Mannying, Roman de Brut (1338)

This is Robert Mannyng of Brunne (Robert of Brunne), The Chronicle, Part 1, composed about 1338, which translates Wace’s Roman de Brut for its British section. This version is from the Lambeth Palace MS 131 readings, which is why the spellings (“byhoued”, “ilk oþer”, “laught”, “hente”) sit in the north-east Midlands dialect rather than Wace’s French or Laȝamon’s earlier English. The “Faleys” pun preserves Wace’s place-name aetiology (Old French falaise, a cliff), Englishing the Latin Saltus Goëmagog / “Gogmagog’s Leap” of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae.

Notes on wrestling vocabulary

A few terms are worth isolating, because Mannyng describes a held, clinched bout rather than a striking contest, and his vocabulary is unusually technical for the period:

• crokes — “crooks”, hooking actions of the leg; trips and hooks rather than hand holds.
• fet in fourche (“feet in the fork”) — a foot placed between the opponent’s legs: an inside hook or inside trip. This is a strikingly specific vernacular description of an inside leg attack.
• for-setten / turn agaynes turn — to forestall or block a move; action met by counter-action.
• spurn — to stumble or be forced back off the feet (here, what the weaker man is “byhoued”, obliged, to do).
• quintise (quaintise) — cunning, craft, technique, explicitly set against raw strengþe. The poet’s verdict that they raised each other “by strength more than by skill” is a genuine technical observation, not just rhetoric.
• draught — a single heaving pull; hente — to seize or lay hold of; wente — to wrench or wind the body.

Primary Source

Modernisation

1. Corineus first stripped himself bare,
2. and girded his body with a cloth;
3. laced it tight about his flank,
4. and came and stood forth on the ground.
5. Then Gogmagog soon rose up;
6. he had made himself ready, and was all bone.
7. The first grip was set so hard
8. that their two chests met together;
9. they cast their hands over each other’s backs,
10. and were locked fast, side to side;
11. there was turn against turn,
12. and whichever was weaker had to give ground.
13. They blocked one another before and behind,
14. and with hooking holds each began to bind the other;
15. often each threw the other about,
16. and the steam of their breath rose, so hard they panted.
17. They both worked sorely at each other’s necks;
18. chins and cheeks took hard knocks;
19. there they ground their snorting noses together,
20. and dashed their heads, set hard against each other;
21. each pulled the other, each shook the other,
22. each caught the other with a foot set between his legs.
23. With trips they countered one another, each to outwit his foe,
24. and now and then tried each other by lifting and twisting;
25. each one heaved the other up from the earth
26. by strength more than by skill.
27. Gogmagog put forth his strength —
28. twelve cubits he stood in height —
29. he caught Corineus in his arms,
30. and drew on him so strong a heave
31. that three ribs burst in his side,
32. and he had all but thrown him then and there.
33. Then was Corineus ashamed
34. that he had been lamed by the giant;
35. he recovered his strength out of fury,
36. and would take no more heed of the hurt;
37. with that he seized the giant at once,
38. and so wrenched him about in his arms
39. that Gogmagog began to swoon,
40. and he bore him down towards the bank;
41. down off the rock he let him fall —
42. and therefore men call it “Faleys” —
43. and before he reached the foot, flesh and bone
44. were all torn apart from stone to stone.
45. A long while he lay there dead,
46. and the water ran red with his blood.

Original

1. Coryneus first vp he shirt,
2. & wiþ a cloþ his body gyrt;
3. Strait in þe flank dide hym lace,
4. & com & stod forth y þe place.
5. Þen Gogmagog ros vp sone;
6. He hadde hym dight, & was al bone.
7. Þe first pul so harde was set
8. Þat þyre brestes to-gyder met;
9. Þer handes ouer bakkes þey caste,
10. Syde to syde was set ful faste;
11. Þer was turn ageynes turn;
12. Þat waykest was, byhoued spurn.
13. ffor-setten byfore, & eke byhynde,
14. Wyþ crokes ilkon oþer gan bynde;
15. Oft aboute ilk oþer þrew,
16. Þe stem stod vp, so þey blew.
17. Þey handled boþe sore þer nekkes;
18. Chynnes, chekes, gef harde chekkes;
19. Þyre þey gnaised wyþ nose snore,
20. Hurtlede hedes set ful sore;
21. Ilk oþer pulled, ilk oþer schok,
22. Wyþ fet in fourche ilk oþer tok.
23. Wyþ trip forsetten, ilk oþer to gyle,
24. In lyft in wryþyng þey sayed vmwhile;
25. Ilkon fro erthe dide oþer ryse
26. Wyþ strengþe more þan wyþ quintise.
27. Gogmagog proued his strengþe,
28. Twelue cubyte he was in lengþe,
29. In armes Coryneus he laught,
30. & on hym drow so strong a draught
31. Þat þre rybbes borsten in his side,
32. & had ner cast him at þat tyde.
33. Þen was Coryneus a-schammed
34. Þat he was for þe geaunt lamed;
35. He recouered his strengþe for tene,
36. Of skaþe wold he hym no more mene;
37. Wyþ þat þe geaunt anon he hente,
38. & in his armes so hym wente
39. Þat Gogmagog gan to swowene,
40. & bar hym wyþ þe bank adoune;
41. Doun of þe roche he let hym falle
42. Þerfore ffaleys men gon hit calle;
43. Er he cam doun, was flesche & bon
44. Al to-ryuen fro ston to ston.
45. A gret þrowe þer he lay ded,
46. Þe water of his blod was red.

References

• Middle English Dictionary, “Gogmagog” entry, citing Mannyng Chronicle Pt.1 (Lambeth 131) — the line reference for your passage.
• Idelle Sullens (ed.), Robert Mannyng of Brunne: The Chronicle (Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1996) — standard critical edition.
• Frederick J. Furnivall (ed.), The Story of England by Robert Manning of Brunne, A.D. 1338, Rolls Series 87, 2 vols (London, 1887) — out of copyright, on the Internet Archive.
• Judith Weiss (ed. and trans.), Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the British, on the Internet Archive — facing-page Anglo-Norman and English.
• A. S. Kline (trans.), Laȝamon’s Brut, Part I (poetryintranslation.com) — free modern translation; see “Corineus and Gogmagog wrestle on the cliffs”.
• G. L. Brook and R. F. Leslie (eds), Laȝamon: Brut, EETS o.s. 250, 277, 2 vols (Oxford, 1963, 1978) — standard edition of the alliterative text.
• Michael D. Reeve (ed.) and Neil Wright (trans.), Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007), §21 — for the Latin source.