Abstract
Much of medieval literature, irrespective of the genre, contains considerable criticism of the hero or protagonist. In fact, in many cases the narrator voices rather harsh condemnation of his or her main characters who often demonstrate a lack of rationality, fail to observe basic rules and laws, and tend to act rather foolishly. In a survey at first, this article illustrates the presence of this phenomenon in a number of European literary texts from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries. The focus of the present article, however, rests on the anonymous thirteenth-century Old French chanson de geste (or romance) Huon de Bordeaux. Here, more than in most other medieval narratives, the protagonist regularly rejects or disregards all concrete instructions, severe warnings, or commands and promptly runs into major problems. Although these contribute to the narrative development (more adventures), the critical analysis reveals, after all, a disturbingly negligent, irresponsible, and defiant character whose behavior might mirror profound social problems with late medieval knighthood and the political structure of that time.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Archibald, E. (1991). Apollonius of Tyre: Medieval and Renaissance themes and variations; including the text of the “Historia Apollonii regis Tyri” with an English translation. D. S. Brewer
Aydelotte, L. (2013). “A local habitation and a name”: The origins of Shakespeare’s Oberon. Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production, 65, 1–11
Badel, P. Y. (2014). Guildelüec et la merveille: Sur des lectures nouvelles du lai d’Eliduc. Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, 130(2), 269–315
Banson, C. D. (1992). The lost honor of Sir Gawain. In J. M. Foley (Ed.), De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir (pp. 30–39). Routledge
Benson, & Larry Dean. (2012). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A close verse translation. Medieval European Studies. West Virginia University Press
Berthelot, A. (2002). L’Autre Monde féerique comme distortion de l’Orient dans Maugis d’Aigremont, Huon de Bordeaux t Le Roman d’Auberon. In G. Bianciotto (Ed.), L’Épopée Romane: actes du XV Congrès International Rencesvals, Poitiers, 21–27 août 2000, ed. Civilisation médiévale, 13 (pp. 647–653). Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, Université de Poitiers
Breitenstein, M., & Sonntag, J. (Eds.). (2020). Disorder: Expression of an amorphous phenomenon in human history: Essays in honour of Gert Melville. Vita regularis. Abhandlungen 67. Aschendorff Verlag
Bumke, J. (2004). Wolfram von Eschenbach. 8th completely rev. ed. Sammlung Metzler, 36. Metzler
Burgwinkel, W. (2006). Utopia and its uses: Twelfth century romance and history. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 36, 539–560
Caparrini, M., Digilio, M. R., & Ferrari, F. (Eds.). (2017). La letteratura di istruzione nel Medioevo germanico: studi in onore di Fabrizio D. Raschellà. Textes et études du Moyen Âge (p. 87). Brepols
Classen, A. (2021). Evil kings in the Middle Ages: The literary testimony of Huon of Bordeaux. Academia: Letters, Dec. 21, 2021, online at: https://www.academia.edu/65385576/Evil_Kings_in_the_Middle_Ages_The_Literary_Testimony_of_Huon_of_Bordeaux; or: at: file:///C:/Users/A.%20Classen/Downloads/Classen.pdf
Classen, A. (2020). Literature as a tool of epistemology: Medieval perspectives for post-modernity. Or, the post-modern world long anticipated by the pre-modern: Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae, Apollonius of Tyre, Marie de France, and Ulrich Bonerius. New Literaria –An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 1(2), 1–19. https://newliteraria.com/
Classen, A. (2019). Contracting love versus courtly Love: Jans Enikel’s “Friedrich von Auchenfurt,” the Anonymous Mauritius von Craûn, and Dietrich von der Gletze’s “Der Borte.” Neohelicon 46(1), 159–181, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-019-00476-3; or: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11059-019-00476-3?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals&utm_source=toc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_11059_46_1
Classen, A. (2011). Sexual violence and rape in the Middle Ages: A critical discourse in premodern German and EuropeanlLiterature. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture (7 vol.). Walter de Gruyter
Classen, A. (2015). Guildeluëc in Marie de France’s ‘Eliduc’ as the avatar of Heloise? The destiny of two twelfth-century women. Quaestiones Medii Aevii Novae (Poland), 20, 395–412
Classen, A. (2003). The downfall of a hero: Siegfried’s Self-Destruction and the end of heroism in the Nibelungenlied. German Studies Review, 26(2), 295–314
de Weever, J. (1998). Shela’s daughters: Whitening and demonizing the Saracen women in medieval French epic. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 2077. Garland
Driver, M. (2009). Reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream through Middle English romance. In Eadem and S. Ray (Ed.). Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the performance and adaptation of the plays with medieval sources or settings (pp. 140–160). McFarland & Company Publishing
Fischer, H. (2006). Ritter, Schiff und Dame: Mauritius von Craûn: Text und Kontext. Beiträge zur älteren Literaturgeschichte. Universitätsverlag Winter
Fischl, T. (2017). Mitgefühl – Mitleid – Barmherzigkeit: Ansätze von Empathie im 12. Jahrhundert. Herbert Utz Verlag
Gephart, I. (2005). Der Zorn der Nibelungen: Rivalität und Rache im “Nibelungenlied.” Böhlau
Goetz, M. P. (1935/1970). The concept of nobility in German didactic literature of the thirteenth century. Catholic University of America: Studies in German, 5. Rpt. AMS Press
Heinrich von dem Türlin (2000/2005). Die Krone. Vol. 1, ed. Fritz Peter Knapp and Manuela Niesner. Vol. 2, ed. Alfred Ebenbauer and Florian Kragl. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 112 and 118. Max Niemeyer
Herweg, M. (Ed.). (2019). and trans. Herzog Ernst. Mittelhochdeutsch/Neuhochdeutsch: in der Fassung B mit den Fragmenten der Fassungen A, B und Kl nach der Leithandschrift. Philipp Reclam Jun
Huon de Bordeaux: Chanson de geste du XIIIe siècle, publiéed’après le manuscrit Paris BNF fr. 22555 (Ed. and trans. W.W. Kibler and F, Suard). Champion
Jones, C., & Kibler, W. W. (2020) (Trans.) Huon of Bordeaux. Medieval & Renaissance Text Series. Italica Press
Jones, C. M. (2019). “Je ne soz queil homme j’oz ocis”: ignorance et innocence dans Garin le Lorrain et Huon de Bordeaux. In La Faute dans l’épopée médiéval: l’ambiguité du jugement, ed. Bernard Ribémont (pp. 123–36). Presses universitaires de Rennes
Koch, M. (1880). Das Quellenverhältniss von Wielands Oberon. Elwert, online at: at: https://archive.org/details/dasquellenverhl00wielgoog/page/n22/mode/2up?view=theater
McKay, I. (2021). Epic heroes and excessive emotions: démesure in the Song of Roland and Raoul de Cambrai. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 52, 59–91
Mickel, E. J. (1989). Ganelon, treason, and the “Chanson de Roland.” Pennsylvania State University Press
Montiglio, S. (2013). Love and providence: Recognition in the ancient novel. Oxford University Press
Müller, J. D. (1998). Spielregeln für den Untergang: die Welt des Nibelungenliedes. Max Niemeyer
Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Interdisciplinary approaches to a neglected topic (2007). Ed. Albrecht Classen. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 2.Walter de Gruyter
Polhill, M. E. (2020). gewisser wân: Lovesickness in “Mauritius von Craûn.” In M.E. Polhill and A. Sager (Ed.). Diz vliegende bîspel: Ambiguity in medieval and early modern literature. Essays in honor of Arthur Groos. Transatlantische Studien zu Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, 9 (pp. 97–113). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Purdon, L. O., Cindy, L., & Vitto (Eds.). (1994). The rusted hauberk: Feudal ideals of order and their decline. University Press of Florida
Reimitzer, Heimo, ed. (2000). Mauritius von Craûn Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 113. Max Niemeyer.
Resler, Michael, ed. (2015). Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal. 3rd ed. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 92. Walter de Gruyter.
Robins (2019). Historia Apollonii regis Tyri: A fourteenth-century version of a late antique romance. Ed. from Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vaticanus Latinus 1961, by William Robins. Toronto Medieval Latin Texts, 36. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
Schnell, R. (2017). Curialitas und dissimulatio im Mittelalter: Zur Interdependenz von Hofkritik und Hofideal. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, 41(1), 77–138
Segre, C. (Ed.). (2003). La chanson de Roland: introduction, texte critique, variantes de O; index des noms propres (p. 368). Textes littéraires français
Sorice, G. (2019). Problemi di Constitutio Textus di un’opera a testimone unico: Il caso dell’Huon de Bordeaux in alessandrini (BnF, fr. 1451). Le Moyen Français, 84, 147–158
Sunderland, L. (2012). Genre, ideology and utopia in Huon de Bordeaux. Medium Ævum, 81, 289–302
Sunderland, L. (2017). Rebel barons: Resisting royal power in medieval culture. Oxford University Press
Uhlig, W. (1973). Hofkritik im England des Mittelalters und der Renaissance: Studien zu einem Gemeinplatz der europäischen Moralistik. Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker; Neue Folge (56 vol., p. 180). Walter de Gruyter
Waters, C. M. (Ed.). (2018). and trans. The Lais of Marie de France: Text lation. Broadview Press
Whobrey, W. (2018). trans. The Nibelungenlied, with the Klage. Hackett Publishing
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Statements
There are no potential conflicts of interest.
The author did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Classen, A. The medieval Hero and anti-hero in one and the same person: Huon de Bordeaux deconstructive perspectives on medieval literature. Neohelicon 49, 655–669 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-022-00645-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-022-00645-x