——. Plaint of Nature, trans. James J.Sheridan. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies,
1980.
Evans, Gillian R. Alan of Lille: The Frontiers of Theology in the Later Twelfth Century.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Häring, Nikolaus. “Alan of Lille, De Planctu Natural.” Studi Medievali ser. 3, 19(1978):797–879.
Jauss, Hans-Robert. “La transformation de la forme allégorique entre 1180 et 1240: d’Alain de
Lille à Guillaume de Lorris.” In L’humanisme médiéval dans les littératures romanes du XIIe au
XIVe siècle, colloque de Strasbourg, 1962, ed. Anthime Fourrier. Paris: Klincksieck, 1964, pp.
107–46.
Raynaud de Lage, Guy. Alain de Lille, poète du XIIe siècle. Montreal: Institut d’Études
Médiévales, 1951.
Roussel, Henri, and François Suard, eds. Alain de Lille, Gautier de Châtillon,Jakemart Gielée et
leur temps: actes du Colloque de Lille, octobre 1978. Lille, 1980.
Wetherbee, Winthrop P. Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century: The Literary Influence of the
School of Chartres. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Ziolkowski, Jan. Alan of Lille’s Grammar of Sex: The Meaning of Grammar to a Twelfth-Century
Intellectual. Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1985.
ALANI
(Alans). The only non-Germanic settlers in the western Roman Empire during the so-
called barbarian invasions, the Alani spoke an Indo-Iranian language. They were living as
nomads in southern Russia when the arrival of the Huns in the 370s caused groups of
them to move west, along with many Germanic tribes. With the Vandals and Visigoths,
they entered Gaul in the early 5th century, and groups of them settled around Orléans and
subsequently moved into Armorica (Brittany) in the later 5th century; others settled
around Toulouse and Narbonne. They generally received land grants from the Roman au-
thorities. Their small numbers, lack of a strong tribal structure, abandonment of their
nomadic ways, and adoption of Christianity led to the swift assimilation of the Alani in
the mixed culture of Gaul, and they ceased to be seen as a distinct people by the end of
the 5th century. The chief traces of their existence in Gaul are in the personal name Alain
and the many place-names with Alan- or Alain- as a component. They may have had a
role in the development of the “Aquitanian” style of art and the rising importance of
cavalry and cavalry tactics in later centuries; they perhaps contributed elements to the
Arthurian legends.
A substantial body of Alani remained with the Vandals, with whom they soon
assimilated. Vandal kings carried the title King of the Vandals and Alans from ca. 419 to
the end of the Vandal kingdom. Other Alani were prominent in the political and military
affairs of the eastern Roman Empire in the middle third of the 5th century, and others
settled in northern Italy under Roman authority.
Steven Fanning
Bachrach, Bernard S. A History of the Alans in the West. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1973.
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