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Cultural Exchange and Identity the Tristans of Medieval France, England, and Spain

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Cultural Exchange and Identity the Tristans of Medieval France, England, and Spain 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. v 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. vi 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 vii 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 2 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 3 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
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