Le Roman de Silence

Roman de Silence, Le. Arthurian verse romance of the latter half of the 13th c., written by one Heldris de Cornuälle. This intriguing story recounts the adventures of Silence, whose parents raise her as a boy in order to circumvent an interdiction on female inheritance. The exemplary child excels in hunting and fighting as well as reading, writing, and singing; she becomes an outstanding knight in the French and English courts. Her adventures might seem to prove the equality of the sexes, but the narrator asserts woman's ‘natural’ role in several remarkable debates between the allegorical figures of Nature and Noreture (Nurture). Silence's true sexual identity is revealed inadvertently through the machinations of wicked Queen Eufeme, who tries to seduce the reluctant youth. To punish Silence for her refusal, Eufeme sends her off on the impossible task of catching Merlin, who can only be snared by a woman. The captured magician reveals Silence's secret as well as Eufeme's affair with a priest disguised as a nun. Eufeme is killed for her wanton sexuality, and Silence marries the king. The romance is fascinating not only for its inversion of gender roles, but also for its linguistic play and narratorial interventions.

[Roberta Krueger]