Otinel, composed in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, is the earliest of the three poems included in this volume. It takes place in a sort of interval during Charles's expeditions into Spain, between the conquest of Pamplona and the disaster at Roncevaux, during which he has returned temporarily to Paris. The poem opens with the arrival of a messenger at Charlemagne's court, bearing a challenge from the Emir Garsile who, during this same interval, had ventured into Lombardy, capturing several cities and setting up headquarters in Atilie. We soon learn that the messenger, Otinel, is a nephew of the giant Fernagu, who was slain by Roland during one of Charlemagne's earlier expeditions. This episode is recounted in the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle, so-called because the author claimed to be the Archbishop Turpin who fought alongside Charlemagne and the twelve peers in the Song of Roland.3 The Chronicle tells of four fictitious campaigns by the emperor into Spain against the Muslims in the years preceding Roncevaux. In the fourth and final of these campaigns, Roland succeeds in killing the giant Fernagu after a threeday battle.

When Otinel arrives in Paris, he insolently challenges Charlemagne on behalf of Garsile to convert to Islam or lose his lands. An impetuous French knight attacks him and is quickly beheaded by Otinel. He next challenges Roland to single combat to avenge the death of Fernagu, his uncle. In preparing for combat, Otinel is presented his arms and armor by Charlemagne's beautiful daughter, Belissent. The fight between the two champions of their respective religions is going badly for Roland until the Christian God intervenes and sends the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove to Otinel, who has a miraculous change of heart and converts to Christianity. He is baptized in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, made a peer, offered Charlemagne's daughter Belissent to be his wife, and promised Lombardy as dowry. Our poem then presents a new foreign excursion by the French troops, this time into Lombardy, where the Emir Garsile, having sacked Rome, is ensconced in his fortified city of Atilie.

The chansons de geste

The three poems presented in this volume are representatives of the medieval Romance epic or chansons de geste, which were traditional heroic tales that flourished from the late eleventh through the fifteenth centuries. Chansons de geste are long narrative poems in monorhymed or assonanced stanzas of unequal length, called laisses. The poems themselves ranged from as few as 870 lines (Voyage/Pilgrimage of Charlemagne) to over 34,000 (Lion de Bourges), and the laisses could be as short as three or four lines, or over a thousand. The word geste refers to the subject matter of the poems – the heroic deeds of an individual hero or the collective deeds of a family or clan. Chanson suggests a musical dimension for the genre. Although no extant chanson de geste manuscripts contain musical notation, evidence from textual and iconographical sources suggests that the earliest such poems were performed to the accompaniment of a vielle, which is a type of medieval fiddle. The origins of the genre are controversial, but they most likely began as oral poems recited or sung by professional entertainers known as jongleurs, then eventually came to be written down, beginning in the late eleventh century. The first written texts may have been taken directly from oral performances, but the later poems are essentially written products designed to imitate the formulaic style of the oral tradition.

Despite being set generally in the eighth and ninth centuries, at the height of the Carolingian empire, the poems are highly politically engaged and reflect the feudal realities of the time when they were first written down. The chansons de geste were instruments of both religious and social propaganda. This was notably the time of the great Crusades to the Holy Land (1095– 1291), led by powerful barons and the occasional king, so that conflicts between Christians and Muslims are a central feature. The crusading ethos called upon the European warrior aristocracy to defend Christendom against the military and cultural forces of Islam, and chief among those defenders was the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (r. 768–814), who actually spent much of his reign fighting the Saxons in the north and the Muslims in Italy and Spain.

Introduction

In 1912, two short epic poems in Old Occitan were discovered in a latefourteenth- or early-fifteenth-century register of deeds in Apt (Vaucluse) in present-day southern France. No titles are given in the manuscript, but the poems have generally been known as Roland à Saragosse and Ronsasvals since their first edition by Mario Roques. The latter text will not concern us here, as it is a compact version of the battle of Roncevaux itself. The 1409-line Roland, on the other hand, recounts an episode directly preceding the legendary battle, thus joining the group of prequels gathered in this volume. We acknowledge that the title Roland à Saragosse is not entirely satisfactory: Roland spends very little time in Saragossa, and his companion Olivier is arguably presented in a more favorable light. Hans-Erich Keller even suggested that the poem be named for Olivier. Nonetheless, to avoid confusion, we have chosen to retain the conventional title, which we translate as Roland at Saragossa to convey the hero's position in, around, and in front of “la gran cieutat valhant” (the mighty and worthy city, line 284).

The poem's origins – and indeed the origins of Occitan epic poetry itself – have long been a matter of scholarly debate. Very few Occitan epics have come down to us, and most of the surviving texts are incomplete or fragmentary. Based on careful study of proper names and toponyms, some scholars have concluded that the Romance epic genre originated in the Occitan-speaking south of France. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes an allusion to a Song of Roland in the fragmentary twelfth-century Canso d’Antioca; abundant references to epic heroes in troubadour lyric; and the origin of the Roland–Olivier pairing: the name “Olivier” first appeared in the south during the eleventh century, followed by the names Roland and Olivier given to brothers, again in the south during the late eleventh century. Other scholars, pointing to the absence of any surviving Occitan epic before the Oxford Roland (the earliest version extant), conclude that the Occitan texts imitate or derive from French models.5 While we cannot trace the precise filiation of Roland at Saragossa, we do know that a version of Roland's pre-Roncevaux exploits was circulating by the late twelfth century.

As is the case for most chansons de geste, it is difficult to establish a precise date for the composition of Gui of Burgundy. Scholars have agreed on the beginning of the thirteenth century, perhaps around 1211, since the manuscript of Tours mentions a marchois – a coin that was not minted before this date. More important, another chanson, written around 1230–34, alludes to the gist of the Gui of Burgundy story, thus situating our text before these dates, in the first quarter of the thirteenth century.

The same uncertainty remains about a possible historical background. Several hypotheses have been proposed, but none is verifiable. One suggests that the Gui of Burgundy legend might have to do with the powerful family of Burgundy that fought several crusades against the Muslims during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. One Gui of Burgundy did exist. He was the great-grandson of Richard I of Normandy. He became pope Calixtus II and was regent for his nephew, the future king of Castile and León in Spain. Interesting as it may be, such a reference is vague and inconclusive. All we can say, at this time, is that the chanson reflects the skirmishes against the Islamic enemy in Spain illustrated by many epic texts and especially those involving Charlemagne and his peers.

When the story begins, Charlemagne has been campaigning in Spain for twenty-six years. Spurred by a mocking remark from one of his twelve peers, Richard of Normandy, the emperor decides to stay even longer in order to seize five cities that escaped his authority. Although an angel appears ordering him to go directly to the city of Luserne, Charles persists in besieging the other four, each for a year, without success. On the advice of Naimes, one of his peers and his main counselor, he finally goes to Luserne, which he besieges in vain for seven years.

At the same time in France, the sons of the twelve peers, frustrated by the emperor's excessive absence, gather in Paris to designate a substitute king who would maintain order in the kingdom while Charles is in Spain. Bertrand, Duke Naimes's son, proposes offering the crown to the young Gui of Burgundy.