Sex and the Supernatural: Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in the Old French and Middle High German Partonopeus tradition

While the Old French text has seven complete or near-complete manuscripts, an estimated three lost fragments incorporated into an anthology codex and two later versions, there are only three extant manuscripts of the Middle High German. (Click here for transcriptions of and information about all twelve manuscript witnesses of the Old French Partonopeus from The University of Sheffield). Due to its comparative lack of manuscripts and the fact that all versions are left unfinished, Konrad’s Partonopier is far less studied than its Old French analogue. One key difference between the French and German traditions lies in their treatment of the enigmatic, fay-like female figure: Melior or Meliur, the lover and (eventually) wife of the protagonist. While Penny Shine Gold argues that the ending of the Old French hints at harmonious reunion of two realms through the lovers’ marriage and implicitly condemns Melior for having separated Partonopeus from his family, feudal companions and duty to his homeland, no such judgement is passed on Meliur by Konrad’s narrator. In the French text, Partonopeus appears forgiven by Meliur, wins her hand in marriage at a three-day tournament and becomes Emperor of Byzantium. Konrad’s German text is unfinished, however, and leaves the hero fighting on the battlefield to protect Meliur’s kingdom against his love-rival, the Sultan of Persia. Although it is impossible to know what specific adaptations Konrad might have made, his incomplete German narrative leaves space for significant gender trouble concerning the figure of Meliur.

In both texts, the eponymous Frankish prince loses his way while hunting and arrives via an enchanted ship on the shores of the abandoned kingdom of Chef d’Oire (French) or Schiefdeir (German)—located vaguely in the Byzantine Empire. The prince is guided by an invisible hand through the splendid yet abandoned city and castle, eventually arriving in Melior/Meliur’s bedchamber. Despite later admitting to using “nigramance” (OF, l. 4604), “nigrômancie” (MHG, l. 8096) to orchestrate his arrival, she acts surprised and offended at the hero’s arrival in her bed, taking advantage of him when he is weary, delusional, and much younger than she. He must promise not to see her and it is only under the cover of darkness and secrecy that they can sleep together each night, to protect their love from societal order that would make their relationship impossible. But the hero breaks his promise. Encouraged by his mother, who believes Melior/Meliur to be a devil, he peeks under her robes with an enchanted lantern and in doing so is able to identify her by her genitalia as a shining, angelic specimen of humanity. The audience might not be so convinced, though. Is this conclusion – that Melior/Meliur is “human” – enough to smooth out the ambiguities of her character, particularly given the strikingly odd way in which her lover obtains this knowledge? Can we ignore the issues of consent and the subversion of power and gender roles in their relationship? As a powerful female ruler, Meliur is strikingly aware of how to play the dominant role in her own relationship, controlling her invisibility, using her voice to convince her lover of her trustworthiness and powerful status and capitalizing on her much younger partner’s vulnerability. In choosing her own lover, Meliur transgresses the stereotype of the passive feminine figure to take control of her own sex life. It’s striking that Konrad’s Meliur has somewhat stumped scholarship, which widely disagrees on whether she presents the traits of a woman, actually is a woman, or is a demonic fay.

Compared to the Old French text, it is striking that Konrad has chosen to rationalize Meliur. In his German work, Meliur’s sexual transgression is glossed over constantly by another factor that makes her “other” to the protagonist: her age, her location, her skills, her powerful status. Konrad provides exhaustive detail on what her powers entail, offering a reasonable and practical excuse for her use of it. Wise men teach her all the languages of the world, but only due to the fact that there is no male heir to learn the ways of ruling the Empire. By exaggerating her superior intelligence and hinting at the intellectual unbalance between the two lovers, Konrad allows her to subvert gender norms and adopt a position of typically masculine dominance as ruler of the Empire. She has learnt most of the seven liberal arts, from rhetoric to astronomy (ll. 8090–4) and lists “nigrômancîen” [necromancy] (l. 8096) among the lengthy list of acquired skills, claiming to use it to produce “friemdiu wunder” [foreign wonders] (l. 8999). While the Old French describes Melior’s skills in the liberal arts in near identical terms, Konrad exaggerates her difference even further by describing her as a “houbetmeisterîn” [High Steward(-ess)] (l. 8086): the only traceable example in Middle High German of the feminine suffix on the term “houbetmeister”. Konrad depicts Meliur as having an unusual and strikingly masculine awareness of court politics and an active role in helping to run the Empire. He simultaneously excuses her use of necromancy for practical reasons and underscores her transgressive, masculine authority and political prowess, unsettling the recipient’s acceptance of Meliur as a suitable match for the hero.

The modern reader should not be fooled, however, into thinking that this is a feminist portrayal of a strong, independent ruling woman. On the contrary, both the French and German texts are male-centred works which project a male erotic fantasy from a male author with a masculine narrative perspective. Melior and Meliur continue to be defined by what they can offer the hero: sex, land and status. In both versions, all problems with her suitability for the hero are cast aside with the lover’s marriage. Her threat to gender norms—and thus by extension to the hero and the patriarchal society he nominally represents—is pacified through their eventual marriage which re-casts her into a more submissive role, as he assumes rulership of her land. In making Melior/Meliur so excessively different to the western hero, both texts also reframe her sexual agency. By performing what is essentially a construct of exoticized femininity created by a man, she functions as a reflection of the male fantasy of “woman” and as such exposes the instability of literary tropes and gender constructs both inside texts and in society more generally. Her sexuality can thus be seen in Butlerian terms: as a theatrically-produced construct within a normative discourse, revealing the instability of identity categories on a larger scale.