Irisbleu, have you seen this?

[rymenhild]

From the twelfth-century romance Cliges, by Chretien de Troyes (and no, I cannot work accents, so sorry):

The Greek prince Alexander arrives at the court of King Arthur. Everyone likes him, but Gawain likes him more than the rest:

Nis mes sire Gauvains tant l'aime
Qu'ami et compeignon le claime.

[Sir Gawain loved him so much that he claimed him as an ami (friend, sort of) and companion.]

The love, sadly, is not to proceed, for Gawain's sister Soredamors (what a horrible name!) falls desperately in love with Alexander. She is quite concerned about what her brother will think about this:

Mais molt covient qu'ele se gart
De mon seignor Gauvain son frere.

[But she takes very great care to guard [the knowledge of her love] from my lord Gawain, her brother.]

It turns out that Alexander loves Soredamors as much as Soredamors loves Alexander; both of them can be found descolorer et enpalir / et soupirer et tressaillir [discoloring, turning pale, sighing and trembling]. Falling in love is really painful. Guinevere, who is on the same boat with Soredamors and Alexander, doesn't realize that they are afflicted with love -- she interprets the symptoms as seasickness. Insert large quantity of puns on the sea (la mer), love (l'amor), the verb "to love" (amer) and severe pain (amers) here. Insert several thousand more lines about Love. Finally, Alexander and Soredamors marry and have a son, whose name is Cliges. Gawain approves the marriage. Nothing more is said about Gawain's companionship with Alexander, alas.

Comments

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

No, I have not seen that, and I must agree with you: Soredamors is the most unfortunate name I have ever laid eyes on.

It's okay; Gawain's getting it on with Bertilak anyway.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Chretien translates it sororee d'amors (apparently "gilded over with love"). Even that doesn't sound appealing in the slightest.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed reading Old French. *wanders happily away to read more Chretien*

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Irony=her name means that and she can't even tell the guys are lovesick, ho ho ho.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Arthurian literature would be so much less painful if the French writers didn't have to name the characters they invented and added to the genre.

Could you imagine not ever having to see the name "Lancelot" again? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

No offense, Chretien. Sorry. Sorry.

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Yes, it would be worthy of weeping for joy.

I've offended so many dead dudes by now that I don't bother to apologize anymore.

[shati.livejournal.com]

I think Soredamors is a lovely name!

(... says the girl who plans to name her first child Them Bastards.)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

A whole medieval history class I was in once made a pact to name all of our firstborn daughters AElfgifu after a certain Anglo-Saxon queen.

Our professor pronounced the name ELF-gi-foo. I realized that the name was not as ugly as all that when I finally learned enough Old English to pronounce the name alf-YEE-foo. Still weird, though.

[tovaks.livejournal.com]

I've only read "Knight of the Cart," unfortunately, and not in Olde French.

Irisbelu, I don't know who you are, but I love that LJ icon! I have a Caxton Edition of one of the *Waverly* novels (Sir Walter Scott). :)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Read the rest in translation -- they're fantastic. Did you get the Penguin edition of all of Chretien?

[jjtaylor.livejournal.com]

Insert several thousand more lines about Love.

Ah, yes. And I vaguely remember some discussion in a long-ago Chaucer class, after reading Canterbury Tales, about how painful love is - how it's a condition, and that people who are in love are visibly afflicted. *wishes I were at home and could pull out my collected Chaucer*

The Greek prince Alexander arrives at the court of King Arthur. Everyone likes him
I hadn't realized Gawain and his sister had such similar tastes.

:)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Chaucer's descriptions of love are actually usually less enthusiastic than the French sources, as far as I can tell right now. For Chretien, wanting to fall in love is an experience rather similar to the way a number of would-be saints want to experience martyrdom: noble, agonizing, tragic, and a whole lot of fun.

That wasn't a grammatical sentence. Oh well.

[ladybird97.livejournal.com]

Ooh! He calls them friends and companions! I need to check this out for my work, too. Thanks!

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

There are quite a lot of amis in Chretien, so he's probably a good source for you.

Hope the work's going well!

sarah from the library...

[shiduri-sour.livejournal.com]

i just wanted to say hi :O)

Re: sarah from the library...

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Hi! :)