Dutch Arthurian Literature

Abstract

Ironically, the currently flourishing study of Arthurian literature in the Low Countries had a false start, as L.G. Visscher's 1838 publication of Ferguut, the thirteenth-century Middle Dutch rendition of Guillaume le Clerc's Fergus, was full of flaws. 1 The many inaccuracies in this first complete edition of a Middle Dutch chivalric romance not only confirmed the editor's self-characterization as an autodidact, they served unintentionally as a teething ring (to borrow Willem Kuiper's expression) for young philologists. 2 One of these critics, W.J.A. Jonckbloet, gave Middle Dutch literature the status of a scholarly discipline, byamong other things -writing a three-volume history of Middle Dutch literature and by publishing two groundbreaking editions of Arthurian texts. 3 In 1846 there appeared the editio princeps of the Roman van Walewein, a thirteenth-century indigenous romance written by the Flemish poets Penninc and Pieter Vostaert. This volume, containing the text of the poem only, was followed in 1848 by a book-length introduction and commentary of almost 350 pages. 4 Jonckbloet supplied his readers with a wealth of information on, for example, Walewein as a character, other romances featuring Arthur's nephew as their protagonist (for instance, Le Chevalier à l'épée and Le Chevalier aux deux épées), the estimated date and the literary merits of Penninc and Vostaert's romance. For more than a century, until G.A. van Es's 1957 edition of Walewein appeared, Jonckbloet's publication remained the standard edition. 5 Like the first part of the Walewein edition, the first volume of Jonckbloet's monumental edition of the Lancelot Compilation, an early fourteenth-century Brabantine cycle of ten Middle Dutch Arthurian romances, was published in 1846. The 47,255 lines of the compilation's second book -the first book is not 1 L.G. Visscher, ed., Ferguut. Ridderroman uit den Fabelkring van de ronde Tafel (Utrecht, 1838). 2 Willem Kuiper, Die riddere metten witten scilde. Oorsprong, overlevering en auteurschap van de Middelnederlandse Ferguut, gevolgd door een diplomatische editie en een diplomatisch glossarium (Amsterdam, 1989), p. 2. 3 For the literary history, see W.