Introduction:
Problems with medieval sources
When reading a collection of medieval sources,
it is easy to be seduced by the crisp, clear translations and the confident presentation,
and to forget what every historian who has dealt first-hand with medieval documents
knows. Often, modern editions and translations are based not upon original
documents, but on later copies which may have been deliberately altered or inadvertently
corrupted. When the text is dubious or, sometimes, incomprehensible, modern
versions try to make sense of it, and thus gloss over the difficulties.
Sometimes, multiple copies exist, which differ in detail or even in broad strokes;
these differences are usually smoothed over in modern translations or editions,
where the variants are relegated to footnotes. It seems to me that it might
be useful to examine a test case that exemplifies these difficulties, and I have
found one that fits the bill perfectly. The Planctus for William
Longsword survives in two copies, both incomplete and both somewhat corrupt, but
still preserving the general sense of the original. It has been edited four
times by three different scholars, each of whom has had to make decisions about
the problem areas. And, thanks to the blessed diligence of one of these
editors, Jules Lair, full-size facsimiles of both manuscripts have been published,
although in a book that is not widely available. Thus, I have assembled
this web site as a laboratory in medieval philology; here will be found scans
of both manuscripts, transcriptions of them, and the texts of three editions (the
first of the two Lair editions, cited below, was based only upon the first manuscript
before the second was discovered). Thus, in these pages interested parties
can examine the manuscripts, and see what different scholars have made of them.
I have also provided Becker's German translation, and added an English translation
of my own (any suggestions for improving the latter would be appreciated).
Perhaps someday, if there is enough interest, I will add commentaries on this
text both by scholars of the past and by people inspired by these pages to investigate
this most interesting case.
The Planctus
William
Longsword was the son of Rollo, founder of the Rollonid dynasty that would become
dukes of Normandy and after 1066, kings of England. In William's day, however,
the Rollonid principality was still a fragile entity centered around Rouen and,
in terms of Realpolitik, not extending far west of the Seine. Most
of William's career was spent in relative obscurity, but in the late 930s he suddenly
emerged onto the stage of Frankish royal politics, first because of his war with
Arnulf of Flanders, and then because of his support for King Louis IV (d'Outremer)
at a time when Louis' star seemed to be fading. In December 942, at the
peak of his good relations with Louis, Arnulf called for a peace conference with
William; there, William was murdered (traditionally, Arnulf is said to have arranged
the murder; some day I will argue that he did not). A Planctus (mourning
poem) was composed probably shortly after; Jules Lair suggests plausibly if not
definitively that it was in 943. (Catalog references:
Chevalier 10576; Walther 10205; Schaller & Ewald Könsgen 8813; Yearley
L81.) This poem, although it survives only in corrupt and incomplete versions
and is largely hagiographic in content, nevertheless is a critical source for
early Norman history. It is by far the earliest work written about the Normans
from a Norman point of view, and some historical nuggets can be gleaned from it.
The manuscripts
Two manuscripts of the planctus
survive, both dating from the early 11th century. Neither is very good,
and both are apparently derived from an earlier version that does not survive.
Bibliothèque
de Clermont-Ferrand, MS 240, folio 45.
Cited in these pages as Clermont-Ferrand.
Lair's description (p. 61, note 1): "Ce manuscrit peut être daté
du Xe-XIe siècle. Il est composé de 253 feuillets à
3 colonnes, et mesure 560 sur 360 millimètres. Sa reliure en bois
et peau est en mauvais état. Il contient un exemplaire, incomplete
du commencement et de la fin, du Glossaire attribué à Ansileubus;
premiers mots: [A] bellane, penestrine, nuces virides stringunt...;
derniers mots: sic namque et beatissimus Augustinus, in libris Confessionum
suarum. C'est sur une page laissée d'abord en blanc que la Complainte
a été transcrite." The planctus begins near the bottom of the middle
column of folio 45 (at the L), and continues almost to the bottom of the
third column (to the A). It contains 12 verses in a somewhat corrupt
Latin, and until Delisle found a second manuscript in Florence Libri it
was our only witness to the text.
Bibliotheca
Mediceo-Laurenziana of Florence, MS Libri 30 (83. 33) [formerly anc. Ashburnham,
Libri 83], folios 21v-22v.
Cited in these pages as Florence
Libri. A full description of MS Libri 30 is given by de
Poerck; the portion concerning the Planctus is reproduced here.
Lair's description (p. 63, note 1): "Ce manuscrit se compose de 68 feuillets
de petit format (195 millimètres sur 140), qui ont fait partie d'un volume
plus considérable, dont ils formaient les cahiers signés II-VIIII,
plus le commencement du dixième cahier. Le titre: De conflictu
viciorum et virtutum, inscrit en caractères du XIIe siècle au
bout de la première page, prouve que la perte du premier cahier est ancienne.
M. Léopold Delisle fait remonter l'écriture de cette copie de la
Complainte au moins au commencement du XIe siècle." The De conflictu
that is the primary component of the book is limited to a fairly small block of
text in the center of the pages; the planctus has been added in the ample
margins. In the illustration below, the planctus is the slightly
smaller handwriting surrounding the central blocks.
This version added to our knowledge of the planctus, since it
contains 17 verses, or five more than Clermont-Ferrand. The verses are in
a somewhat different order than Clermont-Ferrand, and the text is again not very
good. Lair theorized that some of the "new" verses in Florence Libri
are fragments of multiple verses that have collapsed, and that there were perhaps
originally 20 verses. But even with the new verses and some alternate readings,
the planctus remains a very problematical text, as demonstrated by several
attempts to establish a "true" edition.
The editions
Complainte
sur lassassinat de Guillaume Longue-épée, duc de Normandie,
edited by Jules Lair, Bibliothèque de lÉcole des chartes
31 (1870): 389-406. This edition was based only on Clermont-Ferrand,
and was superseded by Lair's second edition below; thus it is not used in these
pages.
Jules
Lair, Étude sur la vie et la mort de Guillaume Longue-épée,
duc de Normandie (Paris: Picard, 1893), 61-70. Cited in these
pages as Lair, it contains a revised edition taking Florence Libri
into account. This book also contains very good facsimiles of both manuscripts,
from which the scans on these pages were taken. I was pleasantly surprised
to find that, due to a happy quirk of the electrons, the scans were actually clearer
and more colorful than the plates in the Étude. Most of Lair's
study is interesting only in historiographical terms; he is far too trusting of
Dudo for his discussions of William's career to hold much weight. But by
presenting facsimiles, transcriptions, and an edition of the planctus all
under one cover, he provided an invaluable service to scholarship; it is the relative
inaccessibility of this book (at least on these shores) that has inspired me to
create this web site as a latter-day successor to Lair.
Wilhelm
Meyer, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur mittellateinischen Rythmik (Berlin:
Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1905), 1:218-219. This is not a true edition,
but rather a series of emendations to Lair's second edition. I have recreated
Meyer's version only for those verses in which he has a unique reading.
The entire text of his discussion (which is primarily a metrical analysis) can
be found here.
Complainte
sur la mort de Guillaume Longue-épée, in Philippe Lauer, Le
règne de Louis IV, Bibliothèque de lÉcole des hautes
études 127 (Paris: Émile Bouillon, 1900), 319-23. Cited
in these pages as Lauer. Here, the planctus is one of the
pièces justificatives, and is accompanied (at pp. 276-83) by an
appendix on the death of William. This appendix, however, does not treat
the event itself as much as give a useful (if brief) overview of subsequent historiography,
from Flodoard through William of Malmesbury and beyond.
Der
planctus auf den Normannenherzog Wilhelm Langschwert (942), editor Phillipp
August Becker, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur
63 (1939): 190-97. Cited in these pages as Becker. Contains
a very brief historical introduction, an edition of the text, and a translation
into German, with a few end notes on the text.
The translations
Der
planctus auf den Normannenherzog Wilhelm Langschwert (942), editor Phillipp
August Becker, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur
63 (1939): 190-97. Translation into German prose of the entire Planctus.
Cited in these pages as Becker.
Sørgekvadet
i Anledning af Vilhelm I' Død, translated by Erling Albrectsen, in
Flodoards annaler (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1987), 124-38.
Contains the Latin text of Lauer alongside a translation into Danish. Cited in
these pages as Albrectsen.
Felice Lifshitz,
The Norman Conquest of Pious Neustria: Historiographic Discourse and Saintly
Relics, 6841090, Studies and Texts 122 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute
of Mediaeval Studies, 1995), 174. Contains translations into English of
verses 2 and 3. Cited in these pages as Lifshitz.
The
Plaintsong of William Longsword, in The Normans in Europe,
edited by Elisabeth M. C. van Houts (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2000), 41. Cited in these pages as Van Houts. Contains
translations into English of verses 2, 3, 15, 16, and 17.
And a new translation
for these pages by Robert Helmerichs, cited as Helmerichs.
Description
of the pages in this site
One page contains links to commentaries on the
Planctus by various scholars, and other materials relating to it, including
a bibliography. Two pages contain transcriptions of both manuscripts, taken from
Lair but modified slightly after consultation with the plates. Each individual
verse page contains one verse of the Planctus, with scans from the manuscripts,
transcriptions of the manuscripts, and the text of the three main editions.
The order of the verses is that of the editions, all of which agree; the
manuscripts have different orders from each other and from the editions.
Each section is headed by the rubric for the source and the verse number in that
source (the manuscripts are not divided into verses, but the numbers refer to
the order in which they appear in the text). This is followed by Becker's
German translation and my own English translation, with Van Houts translation
of five of the verses and Lifshitz for two. Finally, where commentary
on the text of a verse exists in Lair or Becker, it appears at the end of each
page.
This
13th-century bust is, according to tradition, that of William Longsword. It is
found in the Musée de lAbbaye, logis abbatiale de Jumièges;
image scanned from Trésors des abbayes normandes (Rouen: Musée
des Antiquités/Caen: Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1979), p. 178, no. 218.
Tomb effigy
of William Longsword in the cathedral of Rouen, dating to the 14th century. Image
from cathedral promotional material.
Possible
coin of William Longsword, presently in the Musée des Antiquités
de Rouen. VVILELMVS, ROTOMAGVS. Click on pictures for larger images.
Scanned from Jean Renaud, Les Vikings et la Normandie (Rennes: Ouest-France,
1989), plates between pp. 64-65.
Acknowledgements
Thanks
to Christopher Crocket, who pointed out some typos; Ryan Patrick Crisp, who helped
me work through the translation of the especially difficult Verse 12; and Emily
Albu, who tried to impose some grace on my translations of several verses. Thanks
also to Anders Leegaard Knudsen, who directed my attention to the Albrectsen translation.
Download
this site
This link will enable you to download all the files on this site
for use on your home computer. Simply create a new directory, left-click on the
link, and choose Save target as (Explorer) or Save link as
(Navigator). Save the file in your Planctus directory, and use your favorite un-zipping
sofware to un-zip it. (If you dont have any un-zipping software, try Tucows;
search for pkzip and scroll down the screen; youll find some free stuff.)
Then, point your browser to Index.html in your Planctus directory, bookmark it,
and youre set! If the site is updated, you may want to download the new
versions.
Planctus version 1.4