Alexander Romance - English Versions

English Versions

In medieval England the Alexander Romance experienced a remarkable popularity. It is even referred to in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where the monk apologizes to the pilgrimage group for treating a material so well known. However, unlike the indigenous legend of King Arthur and the related romances dealing with the Matter of Britain, the Alexander Romance neither confines itself to the history and culture of Western Europe, nor is it a story situated in the Middle Ages. There are five major romances in Middle English which have been passed down to us and most remain only in fragments. There are also two versions from Scotland, one which has sometimes been ascribed to the Early Scots poet John Barbour which exists only in a sixteenth-century printing, and a Middle Scots version from 1499:

1. King Alisaunder from c. 1275. In medieval orthography, "king" could be "kyng" and "Alisaunder" could be "Alysaunder".
2. The Romance of Alisaunder (or Alexander of Macedon), sometimes referred to as Alexander A, is a fragment of 1247 lines and written in alliterative verse. It was probably written between 1340 and 1370, shortly before the beginning of the Alliterative Revival, of which it is believed to be one of the oldest remaining poems. It has been preserved in a school notebook dating from 1600. In the broad strokes Alexander A deals with the begetting of Alexander by Nectanebus, his birth and early years and breaks off in the midst of the account of Philip's siege of Byzantium. It is likely that the source for this fragment has been the I²-recension of the Historia de Preliis. Beside that it has been expanded with additional material taken from Paulus Orosius' Historiae adversum paganos, the adverse remarks, which are typical of Orosius, however have been omitted by the poet, whose main concern is Alexander's heroic conduct.
3. Alexander and Dindimus, sometimes referred to as Alexander B, is also written in alliterative verse. This fragment is found in the MS Bodley and consists of five letters which are passed between Alexander and Dindimus, who is the king of the Brahmins, a people of philosophers who shun all worldly lusts, ambitions and entertainments. In this respect their way of life resembles the ideal of an aescetic life, which was also preached by medieval monastic orders, such as the Franciscans. The source of Alexander B again is the I²-recension of the Historia de Preliis.
4. The Wars of Alexander, sometimes referred to as Alexander C, is the longest of the alliterative versions of the Middle English Alexander Romances. It goes back to the I³-recension of the Historia de Preliis and can be found in the MS Ashmole 44 and in the Dublin Trinity College MS 213. Although both manuscripts are incomplete they supplement each other fairly well. In this version much space is given to letters and prophecies, which often bear a moralizing and philosophical tenor. The letters are an integral part of the Pseudo-Callisthenes tradition. The dominant theme is pride, which inevitably leads to the downfall of kings. In The Wars of Alexander the hero is endowed with superhuman qualities, which shows in the romance insofar as his enemies fall to him by the dozens and he is always at the center of action.
5. The Prose Life of Alexander copied by Robert Thornton, c. 1440.
6. The Buik of Alexander, anonymous, attributed to John Barbour, dates to 1438 according to its first printed edition from 1580.
7. The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour by Gilbert Hay, 1499. This work is in Middle Scots.