The phrase ‘fra Sanct Thomas’ has been variously interpreted. Amours takes it to refer to the date of the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, December 21. Walsh follows Browne in reading it as suggesting that those referred to are returning from a pilgrimage to Canterbury, where the tomb of St. Thomas à Becket is located. Bawcutt and Riddy suggest that the phrase seems to refer to a place and note the suggestion of H. M. Smyser that ‘Thomas’ be emended to ‘Dyonys.’ Speed’s observation that the reference to the pilgrimage would be a literary device recalling Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is worth keeping in mind. She also notes that ‘Charlemagne lived and died almost four hundred years before Thomas B Becket but such anachronism is familiar in medieval literature.’

The second ‘thay’ in this line means ‘those,’ as it does again in l. 20 (second ‘thay’) and in l. 22 and elsewhere in the text. In l. 21 the ‘thay’ should be translated ‘that’ since ‘wedderis’ (technically a plural) has the singular sense of ‘storm.’

On ‘duchepeiris,’ see the note to Sowdone of Babylone, l. 241 (commenting on the ‘Dosipers,’ an alternate spelling of the same word).

The first ‘deip’ in the line has been emended by Speed to ‘drip’ and by Bawcutt and Riddy to ‘drift.’ Herrtage maintains ‘deip’ but glosses it only with a question mark. Walsh suggests that the word may be ‘a noun or nominalized adjective meaning that the snow was being driven in the “deep places,” — valleys and rock chasms.’ This is surely the sense of the line, but the first ‘deip’ (assuming the reading is correct) must refer to the snow itself which has mounted up in the ‘mony deip dell.’

‘Prime’ is the canonical hour, the fixed part of the Divine Office to be sung or recited at a specific time, for the first hour of the day (6 a.m. or sunrise).

A ‘collier’ is one who makes and sells charcoal.

‘Sanct July’ is Saint Julian the Hospitaller, the patron saint of inn keepers and travellers.

The phrase ‘cheveris with the chin’ is the equivalent of ‘our teeth are chattering.’

When ‘part’ is used with a cardinal number, it indicates ‘a proportion one measure short of a whole’ (MED). Thus ‘twa part’ is literally ‘two-thirds.’ The sense of the phrase is probably best conveyed in modern English by the translation of Bawcutt and Riddy: ‘more than half annoyed.’

This line alludes to a proverb: ‘Nature ought to crawl where it cannot walk.’ The line translates: “‘Now is one time when,’ said the Collier, ‘nature ought to crawl.’” The suggestion is that his guest’s natural courtesy should lead him to act in a way that is appropriate to the circumstances even if different from his normal way of doing things.

In this line ‘fair’ seems to be used in the sense of a ‘fuss’ and ‘strange’ in the sense of ‘alien’; thus the line suggests that by offering to let Rauf go before him, Charlemagne is once again extending a courtesy that is inappropriate to the circumstances and thus not really a courtesy at all.

The shrine of Saint James the Apostle at Compostela was a famous pilgrimage site. According to medieval legend, James preached the gospel in Spain and even fought against the Moors.

The Wardrobe is ‘the office or department of a royal or noble household charged with the care of the wearing apparel’ (OED).

These lines are difficult to make sense of as they stand in other editions (‘For thow will never gif the mair / To make ane lesing’). Browne suggested translating them as ‘Thou wilt nevermore undertake (give thyself) to tell a lie.’ Speed translates: ‘for you will never again undertake (literally, give yourself) to tell a lie.’ Walsh proposes translating: ‘You won’t give yourself anymore trouble by telling a lie.’ None of these interpretations makes much sense in the context. However, by emending ‘ane’ to ‘nane’ and taking line 310 as a filler of the type employed by the poet in several other places, the lines make perfect sense. Rauf says, in effect, ‘I’ll surely be there tomorrow because you will never give any more, in truth [literally, to make no lie].’ That is, he can never expect to receive more than on the day after he has offered shelter to his guest.

A ‘convent’ of priests would be those living together in one religious community. The phrase ‘at ane sicht’ might mean that the priests are dressed in vestments (‘revest’) uniformly (as Speed suggests), or it might depend on the verb ‘se’ — i.e., they were seen ‘at a glance’ or ‘all together’ (as Browne translates).

On St. Denis see the note to Sowdone of Babylone, l. 27.

Walsh and Speed both suggest that the line implies that Gyliane thinks their guest didn’t return the blow because she was present. It is also possible that the line might originally have read ‘and he ne had bene allane’; that is, if he had his fellow courtiers with him, as he will when Rauf journeys to court, he would have punished Rauf for his insolence.

Amours suggests that ‘layd’ is a contraction of ‘lay it’ (i.e., stake it [my life]).

Browne suggests that here and in l. 481 ‘thing’ is used to refer to a person.

The line translates literally: ‘Then bade him to cease his courtesy and prepare to go.’ That is, Roland wants Rauf to stop kneeling to him, rise and prepare to go with him to court.

Bawcutt and Riddy, following Laing, gloss ‘mad’ as ‘simple.’ The term thus refers to Rauf who says he is just a simple man. Walsh and Speed make ‘mad man’ direct address, referring to Roland. In their reading, Rauf, responding to Roland’s ‘sic ten’ in the previous line, says, ‘I am only one, mad man. . . .’ Though the meaning ‘simple’ would be unusual for ‘mad’ something like ‘foolish’ is elsewhere attested and ‘simple’ is not an unreasonable extension of that meaning.

‘To Wymond nor Will’ means ‘to Wymond nor to anyone else.’ The common name ‘Will’ is used much as we would use ‘Tom, Dick and Harry.’

Bawcutt and Riddy are probably correct in taking ‘sene’ as ‘seen’ (used pleonastically).

The line either means that Roland’s greaves (the armor worn on the leg, below the knee) are [like] great clasps of gold indeed; or, as Speed suggests (following Amours and Browne), the word ‘on’ has been omitted and the line means that there are great clasps of gold on his greaves.

The line, which translates ‘tied all over with topazes and true-love knots together,’ probably means that the topazes were arranged in the shape of true-love knots, which the OED defines as knots ‘of a complicated and ornamental form (usually either a double-looped bow, or a knot formed of two loops intertwined), used as a symbol of true love.’

‘Mat’ (meaning ‘obstruct’ or ‘checkmate,’ as in chess) is emended to ‘mar’ by Walsh and by Bawcutt and Riddy.

Editors generally take ‘toun man’ to mean a resident of a town as opposed to someone living in the country, but the context would seem to suggest that Roland sees Rauf as an example of a ‘toun man’ and not different from one. OED gives as one meaning of ‘town’ ‘a farm with its farmhouse’ and notes that it still has this meaning in the Scottish dialect. This is surely the sense intended here.

‘By books and bells’ is a mild oath. Roland is swearing by sacred books and church bells.

The earliest reading ‘bland’ is generally emended by modern editors to ‘band.’

Herrtage glosses ‘gift’ as ‘message.’ This is the sense of the word in this context, if not the literal meaning. The thing that the swain has to give is the message about Rauf. The word was probably chosen more for alliteration than for connotation.

The word ‘leif’ is taken by Walsh to mean ‘leave’; the line then translates literally: ‘Unless he is let in quickly, he doesn’t want to leave.’ Bawcutt and Riddy take it as ‘live’ and translate: ‘Unless he is let in straight away, he does not want to go on living.’ The latter seems to make the line coincide more naturally with modern English syntax, but the former seems more in keeping with Rauf’s character.

The phrase ‘on ground’ means literally ‘on the ground’ or ‘on the earth’ but here is an almost meaningless line filler. The same might be said of ‘in this stound’ in the next line.

‘Can’ is used here as an auxiliary indicating the past tense (the equivalent of ‘did’). The line thus translates: ‘He thrust in through them and eagerly pushed.’

The phrase ‘and sa strait ford’ has been interpreted in several different ways. Herrtage takes ‘ford’ as meaning ‘road’ or ‘way’ and the phrase as meaning ‘so severe was the way.’ Bawcutt and Riddy take ‘ford’ to mean ‘for it’ and consider this a pleonastic expression; thus ‘strait,’ like ‘fell,’ would modify ‘frostis.’ Walsh reads ‘strait ford’ as ‘straight forth’; Charlemagne told how he met Rauf, how fierce the frost was, and so straight forth (to the end of his story). Herrtage’s reading, though apparently rejected by later editors, does fit the context of the King’s story quite well.

A ‘forfeiture’ is an estate confiscated as punishment for a crime; a ‘free ward’ is the estate of a deceased tenant who did not have an heir old enough to inherit the property; in this case the control of the land would revert to the overlord.

To ‘have hy’ is literally to ‘have haste’; Speed seems to capture the sense of the phrase best with her gloss of ‘have urgent need.’

To ‘win one’s shoes’ implies proving oneself in combat.

‘Gest’ probably means ‘guest’ here; but Browne takes it as ‘jest.’

Herrtage and Bawcutt and Riddy read ‘bair’; Speed, following Browne, emends to ‘baft’ (‘struck’) and Walsh to ‘bait.’ The basic sense of the line does not change whichever of these readings we accept: ‘These men rained blows on [each other’s] helmets before they stopped.’

Mahoun (Mahomet or Mohammed) and Termagant were thought to be gods worshipped by the Saracens.

Speed takes ‘Rude’ to mean ‘a rod’ (a measure equivalent to sixteen and a half feet). But, considering the religious nature of the conflict, the meaning of ‘Cross’ might apply equally well: ‘He made him move back the length of a broad Cross.’ (Browne translates ‘Rude braid’ as ‘Rood-breadth.’)

Walsh notes that Browne thought ‘breif’ to be an error for ‘brey’ (frighten) and that the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue cites this use of ‘breif’ as a possible erroneous form. But it is likely that Bawcutt and Riddy are correct in reading ‘breif’ as a form of ‘breven,’ which is commonly used in alliterative verse to mean ‘repeat or tell.’ Their extension of the meaning to ‘address’ in this line seems plausible.

Walsh cites Browne’s observation that the line ‘the tane is in power to mak that presoun’ would make better sense if the poet had written ‘the’ instead of ‘that’ but does not emend the line. Only Bawcutt and Riddy emend to ‘the.’ I follow them in so emending. It seems an obvious slip to have read ‘that’ instead of ‘the’ — especially given the appearance of the word ‘that’ in the previous and the following lines. The line then translates: ‘The one of us has the power to make you a prisoner.’

Tartary was the area inhabited by the Tartars, who dwelt in ‘the region of Central Asia extending eastward from the Caspian Sea. . . . First known in the West as applied to the mingled host of Mongols, Tartars, Turks, etc., which under the leadership of Jenghiz Khan (1202–1227) overran and devastated much of Asia and Eastern Europe . . .’ (OED).

Walsh suggests that ‘be that ressoun’ is a line filler and rhyme tag that is ‘probably best left untranslated.’

Bawcutt and Riddy say that ‘god’ is an ‘obvious error’ and emend to ‘gold,’ as do Walsh and Speed. However, ‘god’ in the sense of ‘goods’ (i.e., worldly possessions) seems a possible reading here.

It is interesting that Magog is given ‘Gawteir’ as his Christian name. In the Sege of Melayne there is reference to a ‘Sir Gawtere’ as a close relative of Charlemagne (ll. 377–378). Though the characters can not be one and the same, it seems clear that the author of Rauf Coilyear is borrowing a traditional name for one of Charlemagne’s knights.