First English translation of an important twelfth-century romance, giving an account of the Trojan war and its consequences.
Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award
Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s
Roman de Troie, dating to around 1165, is, along with the
Roman de Thèbes and the
Roman d’Eneas, one of the three’romances of antiquity’ (
romans d’antiquité). These romances launched the plots, themes and structures of the genre, then blossoming in the hands of authors such as Chrétien de Troyes. As an account of the Trojan War, Benoît’s work is of necessity a poem about war and its causes, how it was fought and what its consequences were for the combatants. But the author’s choice of the octosyllabic rhyming couplet, his fondness for description, his abilityto recount the intensity of personal struggles, and above all his fascination with the trials and tribulations of Love, which affect some of the work’s most prominent warriors (among them Paris and his love for Helen, and Troilusand his love for Briseida), all combine to fashion this romance – in which events from long ago are presented as a reflection of the poet’s own feudal and courtly worlds.
This translation, the first into English, aims to bring the poem and the author to a wider audience. It is accompanied by an introduction and notes.
Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; Douglas Kelly is Emeritus Professor of French and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Table of Content
Introduction
A Note on the Translation
Outline of the
Roman de Troie
Prologue
Part One: Causes and Effects
Part Two: The Trojan War
Part Three: Settling Scores and Surviving
Appendix I: Notes on Some Commons Words in the
Roman de Troie
Appendix II: Manuscripts of the
Roman de Troie
Bibliography
About the author
DOUGLAS KELLY is Emeritus Professor of French and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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