Ancient novel

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The Ancient Roman or antique- Roman (French: roman médiéval ) is an epic genre of high medieval literature that flourished in France and from there to other countries, especially Germany, radiated.

The ancient novel in French literature

The genre evidently originated around 1120, but had its heyday from around 1150 to around 1180. It reflects the growing interest in antiquity in the 12th century and was created by authors who were mostly clerics who knew Latin . As the name suggests, their fabrics and figures come from literary and (pseudo) historiographical works of Roman and Greek antiquity, although the latter are only conveyed through Latin versions.

The audience addressed were princes, e. B. the English king, as well as the predominantly noble staff and the ladies of their courts. In line with the ideas and expectations of this audience, the authors composed their ancient models and sources in a completely impartial way, without shying away from anachronisms and without striving for a historical coloring, as the historical novels of modern times do.

By combining the depiction of knightly deeds and the theme of love for the first time, the ancient novels form a kind of intermediate stage between the older genre Chanson de geste (songs of heroism) and the new genre of courtly novels , which was created and perfected a little later by Chrétien de Troyes . Formally, like the courtly novels, they consist of consecutive, paired rhyming verses, mostly eight-syllable. This shows that they were intended for reading or reading aloud and no longer, like the chansons de geste, which consisted of stanzas (so-called laissen), for performance by singing and singing musicians .

The most important ancient novels are:

Le Roman de Thèbes / Thebenroman (soon after 1150)

Although it is not the first example of the genre, it has influenced it significantly. It is written by an unknown author who uses the Thebais of the ancient Latin author Statius as a model, an epic about the tragic fate of the warring twin sons of Oedipus , Eteocles and Polynices . The work still shows many stylistic devices of the contemporary chansons de geste, but also anticipates those of the courtly novel. In contrast to the novels of the genre that followed him, there is still relatively little room for the subject of love.

Le Roman d'Énéas / Aeneasroman (around 1160)

Its author, who is also anonymous, mainly follows Virgil 's founding epic in Rome, the Aeneid (around 20 BC), but also uses additional sources, e.g. B. Ovid's works . Like the Thebes novel , the Aeneasroman also contains many descriptions of struggles, but gives love a high priority. Certainly it was the sensitive portrayal of the women Dido and Lavinia , who loved the protagonists Aeneas , that prompted the minstrel Heinrich von Veldeke around 1170 to recreate the work in Middle High German verse.

Le Roman de Troie / Trojaroman (approx. 1165)

It is written by Benoît de Sainte-Maure , who is not known as a person , and from whom an unfinished rhyming chronicle on the history of the Norman dukes and English kings has been preserved.

The work, which has come down to us in more than 50 manuscripts, is the most successful and important of the ancient novels. It was intended for the English court of Henry II Plantagenet and his wife Aliénor of Aquitaine, who was a considerable (French-speaking!) Intellectual center.

Le Roman d'Alexandre / Alexanderroman (approx. 1120 to approx. 1180)

Its different and formally very different versions describe the heroic deeds of the conqueror Alexander the great following several late antique Latin models , whereby many legend and fairy tale-like elements are incorporated. The first version , which has only survived as a fragment of 105 eight-syllables , was written in the Franco-Provençal dialect, probably around 1120 and, according to the priest Lamprecht , who used it around 1150/60 for his Middle High German version, can be attributed to an otherwise unknown Alberich von Pisançon. A second, also only fragmentarily preserved version (almost 800 ten-syllables ) was probably written shortly after the middle of the 12th century. The most widespread and with approx. 16,000 verses longest version comes mainly from Alexandre de Bernay or de Paris and was apparently completed around 1180. It is the first major work in French literature to use the twelve-syllable rhyming pair as a meter, which is why it is known in France as "vers alexandrin" ( Alexandrian ).

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