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The Enamoured Moslem Princess in Orderic Vital and the French Epic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In the tenth book of his Historia, Ecclesiastica, Orderic Vital gives an account of Bohemond's surprise and capture by the Turkish Emir, Daliman, and his imprisonment, with other Erench nobles, in one of the Emir's fortresses. Now there happened to live in this particular stronghold the Emir's daughter, Melaz. She had often heard the bravery of the Crusaders praised, and welcomed this opportunity to make the acquaintance of such famous heroes. So she would visit Bohemond and his friends in their dungeon and talk with them. Her favorite topic was the tenets of the Christian faith. Conversation naturally led to a good understanding and assistance on Melaz's part.
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References
page 343 note 1 Historia Ecclesiastica, x, 23 (Edition of the Société de l'Histoire de France, Vol. iv, pp. 139–158).
page 343 note 2 Recueil des historiens occidentaux des Croisades, Vol. iii, p. 228.
page 343 note 3 Op. cit., Vol. iii, p. 713.
page 343 note 4 Hist. Ec, xi, 12 (edition cited, Vol. iv, pp. 211, 212).
page 343 note 5 Recueil des hist. oc. etc., Vol. iv, pp. 524, 611 sq.
page 343 note 6 Recueil des historiens orientaux etc., Vol. i, p. 212.
page 343 note 7 Recueil des historiens des Croisades, Documents Arméniens, Vol. i, p. 69.
page 343 note 8 Arabian Nights, Tales 236, 237, 24S. Cf. V. Chauvin, Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes, Vol. v, pp. 209, 210.
page 343 note 9 J. Bédier, Les légendes épiques, Vol. i, p. 121.
page 343 note 10 This knowledge of Mainet on our poet's part is shown in the warning the Emir receives from one of his council, when Floripas is asking him for the custody of the defiant embassy:
Du rice Challemaine vous devroit ramenbrer,
Que tant nori Galafre, qui l'ot fait adouber;
Puis li tolli sa fille, Galiene au vis cler,
L'enfant Garsilium en fist desireter.
Fierabras, li. 2735–38, as corrected by Gaston
Paris, Histoire poétique de Charlemagne, p. 232.
In considering the investment of the hero with the heroine's lands, in both the Prise d'Orange and Fierabras, we should remember that Galafre offered to give Charles his kingdom and Galienne, if he would stay in Spain, an offer which may have suggested the dénouement of the two younger poems.
page 343 note 11 Ph. A. Becker, Le Siège de Barbastre, in Festgabe für G. Gröber, pp. 252–266.
page 343 note 12 Hist. Ec, xi, 12 (edition cited, Vol. iv, pp. 210–213). Orderie's words about Bohemond's plea are: “Casus suos et res gestas enar-ravit.”
page 343 note 13 Op. cit., xi, 15 (edition cited, Vol. iv, p. 215).
page 343 note 14 Orderic's loans from the story of William, and perhaps also from the Chanson de Roland, in his account of an event that happened while he was in the midst of composing his Historia, show how he could combine epic tradition with historical fact. See The Battle of Fragc and Larchamp in Orderic Vital, Modem Philology, xi (January, 1914), pp. 339–346.
Orderic could also be the most faithful of reporters, as his picture of the Moslem Princess of Antioch in tears over her farewell to pork proves. The scene must have been intended to raise a laugh in the crowd, but Orderic fails to give us the least notion of humor in it. Nor does he elsewhere in his long narrative.
page 343 note 16 Op. cit., xi, 26 (edition cited, Vol. iv, pp. 252–255).