Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance WOLFANG G. VAN EMDEN

WOLFGANG G. VAN EMDEN
Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance?
T
o READ GIRART DE VIENNE or many other chansons de geste dating
from around 1180 or a little later, is to be tempted to invert the famous dictum of Hoepffner quoting Friedrich Schürr1 and say "les
chansons de geste de la seconde vague mûrissent à l'ombre du roman courtois." Of Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube it is easy to write, as I did in the preface
to my edition, that he is:
un trouvère vraiment doué, qui montre autant de talent dans le
domaine de ce qui relève en principe du roman courtois (analyse
des états d'âme, descriptions d'objets de luxe et de présences
féminines, propos raffinés et galants) que dans celui de l'épopée
proprement dite.2
I intend to analyze these and other aspects of Bertrand's poem — labelled "li romanz de gir[art] de vianne" in the explicit of one manuscript
— but to do so within the context of some of the theoretical contributions
to the question of the relationship between epic and romance made in the
last twenty years, particularly those of Erich Köhler, Hans-Robert Jauss,
Ellen Rose Woods, and Michel Zink.3 Such considerations will make it
1
E. Hoepffner, "La Chanson de geste et les débuts du roman courtois" in
Mélanges Alfred Jeanroy (Paris, 1928), pp. 427-437, esp. p. 427; the original observation,
translated as: "Le premier roman courtois grandit à l'ombre de la chanson de geste" is from F.
Schürr, Das altfranzösische Epos (München, 1926), p. 269.
2
All quotations from Girart de Vienne are from my edition (Paris: Société des anciens textes français, 1977), in this case p. ix.
3
Particularly: Köhler. "Quelques observations d'ordre historico-sociologique sur
les rapports entre la chanson de geste et le roman courtois" in Chanson de geste und höfischer
147
148 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
possible, perhaps, to assess the real extent of the influence of the romance
on Bertrand.
The fact that he names himself at all is not without significance in
this context. If I am right in my arguments for dating Girart de Vienne
from the very early eighties of the twelfth century,4 he is the first author of
a chanson de geste to reject anonymity (apart perhaps from the enigmatic
Turoldus). Both Madame Rita Lejeune5 and I6 have suggested reasons for
explaining the genesis of Bertrand's remaniement in the context of the
court of Marie de Champagne and — as I have argued — that of the coalition mounted by a great part of the French baronage, including the house
of Champagne, against the young and future king, Philippe-Auguste. A
local historian of Bar-sur-Aube, Monsieur Roger Rubaud, has since suggested other, convergent reasons — not all of which I would subscribe to,
but some of which are most interesting — for attaching the poem to the
same entourage and the same period.7 Yet, unlike his approximate contemporaries, Chrétien de Troyes and Gautier d'Arras, both of whom confirm their presence at Marie's (and other) courts by explicit dedicatory references,8 Bertrand does not mention his putative patroness. This, I think,
Roman (Heidelberg, !963), pp. 21-36; Jauss, "Chanson de geste et roman courtois," ibid., pp.
61-83 and "Littérature médiévale et théorie des genres" in Poétique, 1 (1970), pp. 79-101;
Woods, Aye d'Avignon: A Study of Genre and Society (Genève, 1978); Zink, "Une Mutation
de la conscience littéraire: le langage romanesque à travers des exemples français du XIIe
siècle" in Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, 24 (1981), pp. 3-27.
4
See my articles "Girart de Vienne: problèmes de composition et de datation," in
Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, 13 (1970), pp. 281-290 and "Hypothèse sur une explication
historique du remaniement de Girart de Vienne par Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube" in Actes du
IVe Congrès international de la Société Rencesvals (Heidelberg, 1969), pp. 63-70; also ed. cit.,
chap. 3.
5
"Rôle littéraire de la famille d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine" in Cahiers de Civilisation
Médiévale, 1 (1958), pp. 319-337.
6
Article from Actes du IVe Congrès ... Rencesvals quoted in note 4 above.
7
R. Rubaud, "Girart de Vienne par Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube. Le poète, sa vie,
son milieu, ses héros" in Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique de Langres, 16
(1975), pp. 361-390 and 393-433.
8
Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette, ed. M. Roques (Paris: Classiques français du moyen âge, 1963), vv. 1-29; Perceval ou le Conte du Graal, ed. W. Roach
(Genève; Lille, Textes littéraires français, 1956), vv. 1-68; Gautier d'Arras, Eracle, ed. Guy
Raynaud de Lage (Paris: Classiques français du moyen âge, 1976), vv. 1 -86 and 6523-6568; Ille
et Galeron, ed. F. G. Cowper (Paris: Société des anciens textes français, 1956), vv. 1-75,
5805-5835.
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 149
is less an argument against the circumstantial evidence connecting him
with Marie's entourage than adherence to the norms of Old French epic
style, which exclude dedicatory lines.
Nor are the manner and the significance of Bertrand's "anmutige
Selbstvorstellung," as E. R. Curtius called it,9 in the romance mold, even
though self-presentation, especially when so charmingly done, is superficially more typical of writers of romance than of epic even after 1180:
Ce fu en mai, qu'il fait chaut et seri,
que l'erbe est vert et rosier sont flori;
a Bar sor Aube, .I. chastel seignori,
la sist Bertrans en un vergier flori,
uns gentis clers qui ceste chançon fist.
A un jeudi, qant del mostier issi,
ot encontré .I. gaillart pelerin,
qui ot seint Jasque aoré et servi,
et par seint Pere de Rome reverti.
Cil li conta ce que il sot de fi,
les avantures c'au reperier oï,
et les granz poines que dant Girart sofri
einz qu'il eüst Vienne.
(vv. 97-109)
Bertrand refers to himself in the third person and the preterite tense, since
he knows that his work will be performed by a jongleur. Chrétien or any
other author of romance must have known that his work too, generally if
not always, would be taken out of his hands for reading publicly; yet Michel Zink10 is right to point to the fact that je in the romance refers to the
author, whereas the je who speaks to us in Girart de Vienne is the performer, relying on the authority of Bertrand whom, along with the records
at Saint Denis," he quotes in support of his claims. And these claims have
to do, first, with the well-known passage on the existence of epic cycles, or
gestes, and then with the precautionary explanation (vv. 81-96) that,
though the Girart subject is well-known, competitors have omitted the
best of the story: the origins and youth of the eponymous epic hero. It is
9
Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie (Bern; München, 1960), p.
285.
10
Art, cit., p. 7.
11
Ed. cit., vv. 8-10.
150 Olifant / Vol. 10, No, 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
the truth of these hitherto unpublished "facts" which is vouched for by
Bertrand, informed by a no doubt fictitious pilgrim, who has done all that
Bédier expected of him! It is all fiction, yet it is presented as authentic historical fact ( "ce que il sot de fi," v, 106): Girart de Vienne, here and elsewhere, purports to be a vehicle for serious history; it is part of that tradition, accepted by poet, jongleur and audience alike, which, as Zink has
well shown, differentiates fundamentally the epic from courtly romance.
In the roman, truth lies not in sources or in references to the corporate history of the nation, but in its inherent sen, in vraisemblance, in the very coherence of the text. Bertrand must certainly have been conscious of inventing, yet he claims historical truth and integrates his inventions into the
generally accepted tradition; he remains clearly on the epic side of Bodel's
famous tripartition of literary material:
Li conte de Bretaigne sont si vain et plaisant
Cil de Rome sont sage et de sens aprendant
Cil de France sont voir chascun jour aparant.12
In terms of the "horizon of expectations" propounded by HansRobert Jauss,13 too, the epic phraseology of the beginning, with its references to cycles which are defined in terms of known chanson de geste personalities, is bound to produce an expectation of epic to come; this is
especially so because Girart de Vienne was already the hero of earlier chansons de geste, much more violent ones, to judge by the Karlamagnús saga.
The polemic against other jongleurs (vv. 84-89) is also, as Aurelio
Roncaglia pointed out, more typical of epic than romance, especially as a
topos of the exordium.14 This is reinforced by the obvious point that Girart is clearly meant for singing: it is called chançon in vv. 1, 101; the verb
chanter is used at v. 5322 di et chant and elsewhere. It goes without saying
that the verb dire (vv. I, 86 etc.) is frequently used in a musical context.15
The distinction between singing and reciting is for Jauss16 one of the fun12
Saisnes, ed. Francisque Michel (Paris. 1832-48). vv. 9-11; the text of Michel's
base manuscript is slightly clearer here than that of the one followed by F. Menzel and E.
Stengel in the Marburg edition of 1906-09.
13
See especially the article in Poétique, 1, p. 81 ff.
14
"L'Alexandre d'Albéric et la séparation entre chanson de geste et roman" in
Chanson de geste und höfischer Roman (Heidelberg, 1963), pp. 37-60, esp. pp. 42-43.
15
16
See Tobler-Lommatzsch, II, 1936-37, for examples.
Chanson de geste und höfischer Roman, art. cit.. pp. 63-64.
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 151
damental divisions between the two genres, connected with the authorial
attitude to historical tradition already discussed.
Where, then, are the aspects of Girart de Vienne which might allow
one to consider this chanson as a romance, and what is their significance
in the overall structure and lone of the poem? Apart from the generally optimistic tone, to which Becker pointed and which stands in marked contrast with what may be surmised about the earlier version from the Karlamagnús saga, the relationship between the sexes takes us to the heart of
the matter, such as it is.
Girart himself is married to a wife called Guibourc, clearly in honor
of the helpmate of Guillaume d'Orange, for she gives him support and
good advice — nothing unepic there. But earlier, Girart narrowly escapes
marriage to the widowed Duchess of Burgundy, who, having asked for a
husband by messenger to the Emperor, is promised to Girard — together
with her late husband's very valuable fief. On seeing the lady in person,
Charlemagne decides she is comely enough to be his own wife, and he
proposes incontinent; she, preferring Girart as a physical proposition,
asks for time to consider and sends for the young man, begging him to
forestall the King by marrying her himself, and quickly. Girart, outraged
by her forwardness, rejects her and, after fruitlessly sending him word a
second time, she makes her decision:
s'eu n'a le duc, le roi, ce dit, avra.
(v. 1384)
Charles announces the marriage, but now Girart objects to his breach of
faith; he is compensated with the fief of Vienne instead, and the imperial
marriage takes place. Then follows the famous scene of the baisement de
pied, in which the new Empress avenges herself in the darkened bridal
chamber by receiving Girart's kiss of homage to her husband on her own
foot.
Both Charles and the Duchess act quite preposterously in normal
feudal, let alone early epic, terms, and the episode has touches of fabliau
humor. The motives of both are based on physical attraction and both are
led by them to make decisions which are dishonorable and very disadvantageous to them on the feudal level. But Bertrand, writing what is after all
152 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
a paradigmatic epic of revolt, obtains from it a casus belli which allows
Girart to put the Emperor ultimately into a position of déni de justice
without himself rebelling wrongfully; Girart's grievance is not primarily
with Charles but with the Queen, whom Charles is of course unwilling to
punish, so putting himself in the wrong.l7
The tone of the episode strikes us as unepic, perhaps, with our postneo-classical prejudices about unity of tone and style; but the structural
purpose is clear and the whole thing is cleverly conceived to keep Girart
from putting himself in the wrong. The romance-like triangle, based on
physical attraction, and the fabliau-like outcome, are designed with epic
purposes in mind, and it is difficult to see how Bertrand could have
achieved his purpose otherwise than by putting the Queen in the wrong
against Girart. This episode does have structural significance.
The apparently more important and more conventionally romancelike love affair between Roland and Aude18 has, by contrast, no real structural importance, in spite of the weight given to it in terms of length of
narrative devoted to it. Roland is first struck by Aude in the middle of a
general fight, for she has come out with the other ladies "les jostes esgarder" v. 3379. This somewhat unepic sortie and unmilitary word for battle — to which we shall return — is followed by a description dans les
règles of Aude:
Totes les dames de la bone cité
furent issues les jostes esgarder.
Venue i fu bele Aude o le vis cler,
une pucele qui molt avoit biauté.
Ele ot le jor .I. mentel afublé,
un pou fu cort, si li avint assez;
triés ses espaules le let aval coler,
li premiers chiés l'en avint enz el pré.
17
On the way in which this casus belli is exploited, see my article "The
'Cocktail-Shaker' Technique in Two Chansons de Geste" in The Medieval Alexander Legend and Romance Epic. Essays in Honour of David J. A. Ross, edited by Peter Noble, Lucie
Polak and Claire Isoz (New York, London, and Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus International
Publications, 1983), pp. 43-56, esp. pp. 43-49.
18
Its beginning in attempted abduction and rape, vv. 3398-3468, is not conventional, of course, and remains puzzling except in the context of the purpose, to which we
shall return, of showing Roland in need of training in courtliness.
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 153
Plest vos oïr com est grant sa biauté ?
Un chapelet ot en son chief posé,
a riches pierres qui gietent grant clarté;
blont ot le poil, menu recercelé,
les euz ot verz come faucon mué,
et le viaire si fres et coloré
come la rose que l'en qeut en esté,
et blanches meins et les doiz acesmez,
les hanches bases et les piez bien formez.
La char ot blenche plus que n'est flor de pré,
le sanc vermeil li est el vis montez;
il n'ot si bele en la crestïenté.
Rollant la prist forment a esgarder,
et en son cuer forment a gouloser;
tant s'i entant li vasaus adurez
qu'il an oblie d'Olivier le joster.
(vv. 3378-3401)
Such descriptions19 are regularly found in romances but rarely, at such
length, in epic, particularly of the twelfth century. Roland is moved to
seize her and attempt to abduct her, with the worst of purposes, but is
saved from himself by Olivier's intervention. Bertrand later uses a slightly
ambiguous parting gift to a prisoner released by Girart, Lambert de Berri,
to excite Roland's jealousy, producing one splendidly précieux line (v.
3855):
Rollant la voit, s'a la color muee,
a sa mesniee l'a entor lui mostree :
"Vez de Lanbert, franche gent ennoree,
il et bele Aude ont la pes porparlee.
Li cuens Lanbert en a eü sodee,
de cele part m'a feru sanz espee;
s'or li avoit li dus G[irarz] donee,
si remendroit la guerre.
(vv.3850-3857)
Dit l'un a l'autre : "Qui est ce chevalier?"
Respont Rollant : "Lanbert le Berruier;
sa pes est fete vers Girart le guerrier,
acointiez s'est de bele Aude au vis fier,
l9
Roncaglia's claim (art. cit., pp. 38-40) that such descriptions are not uncommon in chansons de geste is true of certain elements, particularly the blond hair menu recercelé, but not normally, I think, of such developed examples.
154 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
et si m'a fet de s'amor estrengier."
(vv.3935-3939)
Later still, a battle ends with a gallant conversation, with Roland standing under
the walls of the besieged town:
" . . . Molt vos siet bien ce fort escu bendé,
et cele espee c'avez ceinte au costé,
et cele lance au confanon fermé,
et desoz vos ce destrier pomelé,
qui si tost cort com carrel enpanné.
Molt avez hui noz genz forment grevé;
sor toz les autres senblez avoir fierté.
Or croi ge bien, si com j'ai en pansé,
que vostre amie a molt tres grant biauté."
Roll[ans] l'antant, s'en a un ris gité;
"Dame," dit il, "vos dites vérité :
il n'a si bele juqu'a Reins la cité,
ne juqu'a Rome, ce sachiez de verté,
ne ailleurs que ge sache."
Quant Roll[ans] ot qu'ele parla ainsi,
tot son coraje pas ne li descovri,
mes totevoies molt biau li respondî :
"Ma damoisele, por verté le vos di,
Rollant m'apelent mi per et mi ami."
Aude l'entant, forment li enbelli.
"Estes vos ce Rollant dont j'ai oï
que vers mon frere vos estes aati?
Pou savez ore coment il est hardi,
si avez pris bataille contre lui.
Ce poisse moi, par foi le vos affi,
por ce que l'en vos tient por mon ami,
si com ge l'ai de plusors gem oï.
Par cele foi c'avez Ch[arle] plevi,
se en prison m'eüsiez ier matin,
eüsiez en ne pitié ne merci,
que m'en poïsse arrieres revenir ?"
Rollant l'antant, toz li sans li fremi;
"Ma damoisele," li cuens li respondi,
"ne me gabez, par amors vos en pri."
(vv. 4665-4698)
And Charles and others tease the returning Roland by saying that the battle will be ended "por seue amor" (v. 4737), i.e., for the sake of Aude. During the great single combat between Roland and Olivier, Aude comments
touchingly on her Camille-like position and pronounces heart-rending
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 155
prayers, including a long credo épique, for both her brother and the man
she loves. One can at times speak of a psychological dimension here.
Yet the love which is thus woven into the story has no effect on the
outcome: whereas, in the Karlamagnús saga, the Roland-Aude engagement is a way of ending hostilities on the field of battle — there is no hint
that they ever meet earlier — in Bertrand's poem the duel is ended by an
angel and Aude and Roland are affianced only after general reconciliation
has taken place some hundreds of lines further on. For all the romantic
language, the relationship is an ornament.
There is an instructive contrast to be made here with Ellen Rose
Wood's analysis of the structure of Aye d'Avignon.20 Dr. Woods shows
clearly and elegantly that earlier judgments, like those of Guessard and
Meyer,21 according to which Aye d'Avignon is a crude juxtaposition of
two poems, one an epic, one a romance, were superficial and inaccurate.
On the contrary, Aye herself, as woman, widow, and mother, provides a
real unity; by using the inevitably passive side of her nevertheless dominating role, the poet motivates the romance-like intervention of the noble pagan, Ganor, inverting the normal epic opposition between Christian hero
and pagan villain and drawing remarkable structural and ethical consequences from the transformation of the blonde Sarrasine figure into a
man.
The demonstration of Dr. Woods is neat and largely convincing: epic
and romance are structurally interlinked and mutually complementary in
the case of Aye. It would be interesting to see similar analyses of, say, Les
Saisnes or the two parts of Raoul de Cambrai; in the case of Girart de Vienne, the major love affair is not structurally integrated at all, though the
fabliau-like Duchess of Burgundy episode — which is not really treated
romantically at all — is an essential hinge of the narrative in Bertrand's
moral conception of the subject.
On the surface, however, there is more to be found in the way of ro-
20
21
pp. i-xiv.
Op. cit., Chap.3, p. 45 ff.
See their edition of Aye d'Avignon (Paris: Anciens poëtes de la France, 1861),
156 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
mance elements. Bertrand has surely undergone the influence of romans
antiques at least in the lavish description and history of precious objects,
in particular the hauberk produced by the Jew Joachim for Olivier:
El dos li vestent .I. hauberc jazerant,
fort et legier, ainz ne fu meins pesant :
autretés .XII. en portast .I. sergent.
N'a so ciel arme, dart n'espee tranchant
qui l'anpirast .I. seul denier vaillant.
Fort fu l'auberc, nul meillor ne dement.
Rois Eneas le toli Elinant,
par devant Troie, en la bataille grant,
la ou Paris, le fiz au roi Priant,
n'Estor, ses freres, n'orent de mort garant.
Tuit furent mort, veincu et recreant,
et trebuchié tuit li haut mendement;
n'i remest tor ne haut mur en estant
q'ancontre terre ne fussent tuit gisant.
N'en eschapa nus de mere vivant,
fors Eneas, que Deus parama tant,
qui s'en torna o son pere fuiant,
si en entra en mer en un chalant;
la se gueri a loi d'omme sachant.
Cil Eneas ot le bon jazerant;
puis le perdi el brueil soz Maradant,
en la bataille qu'il fist a Roboant.
Ilec l'ocist .I. chevalier puissant,
sodoier fu de France la vaillant,
et il conquist cel auberc jazerant.
Droit a Vïenne s'en vint atout errant,
cil Joachins l'en dona avoir grant,
en son tresor ot esté longuement;
or l'a doné Olivier le vaillant,
au gentil conte, le hardi conbatant,
le fiz Renier de Genvres.
(vv. 4942-4972)
Chansons de geste do produce occasional comments on the origins of
weapons — who gave them to the hero, who forged them — but not in this
detail, I think, and with the precise reference to a roman antique: Eneas,
the first 240 lines of which contain all the details (apart from banal rhyming names like Elinant) mentioned here.22 There are rather similar descriptions of Olivier's shield (vv. 4980-4985) and Hauteclere (vv.
22
See Girart de Vienne, ed. cit.. note to v. 4942 for further comment.
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 157
5540-5568), both produced by Joachim; there is another of Aude's present
to Lambert;
A un escrin est la pucele alee,
ou meint ensengne a voit de paile ovree;
ele en a fors la plus riche gitee,
a riches pierres tot environ orlee,
et a argent et a fin or bandee.
Cele ensengne a la pucele aportee
dedanz la sale ou ele est retornee,
devant Lanbert l'avoit developee;
a grant merveille fu de toz esgardee.
De colors fu plusors enluminee;
il n'est apostre, c'est verité provee,
dont il n'iait image painturee;
et de bele Aude la pucele senee
i fu la forme de fin or bien ovree.
Nus hom qui l'ait en bataille portee
mar doutera ne orgueil ne posnee,
ne traïson que nus ait porparlee.
(vv. 3826-3842)
We have already spoken of personal description.
In strong contrast to the violence of the Karlamagnús saga version,
fighting is generally unferocious and courtly in Bertrand's Girart. Aude
and the other ladies come out, as we have seen, to watch les jostes (v. 3379)
and words like joster (v. 4236), tornoier (vv. 3125, 3943) and tornoi soz
Vïenne (v. 3468) appear alongside the more epic estor (vv. 4339, 4503 etc.),
chapleïz (vv. 3586, 3590 etc.), though the latter, along with expressions like
La veïssiez . . . are common enough. Only one named member of Girart's
army is ever killed (vv. 3638-3664), though casualties are quite often
evoked in general terms, and there are not infrequently routine references
to the violence of combat (vv. 4464 ff., 4477 ff., etc.).
The most truly epic combat is the great single combat on an island,
in the best epic (but also romance!) tradition, between Roland and Olivier,
on which hangs Girart's future (vv. 5207-5967). Great blows, prières du
plus grand péril, moments of extreme danger, blood and sweat, all are
there. Yet, especially on Olivier's part, it is fought with a courtliness and
an admiration for the antagonist which remind one, say, of the Yvain Gauvain fight in Le Chevalier au Lion and it is, indeed, the culminating
158 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
point in a process whereby Bertrand shows us Roland in need of lessons in
courtliness from Olivier. Where Charlemagne's nephew generally expresses himself self-confidently, arrogantly, and threateningly to Olivier,
the latter relies constantly on God and the justice of his cause and seeks to
make peace (see especially vv. 4157 ff., 5106-5206). He clearly admires the
man he has to fight and is unhappy to do so, as though to say:
"Je vous connais déjà, et c'est ce qui me tue."
In this connection, the use of tutoiement and vouvoiement in the
poem as a whole, and as used between Roland and Olivier in particular,
deserves special attention. Many chansons de geste — and Béroul — use tu
and vous fairly indiscriminately,23 but Girart is one of those poems which
largely foreshadow modern usage, as do generally the romances of
Chrétien24 or Gautier d'Arras, or indeed Eneas. In particular, the relationship between Roland and Olivier is charted by quite a subtle use of vous
and tu: apart from an early boyhood squabble over a falcon (vv.
2759-2851), where he does use tutoiement, Olivier consistently addresses
Roland courteously with vouvoiement; with rather more exceptions, but
not many, Roland expresses his arrogance with tu; then, as his respect for
Olivier grows in the single combat, tu becomes rarer and disappears for
good after v. 5666. Some chansons de geste, including Roland and Gormont et Isembart, are fairly consistent in this matter, but it is rare, I think,
for the evolution of a protagonist's feelings to be charted with such conscious care. It reminds one more of the techniques of the roman courtois
than of the epic; indeed, a very clear example differentiates the haughty
and unpleasant elder daughter of the lord of Noire Espine from her modest
and attractive sister in Yvain.25
23
E.g.. at a quick check, La Chanson de Guillaume, La Prise d'Orange, Raoul de
Cambrai; considérable confusion reigns in Le Couronnement Louis and Le Charroi de
Nîmes but with some passages where there is some consistency (as when insolent and unsympathetic combatants use tu in the former).
24
With no doubt significant exceptions in Eric et Enide, the earliest and least
courtly of Chrétien's extant romances. See the edition of Wendelin Foerster, (Halle a. S: Romanische Bibliothek, 3rd ed., 1934), e.g. vv. 993-1012 (though the exchanges before the combat between Erec and Yder conform to the pattern in Girart de Vienne: the modest and sympathetic personage using vous, his arrogant antagonist, tit), vv. 3849-3865, 4353-4373, 4483 ff.,
5792-5826. In the main, nevertheless, Erec et Enide foreshadows modern usage like Chrétien's
other works.
25
See ed. T. B. W. Reid (Manchester: University Press, 1942), vv. 5954-5990.
van Emden / Girart de Vienne: Epic or Romance? / 159
The whole Roland-Olivier-Aude relationship, then, is treated on a
romance-like level, with close analysis of the feelings of the characters and
the evolution of those feelings and with a real emphasis on the importance
of courtliness, which Roland has to learn about before he is worthy of
compagnonnage with Olivier and marriage to Aude (who, incidentally,
escapes the sobriquet bele, which in later prose works becomes indissolubly linked with her name, in fewer than half the lines in which she is
named). The importance of courtliness even in combat is seen in two contrasting episodes of the main single combat, which show Roland's evolution under the exemplary influence of Olivier's own moderation and
courtliness: at an early stage (vv. 5229 ff.), Roland accidentally but effectively chops Olivier's horse in half but simply glories in his advantage
(unlike the noble pagan Fierabras who, in a similar circumstance, dismounts), and Olivier, on foot, has to kill Roland's horse to equalize matters. Later (v. 5418 ff.) Olivier's sword breaks, but by now Roland has made
enough progress in courtliness to offer a truce in which Olivier may get
another, and a barrel of wine for Roland. The squire who is sent for these
items attempts to help Olivier by underhandedly attacking Roland but is
indignantly disarmed and banished by Olivier. It is in this sort of atmosphere, found even more markedly in certain romances (e.g., Charrette,
Meraugis de Portlesguez, Humbaut etc.) and indeed in epics like Fierabras, that the battle continues, with many "flash-backs" to both the camps
for the reactions of the spectators and many vocal exchanges between the
combatants, and is resolved by the intervention of the angel.
There is little doubt that this emphasis on courtly behavior and the
feelings — dare one say psychology? — of the personages (including lovely
ladies), is part of the reaction of the late twelfth-century epic authors like
Bertrand to the competition offered by the romances. Yet, unlike Aye d'Avignon, Girart de Vienne is not structurally affected, unless we count the
very uncourtly Duchess of Burgundy's essential intervention, which is
nearer the fabliau than the romance in its details and which has repercussions at the level of feudal honor and warfare. Analyzed in terms such as
those of Köhler, Jauss, or Zink, we are still in the world of the collective
destiny of France rather than that of Roland or Olivier or Girart as an individual; of action by the protagonists (Handlung) rather than effect upon
the protagonist of events (Geschehen); of the purported transmission of
national historical tradition rather than self-conscious and self-sufficient
fiction. Jauss's criterion of the rôle of le merveilleux as applied to Girart
160 Olifant / Vol. 10, No. 4 / Autumn 1984 - Winter 1985
helps us to summarize all this: though Aude's banner26 has supposed magical virtues, it is never used, and the claim is quickly forgotten; the real
intervention of le merveilleux is that of the angel, who brings the duel between the predestined epic compagnons and joint scourges of the Saracens, Roland and Olivier, to an end. For all the superficial romantic decoration we are still, fundamentally, in the world of angelic messengers and
daylight prolonged to allow the gesta Dei per Francos to be carried to a
successful conclusion.
W. G. VAN EMDEN
University of Reading
26
Cf. vv. 3826-3842, quoted above.