Perdre la tête : de la tête épique à la tête émouvante dans Artus de Bretagne

Abstract

In the prose romance Artus de Bretagne, there are numerous references to a chief coupé in epic episodes. The motif seems to be worn out, the cut heads do not stir up much emotion. The same is true of the few episodes in which the severed head is the object of an non topic treatment, in scenes of vendetta or in the episode in which the monster Malegrape is beheaded and the offering of his head provokes the amorous emotion of Florence, the princess that the hero will marry. A study of the miniatures suggests that the summoning of biblical models could, in some cases, give some intensity to these decapitation scenes.

Keywords

• Artus de Bretagne
• chanson de geste
• violence
• head
• decapitation
• miniature