Sir Orfeo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Data
Title: Sir Orfeo
Original title: Sir Orfeo
Genus: romance
Original language: Middle English
Author: unknown
Publishing year: around 1330

The Middle English verse novella Sir Orfeo was written by an unknown author in the early fourteenth century. The Lais was created on the basis of a lost version by a Breton author. It tells the story of King Orfeo and his wife Heurodis (later also called Euridice), on which the opera Orfeo ed Euridice is based.

action

Orpheus brings Euridice back from the realm of fairies or the dead

Sir Orfeo is a mighty king of a divine race. He is the ruler of the city of "Traciens". He is considered a virtuous knight and an excellent harp player. His wife Heurodis outshines all earthly women with her grace and beauty.

On a fine day in May, the Queen takes her valet out for a walk in the garden and lies down under a tree to rest. She falls asleep and after a long time wakes up screaming and crying and begins to scratch her beautiful face with her fingernails. The maidservants bring help and Sir Orfeo tries to find out what has happened. Heurodis finally tells him that she had a terrible dream in which she was kidnapped by an unknown king and taken to his kingdom. He had asked her in a dream to come back to this place the next day so that he could really take her with him and if she refused to go with him, she would be severely punished.

When Orfeo hears this, the next morning he gathers a thousand knights in the garden and is ready to protect his wife with her own life. However, this disappears before her eyes without anyone knowing where she was going. The king then decides to hand over his kingdom to a steward and to go into exile in the wilderness himself to mourn his beloved Heurodis there. He doesn't take anything with him except his harp. Even the wild animals, the trees and the stones are delighted with his game. He stays there for ten years until he happens to see his queen.

As he pursues this, he is led to an enchanting castle, in the vestibule of which various people have been preserved as they looked at the time of their death (headless people, those who died in childbirth, ...). Among them is his wife Heurodis, who is asleep under a tree. Orfeo asks to be allowed to audition for the Fairy King - in the style of wandering singers. He is so enchanted by his game that he grants Orfeo the fulfillment of a wish. He asks to be allowed to take Heurodis with him. When the Fairy King wants to refuse him, Sir Orfeo points out his promise. At the end he tests the loyalty of his administrator by appearing in disguise and claiming to have found the harp - which was immediately recognized as royal. His people break out into lamentations, believing that their king has died. Orfeo now reveals himself and his kingdom is returned to him by his administrator. Orfeo promises him for his loyalty that he will take over the kingdom and the crown as his heir.

Elements of ancient myth

The novella contains many elements from antiquity, which were revised in the Middle Ages and adapted to the circumstances of the time. According to Greek myths, the muse Calliope and the god Apollo were parents of Orpheus. In the novel, Juno and Jupiter are named as parents. In the novel, they are not gods, but king and queen. It is an example of how the ancient heritage was preserved in the Middle Ages.

The other thing in common with ancient myth is the role of music. Both in the myth and in the novel, the protagonist was able to save his lover thanks to his musical talent. The symbolism of the civilizing effect of music is retained here. In the myth, music could defeat death and in the novella Orfeo was able to free his wife from the captivity of the fairy king.

Local and medieval elements

The ancient myth has been heavily revised. Local folk beliefs and mythology can be found in the novella. That concerns the scene of the kidnapping of Heurodis. When she was kidnapped, she slept under Ympre-tre . Such scenes, where the protagonists meet fabulous beings under the trees, can be found in many medieval romances and lais. In medieval England the shadows of trees were considered "the door" through which the legendary beings came into the human world.

The manner in which Heurodis was kidnapped is an indication of the Norman conquest of England, which took place at the time of Sir Orfeo's emergence or shortly afterwards. That is why Battles sees the scene of the kidnapping of Heurodis as an afterimage of the battle between the Normans and the English. The fairy king and his companions were on the horses, which is typical of Normans. Orfeo, on the other hand, is nowhere depicted on a horse. The defensive position that Orfeo and his people took around the Queen corresponds to the tactics of the English at the time.

expenditure

  • Alan Joseph Bliss (Ed.): Sir Orfeo. (= Oxford English monographs ) Oxford University Press, Oxford 1954, OCLC 441751202 .
  • Oscar Zielke: Sir Orfeo. An English fairy tale from the Middle Ages, with an introduction and notes. (= Library of English literature. 10520.) W. Koebner, Breslau 1880, OCLC 18444754 .
Translations

literature

  • Katharine Mary Briggs: King Orfeo. In: An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures. ISBN 0-394-73467-X , p. 249.
  • Marie-Therese Brouland: Le Substrate celtique du lai breton anglais. Sir Orfeo. Didier Erudition, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-86460-164-8 .
  • Patrick Shuldham-Shaw: The Ballad King Orfeo. In: Scottish Study. 20. P. 124/26. 1976.
  • Kenneth Sisam, JRR Tolkien: Sir Orfeo. In: Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose. Oxford Clarendon Press, Oxford 1921. (Reprinted by HardPress Publishing, Miami 2012, ISBN 978-1-4077-4030-0 .)
  • B. Mitchell: The Faery World of Sir Orfeo. In: Neophilologus. 48. 1964, p. 156/59.
  • D. Allen: Orpheus and Orfeo: The Dead and the Taken. In: Medium Aevum. 33. 1964, pp. 102/111.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sir Orfeo - Summary ( Memento from October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on welt-ffekten.de
  2. ↑ Oscar Zielke: Sir Orfeo. An English fairy tale from the Middle Ages, with an introduction and notes. on archive.org
  3. ^ R. Lawson: From Orpheus to Sir Orfeo: The Anglicization of a Myth. http://www.geocities.ws/groupwebml/orfeoenglish.html (viewed September 11, 2015)
  4. ↑ S. Lerer: America Artifice and Artistry in Sir Orfeo , in: Speculum 60,1 (1985), p. 105
  5. ↑ C. Jirsa: In the Shadow of the Ympe-tre: Arboreal Folklore in Sir Orfeo. In: English Studies. 89: 2, p. 142
  6. ↑ C. Jirsa: In the Shadow of the Ympe-tre: Arboreal Folklore in Sir Orfeo. In: English Studies. 89: 2, p. 148
  7. ^ Dominique Battles: Sir Orfeo and English Identity. In: Studies in Philology. Number 2, Spring 2010, p. 185
  8. ^ Dominique Battles: Sir Orfeo and English Identity. In: Studies in Philology. Number 2, Spring 2010, p. 186
  9. ^ Dominique Battles: Sir Orfeo and English Identity. In: Studies in Philology. Number 2, Spring 2010, p. 182-183
  10. ↑ Sir Orfeo - Translations ( Memento from October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on welt-ffekten.de