Composed toward the end of the fourteenth century, the anonymous Sir Torrent of Portingale is a Middle English romance defined by its outsized proportions and commitment to outdoing its predecessors. Its 2,671 lines make it one of the longer surviving tail-rhyme romances—nearly double the length of its nearest literary analogue and partial source, the romance Sir Eglamour of Artois. Its valorous Portuguese hero and virtuous but feisty princess, narrative investment in lineage and dynastic ambition, grand geographic scope, and sheer abundance of romance tropes speak to an audience both well-versed in the conventions of adventure literature and hungry for ever grander narratives. A likely influence on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, and prominent among the print editions of Middle English romance that flourished in the early Tudor period, Sir Torrent of Portingale showcases one of medieval England’s most popular literary genres in its full maturity.
