Sir Isumbras

(ca. 1320)

   The MIDDLE ENGLISH poem Sir Isumbras is a brief ROMANCE of 771 lines in 12-line TAIL-RHYME stanzas rhyming aabccbddbeeb, written in the northeast Midlands early in the 14th century. It was wellknown by 1320, when William of Nassington disparaged the story as “vanity” in his Speculum Vita. One of the most popular of all Middle English romances, Sir Isumbras survives in nine manuscripts and five early printed editions. There is no known source for the poem, but it employs the widespread motif of the man tried and chastened by misfortune. Ultimately, the roots of the story are in the biblical book of Job, but scholars have noted parallels between Sir Isumbras and the popular legend of St. Eustace, so that in some ways Sir Isumbras turns material more typical of a SAINTS’ LIFE into a romance.

   This may explain why Sir Isumbras appears to undercut the usual themes of romance:While Isumbras is a noble and courteous knight, he suffers tribulation because his wealth and power make him forget about God. The tale is told in a brisk and unadorned style, and there is no elaborate description of the wealth and pageantry of the court. Nor is there an emphasis on COURTLY LOVE; rather it is Isumbras’s family—his wife and three children— who matter most to him. Sir Isumbras is about sin and redemption through penitence, but these issues are depicted in the poem through the gain or loss of material wealth and social prestige. The poem is essentially in two parts, which mirror one another: The first depicts Isumbras’s losing everything, the second shows him gaining it back. Isumbras is a knight with wealth, a beautiful wife, and three fine sons. But pride has made him forget Christ. One day in the forest a bird delivers a message from God: Because of his pride, Isumbras must choose to be afflicted either in his youth and his age. He chooses youth, and as the bird flies off, his hawks and hounds run off and his horse dies under him. As he walks toward home, a boy tells him his buildings have been burned and his men killed—only his wife and children are left alive, and for that Isumbras is grateful. He meets his herdsmen, who tell him all of his livestock have been stolen. Patiently, he comforts his family and advises that they leave that country and go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in sign of which he carves a cross into his shoulder with a knife.

   As the family travels toward the sea, a lion makes off with their oldest son, and a leopard steals the second. Isumbras, his wife, and their youngest son reach the sea, where they find an invading Muslim armada.When they beg the sultan for food, he has Isumbras beaten and steals his wife. She, preparing to be sent back to be queen of the sultan’s homeland, gains permission to see her husband. She feeds him and gives him gold, telling him to come after her. But when he leaves the ship, a great bird flies off with his gold, and a unicorn steals away with his youngest son. Destitute and alone, Isumbras prays for guidance, and from this point his fortunes take a different turn. Isumbras meets a group of ironworkers and begs for food, but they propose that instead he work for food, as they do. He spends seven years with the smiths, working up to the status of a craftsman, at which point he forges himself a suit of armor. He rides off in this armor to do battle against the sultan, who has been ravaging Christian lands for seven years. He fights well and is able to kill the sultan. But he slips off before the Christian king can knight him, and continues his pilgrimage, finding his way to the Holy Land.

   Outside Jerusalem, Isumbras is visited by an angel, who brings him food and drink and tells him that his sin is forgiven. He continues to wander until he reaches a rich castle, where he hears there is a magnificent queen who gives handouts to the poor each day at her gate. The starving Isumbras waits at the gate, and is invited in to eat in the queen’s hall. He sits beside the queen and tells her of his travels, but for sorrow cannot eat a thing. The queen offers to allow the palmer to stay in her castle as her man, and arranges a tournament in which he defeats all the Saracen knights. The tale’s ending takes a number of improbable twists. One day in the woods, Isumbras discovers his wife’s gold that the bird had stolen. Later, squires search his room and find the gold, which the queen recognizes as the gold she had given her husband. They are reunited and Isumbras is made king. But when he requires that all his subjects become Christian, the Saracen knights rise against him. He arms his wife like a knight and the two of them ride against 30,000 Saracens. But just as the battle begins, three strange knights join them, riding a lion, a leopard, and a unicorn. Together they defeat the army, and Isumbras learns that the three knights are his own children, come to help him by the grace of God. Isumbras thus ends restored to his family, and with more wealth than he began. Thus Isumbras works his way back from destitution through his own hard work and the merit of his seven years of penance. He also realizes the most valuable things in life are his wife and children, and is able to recover them as well as his status. Sir Isumbras is a brief and unusual romance, but is quite lively and readable.

   Bibliography

   ■ Braswell, L. “Sir Isumbras and the Legend of Saint Eustace,”Medieval Studies 27 (1965): 128–151.

   ■ Crane, Susan. Insular Romance: Politics, Faith, and Culture in Anglo-Norman and Middle English Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

   ■ Hudson, Harriet. Four Middle English Romances. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996.

   ■ Mehl, Dieter. The Middle English Romances of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968.