AYMERI DE NARBONNE
. An epic poem of 4,708 rhymed decasyllables from the early 13th century, Aymeri tells
how Charlemagne, returning from Spain distressed by the disaster of Roncevaux,
discovers the rich and admirably fortified Saracen city of Narbonne. In vain, he proposes
to grant it to any knight capable of conquering it: all the heroes are tired and discouraged.
Only the young Aymeri, pushed by his father, Hernaut de Beaulande, is willing to attack
this seemingly impregnable place. He succeeds thanks to his military talent and, finally,
the help of Charlemagne’s army. After the death of his parents, his advisers urge him, as
the only son, to take a wife and recommend Hermengarde, sister of the king of the
Lombards, Boniface. A series of adventures of his delegation to Pavia is followed by
others of Aymeri himself and his companions; an agreement is at last reached between
Boniface and the Narbonnais, and Hermengarde and Aymeri are betrothed. However,
while he is returning to Narbonne with his fiancée, Saracens besiege the city; Aymeri
liberates it with the help of an army of his uncle, Girart de Vienne, after a violent battle in
which he is seriously wounded. Once Aymeri is healed, the marriage takes place in
Narbonne, and Aymeri, who lives for a hundred years, has seven sons and five daughters
with Hermengarde.
Although inspired by previous poems, the work is remarkable for several scenes,
particularly Charlemagne’s despair at his barons’ refusal of the yet unconquered fief of
Narbonne. Aymeri is preserved in five manuscripts of the 13th and 14th centuries; the
poem has been little modified, since the manuscripts closely follow its composition.
However, there exist two 15th-century prose versions, the second of which was partially
inserted in David Aubert’s Croniques et conquestes de Charlemaine (1458). In addition,
in the Venice Codex Marcianus fr. IV (ca. 1300), a version of the poem in Franco-Italian
immediately follows the Chanson de Roland; this version is even more considerably
altered in the cyclic Tuscan poem La Spagna (1350–80), and it also exists independently
in a poem called Amerigo di Nerbona (ca. 1380). The “matter” of Aymeri also passed
into Andrea da Berberino’s huge prose compilation I reali di Francia (1380–1420) and in
a second, later work by the same author, Le storie Nerbonesi, The Occitan “chronicle” by
the Pseudo-Filomena (early 13th c.) contains an important sequence reminiscent of
Aymeri’s conquest of, and investiture with, Narbonne.
Hans-Erich Keller
[See also: BERTRAND DE BAR-SUR-AUBE; GUILLAUME D’ORANGE CYCLE;
NARBONNAIS]
Demaison, Louis, ed. Aymeri de Narbonne. 2 vols. Paris: Didot, 1887. [Vol. 1 has an important
introduction and the edition of the prose versions (pp. cclii-cclxxxii).]
Cadalano, Michele, ed. La Spagna. 3 vols. Bologna: Carducci, 1939.
Schneegans, F.Eduard, ed. Gesta Karoli Magni ad Carcassonam et Narbonam. Halle: Niemeyer,
1898.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 172