Évolution du personnage épique médiéval sur l’exemple de quelques textes consacrés à Guillaume d’Orange et à Huon de Bordeaux

• Authors: Dorota Pudo
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The author tries to investigate the changes occurring in the medieval epic heroes, concerning both the conception of the personage and the characters’ particular features. In the case of Guillaume d’Orange, the major differences between the epic poems devoted to him (in the 12th and 13th centuries) and the prose adaptation (15th century) are related to a few very important issues. The hero’s activity is less and less concentrated on the fight against the pagans and the protection of the royal power, thus enabling him to have a more personal motivation, especially love. His feelings are described more directly, and he himself isn’t presented only as a rude warrior any more, but also as a courtly lover, a strategist or a fine orator. The style of the scenes of which he is the protagonist becomes more unified due to the omission of most of the comical fragments involving him. As for Huon, who already in the 13th century poem hardly resembles a traditional epic hero, in the 15th century adaptation he becomes more coherent than in the epic source, which is obtained mainly by his idealization and sublimation. Although the evolution of both heroes reveals some similarities, there are some significant changes as well observed in the literary world regardless of the chronology, which cannot be ignored.

Keywords

PL

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Romanica Cracoviensia
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2008

online

2015-02-04

Contributors

author

Dorota Pudo