[See also: TROUBADOUR POETRY]
Bertran de Born. The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born, ed and trans. William D.Paden,
Tilde Sankovitch, and Patricia H.Stäblein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
——. L’amour et la guerre: l’œuvre de Bertran de Born, ed. Gérard Gouiran. Aix-en-Provence:
Université de Provence, 1985.
Dauzier, Martine. Le mythe de Bertran de Born. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne,
1986.
BERTRAND DE BAR-SUR-AUBE
(fl. late 12th c.). A wellborn cleric, by his own account, Bertrand claims to have
composed the chanson de geste Girart de Vienne at Bar-sur-Aube in Champagne. The
poem, which dates ca. 1180, is preserved in five manuscripts and consists of just under
7,000 decasyllabic lines arranged in 192 rhymed laisses. It belongs in some sense to both
the Rebellious Vassal and the Guillaume d’Orange cycles. Girart becomes an uncle of
Aymeri de Narbonne, Guillaume’s father. His youth at Charlemagne’s court is
characterized by capricious and unjust treatment from the emperor, who later besieges
Vienne for seven years but is finally reconciled to the hero, acknowledging that he has
been in the wrong. This will become a pattern paradigmatic for the epics of revolt. But
Bertrand is also influenced by the contemporary romances: the siege (for which Bertrand
followed an earlier and more savage chanson de geste, now lost) becomes partly a
romanticized account of the origin of the friendship of Roland and Oliver, here on
opposite sides, and the former’s betrothal to Aude (with obvious reference to the
Chanson de Roland).
References to Bertrand in other poems testify to his fame as both trouvère and
jongleur. At the end of Girart de Vienne, a passage found in all the extant manuscripts
announces a poem on Aymeri de Narbonne. The epic of that name has been attributed to
Bertrand in consequence, but the matter is debated. Bertrand is important for his probably
original division of epic material into three gestes, or cycles, linked with his connection
of a traditional rebel to the loyal clan of Guillaume d’Orange; he is also a skillful
remanieur able to combine the epic and the romance, with an unusual interest in
motivation and indeed psychology.
Wolfgang G.van Emden
[See also: CHANSON DE GESTE; GIRART DE ROUSSILLON; GUILLAUME
D’ORANGE CYCLE; REBELLIOUS VASSAL CYCLE]
Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube. Girart de Vienne, ed. Wolfgang G. van Emden. Paris: Société des
Anciens Textes Français, 1977.
Kibler, William W. “Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, Author of Aymeri de Narbonne?” Speculum
48(1973):277–92.
van Emden, Wolfgang G. “Girart de Vienne: problèmes de composition et de datation.” Cahiers de
civilisation médiévale 13(1970):281–90. [Builds on work by René Louis cited in Girart de
Roussillon bibliography.]
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