Pontus and Sidonia
Pontus and Sidonia is a medieval prose roman, originally composed in French in ca. 1400, known as Ponthus et la belle Sidonie, possibly by Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry (d. 1391) or by another member of the La Tour family. It is about Pontus, the son of the king of Galicia, who falls in love with Sidonia, daughter of the king of Britanny. The text is associated with lords of La Tour because it derives the ancestors of that family, whose ancestral possessions were in Britanny, from members of the train of prince Pontus. The story is based on an earlier work, the Anglo-Norman chanson de geste Horn et Rimenhild (ca. 1180).
Several German translations were made during the 15th century (viz., in the period corresponding to the final phase of Middle High German or the formative phase of Early New High German). There is a surviving version in Alemannic German, possibly written in the Old Swiss Confederacy, dated to between 1440 and 1460, and another version in Franconian German, probably written in the region of Trier. Another translation of the French text was made by Eleanor, Archduchess of Austria (1433–1480).
A late medieval Dutch translation Die historie van Ponthus ende die schoone Sidonie survived in an edition printed by Niclaes vanden Wouwere, Antwerp 1564.
References
- Danielle Buschinger, 'Das deutsche Mittelalter im Frankreich der Gegenwart ', in: Eva Dewes, Sandra Duhem (eds.), Kulturelles Gedächtnis und interkulturelle Rezeption im europäischen Kontext, 2008, ISBN 978-3-05-004132-2, p. 237.
- Karin Schneider, (ed.), Pontus und Sidonia in der Verdeutschung eines Ungenannten aus dem 15. Jahrhundert, Texte des späten Mittelalters 14, Berlin 1961.
- Paul Wüst, Die deutschen Prosaromane von Pontus und Sidonia, Marburg, 1903.