Charlemagne’s younger brother, Carloman (d. 771), when he accompanied them to the
Lombard king Desiderius in Pavia. From this confusion sprang the dichotomy of Ogier:
on the one hand, he is one of Charlemagne’s most loyal peers, attested as such in the
Nota Emilianense (ca. 1070), the falsification of Saint-Yrieux (ca. 1090), the Chanson de
Roland, and the Voyage de Charlemagne; on the other hand, the tradition of a rebel is
found since the Conversio Othgerii militis of the abbey of Saint-Faron at Meaux (ca.
1070–80).
Ogier as a rebel is the subject of the Chevalerie Ogier, which was probably composed
by a certain Raimbert de Paris. In 12,346 assonanced decasyllables, the poem tells how
Ogier, son of King Godefroy of Denmark, is left as hostage and educated at
Charlemagne’s court and is later knighted by the emperor during a fierce battle against
the Saracens under the walls of Rome. He becomes an intractable rebel after his bastard
son Bauduinet is killed by Charlemagne’s son Charlot over a game of chess, a crime left
unpunished by the king. Ogier eludes the Frankish army thanks to his miraculous horse,
Broiefort; he turns quite ferocious, finally holing up in Castel Fort, where he sustains a
seven-year siege. The only survivor, he escapes but is found, exhausted, by Turpin,
whom Charlemagne puts in charge of the prisoner at Reims. After seven years in prison,
a Saracen invasion makes his help necessary. Ogier kills the Saracen king and saves
France. Charlemagne and Charlot hold his stirrups after his safe return; Ogier then weds
the daughter of the king of England, whom he had freed from the Saracens, and receives
from Charlemagne the fiefs of Hainaut and Brabant. At his death, he is buried in Meaux.
The Chevalerie Ogier is a romanticized reworking of a lost 12th-century epic known
only from a remaniement in Alexandrines of the 14th century (still unpublished), a lost
poem in decasyllabic laisses (ca. 1350) recognizable in Jean d’Outremeuse’s Myreur des
histors in prose (second half of the 14th c.), and the prose romance Ogier le Dannoys
(15th c.). The first branche seems to be preserved in Adenet le Roi’s Enfances Ogier (ca.
1290) as well as—though differently—in Book 3 of the Norwegian Karlamagnús saga,
the Danish Karl Magnus Krønike, and the Franco-Italian Uggeri il Danese.
Hans-Erich Keller
[See also: OUTREMEUSE, JEAN D’; REBELLIOUS VASSAL CYCLE]
Cremonesi, Carla, ed. Le Danois Ogier: Enfances—Chevalerie, Codex Marciano XIII. Milan:
Cisalpino-Goliardica, 1977.
Eusebi, Mario, ed. La chevalerie d’Ogier de Danemarche. Milan: Cisalpino, 1963.
Rossellini, Aldo, ed. La “Geste Francor” di Venezia: edizione integrale del Codice XIII del Fondo
francese della Marciana. Brescia: La Scuola, 1986. [Enfances Ogier, pp. 505–49; Chevalerie
Ogier, pp. 569–634.]
Goose, André. “Ogier le Danois, chanson de geste de Jean d’Outremeuse.” Romania 86
(1965):145–98.
Le Gentil, Pierre. “Ogier le Danois, héros épique.” Romania 78 (1957):199–233.
Renier, Rodolfo. “Ricerche sulla leggenda di Uggeri il Danese in Francia.” Memorie della R.
Accademia di Torino, scienze morali, storiche e filosofiche 2nd ser. 41 (1891):389–459.
Togeby, Knud. Ogier le Danois dans les littératures européennes. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1969.
Voretzsch, Carl. Über die Sage von Ogier dem Dänen und die Entstehung der Chevalerie Ogier:
Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung des altfranzösischen Heldenepos. Halle: Niemeyer, 1891.
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