Abstract/Summary

This paper sketches the broad outlines of the circulation of Charlemagne narratives in Ireland, focusing primarily on the Latin and Irish texts of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle and Fierabras. It will examine the surviving manuscript contexts for these works and consider who the early audiences of these texts might have been. The evidence of the surviving manuscripts suggests that Fierabras and the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle were read for their religious dimension and, at times, for the model of good Christian rule they offered. However, it is also clear that reception of these narratives reflects particular, as well as general, interests: fascination with the figure of Charlemagne himself seems to have been rather more than an incidental element in the reception and widespread popularity of these works in Ireland.