The Old French Auberon : Text and Critical Evaluation [PhD thesis]

This new edition of Auberon is based on Arturo Graf's 1878 reading of a late twelfth-or early thirteenth- century manuscript. Graf's early work contains a number of textual errors and is generally inadequate in terms of modern philological standards. The original intent to compare Graf's text with the manuscript was thwarted because the manuscript was burned in 1904. Therefore this edition is based by necessity upon the text of Graf, and the editor has relied heavily upon her own scholarly judgment as well as reviews and comments made by scholars of the late nineteenth century in order to present a readable text of the poem. The Auberon was written as a prologue to the better known poem, Huon de Bordeaux, in order to provide background information about the magical dwarf, Auberon, who plays such a prominent role in the Huon. His genealogy is traced from Judas Maccabeus to Julius Caesar. Replete with imaginative deeds and preposterous relationships, the poem is an excellent example of the fusion of elements previously separated and more common to either the chansons de geste or the romance.