Introduction

Summary

THE LEGEND OF FLOIRE AND BLANCHEFLOR

Upon the death of her husband, a countess and her father set out on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in order to give thanks for the unborn child that the countess is carrying (in the Filocolo, the French popular version and the Spanish prose romance it is the father and mother who go on pilgrimage). A pagan King, Felix, and his soldiers kill the grandfather and take the mother, Berthe, prisoner. The pregnant Saracen Queen befriends the Christian captive, and the two women give birth on the same day, Palm Sunday (Pentecost in some versions), the Queen to a boy, Floire, Berthe to a girl, Blancheflor. The children fall in love, and they use their study time to write love poems in Latin and to daydream about each other. The King is dismayed, in some versions because he considers Blancheflor socially inferior to his son, in others because her Christianity poses a threat to his kingdom. The parents devise schemes to separate the children: they accuse Blancheflor of trying to poison the King, and then they sell her to slave merchants, who take her to Cairo, where she quickly becomes the favorite in the Emir's harem. The King and Queen order the creation of an elaborately decorated tomb so that Floire will believe that she has died. When the Queen realizes that her son may die of melancholy and despair, she admits that Blancheflor still lives, and Floire vows not to return to his father's kingdom until he has found Blancheflor.