''Las novas del papagay'' ('Tale of the Parrot') is an

Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...

short story in verse written by Arnaut de Carcassès around 1250. It is a humorous story similar to a ''

fabliau A ''fabliau'' (; plural ''fabliaux'') is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes� ...

''. In the ''Novas'', the narrator overhears a parrot (''papagay'') wooing a married lady on behalf of the king's son, the knight Antiphanor. After winning her over, the parrot flies to the knight and brings him back to the garden. In one version, the parrot suggests that he set fire to the husband's castle to distract him while the lovers meet. This he does with

Greek fire Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman Empire beginning . Used to set fire to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact w ...

. In the garden, the lovers kiss and "took their solace". When the parrot warns of the husband's impending return (the fire having been put out), the knight swears a length oath of fidelity to his new lover in the spirit of '' fin'amor''. He leaves with the parrot and the narrator warns husbands not to lock up their wives. The ''Novas'' is preserved in five manuscripts: troubadour chansonniers R, J, G and D and the Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 2756. R and J contain longer versions than the others, but they diverge after line 140. and Appendix 7. The whole poem is 245 lines. Arnaut's authorship is attested in only a single manuscript. His surname indicates that he hailed from Carcassonne or its immediate vicinity or perhaps from

Laroque-de-Fa Laroque-de-Fa (; oc, La Ròca de Fan) is a commune in the Aude department in southern France. Population See also * Corbières AOC * Communes of the Aude department The following is a list of the 433 communes of the Aude department of F ...

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* * * * * {{refend Old Occitan literature