Guillaume de Palerme

File:Guillaume de Palerne.jpg

Detail of the frontispiece of a French edition of Guillaume de Palerne (Template:Circa)

Guillaume de PalerneTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp or in modern spelling Palerme ("William of Palerne" or "Palermo") is a French romance poem, later translated into Middle English where it is also known as William and the Werewolf.Template:Sfnp The French verse romance is thought to have been composed anywhere from the late 12th to late 13th century (cf. Template:Section link).Template:Sfnp The verse version in French survives in a single 13th century manuscript (l'Arsenal 6565 olim 178Template:Sfnp).

The prose version of the French romance (created <1535Template:Sfnp) went through early printed editions.Template:Sfnp The edition from Template:Illm of Paris passed through several post-incunabula editions (c. 1550–1590?),Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp into the 17th century.Template:Sfnp

The English poem in alliterative verse, commissioned by Humphrey de Bohun, 6th Earl of Hereford, was written Template:CircaTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp (or more precisely between 1335/6 and 1361) by a poet named William.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp A single surviving manuscript of the English version (dating to the end of the 14th century) is held at King's College, Cambridge.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp The English prose was printed in 1515 by Wynkyn de Worde, even earlier than the printing of the French prose.Template:Sfnp

Textual overview

Dating

The poem's author dedicates the work to "contesse Yolent", who was generally identified as Yolande (1131–1223), daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut), hence the leeway of "mid-1190s to the early 1220s" as the date of composition is ascribed by Template:Illm (who edited the new 1990 edition), this Yolant/Yolande actually having lived to be a Template:Linktext. Past editors and commentators (based on earlier death date of the countess) had ascribed composition before Template:CircaTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn (1194–97 had been given with confidence, with the previous assumption of the countess death occurring in the year 1202 or 1212).

However, this identification of Yolande is not certain,Template:Sfnp and other possible historical figures have been suggested as plausible by Template:Illm,Template:Sfnp who allows for the possibility of Template:Illm aka Yolande de Bourgogne (1247–1280).Template:Sfnp Thus the overall date range is the indefinite end of 12th to the late 13th century.Template:Sfnp

Language

The original French was composed in the Picard dialect,Template:Sfnp by someone active in the Picardy region of northern France and also Île-de-France around Paris.Template:Sfnp

The Oxford English Dictionary has cited the Middle English poem as being the earliest known use of singular "they" in written English.

Irish version

An Irish prose version (with interspersed verse) ("Adventure or Deeds of William") was composed in the 16th century, based on the English prose.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

Plot

File:Madden F. 1832 The ancient English Romance of William and the Werewolf manuscript.png

Facsimile of the first seven lines of the 14th century Middle English translation The Romance of William of Palerne

The romance opens (and returns later) in the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia. The author displays considerable intimacy with the geography of this Norman kingdom.Template:Sfnp

King Embron and his queen Felise have a baby son, which is kidnapped and raised by a kindly wolf who knew the king's brother was aiming to kill the child.Template:Sfnp The wolf was in truth a prince of Spain, transformed by an evil stepmother. The child is discovered one day and adopted by a cowherd as his son "Guillaume".Template:Sfnp He is of great prowess. and draws the notice of the emperor of Rome, who brings Guillaume to court as the valet to his daughter Melior. They fall in love with each other,Template:Sfnp but she struggles with the origins of her valet is unknown.Template:Sfnp And then, his prowess becomes even more renowned after Guillaume is instrumental in defeating the Saxons.Template:Sfnp

Though Melior's love grows stronger, a contingent of the Greek Emperor arrives with the Greek prince's proposal of marriage to the Roman princess. The Roman Emperor (Nathaniel) gives immediate consent. The lovers flee into the woods disguised in bear-skins. The same Spanish prince turned wolf (Guillaume's cousin AlphonseTemplate:Sfnp) appears to the fugitive couple, providing them with food and drink stolen from the clerics and peasants.Template:Sfnp The marriage ceremony had been prepared in Rome, but the bride's disappearance angers the Emperor who orders a search in the woods. The wolf holds the soldiers at bay. But witnesses come forward having seen the bears leave town, and the theft of the bearskins is discovered, thus the ruse unravels. The wolf now takes the lovers on a journey towards Apulia, but at Benevento (Bénévent) along the way they are discovered by miners while taking shelter inside what they mistakenly thought was an abandoned mine or quarry. A posse arrives to capture them, but the wolf diverts attention by carrying off the magistrate's child, and they escape. The wolf has the couple wear deerskin as disguise.Template:Sfnp

The group reaches war-torn Apulia, where Guillaume's sister Florence remains. The invading Spanish king was scheming to marry his witch-wife's son Brandin to Florence. The group cross the Strait of Messina and arrive in Palermo (then capital of the Norman Kingdom of Apulia and SicilyTemplate:Sfnp). The city is at war, defended by King Embron's widow (Guillaume's mother) against the military invasion by the King of Spain (Alphonse's father). When Guillaume arrives in the guise of deer, the Queen realizes this must be the deliverer of their sorrows, but she and her son do not recognize each other,Template:Refn as Guillaume has never known his origin. Guillaume accepts aiding the defense, and asks for armament. Then the king's warhorse BrunsaudebruelTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn is brought to him, which never let any man beside its master ride it, and the horse now recognized Guillaume.Template:Sfnp The benevolent werewolf is disenchanted and marries Guillaume's sister.Template:Sfnp

Analyses

File:Madden F. 1832 The ancient English Romance of William and the Werewolf Frontispiece.png

Engraving from the 1832 first edition of William and the Werewolf with the werewolf protecting an infant

It is taken as a point of incredulity that a couple suited up in bearskin could so easily trick people into thinking they are true bears, without advance training.Template:Refn

Motifs

As Laura A. Hibbard (1924) points out,Template:Sfnp the Guillaume man-wolf seems to follow the formula of the four "Werewolf's Tale" types enumerated by Kittredge, namely the two lais of Bisclavret of Melion, the romance Arthur and Gorlagon and the Irish folktale (Morraha ed. Larminie).<Template:Efn Hibbard argues these parallels to be of a more primitive form than Guillaume.

Whether the similarities outweigh the differences is a point of contention.Template:Sfnp Three of the paralleling tales share the common plot development where the unfaithful wife prevents the werewolf's own ability to revert back to human by stealing his clothes (Bisclavret), magic ring (Melion) or rod (Gorlagon) is a point of similarity with Guillaume.Template:Refn but Philippe Ménard (1984) argues the differences are too many.Template:Sfnp Others feel the list of similitudes are compelling. For example, the werewolf of the primitive legend also exhibits the theme of the werewolf's loyalty to the royal houseTemplate:Sfnp which is shared by Guillaume, alongside several other motifs. The werewolf's attack on his wicked stepmother is something else that corresponds to that of the werewolf on his false wife in Bisclavret and Melion, and Guillaume plays the same role as the king, protecting the werewolf after the attack.Template:Sfnp

The work is also clearly representative of "Romulus-type" story tale where the wolf fosters a human child. This may have developed as a "two-step" formation, a story of an abandoned child rescued by strangers, with the helper animal element added, as Charles W. Dunn argued.Template:Sfnp

Hibbard (1924) was convinced Guillaume could derive from a "Defense of the Child" type, specifically Seven Sages of Rome] (Old French Roman des sept sages) tale or Gesta Romanorum, except told in inverted order.Template:Refn Though Hibbard does not elaborate, Seven Sages of Rome does contain an element much like wolf-as-protector, though it is actually a dog involved.Template:Refn This dog motif actually closely resembles Kittredge's "Werewolf's Tale" of the Irish folktale varietyTemplate:EfnTemplate:Sfnp Hibbard's argument is that "confused reminiscence" (presumably including the guard dog element) will add up to be the Guillaume romance.Template:Sfnp

The love of Guillaume and Melior, though presented as classical courtly love, ends in marriage and children—a deviation from the original formulation of courtly love that grew common in romances of this era.

The warhorse recognizing its master Guillaume after the many years of absence is likened to Ulysses's faithful dog Argos.Template:Sfnp Hibbard (1924) comments that it is rather implausible that a horse should remember Guillaume who had been kidnapped so young as an infant.Template:Sfnp

References

Bibliography

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

• Template:Cite thesis (Reprinted in Kölbing, Eugen. ed. (1881) Englische Studien 4, p. 196ff)

Texts

(French version)

(Middle English version)

• Bunt, Gerrit H.V., William of Palerne, An Electronic Edition.

• copy @ Hathi Trust; PDF copy @ Internet Archive

External links

• Translators' difficulties
• William of Palerne (William and the Werewolf), translated and retold in Modern English prose by Richard Scott-Robinson.
• First 1066 lines of the original Middle English poem at the Poetry Foundation
• 14th century manuscript of the Middle English poem, Cambridge, King's College, 13
• Article about the Middle English poem and its manuscript