Sir Orfeo: A Hero's Introduction

A Mini-Web Project by Rebecca Lawson

Sir Orfeo: First Page First Page: Close Up

Images from The National Library of Scotland: The Auchinleck Manuscript website.

Manuscript Shelfmark: NLS Adv MS 19.2.1, Sir Orfeo: ff.299A stub-303ra




<--Full-page facsimile of the first page of Sir Orfeo in the Auchinleck MS.




Close-up of facsimile, centering on passage analysed here.-->



The Auchinleck Manuscript: The Physical Reality of the Sir Orfeo Text

The text of Sir Orfeo I will be discussing is found in The Auchinleck Manuscript, an anthology of Medieval Literature dating from approximately 1330 to 1340. This date is partially determined by an in-manuscript reference to the death of King Edward II followed by a prayer for 'the young King Edward' determined to be Edward III, who ascended the throne in 1327.(1) The author of Sir Orfeo is undetermined, and no immediate source for the poem is known,(2) although it has obvious source material in Greek myth, and the poem itself claims to be a 'Breton Lay', meaning a song-story from the heavily Celtic region of France known as Brittany.

The current binding on the Auchinleck Manuscript is the third binding the manuscript has undergone. The folios measure 250 x 190 mm, but are considered to be significantly trimmed from their original dimensions.(1) In addition, it is important to note that many pages may have gone missing since the ‘original’, as at least ten folios have been discovered detached from the manuscript.(1) The manuscript has also fallen victim to so-called "Miniature Hunters", individuals who would cut out the valuable and decorative miniatures from manuscripts, either by cutting out the whole page, or carefully snipping out just the miniature itself. Sadly there are now only 5 miniatures in the entire manuscript,(1) whereas the original was probably quite beautifully decorated. This means that there are no miniatures associated with Sir Orfeo . There are, however, other things to note about the manuscript as it relates to Sir Orfeo in particular, which is where we will now turn our attention.

When referenced against other manuscripts containing other versions of Sir Orfeo , most scholars agree that some pages are missing. For example, the primary text of Sir Orfeo used for this analysis is from Sir Orfeo eds. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, which is based on the Auchinleck Manuscript. However further investigation reveals that the Auchinleck Manuscript, or at least what we have of it, actually begins on line 39 of Laskaya and Salisbury's edition. It is this 'beginning' of the poem I am primarily interested in for this project.

When closely observing a facsimile of the page, (see .jpg above), it is interesting to note that the first letter of every line is set a space apart from the rest of the line, even though this often means breaking up a word. The effect which occurs is something like this:
R   oses are red,
V   iolets are blue,
S   ugar is sweet,
etc. As you can see, it is quite unusual to our modern eyes. The "set-apart" letters are also embellished in red ink, which further distinguishes them from the rest of the text. Other embellishments on the page include a blue symbol next to the "set-apart" O that begins the first line "Orfeo was a king,". It appears to serve as some sort of "paragraph" indicator. Further down there are two more of these "paragraph"-indicators, both in red, as well as an ornate letter "B" beginning the line "Bifel so in the comessing of May". Beyond this, there very little embellishment. In regards to punctuation, however, every line ends with a dot, most likely to indicate the line break of the poem. A modern reader may feel that the spatial break of the line is enough; however the scribe must have felt that additional indicators were needed, perhaps as a hold-over from a more auditory and less textually visual/spatial culture.


References:
(1)- The Auchinleck Manuscript Website
(2)- Sir Orfeo: Introduction
See detailed references at end.



Sir Orfeo: A Hero’s Introduction ~ Passage Analysis

The Auchinleck Manuscript contains a wide variety of literature; from sermons on the Seven Deadly Sins and the lives of various Saints, to secular Medieval lays like Sir Orfeo and Sir Tristram. It is interesting that a lay like Sir Orfeo would be included in such a seemingly religious text, as it does not appear to have an implicit or explicit religious value. Its value instead lies in simply being a good story; as the end of lay declares, “Gode is the lay, swete is the note” (602). That said, this does not mean that the social and religious climate in which it was written did not have an effect on the text. We will discover, as we read the “introduction” of the character of Sir Orfeo (lines 39-46), that despite being a secular lay, contemporary society and religion still had an effect on how the tale was told and how characters were represented.

The text begins with a dramatic statement:

“Orfeo was a king,
In Inglond an heighe lording,” (l. 39-40)
This serves as the first introduction to Sir Orfeo’s character in the Auchinleck Manuscript. Other manuscripts contain verses previous to this one detailing Sir Orfeo’s prodigious talent and love of harping (l.25-38), but the Auchinleck Manuscript begins here, with the declaration of Sir Orfeo’s position in medieval society. He is a king, the text tells us. Most modern readers would assume this means the king of a country, however the text continues with “In Inglond an heighe lording,” (l.40). We now have a location for our hero: “Inglond” that is, England. But the modern reader should not assume this makes Sir Orfeo the King of England. Rather, he is a “heighe lording”, a lord of a certain area or city, most likely a vassal to a higher King.

After establishing the main character’s social position, the text continues to describe him. The next two lines lay out his personal virtues.

“A stalworth man and hardi bo;
Large and curteyes he was also.” (l. 41-42)
With little effort the modern reader can understand what the text is getting at in praising these aspects of Sir Orfeo. ‘Stalworth’, and older spelling of ‘stalwart’ praises Sir Orfeo’s solid bravery, ‘hardi’ also refers to bravery, but also carries the connotations of physical solidness and strength. All are images that conjure up the traditional Anglo-Saxon ideal of manhood. The author wants the audience to gain an immediate perception of Sir Orfeo as an embodiment of strength and bravery, both qualities desired and expected in any ‘king’ or ‘heighe lording’. We are to have an image of Sir Orfeo as a physically capable hero, despite the fact that most if not all of Sir Orfeo’s exploits in the text are accomplished through cleverness, trickery, and his gift with the harp rather than brute strength. Strength and bravery were qualities that a good lord or knight was expected to have in the social climate of the time. The second line “Large and curteyes he was also”, is perhaps even more revealing. ‘Largess’ and ‘courtesy’ were two of the cardinal knightly virtues in the middle ages. To be “large” was to be generous, both with those who ruled over you and those you ruled over. These ideas of generosity were cornerstone of feudal culture, and they were based on a long tradition of comitatus between rulers and vassals. Additionally, to have ‘courtesy’ in the middle ages was more than to simply be polite. It implied an ethical way of living and a nobility of manner and breeding that were supposed to distinguish the upper classes. By combining all of these virtues in the person of Sir Orfeo, the author desires us to see him as the ideal medieval hero.

The next few lines are perhaps the most interesting in the passage, considering the setting (England) we have been given.

“His fader was comen of King Pluto,
And his moder of King Juno,
That sum time were as godes yhold
For adventours that thai dede and told.” (l. 43-46)
Someone familiar with Roman and Greek myth may be surprised to see the names of two of major Roman gods appear in a Breton lay. This isn’t so surprising when one realizes that the origins of Sir Orfeo come directly from Greek and Roman myths about Orpheus, a strikingly similar figure. The author is further connecting the lay to these origins in this passage, however this is not a simple acknowledgement of source material. Instead, the author is actually casting a “re-imagining” on the original myths by connecting them with his tale and changing the details slightly.
As befitting the ideal medieval hero, Sir Orfeo is given an illustrious lineage in this passage, a godly lineage even. However, because the lay was written in a strictly Christian society, it is unacceptable to regard Roman deities as ‘true’ gods. So the author comes up with an ingenious solution. Instead of calling Pluto and Juno ‘gods’, he calls them ‘Kings’. He identifies them both as Kings, and therefore male, in spite of the fact that the original Juno was a goddess, not a god. This is most likely because a lineage including two kings was far more impressive in the medieval mind than one containing one king and one queen. Through this ‘lineage’, the author acknowledges the Orfeo’s pagan origins but twists them to be more acceptable to a Christian worldview. By saying that “sum time were they as godes yhold” (l.45), he implies that yes, people used to believe they were gods, but he is now asserting their ‘true’ identities as great kings who were simply thought deific because of the “adventours that thai dede and told” (l. 46). This was these pagan deities are suitably altered to be included in the lineage of a properly Christianized Orpheus (Orfeo).

The last four lines of the passage are a continuation of this altering of the pagan myth to make it fit a more familiar and more Christian setting.

“This king sojournd in Traciens,
That was a cite of noble defens –
For Winchester was cleped tho
Traciens, withouten no.” (l. 47-50)
‘Traciens’ is the medieval spelling for the Greek city of Thrace, home of the mythic Orpheus. The author once again connects his version of Orfeo to its pagan Orpheus roots, but once again twists it to suit a more contemporary setting. “The king sojournd in Traciens,” the text says, ‘sojournd’ here having the meaning of ‘lived’ or ‘ruled’. The author praises the city, and then immediately goes on to clear up any “misunderstandings” least the readers/listeners think we are in Greece. Winchester, a city in southern England, is where he insists we actually are, and that Winchester was simply “cleped” or called Traciens. The “withouten no” is an emphatic insistence, perhaps the author was sensing he may be straining the belief of his audience at this point.

It is at this point the lay effectively ends its introduction to the hero Sir Orfeo. It continues with the introduction of Heurodis, Orfeo’s queen, and then segues into the action of the story itself. As you can see from the close-up image of the manuscript above, however, even the scribe seemed to think that line 50 ended some significant portion of text, as he marks it with one of the red paragraph markers discussed earlier. We shall take our cue from him, and end our analysis here.


Note: All line citations from Sir Orfeo, eds. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Medieval Institute Publications, 1995. See bottom for complete references.



Disclaimer and Resources:
I, Rebecca Lawson am responsible for the layout and content of this site, and have made appropriate citations for research. No one is to duplicate the content here without proper attribution.
This is an assignment for ENGL 630ML with Professor Scott Kleinman at California State University Northridge.
I would like to thank the following resources:
Dr. Scott Kleinman
The Auchinleck Manuscript Website eds David Burnley and Alison Wiggins, National Library of Scotland, 5 July 2003. Accessed on 30 September 2007.
Sir Orfeo eds. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995
and
Sir Orfeo: Introduction eds. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury , Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995