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The story combines the king-in-disguise motif popular in folklore with the conversion motif common in medieval romance. The hero of the tale is the Scottish collier Rauf who hosts Charlemagne and later challenges a Saracen to a duel. This edition includes the Scottish text of the tale, explanatory notes and a glossary. Introductory chapters treat the literary background of the poem relating it to the king-in-disguise motif, the alliterative tradition and the Charlemagne romances.
List of contents
Contents: The book is an edition of a fifteenth century Scottish romance. Includes a thorough study of the literary background of the poem. Detailed explanatory notes and glossary.
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"This is an important contribution,....Text, language, meter, literary history, folklore and general cultural context all receive careful and illuminating treatment. Indeed, all students of medieval literature and folklore will learn much from Professor Walsh's study." (Lawrence Besserman, Senior Lecturer in English, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
"...Elizabeth Walsh's edition ... is thoroughly edited with graceful economy and aptness, and makes charmingly available to scholars as well as students this Charlemagne romance, with its Charlemagne romance, with its deftly witty contrasts of Emperor in cottage and commoner at court." (William Alfred, A.L. Lowell Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University)
"Walsh has done a fine job. The edition is carefully made and the introductory materials, including a careful consideration of the language, are very solid indeed. This is a most useful and welcome edition of a very interesting work." (Larry D. Benson, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English, Harvard University) "Dr. Walsh is good at imparting background information and analysis in accessible terms." (Chapman)
"Walsh's thorough treatment of 'Rauf Coilzear' establishes her edition as the text to which specialists will turn, yet she has also ensured a wider circulation for this fine poem by composing a book which offers both undergraduates and nonspecialists the apparatus that they require for a full appreciation of this Middles Scots poem." (Joseph M.P. Donatelli, Speculum)
