Le Roman de Silence
Le Roman de Silence is a 6,500-line Arthurian poem in early 13th-century French of the Picard dialect. It describes the background, birth and career of the protagonist Silence, who is born female, raised male in order to inherit their parents' lands, and becomes a renowned knight.
When Silence repeatedly rebuffs the advances of King Evan's adulterous wife, Queen Eufeme, the queen persuades the king to order Silence to capture Merlin the MAgician, who can only be trapped by the wiles of a woman. Silence succeeds in the quest, and is revealed as a woman by Merlin. Eugeme's plot (and her lover, disguised as a woman) are revealed, and the queen is executed. Silence marries King Evan.
The poem, by one Heldris of Cornwall (thought to be an Arthurian pseudonym) has become renowned for its exploration of gender nonconformity, and its discussion on gender identity between representations of Nature, Nurture and Reason as Silence debates with themself wihether they are male or female.
Historical Details
Background
The plot of Le Roman de Silence bears some similarity to the Story of Grisandole in the prose version of Le Roman de Merlin. In this, the lady Avenable disguises herself as a squire and enters the service of Julius Caesar, winning renown for finding a wild man, who is Merlin in disguise. Merlin reveals that Grisandole is a woman, that Caesar's serving women are really men with whom she is having affairs. Caesar executes his queen and marries Avenable. The tales differ in that AVenable chooses to disguise her sex and expresses no doubt about her identity.
History
Master Heldris of Cornwall, the poem's author, is otherwise unknown. The name is thought to be a pseudonym. Only one manuscript exists, bound in a 12-inch by 8-inch volume with several other romances and fablaux in the Picard dialect. It was discovered in 1911 among a repository of medieval and early modern documents belonging to the Middleton family of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire.
The Middleton Family were descended from a merchant family named Bugge, who lived in Nottingham in the late 12th and 13th centuries. The only hint to the volume's history prior to its discovery in Wollaton Hall is the name 'John Bertrem de Thorpe Kilton' in a 15th century hand on folio 347. Thorpe Kilton is a village near Saltburn on the easat coast of the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Type
Manuscript, Artistic
Authoring Date
1200-1250
Authors
Comments