Roges tells his story

Roges is the child of a king and a lady who has died. The king remarries on the advice of his barons, and that is how Roges’ misery begins. When he repels the advances of his stepmother, she accuses him of sexual assault. The king wants his son killed, which is prevented by two of his maternal uncles with a ruse. In revenge, the stepmother turns the prince into a fox: ʻTenen vos moet hi verbrekenʼ [He shall assume the shape of a fox] (5698). The spell can only be broken if Roges sees four characters together: Walewein, Ysabele, King Wonder, and his son Alidrisonder. Roges’ maternal aunt responds with a second spell: she transforms the stepmother into a toad who will live a lamentable life as long as her nephew remains in the shape of a fox.

As a narrator, the fox performs very differently from his predecessors in the romance. In his report to King Wonder, Walewein repeats what the poet said at the beginning of the story. Amoraen indulges himself in the description of an exotic garden where no action takes place later in the narrative. But Roges tells a beautiful story in over four hundred verses in which he himself is the protagonist. In it he assumes the pose of an omniscient narrator, someone who tells what he cannot know as a character.1 See: Reindert van Eekelen, ʻVos huut en menschen luut. Het beeld van Roges in de Roman van Waleweinʼ, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 116 (2000): 132–52 at pp. 136–39.

The event Roges that relates to Walewein occurred more than eleven years earlier at the court of his father, the king of Ysike, who is also called Roges. The introduction of Roges’ story is dedicated to his late lamented mother (5331–54). The fox repeatedly starts a verse with ‘she taught me’ in this account of his mother’s instruction. She taught him all sorts of things, such as jousting, playing chess, and swimming. Roges then moves on to talking about his stepmother. In a dramatic way, with the conversations delivered as direct speech, the fox tells what his stepmother has done. When the woman gets acquainted with the handsome young man who has lived abroad for some time, she asks her husband to keep Prince Roges at his court to serve her. She eloquently expresses her desire:

The story Roges tells about his stepmother (5367–589) corresponds to the trope known as the ‘Wife of Potiphar’.2 See: Johan H. Winkelman, ʻWaleweins dilemma: Venusʼ minne of Abrahams schoot. Liefdesperikelen in een Middelnederlandse Arturromanʼ, Nederlandse Letterkunde 9 (2004): 326–60 at pp. 337–41, who compares the story of Roges to the story about Joseph and the wife of Potiphar in Genesis 39. There are versions of this story in which the seductress is the stepmother of the hero, as is the case here.3 See: Joseph and Potipharʼs Wife in World Literature: An Anthology of the Story of the Chaste Youth and the Lustful Stepmother, ed. J. D. Yohannan (New York: New Direction Books, 1968), and C. Reents and I. Köhler-Zülich, ʻJoseph: Der keusche J.ʼ, Enzyklopädie des Märchens (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1977–2015), vol. 7, col. 640–64. See also: Jelmar Hugen, ʻRoges, Reynaert en de sprookjestraditie. Maartje Draak revisitedʼ, Spiegel der Letteren 59 (2017): 453–86 at pp. 458–59. The version of Roges shows similarities with the story that serves as a frame in The Seven Sages of Rome. In the last part of his story, the fox tells how two of his maternal uncles saved him from certain death (5590–679). To the astonishment of the king, none of his men dare to carry out the order to capture the prince for fear of the numerous knights in the uncles’ entourage. The two former brothers-in-law make the king believe that they will kill their nephew themselves and take him away. When the stepmother realizes what is going on, she takes revenge by turning Roges into a fox, and then Duchess Alene, Roges’ maternal aunt, turns the stepmother into a toad (5680–745).

Roges also tells the hero what he did after his metamorphosis (5756–94). Expecting that the acclaimed Walewein would help him to become human again, he moved into the garden near the river. If ʻder aventuren vaderʼ [the Father of Adventure] (5787) would hear about the beautiful Ysabele, he would definitely come and abduct her. The expectation expressed by the fox proves true, because the listener of his story is Walewein, the hero who wants to cross the river to reach Ysabele.

The first poet of the romance, Penninc, has Roges tell a short story, embedded in the larger story about Walewein’s quest.4 In an excellent article about the fox in the Roman van Walewein, Reindert van Eekelen characterizes Roges’ story about his childhood as ʻeen nieuw verhaal binnen Waleweins verhaalʼ [a new story within Walewein’s story] (Van Eekelen, ‘Vos huut en menschen luut’, p. 136), with a reference to S. Roach, ‘Roges’ Story’, Dutch Crossing. A Journal for Students of Dutch 12 (1980): 2–9: ʻa self-contained novella […] integrated into the work as a wholeʼ (p. 9). Roach’s article contains an English translation of a part of Roges’ story (5429–713). He probably borrowed the character of the fox Roges from the fairytale that underlies the story about his hero’s quest.5 A. M. E. Draak, Onderzoekingen over de Roman van Walewein (Amsterdam: Bert Hagen, 1975 [expanded reprint of the edition, Haarlem, 1936]), pp. 1–134. Here, in her doctoral dissertation, Maartje Draak shows that the pattern of Walewein’s quest corresponds to a fairytale in the classification of Aarne and Thompson type 550, Search for the Golden Bird. In this folktale type the hero undertakes a threefold quest to obtain a magical object, with the help of a talking fox. For a summary of Draak’s theory, see: Johnson and Claassens, Roman van Walewein, pp. 8–9. At the end of that fairytale, the fox turns into a beautiful prince. What the fairytale does not include is why, and by whom, the prince was turned into a fox. And that is what Roges’ tale is about. He provides a new elaboration with a fairytale ending of a ‘Wife of Potiphar’-type story to explain his metamorphosis from a young man into a fox.

One of Penninc’s inventions is to have Walewein and the fox Roges act as a duo after their meeting: the hero and his friend. In an analogy with Le Chevalier au Lion by Chrétien de Troyes, De Ridder en de Vos (The Knight and the Fox) would be a nice title for the romance about Walewein. The fox knows that only with the help of Walewein can he regain his human form. When he finishes his story and finds out the identity of his auditor, he says to him: ʻVan ju ne scedic nemmermere / Ghine sult mi helpen uter nootʼ [I shall never leave your side until you have helped me in my need] (5864–65). To which Walewein replies: ʻDies ne willic laten niet: / Hebbics die macht ic helpe ju gherneʼ [I do not intend to refuse you: if it lies within my power, I will help you gladly] (5868–69). Only the fox knows the road along which Walewein can cross the river: He leads the hero through a secret tunnel to the other side. And when the two enter the tunnel, the narrator speaks of a couple: ʻder Walewein (…) ende sijn gheselleʼ [Sir Walewein (…) with his companion] (6082–83).

The hero and the fox need each other. If Walewein wants to succeed in his quest, he must get to the castle where Ysabele lives, and he succeeds thanks to the fox. If the fox wants to put an end to his stepmother’s spell, he must reach the castle of King Wonder with Walewein and Ysabele. Because that is the only way he can see Walewein, Ysabele, Wonder, and his son Alidrisonder together. This happens towards the end of the romance, thanks to Walewein.

Uniquely, Penninc gives the story of the fox Roges a place in the composition of his romance. This story provides a new turn to the hero’s quest to deliver Arthur the wondrous chess-set and gives sense to this journey. Ultimately, the success of Walewein’s quest in the romance benefits his friend the fox Roges. In other words, when Walewein – in the last part of the romance, written by Pieter Vostaert – returns to King Wonder with Roges and Ysabele, he provides the happy ending to the story as narrated by Roges.