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| Roman de Rou | |
|---|---|
| Title | Roman de Rou |
| Author | Wace |
| Original language | Norman French |
| Written | c. 1160–1174 |
| Genre | Norman chronicle, verse chronicle |
| Subject | Norman history, Dukes of Normandy, Norman Conquest |
Roman de Rou
The Roman de Rou is a twelfth-century Norman verse chronicle by the poet Wace that recounts the origins and deeds of the Dukes of Normandy and narrates events leading to and following the Norman conquest of England. Composed in Anglo-Norman during the reigns of Henry II of England and his continental rivals, the work complements Wace's earlier prose work, the Roman de Brut, by focusing on the lineage of Rollo and the political development of Normandy through the campaigns of dukes such as William Longsword, Richard I of Normandy, and William II of Normandy (the Conqueror). The Roman de Rou served as a foundational vernacular source for later medieval chroniclers, legal commentators, and genealogists associated with courts and monasteries across Anjou, Brittany, Île-de-France, and Norman Sicily.
Wace, a native of Jersey or mainland Normandy, wrote the Roman de Rou after completing the Roman de Brut, drawing on patronage linked to the households of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Matilda of England and possibly commissioned by Norman aristocrats seeking a dynastic narrative. Composition dates are generally placed between the 1150s and 1170s, with internal references suggesting revision during the reign of Henry II. Wace composed in octosyllabic rhyming couplets used by troubadours and trouvères such as Chrétien de Troyes and Geoffrey of Monmouth; his milieu connected him to clerical networks at Bayeux Cathedral, Jumièges Abbey, and the chantries of Rouen Cathedral. The work responds to Latin continuations of Dudo of Saint-Quentin and William of Jumièges by translating and versifying continental and insular narratives for lay noble audiences in the courts of Normandy and England.
Organized into two principal parts, the Roman de Rou opens with a legendary account of Norse origins centered on Rollo and proceeds through the reigns of early dukes, culminating in the conquest under William the Conqueror; the second part treats the ducal succession and the consolidation of Norman power in both the duchy and England. Wace integrates episodes such as the settlement of Vikings at Rouen, the treaty often associated with Charles the Simple, the feud with Baldwin II of Flanders, the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes, and the 1066 campaign including the Battle of Hastings and the coronation at Westminster Abbey. The narrative mixes genealogy, battlefield reporting, oath-making, and feudal exempla, invoking aristocrats like Odo of Bayeux, Roger of Montgomery, Robert Curthose, and ecclesiastics from Saint-Étienne de Caen and Christ Church, Canterbury to explain political legitimacy and territorial claims.
Wace used a diverse corpus: vernacular traditions, oral testimony from veterans and nobles, and Latin chronicles such as works by Dudo of Saint-Quentin, William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and William of Poitiers. He also appears to have consulted charters from ducal archives, cartularies of houses like Abbey of Saint-Étienne, and genealogical lists circulated among families including the Montgomerys, Talbots, and De Hautevilles. While the Roman de Rou preserves unique annalistic details not found elsewhere, Wace dramatizes and harmonizes conflicting sources, sometimes adapting legendary material from Norse sagas and genealogical lore to satisfy aristocratic expectations of ancestry. Consequently, modern historians compare his account to the annals of Séez, Bayeux Tapestry iconography, and narrative fragments in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle manuscripts to assess reliability.
Written in 12th-century Norman French, the Roman de Rou exemplifies the evolving vernacular poetic diction that links Wace to contemporaries such as Gautier de Coinci and Marie de France. His octosyllabic couplets display mnemonic devices, formulaic epithets, and rhetoric aimed at oral performance within noble halls and clerical scriptoria. Surviving manuscript witnesses include codices preserved at institutions like the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, and regional archives in Rouen and Caen, with notable medieval exemplars dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. Variants among manuscripts reflect scribal interventions, regional linguistic shifts, and occasional conflation with chronicles by Falcandus or continuations appended to William of Malmesbury materials.
Medieval reception of the Roman de Rou was extensive among Norman and Angevin elites, influencing historiographical compositions by Geoffrey Gaimar, Henry of Huntingdon, and later vernacular genealogists attached to houses such as Plantagenet, Capetian, and Angevin courts. Its narratives helped legitimize ducal and royal claims during disputes like the succession crises involving Stephen of Blois and Empress Matilda and informed literary treatments in romances by Chrétien de Troyes and chronicles used at Fountains Abbey and Glastonbury Abbey. In the Renaissance and early modern periods, antiquarians such as Jean Mabillon and William Dugdale consulted Wace for Norman prosopography and the transmission of ducal genealogies.
Critical interest in the Roman de Rou grew with 19th- and 20th-century philological projects: editions and commentaries were produced by scholars in the traditions of Paul Meyer, André Duchesne, and editors associated with the Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France and the Early English Text Society. Modern editions and translations assess Wace's textual variants, prosody, and source criticism, drawing on manuscript collation housed at the Bodleian Library, Bibliothèque de Rouen, and university collections at Cambridge and Oxford. Contemporary scholarship situates the Roman de Rou within studies of Norman identity, medieval memory, and vernacular historiography, with monographs and articles appearing in journals linked to Speculum, Revue historique, and regional Norman historical societies.
Category:12th-century books Category:Norman literature