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The Significance of Sir Orfeo's Self-Exile THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SIR ORFEO'S SELF-EXILE By KENNETH R. R. GROS LOUIS Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/res/article/XVIII/71/245/1537229 by guest on 02 October 2021 ^ I ^HE second section of Sir Orfeo, says A. J. Bliss in his standard X modern edition of the poem, 'tells of Orfeo's long search for Heurodis, and of his eventual success.'1 We may be surprised to hear that Orpheus succeeds, but we expect him to make a 'long search' for his wife. We know that in Ovid, Virgil, and Boethius,2 the primary sources of the Orpheus story in the Middle Ages, Orpheus enters the underworld to attempt the recovery of Eurydice, who has been fatally stung by a serpent. If we have read about the Celtic influences on Sir Orfeo, we know that in its Irish analogue, 'The Wooing of Etain', the hero Eochaid retrieves his wife by leading an army to the mound of her fairy-abductor. 3 We may also be aware that in 'King Orfeo', the ballad derived from the romance-lay, a 'lady was carried off by fairies; the king went in quest of her'.4 Indeed, the more information we have about Orpheus-type legends—in North American Indian tribes, in the Pacific islands, in Japan, in India,s the more certain we are that Orfeo must undertake a 'long search for Heurodis'. We are so well conditioned, in other words, to having Orphic husbands boldly seek their wives in dark and mysterious regions that we accept Bliss's statement (and he is, of course, simply reporting the 'obvious') without a second thought. To do so is unfortunate, for the statement is inaccurate. The second section of the poem does not tell of 'Orfeo's long search for Heurodis'; in fact, there is no search in the entire poem, nor 1 A. J. Bliss, Sir Orfeo (2nd edn., Oxford, 1966), p. xlii. 2 Metamorphoses, Bk. X, 11. i-m; Bk. XI, 11. 1-84; Georgics, Bk. IV, 11. 453-527; Consolation of Philosophy, Bk. Ill, poem 12. 3 For a full discussion of 'The Wooing of Etain', see G. L. Kittredge, 'Sir Orfeo', American Journal of Philology, vn (1886), 176-202, and G. V. Smithers, 'Story-Patterns in Some Breton Lays', Medium Aevum, xxn (1953), 61-92. 4 For the text of the ballad, see The English and Scottish Popular Ballad, ed. Francis James Child (New York, 1956), L'217. 5 In the Mahabharata, the grief-stricken Rourou recovers his young bride, killed by a poisonous serpent, by giving her half of his life. The Japanese warrior Izanagi enters the subterranean palace of the dead to regain his beloved Izanami, but he disobeys the tabu that he must not show a light and his punishment is to see her in the process of decomposition. In New Zealand mythology, Mataore successfully saves Nuvarahu from the underworld because she recognizes the melody of his song. There are comparable tales from Hawaii, Samoa, Melanesia, and the New Hebrides. Among North American Indian tribes there are hundreds of Orpheus-type myths. See L. H. Gray and G. F. Moore, Mythology of All Races, 13 vols. (Boston, 1916-32); A. H. Gayton, 'The Orpheus Myth in North America', Journal of American Folklore, 48 (1935), 263-93. R.E.S. New Series, Vol. XVIII, No. 71 (1967) 16 246 GROS LOUIS: SIR ORFEO'S SELF-EXILE does Orfeo ever plan to make one. If we do not recognize this crucial fact, we fail not only to see the uniqueness of Sir Orfeo in the tradition of the Orpheus myth, but also to understand the intention of its author. After Heurodis has been seized by the fairy king, Orfeo calls together his barons, earls, and 'lordes of renouns' (1. 202),1 and announces that he is forsaking his rule and kingdom and will enter the wilderness. It is important to notice that Orfeo does not say he hopes to recover Heurodis. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/res/article/XVIII/71/245/1537229 by guest on 02 October 2021 'For now ichaue mi quen y-lore', he says: J>e fairest leuedi )?at euer was bore, Neuer eft y nil no woman se. In-to wildernes ichil te, & liue f>er euermore. (209-13) Perhaps the story was so well known that further explanation was un- necessary. But the author goes to considerable trouble to make it clear that Orfeo willingly and irrevocably gives up all his comforts in an act of love. He obviously does not expect any change in his fortune; that is, he does not expect to find Heurodis, for he tells his subjects: . when 3e vnder-stond pat y be spent, Make 30U f>an a parlement, & chese 30U a newe king. (215-17) Later, when Orfeo in disguise asks a poor man what has happened in the kingdom, he is told that the queen was stolen by fairies and that the king went, not in search of her, but 'en exile' (493). Orfeo spends ten years in the wilderness, living as best he can, solacing his grief with his harp, surviving on the few berries and roots he can gather. Not once, in all these years, does he look for Heurodis. He is obviously not on any kind of heroic quest—he has 'euermore' abandoned the world of 'castels & tours' (245); he has given up his life of ease for the existence of a hermit; he has exchanged his royal robes for a pilgrim's mantle. And yet, after ten years of suffering, Orfeo accidentally comes upon Heurodis in a group of women hunting. He has not sought her, he has not questioned her disappearance, and suddenly she appears, alive, before him. It is remarkable that scholars have not been startled by this section of Sir Orfeo. Unlike the heroes in all other versions of the Orpheus legend, whether classical or Celtic, Oriental or Western, Orfeo never actively searches for his lost wife; unlike all other Orphic types, Orfeo spends long years alone in the wilderness (in Ovid and Virgil, a short time elapses -between-EuTydice2s-death-and-Orpheus-s-entranGe-into-the-undeiw.orJd_ and Orpheus's longer wandering comes only after he has lost Eurydice a 1 All Sir Orfeo quotations are from the Bliss edition. GROS LOUIS: SIR ORFEO'S SELF-EXILE 247 second time); unlike all other Orpheus figures, Orfeo* does not come to Heurodis—she is, for some reason, brought to him.1 These changes from the traditional story are not gratuitous. The author of Sir Orfeo, certainly familiar with the classical and Celtic versions of the myth, consciously alters some of its basic elements to offer a new inter- pretation of the greatness of Orpheus. His hero does not share the Phaeton- like boldness of earlier Orpheus figures; on the contrary, Orfeo is character- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/res/article/XVIII/71/245/1537229 by guest on 02 October 2021 ized by deep humility. His acceptance of the inevitability of death coupled with his great love for his lost wife lead him to renounce the world and to take up the life of a hermit.2 The ten years he spends in the wilderness constitute a kind of penance, and because of it, Orfeo receives a gift of grace—Heurodis is returned to him. That the ten years are a substitute for death is suggested by the increas- ing isolation of Orfeo after Heurodis disappears—an isolation which, ultimately, makes Orfeo seem like a dead thing even to the beasts who are charmed by his music. When he first hears Heurodis's dream, 'He asked coHseyl at ich man, | Ac no man him help no can' (179-80). When she is taken by the fairies, he thinks his life is over—'J?er was non amende- ment' (200). When he leaves his kingdom, 'No man most wij? him go' (233). The combination of his own decision to go into exile and the in- ability of his followers to solace or advise him pushes Orfeo, literally and figuratively, into life at its lowest level of existence, a life which approx- imates death. In the wilderness, he has neither love nor companionship. The fairy army and fairy dancers he meets in the woods seem unaware of his presence; and Orfeo, for his part, 'neuer . nist whider J?ai bi-come' (288), 'neuer . nist whider J>ai wold' (296). On certain days when the weather is clear and bright, Orfeo takes his harp from its hiding place in a hollow tree and attracts the 'wilde bestes' (273) and 'alle be foules' (275) with its sounds. But, the music finished, 'No best bi him abide nold' (280); they come only to hear the harp—the harper, to them, means nothing. Having forsaken the company of men, living in a world which either shuns him or which he cannot understand, Orfeo suffers loneliness without complaint, knowing that no natural force can change his fortune. 1 There are, of course, many Celtic analogues for journeys into the wilderness in which there is no question of search. In these analogues, however, the grief-stricken lover or relative goes into the wilderness because he is nearly mad with grief. Orfeo certainly suffers when Heurodis is taken away, but his decision is also clearly a reasoned one (consider that he even calls together his barons to announce it). He does not, in other words, rush into the wilderness in a fit of emotional despair. - 2 A. M. Kinghorn, in his admirable essay, 'Human Interest in the Middle English Sir Orfeo', Neophilologus, 1 (1966), 350-60, also points out that Orfeo's decision to enter the wilderness is due to his 'inexpressible grief born of true love' (p.
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