Introduction: Problems with medieval sources
When reading a collection of medieval sources, it is
easy to be seduced by the crisp, clear translations
and the confident presentation, and to forget what
every historian who has dealt first-hand with medieval
documents knows. Often, modern editions and
translations are based not upon original documents,
but on later copies which may have been deliberately
altered or inadvertently corrupted. When the
text is dubious or, sometimes, incomprehensible,
modern versions try to make sense of it, and thus
gloss over the difficulties. Sometimes, multiple
copies exist, which differ in detail or even in broad
strokes; these differences are usually smoothed over
in modern translations or editions, where the variants
are relegated to footnotes.
It seems to me that it might be useful to examine a
test case that exemplifies these difficulties, and I
have found one that fits the bill perfectly.
The Planctus for William Longsword survives
in two copies, both incomplete and both somewhat
corrupt, but still preserving the general sense of
the original. It has been edited four times by
three different scholars, each of whom has had to
make decisions about the problem areas. And,
thanks to the blessed diligence of one of these
editors, Jules Lair, full-size facsimiles of both
manuscripts have been published, although in a book
that is not widely available. Thus, I have
assembled this web site as a laboratory in medieval
philology; here will be found scans of both
manuscripts, transcriptions of them, and the texts
of three editions (the first of the two Lair
editions, cited below, was based only upon the first
manuscript before the second was discovered).
Thus, in these pages interested parties can examine
the manuscripts, and see what different scholars
have made of them. I have also provided
Becker’s German translation, and added an English
translation of my own (any suggestions for improving
the latter would be appreciated). Perhaps
someday, if there is enough interest, I will add
commentaries on this text both by scholars of the
past and by people inspired by these pages to
investigate this most interesting case.
The Planctus
William Longsword was the son of Rollo, founder of
the Rollonid dynasty that would become dukes of
Normandy and after 1066, kings of England. In
William’s day, however, the Rollonid principality
was still a fragile entity centered around Rouen
and, in terms of Realpolitik, not extending
far west of the Seine. Most of William’s
career was spent in relative obscurity, but in the
late 930s he suddenly emerged onto the stage of
Frankish royal politics, first because of his war
with Arnulf of Flanders, and then because of his
support for King Louis IV (d’Outremer) at a time
when Louis’ star seemed to be fading. In
December 942, at the peak of his good relations with
Louis, Arnulf called for a peace conference with
William; there, William was murdered (traditionally,
Arnulf is said to have arranged the murder; some day
I will argue that he did not). A Planctus
(mourning poem) was composed probably shortly after;
Jules Lair suggests plausibly if not definitively
that it was in 943. (Catalog references:
Chevalier 10576; Walther 10205; Schaller & Ewald
Könsgen 8813; Yearley L81.) This poem, although it
survives only in corrupt and incomplete versions and
is largely hagiographic in content, nevertheless is
a critical source for early Norman history. It
is by far the earliest work written about the
Normans from a Norman point of view, and some
historical nuggets can be gleaned from it.
The manuscripts
Two manuscripts of the planctus survive,
both dating from the early 11th century.
Neither is very good, and both are apparently
derived from an earlier version that does not
survive.
Bibliothèque de
Clermont-Ferrand, MS 240, folio 45.
Cited in these pages as Clermont-Ferrand.
Lair’s description (p. 61, note 1): “Ce
manuscrit peut être daté du Xe-XIe siècle. Il
est composé de 253 feuillets à 3 colonnes, et mesure
560 sur 360 millimètres. Sa reliure en bois et
peau est en mauvais état. Il contient un
exemplaire, incomplete du commencement et de la fin,
du Glossaire attribué à Ansileubus; premiers
mots: [A] bellane, penestrine,
nuces virides stringunt...; derniers
mots: sic namque et beatissimus
Augustinus, in libris Confessionum suarum.
C’est sur une page laissée d’abord en blanc que la
Complainte a été transcrite.” The planctus begins
near the bottom of the middle column of folio 45 (at
the L), and continues almost to the bottom
of the third column (to the A). It
contains 12 verses in a somewhat corrupt Latin, and
until Delisle found a second manuscript in Florence
Libri it was our only witness to the text.
Bibliotheca
Mediceo-Laurenziana of Florence, MS Libri
30 (83. 33) [formerly anc. Ashburnham, Libri
83], folios 21v-22v.
Cited in these pages as Florence Libri.
A full description of MS Libri 30 is given
by de Poerck; the portion concerning the Planctus is
reproduced here. Lair’s
description (p. 63, note 1): “Ce manuscrit se
compose de 68 feuillets de petit format (195
millimètres sur 140), qui ont fait partie d’un
volume plus considérable, dont ils formaient les
cahiers signés II-VIIII, plus le commencement du
dixième cahier. Le titre: De conflictu
viciorum et virtutum, inscrit en caractères du
XIIe siècle au bout de la première page, prouve que
la perte du premier cahier est ancienne. M.
Léopold Delisle fait remonter l’écriture de cette
copie de la Complainte au moins au commencement du
XIe siècle.” The De conflictu that is
the primary component of the book is limited to a
fairly small block of text in the center of the
pages; the planctus has been added in the
ample margins. In the illustration below, the
planctus is the slightly smaller handwriting
surrounding the central blocks.
This version added to our knowledge of the planctus,
since it contains 17 verses, or five more than
Clermont-Ferrand. The verses are in a somewhat
different order than Clermont-Ferrand, and the text is
again not very good. Lair theorized that some of
the “new” verses in Florence Libri are
fragments of multiple verses that have collapsed, and
that there were perhaps originally 20 verses.
But even with the new verses and some alternate
readings, the planctus remains a very
problematical text, as demonstrated by several
attempts to establish a “true” edition.
The editions
“Complainte sur l’assassinat
de Guillaume Longue-épée, duc de Normandie,”
edited by Jules Lair, Bibliothèque de l’École
des chartes 31 (1870): 389-406.
This edition was based only on Clermont-Ferrand, and
was superseded by Lair’s second edition below; thus
it is not used in these pages.
Jules Lair, Étude sur la
vie et la mort de Guillaume Longue-épée, duc de
Normandie (Paris: Picard, 1893), 61-70.
Cited in these pages as Lair, it contains a
revised edition taking Florence Libri into
account. This book also contains very good
facsimiles of both manuscripts, from which the scans
on these pages were taken. I was pleasantly
surprised to find that, due to a happy quirk of the
electrons, the scans were actually clearer and more
colorful than the plates in the Étude.
Most of Lair’s study is interesting only in
historiographical terms; he is far too trusting of
Dudo for his discussions of William’s career to hold
much weight. But by presenting facsimiles,
transcriptions, and an edition of the planctus
all under one cover, he provided an invaluable
service to scholarship; it is the relative
inaccessibility of this book (at least on these
shores) that has inspired me to create this web site
as a latter-day successor to Lair.
Wilhelm Meyer, Gesammelte
Abhandlungen zur mittellateinischen Rythmik
(Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1905),
1:218–219. This is not a true edition, but
rather a series of emendations to Lair’s second
edition. I have recreated Meyer’s version only
for those verses in which he has a unique
reading. The entire text of his discussion
(which is primarily a metrical analysis) can be
found here.
“Complainte sur la mort de
Guillaume Longue-épée,” in Philippe Lauer, Le
règne de Louis IV, Bibliothèque de l’École
des hautes études 127 (Paris: Émile Bouillon,
1900), 319-23. Cited in these pages
as Lauer. Here, the planctus
is one of the pièces justificatives, and is
accompanied (at pp. 276-83) by an appendix on the
death of William. This appendix, however, does
not treat the event itself as much as give a useful
(if brief) overview of subsequent historiography,
from Flodoard through William of Malmesbury and
beyond.
“Der planctus auf den
Normannenherzog Wilhelm Langschwert (942),” editor
Phillipp August Becker, Zeitschrift für
französische Sprache und Literatur 63
(1939): 190-97. Cited in these pages
as Becker. Contains a very brief
historical introduction, an edition of the text, and
a translation into German, with a few end notes on
the text.
The translations
“Der planctus auf den
Normannenherzog Wilhelm Langschwert (942),” editor
Phillipp August Becker, Zeitschrift für
französische Sprache und Literatur 63
(1939): 190-97. Translation into
German prose of the entire Planctus. Cited
in these pages as Becker.
“Sørgekvadet i Anledning
af Vilhelm I' Død,” translated by Erling
Albrectsen, in Flodoards annaler (Odense:
Odense Universitetsforlag, 1987), 124-38.
Contains the Latin text of Lauer alongside a
translation into Danish. Cited in these pages as Albrectsen.
Felice Lifshitz, The
Norman Conquest of Pious Neustria:
Historiographic Discourse and Saintly Relics,
684–1090, Studies and Texts 122 (Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995),
174. Contains translations into English of
verses 2 and 3. Cited in these pages as Lifshitz.
“The Plaintsong of
William Longsword,” in The Normans in Europe,
edited by Elisabeth M. C. van Houts (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2000), 41.
Cited in these pages as Van Houts.
Contains translations into English of verses 2, 3,
15, 16, and 17.
And a new translation for these pages by Robert
Helmerichs, cited as Helmerichs.
Description of the pages in this site
One page contains links to commentaries on the Planctus
by various scholars, and other materials relating to
it, including a bibliography. Two pages contain
transcriptions of both manuscripts, taken from Lair
but modified slightly after consultation with the
plates. Each individual verse page contains one
verse of the Planctus, with scans from the
manuscripts, transcriptions of the manuscripts, and
the text of the three main editions.
The order of the verses is that of the editions,
all of which agree; the manuscripts have different
orders from each other and from the editions.
Each section is headed by the rubric for the source
and the verse number in that source (the manuscripts
are not divided into verses, but the numbers refer
to the order in which they appear in the
text). This is followed by Becker’s German
translation and my own English translation, with Van
Houts’ translation of five of the verses and
Lifshitz’ for two. Finally, where commentary
on the text of a verse exists in Lair or Becker, it
appears at the end of each page.
This 13th-century bust is, according to tradition,
that of William Longsword. It is found in the Musée
de l’Abbaye, logis abbatiale de Jumièges; image
scanned from Trésors des abbayes normandes
(Rouen: Musée des Antiquités/Caen: Musée des
Beaux-Arts, 1979), p. 178, no. 218.
Tomb effigy of William Longsword in the cathedral
of Rouen, dating to the 14th century. Image from
cathedral promotional material.
Possible coin of William Longsword, presently in
the Musée des Antiquités de Rouen. †VVILELMVS,
†ROTOMAGVS. Click on pictures for larger images.
Scanned from Jean Renaud, Les Vikings et la
Normandie (Rennes: Ouest-France, 1989), plates
between pp. 64-65.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Christopher Crocket, who pointed out some
typos; Ryan Patrick Crisp, who helped me work
through the translation of the especially difficult
Verse 12; and Emily Albu, who tried to impose some
grace on my translations of several verses. Thanks
also to Anders Leegaard Knudsen, who directed my
attention to the Albrectsen translation.
Download this site
This link will enable you to download a .zip
archive containing all the files on this site for
use on your home computer.
Planctus version 1.5
