5AAPLT26 Leaders, Legends and Chivalry in Medieval Portugal
Module value: 15 credits
Years: 2 & 4
Module tutor: Catarina Fouto
Assessment: One 2000 word essay (40%); One 2-hour examination (60%)
Teaching arrangements: 2 hours per week
Pre-requisites: 4AAPLA20 or equivalent.
Module Description
The aim of the module is to examine medieval Portuguese texts about, and by, monarchs and their vassals. It has three main objectives: (1) to understand how the codes underpinning a chivalric, warrior class are reflected in chronicle, fiction, treatise and drama; (2) to aid appreciation of the interaction between literary and non-literary texts, between legendary and factual material; and (3) to guide students in comprehension of Galician-Portuguese and Medieval Portuguese linguistic forms. The chronological spread of the texts to be studied dates from before the formation of Portugal under the Burgundian dynasty, to the height of overseas expansion under the centralised Avis monarchs. The module thus provides a literary complement to material given in first-year courses on the Lusophone world and on the early period of Portuguese history. It also provides the opportunity to study Portugal’s early literature within an Iberian context.
The module begins with the overlap between history and fiction as shown in the legend of King Rodrigo’s downfall and the loss of Spain to the Moors in 711, narrated in the Portuguese Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344. Accounts of love, war and family origins from the mid-fourteenth-century Portuguese books of genealogies, the Livros de Linhagens, will then be studied. Extracts from the Portuguese version of the French prose romances relating the Grail Quest and the betrayal and death of King Arthur, A Demanda do Santo Graal, will provide comparison between earthly and spiritual conceptions of chivalry. Selections from the treatise on equitation and jousting by King Dom Duarte of Portugal, Livro da Ensinança de Bem Cavalgar Toda Sela, illustrate his concern for the nobility’s moral and physical training. The module will end with study of two plays by Gil Vicente (one of them in Spanish), celebrating chivalry, romantic love and Portuguese royal power.
Primary texts
‘A Lenda do Rei Rodrigo’, in Helder Godinho (ed.), Prosa Medieval Portuguesa (Lisbon: Editorial Comunicação, 1986)
also in
Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344, ed. by Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra, 3 vols (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1951-1961), II, pp. 298-332, and 4 vols (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1983), II, pp. 298-332; [also in separate edition, ed. by Lindley Cintra (Lisbon: Editorial Verbo, 1964), but not held in Maughan Library]
‘A dona pee de cabra’
‘A molher marinha ou a lenda dos Marinhos’,
‘Dom Ramiro ou a Lenda de Gaia’
‘A Batalha do Salado’,
all in José Mattoso (ed.),
Narrativas dos Livros de Linhagens (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1983)
also in
José Joaquim Nunes (ed.), Crestomatia Arcaica (Lisbon: Livraria Clássica Editora, 1967, or later editions); and in Helder Godinho (ed.) [as above]A Demanda do Santo Graal, selected chapters from edition by Irene Freire Nunes (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1995)
D. Duarte, Livro da Ensinança de Bem Cavalgar Toda Sela, selected passages from edition by Joseph M. Piel (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1986)
Gil Vicente, Don Duardos, Cortes de Júpiter, any available edition (e.g. Sá da Costa, Editorial Comunicação, or Europa-América