Charlemagne in Wales: The Transmission, Reception, and Translation of Charlemagne Narratives in Medieval Wales

This project is funded by the British Academy through a Newton International Fellowship.
The legend of Charlemagne is one of the most popular sources of narrative in the Middle Ages, and one which substantially contributed to the configuration of medieval European culture and identity. Although a significant corpus of Charlemagne texts circulated in Wales, inspiring a series of translations in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this material has received comparatively little attention and is still poorly known. This project thus intends to fill this gap in knowledge by systematically studying for the first time all the Charlemagne material produced in Wales with the aim of elucidating how Charlemagne texts were transmitted, translated, rewritten and interpreted for their new Welsh audiences. In addition, it will further our understanding of the place of Welsh texts within wider British and European networks of texts related to the legend of Charlemagne in north-western Europe, simultaneously providing insights on their connections, shared common elements and idiosyncrasies.
The Charlemagne material comprises not only a cycle composed of four popular Latin and French texts translated into Middle Welsh, but also the little-studied Kedymdeithyas Amlyn ac Amic (The Friendship of Amlyn anc Amic). Moreover, all
the references in thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth-century Welsh poetry will be identified and examined, since they offer valuable clues to the reception of the Charlemagne legend and the access to French-language material. The objectives of the project will be accomplished by the study of the textual transmission and material context of the tales (including new work on little-explored Welsh manuscripts), the formal and thematic comparative analysis of target and source texts, the analysis of the strategies of translation, the identification, where possible, of patrons, translators, and audiences, and the examination of the place of the Welsh texts within broader insular and European literary traditions. The project's global approach and multiple levels of analysis (philological, material, textual, historical) will be implemented by way of an innovative multidisciplinary methodology combining new methods in philology and manuscript studies, a linguistic-pragmatic approach for the identification of syntactical and stylistic patterns in the process of literary transfer, narratology, and medieval translation, framed in cutting-edge theoretical developments within the fields of comparative medieval literature, linguistic approaches to translation, and translation studies.

The legend of Charlemagne, king of the Franks and crowned Emperor of Rome in 800, is one of the most popular sources of narrative in the Middle Ages, and one which substantially contributed to the configuration of medieval European culture and identity. While tales about Charlemagne were enormously popular during the Middle Ages and the historical and cultural relevance of his figure continues until the present day, the Celtic representations of the legends associated with him have received comparatively little attention. This is especially true of the Welsh Charlemagne material, produced from
the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries: the so-called Charlemagne cycle, comprising the translation of a popular Latin chronicle (the Turpin Chronicle) and three French epic poems (the Song of Roland, Otinel, and the Pilgrimage of
Charlemagne), the rendering of another Latin text (the story of the friends Amis and Amiles), and references in late medieval poetry. This rich but little explored material reveals the creative engagement of Welsh translators and authors
with the Charlemagne legend and provides valuable insights on Welsh cultural identity, literary and religious interests, and translation practices.
This project, at the intersection of medieval Welsh, French, and Latin, will expand our knowledge about the reception of the Charlemagne legend in Britain by using an innovative multidisciplinary methodology framed in cutting-edge theoretical developments within the fields of comparative medieval literature, linguistic approaches to translation, and translation studies. This will be the first comprehensive account of the transmission, interpretation and appropriation of the Charlemagne legend in Wales.