Valentine and Orson
Encyclopedia
Valentine and Orson is a romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
which has been attached to the Carolingian cycle.
Synopsis
It is the story of twin brothers, abandoned in the woods in infancy. Valentine is brought up as a knightKnight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
at the court of Pippin
Pepin the Hunchback
Pepin , the Hunchback was the eldest son of Charlemagne by Himiltrude. He is known in French as Pépin le Bossu.Accounts describe Pepin as normally proportioned with attractive features...
, while Orson grows up in a bear's den to be a wild man of the woods, until he is overcome and tamed by Valentine, whose servant and comrade he becomes. The two eventually rescue their mother Bellisant, sister of Pippin and wife of the emperor of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, by whom she had been unjustly repudiated, from the power of a giant
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
named Ferragus.
Versions
There are versions of an older version of this tale, which appears to rest on a lost French original, in French, English, German, Icelandic, Dutch and Italian. In the older versions Orson is described as "sans nom" i.e. the "nameless" one. The kernel of the story lies in Orson's upbringing and wildness, and is evidently a folk-tale the connection of which with the Carolingian cycle is purely artificial. The story of the wife unjustly accused with which it is bound up is sufficiently common, and was told of the wives both of Pippin and Charlemagne.The oldest French version was a 13th [?] century chanson the geste *Valentin et Sansnom that did not survive but was translated/adapted in medieval Dutch as Valentijn en(de) Nameloos (14th century fragments only).
A French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
'remaniement' in prose was printed at Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
in 1489 by Jacques Maillet and often subsequently. The Historye of the two Valyannte Brethren: Valentyne and Orson by Henry Watson, printed by William Copland about 1550, is the earliest known of a long series of English versions - some of which included illustrations. One such illustrated variant of the tale was prepared by S R Littlwood and accompanied by the illustrations of Florence Anderson
Florence Anderson
Florence Mary Anderson was an English artist, book illustrator, wood engraver and children's author who flourished between 1914 and 1930. She also illustrated under her maiden name of Molly MacArthur or Florence Mary MacArthur...
when published in 1919.
It is known that Richard Hathwaye
Richard Hathwaye
Richard Hathwaye , was an English dramatist. Little is known about Hathwaye's life. There is no evidence that he was related to his namesake Richard Hathaway, the father of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Hathwaye is not heard of after 1603....
and Anthony Munday
Anthony Munday
Anthony Munday was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. The chief interest in Munday for the modern reader lies in his collaboration with Shakespeare and others on the play Sir Thomas More and his writings on Robin Hood.-Biography:He was once thought to have been born in 1553, because...
produced a version of it in 1598.
Nancy Ekholm Burkert
Nancy Ekholm Burkert
Nancy Ekholm Burkert is an American artist and illustrator, first known for her 1961 illustrated book, the original edition of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl...
wrote and illutrated a version of the story in 1989, in which the story is told through the lens of a traveling group of players (including two brothers) who bring the story to a village in Flanders in the Middle Ages.