Very useful are the translations by D

D. R. Owen, Guillaume le Clerc, Fergus of Galloway: Knight of King Arthur (London and Rutland, VT, 1991) – earlier published con Arthurian Literature 8 (1989), 79–183 – which has excellent libretto and appendices, and R. Wolf-Bonvin, La Chevalerie des sots. Le roman de Fergus. Trubert, fabliau du XIIIe siecle (Paris, 1990). For convenience all references preciso Chretien’s works are esatto the texts which appeared con the Lettres Gothiques series and are reprinted by Michel Zink, Chretien de Troyes: Romans, Classiques Modernes, La Pochotheque (Paris, 1994): including Erec et Enide; Cliges; Le Chevalier de la Charette (or Le Roman de Lancelot); Le Chevalier au Lion (or Le Roman d’Yvain); Le Conte du Graal (or Le Roman de Perceval). All translations are taken from Owen, Fergus adam4adam sito mobile, and Chretien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. D. D. R. Owen (London and Rutland, VT, 1987; rep. 1991). See Owen, Fergus, pp. 162–69 and his articles referred puro below. The oldest of the Dutch romances, it is generally attributed esatto two authors, the first following the version now offered by the Chantilly manuscript of Fergus, and the second (lines 2593–5604) working from memory. See Dutch Romances vol. 2: Ferguut, e. D. F. Johnson and G. H. M. Claassens (Cambridge, 2000), who suggest (p. 6) per date for Fergus of the first quarter of the thirteenth century. On the basis of his doctoral dissertation, now published as Op zoek naar Galiene: over de Oudfranse Fergus en de Middelnederlandse Ferguut (Amsterdam, 1991), R. M. Tau. Zemel suggests that Fergus may even date from as early as c. 1200. L. Spahr, ‘Ferguut, Fergus, and Chretien de Troyes’, sopra Traditions and Transitions: Studies con Honor of Harold Jantz, e. L. Ed. Kurth et al. (Munich, 1972), pp. 29–36. The unique manuscript of Ferguut is dated sicuro the middle of the fourteenth century: see Ferguut and Galiene: Per Facsimile of the only extant Middle Dutch manuscript, University Library Leiden, Letterkunde 191, with an introduction by M. J. M. de Haan (Leiden, 1974).

In nessun caso comment on dating is made by B

eighteen locations durante all) with per glance north of the Forth sicuro Escoche proper (cf. line 2589, ‘En Eschoce u en Lodien’). The journey times indicated are realistic and the narrator offers per number of apparently informed comments on local customs. The ‘Scottishness’ of Fergus is thus firmly established and is sicuro be taken seriously.4 Arthur’s seat at ‘Carduel en Gales’, usually taken esatto be Carlisle, is familiar from many of the romances as is the region of Strathclyde sopra general. The originality of the Fergus author is puro have abandoned the more conventional Scottish toponymy for places, like Galloway, with a much less reassuring reputation, thereby extending Scotland’s appearance in romance literature. There have been several attempts sicuro interpret the work as durante some sense an ‘ancestral romance’, whether written for Alan of Galloway (d. 1234), great-grandson of the historical Fergus, on the occasion of his marriage c. 1209, or John of Balliol (verso stepson of Alan) and his wife Devorguilla in the period 1234–41 to strengthen the claim of their eldest affranchit Hugh puro the Scottish throne.5 There has even been an attempt onesto identify the author with William Malveisin, per royal clerk of French deposito, who ended his career as bishop of St Andrews (1202–1238).6 Such researches, speculative though they must remain, justify the inclusion of Fergus in any history of literature in Scotland,7 though it might be said that if any of them were true, it would be puzzling that the author did not give clearer clues preciso his identity or political purpose.8 The Scottish connection need not, however, mean that the rete informatica was actually written con Scotland or composed by verso writer resident there – per writer who calls himself simply ‘Guillaume le clerc’ (line 7004). The two surviving manuscripts, from the second half of the thirteenth century, are both marked by Picardisms and one of them by traces of Walloon. So far as the poet’s own dialect is concerned, he seems preciso be writing sopra the more or less canone literary French of northern France.9 One of the manuscripts is the famous collection of continental Arthurian texts MS Chantilly, Musee Conde 472 from which Fergus was edited by both Ernst Martin (1872) and Wilson Frescoln (1983),10 and the other is Paris, BNF fr. 1553, verso vast collection of fifty-two items including the Roman de Troie, the