Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language and developed during the period of 1066–1204, as the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm.
Introduction The Norman language was introduced to England during the rule of William the Conqueror. Following the Norman Conquest, the Norman language was spoken by England's nobility. Similar to Latin, the Anglo-Norman language (the variety of Norman used in England) was deemed the literary language of England in the 12th century, and it was in use at the court until the 14th century. During the reign of Henry IV, English became the native tongue of the kings of England. The language underwent specific changes which distinguished it from the Old Norman spoken in Normandy, from which specific pronunciation rules are inferred. An Anglo-Norman variety of French continued to exist into the early 15th century, though it was in decline from at least the 1360s when it was deemed insufficiently well-known to be used for pleading in court. Great prestige continued to be enjoyed by the French language, however; in the late 14th century, the author of the Manière de language called French:
...le plus bel et le plus gracious language et plus noble parler, apres latin d'escole, qui soit au monde et de touz genz mieulx prisée et amée que nul autre (quar Dieux le fist si douce et amiable principalement à l'oneur et loenge de luy mesmes. Et pour ce il peut comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grand doulceur et biaultée d'icel),
which means:
...The most beautiful and gracious language, and the noblest speech in the world, after school Latin; better prized and loved by all people over any other (for God made it so sweet and lovable mainly for his honor and praise. And it can thus be compared to the angels' speech in heaven for its great sweetness and beauty).
Anglo-Norman literature flourished from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the first quarter of the 13th century. This period's end coincides with the French provinces' loss to Philip Augustus. It is more accurately denoted by the appearance of the history of William the Marshal in 1225 (published for the Société de l'histoire de France, by Paul Meyer, three vols., 1891–1901). Its importance was sustained by the protection accorded by Henry II of England to the writers of his day.
"He could speak French and Latin well and is said to have known something of every tongue between the Bay of Biscay and the Jordan. He was probably the most highly educated sovereign of his day, and amid all his busy, active life, he never lost interest in literature and intellectual discussion; his hands were never empty; they always had either a bow or a book".
Wace and Benoît de Sainte-More compiled their histories at his bidding, and it was in his reign that Marie de France composed her poems. An event with which he was closely connected, viz., the murder of Thomas Becket, gave rise to a whole series of writings, some of which are purely Anglo-Norman. In his time appeared the works of Béroul and Thomas of Britain, respectively, and some of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Norman romans d'aventure. These works can be grouped into narrative, didactic, hagiographic, lyric, satiric, and dramatic literature.
Fiction
Epic and romance The French epic came over to England at an early date. It is believed that the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) was sung at the battle of Hastings, and some Anglo-Norman manuscripts of chansons de geste have survived to this day. The Pélérinage de Charlemagne (Eduard Koschwitz, Altfranzösische Bibliothek, 1883) for instance, is preserved only in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of the British Museum (now lost), although the author was certainly a Parisian. The oldest extant manuscript of the Chanson de Roland is also a manuscript written in England. Amongst the others of less importance is La Chançun de Willame, the MS. of which has (June 1903) been published in facsimile at Chiswick. cite cf. Paul Meyer, Romania, xxxii. 597–618.
Although the diffusion of epic poetry in England did not actually inspire any new chansons de geste, it developed the taste for this class of literature, and the epic style in which the tales of the Romance of Horn, of Bovon de Hampton, of Gui de Warewic, of Waldef, and of Fulk Fitz Warine are treated, is partly due to this circumstance. Although the last of these works is available only in a prose version, it contains unmistakable signs of a previous poetic form; it is a rendering into prose similar to the transformations undergone by many of the chansons de geste.
The inter-influence of French and English literature can be studied in the Breton romances and the romans d'aventure even better than in the epic poetry of the period. The Lay of Orpheus is known only through an English imitation, Sir Orfeo; the Lai du cor was composed by Robert Biket, an Anglo-Norman poet of the 12th century (Wulff, Lund, 1888). The Lais of Marie de France were written in England, and the greater number of the romances composing the matière de Bretagne seem to have passed from England to France through the medium of Anglo-Norman.
The legends of Merlin and Arthur, collected in the Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth (died c. 1154), passed into French literature, bearing the character which the bishop of St Asaph had stamped upon them. Robert de Boron (c. 1215) took the subject of his Merlin (published by G. Paris and J. Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols., Société des anciens textes français) from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Finally, regarded by many as the most celebrated love-legend of the Middle Ages, the story of Tristan and Iseult, was created into literary works by two authors, Béroul and Thomas, the first of whom is probably, and the second certainly, Anglo-Norman (see Arthurian legend; Holy Grail; Tristan). One Folie Tristan was composed in England in the last years of the 12th century. (For all these questions, see Soc. des Anc. Textes, Ernest Muret's ed. 1903; Joseph Bédier's ed. 1902–1905).
Hugh of Rutland wrote two romans d'aventure: Ipomedon (published by Eugen Kölbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889), which relates the adventures of a knight who married the young duchess of Calabria, niece of King Meleager of Sicily, but was loved by Medea, the king's wife, and Protheselaus (published by Kluckow, Göttingen, 1924), written around 1185, which is the sequel to Ipomedon. It deals with the wars and subsequent reconciliation between Ipomedon's sons, Daunus, the elder, lord of Apulia, and Protesilaus, the younger, lord of Calabria. Protesilaus defeats Daunus, who had expelled him from Calabria. He saves his brother's life, is reinvested with the dukedom of Calabria, and, after the death of Daunus, succeeds Apulia. He subsequently marries Medea, King Meleager's widow, who had helped him seize Apulia, having transferred her affection for Ipomedon to his younger son (cf. Ward, Cat. of Rom., i. 728).
Amadas et Idoine, existing only in a continental version, was also the work of an Anglo-Norman author. Gaston Paris has proved that the original was composed in England in the 12th century (An English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall in Honour of his Seventy-fifth Birthday, Oxford, 1901, 386–394).
The Anglo-Norman poem on the Life of Richard Coeur de Lion is lost, and an English version only has been preserved. About 1250 Eustace of Kent introduced into England the roman d'Alexandre in his Roman de toute chevalerie, many passages of which have been imitated in one of the oldest English poems on Alexander, namely, King Alisaunder (P. Meyer, Alexandre le grand, Paris, 1886, ii. 273, and Weber, Metrical Romances, Edinburgh).
Fabliaux and fables
In spite of the popularity enjoyed by this class of literature, there are only some half-dozen fabliaux written in England: Le chevalier à la corbeille, Le chevalier qui faisait parler les muets, Le chevalier, sa dame et un clerc, Les trois dames, La gageure, Le prêtre d'Alison, La bourgeoise d'Orléans (Bédier, Les Fabliaux, 1895).
One of the most popular medieval collections of fables was that written by Marie de France, which she claimed to have translated from King Alfred. In the Contes moralisés, written by Nicole Bozon shortly before 1320 (Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889), a few fables bear a strong resemblance to those of Marie de France.
Historiography
Of arguably greater importance are the works which constitute Anglo-Norman historiography. The first Anglo-Norman historiographer, Geoffrey Gaimar, wrote his Estoire des Engleis (between 1147 and 1151) for Dame Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert (The Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle, Hardy and Martin, i. ii., London, 1888). This history comprised a first part (now lost), which was merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, preceded by a history of the Trojan War, and a second part which proceeds as far as the death of William Rufus. For this second part, he consulted historical documents, but stopped at the year 1087, when first-hand information was more readily available. Similarly, Wace in his Roman de Rou (ed. Anthony Holden, Paris, 1970–1973), written 1160–1174, stops at the battle of Tinchebray in 1106. His Brut or Geste des Bretons (Le Roux de Lincy, 1836–1838, 2 vols.), written in 1155, is a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
"Wace," says Gaston Paris, speaking of the Roman de Rou, "traduit en les abrégeant des historiens latins que nous possédons; mais çà et là il ajoute soit des contes populaires, par exemple sur Richard 1er, sur Robert 1er, soit des particularités qu'il savait par tradition (sur ce même Robert le magnifique, sur l'expédition de Guillaume, &c.) et qui donnent à son oeuvre un réel intérêt historique. Sa langue est excellente; son style clair, serré, simple, d'ordinaire assez monotone, vous plaît par sa saveur archaïque et quelquefois par une certaine grâce et une certaine malice".
The History of the Dukes of Normandy by Benoît de Sainte-More is based on the work of Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II in approximately 1170, recording events up to 1135 (ed. by Francisque Michel, 1836–1844, Collection de documents inédits, 3 vols.). Its 43,000 lines are the work of a romancier courtois, who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has described in his romance of Troy, rather than serious historiography. Other works, however, give more trustworthy information. For example, the anonymous poem on Henry II's Conquest of Ireland in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1837), together with the Expugnatio Hibernica of Gerald of Wales, constitutes the chief authority on this subject. The Conquest of Ireland was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen, under the title of The Song of Dermot and the Earl (Oxford, Clarendon Press). Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174, wrote an account of the wars between Henry II, his sons, William the Lion of Scotland and Louis VII, in 1173 and 1174 (Chronicle of the reigns of Stephen ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel, London, 1886, pp. 202–307).