頭韻詩『アーサーの死』(Alliterative Morte Arthure)はThomas Maloryの ＿Le Morte Darthur＿の典拠として知られるが, 作者は不詳, 制作年代や制作意図をめぐっては諸説が存在する。唯一Thornton写本(Lincoln Cathedral MS.91)によって伝わる作品である。ソーントン写本はロバート・ソーントンによって1430年頃に転写されたと考えられている。本作品はほかのアーサー王物語には見られないエピソードがあるが, なかでもモードレッドに冠せられたMalebrancheは頭韻詩以外には見られないエピセットである。編者Krishnaは未発見の典拠の存在を指摘している一方, Mary Hamelはダンテの地獄篇に登場するMalebrancheの転用の可能性を指摘している。Hamelの説はSpearingからは否定的なコメントを受けたのみで, 以降注目されることはなかった。しかしながら, 本研究を通じてあらためて, Danteからの影響の可能性が非常に高いことを指摘したうえで, さらに『狐物語』群に登場するルナールの息子マルブランシュとの類似性から『狐物語』群からの影響の可能性も指摘した。14世紀イングランド北部で書かれた頭韻詩において, 当時のヨーロッパ文学の人気作者ダンテと人気作品『狐物語』などの残滓を読み取ることができるということは, あらためて14世紀英文学の汎ヨーロッパ的脈絡を考慮する重要性が再確認されたといえる。本研究に基づき, 国際アーサー王学会でSir Mordred "the Malebranche", Renart's heir?—possible sources for the Alliterative Morte Arthure and its thematic significance"を口頭発表し, 英仏文学者から高く評価された。専門誌への投稿を勧められており, 論文の準備を進めている。
Reynard the fox is one of the most intriguingly secular and sacrilegious medieval literary creations; and yet, despite its undoubted popularity in France, _le Roman de Renart_ had previously been regarded as unknown in fourteenth-century England. Rather than the Roman itself, its intermediate works were regarded as sources of inspiration for artistic representations such as Chaucer's "Nun's Priest Tale" among others. More recently, it has been argued that the romance was known to the author of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, and that this poet's knowledge of the former work may have, in Elizabeth Brewer's words, "endowed the [latter] work with profundity of meaning."
My research reveals that French literary materials including _le Roman de Renart_, and possibly its fourteenth-century descendants were available in fourteenth-century England, and could have furnished the poet of the alliterative Morte Arthure with a complex source of literary inspiration. Mordred appears twice with the epithet "the Malebranche" in the _Morte Arthure_, yet significantly this epithet does not appear elsewhere in Arthurian tradition. Early editors of the text either remained silent about, or posited a possible lost source for, this reference. Mary Hamel alone points out Dante's influence on the poem, although her view has been dismissed or largely been ignored. Here, I explore a further possible, unexpected source for this epithet, among French literary sources, which perhaps has repercussions concerning the original meaning of "the Malebranche", and also argue that this French work, together with Dante's _Inferno_, are highly significant given the context of late fourteenth-century religious and social uneasy conflicts. My paper given in the International Arthurian Congress in 2017 was well-received by both English and French Arthurian scholars, and is currently in preparation for contributing to a notable Arthurian journal by the recommendation of its editor.
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