[Northkeep] FW: Tournament of Chauvency, 1285

[Niewoehner, Hugh]

Oh my!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Finnvarr de Taahe [mailto:finnvarr at ealdormere.sca.org]
> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 2:31 PM
> Subject: Tournament of Chauvency, 1285
>
>
> Yesterday, I got hold of an edition of a long poem about a tournament
> held at Chauvency in northern France in 1285.   It's usually
> called *The
>
> Tournament of Chauvency.*   I've known it existed for a long time but
> never seen a copy.  (Since there is one copy in all of
> Canada's academic
>
> libraries, I guess that's no big surprise.)
>
> I've just looked at the modern French summary, and it's
> great!   It's a
> detailed account of a week at Chauvency, made up of two days
> of jousting
>
> and a final day of climactic tournament, but it has so much
> more.   It's
>
> got lots of satire on heralds, it's got *amours,*  it's got
> feasts where
>
> every course is sung in.  In fact, there is singing at every
> stage.   At
> the final feast, members of the company go to the chambers where the
> wounded fighters are lying and sing to them!
>
> It really makes you want to start an organization where people
> re-created this sort of thing all the time. :-)
>
> I am sure that the Old French text has its dull and repetitious
> passages, but I think it would be worth translating.   Looks
> like I may
> have another project after *Deeds of Arms.*
>
> Finnvarr
>
> --
> Which would you prefer:  To never be accounted worthy in deeds of war,
> but in all the friendly combats you ever take part in to win
> the prize; or the other way around?
>        --Charny, c. 1350
>
>