Roman d'Alexandre
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Le Roman d'Alexandre ( Alexander novel ) is one of the French verses of the 12th century and belongs to the genre of ancient novels ( romans d'Antiquité ).
Its different and formally very different versions depict the heroic deeds of the conqueror Alexander the Great (356–323 BC). The material is taken from Latin models, which in turn draw from various Greek sources, which from the beginning contained not only facts but also many legendary and fairytale-like elements. The Latin versions were mainly the novel-like Alexander Vita of Iulius Valerius Polemius (approx. 338 AD) and the more chronicle-like Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni by Leo of Naples (10th century).
- Alexander song
The oldest known French version, of which only a fragment of 105 eight-syllable verses in 15 single-rhymed stanzas (Laissen) in the style of the contemporary chanson de geste has been preserved, was written in the Franco-Provençal dialect around 1120. According to Pfaff Lamprecht , who she Translated into Middle High German around 1120/30, written by an (otherwise unknown) author named Alberich von Bisinzo (Vorauer Alexander) or Elberîch von Bisenzun (Strasbourg Alexander), who is usually called Albéric de Pisançon in today's literary stories, since Bisinzo or Bisenzun is understood as pisançon in the Dauphiné .
- Ten-syllable Alexander
A second version, also only preserved in fragments (785 ten silver in 76 Laissen), was probably written shortly after the middle of the 12th century by an unknown author.
- Li romans d'Alixandre
The most widespread and longest version, initially just under 16,000 twelve-syllables, comes from Alexander of Paris and was apparently created around 1180. It now describes the entire life of Alexander , more in the style of a courtly novel . It consists of four very unevenly long parts or “branches” ( branchen ), whereby Alexandre states that he has incorporated the incomplete works of two other authors (not known to us today), namely a certain Eustache (as branche II) and a Lambert le Tort ( branch III). As early as 1190, the novel found continuators and editors who added or added additional episodes. In the second half of the 13th century it was rewritten into a prose version, which has come down to us in numerous manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries as well as in some early prints, which testifies to the long-lasting success of the work.
reception
Alexandre's Alexander-Roman is the first major work in French literature to use the paired rhyming twelve-syllable silver meter, which is why it is called vers alexandrin ( Alexandrian ) in France .
The figure of Alexander was well known in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. He was regarded as the type of the generous general and ruler who was always thirsting for new conquests and experiences, but also as the embodiment of human hubris .
literature
- Herwig Buntz: The German Alexander poetry of the Middle Ages . JB Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-476-10123-1
- Ehlert, Trude: German-language Alexander poetry of the Middle Ages. On the relationship between literature and history. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang 1977. ISBN 3-631-42304-7
- Angelica Rieger: The Alexander novel. A chivalric novel about Alexander the Great. Text and picture book with illustrations from the manuscript 78 C 1 Kupferstichkabinett. Berlin / Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 165–170, ISBN 3-928127-97-7 .
Web links
- Names, titles and dates of French literature (source)
- Roman d'Alexandre, in prose, with lacunae , Netherlands, S .; 1st quarter of the 14th century, Catalog of illuminated manuscripts, British Library
Individual proof
- ^ Gert Pinkernell: Leaflets for an introduction to literary studies (French), Wuppertal 2002 .