“Al was hi sward, wat scaetde dat?” Courtly cultural exchange in the Roman van Moriaen

Abstract

The Middle Dutch romance Moriaen features a black skinned knight as one of its heroes. His blackness leads to quite different emotional reactions from Arthur’s knights and from common people. These reactions will be compared to the way characters in Middle Dutch epic texts react to Saracens. Whereas in the epic story world, the encounter with a male Other leads to animosity and full combat mode, courtly romance takes a different position. Moriaen eventually turns out to be the son of one of Arthur’s knights, and his handsomeness, lineage and prowess overrule the negative reactions to his otherness.