Epic and Romance | Page 5

223
V
COMEDY
The Sagas not bound by solemn conventions 225
Comic humours 226
Bjorn and his wife in Njála 228
Bandamanna Saga: "The Confederates," a comedy 229
Satirical criticism of the "heroic age" 231
Tragic incidents in Bandamanna Saga 233
Neither the comedy nor tragedy of the Sagas is monotonous or abstract 234
VI
THE ART OF NARRATIVE
Organic unity of the best Sagas 235
Method of representing occurrences as they appear at the time 236
Instance from Torgils Saga 238
Another method--the death of Kjartan as it appeared to a churl 240
Psychology (not analytical) 244
Impartiality--justice to the hero's adversaries (F?reyinga Saga) 245
VII
EPIC AND HISTORY
Form of Saga used for contemporary history in the thirteenth century 246
The historians, Ari (1067-1148) and Snorri (1178-1241) 248
The Life of King Sverre, by Abbot Karl Jónsson 249
Sturla (c. 1214-1284), his history of Iceland in his own time (Islendinga or Sturlunga Saga) 249
The matter ready to his hand 250
Biographies incorporated in Sturlunga: Thorgils and Haflidi 252
Sturlu Saga 253
The midnight raid (A.D. 1171) 254
Lives of Bishop Gudmund, Hrafn, and Aron 256
Sturla's own work (Islendinga Saga) 257
The burning of Flugumyri 259
Traces of the heroic manner 264
The character of this history brought out by contrast with Sturla's other work, the Life of King Hacon of Norway 267
Norwegian and Icelandic politics in the thirteenth century 267
Norway more fortunate than Iceland--the history less interesting 267
Sturla and Joinville contemporaries 269
Their methods of narrative compared 270
VIII
THE NORTHERN PROSE ROMANCES
Romantic interpolations in the Sagas--the ornamental version of Fóstbr?era Saga 275
The secondary romantic Sagas--Frithiof 277
French romance imported (Strengleikar, Tristram's Saga, etc.) 278
Romantic Sagas made out of heroic poems (Volsunga Saga, etc.) 279 and out of authentic Sagas by repetition of common forms and motives 280
Romantic conventions in the original Sagas 280
Laxd?la and Gunnlaug's Saga--Thorstein the White 281
Thorstein Staffsmitten 282
Sagas turned into rhyming romances (Rímur) 283 and into ballads in the Faroes 284
CHAPTER IV
THE OLD FRENCH EPIC
(CHANSONS DE GESTE)
Lateness of the extant versions 287
Competition of Epic and Romance in the twelfth century 288
Widespread influence of the Chansons de geste--a contrast to the Sagas 289
Narrative style 290
No obscurities of diction 291
The "heroic age" imperfectly represented 292 but not ignored 293
Roland--heroic idealism--France and Christendom 293
William of Orange--Aliscans 296
Rainouart--exaggeration of heroism 296
Another class of stories in the Chansons de geste, more like the Sagas 297
Raoul de Cambrai 298
Barbarism of style 299
Garin le Loherain--style clarified 300
Problems of character--Fromont 301
The story of the death of Begon 302 unlike contemporary work of the Romantic School 304
The lament for Begon 307
Raoul and Garin contrasted with Roland 308
Comedy in French Epic--"humours" in Garin 310 in the Coronemenz Loo?s, etc. 311
Romantic additions to heroic cycles--la Prise d'Orange 313
Huon de Bordeaux--the original story grave and tragic 314 converted to Romance 314
CHAPTER V
ROMANCE AND THE OLD FRENCH ROMANTIC SCHOOLS
Romance an element in Epic and Tragedy apart from all "romantic schools" 321
The literary movements of the twelfth century 322
A new beginning 323
The Romantic School unromantic in its methods 324
Professional Romance 325
Characteristics of the school--courteous sentiment 328
Decorative passages--descriptions--pedantry 329
Instances from Roman de Troie 330 and from Ider, etc. 331
Romantic adventures--the "matter of Rome" and the "matter of Britain" 334
Blending of classical and Celtic influences--e.g. in Benoit's Medea 334
Methods of narrative--simple, as in the Lay of Guingamor; overloaded, as in Walewein 337
Guingamor 338
Walewein, a popular tale disguised as a chivalrous romance 340
The different versions of Libeaux Desconus--one of them is sophisticated 343
Tristram--the Anglo-Norman poems comparatively simple and ingenuous 344
French Romance and Proven?al Lyric 345
Ovid in the Middle Ages--the Art of Love 346
The Heroines 347
Benoit's Medea again 348
Chrestien of Troyes, his place at the beginning of modern literature 349
'Enlightenment' in the Romantic School 350
The sophists of Romance--the rhetoric of sentiment and passion 351
The progress of Romance from medieval to modern literature 352
Chrestien of Troyes, his inconsistencies--nature and convention 352
Departure from conventional romance; Chrestien's Enid 355
Chrestien's Cliges--"sensibility" 357
Flamenca, a Proven?al story of the thirteenth century--the author a follower of Chrestien 359
His acquaintance with romantic literature 360 and rejection of the "machinery" of adventures 360
Flamenca, an appropriation of Ovid--disappearance of romantic mythology 361
The Lady of Vergi, a short tragic story without false rhetoric 362
Use of medieval themes by the great poets of the fourteenth century 363
Boccaccio and Chaucer--the Teseide and the Knight's Tale 364
Variety of Chaucer's methods 364
Want of art in the Man of Law's Tale 365
The abstract point of honour (Clerk's Tale, Franklin's Tale) 366
Pathos in the Legend of Good Women 366
Romantic method perfect in the Knight's Tale 366
Anelida, the abstract form of romance 367
In Troilus and Criseyde the form of medieval romance is filled out with strong dramatic imagination 367
Romance obtains the freedom of Epic, without the old local and national limitations of Epic 368
Conclusion 370
APPENDIX
Note A--Rhetoric of the Alliterative Poetry 373
Note B--Kjartan and Olaf Tryggvason 375
Note C--Eyjolf Karsson 381
Note D--Two Catalogues of Romances 384
INDEX 391
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I
THE HEROIC AGE
The title of Epic, or of "heroic poem," is claimed by historians for a number of works belonging to the earlier Middle Ages, and to the medieval