La tempête dans les romans français d’Alexandre du xiie siècle: un stéréotype éclaté

Abstract

The versions of the Roman d’Alexandre, composed by Thomas de Kent and Alexandre de Paris include the motif of the tempest inside the India episode, after passing through the Pillars of Hercules, that is, during the time when the hero contravenes the prohibition of the gods. Both authors amplify the model taken from the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, but they deal with it in a different way. In Thomas de Kent’s version the tempest is a digressio, whereas Alexander de Paris disintegrates and allocates it in successive laisses to associate it with other motifs, either epic ones like the planctus, or fictional ones, like the mirabilia of the East. The result presents, in either case, a new, more human and vulnerable image of the legendary Alexander.