Alexander Romance - French Versions

French Versions

There are several Old and Middle French and one Anglo-Norman Alexander romances:

1. The Alexandre of Albéric de Briançon was composed around 1120.
2. Fuerre de Gadres by a certain Eustache, later used by Alexandre de Bernay and Thomas de Kent
3. Decasyllabic Alexander, anonymous from 1160–70.
4. Mort Alixandre, an anonymous fragment of 159 lines.
5. Li romans d'Alixandre (c.1170), attributed to clergyman Alexandre de Bernay (also known as Alexandre de Pâris), is based on the translations of various episodes of the conqueror's life as composed by previous poets (Lambert de Tort, Eustache and more importantly Albéric of Besançon). Unlike other authors of the era who undertook the Alexander saga, he did not base his work on the Pseudo-Callisthenes or on the various translations of Julius Valerius' work. As is common in medieval literature, the project stems from the desire to improve on the work of others and to offer the complete life of the hero to the public, a theme that is also very present in the cyclical turn that the chansons de geste took at the time. It should be noted that Thomas de Kent also penned (probably) the very same decade a version of the saga, Le roman de toute chevalerie, which is independent of Alexandre de Bernay's poem: Alexander's influence on the medieval imagination is thus shown as being as great, if not greater, than that of other pagan figures such as Hercules or Aeneas.
6. Thomas de Kent (or Eustache), around 1175, wrote the Anglo-Norman Roman de toute chevalerie, which became the basis for the Middle English King Alysaunder.
7. La Venjance Alixandre by Jehan le Nevelon.
8. The Alixandre en Orient of Lambert de Tort was composed around 1170.
9. Le Vengement Alixandre by Gui de Cambrai, before 1191.
10. The Roman d'Alexandre en prose was the most popular Old French version. Anonymous.
11. Prise de Defur, from Picardy c. 1250.
12. The Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis terrestre is a French adaptation (c. 1260) of the Latin Iter ad paradisum
13. The Vow Cycle of Alexander romances includes the Voeux du paon by Jacques de Longuyon, Restor du Paon by Jean le Court, and Parfait du paon by Jean de Le Mote.
14. The Faicts et les Conquestes d'Alexandre le Grand by Jean Wauquelin c. 1448.
15. The Fais et concquestes du noble roy Alexandre is a late medieval prose version.
16. The Faits du grand Alexandre by Vasque de Lucène is a prose translation (1468) of Quintus Curtius Rufus' Historiae Alexandri Magni.