The MIDDLE ENGLISH poem Sir Isumbras is a brief
ROMANCE of 771 lines in 12-line TAIL-RHYME stanzas
rhyming aabccbddbeeb, written in the northeast
Midlands early in the 14th century. It was wellknown
by 1320, when William of Nassington disparaged
the story as “vanity” in his Speculum Vita.
One of the most popular of all Middle English romances,
Sir Isumbras survives in nine manuscripts
and five early printed editions. There is no known
source for the poem, but it employs the widespread
motif of the man tried and chastened by misfortune.
Ultimately, the roots of the story are in the
biblical book of Job, but scholars have noted parallels
between Sir Isumbras and the popular legend
of St. Eustace, so that in some ways Sir Isumbras
turns material more typical of a SAINTS’ LIFE into a
romance.
This may explain why Sir Isumbras appears to
undercut the usual themes of romance:While Isumbras
is a noble and courteous knight, he suffers
tribulation because his wealth and power make him
forget about God. The tale is told in a brisk and unadorned
style, and there is no elaborate description
of the wealth and pageantry of the court. Nor is
there an emphasis on COURTLY LOVE; rather it is
Isumbras’s family—his wife and three children—
who matter most to him. Sir Isumbras is about sin
and redemption through penitence, but these issues
are depicted in the poem through the gain or
loss of material wealth and social prestige. The
poem is essentially in two parts, which mirror one
another: The first depicts Isumbras’s losing everything,
the second shows him gaining it back.
Isumbras is a knight with wealth, a beautiful
wife, and three fine sons. But pride has made him
forget Christ. One day in the forest a bird delivers a
message from God: Because of his pride, Isumbras
must choose to be afflicted either in his youth and
his age. He chooses youth, and as the bird flies off,
his hawks and hounds run off and his horse dies
under him. As he walks toward home, a boy tells
him his buildings have been burned and his men
killed—only his wife and children are left alive,
and for that Isumbras is grateful. He meets his
herdsmen, who tell him all of his livestock have
been stolen. Patiently, he comforts his family and
advises that they leave that country and go on pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, in sign of which he carves a
cross into his shoulder with a knife.
As the family travels toward the sea, a lion
makes off with their oldest son, and a leopard
steals the second. Isumbras, his wife, and their
youngest son reach the sea, where they find an invading
Muslim armada.When they beg the sultan
for food, he has Isumbras beaten and steals his
wife. She, preparing to be sent back to be queen of
the sultan’s homeland, gains permission to see her
husband. She feeds him and gives him gold, telling
him to come after her. But when he leaves the ship,
a great bird flies off with his gold, and a unicorn
steals away with his youngest son. Destitute and
alone, Isumbras prays for guidance, and from this
point his fortunes take a different turn.
Isumbras meets a group of ironworkers and
begs for food, but they propose that instead he
work for food, as they do. He spends seven years
with the smiths, working up to the status of a
craftsman, at which point he forges himself a suit
of armor. He rides off in this armor to do battle
against the sultan, who has been ravaging Christian
lands for seven years. He fights well and is able
to kill the sultan. But he slips off before the Christian
king can knight him, and continues his pilgrimage,
finding his way to the Holy Land.
Outside Jerusalem, Isumbras is visited by an
angel, who brings him food and drink and tells
him that his sin is forgiven. He continues to wander
until he reaches a rich castle, where he hears
there is a magnificent queen who gives handouts to
the poor each day at her gate. The starving Isumbras
waits at the gate, and is invited in to eat in the
queen’s hall. He sits beside the queen and tells her
of his travels, but for sorrow cannot eat a thing.
The queen offers to allow the palmer to stay in her
castle as her man, and arranges a tournament in
which he defeats all the Saracen knights.
The tale’s ending takes a number of improbable
twists. One day in the woods, Isumbras discovers
his wife’s gold that the bird had stolen. Later,
squires search his room and find the gold, which
the queen recognizes as the gold she had given her
husband. They are reunited and Isumbras is made
king. But when he requires that all his subjects become
Christian, the Saracen knights rise against
him. He arms his wife like a knight and the two of
them ride against 30,000 Saracens. But just as the
battle begins, three strange knights join them, riding
a lion, a leopard, and a unicorn. Together they
defeat the army, and Isumbras learns that the three
knights are his own children, come to help him by
the grace of God. Isumbras thus ends restored to
his family, and with more wealth than he began.
Thus Isumbras works his way back from destitution
through his own hard work and the merit of
his seven years of penance. He also realizes the
most valuable things in life are his wife and children,
and is able to recover them as well as his status.
Sir Isumbras is a brief and unusual romance,
but is quite lively and readable.
Bibliography
Braswell, L. “Sir Isumbras and the Legend of Saint
Eustace,”Medieval Studies 27 (1965): 128–151.
Crane, Susan. Insular Romance: Politics, Faith, and
Culture in Anglo-Norman and Middle English Literature.
Berkeley: University of California Press,
1986.
Hudson, Harriet. Four Middle English Romances.
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications,
1996.
Mehl, Dieter. The Middle English Romances of the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968.