Encounters of the Arabian Kind

177 Pages·2013·0.76 MB·English

by  Annie Knowles

ENCOUNTERS OF THE ARABIAN KIND:
CULTURAL EXCHANGE AND IDENTITY
THE TRISTANS OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND SPAIN

by
Annie Knowles

A thesis
submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in English, Literature
Boise State University

May 2013
© 2013
Annie Knowles
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COLLEGE

DEFENSE COMMITTEE AND FINAL READING APPROVALS

of the thesis submitted by

Annie Knowles

Thesis Title: Encounters of the Arabian Kind: Cultural Exchange and Identity The
Tristans of Medieval France, England, and Spain

Date of Final Oral Examination: 14 March 2013

The following individuals read and discussed the thesis submitted by student Annie
Knowles, and they evaluated her presentation and response to questions during the final
oral examination. They found that the student passed the final oral examination.

Linda Marie Zaerr, Ph.D. Chair, Supervisory Committee

Edward Mac Test, Ph.D. Member, Supervisory Committee

Dalia Eltayeb, Ph.D.c. Member, Supervisory Committee

The final reading approval of the thesis was granted by Linda Marie Zaerr, Ph.D., Chair
of the Supervisory Committee. The thesis was approved for the Graduate College by
John R. Pelton, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate College.
DEDICATION
For my ever supportive family, and especially for Joan, who sparked my interest
in both literature and history; and also for Andy, who has helped me to keep life in
perspective.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Dr. Linda Marie Zaerr for her inspired teachings and kind,
generous guidance throughout the completion of this thesis.
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ABSTRACT
This work examines multiple versions of the medieval Tristan story in France,
England, and Spain. Beginning with a strong historical situation for the literary analysis,
the work uses elements of Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny, Edward Said’s Orientalism,
and Roland Barthes’s Mythologies to identify and understand the rhetorical employment
of “Oriental” flourishes in the Tristans studied. The work focuses on these Eastern
influences as manifested in the characterizations of the Saracen knight Sir Palomides and
in the construction, depiction, and commentary upon elements of fin’ amor that permeate
the texts.
This study establishes the feasibility of intercultural exchange in the medieval
world and provides an explanation for how it occurred and to what extent. It also serves
as an inquiry into the rise and fall of the medieval romance genre. It traces the beginnings
of troubadour lyricism from the Andalusían poets to the Aquitainian court, up to a
beleaguered Britain, and back to the Iberian Peninsula and nascent Spain. The journey
intertwines with the development of the Tristan story from an orally-circulated Irish
legend to a ubiquitous court favorite written in a variety of tongues and retold in forms as
varied as etchings, to paintings, to texts. In combining these distinct, and at times
interdisciplinary, threads of inquiry, this study creates a clearer rendering of the medieval
world, particularly of its public’s struggle to reconcile the ideology of the church with
new ideas about love and identity.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... v
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. vi
PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND MATTER ..................................... 6
CHAPTER II: TRISTAN IN FRANCE: A RECONCILIATION OF IDEOLOGIES ........... 43
CHAPTER III: UNCANNY VISIONS OF THE EAST IN MALORY’S “BOOK OF SIR
TRISTRAM”........................................................................................................................... 73
CHAPTER IV: REINCARNATION OF THE CHIVALRIC IDEAL: IDEOLOGICAL
RECONCILIATIONS IN SPAIN ......................................................................................... 120
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 160
WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................... 164

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1

PREFACE
A popular favorite retold in many countries, the story of Tristan and Isolde is
rooted in the Celtic, oral tradition, yet as it was transcribed from versions performed by
minstrels, it acquired oriental flourishes that illuminate, speak to, and reflect upon the
society in which each text was created from France, to England, to Spain. After
examining the Celtic origins of the tale in this introduction with help from the work of
Gertrude Schoepperle Loomis, the remaining chapters will focus on the Tristan texts
written in three different locales. Each version approached the story differently, and did
so to achieve unique aims. However, a progression is seen from one text to the next
regarding the attitude toward and the encapsulation of, the Orient.
Because it is where the tales were first written, besides possibly in the old ogham
script of England, France’s versions of the Tristan story will be the first focus of this
enquiry. While primary interest is given to the Prose Tristan, and how and why Oriental
motifs were employed in it, there is also discussion of the two main texts on which it was
founded, the Thomas and the Béroul texts. These three French redactions are strikingly
different. Each builds upon the other, illustrating a progressive increase in Oriental
influence, as in each successive text there is greater interest evident in the new,
fashionable literary trope: fin’ amor, which came to be known later as courtly love, and in
the Saracen knight, Sir Palomides. Examining these three texts and contemporary French
iconography of the saga illuminates how the French public approached and encapsulated
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the Orient. More specifically, this study offers clues about the attitudes in medieval
France regarding both romantic love and fin’ amor’s fundamental opposition to doctrines
of the Catholic Church. The visual representations of the story, in particular, illustrate a
growing hope among the public that suggests a common desire for a more fulfilling,
romantic love than just the union of man and woman to secure wealth and to propagate.
Studying these versions of the Tristan story in France reveals how the French public
struggled to define, and to refine, their central values and beliefs in the wake of new ideas
that seeped into their culture from the neighboring Arab presence in Spain.
The second chapter examines how Sir Thomas Malory focused upon the Saracen
qualities of Sir Palomides as set against Sir Tristam in “The Book of Sir Tristram” of his
Le Morte D’ Arthur. Here, the Oriental presence illustrates the qualifications of being a
good knight. This calls into question the meaning of citizenship and of social values held
by Malory’s war-torn countrymen to facilitate a new crystallization of British identity in
the wake of the Hundred Years War and the War of the Roses, times in which the
knightly ideal was in decline. Malory’s work follows in the tradition of Geoffrey of
Monmouth, who likewise resurrected the court of King Arthur in the midst of England’s
waning national identity and pride after the Norman invasion of 1066. Malory’s
rhetorical choices are also in keeping with contemporary Scottish poets who dealt with
Oriental topics to further nationalistic goals.
The third chapter examines the versions of the Tristan tale in Iberia. These texts
were more difficult to acquire for the investigation, yet their inclusion is what brings this
scholarly effort full-circle, as one of its primary objectives is to trace the influence of
Arab Spain into Western Europe and then analyze how that material was subsequently
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treated in the locale that inspired the story’s metamorphosis in more Christian lands. Only
in this manner would a true study of cultural exchange among medieval peoples and texts
seem adequately complete. Three texts are examined: Ignacio B. Anzoátegui’s edition of
Libro del esforzado caballero don Tristán de Leonís y de us grandes hechos en armas;
Fragmento de un ‘livro de Tristan,’ edited by J.L. Pensado Tome; and El Cuento de
Tristan de Leonis, edited from the Vatican fragment 6428 by George Tyler Northup. Both
of the latter texts are written in Gallego-Portugués, the literary tongue of choice during
the late medieval period in the Iberian Peninsula. Besides these linguistic features, it is
important to mention that in the Tome fragment, the text addresses Lancelot as the
protagonist. However, the translator asserts that the episodes of the text actually speak of
Tristan. The Anzoátegui and Northup texts are much more complete versions of the
Tristan story, though, and were revised, glossed, and provided with commentary in 1943
and 1928 respectively. Thus, they are studied in greater length than the Tome fragment.
The German versions of the Tristan study were omitted from this study not
because they lack merit or are inferior, but because more direct lines of cultural
transmission appeared evident among ideas from England and Spain into France and back
again. The French texts are presented in translation, and unfortunately, many of these
editions are quite dated, resulting in archaic translations at times. However, the Iberian
texts have been studied in the language that they were recorded in, with only a few
modernizations of spelling and syntax supplied by editors. These texts are particularly
unique because of the blend of Gallego-Portuegués that they were composed in. While
reviewing these works, it is important to bear in mind slight differences between Spanish
and Portuguese. As in the classic B de burro and V de vaca conundrum, many times a “v”