16 Jun The importance of Fergus is literary rather than political

Elle laisse percevoir une volonte de modifier les representations traditionnelles du paysan

Roman de Violette, didactic and hagiographical pieces, lais and fabliaux, of which Fergus was edited by Francisque Michel (1842) for the Abbotsford Associazione on the strength of the Scottish connection.11 Neither manuscript includes insular compositions and it is difficult puro envisage an audience in the British Isles with the detailed textual knowledge of the romances of Chretien which, as we shall see, Fergus undoubtedly requires. It is anything but a roman a these or verso roman a clef. Per additif esatto its notably benign humanity and intelligent humour, elements of realism mark it as not so much epigonal as revisionist,12 although they are always subsidiary puro the literary, and ludic, design which aims at renovating inherited motifs by giving them an original, comic twist or application. Guillaume rejuvenates the motifs of his model, Chretien's Perceval, and scales down its ambition by substituting the search for the resplendent shield (bel escu, escu flamboiant) for Perceval's grail quest and by linking it myladyboydate, less loftily, esatto the recovery of Galiene whom Fergus has neglected con favour of adventure, which so often eludes him.13 Guillaume avoids writing per mere roman d'aventures with a superfluity of episodes by restricting his hero's quests sicuro two: the adventure at Nouquetran on the Black Mountain where he obtains the horn and wimple he sought, puro the neglect of Galiene, and the winning of the resplendent shield at Dunnottar which per dwarf predicts will enable him preciso win her back.