Category Archives: Anonymous

Roland: Roland grieves over Oliver

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About the scene and clip:
The performer recounts and acts out Roland’s grief as he weeps over the body of his friend Oliver; a fellow student serves as a human prop.

About the work:
La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) is one of the great masterpieces of French medieval literature. The earliest surviving version of this anonymous epic dates apparently from the late 11th century and is preserved in a famous manuscript now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This classic version—there were numerous others—is composed in laisses (or stanzas) of variable length with ten-syllable lines in assonance (the final vowel is the same within each laisse). Epics like the Roland were originally sung by jongleurs, often with vielle accompaniment. The Roland tells of the Emperor Charlemagne’s great struggle to conquer Spain from the Muslim Infidels. It recounts the betrayal of the French by the traitor, Ganelon, resulting in a great battle at Roncevaux. There, the French rearguard, led by Roland, defeats the Moors, but all the great French knights—the twelve peers—die. Charlemagne avenges the peers in two great battles, and Ganelon is punished. At the end, Charlemagne is called by the angel Gabriel to a new mission.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
The Song of Roland, translated from the Old French by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin, 1957, laisses 163ff., pp. 136ff. Old French: La Chanson de Roland, ed. Ian Short, Paris, Lettres gothiques, 1990.

About the performer/ensemble:
Theo Stockman is a Drama student in the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2006).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in fall 2006.

Edige: Scene from Turkic epic

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About the scene and clip:
The performer, called a jyrau, sings and tells a scene from the epic Edige, accompanying himself on the kobyz, an archaic fiddle. In this scene, the khan of the Golden Horde is warned by his wife to kill Edige before he can seize the khan’s throne.

We include this remarkable clip of a contemporary performance of epic as part of our exploration of analogous traditions: it sheds light on how medieval epics may have been performed.

About the work:
Edige is a medieval heroic epic about the Golden Horde, composed in Karakalpak, a Turkic language. It sings of Edige—his magical birth (his mother was a river fairy), his struggles at the court of the khan, his marriage to the daughter of Tamerlane (Sätemir), his battles, and his death. This epic has some basis in 14th-century historical reality despite its many fanciful features. Numerous versions of the epic are known to have existed.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
Edige: A Karakalpak Oral Epic as Performed by Jumabay Bazarov, ed. and trans. Karl Reichl, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, FF Communications 293, 2007.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jumabay Bazarov (1927-2006) was a jyrau—a professional performer of oral epic—in Karakalpakistan in Uzbekistan. For further information on this performer, see Karl Reichl, Singing the Past: Turkic and Medieval Heroic Poetry, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2000, pp. 37-9.

About the production:
This video was filmed in Uzbekistan in September 1993 by Karl Reichl of the Advisory Board of this website. We are grateful to him for making this video available to us.

Jataka: Three tales

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About the scene and clip:
The performer reads aloud and acts out three stories from the Indian Jataka: He tells about a foolish tortoise that falls to its death because it cannot keep its mouth shut (the Bodhisattva, as king’s adviser, tells this tale to the overly-talkative king); he tells about a man who cleverly recovers property that had unjustly been taken from him (here, the Bodhisattva is the Lord Justice); and he tells about a foolish crow and jackal, with the Bodhisattva as wise tree-sprite.

About the work:
The Indian tales of the Jataka are part of a large body of folklore and literature concerning the previous births of the Buddha as Bodhisattva (one seeking or revealing Buddha-hood). The tales generally show the Bodhisattva, who has taken some particular human or animal form, displaying and teaching his wisdom to those around him, and sometimes performing miracles. The tales survive in various forms and collections in Pali (a vernacular dialect of Sanskrit), Sanskrit, and other languages, and influenced storytelling in many parts of the world—in particular, stories involving animals, from Aesop’s fables to the medieval fabliaux, and beyond. Though some tales from the Jataka go back to before the 3rd century BC, the Pali text may date from around the 5th century AD.

About the genre:
This story belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

This story also belongs to the genre of hagiography. Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The Jataka; or, Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Translated from the Pali by various hands under the editorship of Professor E. B. Cowell, London, Published for the Pali Text Society by Luzac & Comp., 1969, 6 v.; Vol. II translated by Robert Chalmers (1895), pp. 123ff; 127ff; 299ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dave Perlow is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005; it was a final performance for the course, and was videoed in December 2005 at the Maison Française of New York University by Nick Spangler.

Igor: Tragic campaign begins

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer recounts dramatically the opening part of Igor’s heroic, but ill-omened and doomed, raid against the Kumans.

About the work:
The Russian Lay, or Song, of Igor’s Campaign, probably dates from the late 12th century. It tells of the tragically unsuccessful military campaign that Prince Igor of Novgorod-Seversk led against Turkic nomads, the Kumans, in 1185.

About the genre:
Despite the title “Lay” which is sometimes given it in translation, this unusual work is a blend of several genres: epic, tale, lament, and song.

The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
Medieval Russia’s Epics Chronicles, and Tales, ed. Serge A. Zenkovsky, New York, Dutton, 1973, rev. ed., pp. 170ff. Original text: One edition of this frequently-edited text is in Dmitry S. Likhachev,Literaturnye pamiatniki, Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Robbins is a Drama student in The Meisner Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for an Independent Study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005; it was a final performance for the course, and was videoed in December 2005 at the Maison Française of New York University by Nick Spangler.

St. Brendan: Adventures

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About the scene and clip:
The performer recounts several of the remarkable adventures of St. Brendan and his monks, including the casting out of a little devil from one of the monks, a fight in the sky between two great winged creatures, and the gift of miraculous fruits for the monks.

About the work:
This is a rather unusual work about a saint: it recounts not a life or a martyrdom, but rather a great sea voyage, a blend of fantasy and fact, full of Christian liturgical and symbolic details. Written in Latin in the 9th or early 10th century, it tells how a holy Irish monk, Brendan, gathered a group of fellow monks and traveled with them in a little boat over the deep, meeting with amazing adventures. They land on an island that turns out to be the back of a whale; they witness struggles between strange creatures in the air and in the sea; they meet interesting figures, such as Judas Iscariot, who suffers in the middle of the ocean; and they visit the Isle of the Blessed.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The Age of Bede, trans. J.F. Webb, ed. D.H. Farmer, Harmondsworth, Penguin, rev. ed., 1983, pp. 211ff. Latin: Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis, from early Latin manuscripts, ed. Carl Selmer, Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 1959.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Robbins is a Drama student in The Meisner Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for an Independent Study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005; it was a final performance for the course, and was videoed in December 2005 at the Maison Française of New York University by Nick Spangler.

Gawain: Gawain leaves in search of Green Knight

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About the scene and clip:
In a strongly physical performance, a trio tells and acts out the departure of Gawain from Bertilak’s castle: the hero must go off alone in search of the Green Knight.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd edition, London, 1974, IV: 83, pp. 98ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Eric Giancola and Kelly Swartz are Drama students in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2004). Jory McMillan is a Drama student in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2004).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in fall 2004.

Séquence de Sainte Eulalie (Sequence, or Song, of St. Eulalia)

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About the scene and clip:
The performer reads aloud the short, poetic account of the martyrdom of St. Eulalia; she uses a large illustrated book to enhance her storytelling, and also provides the text in Old French.

About the work:
The short liturgical song, La Séquence (Chanson) de Saint Eulalie, composed in the 9th century, is one of the earliest monuments of French literature. It tells of the martyrdom of the young maiden Eulalia, a 3rd-century Spanish saint, who firmly chose death over betrayal of her faith in Christ. This brief text consists of 29 lines, composed in assonanced pairs of lines, with a final closing line. This song is probably a liturgical “trope”—a poetic amplification of the final “a” of the Alleluia sung at the Mass on December 10, the feast of Saint Eulalia.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
English translation by Jennifer Jordan and Timmie (E.B.) Vitz. Original text: One edition of this often-edited text is Chrestomathie de la littérature en ancien français, 4th ed., ed. Albert Henry, Berne, Francke, 1967, pp. 2-3.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jennifer Jordan, who majored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New York University, graduated in 2005, and now works and also does graduate study at New York University (2006). She is a member of the Advisory Board of the website, and created this performance out of pleasure and interest.

About the production:
This performance was created for a book party for Performing Medieval Narrative at the Maison Française of New York University in October 2005. The event was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado, and Martha Hodes. Videography was by NYU-TV.

Eustace: Disguises

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer reads aloud, acting out scenes from the story of Eustace, who is a master of disguise. The performer does Eustace as a pot seller, a charcoal burner, a nightingale, and a woman of easy virtue.

About the work:
Wistasse li moine (Eustace the Monk) is an anonymous romance, composed in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, dating from the late 13th century. This highly unusual romance tells the adventures of a former monk turned brigand and pirate. Wistasse, or Eustace, is a character at once strongly comic and even rather sympathetic, but also at points disturbingly violent and cruel. His greatest desire is to humiliate and avenge himself on his feudal lord, the count of Boulogne. Frequently adopting some disguise, Eustace repeatedly succeeds in deceiving and infuriating the count—and other people as well. The story is based on the life of an historical figure from the north of France who died in 1217 at the Battle of Sandwich; at the end of the romance, he is decapitated as a pirate by the British: “No one who is always intent on evil can live for a long time.”

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Abridged from Eustace the Monk, in Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn, tr. Glyn Burgess, Woodbridge, Suffolk, D.S. Brewer, 1997, pp. 62ff. Original text: Le Roman d’Eustache le moine, tr. A.J. Holden & J. Monfrin, Louvain, Peeters, 2005.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dave Perlow is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005. It took place on December 15, 2005, as part of an event titled “Making It Real: Performing the Middle Ages,” at an Off-off-Broadway venue in New York City—The American Place Theatre, 266 West 37th St (22nd floor). The performance was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Gina Guadagnino was the videographer.

St. John: Sins and miraculous forgiveness

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer tells—and acts out—the second part of the remarkable legend about the hermit St. John Chrysostom: his great sins and his miraculous forgiveness by God.

About the work:
This legend, recounted in medieval Croatian Church Slavonic, tells the story of a friar named John who leaves his monastery because he deplores the low morality of his brethren. He goes to the desert where he lives as a hermit and writes prayers in honor of the Virgin Mary. The devil steals his inkpot, so John uses his saliva as ink—which miraculously turns into gold, hence his name “Chrysostom,” or “golden mouth.” John prays to be delivered from great sins, thinking that he can defend himself from small sins, such as drunkenness. But his belief in his own moral strength is an error, an angel tells him—and prophesies that John will commit both murder and rape in a drunken state.

A new storyline opens at this point: A princess gets lost in a bad storm during a hunt and finds refuge in John’s humble hut. She offers him wine, and—as the angel had predicted—after the third glass he gets drunk, rapes her, and then kills her; he hides her body. Horrified by his transgression, he vows to crawl on all fours like an animal until God has forgiven him. Time passes, and the king, the princess’s father, organises another hunt to celebrate the birth of a son and heir. In the desert the huntsmen come across a strange creature and bring it to the court. It is John—and the king’s baby son shouts out that John is now forgiven. John praises the Lord, and tells his whole story to the king and courtiers. They go to find the grave of the princess—but discover her alive and well. Everyone is happy and praises the greatness of “John’s God”.

The Croatian Legend of St. John Chrysostom (Hermit) survives in the so-called Zgombic Miscellany, now in the Archive of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. Although compiled in the early 16th c., this miscellany (a collection of a wide variety of texts) is part of an older medieval tradition. The Croatian tale draws on several European sources, but only this version has John’s lengthy monologue.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
English translation by Marija-ana Dürrigl. Original text: critical edition in Stjepan Ivsic, “Iz hrvatske glagolske knjizevnosti: Legenda o Ivanu Zlatoustom,” Prilozi za knjizevnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor 11 (1931): 59-83, 1931. We express here our particular gratitude to Dr. Dürrigl for bringing this remarkable text to our attention, and for providing an English translation of it.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Spangler is a Drama student in the CAP21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005. It took place on December 15, 2005, as part of an event titled “Making It Real: Performing the Middle Ages,” at an Off-off-Broadway venue in New York City—The American Place Theatre, 266 West 37th St (22nd floor). The performance was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Gina Guadagnino was the videographer.

Roland: Charlemagne hears horn, Ganelon rebukes him

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer recounts the scene where Charlemagne hears the sound of Roland’s horn, and impersonates both the anguished emperor and the sneering traitor, Ganelon, who mocks him for his concern.

About the work:
La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) is one of the great masterpieces of French medieval literature. The earliest surviving version of this anonymous epic dates apparently from the late 11th century and is preserved in a famous manuscript now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This classic version—there were numerous others—is composed in laisses (or stanzas) of variable length with ten-syllable lines in assonance (the final vowel is the same within each laisse). Epics like the Roland were originally sung by jongleurs, often with vielle accompaniment. The Roland tells of the Emperor Charlemagne’s great struggle to conquer Spain from the Muslim Infidels. It recounts the betrayal of the French by the traitor, Ganelon, resulting in a great battle at Roncevaux. There, the French rearguard, led by Roland, defeats the Moors, but all the great French knights—the twelve peers—die. Charlemagne avenges the peers in two great battles, and Ganelon is punished. At the end, Charlemagne is called by the angel Gabriel to a new mission.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
The Song of Roland, translated from the Old French by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin, 1957, laisses 133ff, pp. 119ff. Old French: La Chanson de Roland, ed. Ian Short, Paris, Lettres gothiques, 1990.

About the performer/ensemble:
Michelle Hernandez is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2006).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University, in fall 2006. Nitzan Rotschild was the videographer.