This paper is concerned with the transformation in the Middle English Partonope of Blois of French place-names that appear in its source, Partonopeus de Blois. Six of the twenty-two French toponyms in the version of Partonopeus drawn upon by Partonope appear at least once in the English text in a different form. At first sight these divergences seem either to be insignificant substitutions or else to arise from common scribal errors. Closer consideration suggests, however, that they are in at least some cases intentional. The principal effect of these alterations, which has escaped the attention of previous scholars, is to shift the location of the Somegur episode from the Vexin to Ponthieu. Given the probable dating of Partonope to the second quarter of the fifteenth century, this relocation may have been designed to avoid a transfer to the Lancastrians of the implicit criticism in Partonopeus of Henry II's possession of Normandy.

This paper offers an introduction to the anonymous Catalan Historia de I'Esforgat Cavalier Partinobles; the author discusses some of the principal differences between the Historia and the Old French Partonopeus de Blois. She notes that the opening episodes of the Catalan text are marked by a strong element of fantasy and provide an alternative version of the family history of Melior and her sister; also that in Partonopeus the character of Gaudin is already a Christian when he first appears, but that in the Historia his conversion forms part of the main story. These and other changes, including the introduction of a Moorish sorceress and a mysterious sword which may be wielded only by a Christian, are related to the historical context of Christian / Muslim conflict in northern Spain against which the text was composed. The author also considers questions of cultural transmission, concluding that the Catalan adaptation is not simply a re-telling of the Partonopeus story, but also serves as a means of preserving an endangered language,