The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier

Charbonnier est maître chez soi: The collier is master in his own house. This French saying finds its most literal expression in The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier a 15th-century Middle Scots romance about the adventures that ensue when King Charlemagne separated from his entourage by a blizzard seeks refuge in the home of a proud and irascible collier. Combining folktale motifs with burlesque humor and elements of chansons and chivalric romances The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier is a lively but little-read story of medieval courtesy hospitality and knighthood. This translation the first into modern English emulates the 75 thirteen-line rhyming alliterative stanzas of the original. Light annotations a brief introduction and a bibliography help introduce modern readers to this strange and entertaining romance that W.R.J. Barron dubbed technically and creatively the best of the English texts on the Matter of France.