of Orange may derive from memories of Guillaume I the Liberator, count of Provence,
who gained an important victory over the Muslims in 972.
Born of different sources and nourished by events of the 12th and 13th centuries, the
poems about Guillaume vary in tone, from the stark heroism of the first part of the
Chanson de Guillaume to the adventuring spirit of the Enfances Vivien. A variety of
themes is prominent in the cycle: the unflagging fidelity of the lineage, especially of
Guillaume, to the sovereign (Couronnement, Charroi, Moniage Guillaume); heroism in
the fight against the infidel (Guillaume, Chevalerie Vivien, Aliscans); and the relations
between love and valor (Enfances Guillaume, Prise) and between knighthood and the
religious life (the two Moniages). The unity of the whole is ensured by Guillaume
himself, characterized by the glorious stigmata of his crooked or shortened nose, by the
strength of his fists, and by his laughter. By his side, Orable-Guibourc is the guarantor of
epic values, who urges her husband to remain faithful to his calling and who will not
accept him until he gives proof of his valor. Vivien, the hero of Archamp, is immortalized
by his vow, while the giant Rainouart, symbol of brute strength in service of the good,
incorporates heroic-comic aspects of which Guillaume himself shows signs.
Poems About Aymeri. The chansons about Guillaume’s father and brothers for the
most part are not as old as those about the hero. There are nonetheless venerable
traditions concerning the Narbonnais lineage, as in the Latin prose Hague Fragment (ca.
1000), in which Aymeri and his sons Hernaut, Bernard, and Guibelin, as well as Bertrand
the Paladin, confront Borel and his sons. The origin of the Narbonne cycle may thus lie in
either a tradition of a siege of Narbonne thwarted by the lineage (source of the second
part of the Narbonnais, for which there once existed an assonanced version) or the story
of the conquest of Narbonne by Aymeri, a tradition following in the wake of Roncevaux.
Among the epics having an archaic substratum are Girart de Vienne (ca. 1180), in
which the trouvère Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube links an older poem treating Girart’s
rebellion against Charlemagne to the Narbonne cycle, and Aymeri de Narbonne (before
1200), perhaps by the same poet, a tale of conquest and love, relating the capture of
Narbonne as well as Aymeri’s marriage to Hermenjart. An even more recent version of
the capture of Narbonne is found in the manuscript Venice V^4 , which integrates the
taking of the city with the Roland material, situating it between the capture of Saragossa
and the punishment of Ganelon.
The Narbonnais (early 13th c.) reflects the siege-of-Narbonne tradition; the Siège de
Barbastre (7,392 lines; late 12th c.), loosely inspired by the capture of Barbastro by the
Christians in 1064, also has archaic elements, including echoes of the siege of Orange.
The Mort Aymeri de Narbonne (4,176 lines; 12th c.) combines, with its story of the
hero’s final combats, epic tonality with the exotic, in its introduction of the Sagittaries.
The cycle is completed by poems that tell of the founding hero’s ancestors or
descendants. Garin de Monglane (14,000+lines; 13th c.) features Aymeri’s grandfather.
After defeating Charlemagne in a chess match, the emperor authorizes him to win the fief
of Monglane; Garin weds Mabile, who bears him four sons: Hernaut de Beaulande
(Aymeri’s father), Girart de Vienne, Renier de Gennes (Oliver and Aude’s father), and
Milon de Pouille. In the 14th century, the poem was reworked and an Enfances Garin
added. Among poems treating Aymeri’s descendants, Guibert d’Andrenas (2,406 lines;
13th c.) tells of the conquest of a Spanish city by Aymeri’s youngest son; the Prise de
Cordres et Sebille (2,948 lines; 13th c.) makes Aymeri’s grandson Bertrand the lord of
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