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Reading Jaufré: Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger

Reading Jaufré: Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger c aroline D. e ckhar Dt Reading Jaufré Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger Long before Don Quixote tilted at his misinterpreted windmill, King Arthur also had a misadventure at a mill, though of a die ff rent sort.1 In one of the lesser-known texts of medieval courtly literature, the anonymous twelfth- or thirteenth-century Occitan romance called Jaufré,2 the opening episode presents a bizarre confron- tation between Arthur and an animal resembling a strange, shaggy, and oversized bull. i Th s bestia [beast], which the king encounters at a mill in the forest of Bro- celiande near his palace, does not conduct itself like a respectable monster, for de- spite its enlarged size and disturbing appearance, it behaves like a placid bovine, intent only on munching grain. However, when the bae ffl d Arthur grabs its horns to push it away, he n fi ds that it is apparently equipped with the medieval equivalent of superglue, for the king’s hands stick fast. e Th beast then carries the captured king, suspended from its horns, out of the mill and away to the edge of a precipice, where it dangles him over the void. Let us leave him there http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Comparatist University of North Carolina Press

Reading Jaufré: Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger

Eckhardt, Caroline D.,
The Comparatist , Volume 33 – Jun 12, 2009
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 the Southern Comparative Literature Association.
ISSN
1559-0887

Abstract

c aroline D. e ckhar Dt Reading Jaufré Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger Long before Don Quixote tilted at his misinterpreted windmill, King Arthur also had a misadventure at a mill, though of a die ff rent sort.1 In one of the lesser-known texts of medieval courtly literature, the anonymous twelfth- or thirteenth-century Occitan romance called Jaufré,2 the opening episode presents a bizarre confron- tation between Arthur and an animal resembling a strange, shaggy, and oversized bull. i Th s bestia [beast], which the king encounters at a mill in the forest of Bro- celiande near his palace, does not conduct itself like a respectable monster, for de- spite its enlarged size and disturbing appearance, it behaves like a placid bovine, intent only on munching grain. However, when the bae ffl d Arthur grabs its horns to push it away, he n fi ds that it is apparently equipped with the medieval equivalent of superglue, for the king’s hands stick fast. e Th beast then carries the captured king, suspended from its horns, out of the mill and away to the edge of a precipice, where it dangles him over the void. Let us leave him there

Journal

The Comparatist – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Jun 12, 2009

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