to the post of seneschal and marriage with Galeron. When Ille subsequently loses an eye
(in a tournament according to one manuscript, a battle in another), he fears the loss of
Galeron’s love, steals away, and fights as mercenary for the Emperor of Rome. Given his
prowess, Ille quickly becomes seneschal of Rome and inspires love in Ganor, the
emperor’s daughter. Galeron, who has searched fruitlessly for her husband, now lives
secretly in Rome in the greatest misery. When offered Ganor’s hand in marriage, Ille
reveals that he is married; only if Galeron cannot be found will he marry Ganor. Just as
that ceremony is about to be celebrated, Galeron recognizes her husband. When Galeron
assures Ille of her continuing love, they return to Brittany. Their happy life is interrupted
when Galeron makes a vow to become a nun, if she survives the difficult birth of a third
child. Ille grieves, but is called to fulfill his promise to aid Ganor, now empress and under
attack by the Emperor of Constantinople. Ille triumphs, he and Ganor are married in
Rome and live happily with their own children and those of the first marriage.
Comparison with Marie de France’s Eliduc, a lai that either furnishes Gautier’s model
or has a common source, reveals how Gautier has significantly reworked a short tale into
an episodic romance whose two parts are clearly related through the key event: Ille’s loss
of an eye furnishes a crisis that resembles one of the love judgments reported in Andreas
Capellanus’s De amore: can love survive disfigurement? This event and the exploration
of Ille’s psychology before and after the crisis keep the romance plot squarely situated
within the realm of the possible. The marvelous death and rebirth described in Eliduc are
eliminated, as Gautier d’Arras places his art in the service of mimetic realism. Gautier
thus appears as a kind of link between Chrétien and Jean Renart, as Fourrier has
suggested. In elaborating the episodes that fill in Ille’s story, Gautier demonstrates his
ability to reuse materials from a variety of literary traditions (chansons de geste, saints’
lives, Énéas). A narrator clearly able to please his audience, Gautier d’Arras plays an
important role in the development of a romance tradition oriented toward realism,
psychological interest, and contemporary life.
Matilda T.Bruckner
[See also: CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES; GRECO-BYZANTINE ROMANCE; MARIE
DE FRANCE]
Gautier d’Arras. Eracle, ed. Guy Raynaud de Lage. Paris: Champion, 1976.
——. Ille et Galeron, ed. Yves Lefèvre. Paris: Champion, 1988.
Calin, William. “Structure and Meaning in Eracle by Gautier d’Arras.” Symposium 16(1962):275–
87.
Fourrier, Antoine. Le courant réaliste dans le roman courtois en France au moyen âge. Paris:
Nizet, 1960, Vol. 1: Les débuts (XIIe siècle).
Haidu, Peter. “Narrativity and Language in Some Twelfth Century Romances.” Yale French
Studies 51(1974):133–46.
Nykrog, Per. “Two Creators of Narrative Form in Twelfth Century France: Gautier d’Arras and
Chrétien de Troyes.” Speculum 48(1973):258–76.
Zumthor, Paul. “L’écriture et la voix: Le roman d’Eracle.” In The Craft of Fiction: Essays on
Medieval Poetics, ed. Leigh Arrathoon. Rochester: Solaris, 1984, pp. 161–209.
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