Introduction

Manuscripts, Editions, Translations

The lay of Melion is preserved only in MS C, f. 343r, col. 1 – 344r, col. 4. A second manuscript (T), in which Melion occupied f. 60r, col. 1 – f. 63r, col. 1, was largely destroyed in the Turin fire of 1904. Variants from MS T were recorded in detail by Horak and are reproduced in Grimes. Melion is not found in the Norse Strengleikar collection.

Melion was first edited by L.-J.-N. Monmerqué and Francisque Michel in 1832 (pp. 43–67), then in 1882 by W. Horak, in 1928 by E. Margaret Grimes (pp. 102–33), in 1952 by Peter Holmes and in 1976 by Prudence M. O’H. Tobin in Les Lais anonymes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (pp. 289–318). Tobin's edition was reprinted in 1984 by Walter Pagani with a facing Italian translation (pp. 226–59) and again in 1992 by Alexandre Micha with a facing Modern French translation (pp. 258–91). The lay has also been translated into Modern French by Danielle Régnier-Bohler (1979, pp. 135–48) and Nathalie Desgrugillers (2003, pp. 83–94), into Dutch by Ludo Jongen and Paul Verhuyck (1985, pp. 40–46), into Spanish by Isabel de Riquer (1987, pp. 107–18) and into Japanese by Ryôko Ito in Lais bretons féeriques au Moyen Age (1998).

Date and Authorship

Following earlier scholars, Tobin supplies a broad date of composition between 1170 and 1267. From her examination of the internal textual evidence, especially the name of the hero, she posits a narrower date, between 1190 and 1204. The author of Melion is unknown. Tobin (p. 292) describes him as ‘un remanieur de vieux motifs, un jongleur professionnel’, whose talent is inferior to that of Marie de France.

Outline of the Story

Melion, a knight at Arthur's court, vows never to love a lady who has loved or spoken of another man. Angered, the ladies of the court ostracise Melion, whose unhappiness makes him lose interest in chivalric pursuits. To cheer him, Arthur gives him a valuable fiefdom, where he hunts and recovers his good spirits.