Very useful are the translations by D
D. R. Owen, Guillaume le Clerc, Fergus of Galloway: Knight of King Arthur (London and Rutland, VT, 1991) – earlier published mediante Arthurian Literature 8 (1989), 79–183 – which has excellent libretto and appendices, and R. Wolf-Bonvin, La Chevalerie des sots. Le roman de Fergus. Trubert, fabliau du XIIIe siecle (Paris, 1990). For convenience all references to Chretien’s works are esatto the texts which appeared durante the Lettres Gothiques series and are reprinted by Michel Zink, Chretien de Troyes: Romans, Classiques Modernes, La Pochotheque (Paris, 1994): including Erec et Enide; Cliges; Le Chevalier de la Charette (or Le Roman de Lancelot); Le Chevalier au Lion (or Le Roman d’Yvain); Le Conte du Graal (or Le Roman de Perceval). All translations are taken from Owen, Fergus, and Chretien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. D. D. R. Owen (London and Rutland, VT, 1987; rep. 1991). See Owen, Fergus, pp. 162–69 and his articles referred sicuro below. The oldest of the Dutch romances, it is generally attributed puro two authors, the first following the version now offered by the Chantilly manuscript of Fergus, and the second (lines 2593–5604) working from memory. See Dutch Romances vol. 2: Ferguut, di nuovo. D. F. Johnson and G. H. M. Claassens (Cambridge, 2000), who suggest (p. 6) per date for Fergus of the first quarter of the thirteenth century. On the basis of his doctoral dissertation, now published as Op zoek naar Galiene: over de Oudfranse Fergus en de Middelnederlandse Ferguut (Amsterdam, 1991), R. M. Tau. Zemel suggests that Fergus may even date from as early as c. 1200. L. Spahr, ‘Ferguut, Fergus, and Chretien de Troyes’, mediante Traditions and Transitions: Studies per Honor of Harold Jantz, ancora. L. Addirittura. Kurth et al. (Munich, 1972), pp. 29–36. The unique manuscript of Ferguut is dated sicuro the middle of the fourteenth century: see Ferguut and Galiene: Verso Facsimile of the only extant Middle Dutch manuscript, University Library Leiden, Letterkunde 191, with an introduction by M. J. M. de Haan (Leiden, 1974).
Mai comment on dating is made by B
eighteen locations in all) with a glance north of the Forth preciso Escoche proper (cf. line 2589, ‘En Eschoce u en Lodien’). The journey times indicated are realistic and the narrator offers per number of apparently informed comments on local customs. The ‘Scottishness’ of Fergus is thus firmly established and is preciso be taken seriously.4 Arthur’s seat at ‘Carduel en Gales’, usually taken sicuro be Carlisle, is familiar from many of the romances as is the region of Strathclyde per general. The originality of the Fergus author is puro have abandoned the more conventional Scottish toponymy for places, like Galloway, with a much less reassuring reputation, thereby extending Scotland’s appearance in romance literature. There have been several attempts esatto interpret the work as mediante some sense an ‘ancestral romance’, whether written for Alan of Galloway (d. 1234), great-grandson of the historical Fergus, on the 
occasion of his marriage c. 1209, or John of Balliol (a stepson of Alan) and his wife Devorguilla durante the period 1234–41 sicuro strengthen the claim of their eldest affranchit Hugh sicuro the Scottish throne.5 There has even been an attempt onesto identify the author with William Malveisin, a royal clerk of French provvista, who ended his career as bishop of St Andrews (1202–1238).6 Such researches, speculative though they must remain, justify the inclusion of Fergus con any history of literature sopra Scotland,7 though it might be said that if any of them were true, it would be puzzling that the author did not give clearer clues esatto his identity or political purpose.8 The Scottish connection need not, however, mean that the rete informatica was actually written con Scotland or composed by per writer resident there – per writer who calls himself simply ‘Guillaume le clerc’ (line 7004). The two surviving manuscripts, from the second half of the thirteenth century, are both marked by Picardisms and one of them by traces of Walloon. So far as the poet’s own dialect is concerned, he seems sicuro be writing con the more or less canone literary French of northern France.9 One of the manuscripts is the famous collection of continental Arthurian texts MS Chantilly, Musee Conde 472 from which Fergus was edited by both Ernst Martin (1872) and Wilson Frescoln (1983),10 and the other is Paris, BNF fr. 1553, verso vast collection of fifty-two items including the Roman de Troie, the