Introduction
The Manuscript
The
Oxford, Bodleian, Douce 236 manuscript of ‘Arthour and Merlin’ survives only as
a fragment of text with many missing folios. The text was copied during the
late fourteenth century and is written in an Anglicana hand. A reference to
Tolpuddle in Dorset can be found in a seventeenth century hand in the margin of
folio 14 recto of the manuscript, but this evidence is not sufficient to allow
the text to be localised to this county. Although there are clearly spellings
that indicate a southwestern origin for the text, Macrae-Gibson, (E.E.T.S.
edition (269.vol2) ‘Of Arthour & Merlin’), suggests that both the Douce 236
text and the Hale MS 150, Lincoln’s Inn Library, London version were copied
from a western exemplar. Macrae-Gibson points out that there are also a number
of eastern spellings and concludes that the text was copied by a London scribe,
who was working from a western exemplar.
The Story
‘Arthour
and Merlin’ draws on the earliest history of the English nation, Welsh
mythology and biblical traditions. The initial episode of the Douce 236 text
represents the events of the Germanic invasion of Britain from the fourth to
seventh century. The Celtic king Vortigern becomes the treacherous British
retainer, Fortiger. The Jutish invader Hengist becomes the Danish king Amygis.
King Arthur’s father, Uther, and his brother, Pendragon, are driven to
southwestern France by Fortiger and Amygis, but return to take their revenge.
The Transcription
All abbreviations have been
expanded in the transcription and expansions are indicated using italics.
Originally, I tried to find a script that would allow me to represent the
original abbreviated graphs, however, it soon became apparent that this would
have to involve the reader downloading and installing scripts. The medieval
letter yogh is represented using the number ‘3’ throughout the transcription.
The Translation
The
translation of the Douce 236 ‘Arthour and Merlin’ is not a literal one,
although I have tried to keep as close as possible to the original meaning. In
order to make the text easier to read, I have altered the grammar of the
original poem - which tends towards analysis - removing many occurrences of the
conjunction ‘and’. In addition to this, I have also removed many of the
semantically empty tags that occur in the poem meaning ‘straight away’ or
‘quickly’, ‘truly’ or ‘in truth’, as these are features or oral composition,
used to help the metre or the poem, but which sound odd and repetitive in a
modern translation.
Thankyou to
the Bodleian library for their kind permission to make this transcription and
translation of the Douce 236 manuscript available on the Web.
Dr Eleanor Lawson, Phonetics Lab, University of Oxford, 41 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JF.