The Arthur of the Germans: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature (Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages) by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake

Author:W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Published: 2020-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Lodewijk van Velthem, Merlijn Continuation

After Arthur had pulled the sword from the stone and been chosen as king, Maerlant concluded his Book van Merline by saying that for a long period of time Arthur ruled his country in peace, a statement which accords with his Old French source, the Estoire de Merlin (The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, 2, 88). Some sixty years later Lodewijk van Velthem replaced ‘vreden’ with ‘onvreden’ (‘strife’, v. 10082) and added a lengthy narrative in which young King Arthur, assisted by Merlin, tries to subdue his rebellious noblemen. Velthem’s Merlijn Continuation counts around 26,000 lines (Jacob van Maerlant, Merlijn vv. 10409–36218).

Velthem’s romance is a faithful verse translation of the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin. This Old French text forms the link between the coronation of Arthur (in the Estoire de Merlin) and Lancelot’s birth (in the prose Lancelot). This raises the question of whether Velthem’s Merlijn Continuation was meant to fulfil the same function in Middle Dutch literature. If this is the case, Velthem may have wanted to link his work and Maerlant’s (Historie van den Grale and Boek van Merline) to the Lancelot Compilation, which contains a Middle Dutch translation of the prose Lancelot (see below). The fact that Velthem owned the only manuscript in which the compilation has been transmitted to us is in favour of this suggestion. On the other hand, it is strange that Velthem’s Merlijn Continuation does not end with a transition to the prose Lancelot, as is usual in the Suite-Vulgate du Merlin (The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, 2, 465–6). Because of Merlin’s fateful love for Viviane, Velthem ends his translation lamenting that women are capable of deceiving any man, however wise he may be (vv. 36192–207). He then writes that he finished his translation in 1326 (vv. 36208–18), without announcing a sequel (the Lancelot Compilation). Whether there is a connection between the three romances by Maerlant and Velthem on the one hand and the Lancelot Compilation on the other, is still an unsolved matter (Draak 1976, 6–10).

In Middle Dutch, Maerlant’s Historie van den Grale and Boek van Merline and Velthem’s Merlijn Continuation have been transmitted in fragmentary form only (Besamusca 1985, 34–9, 65–9; Kienhorst 1988, 66–7, 140–3; Klein, J. W. 1995, 9–10). In addition, an almost complete version of this trilogy has been preserved in a Middle Low German rendering from the Middle Dutch, in a codex from c. 1425 (Deschamps 1972, 33–5). This manuscript (Burgsteinfurt, Fürst zu Bentheimsche Schlossbibliothek, B 37) has always remained in the possession of the counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt.

A note at the end of the codex informs us that ‘joncher Euerwyn van guterswick Greue to benthem’ (referring to Everwin I of Bentheim (1397–1454) or his grandson Everwin II (1461–98)) owned more books containing Arthurian texts (Jacob van Maerlant, Historie van den Grale und Boek van Merline, 425). Besides ‘dit boeck merlijn’ (‘this book Merlin’), ‘twe nye boke van lantslotte’ (‘two new books about Lancelot’) and ‘eyn olt boek van lantslotte’ (‘an old book about Lancelot’) are mentioned.

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