The Voyage of Charlemagne: Cultural Transmission or Cultural Transgression?

The Voyage of Charlemagne: Cultural Transmission or Cultural Transgression? In the recent translation of the Journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem and Constantinople which appeared in 1984, Jean-Louis Picherit makes the following comment about the 'good-natured and joking attitude of the poet' in his introduction: 'The humor of the author of the Voyage - characterised by some critics as truly Parisian - seems free of any parodic or caricatural intent, because in the work there is no deliberate attempt at distortion or mockery'.1 H e then goes on to quote Wdpole's comment of 1963: 'What he (the poet) has done . . . is not to degrade orridiculethe emblems of these (Christian) beliefs, Charlemagne, the Queen, the Patriarch, the Jew, the peers, the relics, Hugh, or Hugh's daughter, but to secularize them'.2 It is the intention of this paper to re-evduate the work and to investigate the validity of Picherit's comment The work opens with Charles at the altar at St-Denis where, before the company of dukes, lords, barons and knights, Charles turns to his wife and asks rhetorically if she has ever seen anyone wear sword and crown more appropriately than he. She replies that she does know of one, but at Charles's angry reaction she declines to name him. She offers to throw herself off the highest tower in Paris rather than bring shame to Charles, for she has spoken merely in jest. Charles cannot be appeased: he threatens her with decapitation if she does not comply. She then offers the name of Hugo of Constantinople, and Charles immediately forms plans to go there so that he may compare for himself the way he and Hugo comport themselves. If Hugo is not superior, the Queen will die. To his company of barons Charles proposes a journey : he has long had the desire (reinforced by three dreams) to visit the Holy Cross and the Sepdchre, and he reveals incidentally that he intends to drop in also on a certdn king he has heard about. With these d m s in mind, a large body of Franks sets out O n their arrivd in Jerusdem they enter a beautiful church where Charles sees twelve seats set around the thirteenth which is set apart. Charles sits in the thirteenth, with the twelve peers in the remdning ones. A Jew comes into the church, takes one look at the proud visage of Charles and scuttles off to the Patriarch, begging to be baptized because he has just seen God. The Patriarch returns, commends Charles and offers him and the Franks a number of very powerful relics. The Franks stay four months in Jerusdem and construct a ' L L C Picherit, ed and trans., The Journey of Charlemagne, Alabama, 1984, iv. Line references will be given to the English translation except for references to folie which have been translated in various ways and miss the force of the repetition of the term in the original Anglo-Norman. 2 Ibid., iv. 4 g M. Burrell church dedicated to the Virgin but used as a market When they request leave of the Patriarch, he draws their attention to the necessity of ridding Spain of the pagans and receives Charles's promise to do something about them. Charles remembers the Queen's words and sets out for Constantinople; during the journey the power of the relics cures many of their dflictions. The Franks reach the outskirts of Constantinople where they find Hugo at his plough. He offers them hospitdity and they set off for the pdace, an amazing and rich edifice which revolves when the wind blows. The Franks are dismayed and discomforted atfindingthemselves ignominiously tumbled about, but when conditions return to normd, they are guests at a considerable feast. They are then escorted to their bedchamber, where Hugo has taken the precaution of instdling a spy. The Franks have feasted well; before they sleep, Charlemagne and the twelve peers in turn procldm a boast in which each cldms to be able to perform some impossible feat. Most of them involve the destruction of various aspects of Hugo's redm, and when the spy reports these drunken babblings back to Hugo, he...