1. Sir Orfeo

2. Sir Orfeo: Manuscripts and sources
3 manuscripts of which Auchinleck is the earliest:
Composed late 13th-early 14th century
Possible lost Old French source
Draws on Orpheus myth but also Celtic and folk motifs—testing of steward, exile and return, journey to otherworld, rash promise

3. Orpheus
Based on the Orpheus myth found in Greek art from 6th century BC
Virgil’s Georgics and Ovid’s Metamorphoses best-known versions in Middle Ages
Christian allegorical readings in Middle Ages

4. Structure
Built upon antitheses—loss/restoration; civilisation/wilderness; wealth/poverty etc
How does the poet establish these patterns of contrast?
Are the fairy king and his world the opposite of Orfeo’s world, or uncomfortably close to it?

5. Orfeo’s exile
His time in the wilderness resembles early Christian hermits
How might we interpret it within the context of the poem?
An act of despair? Of atonement? An initiation? An expression of love or a sign of excessive love?

6. The harp Parallels with King David and his lyre
In other romances it is a sign of courtly refinement, e.g. King Horn ll : ‘Horn thu undervonge / And tech him of harpe and songe’
What role does the harp have as object and symbol within the poem?

7. The lay is a Christianized narrative of penance and purification (Kenneth Gros Louis)
The narrative expresses themes of nostalgia and grief (Felicity Riddy)
The lay shows the power of language and narrative to restore loss and create meaning out of chaos (Seth Lerer)