Categories and Conventions:
Middle English Romances
(M.AA.LW 03)
Session 2 (18 April 2019)
Thomas Honegger
Tm.honegger@uni-jena.de
Office Hours Tuesday 10.30-11.30
(please use electronic inscription list)
The Admin Bit
• Term papers are due 02 September
2019, Zweitversuch 15 November 2019.
• Be aware that some longer texts have to
be read!
• ‘Aktive Mitarbeit’: ‘Ergebnisprotokoll’
(summary minutes)
Study assignment next session
• Please read Sir Launfal (you can use a translation,
but make sure you have the Middle English text
available since we’ll refer to it).
• Note all elements or passages that you don’t
understand or puzzle you.
The Admin Bit
• Sign up for the course in WordWise
• Key: romance
• Information for VBM students: please
read the requirements for the oral and
the written STEX, respectively (to be
found in the WordWise folder
'Staatsexamen/VBM Mediävistik’)
1 2
Today’s session
• Study assignment for next session
• Genre theory (concluded)
• Sir Orfeo
3 4
Study assignment next session
• Preparation for discussion of the lay in class:
• a) Try to decide what is, for you, the main
message/theme of Sir Launfal.
• b) Formulate your interpretation as a short thesis
statement (this is useful for the oral STEX exams
but also for the term papers).
• c) Make notes with references to the text in order
to substantiate and develop your thesis.
 Study assignment next session Prototype Theory
• Some ‘guiding questions’ to get you started: • A prototypical early
• 1) What is the role of the queen in this lay (and romance: Erec & Enide
contrast it to Sir Orfeo).
• Based on this text, we
• 2) What is the role of the Otherworld in this lay
(and contrast it to Sir Orfeo). will try to establish the
• 3) What are the most important basic typical elements of a
values/virtues in Sir Launfal (and contrast it to Sir romance.
Orfeo).
• 4) Based on your knowledge of two (rather
representative) lays, which elements would you
list as central characteristics of the text-
type/genre?

Family Resemblance Theory Family Resemblance Theory

Family Resemblance Theory The Programme

• Lays
• Application to literary
(Sir Orfeo, Sir Launfal)
texts?
• Chrétien de Troyes’
romances (Erec & Enide,
Ywain & Gawain)
• parodies and fabliaux
• hagiographic romance
(Sir Gowther)
• ‘ethical’ romance (Sir
Gawain and the Green
Knight)
 Sir Orfeo
• Manuscripts (textual
basis)
• Queries
• Plot(s)
• Contextualization
• Interpretation (based
on homework/study
assignment)
One-sentence-per-person-plot-summaries
Orpheus & Eurydice Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo
(language and meter:: some lines in Middle English)
Orfeo was a king,
In Inglond an heiȝe lording,
A stalworþ man & hardi bo,
Large & curteys he was also.
His fader was comen of king Pluto
& his moder of king Juno
Þat sum time were as godes yhold
For auentours þat þai dede & told.
Sir Orfeo
• Auchinleck MS
[æf ˈlɛk/ usually
/ˈɒχ (or ɔːk) ɪn lɛk/]
(Advocates 19.2.1;
ca. 1330)
• Harley 3810 (ca. 1410)
• Ashmole 61 (ca. 1480)
• author?
• title?
Study assignment
• Make yourself acquainted with the classical story
of Orpheus and Eurydice (e.g. in the versions of
Virgil or Ovid).
• Please read Sir Orfeo (you can use a translation,
but make sure you have the Middle English text
available since we’ll refer to it).
• Note all elements or passages that you don’t
understand or puzzle you.
Sir Orfeo
Orfeo was a king,
In Inglond an heiȝe lording,
[…]
His fader was comen of king Pluto
& his moder of king Juno
Þat sum time were as godes yhold
For auentours þat þai dede & told.
 Sir Orfeo
• Euhemerism (Euhemerus, 330-250 BC)
• Gods and goddesses were once men and
women who achieved memorable deeds and
were later ‘deified’.
Sir Orfeo
This king sojourned in Traciens,
That is a citee of noble defens,
(For Winchester was cleped tho
Traciens withouten no)

Thrace Thrace - Winchester

translatio Where to put it

• translatio imperii (Hieronymus 347-420):
among the ‘trois matieres’
• Babylon, Persia, Greece (Alexander), Rome Ne sont que trois matieres a nul home antandant
• translatio studii (Chretien de Troyes 1170): De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant
• Athens – Rome – Paris (Jean Bodel, Chanson des Saisnes, c. 1190)
• later (Renaissance) variation of the idea:
Eden – Jerusalem – Babylon – Athens – Rome
– Paris
• mundus senescit and other related concepts
(Knowledge vs. Lore; Golden Age etc.)
 Study assignment Groupwork (6 groups with 4 people)
• Preparation for group-work and discussion of the • Briefly present to each other your short thesis
lay in class: statement/interpretation (10 minutes).
• a) Try to decide what is, for you, the main • Select one statement that you want to present to
message/theme of Sir Orfeo. the entire class and prepare it (5 minutes).
• b) Formulate your interpretation as a short thesis • Present your chosen interpretation to the class (5
statement (this is useful for the oral STEX exams minutes).
but also for the term papers) such as: Sir Orfeo
illustrates Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and is about
the maturation through meeting and mastering
various challenges.
• c) Make notes with references to the text in order
to substantiate and develop your thesis.

Next time (25 April)

Sir Launfal