89
Carlotta Posth DOI: 10.4312/linguistica.63.1-2.89-121
Universität Würzburg
carlotta.posth@uni-wuerzburg.de 
Sonia García de Alba Lobeira
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
sonia.garciadealba@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de
COHERENCE-MAKING STRATEGIES IN THE RENAUT DE 
MONTAUBAN TRADITION: 
FROM FRENCH VERSE TO ENGLISH PROSE*
1 INTRODUCTION
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the prose romance became one of the most pop-
ular vernacular literary genres in French literature and, from there, travelled to many 
other European literatures, including English. This tradition began with the adaptation 
of verse epics and romances (chanson de geste and roman1) into prose. French produc-
tions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were translated into English starting 
in the late fifteenth century and influenced the emergence of the new genre in English 
literature. Despite this fact, narrative conventions in English prose romances have sel-
dom been studied from a translingual perspective that considers their French sources.
Drawing from a narratological perspective that aims to link literary and linguistic 
studies, this paper examines coherence-making strategies and their diachronic, inter-
generic, development from Old French (OF) to Middle English (ME). In our study, 
we will analyse linguistic features—such as word order patterns and narrative formu-
lae—used to establish and manage narrative coherence in the story of Renaut de Mon-
tauban. Our understanding of the term coherence is twofold: On the one hand, we view 
coherence as a linguistic property of texts, which stems from the concept of cohesion 
developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). This understanding of coherence as cohesion 
refers to the text’s “internal properties”, that is, to the way in which sentences are linked 
together to create sense and meaning (Eggins 2004: 29). This can be realised gram-
matically, at a micro level, “through a series of cohesive devices such as conjunction, 
ellipsis, substitution and reference, and relies on the reader’s ability to make the neces-
sary linkages between the two (or more) elements that are semantically tied together” 
* This article was completed through the generous support of the Reinhart-Koselleck-Projekt “Diachronic 
Narratology” (2019–2025), Project No. 404215440, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). 
https://www.koselleckproject-diachronicnarratology.uni-freiburg.de/ .
1 On the thematic and formal differences between these two genres see Winter-Froemel/Posth (2022: 442–443). 
Yet they are not clearly delineated categories and there are fluid transitions between them in both verse and 
prose, see e.g. Suard (2014).
90
or, lexically, through the repetition of certain words or collocations or the repeated use 
of specific narrative formulae (Canning 2014: 47). On the other hand, we also view 
coherence as a feature pertaining to the macro organisation of texts, that is, their overall 
structure, and how this is understood and interpreted by audiences according to cultural 
practices, cognitive scripts, and schemata (Toolan 2013). This is similar to Eggins’s 
concept of “generic coherence” which relies on a “predictable generic or schematic 
structure” (2004: 29), in this case, the conventional structure of medieval romance. In 
the latter sense, coherence is also linked to narrative progression, i.e. the intelligible 
transition from one narrative segment to another following an expected generic pat-
tern. Furthermore, it is worth emphasising that the elements that create a coherent story 
are situationally bound and largely dependent on contextual features such as the audi-
ence’s expectations, their prior knowledge of the narrative, and the context of reading 
or performance. In short, while coherence understood as cohesion is more concerned 
with linguistic and syntactic structures, coherence understood as textual structure con-
siders aspects in the realm of literary genre conventions and pragmatics, such as the 
context of production and reception, and how these influence the text. Both approaches 
to coherence, from a micro and macro perspective, are necessary to gain a nuanced 
understanding of the different strategies deployed in the texts that we aim to study. As 
Toolan (2013: Section 10) notes:
[w]e should not overstate the contrast between those who study coherence as a 
linguistic property of texts and those who focus on the discourse reception and 
the addressee’s attributing of coherence to a text [...] there is often no fundamen-
tal opposition between the two approaches, but rather a division of labour and of 
disciplinary interest.
Drawing from this dual understanding of coherence, in the following sections we 
analyse how coherence-making strategies are deployed at a micro and macro level in 
three different versions of the Renaut de Montauban. We will begin by looking at the 
earliest version of the text, the OF poem, then turn to its prose adaptation in Middle 
French (MF) and, finally, compare this with the ME prose translation. Our main focus 
throughout will be to examine the linguistic features (primarily, variation in sentence 
initial word order used to foreground information) and framing patterns (narrative for-
mulae, particularly entrelacement), used to manage thematic shifts and scene changes 
in all three versions. Our aim is to determine how the strategies used to establish overall 
textual coherence, at a macro-structural level, are dependent on or supplemented by 
linguistic strategies at a micro level. This will allow us to assess the specific patterns 
of coherence-making particular to each of the texts and, finally, compare these findings 
to determine how changes in the linguistic form (verse or prose) and in the context of 
reception might prompt changes in syntactic and framing patterns.
It is important to note that word order and framing narrative strategies—our main 
subjects of interest—are influenced by diachronic linguistic changes which would have 
affected verb position and word order in general. Therefore, we also take into account 
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the historical development of the grammar of the linguistic structures studied, which 
interest us primarily from a narratological perspective.
2 CORPUS 
For our analysis, we have chosen three versions of Renaut de Montauban, also called 
The Four Sons of Aymon/Les quatre fils Aymon, due to its popularity in medieval and 
early modern Europe. The story was first written in French verse sometime in the thir-
teenth century and numerous adaptations in prose emerged from the fifteenth century 
onwards. The rewritings in prose were composed not only in French, but also in Eng-
lish, Dutch, German, and Italian, which attest to its popularity in the early modern 
world. 
The Renaut tells the story of the eponymous protagonist and his three brothers who 
are involved in a lasting conflict with their king, Charlemagne. For our analysis, we have 
selected the first part of the Renaut, usually referred to as the “Beuves d’Aigremont epi-
sode” (Thomas 1962: 143–145). This section, often considered an extended prologue 
to the tale, focuses not on Renault and his brothers but rather on the tensions between 
their uncle, the Duke Beuves of Aigremont, and the king, which eventually lead to the 
war against King Charlemagne. The episode begins on the day of the feast of Pentecost 
when Charlemagne’s court is assembled in Paris. On this occasion the king is reminded 
that his vassal, Duke Beuves, was not present at a particular military encounter—which 
led to great losses on their part. Charlemagne then decides to send his son, Lohier, to 
give the duke an ultimatum: either he returns the next summer to his service or he shall 
besiege him at Aigremont. At the court of Beuves, a heated exchange between Lohier 
and Beuves quickly turns into a fight. Lohier and his retinue are far outnumbered by 
Beuves and his men. The duke finally kills Lohier and sends the few survivors from 
Lohier’s retinue back to Charlemagne with the corpse. The story then shifts to Aymon, 
one of Beuves’s brothers, who, in the meantime, is at Charlemagne’s court with his four 
sons—the eldest of whom is Renaut. The duke Aymon asks the king to take his sons 
into his service, unaware, still, that his brother Beuves has killed Lohier. Charlemagne 
assents and swears in the four brothers as knights. When news arrives that Beuves 
has killed the king’s son, Charlemagne swears revenge and gathers supporters for a 
counterattack. Aymon and his sons flee the court out of loyalty to their kinsman and 
fear of punishment. Before Charlemagne can leave for Aigremont, he receives news 
that Beuves and two of his brothers, Gerard de Roussillon and Doon de Nantuel, are 
besieging the city of Troie (Troyes, in France). Charlemagne then travels to Troie and 
a bloody battle ensues between the armies of both parties. The king gains the upper 
hand, whereupon Beuves apologises and offers to return to his service. Charlemagne 
accepts the apology on the condition that Beuves appears on his next court day. The lat-
ter agrees, but Charlemagne breaks his word by allowing the Earl Guenes, his nephew, 
to set forth with a company of men and ambush Beuves on his way to Paris. Beuves 
is finally slain by Guenes in this encounter. The episode ends with news of the king’s 
treachery reaching Aigremontʼ and Maugis, the son of Beuves, plotting revenge with 
his uncles and cousins.
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The striking number of manuscripts and prints in which the prose adaptations of The 
Four Sons of Aymon have survived shows that this tale was read by a very large audi-
ence and was most likely regarded as a favourite amongst the epic romances dealing 
with Charlemagne.2 In English, The Right Plesaunt and Goodly Historie of the Foure 
Sonnes of Aymon (1489), as it was titled, became, alongside The Ystorye and Lyfe of 
the Noble and Crysten Prynce Charles the Gret (1478),3 one of the few romances 
dealing with the Matter of France printed in Britain after the fifteenth century.4 Both 
of these romances were translated and printed by William Caxton, who introduced the 
printing press to England in 1476 (Blake 1991: 57, Sánchez-Martí 2009: 5–8). It must 
be noted that this is considerably late compared to the advent of the printing press on 
the continent, where movable type printing had been in use for more than twenty years 
prior to the time printing began in England (Hellinga 2010: 1). The fact that English 
prose romances appeared only shortly before the printing press meant that this nascent 
genre was mostly disseminated through the new print medium—and largely by Cax-
ton himself, who had a particular interest in them (Cooper 2004: 216). As a result, the 
presentation and the structural makeup that would become trademarks of the English 
prose romance were set and popularised by Caxton, and later emulated by his succes-
sors, namely, Wynkyn de Worde, Robert Copland, and William Copland (Meale 1992: 
283–298). This phenomenon emerged as part of the new, printed format in the Euro-
pean book market, where narrative strategies were supplemented with editorial and 
paratextual features to guide the reader and emphasise the changes in scenes already 
marked by coherence-making features in the text itself. 
Before we come to our main discussion, some remarks regarding the editions used 
are necessary since the tradition of the Renaut is extremely wide-ranging and complex. 
As stated above, we have chosen three texts: a French verse version from the thirteenth 
century, a French prose adaptation from the fifteenth century, and Caxton’s English 
translation of the French prose, which also dates back to the fifteenth century. We have 
been able to verify that the English version is a close translation of the French prose 
text preserved in an incunabulum printed in Lyon in 1497 by Jehan de Vingle. Since 
Caxton’s translation dates from 1489, we must assume that Vingle’s edition is an un-
altered reprint of an earlier incunabulum from the 1480s, which served as the model 
for the English translation. For this reason, we use the Lyon 1497 incunabulum for the 
comparison between the French and English prose versions. This print derives from the 
“traditional version” of the versified Renaut (Thomas 1962: 146–180; the other branch 
of the Renaut manuscript tradition is called the “aristocratic version”). The prose ver-
sion from the Lyon 1497 incunabulum shows a particular closeness to the verse version 
in one particular manuscript, the MS Z (Metz, Bibliothèque municipale, 192), except 
for the beginning, up to the return of the body of Lohier, which is closer to the version 
2 For complete lists of manuscripts and prints see Baudelle-Michels (2014: 699–708 and 710–712). 
3 The romance was translated into English from the French prose Fierabras (1478), attributed to Jean Bagnyon.
4 Some manuscript copies of the Charlemagne romances dated to c. 1450 survive but it is believed that they 
became less well-known after the fifteenth century. The lack of prints other than Caxton’s suggests they were 
not consumed as widely. For a full list of printed Middle English texts see Lewis et al. (1985).
93
handed down in MS D (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 121) (Suard 2000: 253). In 
the comparison of verse and prose, we have mainly worked with the edition by Geipel 
(1913) (laisses 25–66), which renders the version of Z, and used the edition by Thomas 
(1989) (laisses 1–26), which is based on D, only for the opening section.5
The English prose romance survives in four prints, the first one, by Caxton, from 
1489, is missing part of the Aigremont episode. The second, from 1504 by Wynkin 
de Worde, is fragmentary. The third edition, which was printed by William Copland 
sometime in the first half of the sixteenth century, survives only in fragments that make 
impossible an exact dating. The fourth and final pre-modern edition was also printed 
by Copland in 1554 and is the only complete version of the English text. A comparison 
between the surviving prints reveals that all are reproductions of Caxton’s translation 
with minor alterations, namely in spelling. They all included his original prologue, 
table of contents, and chapter headings as far as it is possible to compare them. Only 
one modern edition exists. This is a transcription by Octavia Richardson (1885) for 
the Early English Text Society and is a reproduction of the 1489 edition by Caxton, 
supplemented, where lacking, by the 1554 print by Copland. In our analysis, we will 
be quoting solely from the Copland 1554 reprint, which is available as a facsimile. 
We have kept in view Richardson’s modern edition as a reference where the facsimile 
proved unclear.
Following current academic practices, we have silently expanded all abbreviations, 
marked ornate initials in bold, and normalised spelling for u and v, as well as for differ-
ent renderings of s when transcribing and quoting text from the early modern prints. We 
have also kept all original punctuation markings. The translations into English provided 
for the French Renaut are our own.
3 COHERENCE-MAKING STRATEGIES IN THE VERSE RENAUT
The chansons de geste are known for their formulaic style (style formulaire), which 
also characterises the verse Renaut. Stereotypical expressions denote a limited set of 
motifs that are repeated throughout the epic poem. In a seminal essay originally pub-
lished in 1955, Rychner (1999: 126–146) has listed and analysed common motifs (e.g. 
armament of the knights, duel with lance or sword) and formulae (e.g. Le destrier 
broiche ‘[He] spurs on his warhorse’) in the Chanson de Roland and eight other chan-
sons de geste. According to Rychner (1999: 127), these motifs and the corresponding 
formulae were the traditional ‘tools’ of the jongleurs, the professional musician-poets 
who performed the chansons de geste:
le jongleur va traiter son thème de façon presque entièrement traditionnelle, grâce 
à des motifs, stéréotypés sur le plan du récit aussi bien que dans l’expression ; sur 
le plan du récit, ces motifs isoleront certains moments, toujours les mêmes, et, dans 
l’expression, ces moments seront rendus de façon analogue par les mêmes formules. 
Les motifs sont essentiels à la composition et à la mémorisation des chansons.
5 The counting of the laisses does not correspond exactly in the two manuscripts. The laisse 25 in MS Z roughly 
matches the laisse 27 in MS D.
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Rychner thus links the formulaic style to the oral composition of the chansons de 
geste. The latter has been discussed very controversially in research (e.g. Calin 1981 
and Duggan 1981). However, there is a broad consensus that the chansons de geste 
were traditionally sung by jongleurs and were thus the object of collective reception. 
For our narratological question regarding coherence-making strategies, the level of re-
ception is important. Research on the chanson de geste has so far examined the formu-
laic style mainly at the level of production. If we look at reception, it becomes relevant 
to consider whether the formulae contribute to creating a coherent narrative and, if so, 
how. It does not seem far-fetched that some formulae in the chansons de geste fulfil 
narrative functions that contribute to coherence-making. If one compares the results of 
(non-narratological) research taking into account the formulaic style of the chansons 
de geste (e.g. Boutet 1988, Gittleman 1967, Heinemann 1993, Rossi 1975, Rychner 
1999, Subrenat 1974) with narratological studies, one finds that some of the formulae 
observed in the chansons de geste correspond to linguistic expressions identified in nar-
ratological studies as elements of narrative structure. For example, both Rychner and 
Fludernik discuss subject-verb inversion. While Rychner (1999: 72) is concerned with 
the poetic function of subject-verb inversion within the structure of the laisse, Flud-
ernik (2000: 237) identifies it as a marker used in the episodic structuring of narrative 
texts. The narratological research on discourse markers (DMs) and word order patterns 
that foreground narrative structure has been conducted primarily in English studies and 
therefore has focussed on English texts such as Malory’s Le Mort D’Arthur (Hopper 
1979, Enkvist/Wårvik 1987, Fludernik 1995 and 2000, Brinton 1996 and 2010; for 
French see Fleischman 1991). The latter and other ME texts are adaptations from OF 
and so their use of narrative formulae and DMs could be influenced by these sources, 
although research is still lacking on this question. By examining narrative functions of 
certain formulae and DMs in the Renaut tradition from OF through MF to ME, we take 
a first step in this direction. We will focus on copula constructions with initial intensi-
fiers (INTs), on narrative DMs and their ME equivalents––starting with or and lors in 
this section––, and on the narrative formula commonly referred to as entrelacement in 
French, which, in English, is often referred to as interlacement.
We begin with copula constructions with initial intensifiers. Copula constructions 
are clauses in which a copula verb6 connects the subject of a clause with a complement, 
as in The house(SUBJ) is(CV) big(COMP). The function of the complement in OF (and 
MF) can be taken by different types of words, including qualifying adjectives (quADJ) 
(e.g. big, beautiful), which can be preceded by intensifiers (INTs) (e.g. OF mout granz 
‘very big’) (Marchello-Nizia/Prévost 2020: 1168). We have examined the narrative 
segments7 of the Beuves d’Aigremont episode and found that in copula constructions, 
the initial position is most frequently filled by an INT. Therefore, we focus our analysis 
on this pattern. The quADJ to which the INT refers is usually preceded by the copula 
6 OF and MF copula verbs are estre ‘to be’, devenir ‘become’, rester ‘stay’, paroistre ‘appear’, and sembler 
‘resemble’ (Marchello-Nizia/Prévost 2020: 1159).
7 We have excluded direct discourse (DD) as this belongs to the level of character speech and not of narration 
proper.
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verb. The subject follows at the end, resulting in the structure ‘INT + CV + quADJ + 
SUBJ’.8 The examination of all occurrences of this copula construction with an initial 
INT, twelve in total, has shown that it is linked to a specific vocabulary and content. 
The latter can be divided into three types: (1) crowd, (2) mourning, and (3) fight. Be-
low, we give the textual evidence according to these three types.9
(1) Crowd
(a) Mult  fu  grant  li  barnage  quant il fu asenblé. (23,819, MS)10
Very  was  big  the  assembly of barons  [when it was assembled]
(b) Molt par  fu  grans  li  pueples qui illuec assambla, (31,1189, MS)
Very much  was big the people  [which he assembled]
(c) Molt fu  tres  grans  la  cors  en la sale pavee, (32,1199, IT)
Very was  much  big the royal assembly  [in the paved hall]
(d) Molt par  fu  grans  la  presse  et    la     procession. (66,2264, MS)
Very much was big the crowd  and the   procession
(2) Mourning
(a) Molt par  fu  grans  li  deul     a Paris la cité (30,1148, IT)
Very much was big the mourning   [in the city of Paris]
(b) Molt fu  grans  la  dolors  pardedens Aigremont, (66,2223, IT)
Very was big the pain  [inside Aigremont]
(3) Fight
(a) Molt est bone la  terre  et  aussi  la  gaaigne (39,1407, MS)11
Very is good the  battleground and  also  the  earnings
(b) Molt fu  fors  li  estors, et la bataille engraigne. (39,1423, CT)
Very was strong the fight [and the fight gets fiercer]
(c) Molt fu  li  estors  fors et dure l’envaïe, (41,1446, IT)
Very was the fight strong [and hard the attack]
8 Some of the text passages given below show slight variations of this basic pattern through intensifying adverbs 
(e.g. 1b and 1c) or through the quADJ being in the final position (3c).
9 There are two examples for copula constructions with initial complements instead of initial INTs in the studied 
section of the verse Renaut:
Morz fu  li  filz  Karlon,   le buen vassal Loher (21,776, IT)
Dead was the son  of Charlemagne, [the good vassal]
Fiére  fu  la bataille  et gravaine a soffrir. (59,2084, IT)
Fierce was the battle [and heavy to bear]
The second one clearly falls into category (3) fight. The first one can be associated with (2) mourning but does 
not match it entirely. All the passages listed here have in common that they focus on collective action or the 
effects that an action has on a collective.
10 The first number indicates the laisse, the second number refers to the verse, and the acronym gives information 
on the position of the text passage inside of the laisse (IT: intonation tone, MS: middle section, CT: conclusion 
tone). We have translated Rychner’s (1999, 68–74) established terminology (timbre d’intonation and timbre de 
conclusion) into English. According to Rychner, both the first and the last verse of each laisse (intonation and 
conclusion) get musical (and linguistic) emphasis to signal the laisse’s boundaries.
11 In this passage, the words terre and gaaigne are metaphorically used to describe the battle in terms of agriculture. 
The verse immediately preceding reads: Les ·II· os s’entreviennent en milieu d’une plaine (39,1406, ‘The two 
armies attack each other in the middle of a field.’).
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(d) Molt fu  fiere  la  presse et la bataille grans. (45,1601, IT)
Very was fierce the crush [and the battle big]
(e) Molt fu  grans  la  bataille et pesans a soffrir. (48,1723, IT)
Very was big the battle [and heavy to bear]
(f) Molt fu  grans  la  bataille et dure l’envaïe, (60,2115, IT)
Very was big the battle [and hard the attack]
The position of the initial INT is always taken by molt, which can be further in-
tensified by the adverb par as in (1b), (1d), and (2a). The quADJ also does not show 
much lexical variation. The most common is grant, sometimes intensified by the 
adverb tres (1c). In the context of fight, we also find bon (3a), fort (3b,c), and fier 
(3d). While sentences that begin with a copula construction with an initial intensifier 
are not very frequent in the studied part of the verse Renaut, the given text passages 
show that when this pattern appears, it is within formulae related to a limited set of 
plot elements (crowd, mourning, fight). We assume that this word order was marked 
and that it was an element for establishing narrative coherence in the verse Renaut. 
The current state of historical grammar on the copula constructions supports this 
assumption: In the Grande Grammaire Historique du Français (GGHF), Marchello-
Nizia (2020: 1169–1170) has shown that in OF texts from the tenth to the thirteenth 
century, copula constructions with initial INTs were frequent, but that even then, the 
prevailing pattern was X est mout granz with the subject in the initial position. She 
describes a reorganisation of the verbal group, which is visible in the fact that from 
the thirteenth century onwards, moult/molt and other intensifiers lost their ability to 
refer to the predicate (CV + ADJ) and were placed directly before the ADJ. We can 
thus assume that in the verse Renaut manuscript tradition from the thirteenth century, 
the copula construction with the initial INT molt was already becoming archaic. It 
possibly survived in the verse Renaut because it was part of a narrative formula 
with idiomatic character. This narrative formula could convey coherence by evok-
ing stereotypical plot elements, which in the studied section of the verse Renaut are 
the gathering or movement of a crowd, mourning, and fight. An informed audience, 
familiar with the formula, could quickly recognise these recurring elements of the 
plot and thus anticipate its progress. The narrative formula present in our text sample 
indeed establishes a limited number of settings that always signal narrative progres-
sion: either the setting concludes a previous event or chain of events or it introduces 
a new event or chain of events. In other words, the formula seems to function as a 
connecting link between narrative episodes. Episodes as defined by van Dijk (1982: 
177) are 
[…] characterized as coherent sequences of sentences of a discourse, linguisti-
cally marked for beginning and/or end, and further defined in terms of some kind 
of ‘thematic unity’—for instance, in terms of identical participants, time, location 
or global event or action.
97
In the section of the verse Renaut we studied, the setting invoked by the formula 
ensures the transition from one episode to another.12 We will use two examples from 
our sample to illustrate this function.
The text passage in 3b) is the last verse of laisse 39, in which we learn that the 
troupes of Girart de Rossellon and Charlemagne clash in front of Troie and that Girart 
kills one of Charlemagne’s knights. 3b) concludes this episode or chain of events by 
returning to ‘the big picture’ of the battlefield. Its narrative effect is that of zooming-
out.13 After we have zoomed-in on individual interactions within the battle, the formula 
prompts us to zoom out and transition to a bird’s eye view, which comes with a change 
in narrative tempo, leading to a pause. In the following laisse (40), a new action starts: 
we zoom in again on further duels. Those are then concluded in laisse 41 by the text 
passage given in 3c), which furthermore signals a new action that is about to happen in 
laisse 41 and which consists in yet another duel. Thus, our example 3c) both concludes 
a previous action and introduces a new one. 
Our second example comes from the first content type, the gathering of a crowd. 
In laisse 31, we learn that Charlemagne is annoyed because Aymon and his sons have 
left the court, and that he eats very little in the dining hall. In the middle section of the 
laisse, we find 1b) establishing that  there are a lot of people gathered in the hall. 1b) 
thus evoques a zooming-out from the close-up on Charlemagne to a bird’s eye view on 
the crowd gathered in the hall. By doing so, the narrative formula signals that a new 
action is about to happen. This is the case: Charlemagne stands up and begins a speech 
to his people, condemning Beuve’s crime. As in the context of combat, the narrative 
formula here serves to foreground the transition between episodes, thus ensuring nar-
rative coherence. When we look at the position inside of the laisse where our narrative 
formula occurs, we see that it is not limited to beginning, middle or end (IT, MS, CT): it 
appears seven times in the IT, once in the CT, and four times in the MS. This shows that 
the structuring of the narrative episodes in the verse Renaut does not correspond to the 
structure of the laisse. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that the narrative formula occurs 
twice as often in positions with musical emphasis (IT, CT) as in unmarked ones (MS). 
This suggests that the poetic design of the verse Renaut was also used to emphasise the 
narrative structure at certain points.
We now come to narrative DMs, also commonly referred to as pragmatic mark-
ers (Schiffrin 1987, Brinton 1996). They are short words or phrases (e.g. now, then, 
in fact) which occur at a high frequency in oral communication but lack lexical and 
12 We cannot go into detail here about different types of episodes, such as micro- and macro-episodes, and their 
internal structure. On this topic, see Labov’s seminal essays on oral narrative (Labov/Waletzky 1967 and 
Labov 1972: 354–398; for a compact account of both essays see Toolan 1991 [1988]: 146–182). Contributions 
focussing on episodic structure in medieval narrative texts are Fludernik (1996: 53–91, and 2000: 233–235) and 
Clover (1969: 59–63).
13 This narrative effect corresponds to what Brinton (1996: 43) names “a change from general to specific, or the 
reverse” in her typology of “points of change” that signal episode boundaries. We prefer the zoom metaphor 
because of its visual emphasis. In research on the chanson de geste, the role of the narrator or presenter of the 
story has been compared to that of a sports commentator who comments on what is to be seen (Carruthers/
Marnette 2007). The alternation between the battlefield as a whole and individual duels also primarily evokes a 
widening and narrowing of the field of vision.
98
propositional meaning. According to Brinton (1996: 6), DMs serve several key func-
tions, some of which concern the organisation of narratives, e.g. marking scene shifts 
or narrative segmentation. Drawing from foregrounding theory (Hopper 1979), DMs 
that serve these specific organising functions have been qualified as narrative by Flud-
ernik (2000: 231–232) and can be observed not only in oral but also in written narra-
tives. This also holds true for the verse Renaut and its prose adaptations. From several 
lexemes that can act as DMs, we have chosen to discuss or and lors, which show an 
interesting diachronic development.
The OF temporal adverbs or (also ore, ores, ‘now’) and lors (‘then’) derive from 
the same Latin etymon, the noun hōra (‘hour’), and they both express concomitance: or 
indicates the concomitance of an action with the moment of utterance whereas lors is 
commonly used to signal the concomitance of two actions that lie in the past (Marchel-
lo-Nizia/Prévost 2020: 915 and Badiou-Monferran et al. 2020: 1634). Narratological 
studies on Old English (OE) and ME texts have shown that the corresponding English 
temporal adverbs (þa ‘then’, nū/nu ‘now’) can act as DMs with diverse functions that 
also regard narrative structure (e.g. marking narrative segmentation and peaks in the 
narrative, shifting the topic, introducing meta-comments that show textual progression; 
for a concise overview see Brinton 2010: 287–290). If or and lors are also used as nar-
rative DMs in the verse Renaut, they must have text-connective functions that assist in 
structuring the narrative. Or and lors as narrative DMs would thus be ambiguous due to 
homophony with the temporal adverbs they derive from lexically, but with which they 
do not share the same pragmatic functions. This also means that their DM functions 
would be distinct from the meanings of their lexical homophones, although they may 
retain traces of these original meanings (Norrick 2000: 850, Brinton 2010: 286). When 
we look at or and lors in the verse Renaut, we see a parallel syntactic behaviour: they 
occur in sentence-initial position and can cause subject-verb inversion, as can be seen 
in the following examples that we have chosen from a total number of eleven occur-
rences of or and five occurrences of lors in the Beuves d’Aigremont episode.14
(4) or
(a) Or  chevauchent  li     mes   de la  terre absolue. (10,407, IT)
Now ride-3PL-PRES the  messengers of the  blessed land.
(b) Or      oiez    que  fist   Bués  belement 
Now  hear-2PL.PRES/IMPERA what do-3SG.PAST Beuves stealthily 
a   celee (19,721, MS)
in  secret
(c) Or  vos   lairons   de  ces  qui 
Now  you-2PL  leave-1.PL.FUT  from these who
ont   grant  marison (66,2225, MS)
have-3PL-PRES big sorrow
14 Again, we have excluded DD. All instances of or are: 5,190, 10,407, 19,721, 23,816, 27,1072, 31,1187, 37,1365, 
55,1940, 56,1961, 63,2167, and 66,2225. All instances of lors are: 27,1055, 31,1181, 44,1598, 46,1631, and 
61,2148.
99
(5) lors
(a) Lors  descent   del  ceval  et  Names  
Then dismount-3SG.PRES  from the horse and Naimes
li   gentis (27,1055, MS)
the noble
(b) Lors  a   maudite  l’ ore  que Renaut 
Then have-3SG.PRES  accursed the hour that Renaut
adoba (31,1181, MS)
knight-3Sg.PAST
(c) Lors  cria   ‘Aigremont’  hautement   a    cler   ton (46,1631, MS)
Then cry-3SG.PAST ‘Aigremont’ loudly   in   clear  sound
Yet it turns out that or acts as a DM in the verse Renaut, but lors does not. The three 
examples we chose for or are representative of its DM functions. The text passage in 
4a) is the first verse of laisse 10 (IT) and refers to Lohier and his men, who are on their 
way to Beuves. In the previous laisse, they had stopped and Lohier and one of his men 
had a conversation. Our example 4a) signals the beginning of a new episode, which 
begins with the messengers’ departure. The introduction of a new episode by or is re-
inforced by its positioning at the marked beginning of the laisse. In 4b), or introduces 
an address to the audience, which informs them about what they are going to hear next. 
This is to be seen as a meta-comment indicating narrative progression. A similar func-
tion has been described for ME nu (Brinton 2010: 288). Finally, in 4c) or is part of an 
interlacement formula that serves to address the audience (vos) and announce a scene 
shift (from the court in Aigremont to the court in Paris). Consequently, or also serves as 
a meta-comment in 4c), signalling a specific type of narrative progression (scene shift). 
In all examples, or as a narrative DM helps to organise the narrative, and thus also to 
create coherence.
In contrast to or, we could not find evidence for uses of lors in the verse Renaut that 
would suggest it functioned as a narrative DM. In 5a)–c), we have given three of the 
five incidences of lors we found. In all of them, lors indicates concomitance, i.e. the 
consecutive character of an action in relation to a precedent action in the plot. It thus 
expresses a close temporal connection between two actions, but it does not contribute 
to orienting the recipient inside the narrative. Consequently, in the verse Renaut, lors 
is present as a temporal adverb with a rather low frequency, which receives almost no 
poetic emphasis: lors always appears in the MS of the laisse, except for one incidence 
where it is in the CT (61,2148).
The last element we will discuss is interlacement (entrelacement). This narrative 
technique, first described by Ferdinand Lot (1918: 17–19), is now widely regarded 
as a defining feature of the narrative organisation of medieval romances. It is used to 
handle the transitions from one setting and group of characters to another, and broadly 
follows the structure: “Now we leave x and turn to y” (Vinaver 1971: 68–98, Ryding 
1971: 24–27, Häsner 2019: 86–118). Vinaver describes interlacing as a literary strategy 
that privileges “acentric composition”. This is achieved through the act of “weaving 
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together” multiple plot strands to establish significant links between seemingly unre-
lated narrative themes to create a “tapestry” of interwoven plots—which ultimately 
convey a coherent story (1971: 68–73). Using this technique, the narrator15 can han-
dle the movement between episodes in two ways: either 1) they can introduce a new 
episode and setting, which may or may not be simultaneous to the actions previously 
described, or 2) they can return to a previous setting to provide background informa-
tion and continue with the development of a particular episode which was interrupted. 
Furthermore, each of these distinct forms of interlacement is usually accompanied by 
specific linguistic markers and narrative formulae, which provide cognitive cues that 
prompt the audience to anticipate a change in topic. In the verse Renaut, there is one 
interlacement formula that either introduces a new setting or returns to a previous one: 
‘or + personal pronoun + verb laissier + preposition de + nominal phrase / si + verb 
dire + preposition de + nominal phrase.’ The example in 6a) is representative of all 
interlacement formulae in the verse Renaut.
(6) Interlacement
(a) Or     vos          lairons       de  ces  qui  ont  grant marison,
Now  you-2PL   leave-1PL.PRES  from those who have  big sorrow
Si  dirons   de Griffon de  son fil  Guenelon
and tell-1PL.FUT of Griffon of his son Guenes
Qui vindrent    a  Paris ou   fu   li  rois 
who come-3PL.PAST  to Paris  where be-3SG.PAST the king 
Charlon. (66,225–227, MS)
Charlemagne
It is interesting that the interlacement formula is used in the verse Renaut, because it 
is a narrative technique that has primarily been associated with the genre of romance (in 
the sense of the French roman, meaning the matière de Bretagne), and not as much with 
the chanson de geste (matière de France). Considering that the manuscripts containing 
the verse Renaut are dated to the thirteenth century––a period in which the boundaries 
between roman and chanson de geste become increasingly blurred (Colombo Timelli 
et al. 2014: 8–9)––it seems possible that the interlacement formula was imported from 
the romance tradition into the verse Renaut. 
After we have given the status quo of the described narrative formulae and DMs in 
the verse Renaut, we will describe their development in the French and English prose 
in the next sections.
15 There is an ongoing debate regarding the validity of using the term “narrator” in a medieval context. We have 
chosen to use it here for practical reasons to refer to the voice in the text and to distinguish it from the author 
or translator. For a discussion of the author-narrator issue in medieval literature see Spearing (2015) and Kragl 
(2019: 82–93).
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4 FROM VERSE TO PROSE: NARRATIVE ORGANISATION IN THE 
CONTEXT OF CHANGING GENRES
By the early thirteenth century, vernacular literature in prose was on the rise in the 
French context. The shift to writing literature in prose—which had been previously 
reserved for historical works, legal documents, and religious texts—, was not a mere 
accident but rather “the inevitable consequence of the emerging view that prose was 
essential for the presentation of truth” (Lacy 2000: 167). This emerged from the idea 
that authors writing in verse or their translators often compromised the veracity of their 
texts in favour of accommodating the demands of metre and rhyme, which might call 
for a particular word and result in unconventional syntax. Furthermore, prose soon 
became the ideal medium to harness increasingly long and complex narratives that 
spanned the entirety of the protagonists’s life. As a result, although literature in verse 
continued to enjoy prestige and diffusion, prose became increasingly common, particu-
larly for popular and widely-read vernacular genres like romances. 
In this context, adaptations of chansons de geste and other well-known epics also 
made their way into prose and influenced some of the conventions of prose romances as 
they migrated to this new form. The Renaut was turned into a prose romance sometime 
in the first half of the fifteenth century and began to appear in print between 1482 and 
1485. The change in genre, context of reception, and format naturally brought with it 
structural changes which are also visible at the level of coherence-making strategies. 
These shifts are reflected both at a micro (linguistic) level and a macro (structural) level 
in the MF prose Renaut. 
When we compare the use of copula constructions with initial INTs in the MF verse 
and prose Renaut, we must consider the historical evolution of this word order pattern as 
well as the history of molt. As already stated, copula constructions with initial INTs had 
become less common in the thirteenth century and were increasingly rare in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries. Moreover, the INT molt had been in competition with the new 
expression beau coup since the fourteenth century. Starting in the middle of the fifteenth 
century, a sharp decline in the use of molt can be seen, and in the sixteenth century, 
the lexeme was very rare before disappearing altogether in classical French (Marchello 
Nizia 2020: 921). Considering this, it seems unlikely that the authors of the prose ver-
sion reproduced the word order pattern used in the verse Renaut. In fact, we see a strong 
quantitative decline: While there were twelve instances of copula constructions with the 
initial INT molt in the verse Renaut, we only find two in the prose version:
(7) moult
(a) Moult   estoit    grant  le  peuple  qui  la  estoit. (24)
Very    be-3SG.PAST   big the people that there be-3SG.PAST
(b) Moult fut     grant  et  merveilleux  lestour     et 
Very   be-3SG.PAST   big and great  the fight    and
la  bataille  fiere. (p. 26) 
the battle fierce
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Both instances are quite literal renderings of the passages in the verse Renaut and 
they fulfil the same functions, i.e. to signal changes between narrative events (episodes) 
or between narrative levels.16 Against the background of the historical evolution of cop-
ula constructions with initial INTs and of the lexeme molt, it must be surprising that they 
can still be found at all in the MF prose Renaut. We assume that the construction could 
survive as part of a formula that was seen as a stylistic element of the chanson de geste 
and whose archaic character was a welcome signal of authenticity. At the same time, we 
witness a linguistic adaptation of the word order pattern in three other uses of the for-
mula: the initial INT is replaced by the adjective attribute in the form of fiere and grant.
(8) fiere
(a) FIere  fut   la    bataille grande    et  merveilleuse / (27)17
Fierce be-3SG.PAST the  battle    big       and great
(b) FIere  fut   la    bataille    et  moult  dure    a  souffrir / (p. 31)
Fierce be-3SG.PAST the   battle      and very hard    to bear
(9) grant
(a) Grande  fut   la   noise le      bruyt  et      le  tourment
Big be-3SG.PAST the  noise the   clamour and   the torment 
qui  adoncques     fut   au  palays  daigremont / (17)
That thereupon      be-3SG.PAST in the palast of Aigremont
By removing the initial INTs, the author(s) of the prose Renaut could preserve the 
formula and its narrative functions while linguistically adapting it to the state of MF. 
This approach testifies to a great effort to transfer conventional coherence-making strat-
egies from epic poetry to the new form of prose. The quantitative decrease of copula 
constructions with initial INTs (or adjective complements) in comparison with the 
verse version can be explained by the process of condensation of the story material 
since the prose version omits many of the repetitive battle scenes present in the verse. 
The transition from a collective, oral reception to an individual, written one made the 
repetitions unnecessary. It is therefore remarkable that the archaic formula continued to 
be used as a structuring element in the condensed narrative. It is possible that it fulfilled 
a double function: on the one hand, it contributed to the creation of narrative coherence, 
on the other hand, it functioned as a stylistic element of epic storytelling.
When we compare the use of narrative DMs between the verse and prose Renaut, 
we can see an overall tendency to rely more heavily on the use of narrative DMs in the 
prose. The most prominent are lors, adonc, or, and si. Although all can be generally 
classed as adverbs, we argue that in the prose Renaut they operate as DMs and help 
establish a sense of narrative coherence by signposting the transitions between different 
episodes or narrative levels.18 Beginning with lors, we witness the functional transfor-
16 In narratological terms, the difference between narrative levels refers to the distinction between story-level (the 
events that are recounted) and the discourse-level (how these events are narrated).
17 All quotes from the French prose are from a facsimile of the inculabulum from Lyon (1497) digitised by the 
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Only page numbers will be given henceforth.
18 All these adverbs have unstable meanings that depend on their context of use and function. When acting as 
103
mation of a temporal adverb into a narrative DM in the transition from the verse to the 
prose Renaut. While lors was used little in the verse Renaut (five occurrences), it is by 
far the most frequent narrative DM in the prose version (59 occurrences). It is often 
used to signal the end of an episode or the beginning of a new one. The former is usu-
ally achieved by stating the result of a particular set of actions (10, 11) and the latter by 
shifting the narrative perspective to new characters (12, 13).
(10) Lors marcha   lohyer tout      le  premier et  apres  luy 
Then walk-3SG.PAST Lohier all        the first       and after him
ses gens par  bonne  conduite (19)
his men by  good guidance
(11) Lors  prindrent  le  corps  et  le  leverent 
 Then  take-3PL.PAST      the corpse and him raise-3PL.PAST
davec  les aultres mortz     dont   il yavoit 
from with the other  dead-PL    of whom there be-3SG.PAST
grant     nombre /   et       le  mirent   dedens une  byere / (32)
big        number      and   him put-3PL.PAST inside a coffin
(12) Lors  se  trayt   auant  ung     cheualier nomme gaultier (19)
 Then himself drag-3SG.PRES forward a         knight     named  Gaultier
(13) Lors vint        sur le    conte daigremont       le  conte guenes  si 
 Then come-3SG.PAST   on  the   count of Aigremont   the count Guenes and
le  va   si    durement     frapper    que la  lance  luy 
him go-3SG.PRES so   hard            hit-INF    that the lance him 
mist   parmy le     corps et  tomba 
put-3SG.PAST inside the  body and fall-3SG.PAST
mort le  duc  daigremont / (32)
dead the  duke of Aigremont
In example (10) above, Lohier marches on to Aigremont to fulfil his father’s er-
rand, which concludes the discussions at the court in Paris and begins the new epi-
sode that will culminate in the death of Charlemagne’s emissaries. In (11), lors in-
troduces the ending of the fight against the Duke of Aigremont when his corpse is 
lifted from the battlefield and carried away. Similarly, here lors marks a transition 
to the battle’s aftermath and the mourning of his kinsmen. Examples (12) and (13) 
both introduce new characters to an established setting and with this further the plot. 
In (12), the knight Gualtier is introduced at Aigremont’s court and the romance nar-
rates his attempt to persuade the duke to listen to Lohier. When the negotiations fail, 
the conflict between Charlemagne’s men and Aigremont’s ensues. In (12) the duke 
Guenes appears in the battlefield suddenly and strikes down the Duke of Aigremont, 
which leads to his death. 
discourse markers, their lexical meaning becomes secondary to their overall function as a coherence-making 
device (see discussion of Norrick (2000) and Brinton (2010) above in section 3). This is further emphasised 
by the inconsistent translations found in the English prose, which alternates between translating these terms as 
then, when, and so, depending on the narrative effect sought. This will be dealt with in detail in the next section.
104
Additionally, lors is also used to manage narrative focalization by handling the 
switch between the narrator’s unrestricted overview of the events as they unfold and 
close-up descriptions of the characters’ internal emotional responses to the events they 
experience. Examples 14–17 show this strategy at work:
(14) Lors    fut   le  roy  charlemaigne  moult  doulent  et 
 Then   be-3SG.PAST the king Charlemagne very suffering and
courrouce.  Et  le  roy  iura   sainct  denis que 
angry and the king swear-3SG-PAST saint Denis that
le    pays  du      duc    beuues seroit   gaste     et destruitz (16)
the  land of the duke  Beuves be-3SG.COND devastated  and  destroyed
(15) Lors  se        reconforta   le  roy  charlemaigne et 
 Then himself    console-3SG.PAST the  king Charlemagne and
cogneut     bien que naymes le  conseilloit  loyaulment..(23)
recognize-3SG.PAST   well that Naimes him advise-3SG.PAST loyally
(16) Lors cuida       gerard     yssir   du   sens / et
 Then think-3SG.PAST   Gerard    depart-INF from the  sense and
envoya   tost  querir      le  duc  beuves  son frere / 
send-3SG.PAST quickly search-INF  the  duke Beuves his brother
lequel  le  vint   tantost   secourir 
who him come-3SG.PAST immediately save-INF
comme vaillant  et  preux  quil  estoit. (26) 
as brave and strong as he be-3SG.PAST
(17) Lors  fut  moult  esbahy     le  duc  daigremont  lequel
Then was very astounded   the duke of Aigremont who
cogneut     bien que sans    mourir    eschapper  ne 
recognize-3SG.PAST   well that without   dy-INF   escape-INF not 
povoit           si   alla   frapper     ung des      gens    de guenes
can-3SG.PAST   and  go-3SG.PAST hit-INF one of the    people  of Guenes
tellement  quil    labatit        tout  mort / (31)
so much that him   him knock down-3SG.PAST    all dead
In the examples above, we see the narrative focus on the immediate emotional re-
sponses triggered by the events told. In (14), Charlemagne has been made aware of 
the Duke of Aigremont’s disobedience, and so, in his anger—moult doulent et cour-
rouce—, he swears to destroy him. In (16), Gerard de Rousillon has just watched his 
nephew being killed by a member of Chalemaigne’s army, which makes him lose all 
sense (yssir du sens). Instead of retreating, as his brother suggests, Rousillon calls his 
other brother, the Duke of Aigremont, and together they decide to retaliate. 
These shifts from a wider perspective to a restricted description of a character’s 
feelings, as seen in the examples (14) to (17) are often instrumental in furthering the 
plot since they appear at moments of change. They present the reaction to a series 
of previously-described actions and serve to begin a new episode. Furthermore, by 
105
allowing the audience a glimpse into the inner motivations of the characters through 
the description of emotions, a sense of causality is created since the feelings motivating 
the ensuing conflict are made clear.
Adonc, the second most common DM in the prose Renaut appears nineteen times 
in the corpus and has a similar function to lors—it is predominantly found marking the 
beginning of episodes:
(18) Adonc  commenca  terrible et  cruelle  bataille (26)
 Then begin-3SG.PAST terrible and cruel battle
(19) Adonc  vint          le  duc  beuves  daigremont  en 
 Then    come-3SG.PAST   the duke Beuves of Aigremont in 
poingnant        terriblement   son destrier et  frappa   engueran (26)
spur on-PART  terribly his charger and hit-3SG.PAST Engueran
(20) Adonc fut     moult  esbahy     le  duc  beuues 
 Then    be-3SG.PAST  very astounded   the duke  Beuves
quant ainsi    par  terre  se  vit. (27)
when  so   by ground himself see-3SG.PAST
In the examples above, we see it signal the beginning of the battle at Troyes between 
Charlemagne’s people and the brothers of Aymon. This example explicitly uses the 
verb commenca (began) and marks a clear shift in the narrative from the assembly of 
troops to the actual description of the battle. Example (17), like (12) and (13) above, 
marks the arrival of a new character in the field of battle and the beginning of a new 
duel. Finally, (18), similar to examples (12–15) shifts the narrative focus to the emotion 
esbahy ‘astonishment’ experienced by the Duke of Aigremont when his horse is slain 
and he finds himself fighting on foot. 
Or, which is sometimes translated as ‘now’, occurs nine times in the French prose 
text, and seems to be reserved for particularly important shifts in the narrative. It ap-
pears also to predominantly express the results of an episode.
(21) Or  est  oultrageusement  tue   le  bon  lohier 
Now be-3SG.PRES  outrageously kill-PART the good Lohier
filz  aisne  du  roy  charlemaigne. (20)
son  eldest of the king Charlemagne
(22) Or      est    le    bon      et  vallant  duc     daigremont     trespasse. (32)
 Now   be-3SG.PRES  the  good    and brave duke   of Aigremont  pass-PART
In (21) and (22), we see or is used to signal the deaths of Lohier and the Duke of 
Aigremont, respectively. Both of these deaths are the tragic result of violent encounters 
between the factions and have far reaching consequences. The death of Lohier leads 
to Charlemagne’s assault on Troyes and Aigremont to avenge his son and results in 
the eventual death of the duke. Aigremont’s death, in turn, leads to the overall conflict 
that will unfold between the sons of Aymon (his nephews) and Charlemaigne’s knights 
throughout the rest of the romance. 
106
Or is also deployed in conjunction with interlacement formulae and can signal a 
major shift in setting and characters as seen in the examples below:
(23) Mais ores vous lairrons a parler/des messagiers et vous dirons du roy 
charlemaigne qui estoit a paris avec grant mul/titude de seignourie qui la 
estoient assemblez. (21)
But now we will cease to talk to you about the messengers, and we will tell 
you about the king Charlemagne who was in Paris with a great number of 
lords who were assembled there.
(24) Or lairons cy a parler du bon roy charlemaigne et de son filz lohyer/et vous 
dirons du bon duc aymon et de les enfans qui estoient a paris. (23) 
Now we will cease here to talk about the good king Charlemagne and about 
his son Lohier, and we will tell you about the good duke Aymon and about 
his children who were in Paris.
In (23) the narrative shifts from speaking of the messengers that return bearing Lo-
hier’s corpse and turns to speak of Charlemagne, who is yet unaware of his son’s death. 
Here, or (in the form ores) is deployed alongside mais (‘but’), which can also act as a 
DM. This grouping of narrative DMs to form clusters is not uncommon in French (or 
in English) and could, at times, have an intensifying quality. Example (24), which oc-
curs not long after, leaves the mourning Charlemagne and turns the narrative focus to 
Aymon and his sons, which now must flee Paris in fear of the king’s vengeance and to 
fight alongside their kinsmen. 
As stated in the previous section, interlacement was already a feature in the verse 
Renaut. In any case, it is significant to note that, when it occurs in the verse, it can also 
be found in connection to or. In the prose versions, interlacement came to acquire a 
particularly prominent place and was reserved for important shifts in the plot. Although 
the French version already anticipates the conscious use of this strategy to highlight 
significant points of change in the narrative, we see this foregrounded even more in the 
English prose version, which combines this formulae with typographical and paratex-
tual features. This will be examined in detail in the next section. 
Finally, the use of si, which is often translated as ‘so’, is similar to or in that it is 
used mostly to emphasise the results of a particular exchange or series of episodes. In 
the French prose, si occurs eleven times. We have chosen three examples:
(25) Si  se  teust     la  duschesse / et   dist 
 So  herself silence-3SG.PAST  the duchess     and   say-3SG.PAST
 que iamais  ne   luy  en   parleroit. (17)
 that never negPart    him advPron  speak-3SG.COND
(26) si   leva           le     duc   son branc et      frappa   Lohier 
 So raise-3SG.PAST the  duke  his sword and   hit-3SG.PAST Lohier
107
si durement   sur  son  heaulme  quil  le    fendit 
so hard   on his helmet that he it    split-3SG.PAST
iusques  aux  dens et    le  tomba   mort devant luy. (20)
until to the teeth and   him(?) fall-3SG.PAST dead before him
(27) Si  monterent  tost  a    cheval   le    bon    duc aymon 
So climb-3PL.PAST quickly on  horse     the  good  duke  Aymon
et les   quatre       chevaliers  ses enfans / et  narresterent 
and     the  four    knights his children and not stop-3PL.PAST
aulcunement  iusques a   ce quil      furent   a  Caen (23)
at all  until    that they  be-3PL.PAST in Caen
In example (25), the duchess decides to remain silent after the Duke of Aigremont 
refuses to listen to her counsel. In (26), the duke finally slays Lohier and in (27), the 
narrative focuses on how Aymon and his sons flee the court on horseback. The function 
of si as a resulting marker is crucial for establishing coherence in the narrative since it 
signals a clear end to an exchange between characters, in the case of (25), or the result 
of a series of actions and decisions, as in (26) and (27), and prepares the audience for a 
shift in perspective or topic. 
All in all, it can be said that the general tendency in the prose Renaut is that narra-
tive progression and coherence is increasingly managed by DMs. Interestingly, as most 
of the examples above evidence, the DMs are also supplemented by a change in the 
word order pattern with the verb in second position followed by the subject. This is, 
however, not always the case and the combination of initial INTs or adjective comple-
ments with a copular verb—the preferred formula for forgrounding narrative shifts in 
the verse Renaut, becomes secondary in relation to the sheer proliferation of changes 
in narrative level signalled by DMs. Furthermore, the use of lors and adonc, which can 
both mean ‘then’, serves to emphasise linear narrative progression and, when used to 
introduce a shift to a character’s emotions, also provide insight into the motivations 
behind the ensuing actions. This effectively creates a sense of causality and strengthens 
the links between actions and their results by allowing the audience a glimpse into the 
character’s feelings. There is also a concern with actively foregrounding the results of 
events, as evidenced by the use of or and si, and providing a definite boundary between 
the end of an episode and the beginning of the next. 
5 FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH: NARRATIVE ORGANISATION IN THE 
CONTEXT OF TRANSLATION
The final part of our analysis will focus on comparing how coherence-making strate-
gies were transposed from the French prose Renaut to its English prose version. The 
influence of French romance in the English tradition has been abundantly studied 
(Lacy 2000, Tomaryn Bruckner 2000, Cooper 2004) and it is undeniable that most of 
the prose romances that circulated in print in the fifteenth century were translations 
or adaptations of French sources. As Lacy remarks, even when the English translators 
aimed to distance themselves from their sources, “[...] their own romances frequently 
108
betray a decided Gallic influence in their use of the structures and conventions of 
romance, their borrowing of popular motifs or characters, or their rhetorical proce-
dures” (2000: 167). This is amply evident in the case of many of the books published 
by Caxton, even those that were not directly adapted by him such as Malory’s Le 
Mort D’Arthur (1485).
Furthermore, a lot has already been said of the particular vocabulary and syntax 
employed by William Caxton, the man responsible for bringing the printing press to 
Britain and for spearheading the translation and circulation of prose romances in Eng-
land (Blake 1991). Caxton, who was simultaneously printer, editor, and translator, was 
greatly influenced by the style and conventions of the continental courts. From the 
evidence we have in his prologues and epilogues, it is clear that he had something akin 
to a modern editorial project and he aimed to act as an arbiter of taste and culture in his 
country (Hellinga 2010). We can detect traces of his vision and legacy in many of the 
printers and distributors of romance in England, who often reprinted his editions—with 
little to no emendations—, well into the sixteenth century. 
Caxton’s translation, The Foure Sons of Aymon, is very close to the original French 
prose. There is barely any condensation of the plot and, at most, Caxton adds a short 
phrase here or there to add nuance to a particular passage (see example 40 below). 
However, one striking difference found pertains to the organisation of the tale. Caxton 
is very deliberate in his translation of DMs from the French and adapts them to the 
expectations of the English public. It is clear from his translation choices that Caxton 
understood the importance of this strategy. Example (13), quoted above, clearly exem-
plifies this.
This section is translated by Caxton as:
(28) but sodaynly came there upon him the erle Guenes that sat upon a good 
courser the which smote the duke Benes of Aygremounte with his speare 
such a stroke, that he shoued hym through & through his body, and thus 
fell downe dead the duke Benes of Aygremount and than the duke Griffon 
the father of the said Guenes came to the Duke benes of Aygremount that 
lay dead upon the sande & shaued his swered in to his foundement. (fol. 
xii v, 56)19
Although lors is usually rendered as then in Caxton’s translation, here he opts for 
the use of but sodaynly came there. This construction emphasises the surprise factor of 
the event leading to Aygremont’s death—one of the crucial moments in the narrative. 
Furthermore, where the French reads “et tomba mort le duc daigremont”, the English 
adds “and thus fell downe dead the duke Benes of Aygremount”, where thus, also a 
19 All quotes from the English prose version are form the Copland’s 1554 reprint of Caxton’s 1489 edition. The 
Copland print is the one digitise be EBBO and available in their online repository. We have also added the 
corresponding page of Richardson’s 1885 edition of the Caxton print which was prepared for the Early English 
Text Society since this text was used when the 1554 print proved illegible. When referencing the text, we will 
first give the folio of the 1554 print followed by the page from Richardson’s edition.
109
common DM in English, signals the final result of the exchange of blows. While the 
lexical choice changes, the linguistic formula of DM + verb + subject, and the resulting 
foregrounding function, remains. 
A similar deviation from the French prose occurs when Charlemagne finally sees 
his son dead. The French and English prose versions render this moment as follows:
(29) Si descendit a pie et leua le tapis qui estoit sur la byere/et vit son filz lohyer 
qui avoit la teste couppee et le visage tout detranche. (23)
(30) he [Charlemagne] descended from his horse a foote. & tooke up the cloth 
that was upon the biere and behelded his sonne Lohier. Than saw he the 
head that was smytten off from the body and the face that was all to hewen. 
(fol. vi v, 35)
In (30), the initial DM si from the French is omitted and Caxton, instead, substitutes 
and for the DM than to emphasise the horrible sight that greets Charlemagne when he 
lifts the cloth covering his son’s body. It is evident that this is a crucial moment in the 
narrative and this scene is immediately followed in both versions by the king’s laments 
and anger at Lohier’s killing. In this example, like in the one above, a clear concern 
with marking resulting sections explicitly is observed. Even when the original French 
prose forgoes completely with marking, Caxton is prone to add a DM to signal the end 
of an episode. This is particularly noticeable in examples like the one quoted below, 
which occurs after one of the duels held at the siege of Troyes:
(31) Les troys freres sen retournerent en leurs tentes moult courroucez (27)
(32) And soo wythdrewe the thre bretherne abacke unto theyr Tentes with much 
wrath (fol. x r, 46)
Whereas the French example presents no marking and is syntactically simply a SV 
construction, the English, to signal the conclusion of the exchange, turns to using the 
DM and soo followed by the verb wythdrewe and, finally, the subject. 
The instances where or is used are also of note in the English translation. Although 
this DM is usually rendered as now, in English it holds a particularly forgrounded posi-
tion as a resulting marker and it often appears alongside interlacement formulae.20 This 
use is already visible in the French prose (see examples 21 and 22) but it becomes even 
more prominent in the English version. In Aymon, Caxton usually only translates or as 
now when it is found in a particularly significant resulting section or when it is used to 
shift between major plot lines alongside interlacement. Otherwise, Caxton renders or 
as then or when:
20 For a discussion of the narrative functions of the DM now in Middle English prose see the forthcoming chapter: 
García de Alba Lobeira, Sonia. “Late Middle English Prose Romances”. Narrative Structure from 1250 – 1750: 
A Genre by Genre Analysis. Ed. Monika Fludernik. London / New York: Routledge (in preparation).
110
(31) Or furent appaisez les barons avec le roy charlemaigne (29)
(32) Whan21 were peased the barons with the king Charlemanye (fol. xi, 50)
(33) Or sen retourna le roy charlemaigne vers paris/et les troys freres sen re-
tournerent moult ioyeulx cascun en son hostel/ (29)
(34) And than returned kynge Charlemayne towarde Parys, and the bretherne 
went agayne right gladde each of theym towarde hys place (fol. xi r, 51)
The choice of then or when instead of now in examples (32) and (34) uses common 
DMs in English and signals a change in topic. Now, as stated above, is reserved for present-
ing new information and major points of change in the plot. Example (19) above, which 
states that Lohier has been slayn after the battle at Aigremont clearly demonstrates this:
(19) Or est oultrageusement tue le bon lohier filz aisne du roy charlemaigne. 
(20) 
(35) Now is outrageously slyane the good Lohyer the eldest sonne of kinge 
Charlemayne. (fol. vii r, 35-36)
Here, the use of now emphasises the importance of the news and prompts the audi-
ence to expect to learn about the consequences of Lohier’s murder. Additionally, the 
DM now is also used to switch between narrative levels and often heralds the appear-
ance of metanarrative commentary as we see in (19/35), where the narrator qualifies 
“good” Lohier’s murder as “outrageous”. Similarly, in examples (36/37), we see the 
narrator address the audience directly and prepare them to change to a new setting and 
group of characters: 
(36) Or sachez que le roy estant a paris devers luy vindrent le conte guenes/son 
nepveu alorry/foquet de morillon/hardre et berenger (30)
(37) Now shall ye here how the kynge, beynge in Parys/came towarde hym the 
erle Guenes his neuewe, Aorlyfoulquet of Moryllon, Hardes and Berenger, 
(fol. xi v, 51)
Taavitsainen and Hiltunen have argued that “both metatextual passages and now as 
a text-structuring device commonly occur at topic shifts or indicate particular steps in 
larger stretches of discourse [...]” in medical writing. As seen above, the same use can 
be observed in literary writing, where “now functions as a watershed between old and 
new information” (2012: 183).
Furthermore, in the English translation, the DM now is also sometimes combined 
with interlacement formulae, which anticipate a major change in topic and explicitly 
show the voice of the narrator addressing the audience.
 
(38) ¶ But nowe we shall heere leauve to speake of the messangers and shall tell 
you of the kynge Charlemayne that was at Parys. (fol. v r, 30) 
21 Caxton translates this or as then but Copland chooses to use when instead.
111
(39) Nowe shal we leue heare to speake of them of Aygremount that ben in great 
lamentacion and weepinges for the death of their lorde: and shal returne to 
tel of the traytoures Griffon & of Guenes his sonee that with theyr folke were 
gone agayne to Parys. (fol. xiii r, 58)
The first (38), corresponds with example (21) above, which begins with “Mais ores 
vous lairrons a parler/des messagiers” (p. 21), and (39) begins with “Maintenant22 vous 
laisserons a parler de ceulx daigremont” (p. 32). Example (38) introduces a new setting 
as the narrator leaves the messengers carrying back Lohier’s body to Paris and turns to 
speak of Charlemagne, who is yet unaware of his son’s death. Here the formula “and 
shall tell you” is used to directly address the audience and thus secure their attention. 
In contrast, example (39), marks a return to a setting and characters that were previ-
ously mentioned to continue where the story left off. Example (39) occurs at the very 
end of the Aigremont episode and turns from the characters mourning the death of the 
Duke of Aigremont to focus on the traitors that orchestrated his demise. It is evident 
that interlacement formulae and DMs work together to establish coherence in the text 
by emphasising continuity and, at times even simultaneity, between the episodes as the 
narrative shifts from one setting and group of characters to the next. Furthermore, both 
the DM now and interlacement foreground the narrative voice which is used to provide 
additional commentary on the characters’ actions as well as to guide the listeners or 
readers from one episode to the next, particularly in important segments of the tale. 
While interlacement was present in the verse Renaut, it is not a particularly sali-
ent strategy compared to the use of sentence-initial INTs. Heinemann (1993) states 
and our analysis confirms that in the chanson de geste, interlacement tends to occur in 
the middle of a laisse and not at the beginning or end of this structure where it would 
have a foregrounded position. Furthermore, it is up for debate whether the interlace-
ment formulae, which are a feature more strongly associated to the French romance 
than the chanson de geste, could have been interpolated at a later date. However, when 
interlacement appears in the verse it does serve the function of breaking up the cycles 
of repetition common in the laisses (Rychner: 74–88). Instead of enabling the recapitu-
lation of content and thematic overlapping typical of the chanson de geste’s structure, 
interlacement in the verse, much like in the prose, marks a definitive shift from one 
action and setting to another, and thus enables plot progression in a narrative structure 
that otherwise favours a different pattern linked to mnemonic cues and audience en-
gagement in an oral context. 
In the French and English prose versions, the role of interlacement as a strong 
boundary marker becomes even more apparent thanks to the use of other typographical 
features like visual breaks between paragraphs, chapter headings, and large initials or 
initials with woodcuts. These were a result of the emerging practices associated with 
the printing press and varied from printer to printer. Although the use of these features 
was already present in the 1497 edition of the French print, they become even more 
22 Maintenant functions like or in this example.  In OF maintenant still meant suddenly. In MF, the meaning 
evolved to encompass now which is the sense retained in Modern French.
112
salient in Caxton’s translation. In Fig. 1 the interlacement formula appears unmarked 
in the middle of the paragraph while in Fig. 2 we see the beginning of the interlacement 
formula signalled by an ornate initial. 
Figure 1. The interlacement formula appears unmarked. Example (21), French prose, p. 21.
Figure 2. The interlacement formula begins with “A parler nous vous lairrons du bon duc 
aymon…” appears alongside an ornate initial. French prose, p. 24.23
In both Caxton’s 1489 and Copland’s 1554 editions, the use of interlacement to 
mark clear narrative breaks is rendered even more emphatically than in the Lyon edi-
tion from 1497 by the incorporation of the pilcrow as an additional signalling element 
as seen in Fig. 3, which corresponds to example (38).
Figure 3. Here the interlacement formula is separated from the main paragraph and signalled 
with a pilcrow sign. This is then followed by an enlarged initial. Example (38), Cop. fol. v r.
23 The full quote reads: “A parler nous vous lairrons du bon duc aymon de dordonne et retournerons au roy 
charlemaigne qui fut retourne a paris menant moult grant dueil plours lamentations de son filz lohyer.”
113
Figure 4. The interlacement formula is signalled by an enlarged initial. Corresponds to Fig. 2. 
Cop. fol vii v.24
Despite how close the French and English editions are in both typographic and 
linguistic matters, there are some notable differences in how the text is presented. If 
we compare Fig. 1, which has interlacement unmarked by any additional typographi-
cal feature with Fig. 3, we find that both English editions separate the interlacement 
formula from the main body of text and follow this with a new paragraph. The new sec-
tion begins by repeating “Charlemaigne that was atte Parys” to reestablish the setting 
as a new episode begins. Although the repetition itself could be attributed to a printing 
error, the fact that it survives in both English editions and that there is a deliberate divi-
sion of the text signalled by the combination of a pilcrow, paragraph break, and initial 
establishes a strong association between interlacement, visual boundaries, and cogni-
tive narrative boundaries. 
Furthermore, in the English edition, we find a combination of interlacement with 
narrator commentary that is absent in the French edition. In Caxton’s text we find:
(40) We shall leue heere to speake of the good king Charlemayne that was moch 
sori of his sonne Lohier as ye haue heard, and shall tell you of the good 
Duke Aymon of Reynawde, his sonne, and of his three bretherne that were 
at Parys. (fol. vii r, 35–36)
This is the translation given for the text quoted above in example (22) which reads 
“Or lairons cy a parler du bon roy charlemaigne et de son filz lohyer/et vous di-
rons du bon duc aymon et de ces enfans qui estoient a paris” (23). In (40), we see the 
narratorial remark, “as you have herde”, used within the interlacement formula. This 
evokes the oral setting where these tales were transmitted and creates a pause in the 
narrative action while explicitly drawing the audience’s attention to the events that 
just transpired. Effectively, this serves to reinforce narrative shifts and the boundaries 
between episodes and prompts the audience to reflect on the narrative episode that they 
have just finished reading or listening to. Then, the narrator prepares them to hear new 
24 The full quote reads: “To speake of the good Duke Aymon of Dordonne and of his wife the duchesse and of 
theyr sonnes: we shal heere leue, and shall returne to speak of kynge Charlemayne that was come agayne to 
parys, making great sorowe for his sonne Lohier.”
114
information by following with the second part of the interlacement formula: “and shall 
tell you of [...]”. This technique thus serves to engage the audience by drawing attention 
to the act of storytelling and narrative progression which ultimately create an overall 
sense of coherence in the tale.
While interlacement is still a fairly common narrative strategy in the incunabla and 
early prints we analysed, this strategy was eventually replaced by shorter formulations 
in French prints from the sixteenth century onwards (cf. Baudelle-Michels 2006: 126). 
This is different in the English tradition, where interlacement remains as a technique 
in use and is even foregrounded at least well into the mid-1500s, as the Copland ree-
dition attests. This could be due to the fact that many of the early prints in English 
were translations of earlier French texts. Be that as it may, interlacement as a narrative 
coherence-making technique was prevalent enough that we find this strategy expanded 
and parodied already towards the end of the sixteenth century, for example, in texts like 
Sydney’s Old Arcadia (1581), which borrows and transforms many of the narrative 
conventions of medieval romances (Davies 1978: 21–24). While texts like the Arcadia 
hint at the refunctionalisation and replacement of this feature by typographical forms 
and other narrative strategies in the late 1500s, our fifteenth and sixteenth-century edi-
tions suggest that interlacement and typographical coherence-making strategies, which 
emerged in the context of the new print medium, continued to coexist throughout the 
early modern period and worked together to structure the text.
6 CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have sought to provide an insight into the variety of linguistic and nar-
rative strategies deployed to create narrative coherence as well as a sketch of how these 
behave as the story migrated from an OF chanson de geste to a MF prose romance and, 
finally, to a ME prose translation. In the verse Renaut, we have seen that the narrative 
formula ‘molt + copula construction’ must be considered not only as a stylistic element 
but also as a coherence-making strategy implicated in the management of the transition 
from one episode to another. Another narrative formula, interlacement, is also found in 
the verse Renaut, although it is primarily linked to the tradition of romances. Its pres-
ence in the thirteenth century epic poem might indicate that we witness a blurring of 
genre boundaries in the verse Renaut. In the prose versions, both narrative formulae 
survive, but there is a decrease in the use of the copula construction with initial molt, 
which is accompanied by a significant increase in the quantity and variety of narrative 
DMs. We see that lors/then, adonc/then, or/now, and si/so in sentence initial position 
followed by the verb are used to signal narrative progression by introducing new char-
acters, a change of setting, or a shift in perspective that allows for the audience to learn 
about the characters’ emotions and interior motivations. In this context, epic narrative 
formulae like the copula construction with initial molt seem to be slowly losing im-
portance for the creation of narrative coherence and to be increasingly used as stylistic 
elements. 
Additionally, the prose versions enhance and supplement the use of DMs and in-
terlacement using markers like ornate or enlarged initials, pilcrows, and paragraph 
115
divisions which emphasise the boundaries between episodes and provide additional 
visual guides for the reader to follow. Ultimately, the subtle changes in the use of word 
order patterns, discourse markers, and interlacement in the Renaut tradition draw atten-
tion to the continuation but also refunctionalisation of narrative strategies in the emerg-
ing vernacular prose genre. As new typographical forms emerged and new printing 
practices influenced the presentation of texts, we begin to see older narrative strategies 
evolve and combine with some of the new elements to enhance their functions and 
establish coherence in novel ways. This preliminary incursion into a comparative study 
of verse and prose epic romances in different linguistic traditions demonstrates how 
structuring and coherence-making narrative patterns travelled across linguistic bounda-
ries. Further studies are necessary to write a more comprehensive history of narrative 
practices in the late medieval and early modern European context. 
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Abstract
COHERENCE-MAKING STRATEGIES IN THE RENAUT DE MONTAUBAN 
TRADITION: FROM FRENCH VERSE TO ENGLISH PROSE
In the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, the vernacular 
prose romance became popular throughout Europe. This new genre brought about the 
functional expansion of vernacular languages into the realm of prose, which had pre-
viously been primarily the preserve of Latin. This paper discusses coherence-making 
strategies in prose romances from a diachronic perspective. In a case study of the Re-
naut de Montauban, also called The Four Sons of Aymon, we explore a number of 
linguistic devices used to convey narrative coherence in the chanson de geste tradition 
and what happens to these patterns when the matter is transposed from verse into prose 
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and across languages, from French into English. We focus on copula constructions with 
initial intensifiers, the discourse markers lors, adonc, or and si (and their English coun-
terparts), as well as the narrative formula commonly referred to as entrelacement or 
interlacement. By combining linguistic observations with a narratological framework 
borrowed from literary analysis, we aim to shed light on further research possibilities 
into the realm of comparative medieval literature which considers new generic (prose), 
material (print), and linguistic (French-English) contexts. Our results show that the 
change in form from verse to prose causes word order patterns with sentence-initial 
intensifiers to decline in favour of a general preference for discourse markers. These 
became the preferred way of establishing coherence in long prose texts. Their varied 
use in French and the English translation of the Renaut show a definite awareness of the 
significance of this resource for plot progression and the management of shifts between 
narrative levels. Furthermore, the combination of discourse markers with other narra-
tive formulae, like interlacement, and typographical features underscore the deliber-
ate use of these linguistic features as coherence-making elements in the prose Renaut 
tradition.
Keywords: chanson de geste, prose romance, narrative coherence, Middle English, 
Old French
Povzetek
STRATEGIJE USTVARJANJA KOHERENCE V BESEDILIH TRADICIJE RENA-
UTA DE MONTAUBANA: OD FRANCOSKEGA VERZA DO ANGLEŠKE PROZE
Na prehodu iz srednjega v zgodnji novi vek so prozne romance v vernakularnih jezi-
kih postale priljubljene po vsej Evropi. Novi žanr je privedel do funkcijske širitve teh 
jezikov na prozna besedila, ki so bila pred tem pretežno v domeni latinščine. Prispe-
vek se ukvarja s strategijami vzpostavljanja koherence v proznih romancah z diahrone 
perspective. Ob besedilu o Renautu de Montaubanu, imenovanem tudi The Four Sons 
of Aymon, proučujemo razne jezikovne mehanizme, ki se v tradiciji chanson de ge-
ste uporabljajo za doseganje pripovedne koherence, in opazujemo, kaj se zgodi s temi 
vzorci, kadar se vsebina prestavi iz verzov v prozo in iz francoskega v angleški jezik. 
Osredotočamo se na zgradbe s kopulo, ki se pojavljajo skupaj z začetnimi intenzifi-
katorji, na diskurzne označevalce lors, adonc, or in si (skupaj z njihovimi angleškimi 
ustreznicami) ter na pripovedno formula, znano kot entrelacement oz. preplet. S kom-
biniranjem jezikoslovnih opažanj in naratološkega modela, izposojenega iz literarne 
vede, skušamo nakazati nadaljnje raziskovalne možnosti za primerjalno proučevanje 
srednjeveške književnosti, ki upošteva nov žanrski (proza), materialni (tisk) in jezi-
kovni (francosko-angleškega) kontekst. Dobljeni rezultati kažejo, da je sprememba iz 
verzne v prozno obliko povzročila upad rabe besednorednih vzorcev z intenzifikatorji 
na začetku povedi in nasploh prevlado diskurznih označevalcev, ki so postali najpo-
gostejše sredstvo vzpostavljanja coherence v dolgih proznih besedilih. Raznolika raba 
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diskurznih označevalcev v francoščini in v Renautovem angleškem prevodu nedvomno 
kaže na zavedanje o pomenu tega sredstva pri zgodbenem razvoju in pri obvladovanju 
prehodov med pripovednimi ravnmi. Poleg tega kombiniranje diskurznih označevalcev 
z drugimi pripovednimi sredstvi, kot so zgodbeno prepletanje in tipografske značil-
nosti, priča o zavestni rabi teh jezikovnih značilnosti kot elementov, ki vzpostavljajo 
koherenco v proznih besedilih Renautove tradicije.
Ključne besede: chanson de geste, romance v prozi, pripovedna koherenca, srednja 
angleščina, stara francoščina