The Spirit of Truth: Epic Modes in Medieval Literature

Author(s): Stephen G. Nichols, Jr.

Reviewed work(s):
Source: New Literary History, Vol. 1, No. 3, History and Fiction (Spring, 1970), pp. 365-386
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/468262 .
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 The Spirit of Truth:
Epic Modes in Medieval Literature*

Stephen G. Nichols, Jr.

Since the Renaissance, the Antique has been constantly

with us, whether we like it or not. It lives in our mathe-
matics and natural sciences. It has built our theatres and
cinemas as opposed to the medieval mystery stage. It haunts
the speech of our cab driver - not to mention the motor
mechanic or radio expert - as opposed to that of the
medieval peasant. And it is firmly entrenched behind the
thin but thus far unbroken walls of history, philology and
archaeology.'

OBSERVATIONby the noted art historian, Erwin Panofsky,

T-HIS was not written specifically to describe the present state
of critical, theoretical and historical research into the
genre of western literature which we call epic, but it could
hardly find a more appropriate application. One of the best of the
recent books seeking to promulgate a genre theory of epic states in its
first chapter, devoted to adumbrating "The Norms of Epic," that

[the student of epic] intuits an epic mode which Homer's emulators approach
along with Homer and with the authors of other heroic poems which attain
a certain magnitude and value.2
In the same vein, another recent book calling itself The Epic Voice,
devotes its first chapter to "The Classical Exemplum," while yet a
third book published within the last three years flatly assertsits thesis
* This
paper was read at the general Comparative Literature Section of the
Modern Language Association in Denver, Colorado, on December 28, 1969. I would
like to express my gratitude to Professor Panos Morphos, Chairman of the Section,
for his invitation to participate in the program.

1 Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, Second edition

(Stockholm, 1965), p. io8.
2 Thomas M. Greene, The Descent from Heaven: A Study in Epic Continuity
(New Haven, 1964), p. 9.
366 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

with the unequivocal title, The Classic Line.3 These studies all assume
an unbroken line of continuity of epic from Homer down to the
Renaissance and beyond. The continuity can be demonstrated in vari-
ous ways, although recent criticism has tended to favor the demonstra-
tion of persistent structural and thematic norms.
The studies mentioned, and a number of others in the same vein,
succeed in demonstrating the continuity of the epic tradition in west-
ern literature because they share a common assumption: that it is
possible to distinguish two basic kinds of epics ultimately possessing
enough common traits to allow their being taken together in a single
genre. This assumption postulates the by now familiar breakdown of
epic into two subgenres: primary and secondary epic. Primary epic
consists of heroic poems produced in the pre-literary or barely literary
stages of a society; Homer's poems are generally acknowledged as the
archetypes of this class. Secondary epic, on the other hand, is generally
understood to be constituted by poems whose authors consciously
sought to imitate the Homeric model. Virgil stands as the obvious
archetype for this sub-genre.
It does not require a great measure of acumen to perceive that genre
studies based upon these principles will be most successful treating
works consciously responding to the classical model. Aside from the
classical epics themselves, this means Renaissance or neo-classical
works, so far as the western tradition is concerned. Any attempt to
treat the medieval epic according to these principles cannot help but
be disappointing in its results, for it requires a displacement of the
medieval work in the direction of the classical "model." At best, such
a displacement will provide only superficial insights into the poems so
treated; more frequently it will deny the basic realities of their mode
of existence.
In the "Norms of Epic," for example, Thomas Greene speaks of
"the expansiveness of epic" - a spatial concept constituting the first
of his five norms - "as being checked finally by a complementary,
containing quality which affects . . . the capacity of the hero."4 This
containing quality bears the responsibility for creating the tension
between expectation and performance, promise and the tragic reality
on which depends so much of the essential drama of epic. In this
connection, he speaks of the complementary heroes, Charlemagne and
Roland, in the Old French Chanson de Roland, as offering a limited

3 Rodney Delasanta, The Epic Voice (The Hague, 1967); Albert Cook, The
Classic Line (Bloomington, Ind., 1966). See also, Elizabeth Sewall, The Orphic
Voice (New Haven, 1960).
4 Descent from Heaven, p. 12.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 367

example of this tension "because the power of the two heroes is di-
rected toward controlling the same world under the same authority."5
In the Iliad, on the other hand, Greene sees a greater degree of com-
plexity because "the political goals of the multiple heroes are
opposed."6 This statement represents a good example of the uncon-
scious simplification of the displaced work required by this form of
epic criticism to increase the authority, and thereby the significance of
the classical "model."
To realize the extent of the oversimplification inherent in Greene's
statement, one has only to recall the Digby 23 version of the Roland
where the essential conflict, the one which, to use Greene's terms,
serves as a containing element to the otherwise unlimited potential
of the heroes, derives less from the external hostility between the
Franks and the Saracens, than upon the internal dissention among
the Franks themselves. Charlemagne and Roland share complemen-
tary but not identical views, while elsewhere in the poem we find
widely opposed political and social outlooks expressed by the French
heroes: Ganelon opposes Roland and Charlemagne; Olivier and
Roland voice conflicting social and heroic views; la belle Aude
expresses a different worldview from that of Charlemagne and dies
for it; finally - during the trial of Ganelon - Charles' own barons
oppose him. The sense of internal conflict becomes an even stronger
motif in subsequent versions of the Roland, particularly in Venice
IV, while the "opposition of the political goals of the multiple heroes"
constitutes a prime motivation in other early chansons de geste, e.g.
Gormont et Isembart, La Chanson de Guillaume, Raoul de Cambrai.7
If one considers the case of such Old Norse sagas as the Gisli Saga, or
the Saga of Burnt Njdl, or if one thinks of the V61sunga Saga or the
Nibelungenlied or the Old Irish Tdin B6 Cuailnge, the same kind of
tension based upon conflicting social and political views within the
same society to which Greene ascribed the complexity and superiority
of the Iliad may be attested.
The point at issue, however, is not whether medieval corollaries

5 Ibid., p. 18.
6 Ibid., p. 18.
7 More comprehensive discussion of the nature of the internal conflict in the
versions of the Roland and in Gormont et Isembart may be found in several of
my previous studies; viz., Formulaic Diction and Thematic Composition in the
Song of Roland (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1961), pp. 36-41; "Roland's Echoing Horn,"
Romance Notes, V (Spring, 1964), 78-84; "The Interaction of Life and Literature in
the Peregrinationes ad Loca Sancta and the Chansons de Geste," Speculum, XLIV
(1969), 51-77; "Style and Structure in Gormont et Isembart" Romania, LXXXIV
(1963), 500-35-
368 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

to epic norms derived from classical works may be found - they can -
but, rather, having found them, can one honestly pretend to have
elucidated the mode of existence of the medieval works? to have
described the medieval epic in any meaningful way? To say that the
latter are similar to the classical epics not only begs the question, it
ignores the special conditions which shaped the development of medi-
eval narrative literature, poetry and art. These conditions are pre-
dicated upon a fundamentally different mode of perceiving the rela-
tionship of past and present than that found, for example, in fifth
century B. C. Athens, the Augustan Age of Rome, or the Renaissance.
The chief reason for the different outlook at least between the Middle
Ages and Renaissance has been ascribed by Panofsky to the introduc-
tion of perspective into the perception of the past by the Renaissance:

In the Italian Renaissance,the classicalpast began to be looked upon from

a fixed distance,quite comparableto the "distancebetween the eye and the
object" in that most characteristicinvention of this very Renaissance,
focussed perspective. As in focussed perspective, this distance prohibited
direct contact - owing to the interpositionof an ideal "projectionplane" -
but permitted a total and rationalizedview.8

Such a perspective requiring a distancing of the object studied did

not characterize the medieval approach to the past, particularly the
classical past:

For want of a "perspectivedistance" classical civilization could not be

viewed as a coherent cultural system within which all things belonged
together. Even the twelfth century, to quote a competent and unbiased
observer, "never considered the whole of classical antiquity.. . it looked
upon it as a storehouseof ideas and forms, appropriatingtherefrom such
items as seemed to fit in with the thought and actions of the immediate
present." Every phenomenon of the classicalpast instead of being seen in
context with other phenomena of the classical past, thus had to have one
point of contact, and one of divergence with the medieval present.9

Any perception of the past which takes as its interpretive mode the
thought and actions of the immediate present cannot help but effect a
radical displacement of the tradition or object so viewed in the direc-
tion of the viewer's own time. This displacement, as we have already
seen, results in a transformation of the object or tradition affected.
Small wonder, then, that even when the medieval artists or writers
sought to borrow from classical sources, they transformed radically

8 Panofsky, p. io8.
9 Ibid., p. ii1.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 369
what they borrowed. Panofsky has termed this phenomenon the "prin-
ciple of disjunction" which he defines as follows:
whereverin the high and later Middle Ages a work of art borrowsits form
from a classicalmodel, this form is almost invariably invested with a non-
classical, normally Christian significance;wherever in the high and later
Middle Ages a work of art borrowsits theme from classicalpoetry, legend,
history or mythology, this theme is quite invariably presented in a non-
classical, normally contemporary form.0o
In the domain of art history, the principle of disjunction accounts
for such representations as an enthroned Jupiter accompanied by a
raven bearing a halo because the illustrator "involuntarily assimilated
the image of a ruler enthroned and accompanied by a sacred bird to
that of Pope Gregory visited by the dove of the Holy Spirit."'11Simi-
larly, the classical theme of Mithras wrestling with the bull, derived
originally from Statius' Thebaid (I, 719), was not understood as such
in the Middle Ages, being taken instead as "an impressive, but anony-
mous example of the ritual slaughter of animals which had been
practiced by the Jews as well as Gentiles and which Christianity had
replaced by the sacrum sacrificium of the Holy Mass."12 Sisyphus,
Ixion, and Tantalus represented the deadly sins of Pride, Lewdness
and Avarice punished for their sins in Hell. Hercules, depicted with
spear and shield "is clearly identified with Mars, the god of war, and
therefore corresponds to the vice of Discord or Hardness of Heart."'13
These and countless other examples lead Panofsky to assert cate-
gorically that "in the representational arts of the high and later
Middle Ages . . . the 'principle of disjunction' applies almost without
exception, or with only such exceptions as can be accounted for by
special circumstances."'14 Furthermore, he knows of "no exception to
the rule that classical themes transmitted to medieval artists by texts
were anachronistically modernized."15

to Ibid., p. 84. Later on, Panofsky comments: "Similarly, there was, on the one
hand, a sense of unbroken continuity with classical antiquity that linked the 'Holy
Roman Empire of the Middle Ages' to Caesar and Augustus, medieval music to
Pythagoras, medieval philosophy to Plato and Aristotle, medieval grammar to
Donatus - and, on the other, a consciousness of the insurmountable gap that
separated the Christian present from the pagan past (so that in the case of
Aristotle's writing a sharp distinction was made, or at least attempted, between
what was admissable and what should be condemned)" (p. 11o; my italics).
11 Ibid., p. 85.
12 Ibid., p. 98.
13 Ibid., pp. 92, 96.
14 Ibid., p. 85.
15 Ibid., p. 87.
370 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

Panofsky's principle of disjunction seems to suggest that medieval

man perceived phenomena, and historical phenomena in particular,
with a mind qualitatively different from our own. As John Scotus
Eriugena reminds us, there was a tendency to identify the knowledge
of the thing with the thing itself: "the knowledge of things that are, is
the things."'6 St. Thomas Acquinas pushed the idea still further when
he said "nothing is known except truth - which is the same as
being."7 The medieval mind was thus not detached, as we try to be,
from its representations. What could be thought, and, most impor-
tantly, named in words - no matter what its origin - did not con-
stitute an abstraction unknowable in reality, but, on the contrary, an
important and tangible part of the experience of present concrete
existence. It is for this reason that in art, and other areas of expres-
sion, things were represented in terms of the life experience of the
perceiver. Or, in other words, the perceiver participated in the object
represented - basing all judgments as to the value and truth (i.e.
reality) of the object represented on the participatory experience.18
The phenomenon here described may be succinctly summed up in
the pithy dictum of King Bademagus of Gorre: "Le voir m'an apren-
dront mi oel" (my own eyes will teach me the truth of the matter).19
It would be surprising indeed to find that these observations did not
have an important bearing upon our understanding of the mode of
existence of medieval literature in general, but epic literature in
particular. If we look closely at those narrative genres which have
traditionally been accepted as epic - the Old French chanson de
geste, the Old Norse and Irish prose sagas, Beowulf, and the long
heroic poems in Middle High German, we find that they manifest the
kind of participatory perception described in Panofsky's principle
of disjunction. Taking these poems as a whole, it is possible to discern
two distinct phases of historical and esthetic development within each
linguistic group.20 The first phase, in those epic traditions that will

16 "Cognitio eorum, quae sunt, ea, quae sunt, est." Quoted by Owen Barfield,
Saving the Appearances (New York, 1965), p. 89.
17 "Nihil enim scitur nisi verum, quod cum ente convertitur," Summa, Ia, Qu. I,
aI, 2. Quoted by Barfield, p. 89.
18 For a cogent, though rather brief discussion of the concept of participation
as a medieval mode of thought, see Owen Barfield, particularly chs. iii, iv, vi and
xi.
9i Chr6tien de Troyes, Le chevalier de la Charrete, ed. by M. Roques (Paris,
1958), 1. 4828.
20 Historical circumstances are responsible for certain obvious exceptions to this
observation. In Ireland, a progresive political and economic isolation during the
high Middle Ages prevented the development of a second phase epic as we find
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 371
concern us here, is relatively brief in duration. This phase is not
simply a prelude to the second phase, but a vital precondition to the
existence of any epic tradition at all, since it is in this phase that the
themes and motifs which will distinguish and characterize the epics
are laid down. In the nature of the relationship between the first and
second phases, one sees the most striking difference between the
medieval tradition and that of the classical period and Renaissance.
For it is the nature of classical or Renaissance "secondary" epic to
emulate the salient formal features of the primary model. Indeed, it is
precisely the formal similarities of the Homeric and Virgilian arche-
types and their successors that encouraged a generic identification of
epic in the first place. In the medieval epic, however, the reverse is
true: the second phase carries forward the basic themes and events of
the first phase, but never the form. Indeed, as we shall find, the second
phase epics explicitly reject the form of the earlier phase as falsifying
the truth of the epic matter. In point of fact, the search for truth, in
the final stages of the second phase will dissipate the genre's vitality
in an excess of formalism.
As these last remarks indicate, the difference between the two phases
of medieval epic lies primarily in the different degrees of literary
consciousness they manifest. On the one hand, the first phase, princi-
pally concerned with situating the action in a context of immediate
reality, is characterized by a high degree of interaction between life
and literature, literary fact and artifact. The second phase, on the
other hand, while still very much preoccupied with the truth or
reality of the events recounted, nonetheless shows a good deal more
concern for the literary context of the narration. Esthetic and moral
concerns thus play a large part in this phase. One other important
characteristic of the second phase concerns the question of distancing:
whereas the first-phase epic assumes an immediate interaction between
the epic world and the real world of the audience, the second-phase
epic frequently takes time to establish a moral relationship between
the epic action and the lives of the aristocratic audience. We shall
have occasion to discuss these characteristics of second-phase epic more
fully in a moment, but their main outline should be borne in mind
as we proceed.

it in France or Germany, for example. In Iceland, the loss of independence during

the course of the thirteenth century turned attention toward the continent, and
literary activity became more derivative. Thus the Icelandic "second-phase" activi-
ties consist largely in "saga-izing" the Old French epic chronicles and romances. In
Germany, we have ample historical testimony as to the nature and existence of
first-phase epic, even though few of them have actually survived.
372 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

First-phase epic naturally stands in close relationship to the society

of its time, because it serves as an essential instrument of self-aware-
ness for society, or at least for that section of the society which culti-
vates it. Italo Siciliano has recently argued that the origins of medi-
eval epic are not to be found in the vague relationships between his-
torical events and long-lost legends, still less in some lyrical effulgence
of a pre-literary society, but rather in the needs of specific and domi-
nant castes of given societies to possess an instrument of self-aware-
ness, a verbal monument defining the paradigmatic relationship of
the individual to his society.21 Or, rather, to show how certain exem-
plary individuals in the past had existed in relationship to their
society - indeed to show how their actions had helped to constitute
and preserve the society - and thus create a sense of identity between
those characters, the ideals of the society and the individual in the
"present."22
21 Giambattista Vico in his New Science was the first scholar to recognize and
describe the paradigmatic role of myth and legend in primitive societies. Sub-
sequently, his observations have been refined and corroborated by such anthropol-
ogists and philosophers as Claude Levi-Strauss, Mircea Eliade, Georges Dum6zil and
Ernst Cassirer. Particularly appropriate to our discussion is Cassirer's observation
that "In mythic conception, things are not taken for what they mean indirectly,
but for their immediate appearance; they are taken as pure presentations, and
embodied in the imagination.... For in this realm (of mythic conception) nothing
has any significance of being save what is given in tangible reality. Here is no
'reference' and 'meaning'; every content of consciousness to which the mind is
directed is immediately translated into terms of actual presence and effectiveness
. . . all bridges between the concrete datum and the systematized totality of
experience are broken; only the present reality, as mythic or linguistic conception
stresses and shapes it, fills the entire subjective realm. So this one content of
experience must reign over practically the whole experiential world. .... At this
point, the word which denotes that thought content is not a mere conventional
symbol, but is merged with its object in an indissoluble unity. The conscious
experience is not merely wedded to the word, but is consumed by it. Whatever
has been fixed by a name, henceforth is not only real, but is reality. The potential
between 'symbol' and 'meaning' is resolved; in place of a more or less adequate
'expression' we find a relation of identity, of complete congruence between 'image'
and 'object', between the name and the thing." Language and Myth, trans. by
Susanne Langer (New York, 1946), pp. 56-58.
22 ". . . au commencement, il y a la caste, voire les castes: la caste des guerriers,
des chefs, des rois incultes et aimant les beaux chants et les louanges, la caste des
mages, des pretres et des scribes, la caste, savante ou non, des aMdes,des druides,
des sc6ps, des bardes. C'est de ces cercles, et des int6rets convergents et conjug6s
de ces cercles, que sortirent les fetiches, les dieux, le mythe, le rite, le culte, le
heros . . . a route que parcourt I'6popde est, pour ainsi dire, en pente, mais, de
meme que tout chant relhve de l'individu-potte, de meme le genre 6pique garde
jusque dans ses dech6ances les vestiges des elites qui en ont permis et promu la
naissance." Italo Siciliano, Les chansons de geste et
l'dpopde (Torino, 1968), 244-45-
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 373
First-phase epic thus stands in a highly ambiguous relationship to
the past events it seeks to record. In one sense, the authority of the
events derives from their status as accomplished fact, of their being
true and irreversible. But in another sense the value of these past
events - as the words of the mass or Panofsky's principle of disjunc-
tion showed - lay in their quality as immanence, as a real force in
present existence. The language of this phase must reflect this com-
plexity; of necessity, it exercises a dual function. While exalting the
wonder and authority of the past, it must yet cast these events in
accord with the perspective of the present and in a language calcu-
lated to seize the imagination of the audience. This displacement of
the past into the present should not be thought of as a denial of the
past, but rather as an affirmation of a kind of ontological continuity
between past and present. The past is thus thought of as living in the
present in a necessary and mutually beneficial relationship.
This movement represents a kind of solicitation. The poet invites
the audience to participate in the epic world not, as Aristotle might
have it, in order to remark how remote are the lives and deeds of the
epic heroes from the world of the audience, but, on the contrary, as
a means of participating in the great moments of the society's past,
thereby affirming the greatness of the present. To accomplish this
end, the language must be centripetal, moving from the world of the
audience into the world of the epic:
CariesIi reis, nostreempereremagnes
set anz tuz pleinsad estet en Espaigne
Tresqu'enla mercunquistla terealtaigne.23
Plaistvus o'r de granzbataillese forzesturs,
De Deramed,uns reissarazinurs
Cun il pristguereversLowis nostreempereur?
Mais dan Willamela pristverslui forcur,
Tant qu'il ocist el Larchamppar grantonur.24

23 "Charles the King, our great emperor,

Has been in Spain for seven full years
Right down to the sea, he's conquered this proud land."
Les textes de la Chanson de Roland, ed. Raoul Mortier, I, La version d'Oxford
(Paris, 1940), 11. 1-3.
24 "Would it please you to hear of great battles and bloody skirmishes,
Of Duram&, a Saracen king,
Of how he made war against Louis, our emperor?
But Lord William proved the stronger,
And finally killed him at L'Archamp to his great glory."
La Chanson de Guillaume, ed. Duncan MacMillan (Paris, 1949), 11. 1-5-
374 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

pat er upp haf a sSgu Jessi, at Hikon konungr Abalsteinsf6stri

r66 fyrir Noregi, ok var ],etta a ofanvert5um hans dbgum. porkell
h6t mawr, hann var kallaSr skerauki; hann bj6 i Sfirnadal ok var
hersir at nafnb6t.25
Ulfr h6t ma&6r,sonr BjAlfa ok Hallberu, d6ttur Ulfs ins 6arga; hon
var systir Hallbjarnar halftrolls i Hrafnistu, f6tSur Ketils hoengs.
Ulfr var matr sva mikill ok sterkr, at eigi varu hans jafningjar; en
er hann var unga
i aldri, l1 hann i vikungu ok herjaSi.26
Once when the royal bed was laid out for Ailill and Medb in
Cruachan fort in Connacht, they had this talk on the pillows.27

Once launched upon the subject matter, the poet possesses numerous
other techniques to continue soliciting the listener's participation in
the epic world. It is characteristic of the first-phase epic that the epic
world is portrayed as being very much like the real world of the
audience; in fact, one might say that it is an extension of that world.
Thus we find the Roland-poet referring to Charlemagne as nostre
emperere, while the saga writer carefully lists the antecedents of the
important characters as well as the districts in Norway and Iceland
where they lived, confident that his audience would know these places
by reputation if not by first-hand experience.
First-phase epic language, then, operates centrifugally as well as
centripetally: not only is the audience drawn into the epic world, but
the epic language constantly establishes links with the places and
persons of the real world. Thus Turold, the author of the Oxford
version of the Roland, unhesitatingly situates the attack on the rear-
guard of Charlemagne's army in a specific spot in the Pyrenees ideally
suited to the kind of battle described. Roncevaux, the real place in
the pass of Ibafieta named by Turold, has been accepted as the site
of that battle for so long that we tend to forget that we owe its identi-
fication to Turold's desire to make a concrete connection between the

25 "When this story begins, King Hakon, foster-son of Athelstan, was ruling
over Norway, and it was near the end of his days. There was a man named
Thorkell, who had the nickname skerauki; he lived in Surnadal, and was a chief-
tain by title. .." The Saga of Gisli, trans. G. Johnston (London, 1963), p. i. Old
Norse text from Gisla Saga Szirssonar, ed. A. Loth (Copenhagen, 1956), p. 1.
26 "There was a man named Ulf, the son of Bj6alfi and that Hallbera who was
daughter of Ulf Unafraid and sister to Hallbj6rn Halftroll in Hrafnista, the father
of Ketil Hoeng. Ulf was a man so big and strong that there was nobody to match
him; his early manhood he spent viking and raiding." Egil's Saga, trans. Gwyn
Jones (Syracuse, 1960), p. 31. Icelandic text from Egils Saga Skallagrimsonar, ed.
Sigurdar Nordal (His Islenzka Fornritafelag, 1933), ch. i.
27 The Tain, trans. Thomas Kinsella (Dublin, Dolmen IX, 1969), p. 52.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 375
real world and the epic action which he took to be real. Similarly, he
is the first to name Bordeaux as the repository of the relics of
Roland's combat, and Blaye as the place where the tombs of Roland
and Olivier might be seen. The Venice IV version of the Roland, more
concerned than the Oxford version with presenting the details of
Roland's and Aude's ill-fated love, also situates her tomb at Blaye.
The Old Norse and Irish sagas identify the locales of their setting
with an exactitude which would permit instant identification by
members of the audience:
Gisli birsknu til at heygja Vestein me6 allt ii 6 sitt i sandmel
beim,
era stenzk ok Seftj'rn, fyrir nean Saeb6l.28

NiuriY6rVesteinn heiman ok berr sva til, at Pa rfSr hann undir

melinn hjbiMosvUllum,er heir broeSr ribfahit efra, ok farask peir hja
a miss.29

pa var JorgeirrOtkelssonkominnnaerhonum me6 reiddu sverbi;

Gunnarrsnisk at honum skj6tt af mikilli reiti ok rekr i gegnum
hann atgeirinnok vegr hann a lopt ok keyrirhann uitA Ranga, ok
rekr hann Avatit ofan ok festi par A steini einum, ok heitir Par
siban porgeirsva5.30

K{irihlj6p, til ,ess er hann kom at loek einum, ok kastati sir i ofan
ok a ser eldinn. pat5anhlj6p hann me$ reykinumi gr6f
sl.kkti
nikkura ok hvildi sik, okerpat si?an kbUllu5
karagr6f.31
In the Tdin B6 Cuailnge, the geographical settings are so accurate
that maps and books have been prepared showing the route of the
Tdin. When, in Chapter VII, the text reads: "Cuchulainn continued
to harrass them (at Druim Fine in Conaille). He slew a hundred men
on each of the three nights they stayed in the place, plying the sling
on them from the hill Ochaine nearby;" the site of the encampment
28 "Gisli now prepares, with all his men, to bury Vestein in the sandhill that
stands beside the rush-pond below Saebol." Saga of Gisli, p. 18; Gisla Saga, ch. xiv.
29 "Meanwhile, Vestein sets out from home, and it happens that he rides below
the sandhill at Mosvellir as the brothers are riding along the top, and so they
pass by and miss one another." Saga of Gisli, p. 15; Gisla Saga, ch. xi.
30 "Thorgeir Otkelson was now almost upon him with his sword raised; Gunnar
whirled on him in fury and drove the halberd right through him, hoisted him high in the
air, and hurled him out into the (Rangna) river. The body drifted down to the ford,
where it caught against a boulder; this place has been known as Thorgeir's Ford ever
since." ,Njal'sSaga, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson (Baltimore, 1960),
p. 162. Icelandic text from Brennu-NjalsSaga, ed. Einar Olafur Sveinsson (Hit Islenzka
Fornritafelag, 1954), ch. lxxii.
31 "Kari ran until he reached a small stream; he threw himself into it and
extinguished his blazing clothes. From there he ran under cover of the smoke
until he reached a hollow, where he rested. It has ever since been called Kari's
Hollow." Njal's Saga, p. 269; Brennu-Njdls Saga, ch. cxxix.
376 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

and the hill from which Cuchulainn launched his deadly missiles can
be identified from the description.
By embracing the real world in this way, epic language assures that
it will situate itself within the life experience of its intended audi-
ence. This movement of rapprochement between the epic world and
the world of the audience takes many forms. Space and time being
limited, it is not possible to point out more than one other at this
time. Writers of epic and saga took great pains to give the audience
the feeling of unmediated conversance with the epic heroes by judici-
ous use of direct discourse. Direct discourse is as old as epic, or indeed
as narrative literature itself, but in the medieval epic, it often takes
unique forms. In the Old Norse and Irish sagas, for example, staves
and often whole poems composed by the heroes themselves are
quoted. Within the literary context of the work, the poems serve a
number of different purposes: characterization, emphatic underlining
of and commentary on events, and emotional coloring. In the Gisli
Saga, for example, Gisli reveals himself as the slayer of Thorgrim in
a skaldic verse which he thinks no one will be able to understand. His
sister hears it, however, puzzles out the meaning and sets the machin-
ery in motion which will eventually lead to Gisli's outlawry and ulti-
mate death. I cite this example - but there are countless others - to
indicate that the poems were not superfluous embellishment, but an
integral part of the narrative. Similarly, the chants and poems of
the Tdin Bd Cuailnge and other Irish sagas fulfill a variety of neces-
sary purposes, all the way from conveying messages to magical healing.
For the saga-writers and their audiences, the poems represented
a direct contact with the poet-hero. Because the skaldic verses of Egil,
Gisli, Kormak, Gunnar and others exist and can be quoted even out
of the context of the epic - and indeed some of the most famous often
did form the substance of an evening's entertainment - it would have
been unthinkable to have doubted the existence of the heroes who
composed them, nor the veracity of the sagas which told of their
exploits. And just as we feel a narrowing of the gap between the
early nineteenth century and the present when we read the poems of
Wordsworth, H1lderlin, or Vigny, so the poems in the sagas conflated
the distance between the epic world and the world of its audience.32

32 This observation would be true even if the verse quotations were confined
to major characters and events. In fact, even rather insignificant events and charac-
ters are so treated:
"Just then a breeze sprang up, and Thrain put out to sea. It was then that he
uttered this couplet, which has been remembered ever since:
'Give the Vulture his wings,
Nothing can make Thrain yield.'
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 377
The Old French epic and the Nibelungenlied, written in verse
rather than prose, do not have the option of inserting such poems,
nor is there the same tradition of the warrior-poet. Nevertheless, direct
discourse quotations do function in much the same way.33 Roland,
Olivier, la belle Aude and a host of other epic figures stand out in our
memory thanks to the skill of the epic poets in making them immedi-
ate through their own memorable sayings. To take but one example,
the young hero, Girard, of the Chanson de Guillaume, a character
who has not enjoyed great prominence initially, finds himself dis-
patched from the battlefield to summon the aid of Guillaume. While
crossing a desert, Girard, borne down by thirst and the weight of his
arms, begins to apostrophize each article of armor as he regretfully
casts it aside. The effect of these few laisses is to create a kind of
lament, very different from the narrative verse surrounding it.34
When the Earl heard what Thrain had said, he commented, 'My failure was not
due to my lack of wisdom, but rather to this alliance of theirs, which will eventu-
ally drag them both to destruction.'" Njal's Saga, p. 193-
"They go into the ring and fight, and each holds a shield to guard himself. Skeggi
has a sword called Warflame, and he swings it at Gisli so that it makes a loud
whistle; then says Skeggi:
'Warflame whistled,
Wild sport for Saxa.'
Gisli struck back at him with a halberd and took off the point of his shield and
one of his lefs, and he said:
'Hack went the halberd,
Hewed down Skeggi.'
Skeggi bought himself off from the duel and from then on went on a wooden leg."
The Saga of Gisli, p. 4.
33 See chapter two, "The Saying of Deeds in the Chanson de Guillaume," of my
dissertation, Rhetorical Design and Creativity in the Chansons de Geste (Yale Uni-
versity, 1963).
34 LX
'Ohi grosse hanste, cume peises al braz;
Nen aidera a Vivien en l'Archamp
Qui se combat a dolerus ahan."
Dunc la lance Girard en mi le champ.
LXI
"Ohi, grant targe, cume peises al col;
Nen aidera a Vivid a la mort."
El champ la getad, si la tolid de sun dos.
LXII
"Ohi, bone healme, cum m'estunes la teste;
Nen aiderai a Vivien en la presse
Ki se cumbat el Archamp sur l'erbe."
Il le langad e jetad cuntre terre.
La Chanson de Guillaume, 11. 716-25.
378 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

Girard suddenly takes on form and reality, in much the same way
Egil's poem lamenting the death of his sons in the Egil's Saga brings
us closer to him as a sentient being.
The Beouwulf-poet rings another change on this device when he
pictures Beowulf telling his own adventures to King Hygelac, follow-
ing his return from Hrothgar's domain:
To many among men, it is not hidden, lord Hygelac, the great encounter -
what a fight we had, Grendel and I, in the place where he made many
sorrowsfor the Victory Scyldings,constant misery.35
For Hygelac's benefit, Beowulf recapitulates all that has happened.
His account contains several references to the fame already accorded
to the story of his deeds, implying that this fame stands as guarantor
for the accuracy of his words: "To many men it is not hidden, lord
Hygelac . .. Then I found the guardian of the deep pool, the grim
horror, as is now known wide." The effect of this tale within a tale is
to leave the audience with the feeling of having witnessed the birth of
the epic. All subsequent tellings reEnact this first one given by the
hero himself. For its part, the audience, hearing Beowulf himself tell
his story, feels not only his immediately, but also the immanent reality
of his deeds.
These are but a few of the devices typical of the language of first-
phase epic. But they do suffice to suggest how the writer built his epic
around the mode of perceiving the past through the perspective of
the present. Elsewhere, I have traced the rise of this mode of percep-
tion in the Latin and vernacular peregrinationes ad loca sancta.36
The peregrinationes demonstrates admirably the characteristics which
we have found to be an essential motivating force in first-phase epic.
Accordingly, I would like to suggest the term "peregrinatio principle"
- which I have used in other studies to describe this special mode of
perception - as a name for the dominant mode of first-phase epic.

Although the peregrinatio principle can help to explain certain

aspects of the origin and mode of existence of the medieval epic, there
are other important aspects of the genre for which it does not fully
account. In particular, it cannot, by itself, deal adequately with
esthetic questions, nor with the phenomenon, unique in the western
epic tradition, of cyclic groupings based variously upon the principle

35 Beowulf, trans. E. Talbot Donaldson (New York, 1966), ch. xxviii.

36 "The Interaction of Life and Literature . . ." (see note 7); "Poetic Reality
and Historical Illusion in the Old French Epic," The French Review, XLIII
(1969), 23-33.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 379
of familial relationship of the principal heroes (chansons de geste,
aettirsi6gur, Volsung or Nibelung legend), their place of origin
(Ulster cycle), or thematic similarities (Fenian cycle, cycle of the
rebellious barons). We also need to be able to explain the energies
which were poured into the recreation of these epics during the cen-
turies following the creative thrust which produced the first one. In
short, we need a concept capable of explaining the development of
medieval epic as a literary tradition with serious artistic pretensions.
In quest of this concept, it might be useful to go back to the same
sources which gave us the peregrinatio principle. Eusebius tells us in
Book Three of his Vita Constantini that Constantine wished to mark
the holy places associated with Christ's life by "The splendour of
buildings" so that they might be made "conspicuous and an object of
veneration to all."37 Constantine intended that these sites would
become artistically as well as spiritually marvellous. The splendour
of the buildings was not to be a gratuitous decoration, but a material
gaurantee of that spiritual significance. In other words, the esthetic
and religious were to exist symbiotically, investing the sites with a
manifest "spirit of truth." Later generations of pilgrims would not
doubt that they were indeed on the true site of Christ's passion thanks
to the splendour of the basilica erected there.38 In fact, later pilgrim
accounts attest to the awe felt by European pilgrims unused, as they
were, to such monumental edifices. Later on, of course, the splendour-
of-buildings mode was to make itself felt in Europe with a vengeance.
The magnificent romanesque and gothic edifices carried on the princi-
ple of the "spirit of truth" created by Constantine.
Returning to the problem of the esthetic development of medieval
epic, I would propose that we use the "spirit of truth" as a term desig-
nating the ethical and esthetic awareness responsible for making the
epics the magnificent literary monuments they are. I would further
suggest two important stages in the development of the concept.
Initially, we find the spirit of truth functioning in first-phase epic in
much the same way Eusebius describes it. That is, the esthetic quali-
ties of the work serve the complex of motivations described by the
peregrinatio principle, rather than functioning as independent goals.
The artists, according to this theory, sought to render their works as

37 Eusebius, Vita Constantini, III, xxv, xxx. Translation by John Bernard, Pales-
tine Pilgrims' Text Society, Eusebius (London, 1896), pp. 3, 5.
38 Later pilgrims even thought Constantine's basilicae to be contemporaneous
with Christ's own times. Richard Krautheimer has shown that, for the Carolingians,
Constantinian architecture had an even greater authority and influence than
classical buildings; see "The Carolingian Revival of Early Christian Architecture,"
Art Bulletin, XXIV (1942), pp. 1 ff.
380 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

skillfully as possible according to the literary tastes of their own day

which, in many cases, they were in good measure responsible for
creating. By rendering the epic matter in the idiom of the day, the
writers could hope not only to make their works "conspicuous" but
also to facilitate the rapprochement between the epic world and the
real world which we spoke about earlier. First-phase epic writers
appear less self-conscious about the form of their work than later
writers, precisely because they are at the beginning of the literary
tradition. The form appropriate to the epic matter is the form they
create and their audience accepts. First-phase epic, then, rarely calls
attention to its form, at least not by overt commentary.
As more and more epics are written in a given language, however,
a sense of tradition inevitably arises, and the awareness of this tradi-
tion affects the way both poet and audience view the individual work.
The nature of this literary self-consciousness varies from country to
country, but in France we get some idea of its early stages through
such prologues as the one found in the Couronnement de Louis. The
poet of the single extant version of this work refers deprecatingly to
inferior versions of the poem told by the "vilains joglere" who does
not know the truth of the epic matter and thus cannot produce artis-
tically worthy versions. This jongleur, giving us one of the earliest
explicit examples of the sprit of truth, proclaims the artistic merits
of his own version.39
He appears as preoccupied with the literary antecedents of his
song, its form, and its relation to other poems in the Guillaume cycle,
as he does with the questions raised by the peregrinatio principle.
While he remains very much concerned with the reality and truth of
his material, he clearly believes that the literary form - the fact of its
being, as he claims, corteise, bien faite, e avenante (the latter adjec-
tives twice-repeated) - makes it worthy of our attention. One can
imagine Turold or the writer of the Njal's Saga feeling a certain pride
at the literary forms they created, but not to the point of overshadow-
ing the subject.
39 Oiez, seignor, que Deus vos seit aidanzI
Plaist vos oir d'une estoire vaillant
Bone chan.on, corteise et avenant?
Vilains joglere, ne sai por quei se vant,
Nul mot en die tresque on li comant.
De Loois ne lairai ne vos chant
Et de Guillelme al Cort N4s le vaillant,
Qui tant sofri sor sarrazine gent;
De meillor ome ne cuit que nuls vos chant.
Le Couronnement de Louis, ed. by Ernest Langlois, second edition
(Paris, 1925), 11. 1-9.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 381

This newfound self-consciousness need not be manifested by explicit

commentary. The language of second-phase epic is by necessity a lan-
guage of accommodation, or transformation. The author of the
Middle High German Nibelungenlied, for example, obviously saw his
task in presenting that work as one requiring a thorough overhauling
of the heroic code traditionally associated with the V6lsung/Nibelung
material. He recast the old form in accord with the new political,
social and artistic mode of expression generally associated with the
courtly romance.
Whereas the various Old Norse branches of the story place little
emphasis upon outward forms of dress or appearance - to take but
one example - the Nibelungenlied-poet expends a good deal of
rhetoric on matters of haute couture. No actions can be taken, seem-
ingly, until the heroes and heroines have acquired new wardrobes.
For instance:

62 Support my trip to Burgundyl Provide

For my knights and me the kind of clothes with pride
And honor worn by men of lofty mood -
For that I pledge to you my trust and gratitude.

64 At this young Sigfrid bowed and said to her,

"Twelve knights will go with me, for I prefer
To take no more. Let clothes for them be planned."
"The best of clothes that can be found they wear
344
Always in Brunhild's land. Let us take care,
Therefore, to let her see us richly dressed,
That when they tell of us we need not be distressed."40

As befits the political realities of a society oriented to the court,

rather than the mead-hall, the hoard itself takes on new significance.
Hagen and Kriemhild strive for possession of the hoard not in order
to be liberal "ring-strewers," but because in the new order, money
is equated with political power.

1130 Hagen said to the king, "A prudent man

Would leave no part of this hoard to a woman who can,
With generous giving, bring about the day
That bold men rue it all - as we of Burgundy mayl"

1272 "She'll never waste her love on me, that's plain,

So Sigfrid's gold must not leave our domain.
Why should I hand my foes such revenue?
With treasure like this," he said," I know what she would do."

40 The Song of the Nibelungs, trans. by Frank G. Ryder (Detroit, 1962).

382 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

1273 If once she got it there, it's plain to see,

It soon would be paid out for hate of me.

1396 One intention never left her mind:

She thought, "I have power of such a kind,
And wealth enough, to hurt my enemies badly -
This I swear I'd do to Hagen of Trony gladly."

1898 Attila's vassals loved her, every knight

Of Kriemhild's court - which was no more than right.
Ecewart managed her treasure. Thus he made
Good friends for her, and what she willed no one gainsaid.

In the same vein, the characters themselves undergo profound trans-

formations. One of the most striking metamorphoses - and one not
always easy to sustain41- is that which Brunhild undergoes from a
Valkyrie warrior-maiden, whose status in the Old Norse versions is
equal to that of the male heroes, into a paragon of the courtly
esthetic as regards beauty, but an intriguing, jealous courtier in be-
havior.

618 The king was seated. Brunhild, too, was there -

This was her greatest sorrow, to see this pair
Sitting together. Her eyes began to well,
Over her bright cheeks the hot tears fell.

41 Thus for example in the Seventh Adventure, strophe 392, Gunther describes
his first view of Brunhild in terms of the courtly convention:

"I see one now, by the window over there,

Dressed in a snow-white dress, of such a rare
And lovely form - my eyes would never err,

But in strophe 416, and then in the long series devoted to the combat, beginning
with strophe 434, the poet has to stress Brunhild's uncourtly attributes, her
strength, size and weapons. In compensation, he dwells upon the magnificence of
her arms. The result produces some slightly "schizophrenic" strophes like the
following:

434 Brunhild now had come, weapons in hand,

As if she meant to conquer some monarch's land -
In silks with golden brooches fastened in,
Beneath which gleamed the shining whiteness of her skin.

435 Then came her retinue of knights, to hold

The mighty breadth of shield, of pure red gold
With heavy straps as hard as steel and bright,
Under the guard of which the lovely maid would fight.

The Song of the Nibelungs.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 383
620 "I've cause enough for tears,"the lady cried,
"I'm sick at heart for your sisterl Here at the side
Of your own vassal she sits; I must weep
At seeing her degradedthus and sunk so deep."
622 "I pity her, so nobly bred and fairl
I'd run away, if only I knew where,
And never sleep with you, unless you say
Why it is that Kriemhildwas given him this way."
83o Said Brunhild, "If you deny your vasselage,
Don't come to church with me - the privilege
Of my attendants!You and your maids must leave me."
To which Kriemhildreplied, "That I will, believe mel"

831 "Now dress,my ladies,"she said, "dressfor church;

My honor's not for anyone here to besmirch.
If you have elegant clothes, don't be accused
Of hiding them. We'll make her rue the words she used."

In second-phase epic, the spirit of truth links the form of the epic
to the changing fashions of literary modes. There can be no perma-
nent, enduring epic form. Either the works will have to be re-created
to suit the tastes of successive generations, or they will cease to be a
viable literary tradition. Thus it is that, in thirteenth-century France,
a reaction set in against the verse-form of epic characteristic of the
twelfth century. Nicolas of Senlis, commissioned to rework the Char-
lemagne cycle in 1202, writes that the earlier versions of the matter
of Charlemagne were untrue because written in rhyme. He states
flatly that "nus contes rimes n'est verais; tot est mangongie ?o qu'il
en dient."42 Another thirteenth-century prosifier of the Charlemagne
material offers a more specific indictment of rhyme: "Et por ce que
rime se voelt afaitier de moz concueillies hors de I'estoire, voult li
quens que cist livres fut sans rime selon le latin de l'estoire que
Turpin . .43
Panofsky has spoken of the "macrocosmic" tendencies which began
to be manifest in the monumentalizing trend of Gothic art towards

42 "No rhymed story can be true; everything they say in rhyme is falsehood; for
they don't know anything except what they hear said ..." Cited by G. Doutrepont,
Les mises en prose des 6pop6es et des romans chevaleresques du XIVe au XVIe
sidcle (Brusells, 1939), p. 385.
43 "And because rhyme tends to affect words taken from outside the story, the
count wishes this book to be without rhyme according to the language of the
story . . ." From a version of the Chronique de Turpin commissioned by Renaud
de Boulogne, Count of Dammartin. Cited in Ibid., p. 385.
384 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

the end of the twelfth century.44We should hardly be surprised, then,

to find that the new prose reworkings of the Old French epics, along
with their translations into other languages, began to exhibit distinct
"macrocosmic" tendencies of their own. Some, indeed, attained such
awe-inspiring monumentality that they have yet to find editors, let
alone publishers.
It seems obvious in the face of these changes in epic esthetic, origi-
nating in France, but soon found throughout Europe, that the spirit
of truth underwent a profound redefinition during the course of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Gone are the pretensions to
immediacy, that interaction of life and literature that was the hall-
mark of first-phase and early second-phase epic. In their place, we find
a conscious distancing, an express desire to point out the differences
between the epic world - now seen as a lost, but not irretrievable
ideal - and the real world. Where once the epics simply confirmed
the generally accepted proximity of the two worlds, now they had
to educate people as to the very nature of the ideals, show how they
functioned, and, finally, demonstrate that the world was still capable
of sustaining them. Fortunately, irrelevance was a concept of which
the Middle Ages lived in blissful ignorance. Even without knowing it,
however, they still responded to its exigencies. Since even the most
enthusiastic lover of epic could not pretend that the old epic world
had direct relevance for the fifteenth century, a dialectic of media-
tion had to be found in order to accommodate the peregrinatio princi-
ple and the spirit of truth to the new situation.
The ever resourceful dpopistes sought, and found the answer to
their problem in the old classical formula dolce et utile. This last
phase of medieval epic esthetic was spelled out in the introduction
of David Aubert's version of the Croniques et Conquestes de Charle-
maine (1458), among other places. Aubert accused the previous prose
redactors of the Charlemagne chronicle of not having given the
"truth" of the material. "Truth" in this phase is not to be defined
in terms of form, but rather in terms of moral purpose. The early
prosifiers, who thought to render the truth of their matter by exorcis-
ing the creative temptations posed by rhyme, had failed, according
to Aubert, to point out the moral potential of the chronicles. In
particular, he thinks the chronicles should serve as moral exempla to
his noble readers, "car ilz peuent valoir et donner bon exemple aux
hardis en armes et nobles de cuer pour eulx moustrer la fourme et
maniere de gouuerner leurs corps et noblement contenir." Even the
act of reading has been moralized, although Aubert does hold out

44 RRWA, pp. 56 ff.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH: EPIC MODES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 385
promise of pleasure along with edification: "Et le gracieux plaisir de
la ioyeuse lecture, ou ilz se delictent, rend leurs esperitz fiers, legiers,
ioyeux et en eulx mesmes bien disposez, ou aultre passe temps leur
feroit dommage et aporteroit ennuy et melancolie."45
Aubert does not doubt the reality of "les fais des anciens," but
neither does he claim immediacy for them. On the contrary, it is
precisely the act of remembrance, as he says, which serves to maintain
a feeling of continuity between the noble past and the aristocratic
present. By behaving in the old heroic fashion, the latter-day aristo-
crats reaffirm this continuity. Parenthetically, it is worthwhile noting
that the continuity has now apparently become a matter of class dis-
tinction. Aubert speaks of the "patrons de noblesse et parfaitte
chevalerie [qui] fichierent jadis, en leur viuant, les bournes pour
signer la largue et droitte voye d'honneur, ou ilz veillerent tant song-
neusement que la memoire en demeure viue et en si grant clarte
qu'elle ne puet estaindre, mais sera perpetuele et miroir a tous ceulx
qui vendront apres eulx."46
Those who come after will themselves incarnate the old virtues.
Clearly, men with such patrimony and qualifications can only be aris-
tocrats. Identification with the world of epic has thus become a means
of distinguishing the nobility from those who cannot claim kinship
with such an illustrious world, particularly the bourgeoisie.
One last consequence of the distancing remarked in fifteenth-cen-
tury French epics deserves comment: the officious presence of the
author in the work. All phases of medieval epic show signs of authori-
al presence, either overtly, as in the interventions of the author, or
implicitly, embedded in language and structure. Prologues, such as
we found in the Couronnement de Louis even demonstrate the poet's
awareness of the interaction between art and truth in rendering the
traditional material. All this is a far cry from the claims of a David
Aubert who downgrades the role of art and adds the requirement of

45 "For they can be worthwhile and give good example to those men bold in
arms and noble of heart to show them the form and way to rule their bodies and
comport themselves nobly." David Aubert, Croniques et Conquestes de Charle-
maine, ed. by R. Guiette (Brussells, 1951), I, 13. "And the gracious pleasure of
joyous reading - in which [noble readers] take delight - renders their spirits
proud, light, joyous, and well-pleased with themselves, whereas another pastime
might cause ennui and melancholy." Ibid.
46 "Masters of nobility and perfect knighthood who laid out during their life
time in days gone by the landmarks which indicate the straight and wide way of
honor, where they took such great care that the memory might remain alive and
in such clarity that it could not be extinguished, but would be perpetual and a
mirror for those who would come after them." Ibid.
386 NEW LITERARY HISTORY

scholarly antiquarian to the qualifications of the epic writer:

Pourquoy mon dit tres-redoubteseigneur, desirezde ioindre le chef auec-
ques les membres,m'a chargie de curieusementenquerir et viseter pluseurs
volumes tant en latin comme en francois,en tous liux ou i'n pourraybonne-
ment recouurer,et en tirer et extrairece qui seruoit a mon pourpos,pour les
assambleren ung liure . . . Non obstant, ie n'ay point presumey adiouster,
de mon propre, chose que ie n'aye leu, veu et trouue.47
All of this suggests a dispassionate detachment on the part of the
writer which has not previously been evident in the epic writer's
attitude toward his subject. Such detachment represents an important
development, for it is susceptible of at least two interpretations. In
the hands of the faithful, it will move precisely in the direction of
the moralizing, class-conscious, antiquarian research affected by such
as Aubert. In less reverent hands, however, this detachment will
inspire a palace revolt, unleashing those cavaliers of the literary
apocalypse: parody and satire.
The ironic detachment of an Ariosto, a Cervantes, a Rabelais
apparently wrote the epitaph of medieval epic. The Renaissance could
afford to laugh at the medieval works, for it had found an epic tradi-
tion that was at once more venerable and truer to the epic ideal, or
so it seemed. It is indeed a testimony to the justice of Panofsky's
observation quoted at the beginning of this paper that epic studies
have continued to reflect the prejudices of the Renaissance. That the
traditions were indeed different, we have seen to be true. But now
that we have examined some of the dominant modes of medieval epic,
even in so brief and incomplete a sketch, it should be possible to
attain a more balanced picture of the epic tradition as a whole. As
an initial contribution to that picture, I would like to suggest that
the Renaissance rejection of medieval epic as untrue to the classical
ideal, which they were proud to have rediscovered, represents, in
point of fact, a continuation of that perpetual reassessment of epic
esthetics begun in the Middle Ages, and which I have here termed
the spirit of truth.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

47 "Thus my honored lord, wishing to join the head to the limbs, charged me to
search inquisitively and to consult various Latin and French volumes, in as many
places as I could reasonably visit, in order to extract whatever would suit my
purpose and gather it all together in a book . . . Nevertheless, I have not presumed
to add anything on my own which I have not read, seen or found." Ibid., I. 14.