The politics of poetic preservation: Norse and Norman French in Ireland, Scotland and the Isles
Politique de la préservation poétique : le norrois et le français (anglo-normand) en Irlande, en Écosse et dans les Îles
p. 89-107
Résumés
This chapter argues that later political events influenced the preservation of poetry and considers the interaction between the Viking and Norman diasporas. It is likely that more Norse skaldic verse was produced and performed in the Hebrides and Ireland but that it does not survive due to the weakening of the diaspora and decreased connections with Iceland. This contrasts with the earldom of Orkney’s strong skaldic tradition. There is limited French material from the study area as it was overtaken by English. The two main French poems from Ireland, La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande, chronicling the Anglo-Norman invasion, and The Walling of New Ross represent a new community establishing itself. The only French poem from Scotland in this period, the Roman de Fergus, allows an outsider to join an aristocratic community, but at the expense of his previous identity and independence. The literary merits of this French poetry are only recently being recognised by modern scholars.
Le présent chapitre montre que des événements politiques ultérieurs ont pu avoir une influence sur la préservation de la poésie, et étudie l’interaction entre les diasporas viking et normande. De la poésie scaldique norroise a probablement été composée et performée en grande quantité dans les Hébrides et en Irlande, mais n’a que très peu survécu en raison de l’affaiblissement de la diaspora et du déclin des communications avec l’Islande ; par contraste, la tradition scaldique est restée forte dans la principauté des Orcades. Parmi les régions ici étudiées, celles qui sont passées sous domination anglaise connaissent une production assez limitée en français. Les deux principaux poèmes composés en Irlande sont La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande, qui décrit l’invasion anglo-normande, et le Rithmus facture ville de Rosse, qui relate la fondation d’une nouvelle communauté. Le Roman de Fergus, seul poème en français composé en Écosse pendant la période, montre un étranger qui s’intègre à une communauté aristocratique, mais au détriment de son identité préalable et de son indépendance. Ce n’est que récemment que l’intérêt littéraire de cette production poétique a été remarqué par les spécialistes.
Texte intégral
1This chapter examines the surviving Norse and French poetry from Ireland, Scotland and the Isles, both the Western Isles or Hebrides and the Northern Isles comprising Shetland and Orkney. The study area is therefore the Gaelic-speaking world and areas in close interaction with it.1 Vikings and later Normans came into this world as raiders, traders, settlers, and invaders. As well as the context for the production of poetry, this chapter seeks insights into the circumstances of its preservation, noting that the surviving corpus is not necessarily representative of the poetry that was produced at the time. In so doing, it aims to bring into dialogue work on Norse and French literatures and on the Viking and Norman diasporas. Though Normandy itself has Scandinavian origins, Anglophone scholarship at least has tended to view them rather separately, as will be returned to below. Whilst individual Normans were no doubt present in the British-Irish Isles before the traditional military watersheds, the Normans had become Frenchified by the time of the Norman Conquest of England.2
2Norse skaldic verse has been identified by Judith Jesch as a Viking or Norse diasporic marker. She notes that it constitutes “a good example of a cultural product which had its root in the Viking Age Scandinavian past but which developed and flourished in the continuing engagement of the poets, many of whom were Icelanders, with their patrons, both in the Scandinavian homelands and in other diasporic lands”.3 Meanwhile, “the crucial role played by the Norman diaspora and the Plantagenet empire in the dissemination of Francophone literary culture” has been highlighted.4 This chapter aims to consider the interaction of these diasporas with each other in the study area.
Norse poetry
3There is a substantial corpus of surviving skaldic poetry associated with the Northern Isles, that is with the earldom of Orkney. This area is seen as having received the earliest and perhaps most concentrated Scandinavian settlement of the whole British-Irish Isles, so it might not be surprising that it retained a thriving Norse literary tradition. However it has recently been argued that the reverse may in fact have been the case: that the continued strength of Norse cultural identity in the Northern Isles has led to the assumption of an early and numerous settlement.5
4It is possible that Orkney had a tradition of skaldic verse as early as the beginning of the tenth century. One of the first jarls of Orkney, Torf-Einarr Rǫgnvaldsson, is said to be author of several stanzas in Orkneyinga saga, Fagrskinna, and Haralds saga hárfagra in Heimskringla. While these sources agree, scholarly opinion is divided on the accuracy of this ascription.6 Torf-Einarr was said to have died around 910 though some scholars have argued for a couple of decades later on the basis of relative chronology.
5In the eleventh century we can be confident that Norse poetry was being produced in Orkney for Orcadian patrons by an Icelander. Arnórr Þórðarson was born in western Iceland in 1011, or shortly after, but spent a substantial amount of time in the earldom, with close ties to the court.7 Preserved for the most part in Orkneyinga saga, Arnórr’s Orcadian poetry – albeit a comparatively small proportion of his oeuvre – earned him the byname jarlaskáld (“poet of jarls”), by which he was commonly referred to in Iceland. Notably, he composed poems for the Orcadian jarls Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason (d. 1046) and Þorfinnr Sigurðarson (assumed d. 1064/1065), the uncle and nephew who temporarily shared power (1036-1046). Although specific information is scant, Arnórr may have returned to Iceland in the later years of his life, as he is said to have composed poetry for important Icelanders.8 This being the case, it would have assisted the preservation of his verse, including that composed for the Orkney jarls, in Iceland, which seems to contrast with verse which may have been associated with Dublin, as shall be argued.
6In the twelfth century, Orkney produced two prolific, well-respected skalds: Jarl Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson (d. 1158) and Bishop Bjarni Kolbeinsson (d. 1223). As Jesch puts it, in that century “Orkney was central to the study and practice of skaldic poetry”.9 This is exemplified by the mid-twelfth-century poem Háttalykill inn forni (“The Old Key to Verse-forms”), both a history of Scandinavian rulers and an enumeration of metres, composed by Rǫgnvaldr and an Icelandic poet, Hallr Þórarinsson; this poem also served as an influence on Snorri Sturluson.10 The earldom’s skaldic tradition therefore included verse from Orcadians themselves, making the skaldic art their own.11
7In contrast to the well-documented tradition of Norse poetry in the Northern Isles, surviving poetry from the Western Isles is much more limited. There are hints in Icelandic prose works that some poetry from the region has been lost. In the account of the Reykjahólar wedding of 1119 in Þorgils saga ok hafliða, reference is made to a saga of Ormr Barreyjarskáld (which does not survive to us). It has been argued that Barrey is the island (ey) Barra in the outer Hebrides.12 Snorri Sturluson’s Skáldskaparmál quotes and therefore preserves a verse and a snippet attributed to Ormr.13 Landnámabók records two more fragments of Norse-Hebridean poetry, ascribing them to a nameless Hebridean.14 Unsurprisingly, travel, sailing and the sea seem to be recurrent subject matter in this small surviving corpus of poetry associated with the Hebrides.15 All this suggests that the extant corpus of skaldic verse, particularly from the British-Irish Isles, is not necessarily representative of that which existed at the time. It is possible that the later so-called “Gaelic revival”, which followed the transfer of Man and the Hebrides from Norwegian to Scottish rule of 1266, has obscured the level of Norse language and literature there previously.16 Additionally, I have argued that the “the decrease in Iceland’s tangible connections with the area” contributed to the portrayal of the Hebrideans in the sagas of Icelanders as troublemakers and sorcerers, that is as being somewhat outside of society.17 This argument could be extended to the relative lack of surviving Norse poetry from the Hebrides which has been preserved in Iceland.
8Even less skaldic verse survives from Ireland, despite the existence of several Hiberno-Scandinavian towns. As Matthew Townend notes, there is “no reason to doubt that praise poetry was composed for the York-Dublin dynasty”.18 In the thirteenth-century Icelandic text, Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, the eponymous poet composes some verse at the court of Sitric or Sigtryggr silkiskegg (“silkbeard”), king of Dublin, in his honour. Sitric is portrayed humorously as being unsure how to reward the poem (unlike the other kings and jarls Gunnlaugr visits on his travels) because it is the first time one has been performed in his honour.19 Given that there is surviving Irish poetry in honour of Sitric’s dynasty, the idea that they did not know how to treat professional poets is obviously tendentious. It is unclear what political motivations there could have been for such a depiction of the king, so it seems to be intended comedically, presumably facilitated by the lack of verse associated with the dynasty available to the Icelandic saga author.
9Skaldic poetry may well have been composed in both Dublin and York, but it seems that “the York-Dublin dynasty itself was simply dropped from the Icelandic world-view”.20 This may be largely due to the fact that there was “no one in medieval Iceland who claimed descent from the York-Dublin dynasty of Sigtryggr caoch, Óláfr Guðfriðsson and Óláfr” referred to in Irish as Amlaíb cuarán.21 If a leading Icelandic family had associated themselves with such individuals, they might have made an effort to preserve verses which glorified their supposed ancestors. Our surviving Norse sources supply a single clue of lost poetry from the York-Dublin axis.22 The Sturlubók redaction of Landnámabók names a Þorgils orraskáld, er var með Óláfi kváran í Dyflinni as a son of a settler on the southern edge of Borgarfjörðr, western Iceland.23 There are no other references to this Þorgils or his association with Amlaíb cuarán. Although there is no explicit reference to him composing poetry for Amlaíb, such a context is of course strongly suggested by the use of skáld (“poet”) in his byname.24
10In addition to the genealogical angle, I have noted that the regularity of Icelandic cultural contact and trading links with these regions has had an impact on the extent to which they connected to the Norse milieu, since Iceland is the chief preserver of Norse literature and cultural memory.25 Specifically, I have argued for an east-west lateral axis (between Iceland, Orkney and Norway) of cultural and economic contacts and a north-south vertical axis (from Iceland to the Hebrides and the Hiberno-Scandinavian towns). The lateral axis was more resilient and longer lasting presumably because it ended in the homeland. Increasing Irish political control of the Hiberno-Scandinavian towns and the Anglo-Norman invasion must have hastened their separation from the Norse‐speaking world.26
11Norse poetry in the Northern Isles was clearly thriving, with surviving poetry from a jarl and a bishop of Orkney. Indeed, this is one of the main examples Judith Jesch uses to advance the Viking diaspora model – the tenacity of Norse language and literature in the Northern Isles.27 The picture is less clear for the Western Isles, and the rest of Scotland. The poor representation of areas where the Norse language was lost earlier than in the Northern Isles highlights the centrality of Iceland in the Norse diaspora and the time lag between Norse settlement in these areas and the recording of Norse poetry in manuscripts. The case of the Hiberno-Scandinavian towns of Ireland also introduces the issue of the impact of a later wave of settlers or another diaspora: the Normans.
Norman French poetry
12There would have been some French presence in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman or English invasion of 1169 and likely even some French spoken before in the towns due to trading contacts.28 However, it is only after the arrival of mercenaries from England and Wales that there is evidence for French literary production.29 There is a more complicated picture for Scotland, which was not conquered by the Normans, but arguably became more Norman in character than Ireland or parts of Wales, particularly under David I (r. 1124–1153).30 Or at least, it was the central and lowland kingdom of Scots which was becoming quite Anglo-Norman, unlike other areas which would eventually become incorporated into modern Scotland.31 The kings of Scots implanted Anglo-Norman lords as a buffer zone along the western seaboard, that is, in areas which caused them problems, similarly to how the English kings gave lands to marcher lords to help fend off the Welsh. Therefore, while the Normans abutted the kingdom of the Isles they did not settle there, unlike the Scandinavians before them.
13The best known of these poems is a vital source for the invasion of Ireland itself – indeed, that is likely the reason for its renown. La geste des Engleis en Yrlande (“The Deeds of the Normans in Ireland”, also commonly referred to as “The Song of Dermot and the Earl”, the title given to it by G. H. Orpen in his 1892 publication) recounts the lead up to the invasion and its course. In discussions of these events, it is inextricably linked to the other major source of evidence: Giraldus Cambrensis’ Expugnatio Hibernica (Gerald of Wales’ Conquest of Ireland), a Latin prose account. Both sources were written not long after the invasion: the Expugnatio dates to c. 1189 and the Geste before 1190. The Geste is anonymous, incomplete as it survives in just one manuscript, and in rhyming octosyllabic couplets. According to Evelyn Mullaly, “paradoxically, it is Gerald the prose writer who is the self-conscious literary artist and our anonymous versifier who remains almost painfully prosaic and factual”.32 The author of the Geste has been dismissed as a “mediocre rhymester”.33
14The title “The Song of Dermot and the Earl” given to the poem by Orpen at least reflects the Irish and Norman interests at work. Diarmait mac Murchada, king of Leinster, had turned to the Normans for aid when faced with opposition both within and outwith his kingdom. The “earl” referred to is Earl Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, known as “Strongbow”. At the start of the poem, it is said to be the history of Diarmait as related to the poet by Diarmait’s interpreter. As Simon Meecham-Jones argues, the very choice of French as the medium at this place and time “is to make a very pointed ideological statement”.34 It would suggest that the audience was the new French-speaking aristocracy. But at the same time there are a great number of Irish personal names and place names, most of which can be identified by modern scholars.
15Apart from how reliable it is for historical events, the other issue that has preoccupied scholarship on the Geste is that of genre – is it a verse chronicle or a chanson de geste? In reality, it lies somewhere between the two, blending genres. The description of Diarmait and Derbforgaill, the wife of another Irish king, whom Diarmait apparently abducted, has the most obvious traces of the romance or lai genre.35 Keith Busby notes the courtly style of this episode, as well as the use of secret messengers as means of communication between the two lovers.36 Both the Geste and Gerald of Wales blame the woman for wanting to be abducted, though it is more prevalent in Gerald who compared Derbforgaill to Helen of Troy and Cleopatra, in that “almost all the world’s most notable catastrophes have been caused by women, witness Mark Anthony and Troy”.37 Busby concludes that the Geste is a “vernacular verse chronicle with some of the ideological and stylistic features of the epics”, and observes that its verse form is used for romances and for chronicles, including Wace’s Brut, part of the Rou, Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Histoire des ducs de Normandie, and Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis.38 It thus resembles other works of Norman French literature. Rather than the text just combining romance elements with historical narrative, these elements also serve to justify the martial action which make up the narrative. As Meecham-Jones argues,
It is the particular achievement of The Song of Dermot to demonstrate the crucial role played by romance motifs in promulgating and perpetuating the acceptance of a state of consciousness that justifies aristocratic privilege, and in which the exercise of force, in pursuit of whatever personal and familial interest, is not questioned.39
In this case, the invasion of Ireland was rendered normal through the norms of the genre.
16Not much has been written on the possible oral or performance context of the poem apart from this comment from 1867: “[…] no doubt was often chanted on a long winter’s evening in the castle-halls of the English invaders, in the presence of many a grey-headed warrior who had taken part in the exploits which it describes”.40 Mullaly notes that the poet defines their own audience as being made up of Chevalers, serjanz e mechins (“Knights, men-at-arms, and attendants”), which equates to “military men of all ranks who enjoy listening to the feats of arms of their predecessors”, but makes no comment on the longevity of such an audience or possible repeat performances.41
17As Mullaly and others have argued the poem is “couched in the language of performer to audience”.42 It is hard to say, though, if it truly reflects the reality of oral presentation. For example:
Que vus irrai plus contant?43
Ke vus irrai purloingnant
De nostre geste tant ne quant?44
The latter example of directing a (presumably rhetorical) question to the audience is an example of the brevity topos.45
18The poem contains other stylistic influences. Busby argues that the author did not just know some Latin, but that he was well-versed in “business Latin”, as seen in the legal and land-holding terminology (one might even say “feudal”).46 When Maurice de Predergast is accused of treason the account of the pledges made deploys the correct terminology of court action:
E Morice a sun guant pleé,
A son seignur l’ad baillé
Qu’en sa curt addressereit
De quantqu’il mespris aveit.
Assez l’unt replegëez
De vassals engleis alosez.Quant fini urent icel pleist,
[…]47
The use of such terminology which one might expect in a charter rather than a poem is unusual but not unique. Indeed, Busby compared this aspect of the Geste to the Roman de Rou from 1160 describing how Rollo granted lands to his followers on the occasion of his baptism and wedding.48 The Roman de Rou dates to 1160, thus shortly before the composition of the Geste. The Rou shows the Scandinavian ancestors of the Normans making their mark on the region, while the Geste is also trying to legitimise the presence of new settlers or colonists in Ireland.
19The second major French poem from Ireland is The Walling of New Ross (or the Rithmus facture ville de Rosse according to the manuscript), which dates to 1265, on the occasion of defences being built. New Ross was founded in the early thirteenth century by William Marshal. Soon a dispute arose with the very proximate Waterford, which, as a Hiberno-Scandinavian town, was an older, pre-existing settlement. Further inland, New Ross found itself in need of a town militia. Like the Geste, the Walling is preserved in only a single manuscript (BL MS Harley 913).49 Interestingly, this manuscript is from Waterford and it dates to the fourteenth century when the trade dispute was still ongoing. The poem also has an anonymous author, who was possibly a Franciscan and displayed some awareness of the French literary tradition and commonplaces.50
20The start of the poem gives an insight into the overall tone, starting off quite seriously, but then undercut by a comic touch.
Talent me prent de rimaunceir,
S’il vous plet de escoteir,
Kar parole qe n’est oï
Ne uaut pas vn aillie.51
It appears that the poet twisted a conventional saying about unheeded words by combining it with another, which refers to something not being worth a small amount of garlic.52
21In the second half of the poem, there is a description of the beauty of the ladies of New Ross and their fine clothes of different colours:
Kiqe la fut pur esgarder,
Meint bele dame y put il veer,
[…]
E meint bone roket bien
Meint blank fem ben colouree;
Ke vnkes en terre ou ie ai esté,
Tantz bele dames ne vi en fossee53
Again, a poetic commonplace (a description of beautiful women and their fine clothing) is subverted (by a depiction of them working in a trench). These humorous comments are satirical but also perhaps affectionate according to Thorlac Turville-Petre.54
22As with the author of the Geste, critics have not been very kind to this poet’s abilities. Mullaly described the poet’s language as “not very polished”, while Bliss and Long referred to “unsophisticated verses”.55 More recently, however, Sinclair has praised how it plays on different genres.56 Busby describes it as “a gentle piece of self-deprecation” albeit with “a serious message for the warring descendants of the original colonists as well as for the citizens of neighbouring Waterford, reminding both parties of the town’s determination to maintain its prosperity and way of life”.57 The close of the poem affirms the right of the inhabitants of the town to enclose and protect their town, declaring: N'ad Ires en Irland si hardi, / Qi l'oserent asailler; "Not an Irishman in Ireland will be so bold / as to dare to attack it", and also that tot hom estrange est ben venu; "every stranger finds a welcome", particularly traders.58 This nuance and ability to speak to multiple audiences would suggest greater sophistication on the part of the poet than has been previously allowed.
23There are two other examples of Norman French poetry from Ireland, though they are only eight lines each. Between them in the manuscript (BL MS Harley 913) is the rubric Proverbie comitis Desmonie, which is assumed to refer to Maurice fitz Thomas, who was made the first earl of Desmond in 1329.59 One verse involves proverbs made up of words beginning with the letter “f”, while the other on solitude features a great deal of “s” alliteration. Mullaly describes these verses as “sophisticated” and part of a trend seen in French of “ingenious verbal jugglings on the basis of moral commonplaces”, which reached its height in the rhetoric of the fifteenth-century poets dubbed grands rhétoriqueurs.60 Bubsy concurs that this is “the fluent work of someone used to writing in a French poetic idiom”.61 An annalist suggests that Maurice fitz Thomas objected to a reference to his poetic compositions: in 1327 he burnt the lands of Arnold le Poer partly because of enormia verba que Dominus Arnaldus dixerat, vocando eum Rymoure.62 Le Poer’s use of “rhymer” as an insult against Maurice might be due to “what he perceived as a betrayal of his Anglo-Irish identity or simply at his unmanly habit of writing poetry”.63
24Why is there such a small surviving corpus of French verse from Ireland? Although written French was utilised in administrative contexts until the sixteenth century, it had ceased to be a literary language in Ireland by the second half of the fourteenth century.64 Even in the major towns, where most of the new settlers lived, it is difficult to find evidence of French as a living spoken language from the end of the thirteenth century.65 In 1324, Richard Ledrede, bishop of Ossory, had his summation in a case of witchcraft read out in English and French as well as Latin (only the Latin version is recorded). It is unlikely that this was “so that all should understand” as Curtis argued.66 Instead, he deployed French presumably to show off his command of the language (acquired during his time at the papal court in Avignon) and to add weight to his case.67 Certainly, it cannot be extrapolated from this incident that French was still being widely spoken day-to-day in Kilkenny. Indeed, while observing the loss of the English language in favour of Irish, the preamble to the Statute of Kilkenny of 1366 makes no mention of French.68 It was no longer considered a viable spoken language in Ireland; while French is used in that very document it is of a decidedly legal nature. It cannot be accurately estimated how much more French and English literature was produced in Ireland than currently survives.69
25Turning to Scotland, the only French poem from this period is an unusual text, the Roman de Fergus. It is an Arthurian romance notionally about Fergus of Galloway (d. 1161), though with little bearing on reality. The historical Fergus had variously been a rebel against and an ally of the Scottish kings. Eventually the rulers of Galloway were not independent anymore but were reduced to holding a position from the king of Scotland. The author of the romance, Guillaume le Clerc, is believed to have been of French descent, possibly writing in Scotland, particularly in the “core” kingdom in the southeast. The end of the twelfth century or start of the thirteenth (or specifically around 1209) was the date of the text proposed by M. Dominica Legge, also suggesting that it was written for Alan of Galloway, great-grandson of Fergus and ruler of the western Hebrides.70 Different patrons were put forward by Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann: Dervorguilla of Galloway and her husband, John de Balliol, intended to emphasise the claims to the Scottish kingship of their own sons.71 D. D. R Owen argued that the text can be clearly situated within the reign over Scotland of William the Lion (r. 1165–1214), being composed around 1207 perhaps by William Malveisin, bishop of St Andrews.72
26The poet was clearly well acquainted with the works of Chrétien de Troyes, particularly Yvain, Erec et Enide, Cligès, and Perceval, as well as the First and Second Continuations to Perceval by other authors.73 Presumably he expected at least some of his intended audience to be familiar with these works too, for the intertextuality and parodic reworkings to be effective. William Calin argues that the Roman de Fergus is not a humorous antiromance parody, but that “the parodic and comic exist alongside the more serious heroic and chivalric”.74 This blending of and playing with genres is reminiscent of The Walling of New Ross.
27It has been said that this text “stands out for its ‘realism’ in terms of geography and local customs”.75 There is some regional variation, however, in the depth of this knowledge. Despite the titular hero being from Galloway, the events of the romance are centred around Melrose, Roxburgh and Jedburgh in Lothian. Lothian was originally part of the English-speaking kingdom of Northumbria but was annexed by Scotland in around 1018 when King Máel Coluim II won the battle at Carham.76 Over time the focus of the kingdom of Scots, which was previously north of the Firth of Forth, shifted southwards to Lothian and Teviotdale.77 The poem is detailed on south-eastern Scotland but much less so for Galloway and shows virtually no knowledge of the Isles. Galloway is referred to as Idegaus / Indegal / Ingegal, garbled renderings of Innse Gall (“islands of the foreigners”), a Gaelic term for the Hebrides.78 The poem represents a view from outside. It identifies Fergus’s father as Soumillet or Somerled: while it is not impossible that his father happened to have this name, this is assumed to refer to Somerled, ruler of Man, Argyll and the Isles (d. 1164). There were political connections between these two rulers,79 and it is possible that they were related in some other way, though not as father and son. Assuming it does refer to the well-known Somerled, then he is denigrated as “a peasant”, though the Irish annals describe him as rí (“king”).80
28The portrayal of Fergus himself is somewhat mixed and comedic, especially early in the text when he arrives in Arthur’s court in his father’s rusty armour. The basic narrative is of an adolescent who travels to a court where he will be instructed in military and chivalric matters, goes on a quest and, having proved himself, returns to a warm reception. Calin compared Fergus to Rainouart, the “Saracen” kitchen knight of the twelfth-century Old French chanson de geste, since both are young, strong but initially lacking in curtesy.81 Owen makes a more favourable comparison to the mainstream hero Perceval, who was raised in a Welsh forest before coming to Arthur’s court, arguing that Galloway made an appropriate substitution.82 Of course, the Welsh element to the Arthurian tradition makes the case of Perceval somewhat different than that of Fergus. For Michael Wenthe, Fergus “exemplifies a Galwegian otherness that seems quite foreign to the community he seeks to join”.83 At his first visit to court, the text explicitly comments on the fact that he does not meet the expected standards, while admitting his potential: “had he known how to fit himself out in the English fashion, one could not have found in any land a knight more handsome than he”.84 By the end of the tale Arthur makes Fergus the lord of Lothian, the homeland of his bride Galiene, and they make their home in Roxburgh.85
29The Roman de Fergus is the “one ancestral or baronial romance written in French [which] treats Scottish material”.86 Anglo-Norman romances in England have been argued to be ancestral and nostalgic from specific lineages and localities or to be about upholding the feudal or baronial system in general: though both strands can stand together.87. Such considerations are also relevant to the Roman de Fergus. It was noted above that suggested patrons for the work have included Fergus’s descendants, but the case is weakened by the fact that the portrayal of Galloway is far from favourable. Indeed, the texts declare that “the folk who live there are very ignorant, for they will never enter a church: they are so stupid and bestial that they are not concerned with praying to God”.88 This is reminiscent of the dismissive and barbaric depictions of Galwegians by twelfth-century Anglo-Norman writers, notably Ailred of Rievaulx’s accounts of Scottish attacks on Northumbria and the Battle of the Standard in 1138.89 Since there were tensions in Scotland between traditional Gaelic and Gaelic-Scandinavian society and the new Normanised one, it is possible that Fergus is satirising native Scottish society. It does though apparently offer a pathway to inclusion in courtly society even for one from a dismissed, remote location. The contrast between Fergus as an outsider at the start of the tale and his acceptance at its close suggests to Wenthe a message of “cultural assimilation as a concomitant of territorial acquisition”.90 He also argues that the geographical range of Fergus’s travels in the poem, which stretch as far north as Dunnottar in modern Aberdeenshire, amounts to the “the political appropriation of a locally-powerful outsider figure to serve the interests of a ruling class with expansive geographic appetites”.91 While an ancestral and nostalgic quality found in Anglo-Norman romances is not certain in Fergus, it is clearly concerned with upholding the feudal or baronial system.
30The French poetry in Ireland and Scotland perhaps represents the nascent stages of a diaspora, one which would eventually lose its previous linguistic identity. Even descendants of the Norman settlers would become the patrons of Irish-language poetry. The lack of a continued French literary tradition is likely to have decreased the preservation of earlier works; a similar situation to that argued above for Norse in Ireland and the Hebrides. As Bliss and Long observe, “the virtual supersession of Norman French and English by Irish towards the end of the medieval period must have greatly reduced the chances of survival of works in these alien and obsolescent languages”.92 Modern scholarship has also tended not to be particularly kind to the French poetry from Ireland, with the Geste attracting more attention from historians of the invasion than from literary scholars. The Roman de Fergus has received comparatively little attention; in fact, a later Dutch version of this text is more famous than Guillaume le Clerc’s version is. Although the full corpus of French poetry may not survive to us, it was apparently shorter lived than its Norse predecessor.
Viking and Norman diasporas
31The tendency in Anglophone scholarship is to view the Viking and Norman diasporas as separate. Sometimes Normandy is included as part of the Viking diaspora, notably in the work of Lesley Abrams and in Katherine Cross’ recent comparative study of the ‘Danelaw’ of England and Normandy.93 This is much more prevalent in Francophone scholarship, however, notably in the work of Pierre Bauduin.94 In the context of the British-Irish Isles, the historiography of the periods of Viking and Norman settlement there is particularly distinct, with 1066 and 1169 seen as crucial watersheds for England and Ireland respectively.95
32This separation is despite the fact that Normandy was originally a Scandinavian settlement following Viking raiding on Francia. In Normandy, the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911 created the first duke of Normandy out of Rollo, a Scandinavian leader. As Lesley Abrams notes, Normandy “seems the odd one out” as being the least “Scandinavianized” of the various Scandinavian settlements abroad.96 The Duchy of Normandy is seen as becoming rapidly Frenchified. In Wales at least there seems to have been some awareness of the original Scandinavian heritage of the Normans, in the twelfth-century work the Historia Gruffudd vab Kenan. This text claims that Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd in north Wales, was descended from Haraldr hárfagri (“Fairhair”; the supposed first king of all Norway) and, even more erroneously, that Haraldr was the brother of Rollo, founder of Normandy and the ancestor of England’s Norman kings. Patrick Wadden suggests that this was “probably constructed to help foster better relations between the Welsh rulers and their Norman neighbours”.97
33The concept of the Norman diaspora is complicated for Ireland, Scotland and the Irish Sea region because the Normans were perhaps calling themselves and being called English by this point. Contemporary Irish sources refer to the invaders and colonisers as “English”, but scholars have tended to use Anglo-Norman, perhaps to avoid more modern associations, though there has been a recent movement to reverse this tendency.98 The Irish usage of “English” perhaps reflects how the invaders had by then come to view themselves.99 This problem of terminology might be argued to show that the Norman diaspora was waning or that it was adapting. Both Vikings and Normans are often praised for their adaptability which helped as they expanded to new areas.
34While diasporas are fundamentally communities, the Norse poetry which has been examined is mostly in praise of a named ruler acting as a patron. The performance context of such poetry in a court in front of this ruler’s retainers is likely to have created some sense of identity, at least among the elites. The very production and performance of this poetry also demonstrated that these Norse communities were part of the wider Norse world – being visited by Icelandic poets, often the same who composed in praise of Norwegian kings. As Abrams notes, “skaldic poetry was shared by a far-flung Norse-speaking elite”.100 The Norse praise poetry may therefore not be so different to the Norman French verse. Mullaly observes that both the Geste and the Walling “are aiming their work at a collectivity, rather than at some individual princely patron”.101 These were recently established communities, those within a generation of the invasion itself and those in a newly founded town. The latter trying to maintain their position relative to the more established town of Waterford. The Geste, like Gerald’s Expugnatio, has also been dubbed part of the genre of “literature of justification”, which was common in the twelfth century, because it “adapts romance expectations to justify the actions of Diarmait and ‘Les baruns Engleis alosés’ [the renowned English barons]”.102 Not only did the very choice of the French language for the poem restrict it to the incoming Norman or English elite in Ireland, but the genre was the preserve of the elite – one which served to uphold their position. Returning to Norse, Abrams has argued that the elaborate dróttkvæt metre of skaldic poetry was “an acrolect – the most prestigious social dialect of a language” and that this “elitist genre” facilitated the diasporic group consciousness of that elite.103
35The case of the Roman de Fergus with regards to the concept of diaspora stands apart from the other texts explored here. It seems to allow for the integration of outsiders, even those from regions which have been denigrated, into the diasporic community (again, an elite one), though the price of this is the acceptance of the overlordship of the king of the community. Admittedly in the Geste, Diarmait Mac Murchada is a political ally of the incoming invaders, but they helped him regain his position as king of Leinster (while making gains of their own), rather than providing him with a new one as occurs for the literary Fergus. Moreover, in Fergus the eponymous hero’s cultural identity is altered over the course of the text. Wenthe argues that Fergus’s Galwegian identity is replaced by “a more generic Scottishness” and that this Scottishness “proves conveniently tractable to Arthurian political interests”.104 For “Arthurian” political interests, we might read those of the Norman French-speaking aristocracy at large or of the kingdom of the Scots, with its strong Anglo-Norman influence. Richard Oram suggests that tales of King Arthur’s court, including the Roman de Fergus, reflect “a dim memory of the gravitational pull exerted on ambitious young men” by the English court; while it is unknown if the historical Fergus spent his early career there, as has sometimes been suggested, he did marry an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England.105 Perhaps the more relevant dim memory is that of Galloway and its ruling dynasty being drawn increasingly into the kingdom of Scots. Fergus’s allowance for the possibility of including outsiders into the community might be due to the historical course of Norman expansion into Scotland, which, unlike in Ireland, was not the result of military conquest, but of more gradual influence, settlement and encroachment. The poem also derives from a time period when this development was well underway, which contrasts to the French poetry in Ireland dating to early in the establishment of a new community.
36The poetry during the period discussed covers the transition between two diasporas in Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Scotland, with the Isles being largely untouched by the Normans. Arguably the Norse corpus represents an attempt to preserve their membership of the Viking diaspora, particularly in the Scottish Isles, and the French corpus represents the establishment of another diaspora into new places, particularly in Ireland. This might partly be due to the former literary tradition having greater longevity than the latter.106
Conclusion
37This investigation has stressed that it was not only contemporary politics that was important in poetic production, but that later political factors influenced the degree of poetic preservation. The importance of Iceland as recording Norse literature and preserving cultural memory has been highlighted, as connections to it increased the chances of poetry from the British-Irish Isles being recorded. In long run French poetry from Ireland apparently lost its French-speaking (and presumably -hearing) audience. Had the Norman diaspora become an English one, or at least an English-speaking one? The loss of French might be seen as a failure of diaspora, in favour of acculturation instead, or as a success in its reinventing itself. Different languages were of course used in different contexts.
38Another issue is that Ireland, Scotland and the Isles are today seen as important parts of the Viking world (though the same was not apparently true of Ireland to the Icelandic saga authors), but as peripheral to the Norman world. Many of the texts explored here contain humour and satire which is partly responsible for them being dismissed as oddities by modern scholars. Gunnlaugs saga jokes at the expense of the Hiberno-Scandinavian king of Dublin. The earl of Desmond skilfully composed fine French verse but apparently took great offence at being called a “rhymer” by a political rival. Unlike the implications of Gunnlaugs saga for Norse in Ireland, I am unaware of any contemporary criticisms of the quality of the French poems or of people’s lack of understanding of them at the time from England or France. Nevertheless, modern scholars until quite recently have not been complimentary of their literary merits, if they have paid them much attention at all. Keith Busby recently described Ireland as “the most neglected area of medieval Francophonia" and "its western edge”.107 The issue of core vs perceived periphery is an important one within Scotland, given the Roman de Fergus’ unclear relationship with – and view on – the western seaboard and the Isles which were in the process of being incorporated into the kingdom of Scots. Fergus permits an exceptional outsider to join a community bent on cultural and military expansionism, but at the expense of his previous political independence and regional identity.
39I hope also to have brought work on the Viking and Norman diasporas, as well as on Norse and French literature, into greater dialogue. The transition between these two cultures is more complex than military conquests and straightforward dividing lines around key dates. The Norse tradition remained strongest in the place least touched by the Normans: the earldom of Orkney.
Notes de bas de page
1The Northern Isles were Pictish at the time of the Norse takeover rather than Gaelic. The study area is not the same as the oft-used Irish Sea region or zone; see for example: C. Downham, “England and the Irish-Sea Zone in the Eleventh Century”, Anglo-Norman Studies XXVI. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2003, J. B. Gillingham (dir.), Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2004, p. 55‑73; B. Hudson, Irish Sea Studies, 900-1200, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2006; D. Wyatt, “Slavery, Power and Cultural Identity in the Irish Sea Region, 1066-1171”, in Celtic-Norse Relationships in the Irish Sea in the Middle Ages, 800-1200, T. Bolton and Jón Viðar Sigurðsson (ed.), Leiden, Brill, 2014, p. 97‑108. However, the emphasis on maritime connectivity and multilingualism found in such studies is instructive for the present investigation. Colmán Etchingham extended the Irish Sea region to include the Scottish Isles to form “the Insular Viking zone”, but particularly emphasised Wales, which is not considered here due to the absence of associated Norse poetry: C. Etchingham, “North Wales, Ireland and the Isles: the Insular Viking Zone”, Peritia, vol. 15, 2001, p. 145-187. There were some French literary works produced in Wales, though they have proved difficult to localise: see M. S. Lampitt, “The ‘French of Wales’? Possibilities, Approaches, Implications”, French Studies, vol. 76, no. 3, 2022, p. 333-349 (DOI: 10.1093/fs/knac119.)
2According to Elisabeth van Houts, the Scandinavian immigrants “assimilated so rapidly with the Frankish people, however, that within three generations they ceased to use their own language and lost most of their customs”: E. van Houts (ed. and trans.), The Normans in Europe, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 1.
3J. Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, London, Routledge, 2015, p. 199.
4J. Gilbert, S. Gaunt and W. Burgwinkle, Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, p. 35.
5D. Griffiths, “Rethinking the Early Viking Age in the West”, Antiquity, vol. 93, no. 368, 2019, p. 468‑477 (474) (DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2018.199); C. Ellis, “Remembering the Vikings: Ancestry, Cultural Memory, and Geographical Variation”, History Compass, vol. 19, no. 4, 2021, p. 1‑15 (9) (DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12652).
6The ascription to Torf-Einarr was supported by Finnur Jónsson who claimed that the tone and outlook of the verses accorded with this period: Finnur Jónsson, Kritiske studier over en del af de ældste norske og islandske skjaldekvad, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1884, p. 96. Other scholars have challenged the ascription, arguing that these lausavísur should instead be seen alongside an anonymous couplet in the same metre about Einarr, which is also preserved just before them in Heimskringla’s Haralds saga hárfagra and in Orkneyinga saga: see R. Poole, Viking Poems on War and Peace. A Study in Skaldic Narrative, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1991, p. 167‑170. While Else Mundal seems to take his authorship for granted, her discussion of Einarr’s significance in the origin myth of the Orkney jarls does provide a plausible condition for composition after Einarr’s lifetime: see E. Mundal, “The Orkney Earl and Scald Torf-Einarr and his Poetry”, in The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic (Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Eleventh Viking Congress, Thurso and Kirkwall, 22 August-1 September 1989), C. E. Batey, J. Jesch and C. D. Morris (ed.), Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1993, p. 248‑259 (251). Judith Jesch notes that the question of authenticity and date is “a problem with all early skaldic poetry” not just in this instance: J. Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, p. 177.
7D. Whaley, The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld. An Edition and Study, Turnhout, Brepols, 1998, p. 43.
8Ibid., p. 46.
9J. Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, p. 149.
10Ibid., p. 80.
11See E. Goeres, “Medieval Self-fashioning: Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson and Orkneyinga Saga”, Scandinavica, vol. 54, no. 2, 2015, p. 6‑39 (DOI: 10.54432/scand/RXRO6008); J. Jesch, “Earl Rögnvaldr of Orkney, a Poet of the Viking Diaspora”, Journal of the North Atlantic, special vol. 4, 2013, p. 154‑160.
12M. Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 20.
13Skáldskaparmál, in Snorri Sturluson: Edda, A. Faulkes (trans.), London, Dent, 1987, p. 89, 91.
14Landnámabók, chapter 91 (in Sturlubók) / chapter 79 (in Hauksbók), in Íslendingabók; Landnámabók, Jakob Benediktsson (ed.), Reykjavík, Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag (Íslenzk fornrit; 1), 1968, p. 132‑134; chapter 352 (in Hauksbók), p. 395. The latter fragment is not in all redactions. Both fragments are said to be from a poem called Hafgerðingadrápa.
15The Vikings in Lewis, B. Schorn and J. Quinn (ed.), Nottingham, Centre for the Study of the Viking Age (Languages, Myths and Finds; 2), 2014, p. 16‑17.
16C. Ellis, “Remembering the Vikings…”, p. 5, 9.
17C. Ellis, “Degrees of Separation: Icelandic Perceptions of Other Scandinavian Settlements in the Faroes, Orkney, Ireland and the Hebrides”, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, vol. 16, 2020, p. 1‑26 (17) (DOI: 10.1484/J.VMS.5.121517).
18M. Townend, “Whatever Happened to York Viking Poetry? Memory, Tradition and the Transmission of Skaldic Verse”, Saga-Book of the Viking Society, vol. 27, 2003, p. 48‑90 (59).
19This episode is discussed in more detail in C. Ellis, “Degrees of Separation…”, p. 14‑15.
20M. Townend, “Whatever Happened…”, p. 83.
21Ibid., p. 72. As Townend notes, it is curious that these rulers had familial associations in reality with the putative sons of Ragnarr loðbrók, but this connection does not seem to have been particularly recognised in Norse literature; Ragnarr traditions were of course recorded and transmitted in Iceland but this did not extend to the York-Dublin dynasty. The many descendants of Óláfr hinn hvíti and Auðr djúpúðga claimed some relation to the Hiberno-Scandinavian rulers of Dublin (Ingjaldr Helgasson) in the ninth century (Landnámabók, chapter 95 [in Sturlubók] / chapter 82 [in Hauksbók], p. 136), but it is unclear whether they were related to Amlaíb cuarán’s dynasty.
22M. Townend, “Whatever Happened…”, p. 58.
23Landnámabók, chapter 31, p. 71, trans. M. Townend, “Whatever Happened…”, p. 59: “Þorgils orraskáld, who was with Óláfr kváran in Dublin”.
24The first element of his byname is less clear. M. Townend, “Whatever Happened…”, p. 59 (n. 12): “Þorgils’s nickname as a whole seems to mean ‘poet of (someone called) Orri’, and orri ‘heathcock, grouse’ is itself found as a nickname elsewhere in Old Norse”.
25C. Ellis, “Degrees of Separation…”, p. 12‑13, 16.
26C. Ellis, “Remembering the Vikings…”, p. 5.
27J. Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, p. 177‑182: section titled “Case study – poets of Orkney”.
28See P. Wadden, “The Normans and the Irish Sea World in the Era of the Battle of Clontarf”, in Space and Settlement in Medieval Ireland, V. McAlister and T. Barry (ed.), Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2015, p. 15‑33.
29Cambro-Norman has been argued to be a more accurate label for the invaders: see S. Duffy, “The Welsh Conquest of Ireland”, in Clerics, Kings and Vikings. Essays on Medieval Ireland in Honour of Donnchadh Ó Corráin, E. Purcell et al. (ed.), Dublin, Fourt Courts Press, 2015, p. 103‑114; B. Eagar, “The Cambro-Normans and the Lordship of Leinster”, in Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland. Studies Presented to Francis Xavier Martin, J. Bradley (ed.), Kilkenny, Boethius Press, 1988, p. 193‑206 (193‑194). Strongbow is described as “a Cambro-Norman earl” by D. N. Dumville, “Did Ireland Exist in the Twelfth Century?”, in Clerics, Kings and Vikings…, p. 115‑126 (124‑125). The first wave of arrivals from Wales were in fact Flemings: S. Duffy, “The Welsh Conquest…”, p. 107; B. Eagar, “The Cambro-Normans…”, p. 195.
30The term ‘Davidian Revolution’ has traditionally been used for the developments in his reign, originally coined by G. W. S. Barrow, David I of Scotland (1124-1153). The Balance of New and Old, Reading, University of Reading, 1985, p. 11. Modern scholars tend to see this as exaggerated.
31As Richard Oram puts it: “The kingdom that David constructed expanded from its east Lowland core”. R. Oram, Domination and Lordship. Scotland 1070-1230, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2011, p. 75. Matthew Hammond gives an overview of the historiography of the Normanisation of Scotland while noting that the dualism of Norman vs Celtic is too simplistic and that central medieval Scotland was home to many languages and diverse influences. Regionalism still played a part in the formation of Scotland: M. Hammond, “Ethnicity and the Writing of Medieval Scottish History”, The Scottish Historical Review vol. 85, no. 1, 2006, p. 1‑27. Dauvit Broun observes that in the twelfth century “the kingdom comprised not one ‘country’, but several”: D. Broun, “The Church and the Origins of Scottish Independence in the twelfth century”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society, vol. 31, 2002, p. 1-35 (33).
32The Deeds of the Normans in Ireland. La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande, E. Mullaly (ed. and trans.), Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 32. A sentiment also expressed in E. Mullaly, “La colonisation de l’Irlande au XIIe siècle d’après une chronique anglo-normande”, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, vol. 37, no. 148, 1994, p. 365‑370 (368).
33A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature in Norman French and English to 1534”, in A New History of Ireland, vol. II: Medieval Ireland, 1169-1534, A. Cosgrove (ed.), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2008, p. 708‑736 (718).
34S. Meecham-Jones, “Romance Society and Its Discontents: Romance Motifs and Romance Consequences in The Song of Dermot and Normans in Ireland”, in Boundaries in Medieval Romance, N. Cartlidge (ed.), Woodbridge, D. S. Brewer, 2008, p. 71‑91 (81).
35La Geste…, l. 40-71, p. 54. The extent to which the enmity between Diarmait and Tigernán resulted from the former’s association with the latter’s wife, Derbforgaill, as well as the nature of this relationship, has been much debated: see D. Casey, “Derbforgaill and the Expulsion of Diarmait Mac Murchada”, History Ireland, vol. 27, no. 3, 2019, p. 18‑19. For Derbforgaill’s reputation, see J. V. Ulin, “‘Can a wrong once done ever be undone?’ Ireland’s Helen of Troy”, Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3 / 4, 2011, p. 173‑192.
36K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland, Ireland in Medieval French. The Paradox of Two Worlds, Turnhout, Brepols, 2017, p. 95.
37Expugnatio Hibernica. The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis, A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (ed. and trans.), Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1978, p. 24‑25: Sed quoniam mala fere cuncta maiora, tam Marco Antonio quan Troia testante, mundo per mulierem constat exorta.
38K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 83.
39S. Meecham-Jones, “Romance Society…”, p. 90.
40J. Dimock, Topographia Hibernica, in Giraldi Cambrensis opera, vol. 5, London, Longman, 1867, p. LXXXIV-LXXXV.
41La Geste…, l. 3355, p. 139; E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature and Its Public”, in Settlement and Society…, p. 327‑343 (329).
42La Geste…, Introduction, p. 34.
43Ibid., l. 88, p. 55: “What more should I tell you?”
44Ibid., l. 214-215, p. 58: “But why should I prolong / our chronicle for you in any way?”
45K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 89.
46Ibid., p. 106.
47La Geste…, l. 2147-2154, p. 108: “Then Maurice folded his glove / and gave it to his lord / to show that he would defend himself in court / regarding any wrong he had done. / Many of the English vassals / stood surety for him. / When they had concluded the case, / […].
48K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 106‑107; Wace, Roman de Rou, l. 1180-1185.
49All the verse (in Latin, English, and French) from this manuscript has been edited: Poems from BL MS Harley 913, “the Kildare Manuscript”, T. Turville-Petre (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press (Early English Text Society; 345), 2015.
50E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 333; see also A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 711.
51“The Walling of New Ross”, l 1-4, in Poems from BL MS Harley 913…, p. 77 English translation by H. Shields, “The Walling of New Ross: A Thirteenth-Century Poem in French”, Long Room, no. 12, 1975, p. 24-33 (28): “I have a desire to versify in French, / if you will be pleased to listen, / for words that are not heard / are not worth a clove of garlic [?]”.
52K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 111. The expression about garlic is also found in a mid-thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman poem intended to help children learn French, Walter de Bibbesworth: Le Tretiz, W. Rothwell (ed.), London, Oxford University Press (Anglo-Norman Text Society, plain texts series; 6), 1990, l. 1081-1082: Mes ne me chaut s’il nascie, / Kar il ne vaut pas un aillie, “But I do not care if he snivels, for he is not worth a garlic peel”.
53“The Walling of New Ross”, l. 128-129; l. 133-135, p. 80-81; English trans. by H. Shields, p. 31: Had you been there to witness it / you would have seen many a lovely lady, / [...] / many a good well-smocked gown, / many a fair-skinned rosy wife [?]. / Never in any land where I have been did I see so many fine ladies in a fosse.
54T. Turville-Petre, England the Nation. Language, Literature, and National Identity, 1290-1340, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996, p. 160‑161.
55E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 333; A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 710.
56K. V. Sinclair, “The Walling of New Ross: An Anglo-Norman Satirical dit”, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, vol. 105, no. 3, 1995, p. 240‑280 (270).
57K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 125.
58"The Walling of New Ross", l. 200–201, 214, p. 82-83; English trans. by H. Shields, p. 33.
59A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 719.
60E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 332‑333.
61K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 128.
62Chartularies of St Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, with the Register of its House at Dunbrody, and Annals of Ireland, J. T. Gilbert (ed.), London, Longman, 1884, vol. 2, p. 364: “the offensive words which Lord Arnold had spoken, calling him ‘Rhymer’” (my translation).
63K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 130.
64E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 339.
65A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 711.
66E. Curtis, “The Spoken Languages of Medieval Ireland”, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol. 8, no. 8, 1919, p. 253‑254 (243).
67E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 334.
68A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 713.
69Ibid., p. 715.
70M. D. Legge, “Some Notes on the Roman de Fergus”, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, ser. 3, vol. 27, 1948-1949, p. 163‑172; M. D. Legge, “Sur la genèse du Roman de Fergus”, in Mélanges de linguistique romane et de philologie médiévale offerts à M. Maurice Delbouille, Gembloux, Duculot, 1964, vol. 2, p. 399‑408.
71B. Schmolke-Hasselmann, Der arthurische Versroman von Chrestien bis Froissart. Zur Geschichte einer Gattung, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 1980, p. 208‑222.
72D. D. R Owen, William the Lion, 1143-1214. Kingship and Culture, East Linton, Tuckwell Press, 1997, p. 114‑143.
73Guillaume le Clerc, Fergus of Galloway. Knight of King Arthur, D. D. R Owen (trans.), Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2018, p. VII-VIII.
74W. Calin, The Lily and the Thistle. The French Tradition and the Older Literature of Scotland, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2014, p. 179.
75Ibid., p. 180.
76See N. McGuigan, “Introduction”, in The Battle of Carham. A Thousand Years On, N. McGuigan and A. Woolf (eds.), Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2018, p. 1-32.
77See R. Oram, Domination and Lordship, p. 2, 41, 67, 363.
78Fergus of Galloway…, p. 112, notes to l. 182-199.
79See R.A. McDonald, “Rebels without a Cause? The Relations of Fergus of Galloway and Somerled of Argyll with the Scottish Kings, 1153-1164”, in Alba. Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, E. Cowan et al. (ed), East Linton, Tuckwell Press, 2000, p. 166‑186.
80Fergus of Galloway…, p. 6. See C. Ellis, “Impressions of a Twelfth-Century Maritime Ruler. Somerled: Viking Warrior, Clan Chieftain or Traitor to the Scottish King?”, Northern Studies, vol. 51, 2020, p. 1‑14 (9).
81W. Calin, The Lily and the Thistle…, p. 186.
82Fergus of Galloway…, p. XI.
83M. Wenthe, “Mapping Scottish Identity in the Roman de Fergus”, LATCH, vol. 5, 2012, p. 28‑53 (38).
84Fergus of Galloway…, p. 16.
85Owen advances the argument (which he credits to Linda M. Gowans) that the Galiene of the text, Fergus’s love, derived her uncommon name from the contemporary historical Galiena, whose ancestor Cospatric had been granted the earldom of Northumberland by William the Conqueror; Cospatric’s son of the same name was first earl of Dunbar and Lothian (Fergus of Galloway…, p. 159‑60). Her name is therefore an appropriate choice for the text’s Lothian-based heroine.
86W. Calin, The Lily and the Thistle…, p. 179.
87Ibid
88Fergus of Galloway…, p. 4.
89C. Ellis, “Perceptions of the Slave Trade in Britain and Ireland: ‘Celtic’ and ‘Viking’ Stereotypes”, Quaestio Insularis, vol. 19, 2018, p. 126‑156 (150‑152); R. Toolis, “’Naked and Unarmoured’: A Reassessment of the Role of the Galwegians at the Battle of the Standard”, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, vol. 78, 2004, p. 79‑92.
90M. Wenthe, “Mapping Scottish Identity…”, p. 49.
91Ibid., p. 48.
92A. Bliss and J. Long, “Literature…”, p. 715.
93L. Abrams, “Diaspora and Identity in the Viking Age”, Early Medieval Europe, vol. 20, no. 1, 2012, p. 17‑38 (18, 23, 25, 27, 28, 34); K. Cross, Heirs of the Vikings. History and Identity in Normandy and England, c. 950-c. 1015, Woodbridge, York Medieval Press, 2018.
94The standard recent work being P. Bauduin, Histoire des Vikings. Des invasions à la diaspora, Paris, Tallandier, 2019.
95For Marie Therese Flanagan, 1169 has served as a historiographical divide “between two distinct groups […] between historians of pre-Norman Gaelic Ireland and historians of Anglo-Norman Ireland”: M. T. Flanagan, “Strategies of Lordship in Pre-Norman and Post-Norman Leinster”, in Anglo-Norman Studies XX. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1997, C. Harper-Bill (ed.), Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1998, p. 107‑126 (107). See also the very title of S. Duffy, “Ireland’s Hastings: the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Dublin”, ibid., p. 69‑85.
96L. Abrams, “Early Normandy”, Anglo-Norman Studies XXXV. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2012, D. Bates (ed.), Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2013, p. 45‑64 (46). Fraser McNair argues for an emphasis on Viking heritage after perceived failure of Frankish assimilation: F. McNair, “The Politics of Being Norman in the Reign of Richard the Fearless”, Early Medieval Europe, vol. 23, 2015, p. 308‑328. Vincent Carpentier argues against Scandinavian colonisation suggesting that in reality Vikings made only a passive contribution to the foundation of Normandy: V. Carpentier, “Du mythe colonisateur à l’histoire environnementale des côtes de la Normandie à l’époque viking: l’exemple de l’estuaire de la Dives (France, Calvados), IXe‑XIe siècle”, in Vers l’Orient et vers l’Occident. Regards croisés sur les dynamiques et les transferts culturels des Vikings à la Rous ancienne, P. Bauduin and A. Musin (ed.), Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2014, p. 199‑213 (212).
97P. Wadden, “Some Views of the Normans in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Ireland”, in The English Isles. Cultural transmission and political conflict in Britain and Ireland, 1100-1500, S. Duffy and S. Foran (ed.), Four Courts Presss, Dublin, 2013, p. 13‑36 (21).
98See P. Wadden, “Some Views…”, p. 36; C. Veach, “Conquest and Conquerors”, in The Cambridge History of Ireland. Vol. I: 600-1550, B. Smith (ed.), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018), p. 157‑181 (157).
99See J. Gillingham, “The Beginnings of English Imperialism”, reprinted in The English in the Twelfth Century. Imperialism, National Identity and Political Values, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2000, p. 3‑18 (4‑5).
100L. Abrams, “Diaspora and Identity…”, p. 25.
101E. Mullaly, “Hiberno-Norman Literature…”, p. 333.
102S. Meecham-Jones, “Romance Society…”, p. 80, 90; S. Meecham-Jones, “Introduction”, in Writers of the Reign of Henry II. Twelve Essays, R. Kennedy and S. Meecham-Jones (ed.), New York, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1‑24 (13‑20). Quote from La Geste…, l. 2994, p. 124.
103L. Abrams, “Diaspora and Identity…”, p. 25.
104M. Wenthe, “Mapping Scottish Identity…”, p. 50.
105R. Oram, Domination and Lordship…, p. 231.
106As Judith Jesch notes, there is evidence for Norse poetry associated with the earldom of Orkney down into the thirteenth century and (albeit less securely) perhaps even from the beginning of Scandinavian settlement: J. Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, p. 177.
107K. Busby, French in Medieval Ireland…, p. 2.
Auteur
-
Caitlin Ellis
University of Oslo
ORCID : 0000-0002-7752-6137
IdRef : 276824075
Caitlin Ellis est professeure associée d’histoire médiévale nordique à l’université d’Olso. Elle a auparavant exercé à Reykjavík, Dublin et Stockholm et a enseigné dans les universités de Cambridge, East Anglia, Oxford, Durham et Maynooth. Ses champs de recherche couvrent les mondes vikings et normands, avec un intérêt particulier pour les échanges maritimes et la mémoire culturelle.

Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Les voyages de Gulliver
Mondes lointains ou mondes proches
François Boulaire et Daniel Carey (dir.)
2002
Le Tigre celtique en question
L'Irlande contemporaine : économie, État, société
Catherine Maignant (dir.)
2007
Le processus de création chez les écrivains irlandais contemporains
Jacqueline Genet et Elizabeth Hellegouarc’h (dir.)
1994