Amis et Amiles is an oldFrenchromance based on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends, one of whom, Amis, was sick withleprosy because he had committedperjury to save his friend. A vision informed him that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles's children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of Amis.[1]
The tale found its way intoFrench literature through the medium ofLatin, as the names Amicus and Amelius indicate, and was eventually attached to theCarolingian cycle in the 12th-centurychanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written indecasyllabicassonanced verse, eachstanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of Frenchepic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry throughout.[1]
The oldest version is a Latin poem composed around 1090 by Radulphus Tortarius, a monk of Fleury. The opening lines suggests that the poet was retelling a popular tale:Historiam Gallus, breviter quam replico, novit... (The Gaul knows the tale, which I am briefly telling...). More distant origins are rooted in folklore.[2]
A French edition ofAmis et Amiles.Illustration by František Bílek.
Amis has married Lubias and become count of Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has becomeseneschal at the court ofCharlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor's daughter, Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover, to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure.
There are obvious reminiscences in this story ofDamon and Pythias, and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends being sometimes reversed. The crown ofmartyrdom was not lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain byOgier the Dane at Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.[1]
Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly reproduces the story ofApollonius of Tyre, was attached to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson.[1]
Numerous Latin recensions in prose and verse, notably that given byVincent de Beauvais in hisSpeculum historiale (lib. xxiii. cap. 162-166 and 169) and the supposed earliest byRodulfus Tortarius
AnAnglo-Norman version in shortrhymedcouplets, which is not attached to the Charlemagne legend and agrees fairly closely with the EnglishAmis and Amiloun (Midland dialect, 13th century); these with theold Norse version are printed byEugen Kölbing,Altengl. Bibl. vol. ii. (1889), and the English romance also inH. Weber,Metrical Romances, vol. ii. (1810); it also appears in theAuchinleck manuscript
The LatinVita sanctorum Amici et Amelii (pr. by Kolbing, op. cit.) and itsOld French translation,Li amitiez de Ami et Amile,L. Molaud andC. d'Henault inNouvelles du xiiie siecle (Paris, 1856)
Walter Pater's retelling of the story in the first chapter of hisTheRenaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (1888), 'Two Early French Stories.'
^Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell,Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances, Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 23.
^Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri.Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 42-57.
Foster, Edward E. (ed.), 'Amys and Amiloun', inAmis and Amiloun, Robert of Cisyle, and Sir Amadace, 2nd edn (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007),[1];[2].
Fukui, Hideka (ed.).Amys e Amillyoun. Anglo-Norman Text Society. Plain Texts Series 7. London, 1990. Based onBL MS Royal 12 C.
The Birth of Romance: An Anthology. Four Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Romances, trans. by Judith Weiss and Malcolm Andrew (London: Dent, 1992),ISBN0460870483; repr. asThe Birth of Romance in England: Four Twelfth-Century Romances in the French of England, trans. by Judith Weiss, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 344/The French of England Translation Series, 4 (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2009),ISBN9780866983921.
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amis et Amiles".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 858–859.