Yde and Olive is the third sequel to the famous 13th-century chanson de geste, or French epic, Huon de Bordeaux. It tells the story of Huon's granddaughter, Yde, who is driven out of her home of Aragon by her lecherous father and disguises herself as a man. She eventually becomes a knight and finds herself betrothed to the daughter of the Roman Emperor, Olive. Yde's story is part of a long-standing tradition of cross-dressing female knights though, exceptionally, it ends in a gender transformation. Yde and Olive's relationship also stands as a rare example of same-sex marriage in medieval literature. Through the text, Yde, along with the reader, is forced to grapple with ideas of gender, identity, and belonging.
The text is contained in a 13th-14th century manuscript that also features other major episodes in the cycle of sequels to Huon de Bordeaux. This publication presents a side-by-side edition and translation of the Old French text meant to make it accessible to students and medieval enthusiasts alike.— [Description provided by the author]