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VII.—The Dreams of Charlemagne in the Chanson De Roland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Alexander Haggerty Krappe
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Extract

The dreams of Charlemagne in Rol. 717–36 and 2525–60 have several times been the subject of critical investigations. Professor Rajna sees in them a direct influence of the Old Teutonic epic; Wilhelm Tavernier, on the other hand, is inclined to consider at least one of them as the literary imitation of a dream occurring in the Waltharius. The fact that some of those dreams are animal dreams appeared also to him as a proof of Teutonic influences due perhaps to the Norman descent of the author. It will, therefore, be the purpose of this paper to examine those dreams and to test the arguments put forward to prove their Teutonic character.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 1921, pp. 134 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1921

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References

1 Le origini dell' epopea francese, Firenze, 1884, pp. 449 ff.

2 Beiträge zur JRolandsforsohung IV, Zeitschr. f. franz. Sprache u. Lit., XLII, 1914, p. 64.

3 Beiträge zur Rolandsforschung I, Zeitschr. f. franz. Sprache u. Lit., XXXVI, 1910, pp. 93 f. Kichard Mentz, Die Träume in den altfranzösischen Karls- und Artus-Epen, Marburg, 1888, in Stengels Ausgaben u. Abhandlungen, LXXIII, did not examine the rich material he collected as to the origin of the animal dream in the French epic. Emil Benezé, Das Traummotiv in der mittelhoehdeutschen Dichtung bis 1250 und in alten deutsohen Volksliedern, Halle, Niemeyer, 1897, p. 31. appears to adhere to Professor Rajna's theory.

4 Op. cit., p. 450.

5 Op. cit., p. 96.

6 XLI, 1–32.

7 Vit. parai, Cimon, XVIII.

8 Der Nihelunge Not, I, XVI, 922.

9 Gen. XL, 5–20.

10 Herodotus, Hist., I, 107–8.

11 Der Nilelunge Not, I, 13–7.

12 Halfdans S. Svarta, cap. 6–7.

13 Wilhelm Henzen, Ueber die Träume in der altnordisclien Sagaliteratur, Leipzig, 1890.

14 The dreams in Daniel, cap. VII and cap. VIII, do not seem to belong to the class of detailed animal dreams in our sense of the term, in that the beasts do not signify definite living persons, hut empires and dynasties, and in the case of the he-goat in cap. VIII an indefinite future king (Alexander the Great?). The beasts in Revelation, cap. IV and cap. XIII, appear to be symbols and allegories rather than personifications of contemporary individuals. I do not know whether they have ever been interpreted in any such way during the middle ages. A further difference between the Semitic animal dreams and those under discussion is that the former do not show the beasts in a definite attitude toward the dreamer, an attitude of hostility, sympathy, etc., as is the case in many of the dreams of Aryan origin.

15 Op. cit., p. 451.

16 Cf. also W. S. Messer, The Dream in Homer and Greek Tragedy, New York, 1918, p. 30.

17 Hist., VI, 131; cf. also Plutarch, Vitae parol., Pericles, III.

18 Op. cit., Cimon, XVIII.

19 XXX, 30.

20 XIX, 4.

21 The list could be considerably extended. Let it suffice here to refer to the index of Messer, op. cit., p. 33.

22 Hist., XXI, 22; cf. also Cicero, De divinat., I, 24.

23 Metamorphoses, XI, 592 ff.

24 Op. cit., I. 22.

25 Beiträge zur Rolandsforschung, TV, Zeitschr. f. franz. Sprache u. Lit., XLII, 1914, p. 64.

26 Whether the detailed animal dream is peculiar to the Greek, Italic and Teutonic branches of the Indo-European family or whether it is common to all of them, is a question which I do not feel competent yet to answer, as it would require a knowledge of the folklore not only of the Celts and Slavs, but of the Asiatic groups also.