Charlemagne

Behold this six-inch tall two-volume poem on Charlemagne’s conquests.

 

Daughter of Heaven, O Muse, descent and sing 
The high achievements of the Christian king, 
The conqueror of himself, the paynim’s rod, 
Who saved from impious rage the ark of God. 
Guiding against the sacred walls in vain 
Full twenty kings with all their martial train, 
The accursed archangel rears his rebel brow: 
To the Frank sword Heaven bids the guilty bow. 
Eternal Rome’s profaners to repel, 
Charles flies, and dissipates the league of Hell. 

 

So begins Charlemagne; or, The church delivered: An epic poem, in twenty-four books by Lucien Bonaparte, Translated by the Rev. Samuel Butler, and the Rev. Francis Hodgson. In our rare book collection, this six-inch two-volume set sits amongst giants of French literature such as Victor Hugo and Jules Verne. The volumes are 19th-century translations of the 12th-century epic poem commemorating the success of Charlemagne over his Roman opponents.  

Prior to a fully literate society, many stories were told in a memorable rhyming style, such as Homer’s Iliad. Stories could be passed down and recited to one another as a way of remembering oral history.  

This translated text includes a lengthy description of the poem's history, a cast of characters and their relation to each other in the poem, and most notably a preface of the translator, Samuel Butler. Three translators applied their grueling efforts in the translation of the epic. The preface includes a note on the death of one of the earliest attempts by Rev. John Maunde, “who had an intimate knowledge of the French language and a considerable share of poetical feeling.”  

After Rev. Maunde’s death, the translation continued with Mr. Butler and his dear friend Mr. Hodgson. The two found that the more they dug into the latter half of the poem, the more they needed to adjust the earlier work done by Rev. Maunde until very little of the Reverend’s work remained.  

No need to make a special trip to our rare book room; ebooks are available from Google Books (Volume 1) and Hathi Trust (Volume 2).