The Chanson des Chétifs and Chanson de Jérusalem

Completing the Central Trilogy of the Old French Crusade Cycle

Carol Sweetenham

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781409445197
• eBook ISBN: 9781317038733
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

The First Crusade was arguably one of the most significant events of the Middle Ages. It was the only event to generate its own epic cycle, the Old French Crusade Cycle. The central trilogy at the heart of the Cycle describes the Crusade from its beginnings to the climactic battle of Ascalon, comprising the Chanson d'Antioche, the Chanson des Chétifs and the Chanson de Jérusalem. This translation of the Chétifs and the Jérusalem accompanies and completes the translation of the Antioche and makes the trilogy available to English readers in its entirety for the first time. The value of the trilogy lies above all in the insight it gives us to medieval perceptions of the Crusade. The events are portrayed as part of a divine plan where even outcasts and captives can achieve salvation through Crusade. This in turn underlies the value of the Cycle as a recruiting and propaganda tool. The trilogy gives a window onto the chivalric preoccupations of thirteenth-century France, exploring concerns about status, heroism and defeat. It portrays the material realities of the era in vivid detail: the minutiae of combat, smoke-filled halls, feasts, prisons and more. And the two newly translated poems are highly entertaining as well, featuring a lubricious Saracen lady not in the first flush of youth, a dragon inhabited by a devil, marauding monkeys, miracles and much more. The historian will find little new about the Crusade itself, but abundant material on how it was perceived, portrayed and performed. The translation is accompanied by an introduction examining the origins of the two poems and their wider place in the cycle. It is supported by extensive footnotes, a comprehensive index of names and places and translations of the main variants.

PART I

Introduction

Introduction

From Antioch to Jerusalem by way of Oliferne

The Chanson des Chétifs and the Chanson de Jérusalem form part of the central trilogy at the heart of the thirteenth-century cycle of poems known as the Old French Crusade Cycle. The trilogy focuses on the events of the First Crusade, arguably the only Crusade perceived as successful, which is treated as an exemplum for later potential Crusaders. It comprises the Chanson d’Antioche, which takes events from the preaching of the Crusade to the siege, fall and battle of Antioch; the Chanson des Chétifs, which serves as a link between events at Antioch and the triumphant conclusion of the Crusade; and the Chanson de Jérusalem, which describes the siege and fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent battle of Ascalon.¹

The Cycle was composed well after the events it describes. It survives in full in nine manuscripts, although not all contain the continuations after the Jérusalem. The manuscript used as the basis of the Alabama editions of the Chétifs and the Jérusalem is B.N.fr. 12558. This is a well-written manuscript with miniatures, probably to be dated to the mid-thirteenth century and produced in Picardy or Luxembourg. Whilst we cannot be precise on dating, the surviving manuscripts are largely thirteenth century.² The Chanson d’Antioche shows signs of an origin in Picardy at the beginning of the century.³ There are no precise indications for dating either the Chétifs or the Jérusalem, but given the manuscript tradition an assumption of early thirteenth century would not be too wide of the mark for either.

The Cycle is first and foremost a work of literature. In form it comprises a set of linked chansons de geste written in rhyming alexandrine laisses and using all the topoi of the genre: extravagant description of Saracens, innumerable single combats between knights and an obsessive focus on the details of weaponry and battle, all written in heavily formulaic language.⁴ Whilst the Antioche is close to two near-contemporary sources for the Crusade, Albert of Aachen and Robert the Monk, the same cannot be said of the Jérusalem which is devoid of historical content beyond the broadest outline of events.⁵ The Chétifs is entirely fantastical both in content and approach: there is no evidence for dragons, child-snatching monkeys or the near-conversion of Corbaran to Christianity in any source for the Crusade.

The modern student of the Crusades might therefore be forgiven for wondering why, as a thirteenth-century fictional take on events of over a century ago, either work is worth reading. The answer is precisely because that is what it is. The three texts together set out a coherent view of the First Crusade as a successful path to redemption and salvation, and therefore an example for later Crusaders to follow. The Crusade was transformed from a historical event to an event with mythological status alongside the cycles of Charlemagne, Arthur and the heroes of antiquity and the Old Testament.⁶ As such it was a source of entertainment, edification and emulation. The trilogy at the heart of the Cycle is the driving force of this approach, and a precious window into thirteenth-century self-perception and motivation.

Chapter 1 of the Introduction examines the Chétifs as a text in its own right, discussing its composition, source material and dating. Chapter 2 examines similar issues for the Jérusalem. Chapter 3 discusses the two texts as part of the central trilogy and the role they play in the Old French Crusade Cycle.

1. The complete Cycle is edited in the ten volumes of the Alabama edition: The Old French Crusade Cycle, (eds) J. A. Nelson and E. J. Mickel, 10 vols (Tuscaloosa, 1977–2003). The Chanson des Chétifs is volume 5: Les Chétifs, (ed.) G. M. Myers (Tuscaloosa, 1981). The Chanson de Jérusalem is volume 6: La Chanson de Jérusalem, (ed.) N. R. Thorp (Tuscaloosa, 1992). The Chanson d’Antioche is volume 4: La Chanson d’Antioche, (ed.) J. A. Nelson (Tuscaloosa, 2003). The Chanson d’Antioche has received more attention than any other text in the Cycle. There are two modern French editions: La Chanson d’Antioche, (ed.) S. Duparc-Quioc, Documents rélatifs à l’histoire des croisades 11, 2 vols. (Paris, 1976–78); volume I Edition, volume II Etude; and La Chanson d’Antioche: chanson de geste du dernier quart du XIIe siècle, (ed.) and transl. B. Guidot (Paris, 2011). The Antioche is also the only text to have been translated: into modern French by Bernard Guidot, and into English by Carol Sweetenham and Susan Edgington, The Chanson d’Antioche: an Old French account of the First Crusade, Crusade Texts in Translation 22 (Farnham and Burlington, 2011).

2. Detailed studies of the manuscripts can be found in Duparc-Quioc, Etude pp. 43–80, and Myers in vol. I of the Cycle, La Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne (Tuscaloosa, 1977); summarised Sweetenham and Edgington pp. 36–9.

3. On Picard influence in the language of the text in B. N. fr. 12558, see the comprehensive study by Guidot, pp. 39–90. On manuscript origin in Picardy see Duparc-Quioc and Myers as above. On the dominance of Picard characters see Sweetenham and Edgington pp. 34–5.

4. First argued in detail by R. F. Cook, Chanson d’Antioche, chanson de geste: le cycle de la croisade est-il épique? (Amsterdam, 1980). More recent analysis in Guidot, pp. 107–30; Sweetenham and Edgington pp. 63–85.

5. The historicity or otherwise of the Antioche has been strenuously and even viciously debated since the nineteenth century. For a summary of the debate see Sweetenham and Edgington, Introduction, chapter 2. For analysis of the parallels with Latin source material see Sweetenham and Edgington pp. 15–24; Duparc-Quioc, Etude chapter III.

6. As witness the promotion of Godfrey of Bouillon to the ranks of the Nine Worthies alongside figures from the Old Testament and Classical Antiquity such as King David, Julius Caesar and Alexander: Chivalry, M. Keen (New Haven and London, 1984) pp. 121–4. Already in the middle of the twelfth century Suger had episodes from the Crusade portrayed in the royal abbey of St Denis: ‘The twelfth century crusading window of the Abbey of St Denis: Praeteritorum Enim Recordatio Futurorum Exhibitio’, E. A. R. Brown and M. W. Cothren, Journal of the Courtauld and Warburg Institute 49 (1986) pp. 1–40.

Chapter 1

The Chanson des Chétifs

The Chanson des Chétifs is an intriguing text which sits at the heart of the Old French Crusade Cycle. It follows immediately after the (relatively) realistic account of the siege and battle of Antioch in the Chanson d’Antioche, and leads to the similar rigours recounted in the Chanson de Jérusalem. In contrast to its companion texts it tells a fanciful tale featuring a dragon inhabited by a devil, a lubricious Saracen lady not in the first flush of youth, a child kidnapped by wild animals then robbers, and more besides. The heroes are the band of knights taken prisoner at the start of the Crusade at Civetot in the disastrous defeat of Peter the Hermit’s army. The story undoubtedly provides some fantasy and light relief in the midst of slaughter, siege and starvation. But there is more to it than meets the eye.

The content of the Chétifs

The text comprises three episodes with little apparent linkage other than that they concern a distinct group of characters – the chétifs, a group of nobles taken captive at Peter the Hermit’s defeat at Civetot – and their relationship with the Saracen leader and victor at the battle of Antioch, Corbaran.

The first episode follows on directly from Corbaran’s defeat at the battle of Antioch, during which the son of the Sultan of Persia, Brohadas, was killed. Corbaran is duly arraigned for treason. He is required to fight a judicial duel, with one Christian champion prepared to fight two Turkish champions. One of the chétifs, Richard of Chaumont, agrees to do so in return for the liberty of all the chétifs, under heavy pressure from Corbaran’s mother who makes her penchant for nice young knights and in particular Richard of Chaumont obvious. He fights the two Turks, Sorgalé and Golias, and unsurprisingly wins. Corbaran is reconciled to the Sultan. The relatives of the two Turks attempt to ambush him and the chétifs, but are defeated. Corbaran sets out for his city of Oliferne.¹

The second episode concerns Corbaran and the chétifs only tangentially. They lose their way in a storm and come upon Mount Tigris, which is inhabited by a terrible dragon called Sathanas. Ernoul of Beauvais, on a mission to the Sultan on behalf of King Abraham, loses his way and is eaten by the Sathanas though it considerately leaves the head for purposes of identification. Ernoul’s brother Baldwin then climbs the mountain and kills the dragon; Corbaran arrives close behind and discovers the dragon’s treasure. The Sultan then arrives too. All are reconciled and return home.²

The third episode takes place after the return to Oliferne. Another of the chétifs, Harpin of Bourges, rescues Corbaran’s child nephew successively from a wolf, a monkey and a band of robbers. Corbaran arrives guided by three saints in the guise of white stags and the child is rescued.³

The chétifs at long last are able to leave Oliferne for Jerusalem. On the way they meet and defeat soldiers sent by Cornumarant, son of the King of Jerusalem. They return to Jerusalem in time to join the siege although their role there is not particularly emphasised.⁴

The chétifs themselves constitute a somewhat disparate group. They consistently comprise Richard of Chaumont, John of Alis, Fulcher of Melun, the Bishop of Forez and the Abbot of Fécamp, and Harpin of Bourges. Richard of Pavia is sometimes mentioned. Baldwin of Beauvais and his brother Ernoul feature in the central episode but not elsewhere. They are clearly seen as a freestanding group within the crusade army. They are the central focus of the first main episode in the Antioche, the defeat at Civetot, which leads to their capture. They do not feature in the Antioche once taken captive for obvious reasons. More intriguingly they do not feature prominently in the Jérusalem after their return to the army, and some are not referred to at all.⁵

The text is more coherent than this summary makes it sound. There is a clear narrative line which takes the chétifs from their captivity in Oliferne to rejoin the crusade in Jerusalem: Richard’s willingness to fight in the judicial duel leads to the release of the chétifs, who then travel back with Corbaran to Oliferne before taking their leave of him and heading for Jerusalem. The story also charts the evol...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• PART I: INTRODUCTION
• PART II: TRANSLATIONS
• PART III: APPENDICES
• Bibliography
• Index