SOURCE: “Villehardouin and the Oral Narrative,”Studies in Philology, Vol. LXVII, No. 3, 1970, pp. 267-77.

In the following essay, Beer studies the way in which Villehardouin, in Conquest of Constantinople, utilizes elements of the oral narrative tradition. Beer observes that certain features, including Villehardouin's use of exclamations and his “fondness” for exaggeration and repetition, strongly demonstrate the influence of oral narration on Villehardouin's work.

Since Adolf Kressner's article “Über den epischen Charakter der Sprache Villehardouins,”¹ the transitional nature of Villehardouin's style has been accepted without question. However, the exact nature of his transitional features has not been clearly analyzed. Kressner labels “epic” many stylistic features which are not necessarily exclusive to that genre. E. H. McNeal, in a note on the narrative style of Villehardouin and Robert de Clari,² suggests more immediate sources, but again there is no intrinsic necessity binding the examples he cites to the conte rather...