by John, duke of Berry, as a gift for his brother, King Charles V. It is now in the British
Museum.
William W.Kibler
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Émaux limousins: champlevés des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Paris: Le
Prat, 1950.
Maryon, Herbert. “Fine Metal-Work.” In A History of Technology, ed. Charles Singer. 5 vols.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1954–56, Vol. 2: The Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages, c.
700 B.C. to c. A.D. 1500, pp. 449–84.
——. Metalwork and Enameling: A Practical Treatise on Gold and Silversmiths’ Work and Their
Allied Crafts. 5th ed. New York: Dover, 1971.
ENFANCES
. The genre in medieval literature in which the legend of the hero is completed by a return
to his birth and youth is called enfances. Primarily a phenomenon of epic literature as
works complete in themselves, enfances, composed after the narration of the heroes’
adult exploits, seek to outline the origins of their lineage. The mystery of the birth, which
frequently involves a fault committed by a supernatural being, is elucidated, often with
recourse to folktale and myth. The heroes’ first exploits mark them as destined for
greatness. Most of the epic heroes are the subject of such treatment of their early lives,
for example: the Enfances de Charlemagne, the Enfances Guillaume, the Enfances de
Vivien, the Enfances Ogier, and the Enfances Godefroi in the Naissance du chevalier au
Cygne. There is often a partial treatment of the theme, as in the figure of Guiot in the
Chanson de Guillaume, but in these instances the treatment varies, with emphasis on the
youth’s fear and inability to tolerate hunger. The genre is visible in the apocryphal
Évangiles de l’enfance, which recount the childhood of Christ, such as the Protoévangile
de Jacques and the Livre de la naissance de la bienheureuse Marie et de l’enfance du
Sauveur, and elements persist in romances, where there is a search for the hero’s origins
(Gauvain, Lancelot, Merlin, Tristan). As an echo of the Middle Ages, Rabelais made the
genre larger than life in his parodic genealogy and youthful exploits of first the son,
Pantagruel, then the father, Gargantua.
Joan B.Williamson
[See also: APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE; CHANSON DE GESTE]
Combarieu, Micheline de. “Enfance et démesure dans l’épopée médiévale française.” Senefiance 9
(1980):405–56. [Issue on L’enfant au moyen âge.]
Horrent, Jacques. Les versions françaises et étrangères des “Enfances de Charlemagne.” Brussels:
Académie Royale de Belgique, 1979.
Lods, Jeanne. “Le theme de l’enfance dans l’épopée française.” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale
3(1960):58–62.
Rank, Otto. Le mythe de la naissance du héros suivi de la légende de Lohengrin. Paris: Payot,
1983.
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