater Top Kleine Arthur, Grote Koning 212 Thérouanne 32, 38 Thomas d’Angleterre 46, 79, 80 Tristan 46, 79, 80, 108 Thomas Malory 27 Tichelen, Leo van 215 Tijsmans, Mark 208 De ridders van de Ronde Keukentafel 208 Tilvis, Pentti 16, 168, 201 Tolkien, J. R. R. Lord of the Rings 216 Toonder, Marten Koning Hollewijn en de Ronde Tafel 209 Töpffer, Rodolph Histoire de M. Cryptogame 215 Torec, see Jacob van Maerlant Torrez, le chevalier au cercle d’or 64, 100, 103–4, 108, 111 tournament 67, 68–9, 71, 76, 82, 90–3, 97, 101–2, 105, 110, 126–7, 130, 133, 136–7, 161–2, 169–70, 183 translation technique 80, 81, 88, 95, 164–5, 169–70, 187 Tres hijuelos había el rey 144 Tristan (Prose) 5, 31, 36, 41, 51, 80 Tristant (Middle Dutch fragment) 15, 46–7, 49, 62, 78, 79–81, 109 Tristant und Isalde 206 Turpin 75 Tyolet 139–41, 143–5

08/12/2020 12:15



GENERAL INDEX

Uden, Leon van and Heuvel, Bas van den 216 Arthur en de strijd om Camelot 212 Ulrich of Türheim 199 Ulrich von Zatzikhoven Lanzelet 194 Utrecht 11, 43, 73, 157, 189 Uytterspot, Veerle 29, 117 Van den neghen besten 71, 76 Van der feesten een proper dinc 128, 131 Vandersteen, Willy 210 Lancelot 209 Vandersteen Studios 211 De rode ridder 211 Koning Arthur 211 Vandevelde, E. Merlijn, de tovenaar 213 Parzival, de laatste behoeder van de Graal 213 Walewein 213 Veerkamp, Marc 212 Koning Arthur 209 Vengeance Raguidel, see Raoul de Houdenc Verbij-Schillings, Jeanne 77 Verhagen, Ben Gwenny en Florian 210 Verhalen van de Ronde Tafel 208 Verweij, Wilma Westervenster 209 Vie des pères 36 Vincent of Beauvais Speculum historiale 21–2, 52, 64, 76 Vink, Just 216 Koning Arthur 212 Vloten, Johannes van 147, 189, 191, 193 Vœux du paon, see Jacques de Longuyons Voorne 4, 20–1, 63–4, 104, 148–9, 151, 155, 166, 186 Vreese, Willem 156 Vries, Matthias de 156 Wace Roman de Brut 31, 65, 75 Wackers, Paul 191 ‘Walawaynus’ of Melle 17 Walewein, see Penninc and Pieter Vostaert Walewein ende Keye 5, 46, 62, 86, 109–10, 112–14, 131–41, 146, 171, 176–7, 182–3, 192–3

12 Indexes ALC.indd 249

249

Walter of Châtillon Alexandreis 63 Walterus de Kayo 38 Warnar, Geert 191 Wauchier de Denain 43 Dialogues (of Pope Gregory I) 34 Histoire ancienne jusquà César 34 Perceval Continuation (Second) 33–4, 139 Wenceslas of Luxemburg, Duke of Brabant 34 Werumeus Buning, Johan W. F. De ware geschiedenis van Tristan en Isolde 206, 207 White, T. H. Once and Future King 212, 216 Willem I of Gelre (Gelderland) 77 Willem van Oringen 66, 129 Willem Vorsterman 191 Mariken van Nieumeghen 191 William II, Count of Holland 21 Winkel, Jan te 179 Winkelman, Johan 6, 117 Wirich VI of Daun 199 Wolf, Gerhard 6 Wolfram von Eschenbach 23, 47, 200, 206 Parzival 16, 47, 51, 148, 194, 197, 200–1, 206, 213 Titurel 194 woman, women 37, 43, 72–4, 82–4, 86, 88–9, 92, 101, 104, 110, 123–4, 133, 135–6, 144, 152, 170, 181–2, 188–9, 196, 210 ‘wout sonder genade’, see Forest without Mercy Wrake van Ragisel 34, 46–8, 50–1, 62, 78, 81–8, 96, 99, 106, 109–10, 137, 155, 171, 173, 175–7, 181–3, 188, 192 Wynkyn de Worde A lytel treatise of ye birth and the prophecye of Marlyn 190 Xynix Opera 216 Yolande de Bourgogne 36 Ypres 18 ystorien bloeme, Der 58 Zeeland 4, 11, 14, 20–2, 37, 63, 73, 149 Zemel, Roel 103, 108, 146 Zwaard van Ardoewaan, Het 213

08/12/2020 12:15

Thi spagei nt ent i onal l yl ef tbl ank

ARTHUR Low Countries.qxp_Layout 1 14/12/2020 08:47 Page 1

A RT H U R I A N L I T E R AT U R E

The Arthur of the English edited by W. R. J. Barron The Arthur of the Germans edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake The Arthur of the French edited by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt The Arthur of the North edited by Marianne E. Kalinke The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature edited by Siân Echard The Arthur of the Italians edited by Gloria Allaire and F. Regina Psaki The Arthur of the Iberians edited by David Hook Arthur in the Celtic Languages edited by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe

Frank Brandsma is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Cover image: The battle of Salisbury Plain (left part of the image) and King Arthur, critically injured, who is transported from the battlefield (right part of the image). Miniature on folio 163v of MS The Hague, Royal Library, KA 20 (Jacob van Maerlant, Spiegel historiael).

GWASG PRIFYSGOL CYMRU UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

www.uwp.co.uk

THE

RTHUR OF THE

edited by

Bart Besamusca is Professor of Middle Dutch Textual Culture from an International Perspective in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

‘An accessible and comprehensive introduction to the enormous richness of Middle Dutch and Flemish Arthurian literature … it invites us into a world both familiar and strange, with familiar adventures and unique, idiosyncratic romances that offer new inflections to our understanding of European Arthurian literature. An indispensable addition to every medieval literary scholar’s library.’ Professor Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

The Arthur of the Welsh edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature

‘This long-awaited volume is a valuable contribution to Arthurian scholarship at large and the first major book-length study of this vital corpus, providing critical insight into the cross-connections with Arthurian literature in French and German and beyond.’ Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir, University of Iceland

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

‘This ground-breaking volume offers not only a very clear and complete status quaestionis of the study of medieval Dutch Arthurian literature, but also puts forward new perspectives on many research questions … to open up the scholarly discussions of the past and make future discussions more fructuous.’ Professor Remco Sleiderink, University of Antwerp

LOW COUNTRIES The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature EDITED BY BART BESAMUSCA AND FRANK BRANDSMA

In the medieval Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), Arthurian romance flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Middle Dutch poets translated French material (like Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and the Prose Lancelot), but also created romances of their own, like Walewein. This book provides a current overview of the Dutch Arthurian material and the research that it has provoked. Geographically, the region is a crossroads between the French and Germanic spheres of influence, and the movement of texts and manuscripts (west to east) reflects its position, as revealed by chapters on the historical context, the French material and the Germanic Arthuriana of the Rhinelands. Three chapters on the translations of French verse texts, the translations of French prose texts, and on the indigenous romances form the core of the book, augmented by chapters on the manuscripts, on Arthur in the chronicles, and on the post-medieval Arthurian material.

ARTHUR Low Countries.qxp_Layout 1 14/12/2020 08:47 Page 1

A RT H U R I A N L I T E R AT U R E

The Arthur of the English edited by W. R. J. Barron The Arthur of the Germans edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake The Arthur of the French edited by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt The Arthur of the North edited by Marianne E. Kalinke The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature edited by Siân Echard The Arthur of the Italians edited by Gloria Allaire and F. Regina Psaki The Arthur of the Iberians edited by David Hook Arthur in the Celtic Languages edited by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe

Frank Brandsma is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Cover image: The battle of Salisbury Plain (left part of the image) and King Arthur, critically injured, who is transported from the battlefield (right part of the image). Miniature on folio 163v of MS The Hague, Royal Library, KA 20 (Jacob van Maerlant, Spiegel historiael).

GWASG PRIFYSGOL CYMRU UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

www.uwp.co.uk

THE

RTHUR OF THE

edited by

Bart Besamusca is Professor of Middle Dutch Textual Culture from an International Perspective in the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at Utrecht University.

Bart Besamusca and Frank Brandsma

‘An accessible and comprehensive introduction to the enormous richness of Middle Dutch and Flemish Arthurian literature … it invites us into a world both familiar and strange, with familiar adventures and unique, idiosyncratic romances that offer new inflections to our understanding of European Arthurian literature. An indispensable addition to every medieval literary scholar’s library.’ Professor Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

The Arthur of the Welsh edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature

‘This long-awaited volume is a valuable contribution to Arthurian scholarship at large and the first major book-length study of this vital corpus, providing critical insight into the cross-connections with Arthurian literature in French and German and beyond.’ Professor Sif Rikhardsdottir, University of Iceland

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

THE ARTHUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES

‘This ground-breaking volume offers not only a very clear and complete status quaestionis of the study of medieval Dutch Arthurian literature, but also puts forward new perspectives on many research questions … to open up the scholarly discussions of the past and make future discussions more fructuous.’ Professor Remco Sleiderink, University of Antwerp

LOW COUNTRIES The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature EDITED BY BART BESAMUSCA AND FRANK BRANDSMA

In the medieval Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), Arthurian romance flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Middle Dutch poets translated French material (like Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and the Prose Lancelot), but also created romances of their own, like Walewein. This book provides a current overview of the Dutch Arthurian material and the research that it has provoked. Geographically, the region is a crossroads between the French and Germanic spheres of influence, and the movement of texts and manuscripts (west to east) reflects its position, as revealed by chapters on the historical context, the French material and the Germanic Arthuriana of the Rhinelands. Three chapters on the translations of French verse texts, the translations of French prose texts, and on the indigenous romances form the core of the book, augmented by chapters on the manuscripts, on Arthur in the chronicles, and on the post-medieval Arthurian material.