ME Response 4

[sjester]

Sir Orfeo
This poem combines the original Orpheus myth, fairy lore, and an Odyssey-like ending. In basic outline, Orfeo/Orpheus loses his wife Heurodis/Eurydice and wins her back with his harp. Orfeo loses Heurodis not to death, but to the fairies, who carry her off because she made the mistake of falling asleep under a tree. So he follows her into the land of Faerie instead of to the underworld. These two settings may not be as different as they appear. On the face of it, the land of Faerie is quite rich and heaven-like, but the place has its dark side as well. Fairies were sometimes associated with the dead, and indeed, Orfeo sees many in this land who are dead or nearly so, and others who were carried off like Heurodis, who still sleeps under a tree. All of these people are stuck in time and action, just as much as Tantalus or Sisyphus.
Orfeo wanders in the wilderness for ten years before he finds his way into the land of Faerie, much in the way Odysseus wanders for ten years before he finds his way home. The interesting part of Orfeo's tale, however, does not take place during those ten years of wandering, which makes for a much shorter poem. The focus is on Orfeo's loss and recovery of wife and kingdom. He relinquishes the kingdom after losing Heurodis, and returns to take it back after finding her again and successfully bringing her back from the fairies (the fairy king does not impose any conditions akin to Hades' injunction that Orpheus must not look back to make sure Eurydice is following). Like the Odyssey, Sir Orfeo ends with a test that is bound up with the return of the rightful ruler of the kingdom. In Orfeo, the loyalty of the steward left in charge is the object of the test.