Peter Damian's Sermon 63 on John the Evangelist in Middle Dutch

AbstractThe Middle Dutch verse romance Segheliin van Iherusalem has survived in the following known extant copies: a manuscript (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, MS. Germ. fol. 922, fos. 71r.-122v., on the basis of the watermarks dated by the present author c. 1412-15); an incunabulum (Ghent University Library, Res. 1405 (between 1483 and 1486)); five post-incunabula, all printed in Antwerp (1511-40) and now in The Hague (2 copies), Leiden, Vienna and Paris; and a mid fifteenth-century excerpt (Brussels, Royal Library, Hs. II 116, fos. 2v.-5r.). These sources, all rhyming texts, are described here, and the excerpt is given in full. The gap still facing students of the Segheliin has thus been filled. Both manuscript and incunabulum are incomplete at the end. The text in the sixteenth-century editions differs widely from that of the manuscript version. For its part the incunabulum departs from the text of the post-incunabula with a version (perhaps closer to the original?) which in very many places tends towards the manuscript version, being something of a watershed between the two traditions. Preliminary investigation of the linguistic levels in the text, carried out on the basis of changes in the rhyme words, points to a Flemish and probably more specifically west or south-west Flemish base level (possibly the area where Ingvaonic and Brabantish meet (the region of the Dender), above which there is at least a Brabantish level. This fact, combined with the possibility of an interpretation of the Segheliin to some extent in terms of the context of the medieval veneration of the Cross and the Blood of Christ, more than suggests that the story is of Flemish origin.

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On the Evil Side of Creation: Barbarians in Middle Dutch Texts

Barbarism Revisited ◽

10.1163/9789004309272_006 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 85-103

Keyword(s):

Middle Dutch

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1 Approaching Lay Readership of Middle Dutch Bibles: On the Uses of Archival Sources and Bible Manuscripts

Discovering the Riches of the Word ◽

10.1163/9789004290396_003 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 18-43

Keyword(s):

Middle Dutch

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'Men hadde niet Arsatere vonden alsoe goet': Walewein as Healer in the Middle Dutch Arthurian Tradition

Arthuriana ◽

10.1353/art.2001.0055 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 39-52

Author(s):

David F. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Middle Dutch

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Voorbeeldige vorsten?

Queeste ◽

10.5117/que2020.1.001.huge ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 7-41

Author(s):

Jelmar Hugen

Keyword(s):

Social Integration ◽

Thirteenth Century ◽

Social Order ◽

Content Type ◽

Arthurian Romance ◽

Middle Dutch

Abstract This article examines the concept of kingship in the Middle Dutch Roman van Walewein, a thirteenth-century Arthurian romance from Flanders, by analyzing the roles of the six different kings in the work from different perspectives. The rulers are studied based on their depiction within the story in relation to historical views on kingship, their actions in relation to the narrative’s plot, and finally their role as king in relation to the narrative’s hero, Walewein. This analysis lays bare a pattern in which problematic aspects of kingship are connected to the different rulers, resulting in a lack of social order that needs to be restored by Walewein, whom in doing so proves his excellence and fitness to rule as a king himself. These problematic aspects include a lack of measure from the kings, the frustration of social integration at their courts, and finally their common use of the ‘don contraignant’ motif in a negative manner. In this light, I argue that the Roman van Walewein can be read as a type of ‘mirror for princes’.

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