Sir Launfal - Manuscripts

Manuscripts

Sir Launfal survives in a single manuscript copy:

• British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii., mid-15th century.

The Middle English poem itself dates to the late-fourteenth century, and is based principally upon an early-fourteenth century English romance Sir Landevale, itself an adaptation of Marie de France's Old French Breton lai Lanval. Unusually for a Middle English romance, the poem's author can be named. The final stanza includes the lines:

"Thomas Chestre made thys tale

Of the noble knyght Syr Launfale,

Good of chyvalrye."

It is widely accepted that Thomas Chestre was the author of two other verse romances in MS Cotton Caligula A.ii., Lybeaus Desconus and the Southern Octavian.