'Smothe and plain and al grene': Sir Orfeo's Flat Fairyland
2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 58; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/notesj/gjq252
ISSN1471-6941
Autores Tópico(s)Linguistics and language evolution
ResumoSIR ORFEO has proven to be an attractive poem to scholars in part because of its wealth of detail: the mysterious ‘ympe-tree’, the fairy king’s crystal castle, and the gruesome assembly of mangled bodies have all captivated scholarly attention for decades.1 Given the poem’s richness, it is no surprise that at least one detail among so many seems to have escaped notice. That detail is the flatness of fairyland, apparent to Orfeo at the moment he emerges from the passage through the mountain: When he was in the roche y-go, Wele thre mile other mo, He com into a fair cuntray As bright so sonne on somers day, Smothe and plain and al grene; Hille no dale nas ther non y-sene. (349–54)2 Illic planities tractus diffundit apertos, Nec tumulus crescit, nec cava vallis hiat, Sed nostros montes, quorum iuga celsa putantur, Per bis sex ulnas eminet ille locus. (5–8)5 There a plain pours forth open tracts; no hill rises up, and no hollow valley gapes. But that place is 12 ulnae higher than those mountains whose peaks we think high. Is þæt æþele lond blostmum geblowen. Beorgas þær ne muntas steape ne stondað, ne stanclifu heah hlifiað, swa her mid us, ne dene ne dalu ne dunscrafu, hlæwas ne hlincas, ne þær hleonað oo unsmeþes wiht, ac se æþela feld wridað under wolcnum, wynnum geblowen. (20–7)6 That noble land is covered with blossoms. Neither hills nor steep mountains stand there, nor do stone cliffs tower on high (as they do here among us). There is neither hill nor valley nor dark cave, mound nor ridge, nor does any iota of unsmoothness shelter there, but the noble plain flourishes under the heavens, covered in joys. Bid comard a sliab fri fán, níba bec int athchomsán; bid clár cosmail in domun conid ressed oenubull. 9 The mountain will be as high as the hollow; there will be a great complaint; the world will be a level expanse so that a single apple might roll across it.
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