Mouseion · Collection II · Read at source

The Sultan of Babylon (The Sowdone of Babylone)

Anonymous; edited by Alan Lupack

Introduces the Charlemagne cycle through Ferumbras, Floripas and Laban: loyalties, religious conversion, power and action across hostile camps. Floripas creates a useful point of comparison with agency in Menander and the Gawain tale.

A question to carry into the reading

How does a narrative make an adversary recognisable or alien, and who is allowed to cross that boundary?

Read Lupack’s introduction, compare the representation of Charlemagne and Laban, then follow the choices attributed to Floripas.

Further reading: MA-COL2-017 · MA-COL2-018

These are curatorial comparisons, not evidence supporting a scientific claim.

Reading and source

The Matter of France is a cycle classification, not a claim that this Middle English work was composed in French. Its Christian polemical representation is not a reliable account of Islam or of actual Carolingian events. Preserve the Middle English and the editor’s historical context.

Read at the original source

Edition, source and reuse

Edition: In Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances, Middle English Text Series, 1990

Rights: Source-linked recommendation only. METS states that digital editions are for individual use, with reprinting enquiries directed to its Executive Director; its XML is separately CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Those XML terms do not establish blanket rights over every displayed edition or asset. No edition text or XML acquired for redistribution.

Rights/source reference 1

The Sultan of Babylon (The Sowdone of Babylone) — Anonymous; edited by Alan Lupack. In Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances, Middle English Text Series, 1990. Source: https://metseditions.org/texts/48mB7VEuP2Psjp6ivWMaSXkD7AGqZ3. Bibliographic description and reading question by HCR; underlying work remains at its source.

Review scope: Publisher collection record, indexed introduction and University of York romance record inspected. Some direct METS pages returned HTTP 403; no claim to have read the complete poem.