Guillaume’s life, the Moniage Rainouart (7,600 lines) develops comic situations that
arise from the contrast between the hero’s immense size, strength, and simplicity and the
demands of monastic life. The monks, who do not hesitate to betray Rainouart to the
Saracens, are even more odious than in the Moniage Guillaume. Among the many
adventures in the poem, one should note the hero’s reunion with his son, Maillefer, who
had been taken from him in the Bataille Loquifer, and his victory over the giant Gadifer.
The cyclical manuscripts attach two later poems to the Guillaume Cycle, Foulque de
Candie (16,000+ lines; 13th c.), an independent version of Guillaume’s battle at Archamp
to avenge Vivien, and Renier (late 13th c.), which has as its hero Rainouart’s grandson
and ties this cycle to the Crusade Cycle.
The creation of such a vast cycle is the result of complex processes. Analysis of the
poems and the manuscripts reveals what Tyssens calls two “cyclic nuclei.” On the one
hand are three tales narrating the early epic career of the hero: Couronnement, Charroi,
and Prise; on the other, three poems in which Rainouart plays an important role: Aliscans,
Bataille Loquifer, and Moniage Rainouart. Then, isolated poems, such as the Moniage
Guillaume, or poems composed to serve as prologues to texts already in the corpus—the
Enfances Guillaume prepares the Couronnement and the Prise, the Chevalerie Vivien
introduces Aliscans, and the Enfances Vivien the Chevalerie—attach themselves to these
nuclei.
The problem of cyclical organization must be distinguished from that of the dating of
the poems and their relationship to history. The Moniage Guillaume predates the
Moniage Rainouart but is integrated into the cycle after it. And the Chanson de
Guillaume, which in its first part includes the most archaic matter, remains apart from the
cycle.
There exist traces of earlier legendary activity relative to Guillaume. The Nota
Emilianense (ca. 1065–75) includes among Charlemagne’s peers a Ghigelmo
alcorbitanas, and a Guillelmus curbinasus is supposed to have signed the counterfeited
charter of Saint-Yrieix (ca. 1090). The hero’s characteristic physical trait, at least in one
of its two forms, is thus known by the last third of the 11th century. Moreover, a poem on
the siege of Orange, now lost, was composed before 1125, since it is alluded to in the
earliest Vita sancti Wilhelmi.
Guillaume’s epic biography derives from three possible historical sources. Guillaume
de Toulouse, Charlemagne’s cousin, is mentioned in the panegyric of Louis the Pious,
composed after 827 by Ermold the Black, and in the Life of Louis the Pious by the
Astronomer (after 840). Victor over the Gascons in 790, he suffered a glorious defeat in
793 at the hands of the Saracens, who, after burning the outskirts of Narbonne, marched
against Carcassonne; in spite of their numerical superiority, they withdrew into Spain.
Ten years later, Guillaume took part in the siege and conquest of Barcelona, before
retiring from the world and entering the religious life, first at Aniane in 804, then at
Gellone (known today as Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert) in 806, which he founded. It is worth
noting in passing that the historical Guillaume’s son Bertrand was nicknamed Naso.
Traditions centering on the count of Toulouse thus lie behind the battle at Archamp
(Chanson de Guillaume, Aliscans), the “crooked nose,” and the withdrawal from the
world (Moniage Guillaume). Count Vivien, lay abbot of Saint-Martin of Tours, who died
fighting the Bretons under Charles the Bald in 851, was the prototype of Guillaume’s
illustrious nephew Vivien in the Chanson de Guillaume. Finally, the tradition of the siege
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