Arthur's Embarkation for Gaul in a Fresh Translation of Wace's "Roman de Brut"
2006; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 46; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2165-7599
Autores Tópico(s)Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
ResumoJUST seven years after the appearance of Judith Weiss's edition and translation of Le Roman de Brut, the Jerseyman Wace's Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, we have a translation by Arthur Wayne Glowka, Le Roman de Brut: The French Book of Brutus, published in 2005 under the aegis of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The Arthurian portion of the chronicle has been favored by editors and readers, and has been the object of separate editions and translations. (1) The rather different orientation given Arthurian matter in Chretien's romances has meant that Geoffrey, Wace, and Wace's Middle English adaptor Layamon have been closely scrutinized in order to determine what was changed and how, what the various debts are to the earlier Welsh and North British tradition, and so on. But Wace is an author worth studying in his own right, as a number of recent studies, devoted in particular to the more historical Roman de Rou, the chronicle of the dukes of Normandy, attest. (2) Wace is at his most interesting when he breaks free of his Latin models and displays his own intimate knowledge of mid-twelfth century realia, not least as concerns ships and sailing. In an embarkation scene whose richness of detail is quite unrepresented in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace shows Arthur's fleet being readied and setting sail for the invasion of Gaul and a confrontation with Roman forces (Arnold ed., vv. 11,190-238). No fewer than 30 nominal terms associated with ships and sailing are employed in discrete fashion and another 14 verbs are deployed in meanings specific to nautical activity. We should imagine these vessels to have been on the model of those depicted in the Bayeux embroidery from the last decade of the eleventh century and these in turn have antecedents in the Viking-era ships of Scandinavia. The recovery and restoration of a considerable number of eleventh- and twelfth-century Scandinavian wrecks, and replica-building and experimental sailing, not least by the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, have greatly enhanced our understanding of medieval ship-building and sea-faring, as have, generally speaking, methodical advances in underwater archaeology and maritime studies. It will then be of considerable interest to determine to what extent these advances in knowledge have informed the present translation. Arnold's edited text and Glowka's translation are here given in parallel with the verses renumbered for ease of reference. Puis vint passer a Suthamtune; 1 To Southampton he came for La furent les nefs amenees passage; E les maisnees assemblees. The ships were brought into Mult veissiez nes aturner, that place And there the companies were joined. You would have seen ships being fixed; Nes atachier, nes aancrer, 5 Ships being tied; ships being Nes assechier e nes floter, anchored; Nes cheviller e nes cloer, Ships being dried; ships being Funains estendre, maz drecier, floated; Punz mettre fors e nes chargier, Ships being pegged; ships being nailed; Cords being stretched; masts being fitted; Gangplanks set out; ships being loaded; Helmes, escuz, halbercs porter, 10 Helmets, shields, and hauberks Lances drecier, chevals tirer, carried; Chevaliers e servanz entrer, Lances prepared and horses E l'un ami l'altre apeler. pulled; Mult se vunt entresaluant Knights and servants going in; And one friend calling to the other. …
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