families A (“short cycle”) and B (“long cycle”) have the most coherent groupings and
have been used to prepare the standard editions.
Poems About Guillaume. Not counting the Chanson de Guillaume, which is not found
in the cyclical manuscripts, eleven poems comprise Guillaume’s poetic biography. The
Enfances Guillaume (3,400 lines; 13th c.) tells how Guillaume distinguishes himself from
his brothers and wins the heart of Orable. The Couronnement de Louis, the Charroi de
Nîmes, and the Prise d’Orange, all closely related and composed between 1150 and 1170,
tell of Guillaume’s most famous exploits: the wound to the nose by Corsolt, from which
the hero received his epithet al corb nés; the capture of Nîmes by ruse; the conquest of
Orable and her city of Orange. Another ensemble narrates the deeds and passion of
Vivien, who will be avenged by his uncle Guillaume and by the giant Rainouart. The
Enfances Vivien (3,200 lines; 13th c.) tells in a style reminiscent of the adventure
romances how Guillaume’s nephew Vivien, son of Garin d’Anseüne, is surrendered to
the Saracens of Luiserne in exchange for his father, how he miraculously escapes death
and succeeds, thanks to help from his family, in recapturing Anseüne. The Chevalerie or
Covenant Vivien (1,918 lines; ca. 1200), much more imbued with epic spirit, explains
why Vivien must die in battle. At his knighting, the youthful warrior swears never to
retreat a single foot before the pagans and immediately launches a brutal raid into Spain.
Desramé of Cordova, the Saracen leader, sets sail to meet him at the field of Archamp.
Vivien, fearful of breaking his oath, refuses to send to his uncle Guillaume for help until
it is too late. Guillaume joins battle but is soon separated from his nephew.
The end of the battle is recounted in the earliest poem of this group, Aliscans (last
quarter of the 12th c.). Vivien, overwhelmed by the odds, dies, and Guillaume watches all
his companions disappear. He is forced back to Orange, where his wife, Guibourc, allows
him to reenter the city only after he has accomplished an act of valor to prove his identity.
He seeks aid from King Louis while the Saracens besiege Orange. Helped by the giant
Rainouart, Guillaume overcomes the Saracens, and Rainouart, recognized by Guibourc as
her brother, marries King Louis’s daughter Aelis.
Aliscans and its prologue, the Chevalerie Vivien, are reworkings of two different
narratives: an account of the exploits and death of Vivien, avenged by Guillaume, and a
poem dedicated to the stunning revenge of the Christians, aided by Rainouart, over the
Saracens. The Chanson de Guillaume (ca. 1150), a noncyclic text, also combines these
elements but features an older version of Vivien’s exploits.
Rainouart’s story continues in the Bataille Loquifer (4,180 lines; late 12th c.), which
exploits, by adding fanciful elements, the heroic-comic vein represented by this character.
Most of the poem is devoted to the combat be tween Rainouart and the pagan giant
Loquifer, but it also tells of the birth of Rainouart’s son, Maillefer, which causes the
death of his mother, Aelis. The infant is then stolen by the dwarf Picolet.
Finally, two texts exploit the theme of moniage, the hero’s renouncing of this world
and the adventures that devolve from that choice. The older, the Moniage Guillaume
(12th c.), of which we have two versions, tells of the hero’s rejection by the monks of
Aniane, where he had retired to expiate his sins. Instead, he becomes a hermit but is
captured by Sinagon of Palerne; finally freed, he returns to his hermitage but must again
take up arms to defend his sovereign, Louis, from Ysoré: only then can he end his life in
conformity with his wishes. More recent (late 12th or early 13th c.) but placed before the
Moniage Guillaume in the manuscripts because it tells of events that happened earlier in
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