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Guy Beyond Borders: An Analysis of Guido de Warwick (ALC 414 MS)

Guy sans frontières. Une analyse de Guido de Warwick (ALC 414 MS)
Ana Rita Martins
p. 103-116

Abstracts

Preserved at the very end of a (predominantly) twelfth-century homiletic collection in the Cistercian monastery in Alcobaça, Portugal, Guido de Warwick (Lisboa, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Fundo Alcobaça, 414 MS, fols 252v–253v) is a little-known text the importance of which is relevant when considering the transborder nature of medieval English romance. While many studies have been devoted to the recreations, adaptations, distribution and reception of Arthurian texts in medieval Iberia, very little has been written about the reception of “England’s other Arthur” (Wiggins and Field, 2007: xv), that is, Guy of Warwick. This article seeks to address this gap and, working on the assumption that the very existence of Guido de Warwick indicates a local interest in the legend, I aim to analyse whether this text remains invested in themes such as English identity formation and crusading. Furthermore, given how Guy of Warwick and the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick have been read as evidence of the frenzied production of Crusade fantasies in post-Crusade medieval England, how is Guy characterised as a hero in Guido de Warwick ?

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  • 1 See, for instance, Gos (2014) and Weiss (2007).

1Guy of Warwick has been described in many ways over the last decades: he is “the model of the knight of England” (Turville-Petre, 1996: 116), “England’s other Arthur” (Wiggins and Field, 2007: XV), and a “culture-hero” who not only “represents a complex understanding of the multiple allegiances demanded of a knight in medieval society” (Rouse, 2007: 97) but also “embod[ies] almost every important characteristic of a romance hero, and underg[oes] almost every kind of experience that a romance hero has a right to expect” (Mills, 1992: 54). Perhaps for this reason, the romance of Guy has been considered “the quintessential popular romance of England” (Wiggins and Field, 2007: XV) as its reach, intricacy and diversity of materials have crossed linguistic, cultural, geographic, and temporal boundaries, a movement which has generated several contemporary studies on the lives of Guy beyond the English border.1

  • 2  The choice of title might be contentious since the text is unnamed in the manuscript. Instead, the (...)
  • 3  Henceforth ALC 414 MS.
  • 4  The much-disputed dedication found in the first printed edition of Tirant lo Blanch (1490), by Joa (...)

2This article seeks to add to the discussion around Guy’s presence outside the British Isles by examining the unnamed text known as Guido de Warwick2 (Lisboa, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Fundo Alcobaça, ALC 414 MS, fols. 252v–253v),3 the only extant version of the romance Guy of Warwick translated into Latin in late medieval Portugal.4 Working on the assumption that the very existence of Guido de Warwick indicates—at the very least—a local interest in the legend and focusing on the character’s transborder nature, this article’s primary aim is to analyse the Portuguese version, taking into account two main lines of inquiry: 1) to consider whether the text remains invested in themes customarily associated with the narrative, such as chivalry and crusading; and 2) to reflect on Guy’s identity in Guido de Warwick.

An overview of ALC 414 MS

  • 5  The Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça was founded in 1153 by the first King of Portugal, Afonso (...)
  • 6  In addition to ALC 414 MS, the collection includes ALC 412 MS and ALC 413 MS, all of which are cur (...)
  • 7  They are: Bíblia: Génesis-Juízes, ALC 427 (mostly copied by João Pecador; 1176-1225); Bíblia: Reis (...)

3The prose epitome Guido de Warwick is preserved at the very end of a homiletic collection largely produced in the thirteenth century in the scriptorium of the Cistercian Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, one of the most important and productive Portuguese scriptoriums.5 Included in this manuscript are: Vita Sancti Rudesindi by Ordonius Cellae Novae (f. 1, first column-f. 7v, second column); Epistola Aldeberti ad Samerium Archidiaconum Bracharensem by Aldebertus Portuensis (f. 8r, second column); Homilias De Sanctis e De commune sanctorum (f. 8v first column-f. 252r, second column); and Guido de Warwick (f. 252v, first column-f. 253v, second column). Written in one hand, unlike the remaining texts found in ALC 414 MS, the Latin translation is dated to the mid-fifteenth century and is therefore a later addition to a collection of three codices6 that form a Nocturnalis Lectionarius produced between 1201-1300. All three manuscripts are associated with the same scribe, “Iohannes peccator” (João Pecador), who was most likely the one responsible for the scriptorium when the collection was fashioned (Nascimento, 1995: 447). References to his name appear not only in five other codices written in the same scriptorium,7 confirming his association with this specific monastery’s manuscript production, but also in the scribal colophon at the top of folio 252v, first column, which asks those who read it to remember him. Immediately after this earlier colophon, the story of Guido begins, taking up a total of six columns (c. 1600 words).

  • 8  An example of these enduring ties is testified by the fact that Philippa of Lancaster’s grandson, (...)
  • 9  For a comprehensive examination of the ties that bound the two houses, see: Faria (2013).

4While the manuscript’s place of production is clear, the text’s provenance remains rather obscure, namely because there is no record of a copy of the romance Guy of Warwick in Portugal before or during the fifteenth century. This, of course, does not mean that the story of Guy of Warwick was unheard of, especially considering two key factors: first, the diplomatic alliance established between Portugal and England on the 9th of May 1386, when the Treaty of Windsor was signed; second, the well-documented influence Philippa of Lancaster, John of Gaunt’s eldest child, had on the Portuguese literary and cultural scene upon her marriage to João I in 1387. According to Joyce Coleman, “Philippa of Lancaster imported English liturgy, exempla, alabasters, architecture, and purses, spreading anglophilia across many levels of Portuguese society” (2007: 154). She also sought to “bolster Anglo-Portuguese relations” (Coleman, 2007: 154) by “promoting Portugal’s national identity and its contacts with England” (Coleman, 2007: 149). Finally, Philippa is believed to have shaped her children’s formative years, imbuing them “with pride in their Lancastrian lineage, building and maintaining their connections with their English relations” (Coleman, 2007: 154) and telling them stories of English miliary victories (Russell, 2000: 25). As both her eldest sons came to rule the Portuguese kingdom, Duarte I (r. 1433-1438) and Pedro (regent between 1439-1448), her influence endured.8 Taking this into account, and given the prolific exchange between both kingdoms that not only included the circulation of goods, but also personnel as well as the familial and personal ties connecting the two royal houses, Lancaster and Aviz,9 there are sufficient reasons to believe that “England’s most successful medieval romance” (Wiggins and Field, 2007: XV) was known at the Portuguese court.

  • 10  The abbacy of Estêvão de Aguiar at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça lasted fifteen years ( (...)
  • 11  “throughout Estevão de Aguiar’s abbacy in Alcobaça, it is clear that there is an undeniable recipr (...)
  • 12  See especially Byrne (2021: 102-104).

5Furthermore, it should be noted that at least during Pedro’s regency ample communication took place between the Portuguese royal court and the Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça. Records show books were loaned to the court and the opposite might have happened too (Nascimento, 1994: 21). The intense exchange can be associated with the abbacy of Estêvão de Aguiar at the Monastery who, in addition to his role in Alcobaça, was also one of Pedro’s counselors.10 According to João L. Fontes and Paulo C. Lopes, “verifica-se ao longo de todo o abaciado de Estêvão de Aguiar em Alcobaça uma inequívoca reciprocidade entre a Coroa e esta comunidade monástica” (2021: 420).11 If an individual like Estêvão de Aguiar, for instance, came into contact with Guy’s story during one of his visits to the court, then the narrative might have been orally transmitted and, as posited by Nascimento, later written from memory in Alcobaça (1994: 21-22) around the mid-fifteenth century. On the issue of transmission, Aisling Byrne has looked at the Valencian works Guillem de Varoic (MS. 7811, fols. 164r-171r, Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid; mid-fifteenth century) and Tirant lo Blanche (1490) by Joanot Martorell and proposed three possibilities:12

[one] that Guido is adapted from the work [that is, translation] Martorell claims to have written in Portuguese or [two] that it was made from the same version of Guy of Warwick used by Martorell. […] [And three] it is also entirely possible that the work has no relationship to the Valencian texts at all. (2021:103-104)

  • 13  For further discussion on how the Anglo-Iberian chivalric fiction intertwines in this period, see (...)
  • 14  The earliest extant edition of the text, printed in Zaragoza, dates to 1508 but earlier printed ve (...)

Of course, these hypotheses are all rather imprecise but in the absence of further evidence, it is difficult to draw definite conclusions.13 What can be established with some certainty is that there seems to have been a liking for English heroes in fifteenth-century Iberian romances, testified both by Martorell’s works but also by the earlier Amadís de Gaula (c. thirteenth-fourteenth century),14 as well as a special interest in the Guy of Warwick tradition.

6Regarding the narrative itself, the Portuguese Latin rendition is an abridged version of the romance Guy of Warwick, offering very few details about the main character’s adventures in early life or his travels. It omits familiar events, such as the slaying of the dragon in Northumberland along with the hero’s reunion with his wife, and some key characters like Tirri and Herhaud. For the most part it also overlooks Reinbrun’s adventures who is only referred to in passing. However, regardless of its shortened form, the plot’s outline is identifiably that of the insular legend to which very few significant changes were made.

Reading a “historia latine exarata”: Medieval Portugal’s Guy

7Most versions of the tale of Guy of Warwick can be divided into two key parts. The first focuses on the hero’s early life, relaying how his love for Felice, the daughter of the earl of Warwick, leads Guy to be made a knight and travel through continental Europe and the East to win her hand in marriage. The second part generally begins after the couple’s wedding and recounts how Guy’s grief for his sins as a young knight prompt him to leave his pregnant wife and become a pilgrim. After many adventures, Guy returns to England where he defeats the champion of the invading Danes, Colbrond, and becomes a hermit, living in seclusion until he is finally reunited with Felice just before his death.

  • 15  Throughout the remainder of the text, the names of the characters will be spelt as they are in the (...)
  • 16  “[…] he acquired the name of the best knight of the whole world at that time.”

8Guido de Warwick narrates both sections, but the first part is the most significantly reduced: in one column and a half in folio 252v, the poet-narrator recounts Guino’s (Guy’s) love for Felix (Felice),15 who will only grant him her hand in marriage once the hero becomes a knight and proves himself on the field of battle. To do so, Guino departs England twice: first, he travels to France and Germany (f. 252v, first column) and second, to Rome, Italy, Greece and Prussia (f. 252v, second column), eventually obtaining the title of the greatest knight in the world, “melioris militis totius mundi tunc temporis acquisiuit” (f. 252v, second column).16 Finally, Guino returns to Warwick and marries Felix.

  • 17  “One day he asked Felix for the love of God and Guino’s soul, he prayed that a hermitage might be (...)
  • 18  “the divine voice throbbed in his ear.”
  • 19  “Thanks be to God. A history written in Latin.”

9The second part of the text, which occupies the remaining folios, begins when, forty days after the wedding, the hero repents that he has neglected God for so long through his excessive devotion to Felix and leaves England for the third time (f. 252v, second column). Pregnant, Felix accepts the hero’s decision, and he splits a ring in two, departing with one half and leaving the other with his wife. Guino wanders as a pilgrim for eighteen years until he is challenged by a young knight who is revealed to be the unborn child he had left in England. A short skirmish ensues, but the youth quickly lets him go and “after a long time” (“Post diuturnum tempus,” f. 253r, first column), Guino returns to Warwick where he joins the poor who beg for food near Warwick Castle. There, he feels comforted by Felix’s generosity and piousness; despite not recognizing him, she favours Guino. He asks Felix to build a hermitage in the vicinity of Warwick: “Ecce dies qua ille Felicem dei amore et Guini anima sui uiri petiitque orauit quod heremitorium leucam ab oppido Baruic distans edificari preciperet, in quo dies

paucos in dei amoreque seruitio finiret” (f. 253r, first column).17 While Guino leads an isolated life, a foreign king, Ouius (Anlaf), arrives in England and defeats the here nameless English monarch. Desperate, and with no English champion to fight against the giant Colobronte (Colbrond), the king hears a divine voice (“uox ecce illius aures pulsauit diuina,” f. 253r, second column),18 telling him of an old man clothed in white who will be victorious. Unwilling, Guino is persuaded to fight the monstrous opponent, whom he defeats, and returns to his hermitage in Warwick, at which point the story ends with “Deo gracias. Historia latine exarata” (f. 253v, second column).19 This short outline of the narrative presented in Guino de Warwick evidences that the standard plotline is followed. However, on account of how much has been excluded, the scenes and characters that are included become crucial, which is why it is important to consider them in the textual analysis.

  • 20  “I know that I erred in it and hope to amend, [so] I direct my steps to Jerusalem and to other pla (...)
  • 21  “Sweet friend, he said, the love of God I lost for my love for you and did many evils against His (...)

10To begin with, the exile-and-return motif, here triplicated, remains a crucial element in the story, as Guino’s geographical departures and returns signal the different stages of the hero’s life and identity: first, as a newly knighted youth; second, as a consummated warrior; and third, as a pilgrim. The reasons for the hero’s self-imposed exiles remain the same as the ones found in insular tradition: for the first two journeys he leaves Warwick to seek glory and attain Felix’s love but the last trip, as revealed by Guino, is one of atonement: “in illum me errare cognosco optoque emendari et Iherusalem gressus dirigere et ad cetera loca que romipite solent uisitare et in his tempus uite patrare!” (f. 252v, second column).20 As in other versions of the tale, one is presented with a main male character who, in the first part, continues to be a “troubling figure of a crusading knight motivated not by God, but by his own continuing quest for chivalric glory” (Rouse, 2007: 99). Guino’s epiphany becomes the catalyst for his transformation from secular knight with a worldly commitment (to Felix) into a pilgrim with a zealous devotion (to God/Christ). Concerns such as the legitimate employment of violence and the placement of worldly passions above pious prowess are thus recognisable in the text, especially in the second section when Guino wonders about the ephemeral nature of all material things and the deaths he caused to obtain fame for the love of a woman, “dulcís amica, ait, tui amore dei amorem perdidi et mala multa contra eius uoluntatem peregi” (f. 252v, second column).21

  • 22  “Moreover, on whatever sides of the battle he found excellent soldiers, he sought them out. Finall (...)
  • 23  “First he set off to Rome, secondly to Jerusalem, thirdly to Saint Catherine; in the same way in s (...)

11However, it is striking that almost nothing is revealed about the knight’s journeys in both parts of the narrative. Guino is said to have performed many remarkable feats abroad, yet they are never described, and although he is the best knight in the whole world, the only allusion to how he attained such a title is given in two short sentences, “Ceterum quibuscumque partibus pugna excelentes milites sciebat hos indagabat. Demum, maiora opera nunc quam primum fecit, unquam uictus est” (f. 252v, second column).22 Likewise, when Guino leaves Warwick for the third time, the poet-narrator condenses the hero’s adventures into a single sentence, “Primo per Romam commisit, secundo Iherusalem, tertio in Sanctam Catherinam; similiter per similia loca suum tempus consummabat” (fols. 252v-253r, second and first columns respectively).23 The omission of any details regarding the hero’s accomplishments abroad suggests that what is at stake in Guido de Warwick is not Guino’s life of martial prowess but his piety and devotion to God. While Guino might be read as milites Christi in this narrative, a point supported elsewhere (Nascimento, 1995), when he exiles himself from England for the last time, the text emphasises that he is leaving everything behind: the affection of his wife; the joy of his son’s birth, which equals the perpetuation of his lineage; the consolation provided by family, friends and a space that is recognisably home; the renown he has attained.

  • 24  “The old man defended himself as best he could.”

12Robert Rouse’s discussion focuses primarily on the role played by Guy in the version of Guy of Warwick contained in the Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.2.1 (also known as, the Auchinleck Manuscript, c. 1330), and he claims that “Guy’s pilgrim status does not in fact replace his role as chivalric knight” (2007: 104). However, in Guido de Warwick the opposite seems to be closer to the truth. In fact, the poet-narrator is so little concerned with martial prowess and feats of arms that such scenes almost disappear from the text. An example of this is when, even though they are unaware of each other’s identity, Guino refuses to fight his son, claiming that as a servant of God and the Virgin Mary (“seruit dei et uirgini, ait,” f. 253r, first column), he no longer wishes to enter meaningless combats. For that reason, Guino defends himself from the young knight but does not attempt to strike him: “Senex ut se melius poterat defendebat” (f. 253r, first column).24 According to Aires Nascimento, ultimately the poet-narrator seeks to show that happiness cannot be obtained in this world, so one must ensure it in the next, even if this means letting go of familial relationships to devote oneself to the service of others and the performance of good deeds (1995: 459). Guino’s acts of physical asceticism are, therefore, less associated with valorous fighting and more with meritorious suffering through self-imposed seclusion, poverty, and chastity. Atonement is achieved by leading a peaceful existence as a meek pilgrim exiled from worldly affairs—a view that the annotations drawn in the manuscript’s margins seem to confirm.

  • 25  The digitised manuscript (see Bibliography) is available via Portugal’s Digital National Library, (...)
  • 26  “But almighty God, helping his companions, enabled him to approach the chariot in which the giant’ (...)

13The folios occupied by Guido de Warwick all present marginal notations, drawing the readers’ attention to specific scenes. These are: 1) Guino’s decision to leave Warwick and become a pilgrim (f. 252v); 2) the dispute between Guino and his son; 3) a hermitage is built near Warwick; 4) a heavenly voice speaks to the English king; 5) Guino accepts to fight Colobronte for the love of God and the Virgin Mary (2-5 in f. 253r); 6) a temporary pause in the fight between Guino and Colobronte; 7) God favours Guino on the battlefield; 8) Guino’s plea to return to his hermitage; 9) Guino’s name is revealed to the English king who vows never to reveal it for as long as the hero lives (6-9 in f. 253v). By examining each of these annotations,25 it becomes clear they are intentional and indicate that the scribe is highlighting moments in the text he thinks are significant. The fact that only one of them is adjacent to a dispute between two knights, that is, the encounter between father and son, underscores the sense that readers are not supposed to focus on Guino’s knightly prowess but on his selfless and nonviolent path to spiritual merit. Furthermore, the closest annotations to Guino and Colobronte’s fight, the only battle described in significant detail, do not seem intended to stress moments of remarkable martial performance, but Guino’s nobility and generosity: first, when he allows Colobronte to drink water from a nearby river; second, pointing to God’s assistance: “Sed omnipotens deus cun[c]tos suos iuuans posse illi dedit ut currui accederet in quo gigantis arma dupla erant” (f. 253v, first column).26

14Divine intervention in the battlefield, though not unusual, shows that Guino has achieved forgiveness for any transgressions he may have committed in his youth. In addition, it attests that he has been chosen by Divine Providence to become England’s saviour since it is the Lord’s direct interference that allows the English champion to reach the double-edged battle axe he uses to sever the giant’s arms and head. The inclusion of the battle between Guino and Colobronte also attests that Guino’s chivalric identity is not completely erased from the text and the passage—as well as the space it occupies in the folio—can be seen both as a confirmation of the popularity of this specific extract and of Guino’s heroic identity. As Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues, “[t]he hero must fight a giant” (1999: 73), because battling giants is part of the hero’s identity formation process, a concept that seems to be particularly true for insular heroes who are as a rule seen fighting opponents of gigantic proportions, as is the case of Brutus and Arthur, for example. Hence, although the poet-narrator seems to have wished to focus on the hagiographical aspects of the Guy tradition, the knight’s status as a chivalric hero was impossible to sanitise, especially in a scene where redeeming suffering derives from licit fighting. Moreover, the insertion of this scene in Guido de Warwick is interesting for the text mixes aspects conventionally associated with the hero’s combat with another giant, Amorant.

  • 27  The scene is described, for instance, in the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick contained in the Auchinleck M (...)
  • 28  “Said the giant: ‘I pray that we may take a drink from the water of the river that flows by.’ Answ (...)
  • 29  It is worth noting that although Amorant is often described as a Saracen while Colbront is said to (...)

15In the insular tradition Guy fights two opponents of gargantuan size: first, Amorant, whom he defeats in the Holy Land, and then, upon his return to England, Colbrond, the Danish invaders’ gigantic champion. Guido de Warwick only mentions the latter and contains at least one detail found in Guy’s first encounter with a colossal opponent: the moment when the Saracen giant—Amorant—asks the hero’s permission to drink water from a river close by, leading to a temporary cessation of hostilities.27 However, in the Portuguese text the whole sequence takes place when Guino fights against Colobronte and is described as follows: “Cui gigas: oro ut potum sumamus de fluuii aqua secus currentis. Cui senex: sitim non patior. Iterum orauit et fas impetrauit nobilitatisque curialitatis causa. Bibit ergo solus et se ut primo quietum inuenit pugnamque fortius cepit” (f. 253v, first column).28 Following the customary plotline, the battle ends with the giant’s decapitation with very little being said about Colobronte aside from him being a giant (“gigante,” f. 253r, second column; “gigas,” f. 253v, first column)—and fighting, at the end, like a bull (“tauri ludo,” f. 253v, first column).29 As argued by Cohen, “[b]attles against inimical giants that culminate in a decapitation uncannily recur in the myth, literature, and historiography of the West,” frequently functioning as a rite of passage that helps construct “a stable vision of adult masculinity” (1999: 66) as well as “precipitat[e] full heroic identity” (1999: 81). In Guido de Warwick, the decisive battle against Colobronte can be read as “the fullest manifestation of Guy’s multi-layered identity as [a] chivalric, Christian, and English […] culture-hero” (Rouse, 2007: 108).

16It is not irrelevant, I believe, that the sole scene in which Guino energetically fights against an opponent is in England and in defence of its sovereignty. On the contrary, this choice may signal an acknowledgement of Guy’s role as a defender of the English land and people, and his importance “in the discourse of identity politics” (Rouse, 2007: 94), given that heroes are crucial to the articulation of communal or national identities. Yet, once again, such conclusions are difficult to substantiate given that once the battle is over and king Ouius leaves England, the text abruptly ends. Guino returns to his life as a hermit, revealing his identity to no one except the English king, who is sworn to secrecy.

  • 30  “[Despite feeling] sad and mournful, she could not oppose; then the ring was divided in half, and (...)
  • 31  In tracking the circulation of the Middle English romance Guy, Wiggins notes that there are five d (...)

17By the end of the text, it becomes obvious that several narrative threads are introduced but never resolved, including the fate of Guino’s anonymous son and the reunion between husband and wife, a moment anticipated by the allusion to the motif of the half-ring: “Illa mesta tristisque lugubris opponi non potuit; tunc anulus per medium diuisit et sua pars unuicuique mansit” (f. 252v, second column).30 This reference connects the Latin epitome “to English-language versions of the Guy legend, rather than to the versions in Anglo-Norman or with the French prose text” (Byrne, 2021: 101) because the detail of the half-ring seems to occur exclusively in texts associated with the late medieval earls of Warwick and not in earlier sources (Wiggins, 2000: 70; Driver, 2007: 139). What is more, the description of the location of Guino’s hermitage in Guido de Warwick suggests the text is closer to what Alison Wiggins designates the “E-version” of the Middle English romance.31 Although most versions tend to give a “vague, non-particularised description of the hermitage” that emphasises its remoteness (Wiggins, 2000: 52), the version found in the Cambridge University Library MS Ff.2.38 (CUL) specifies a medieval hermitage that had come to be associated with Guy and is close to Warwick (Wiggins 2000: 52):

  • 32  “Near Warwick he went, / To a hermit that he knew / On the riverside a house he had / A great holy (...)

Besydes Warwykk go he can
To an ermyte bat he knewe or ban
On a ryuere syde hys hows he hadde
A full holy lyfe he there ladde
Besydes Warwyke bat was hys.
That Gybbeclyf clepyd ys (Guy of Warwick, CUL 10525-10530)32

  • 33  The Portuguese translation of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, albeit now lost, is another example.

18According to Wiggins, the excerpt above is one of five passages from the CUL text “for which there is no known source, and which represent significant deviations from [the Anglo-Norman] Gui and from the other [Middle English] versions of Guy” (2000: 50). As mentioned, in Guido de Warwick the hero “prayed that a hermitage might be built at a distance from the town of Warwick” (“orauit quod heremitorium leucam ab oppido Baruic distans edificari preciperet,” f. 253r, first column), which suggests that the hermitage was built at a suitable distance from Warwick but not in a remote location. As a result, and despite the lack of written records, “[t]he translation of a work from England and focusing on an English knight in Portugal in this period is eminently plausible” (Byrne, 2021: 96), and indeed it is not be the only instance of translation from Middle English in medieval Iberia.33

  • 34  In a study published in 2020, “Relatos Prodigiosos nos Códices do Mosteiro de Alcobaça,” Catarina (...)
  • 35  The close association between the Guy tradition, namely the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick, and the Life (...)

19The purpose of adding an account like Guido de Warwick at the very end of an otherwise deeply homiletic codex raises other questions, though as Barreira and Farelo have shown, the ALC 414 MS is not an isolated case in the scriptorium of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça among whose collection one can find religious and theoretical texts interspersed with marvellous narratives.34 It is then conceivable that these tales of adventure were used not only as literary resources aimed to entertain, but also played a key role in the monks’ doctrinal and catechistic education (Barreira and Farelo, 2020: 198). The contributions of Bernard of Clairvaux, for whom the monastery was founded, could too have influenced the scriptorium’s decision to write down its own version of the Guy tradition. Indeed, the French abbot’s Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militia (c. 1130), which advocates a new kind of knighthood that wages war both against men of flesh and blood and against the spiritual forces of evil, was read in Alcobaça, making it likely that those inhabiting the monastery regarded Guy as a good exemplum of St Bernard’s views on the moral code of knights. Nascimento draws a similar conclusion (1995: 459), adding that the monks at Alcobaça might even, in part, have seen themselves in Guino at a time when reformation and the spiritual authority of abbots like Estevão de Aguiar was becoming increasingly widespread (1994: 21).35

20To conclude, as a widely popular figure “whose cultural and literary status was open to interpretation and appropriation” (Wiggins and Field, 2007: XVIII), Guy seems to be a suitable choice for the scriptorium of a monastery that, in the fifteenth century, was going through a period of reformation. The influence of works by Bernard of Clairvaux, of abbots such as Estevão de Aguiar along with the likelihood that the Guy of Warwick tradition was known both at the Aviz court and Alcobaça help explain the monks’ interest in making a copy of the narrative that pays far more attention to the hero’s spiritual growth and penance than to martial exploits. The Latin epitome thus follows the pattern of a saint’s life more closely, stressing the hero’s identity as a pilgrim and a hermit whose path to atone for the sins of his chivalric youth is one of passive forbearance and self-imposed isolation.

21Yet, in a curious plot twist, the hero does not quite obtain the status of saint in Guino de Warwick, given that the narrative fails to include his death and presumed ascension to heaven. The reasons for this are a matter of speculation but, as argued by Byrne, the scribe might have just run out of space (2021: 109). Of course, this premise is not without problems, leading to further questions such as why waste so many words in Guino and Colobronte’s battle? If the scribe’s goal was indeed to focus on the hero’s piety, it would have made more sense to truncate the fight sequence. Including the fight between both champions also thwarts the deliberate attempt to supress the most violent, chivalrous scenes of the romance tradition. And as a result, Guino’s heroic identity is never entirely purged from the Latin text. Similarly, even though his motivation is rooted in his devotion to God and the Virgin Mary, Guino’s role as defender of the English land and its people remains unaltered, which suggests that Guido de Warwick may be included in the set of narratives out of which Englishness is constructed even if only in very brief terms.

22At this time, it seems that the character’s manifold identities as a knight, a pilgrim, a hermit and an English champion are carefully reiterated. Likewise, so are many of the themes associated with the Guy tradition, namely love and devotion, penance and redemption, and the transience of worldly fame, all of which would have appealed to the monks residing at the Cistercian Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça. Although many questions remain unanswered, proving that Guy of Warwick’s many lives beyond English territory remain a rich field of research, Guy’s status as a “culture-hero” (Rouse, 2007: 97) who embodies diverse identity groups throughout the course of his life is strengthened and amplified in medieval Iberian tradition.

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Bibliography

BYRNE, A. (2020): “From Hólar to Lisbon: Middle English literature in medieval translation, c. 1286-c. 1550,” Review of English Studies 71: 433-459. https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgz085.

BYRNE, A. (2021): “Guy of Warwick in Iberia: England, Portugal and the background to ‘Tirant lo Blanch’,” Medium Aevum, 90.1, p. 92-109.

BARREIRA, C. & FARELO, M. (2020): “Relatos prodigiosos nos códices do Mosteiro de Alcobaça,” in ORRIOLS, A., CERDÀ, J. & DURAN-PORTA, J. (eds.), Imago & mirabilia. Las formas del prodigio en el Mediterráneo medieval, Bellaterra, Publicacions de la UAB, p. 193-201.

COHEN, J.J. (1999): Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages, Medieval Cultures, 17, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

COLEMAN, Joyce (2007): “Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal—and Patron of the Gower Translations?” in BULLÓN-FERNÁNDEZ, M. (ed.), England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century, New York and Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 135-165.

DRIVER, M.W. (2007): “‘In her owne persone semly and bewteus:’ Representing Women in Stories of Guy of Warwick,” in WIGGINS, A. & FIELD, R. (eds.), Guy of Warwick: Icon and Ancestor, Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, p. 133-153.

FONTES, J.L. & LOPES, P.C. (2021): “Entre o claustro e o século : a mobilidade dos monges de Alcobaça em tempos de Reforma (1431-1446),” in POLÓNIA, A. & MANGAS, F. (eds.), Mobilidades: olhares transdisciplinares sobre um conceito global, Porto, CITCEM – Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar Cultura, p. 409-426.

GOS, G. (2014): “New Perspectives on the Reception and Revision of Guy of Warwick in the Fifteenth Century,” in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 113.2, p. 156-183, DOI: 10.1353/egp.2014.0034.

Guido de Warwick. MS Alc. 414, fols 252v-253v. Lisboa, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Fundo de Alcobaça. Biblioteca Nacional Digital. https://bndigital.bnportugal.gov.pt/records/item/13910-homiliario?offset=1.

KAEUPER, R.W. (2009): Holy Warriors: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 344 p.

MILLS, M. (1992): “Structure and Meaning in Guy of Warwick,” in SIMONS, J. (ed), From Medieval to Medievalism, London, MacMillan, p. 54-68.

NASCIMENTO, A. (1994): “Leitura de príncipes: Gui de Warwick, um romance de cavalaria na corte de Avis,” Oceanos, 17, p. 3-23.

NASCIMENTO, A. (1995): “Guido de Warwick, historia latine exarata: Um Epígono de Romance de Cavalaria entre os Monges de Alcobaça,” in PAREDES, J. (ed.), Actas del V Congreso de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval, vol. III, p. 447-461.

ROUSE, R. (2007): “An Exemplary Life: Guy of Warwick as Medieval Culture-Hero,” in WIGGINS, A. & FIELD, R. (eds.), Guy of Warwick: Icon and Ancestor, Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, p. 94-109.

ROUSE, R. (2012): “Crusaders,” in CARTLIDGE, N. (ed.), Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance, Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, p. 173-184.

RUSSELL, P. (2000): Prince Henry “the Navigator”: A Life, New Haven, Yale University Press.

TURVILLE-PETRE, T. (1996): England the Nation: Language, Literature, and National Identity, 1290-1340, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

WIGGINS, A. (2000): Guy of Warwick: Study and Transcription, PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.

WIGGINS, A. & FIELD, R. (2007): “Editorial Introduction: Namoore of this! How to read Guy of Warwick and Why,” in WIGGINS, A. & FIELD, R. (eds.), Guy of Warwick: Icon and Ancestor, Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, p. XV-XXI.

WOLLOCK, J.G. (2007): “Medieval England and Iberia: A Chivalric Relationship,” in BULLÓN-FERNÁNDEZ, M. (ed.), England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th–15th Century, New York and Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 11-28.

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Notes

1 See, for instance, Gos (2014) and Weiss (2007).

2  The choice of title might be contentious since the text is unnamed in the manuscript. Instead, there is simply a reference to a “historia latine exarata” on the last line (f. 253v, second column), that is, a (hi)story written in Latin. However, contemporary scholars, like Byrne (2020; 2021), Barreira and Farelo, (2020), Nascimento (1994; 1995), who have published on the text refer to it as Guido de Warwick, a convention to which this article adheres.

3  Henceforth ALC 414 MS.

4  The much-disputed dedication found in the first printed edition of Tirant lo Blanch (1490), by Joanot Martorell, mentions that the author had translated (from English) into Portuguese an earlier version of the Guy of Warwick narrative. However, the date of Martorell’s alleged note, January 6, 1460, has been challenged as well as the likelihood of the Valencian knight having sufficient knowledge of Portuguese to translate the text. Despite these issues, both Byrne (2021) and Nascimento (1994; 1995) agree that Martorell is most likely the author of the dedication, which implies that a (now lost) Portuguese translation might have, in fact, been completed before Guido de Warwick. Of further note is the fact that Martorell addresses D. Fernando, second son of the Portuguese king D. Duarte (r. 1433-1438), who supposedly asked him to translate the text.

5  The Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça was founded in 1153 by the first King of Portugal, Afonso I, and completed in 1223. Known for producing religious texts, liturgical books, historical chronicles, and other scholarly works since around the late twelfth century, the Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça was one of the most important Cistercian abbeys in continental Europe.

6  In addition to ALC 414 MS, the collection includes ALC 412 MS and ALC 413 MS, all of which are currently kept in Portugal’s National Library in Lisbon in the larger collection entitled “Códices Alcobacenses.”

7  They are: Bíblia: Génesis-Juízes, ALC 427 (mostly copied by João Pecador; 1176-1225); Bíblia: Reis e dois Livros das Crónicas, ALC 428 (mostly copied by João Pecador; 1176-1225); Bíblia: Job, Livros de Salomão, Tobias, Judite, Ester, Esdras, Nehemías, Macabeus, ALC 429 (mostly copied by João Pecador; 1176-1225); Livros dos Doze Profetas Menores com a Glosa Ordinária, ALC 157 (1201-1300); Enarrationes in Evangelium Sancti Matthaei by Godefridus Babio, ALC 341 (1201-1300).

8  An example of these enduring ties is testified by the fact that Philippa of Lancaster’s grandson, Afonso V of Portugal, was ordered into the Order of the Garter, like his father and grandfather before him.

9  For a comprehensive examination of the ties that bound the two houses, see: Faria (2013).

10  The abbacy of Estêvão de Aguiar at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça lasted fifteen years (1431-1446) during which numerous journeys took place. In Livro 14, also known as Livro da Fazenda (Fundo de Alcobaça, 1437-1440), 238 trips are recorded and although the number may be higher, as suggested by Fontes and Lopes (2021: 415), it evidences great mobility from and to the monastery.

11  “throughout Estevão de Aguiar’s abbacy in Alcobaça, it is clear that there is an undeniable reciprocity between the Portuguese crown and the monastic community.” Translations are my own unless otherwise noted. The translation of the Portuguese Latin epitome into English is part of a forthcoming project, so all translations are a work in progress.

12  See especially Byrne (2021: 102-104).

13  For further discussion on how the Anglo-Iberian chivalric fiction intertwines in this period, see Wollock (2007).

14  The earliest extant edition of the text, printed in Zaragoza, dates to 1508 but earlier printed versions are believed to have been made, including in Portuguese.

15  Throughout the remainder of the text, the names of the characters will be spelt as they are in the Latin Guido de Warwick, except when referencing characters found in manuscripts produced in England. Therefore, while “Colobronte” for example refers to the character found in Guido, “Colbront” is employed to discuss insular texts.

16  “[…] he acquired the name of the best knight of the whole world at that time.”

17  “One day he asked Felix for the love of God and Guino’s soul, he prayed that a hermitage might be built at a distance from the town of Warwick, in which he would end his last days in the love and service of God.”

18  “the divine voice throbbed in his ear.”

19  “Thanks be to God. A history written in Latin.”

20  “I know that I erred in it and hope to amend, [so] I direct my steps to Jerusalem and to other places which pilgrims are wont to visit and spend their time!”

21  “Sweet friend, he said, the love of God I lost for my love for you and did many evils against His will.”

22  “Moreover, on whatever sides of the battle he found excellent soldiers, he sought them out. Finally, he did greater works than before, [and he] was never defeated.”

23  “First he set off to Rome, secondly to Jerusalem, thirdly to Saint Catherine; in the same way in similar places, he spent his time.”

24  “The old man defended himself as best he could.”

25  The digitised manuscript (see Bibliography) is available via Portugal’s Digital National Library, though the annotations are not entirely visible.

26  “But almighty God, helping his companions, enabled him to approach the chariot in which the giant’s double-edged arms were.”

27  The scene is described, for instance, in the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick contained in the Auchinleck Manuscript.

28  “Said the giant: ‘I pray that we may take a drink from the water of the river that flows by.’ Answered the old man: ‘I do not suffer from thirst.’ Again, he [Colobronte] prayed and obtained justice and nobility for the cause. He therefore drank alone, and as at first found himself at rest, [he] took up the fight with more strength.”

29  It is worth noting that although Amorant is often described as a Saracen while Colbront is said to be a gigantic African champion, there are no references to Saracens or other non-Christian characters throughout Guido de Warwick, which is a striking choice in view of Portugal’s five centuries of Muslim rule.

30  “[Despite feeling] sad and mournful, she could not oppose; then the ring was divided in half, and each one had his own part.”

31  In tracking the circulation of the Middle English romance Guy, Wiggins notes that there are five different versions from the early fourteenth to the late fifteenth century. Of those, only two versions survive in more than one text; they are the A-Version and the E-Version. The E-Version, which for the purpose of this paper is the most relevant, is comprised of two manuscripts: 1) Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 107/176 (c. 1475), lines 4413-5186 and 5778-7196; 2) Cambridge University Library MS Ff.2.38 (c. 1500), fols. 161r-239r. For more details, see: Wiggins (2000: Chapter Two, subparts Five and Six).

32  “Near Warwick he went, / To a hermit that he knew / On the riverside a house he had / A great holy life there he had / Near Warwick that was his / That Gibcliff called is.”

33  The Portuguese translation of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, albeit now lost, is another example.

34  In a study published in 2020, “Relatos Prodigiosos nos Códices do Mosteiro de Alcobaça,” Catarina Fernandes Barreira and Mário Farelo discuss several short texts that can be associated with mirabilia. These they divide into three main themes: 1) records connected to the monastery’s construction and its legendary origins; 2) accounts of the marvellous associated with journeys, wherein Guido de Warwick is included; 3) short narratives about wondrous events, often natural phenomena that surprised or frightened the monks and the community. Regarding point two, Barreira and Farelo argue that many of these accounts written in Alcobaça are found in more theoretical codices, as if to show how to apply the theory in real life. Along with Guido de Warwick, the examples provided include: De Solistitionis ínsula magna by Pseudo-Trezenzónio (ALC 37 MS) and Navigatio Sancti Brendani as well as Epistola Iohannis Presbyteri (ALC 380 MS).

35  The close association between the Guy tradition, namely the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick, and the Life of Saint Alexis may, of course, have contributed to the interest in the story too. However, further research must be conducted on the popularity of St Alexis at the monastery. For a more in-depth discussion of the relationship between Guy of Warwick and the Life of Saint Alexis, see: Crane (1984) and Klausner (1975).

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References

Bibliographical reference

Ana Rita Martins, “Guy Beyond Borders: An Analysis of Guido de Warwick (ALC 414 MS)”Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines, 59 | 2025, 103-116.

Electronic reference

Ana Rita Martins, “Guy Beyond Borders: An Analysis of Guido de Warwick (ALC 414 MS)”Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines [Online], 59 | 2025, Online since 30 June 2025, connection on 19 April 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ranam/1836; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/148d2

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About the author

Ana Rita Martins

Universidade de Lisboa.

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