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Convention and Conversion: The Saracen Ending of the Taill of Rauf Coilzear

Convention and Conversion: The Saracen Ending of the Taill of Rauf Coilzear Uniquely among representatives of the "king-and-commoner" plot type (a king takes refuge with a humble fellow, who is then summoned to court for a reward), the fifteenth-century Taill of Rauf Coilzear adjoins a lengthy encounter between the newly knighted "hero" and a Saracen opponent. The narrative logic of this continuation has resisted explanation. I argue that the inclusion of the Saracen ending and other material derived from popular romance is motivated by the poet's desire to represent Rauf's entry into the nobility not as idle fantasy or as mere absorption, but as an ideal synthesis consistent with his pre-existing code of personal, and class, honour. In his assertive, temperamental otherness Rauf resembles the stock figure of the Saracen champion. The poet builds on this analogy (notably in a scene opposing Rauf to the martial-elitist Roland), so that the eventual conversion of the Saracen - presented conventionally as a matter requiring no ideological reconstruction - supplies the model for Rauf's own decidedly unconventional transition from commoner to aristocrat. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean Taylor & Francis

Convention and Conversion: The Saracen Ending of the Taill of Rauf Coilzear

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Convention and Conversion: The Saracen Ending of the Taill of Rauf Coilzear

Abstract

Uniquely among representatives of the "king-and-commoner" plot type (a king takes refuge with a humble fellow, who is then summoned to court for a reward), the fifteenth-century Taill of Rauf Coilzear adjoins a lengthy encounter between the newly knighted "hero" and a Saracen opponent. The narrative logic of this continuation has resisted explanation. I argue that the inclusion of the Saracen ending and other material derived from popular romance is motivated by the...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1473-348X
eISSN
0950-3110
DOI
10.1080/0950311022000010501
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Uniquely among representatives of the "king-and-commoner" plot type (a king takes refuge with a humble fellow, who is then summoned to court for a reward), the fifteenth-century Taill of Rauf Coilzear adjoins a lengthy encounter between the newly knighted "hero" and a Saracen opponent. The narrative logic of this continuation has resisted explanation. I argue that the inclusion of the Saracen ending and other material derived from popular romance is motivated by the poet's desire to represent Rauf's entry into the nobility not as idle fantasy or as mere absorption, but as an ideal synthesis consistent with his pre-existing code of personal, and class, honour. In his assertive, temperamental otherness Rauf resembles the stock figure of the Saracen champion. The poet builds on this analogy (notably in a scene opposing Rauf to the martial-elitist Roland), so that the eventual conversion of the Saracen - presented conventionally as a matter requiring no ideological reconstruction - supplies the model for Rauf's own decidedly unconventional transition from commoner to aristocrat.

Journal

Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 1, 2002

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