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GARIN LE LOHERAIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 468 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GARIN LE LOHERAIN , See also:

French epic See also:hero. The 12th See also:century chanson de geste of Garin le Loherain is one of the fiercest and most sanguinary narratives See also:left by the trouveres. This See also:local See also:cycle of See also:Lorraine, which is completed by Hervis de See also:Metz, Girbers de Metz, Arises, fils de Girbert and See also:Yon, is obviously based on See also:history, and the failure absolutely to identify the events recorded does not deprive the poems of their value as a picture of the See also:savage feudal See also:wars of the 11th and 12th centuries. The episodes are evolved naturally and the usual devices adopted by the trouveres to reconcile their inconsistencies are absent. Nevertheless no satisfactory See also:historical explanation of the See also:story has yet been offered. It has been suggested by a See also:recent critic (F. Settegast, Quellenstudien zur gallo-romanischen Epik, 1904) that these poems resume historical traditions going back to the Vandal irruption of 408 and the See also:battle fought by the See also:Romans and the See also:West Goths against the See also:Huns in 451. The cycle relates three wars against hosts of See also:heathen invaders. In the first of these See also:Charles Martel and his faithful See also:vassal Hervis of Metz fight by an extraordinary See also:anachronism against the See also:Vandals, who have destroyed See also:Reims and besieged other cities. They are defeated in a See also:great battle near See also:Troyes. In the second Hervis is besieged in Metz by the " Hongres." He sends first for help to See also:Pippin, who defers his assistance by the See also:advice of the traitor Hardre. Hervis then transfers his See also:allegiance to Anseis of See also:Cologne, by whose help the invaders are repulsed, though Hervis himself is slain.

In the third See also:

Thierry, See also:king of Moriane' sends to Pippin for help against four Saracen See also:kings. He is delivered by a Frankish See also:host, but falls in the battle. Hervis of Metz was the son of a See also:citizen to whom the See also:duke of Lorraine had married his daughter Aelis, and his sons Garin and Begue are the heroes of the chanson which gives its name to the cycle. The dying king Thierry had desired that his daughter Blanchefleur should marry Garin, but when Garin prefers his suit at the See also:court of Pippin, Fromont of See also:Bordeaux puts himself forward as his See also:rival and Hardre, Fromont's See also:father, is slain by Garin. The See also:rest of the poem is taken up with the See also:war that ensues between the Lorrainers and the men of Bordeaux. They finally submit their See also:differences to the king, only to begin their disputes once more. Blanchefleur becomes the wife of Pippin, while Garin remains her faithful servant. One of the most famous passages of the poem is the assassination of Begue by a See also:nephew of Fromont, and Garin, after laying See also:waste his enemy's territory, is himself slain. The remaining songs continue the See also:feud between the two families. According to Paulin See also:Paris, the See also:family of Bordeaux represents the See also:early See also:dukes of See also:Aquitaine, the last of whom, Waifar (745—768) was dispossessed and slain by Pippin the See also:Short, king of the See also:Franks; but the trouveres had in mind no doubt the wars which marked the end of the Carolingian See also:dynasty. See Li Romans de Garin le Loherain, ed. P.

Paris (Paris, 1833) ; Hist. litt. de la See also:

France, vol. xxii. (1852); J. M. See also:Ludlow, Popular Epics of the See also:Middle Ages (See also:London and See also:Cambridge, 1865) ; F. See also:Lot, Etudes d'histoire du moyen See also:age (Paris, 1896) ; F. Settegast, Quellenstudien zur gallo-romanischen Epik (See also:Leipzig, 1904). A See also:complete edition of the cycle was undertaken by E. Stengel, the first See also:volume of which, Hervis de See also:Mes(Gesellschaft ffir See also:roman. Lit.,See also:Dresden), appeared in 1903.

End of Article: GARIN LE LOHERAIN

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