Jeff Sypeck

The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier Jeff Sypeck

Charbonnier est maître chez soi: "The collier is master in his own house." This French saying finds its most literal expression in The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier, a 15th-century Middle Scots romance about the adventures that ensue when King Charlemagne, separated from his entourage by a blizzard, seeks refuge in the home of a proud and irascible collier. Combining folktale motifs with burlesque humor and elements of chansons and chivalric romances, The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier is a lively but little-read story of medieval courtesy, hospitality, and knighthood. This translation, the first into modern English, emulates the 75 thirteen-line rhyming, alliterative stanzas of the original. Light annotations, a brief introduction, and a bibliography help introduce modern readers to this strange and entertaining romance that W. R. J. Barron dubbed "technically and creatively the best of the English texts on the Matter of France."