''Partonopeus de Blois'' is a long poem in the
chivalric romance
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric k ...
genre written in
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
in the 1170s or 1180s. Its author is unknown, but some scholarly studies indicate
Denis Pyramus
Denis Pyramus was a Benedictine monk of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey and an Anglo-Norman poet who was active in the second part of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century.
In 1150 he wrote '' Parthénopéus de Blois'', a chivalric tale (romance) ...
.
Plot
Partonopeus is represented as having lived in the days of
Clovis, king of France. He is seized while hunting in the
Ardennes
The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...
, and carried off to a mysterious castle with invisible inhabitants. Melior, empress of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, comes to him at night, stipulating that he must not attempt to see her for two and a half years. After successfully fighting against the Saracens, led by Sornegur, king of Denmark, he returns to the castle, armed with an enchanted lantern that breaks the spell. The consequent misfortunes have a happy ending.
The tale had a continuation giving the adventures of Fursin or Anselet, the nephew of Sornegur.
Analogues
The tale is in essence a variant of the legend of
Cupid and Psyche.
["10.Zwei Parallelen zum Psychemärchen." In: Zinzow, Adolf. ]
Psyche und Eros: ein milesisches märchen in der darstellung und auffassung des Apulejus beleuchtet und auf seinen mythologischen zusammenhang, gehalt und ursprung zurückgeführt
'. Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. 1888. pp. 306-321. The name Partonopeus (or Partonopex) is generally assumed to be a corruption of
Parthenopaeus
In Greek mythology, Parthenopaeus or Parthenopaios (; Ancient Greek: Παρθενοπαῖος, ''Parthenopaîos'') was one of the Seven against Thebes, a native of Arcadia, described as young and outstandingly good-looking, but at the same time ...
, one of the
Seven against Thebes
The Seven against Thebes were seven champions in Greek mythology who made war on Thebes. They were chosen by Adrastus, the king of Argos, to be the captains of an Argive army whose purpose was to restore Oedipus' son Polynices to the Theban th ...
, but it has been suggested that the word might be linked to Partenay, due to the points of similarity between this story and the legend of
Melusine (see
Jean d'Arras) attached to the house of
Lusignan, as the lords of these two places were connected. The story has also been compared with the
Arthurian story of ''
Le Bel Inconnu
Sir Gingalain (Guinglain, Gingalin, Gliglois, Wigalois, etc.), also known as Le Bel Inconnu, or The Fair Unknown, is a character from Arthurian legend whose exploits are recorded in numerous versions of a popular medieval romance. His nickname di ...
''.
The romance, or a subsequent version of it, was translated into Old Norse as ''
Partalópa saga''.
References
*
Bibliography
*Edition by G. A. Crapelet, with an introduction by A. C. M. Robert, as ''Partonopeus de Blois'' (2 vols., 1834)
Vol. 1 Gallica.
* English ''Partonope of Blois'', by W. E. Buckley for the
Roxburghe Club
The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom.
Origins
The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 days ...
(London, 1862), and another fragment for the same learned society in 1873
* German ''Partono pier und Melior of Konrad von Wurzburg'' by K. Bartsch (Vienna, 1871)
* ''Icelandic Partalpa saga'' by O. Klockhoff in ''Upsala Universities Arsskrift'' for 1887.
* H. L. Ward, ''Catalogue of Romances'', (i. 689ff)
*
Eugen Kölbing Eugen Kölbing (1846-1899) was a German philologist, a specialist in the study of Nordic, English, and French language and literature and comparative linguistics and literature.
Academic career
Eugen Kölbing studied Philosophy, Classical Philolo ...
, ''Die verschiedenen Gestaltungen der Partonopeus-Sage'', in German. Stud. (vol. ii., Vienna, 1875), in which the Icelandic version is compared with the Danish poem ''Persenober'' and the Spanish prose ''IIiitoria del conde Partinobles''
* E. Pfeiffer," Über die MSS des Part. de Blois" in Stengels Ausg. in ''Abh. vom phil.'' (No. 25, Marburg, 1885).
Further reading
* Brown, Thomas H. "The Relationship Between "Partonopeus De Blois" and the Cupid and Psyche Tradition". In: ''Brigham Young University Studies'' 5, no. 3/4 (1964): 193-202. www.jstor.org/stable/43040140.
* Cupane, Carolina. “Intercultural Encounters in the Late Byzantine Vernacular Romance”. In: ''Reading the Late Byzantine Romance: A Handbook''. Edited by Adam J. Goldwyn and Ingela Nilsson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. pp. 40-68. doi:10.1017/9781108163767.003.
* McBride, Melanie. 2018. “Covert Ops: Female Empowerment in the Twelfth-Century French Partonopeu de Blois.” ''Pacific Coast Philology'' 53 (1): 5–22.
* Uri, S.P. "Some remarks on Partonopeus de Blois". In: ''Neophilologus'' 37 (1953): 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01514403
External links
An online editiongallica.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Blois, Partonopeus
Medieval literature
Literary characters
Works of unknown authorship