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The Historical Background of fergus and Galiene
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The French romance of Fergus and Galielle, composed in the first 'quarter of the thirteenth century, is a conventional piece of Arthurian narrative, which has received comparatively little attention from scholars. The episodes of the poem in themselves contain little indeed that is not over-familiar to readers of romances dealing with the matter of Brittany: giants, robbers, and lawless knights to be conquered; a difficult quest; outspoken maidens; a tournament for the selection of a likely husband; dwarfs and a magic spring and the inevitable mockery by Sir Kay. But what does give unusual interest to this romance is the fact, pointed out first by Martin in his edition in 1872, that the scene of the action is indubitably Scotland, described by one who must have known it at first-hand, and that among the characters who appear in this faery setting, two at least were Scottish chiefs of the twelfth century. Although the evidence already cited by Martin is sufficient to prove these general conclusions, his material was drawn entirely from secondary sources, which afford only brief, general statements about the persons involved. The possibility of augmenting this evidence by material from primary sources has hitherto been neglected.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1929
References
1 J. D. Bruce, Evolutioon of Arthurian Romance, II, 237; Alois Stefan, Laut-und Formenbestand in Guillaume li Cler's Roman “Fergus,” Klagenfurt, 1893.
2 The poem was edited by Francisque Michel, Edinburgh, 1841, for the Abbotsford Club: Le Roman des Aventllres de Freglts par Guillaume le Clerc. It was republished from an older MS by Ernst Martin: Fergus, Roman von Guillaume le Clerc, Halle, 1872. Stefan's book, cited above, concerns the dialect; W. Marquard discusses literary influence in: Dcr Einfluss Kristians von Troyes auf den Roman “Ferglls” des Guilaume le Clerc, Göttingen, 1906; E. Brugger, building On geographical identifications already pointed out in Martin's edition, uses an episode borrowed from Fergus in lIuon de Bordeaux to prove that the former is the earlier poem (Mod. Long. Rev., xx, 158-173).
3 Fergus, 189, 21.
4 Ibid., Introduction. In the Anmerkullgm Martin gives a list of verbal echoes: e.g., Fergus 48, 37, Grans yens ciet mais a poi de pluie; Perceval 6787, Mais grans vens ciet a poi de pluie.
5 Ibid., 37.
6 The prophesying dwarf who owns the magic spring is no more original than any other personage, but he does suggest interesting analogues, especially in Germanic lore.
7 Fergus, Introduction, pp. xix-xx.
8 Concerning Loenois in 28, 26 (“Doi biel vallet de Loenois”) Martin says merely: “Das land wird öfters in den gedichten von Artus erwähnt.” It seems to me very probable that this is the land Loonois or Lohenois of Tristan's childhood which “has been identified with the Pictish territory Lothian south of the Firth-of-Forth.” (Gertrude Scboepperle, Tristan and Isolt, Frankfurt and London, 1913, II, 273.) That the name was used in the thirteenth century—at the very time of the composition of Fergus—for the country which includes Lothian, is proved by an interesting' passage in the Histoire des Dues de Normandie et des Rois d'Allgleterre (ed. Francisque Michel, Paris, 1840). Here we read that in 1216 the King of Scotland joined Prince Louis of France at Dover to help him against King John, and “Lendemain fist Ii rois son hommage a Leoys de la tierre de Loonois, puis s'en repaira en son pais” (p. 79). The author of Fergus need not have borrowed from Tristan; he could have got this name, like the rest, from personal knowledge of Scotland. That he did know Tristan we can infer from 114, 22.
9 Fergus, 6, 10.
10 Ibid., 11, 23.
11 Ibid., 17, 9. Short broadswords are mentioned also, 16, 23.
12 “Mit diesem Somarled war vielleicht verwant Fergus, der damals die west� lichen hochIande, namentlich Galloway, beherrschte.” See Introduction, xxiii-xxiv.
13 Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scotch History, Edinburgh, 1922, II, 137.
14 Ibid., II, 231.
15 For details see John de Fordun, Scotichronicon, Edinburgh, 1759, I, 448: “Erat enim iste Malcolmus filius Macheth, sed mentiendo dicebat se filium Angusii comitis Moraviae, qui, tempore feUds memoriae regis David, patriam depraedando apud Strucathroch a Scotis cum tota gente sua interfectus est. Quo mortuo, idem Malcolmus Macheth contra regem David, quasi filius mortem patris vindicaturus, assurgit.....”
18 Anderson, op. cit., II, 254 (quoting the Chronicles of Melrose and of Man).
17 Fordun, loc. cit.
18 Anderson, op. cit., 239 n.
19 James Gray, Sutherland and Caithness in Sagatime, Edinburgh, 1922, p. 82. In the “Book of Clanranald” quoted by Skene, Celtic Scotland, III, 400, Somarled was “slain by a page, who took his head to the king”—Malcolm IV.
20 Appepdix to Symeon of Durham in the Rolls Series, Vol. 75, pt. 2, p. 385,
21 VII, 7, 1. 1491 ff.
22 J. Anderson, Orkneyinga Saga, Edinburgh 1873, ch. 104 and 105.
23 James Gray, Op. cit., p. 82: “Somarled .... was not Somarled the freeman, who is said in the Orkneyinga Saga to have been slain by Sweyn in the Isles, in his pursuit of Gilli Odran.”