Take a pork butt, chop and add two cans of chipotles in adobo sauce, along with a dozen garlic cloves. Add salt. You know the rest.

“Terra Major” probably means “Europe”. In the poem it means Charlemagne’s empire.

At the site linked, line 1532, Climborins, the Sarasen, says :

Tere Major ço dit, metrat a hunte,

A l’emperere si toldrat la curone.

Terra Major, he said, to shame he’ld put,

From the Emperour his crown he would remove.

Line 1666, the Sarasen force, battereed by the Franks, exclaim :

«Tere Major, Mahummet te maldie!

Sur tute gent est la tue hardie.»

Terra Major, Mahummet’s curse on thee!

Beyond all men thy people are hardy!”

Line 1784, Ganelon, seeking to persuade, Charles, who has heard Roland’s first call, to continue onward to France,

«[...] Tere Major mult est loinz ça devant.»

“[...] Terra Major is far away, our land.”

I’m not 100% certain that the initial c- continues during later Middle English; by the later fourteenth century one also sees “Grece,” thanks to French. (The MED citations of Lagamon’s Brut = mid-late thirteenth century.) Indeed, I’d be happier if the ME you’ve quoted looked a bit older. Which ME text is it, and from which edition? Looks fourteenth or fifteenth century.

As for Terra Major–I suspect you’ve checked already, but does the recent Chanson de Roland edition (Duggan et al., 2005) have anything useful to say?

Nicole — the stew is cookin’. Didn’t take long!

Sharon — welcome! I’m glad you’ve responded. I’m glad you have a hunch about Criklond; why do you think that it’s Greece? Not that I don’t believe you, I just need to substantiate the claim somehow. :) If you have any reference pointers, I’d love those too; haven’t had much luck on the net or in the library.

(In de-lurking, I should admit that I’ve been reading words’ end via atom feed for some time. I’m trained as a medievalist / English literary type but am employed in editing / humanities computing, so I’ve been sort of eavesdropping on your similar-yet-different trajectory. Till very recently I was dissertating, too. :P )

Evidently it is some kind of lond.

No, seriously. I don’t really know, but… the “king of Crikland” clause modifies “Saracen”, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s some sort of semi-mythical place that the Roland author figures the Saracen is from.

As for Terra Major, all I can think of is that it might mean something like “Midgard” or “Middle Earth”–our world, as opposed to Heaven or Hell.

Slow cooker recipes! I love my slow cooker. I love to make couscous and… um… the stew that goes with couscous. Among Algerians, and French people with ties to Algeria. (In French it’s “marga”. No idea what they call it in English.) Anyway. It gets better with long simmering, is my point.

2 lbs. lamb stew meat (or chicken)

Quart of broth

Can or two of crushed tomatoes

Can or two of chickpeas

few zuchinni

few carrots

bell pepper(s)

onion

garlic

Spices: the fun part. Start with 1 tsp. cinnamon (actually, I usually cheat with ras al hanout), 1/2 tsp. cayenne, salt, pepper… and go from there.

Cook all day on “low” or all afternoon on “high”. Serve over hot couscous.

Good luck!