Evolution of the account of Duke Godfrey’s deed of hewing the enemy through the middle with a single blow during the siege of Antioch by the First Crusade. A source study

Abstract

The article contains the research on the narratives describing the battle of the Bridge Gate (6 March 1098), which took place during the siege of Antioch by the crusaders. I focus on the scene which is the climax of the above-mentioned accounts – in this scene duke Godfrey of Lorraine, in a duel on the bridge in front of the city, cuts in two the Turkish warrior by a single strike of his sword. This survey is divided into three parts. In the first part I summarize the state of research and I analyze the earliest stage of shaping the literary tradition of the studied scene. In the second part I focus on the transformations of the earliest accounts among chroniclers from Capetian France. The third part is devoted to analysis of the later versions of the scene. In the conclusion of the present article I state that account of the Robert the Monk contains the most popular version of the here studied scene. Another point is that narratives even from the end of 12th century and later are written in the connection with the earliest accounts.

Keywords

• oblężenie Antiochii
• krucjata
• Gotfryd Lotaryński
• kronika