Murgleys

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Murgleys, or Murgleis (possibly "Death brand"

The Song of Roland).[1][2]

According to the French version, its "golden pommel (l'orie punt)"[3][a] held some kind of a holy "relic".[7][9]

In the

short sword in all of France",[b] described as having a carbuncle on its pommel that shone bright by night, forged by a smith named Madelger in Regensburg. It had belonged to Naimes who brought it out of his fiefdom of Bavaria and presented it to Karl(Charlemagne), but unfortunately Ganelon took possession of it and carried it to the Saracen side.[11][12]

Etymology

Dorothy L. Sayers, a translator of The Song of Roland suggests the sword means "Death brand"[1] (See #Similarly named swords below). Belgian scholar Rita Lejeune gave the meaning "Moorish sword",[13][14] but Arabist James A. Bellamy proposed the Arabic etymology māriq ʾalyas meaning "valiant piercer".[15][16]

Similarly named swords

At least three swords bearing the similar name Murglaie occur in other

chansons de geste.[17]

Note that "Morglay" has been given the etymology morte "death" + "glaive"[18] coinciding with the conjectural meaning of "Death brand" for Ganelon's sword, proposed by Sayers.[1]

Explanatory notes

  1. gilded pieces, rather than only Ganelon's being solid gold.[5]
  2. ^ The original text, v. 1584, gives "Mulagir daz beste sachs (A text), or "Mulagir daz mere sahs (S text), and while " seax" would be cognate to MHG sachs/sahs, the term sahsis glossed in Lexer simply as "long knife or short sword",[10] and Thomas's English rendering here gives "excellent short sword".

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-14-044075-5
    .
  2. ISBN 9780271038087
    .
  3. ^ Song of Roland, v. 466
  4. ^ Brault ed. tr. (1978), pp. 30, 31.
  5. ISBN 9783110764468
    .
  6. ^ Brault ed. tr. (1978), pp. 38, 39.
  7. ^ Song of Roland, v. 607[6]
  8. ^
    ISBN 9782600034784
    .
  9. ^ Cf. Scholod: "every one of the major Christian heroes, including Ganelon, possesses his 'hallowed' blade".[8]
  10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1876). "sahs". Mittelhochdeutsches handwörterbuch (in German). Vol. 2. Leipzig: S. Hirzel. p. 573. langes messer, kurzes schwert Woerterbuchnetz online
  11. ^ Rolandslied vv. 1568–1609. Wesle, Carl, ed. (1986), Das Rolandslied des Pfaffen Konrad, 3tte Auflage besorgt von Peter Wapnewski (3 ed.), Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, pp. 80–83.
  12. ^ Rolandslied vv. 1585–8; Priest Konrad's Song of Roland, translated by Thomas, J. W., Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1994, pp. 12–13
  13. ^ mor (French: maure+glais (Provençal, meaning "glaive, gladius"), Lejeune (1950), (p. 163), quoted by Scholod.[8]
  14. ^ Lejeune, Rita (1950), "Les noms d'épées dans la Chanson de Roland", Mélanges de linguistique et de littérature Romances, offerts à Mario Roques, p. 163, cited (and given in English) by Bellamy (1987a), pp. 272–273, note 34
  15. JSTOR 602835
  16. JSTOR 45298605
  17. ^ Langlois, Ernest, ed. (1904), Table des noms, Paris: Emile Bouillon
  18. ^ Bailey, Nathan (1731), An Universal Etymological English Dictionary


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