Re: Odp: Norman Vikings

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 1294
Date: 2000-01-31

 
----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft
To: cybalist@eGroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 4:54 AM
Subject: [cybalist] Re: Norman Vikings

So you see that William the Conqueror was less than 1/32nd Danish and
31/32nds of good "French" stock.  No wonder he spoke the Norman dialect
of the French language.
 
William at first allowed the secretaries he'd taken over from Edward to write official documents in English -- he must have been aware of the local traditions regarding the use of the vernacular. Later his scribes wrote only in Latin, which was normal practice in mediaeval Europe, but according to Ordericus Vitalis William himself decided to learn some English in order to perform his judicial duties more effectively and understand his subjects' complaints without an interpreter. But he gave up, claiming that at 43 his memory wasn't up to the task of learning Anglo-Saxon words, and he was too busy anyway.
 
There is direct evidence that many Continental-born clerics who'd stayed in England for a few years learnt enough English to be able to preach to the people; so did most feudal subtenants and lessees -- for purely practical reasons. There is also enough evidence to assume that the "lingua nativa" of all those bilingual newcomers was Norman French, not Danish. BTW the Domesday Book defines them as "francigenae homines/servientes". Of course neither William nor the people who followed him across the Channel were "French" in terms of political allegiance (the sense in which Austrians aren't Germans), but there's no reason do doubt that they were French-speakers. The Norman dialect was rather different from the French of Paris and Anglo-Norman would perhaps have developed into a distinct language if it had survived long enough in its new insular home. If Rex finds the orthodox assumptions suspect, he should present some very concrete evidence to justify his alternative proposal.
 
I wrote
> > At the battle of Hastings, the Normans fought, not to a Viking bard
> > recounting the tales of Sigurd, but rather to Taillefer singing the
> > French "Chanson de Rolland".
> This one is highly suspect to me John..is this attested by written
> documentation from the period, or part of the later romanticisation
of the
> time by French historical syncretization? (Its stitched in the hem of
the
> Bayeau tapestry? :-) 

At the Battle of Senlac Hill (later the Battle of Hastings), the
Normans feigned a rout, to break the invincible shield wall of Harold
Godwinsson's housecarls.  This lured Saxons down the slope.  It was
Taillefer (Iron Backside in French), who turned his horse first to
attack the running Saxons.  At that time he was singing the story of
the Geste de Rolland.
 
After the Conquest some Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian stories (such as Havelok the Dane) were translated into Anglo-Norman French, so that the Normans could enjoy them too.
 
Piotr