thumb|upright=1.25|Bevis of Hampton fighting a lion, [[Taymouth Hours]]

Bevis of Hampton ( or or ; Anglo-Norman: ; ) or Sir Bevois was a legendary English hero and the subject of Anglo-Norman, and other medieval metrical chivalric romances that bear his name. The tale also exists in medieval prose, with translations to Romanian, Russian, Dutch, Irish, Welsh, Old Norse and Yiddish. They consist of between 10,000 and 20,000 verses. A French prose version was made before 1469. The earliest manuscript of the saga dates to c. 1400.), is founded based on some French origins, varying slightly from those that have been preserved. The oldest manuscript dates from the beginning of the 14th century.

The printed editions of the story were most numerous in Italy, where or was the subject of more than one poem, and the tale was interpolated in the , the Italian compilation of Carolingian legend.

From Italian, it passed into Yiddish, where the became the first non-religious book to be printed in Yiddish. It is considered the most popular and critically honored Yiddish-language chivalry romance.

In Russia, the romance attained an unparalleled popularity and became a part of Russian folklore. The Russian rendition of the romance appeared in mid-16th century, translated from a Polish or Old Belarusian version, which were in turn, translated from a Croatian rendition of the Italian romance, made in Ragusa. The resulting narrative, called (, lit. The Story of ), gradually merged with Russian folktales, and the principal character attained many features of a Russian folk hero (bogatyr). Since the 18th century until 1918, various versions of the had been widely circulated (particularly among the lower classes) as a . Such writers as Derzhavin and Pushkin praised 's literary value. The latter praised a version of by Alexander Radishchev, written in 1799 and used some elements of the in his fairy tales (principally The Tale of Tsar Saltan).

Editions

  • Eugen Kölbing (ed.), The Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton, Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 46, 48, 65 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trūbner, 1885–94).
  • Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Dixon, and Eve Salisbury (eds), Four Romances of England (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999).
  • Jennifer Fellows (ed.), Sir Bevis of Hampton, Edited from Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS XIII.B.29 and Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.2.38, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 349–50, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017),

Sources

R. Zenker (Boeve-Amlethus, Berlin and Leipzig, 1904) established a close parallel between Bevis and the Hamlet legend as related by Saxo Grammaticus in the Historia Danica. Some of the details that point to a common source are the vengeance of a stepfather for a father's death, the letter bearing his own death-warrant entrusted to the hero, and his double marriage. However, the motive of feigned madness is lacking in Bevis. The princess who is Josiane's rival is less ferocious than the Hermuthruda of the Hamlet legend, but she does threaten Bevis with death should he refuse her. Both seem modeled on the type of *Modthryth or Thryðo of the Beowulf legend. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes the mooted etymology connecting Bevis (Boeve) with Béowa (Beowulf), as "fanciful" and "inadmissible" on the ground that they were both dragon slayers. One alternative theory is that Doon may be identified with the emperor Otto the Great, who was the contemporary of Edgar the Peaceful, the English king Edgar of the story.

See also

  • Bevers saga
  • Beves of Hamtoun (poem)

Literature

  • The information about the Yiddish version can be found in Sol Liptzin, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, .
  • Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age. Collection: La Pochothèque. Paris: Fayard, 1992.
  • Bevis of Hampton in the original Middle English: University of Rochester, Middle English Text Series – Texts Online: from Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston, 1999, edited by Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake and Eve Salisbury, Medieval Institute Publications for TEAMS.
  • Sir Bevis of Hampton translated and retold in modern English prose, the story from Naples Biblioteca Nazionale MS XIII.B.29 with fragments from Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1 (the Auchinleck MS) (from the Middle English of the Early English Text Society edition: Jennifer Fellows, 2017, Sir Bevis of Hampton, 2 vols, EETS and Oxford University Press).
  • Arlima: Beuve de Hantone

References