THE EARLY THIRTEENTH-CENTURY Waldef is the least known of the French-language romances of England. Pioneering attention from Rosalind Field has drawn attention to Waldef as a major work in the “matter of England” and as a great intertextual work at the heart of the insular romance corpus, catching up many themes from earlier romance and historiography in its allusions and going on in turn to influence subsequent romances. Work by Judith Weiss has explored Waldef's engagement with empire, with East Anglia and the sea and other aspects of its thematic riches and its complex relation to romance convention and historical circumstance. The extant manuscript of the French text continued to attract readers’ inscriptions in its margins into the later Middle Ages and Waldef was twice translated into Latin in the fifteenth century. Yet the enduring medieval interest in this text has not attracted proportionate interest from modern scholars of insular romance.

The FRETS (French of England Translation) series—previously published by Arizona Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and now published as part of ARC Humanities Press's Foundations series, recognises both the cultural vitality of translation as a form of medieval literary activity and the significance of modern translations of medieval texts as the driver of new literary study and exploration. As editors of the series we have long felt that the chief reason for the under-recognition of Waldef is its lack of a modern English translation. At 22,000 lines, the romance has been a formidable project for any individual to take on. But here, at last, much dedicated collaborative work by Ivana Djordjević and Nicole Clifton together with a doyenne of translations from insular French, Judith Weiss, has enabled FRETS to offer a remedy for inattention to Waldef in the form of a full translation.

We thank Anna Henderson, our publisher at ARC Humanities Press, and her production team for identifying the provision of this substantial text as fitting ARC's mission to make a wider range of medieval texts accessible. We are delighted to offer a volume that will enable scholars and students readier access to Waldef and very grateful to our translators for their selfless hours of labour.