Meliacin ou Le cheval de fust, ed. Antoinette Saly. Aixen-Provence: CUER MA, 1990.
Saly, Antoinette. “La date du Charlemagne de Girart d’Amiens.” In Au carrefour des routes
d’Europe: la chanson de geste, actes du Xe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals.
Aix-en-Provence: CUER MA, 1987, Vol. 2, pp. 975–81.
GIRART DE ROUSSILLON
. Written anonymously between 1155 and 1180 (probably ca. 1170), this poem in Franco-
Provençal consists of some 10,000 decasyllabic lines (with an unusual 6/4 caesura).
Preserved in three manuscripts, it features the same 9th-century count of Vienne as do the
Chanson d’Aspremont (“Girart de Fraite”) and Girart de Vienne. Girart de Roussillon
belongs to the Rebellious Vassal Cycle but uncharacteristically uses the figure of the
unjust king not to excuse revolt but to show that, even under the greatest imaginable
provocation, a vassal has no right to rebel. King Charles Martel forces Girart to exchange
fiancees with him in consideration of release from vassalic duties; he then tries by force
to bring Girart back into vassaldom; the resulting civil war ends when God’s thunderbolts
strike the banners of both armies. It resumes after a murder by some of Girart’s relations,
whom he refuses, in his pride, to surrender, and leads to appalling slaughter and
destruction. Reduced to flight, Girart plots to murder Charles but is converted by a
hermit; his long and difficult penance is supported by his wife, who leads him ultimately
to the renunciation of secular chivalry and to sanctity.
Girart de Roussillon is remarkable for its insight into human motivation, especially
the effects of pride, and for its vividly expressed horror at civil war and its consequences.
Wolfgang G.van Emden
[See also: BERTRAND DE BAR-SUR-AUBE; REBELLIOUS VASSAL CYCLE]
Hackett, W.Mary, ed. Girart de Roussillon. 3 vols. Paris: SATF, 1953–55.
——. Langue de Girart de Roussillon. Geneva: Droz, 1970.
Le Gentil, Pierre. “Girart de Roussillon: sens et structure du poème.” Romania 78 (1957):328–89,
463–510.
Lot, Ferdinand. “La légende de Girart de Roussillon” and “Encore la légende de Girart
de Roussillon: a propos d’un livre recent.” Romania 52 (1926):257–95; 70 (1948–
49):192–253, 355–96. [Discusses Louis, below.]
Louis, René. De l’histoire a la légende: Girart, comte de Vienne, dans les chansons de geste. 2
vols. Auxerre, 1947.
Pfister, Max. Lexikalische Untersuchungen zu Girart de Roussillon. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1970.
GIRAUT DE BORNELH
(fl. ca. 1162–99). Called maestre dels trobadors by the author of his vida, this prolific
and respected singer traveled to the courts of Spain and participated in the Third Crusade.
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