thumb|Print after [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder of a performance based on the romance]]

Valentine and Orson is a romance which has been attached to the Carolingian cycle.

Synopsis

It is the story of twin brothers, abandoned in the woods in infancy. Valentine is brought up as a knight at the court of Pepin, while Orson grows up in a bear's den to be a wild man of the woods, until

Valentine finds, overcomes, and tames him. He then becomes Valentine's servant and comrade. In some versions, the pair discover their true history with the help of a magical brazen head. The two eventually rescue their mother Bellisant, sister of Pepin and wife of the emperor of Greece, by whom she had been unjustly repudiated, from the power of a giant named Ferragus.

Early modern versions

The tale is probably based on a lost French original, with Orson originally described as "sans nom" i.e. the "nameless" one. A 14th-century French chanson de geste, Valentin et Sansnom (i.e. Valentin and "Nameless") has not survived but was translated/adapted in medieval German as Valentin und Namelos (first half of the 15th century).

The kernel of the story lies in Orson's upbringing and wildness, and is evidently a folk-tale,

with a purely artificial connection to the Carolingian cycle. The story of the wife unjustly accused with which it is bound up is sufficiently common, and was told of the wives both of Pippin and Charlemagne. The work has a number of references to other, older, works, including: Floovant, The Four Sons of Aymon, Lion de Bourges, and Maugis d'Aigremont. several versions from the 16th century are extant; the oldest prose version dates from 1489

Modern versions and adaptations

Thomas Dibdin wrote an adaptation in 1804 which was later performed at the Theatres Royal Covent Garden, Haymarket, and Bath.

Nancy Ekholm Burkert wrote and illustrated a version of the story in 1989, in which the story is told through the lens of a traveling group of players (including two brothers) who bring the story to a village in Flanders in the Middle Ages.

See also

  • Gilgamesh & Enkidu, in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Notes

References

  • A digital version of the 1842 (Deckherr) edition in French.
  • A digital edition (beta version) of the French L’Histoire de Valentin et Orson printed at Troyes (s.d.) by Yves Girardon, "Imprimeur & Marchand Libraire, demeurant en la Rue Nostre Dame"