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3 - ‘As ye have brewd, so shal ye drink’: the Proverbial Context of Eger and Grime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Michael Cichon
Affiliation:
University of Saskatchewan
Rhiannon Purdie
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews
Michael Cichon
Affiliation:
University of Saskatchewan
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Summary

At first glance, the Older Scots romance Eger and Grime seems to be a stereotypical medieval tale about prowess, revenge and love. Perhaps this is why Eger and Grime has not been extensively studied. In general, medieval romances entertain, and this is certainly true of Eger and Grime. However, romances also convey, strengthen and uphold social bonds, opinions, prejudices, hopes and fears. In this they function very much like proverbs. Proverbial sayings ‘propose a world of moral implications to those who pause to consider them’. By pausing thus over the proverbs deployed in romances, one may gain a better understanding of what the authors of these texts were trying to convey. From the thirty categories of paroemial segment (proverbs and proverbial phrases) identified in Eger and Grime by Bartlett Whiting in his two-part article ‘Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings from Scottish Writings before 1600’, supplemented by twelve not noted by Whiting, I have identified groups of proverbs in the romance which exhibit some common characteristics. This chapter will consider three of these groups – proverbial comparisons; proverbs touching on the condition of women; and reciprocity. The proverbial comparisons are fairly conventional phrases one would expect to find in a tale of knights, combat and love, but should not be overlooked for this reason. Traditional phraseology generates meaning by deploying well-established conventions that function similarly each time they are used.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2011

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