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Aïmer Le Chetif

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

In the epic family of Aymeri de Narbonne, by far the strangest figure is that of Aïmer le Chétif. Without sharing in the grotesqueness of Hernaut le Roux, Aïmer has a mysteriousness and the shadow of an unknown misfortune, which draw powerfully the sympathetic imagination. Evidently we are dealing with one of the greatest of ancient heroes, yet the complete disappearance of the epics that sang his exploits has buried in oblivion his peculiar claim to glory. If he has subsisted at all, it has been as a fallen deity. Indeed, the casual reader of the poems still extant in which he is mentioned, might suppose him the least of all his brethren, one of the humblest and most recent additions to the epic roll. It is in fact likely, as we shall see, that the meaning of his epithet le chétif was already forgotten seven hundred years ago.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1902

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