''Prise d'Orange'' (literally "Taking of Orange"; also translated "The Capture of Orange" and "The Conquest of Orange") is a mid-
12th century ''
chanson de geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th cen ...
'' written in
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
. Its fictional story follows the hero Guillaume as he captures the walled city of
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
from
Saracen
upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens
Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...
s and marries Orable, its queen. Other characters include Arragon, the king of Orange, and Tibaut, Orable's erstwhile husband and Arragon's father. The anonymously written poem, part of a larger
cycle
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
about Guillaume called ''
La Geste de Garin de Monglane
''La Geste de Garin de Monglane'' is the second cycle of the three great cycles of ''chansons de geste'' created in the early days of the genre. It centres on Garin de Monglane. One of its main characters is William of Gellone.
The cycle
The cyc ...
'', consists of 1,888
decasyllable
Decasyllable (Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual ve ...
verses in
laisse A laisse is a type of stanza, of varying length, found in medieval French literature, specifically medieval French epic poetry (the ''chanson de geste''), such as ''The Song of Roland''. In early works, each laisse was made up of (mono) assonanced ...
s. It combines motifs of
courtly love
Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...
with an epic story of military conquest. The narrative is humorous and
parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
the
tropes
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
of
epic poetry
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
.
The surviving text of ''Prise'' was probably based on an earlier version, composed at the beginning of the 12th century, which emphasized war over love and contained a section called ''Siège d'Orange'' about Tibaut's military campaign to recapture Orange from Guillaume. Nine manuscript versions of ''Prise'' survive. Its plot is attested in other sources including a 15th-century prose compilation of stories about Guillaume. The first modern edition was published in 1854; several reconstructions followed in the 20th century. A portion of ''Siège d'Orange'' was discovered in 2021.
Background
The ''
chansons de geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th cen ...
'' are a group of around 120 poems composed in
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
in the 12th and 13th centuries about nobles affiliated with the
Carolingian dynasty
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
. ''
Chanson
A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...
'' indicates that the poems were usually sung. ''Geste'' is from ''gesta'', a Latin word for "deed".
''Prise'' is part of a
cycle
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
of 24 ''chansons'' about a fictional hero named William of Orange (Guillaume) and his relations. The 24 poems are a "complete
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
biography" of Guillaume, from youth to old age. Sometimes simply termed the "cycle of Guillaume", this group of chansons is also called ''
La Geste de Garin de Monglane
''La Geste de Garin de Monglane'' is the second cycle of the three great cycles of ''chansons de geste'' created in the early days of the genre. It centres on Garin de Monglane. One of its main characters is William of Gellone.
The cycle
The cyc ...
'', after a designation adopted by
Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube
Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube (i.e. Bertrand from Bar-sur-Aube) (end of the 12th century – early 13th centuryHasenohr, 170.) was an Old French poet from the Champagne region of France who wrote a number of '' chansons de geste''. He is the author of ...
in the prologue to ''
Girart de Vienne
''Girart de Vienne'' is a late twelfth-century (c.1180Hasenohr, 547-548.) Old French ''chanson de geste'' by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube. The work tells the story of the sons of Garin de Monglane and their battles with the Emperor Charlemagne, and it ...
''.
Garin de Monglane
Garin de Monglane is a fictional aristocrat who gives his name to the second cycle of Old French '' chansons de geste'', ''La Geste de Garin de Monglane''. His cycle tells stories of fiefless lads of noble birth who went off seeking land and adven ...
is Guillaume's great-grandfather and the founder of the epic family of which Guillaume is the central character.
Charles A. Knudson and T. V. F. Brogan call this cycle the "most cohesive" group of ''chansons''. Six poems are about Guillaume personally;
Lynette R. Muir places ''Prise'' fourth in that group.
Joan M. Ferrante groups ''Prise'' with ''
Charroi de Nîmes'', ''
Chanson de Guillaume'', and ''
Aliscans ''Aliscans'' is a ''chanson de geste'' of the late twelfth century. It recounts the story of the fictional battle of Aliscans (Alescans), a disastrous defeat of a Christian by a pagan army. The name 'Aliscans' presumably refers to the Alyscamps in A ...
'' as accounts early in Guillaume's life, dominated by his campaigns against
Saracen
upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens
Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...
s. ''Prise'' comes after ''Charroi'' in the narrative time of the cycle and invokes ''Charroi'' in its opening lines.
In the cycle, Guillaume, an epic
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
guided by divine inspiration, defends
Christendom
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...
against Muslim leaders of
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
. His chief characteristics include good humour, devotion to
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...
, and strength. ''Prise'' and other poems in the cycle dramatize
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
concepts such as the
fealty
An oath of fealty, from the Latin ''fidelitas'' (faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another.
Definition
In medieval Europe, the swearing of fealty took the form of an oath made by a vassal, or subordinate, to his lord. "Fea ...
of a
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
to his lord, highlight military campaigns, and often show "pagan women" who love "Christian men".
Guillaume's main historical counterpart is probably
William of Gellone
William of Gellone ( 755 – 28 May 812 or 814), the medieval William of Orange, was the second Duke of Toulouse from 790 until 811. In 804, he founded the abbey of Gellone. He was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II. , who was the duke of
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
from 790, became a monk at
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert Abbey
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert Abbey or Gellone Abbey is a Benedictine abbey in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Hérault in France. It was founded in 804 by an Aquitanian aristocrat of the Carolingian era, William of Gellone (c. 742-812), known in Occitan as ...
(sometimes simply called Gellone) in 806, and died around 812. The name "Guillaume" was extremely common in the Middle Ages;
Joseph Bédier
Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and scholar and historian of medieval France.
Biography
Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. ...
identified sixteen other candidates for the historical Guillaume.
''Prise'' is "ostensibly" set in the reign of Louis the Pious. The narrative is not based on history: although Orange was occupied by the
Moors
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or ...
of al-Andalus in the early 8th century, William of Gellone never conquered Orange. Tibaut is fictional.
Léon Gautier
Émile Théodore Léon Gautier (8 August 183225 August 1897) was a French literary historian.
He was born at Le Havre, France. He was educated at the École des Chartes, and became successively head of the archives of the ''département'' of H ...
,
Alfred Jeanroy
Alfred Jeanroy (5 July 1859 – 13 March 1953) was a French linguist.
Jeanroy was a leading scholar studying troubadour poetry, publishing over 600 works. He established an influential view of the second generation of troubadours divided into ...
, and
Raymond Weeks, who calls it "stupid and impossible", argue that ''Prise'' is entirely unrealistic. Jeanroy, in his critique, notes that major narrative elements are implausibly repeated; Weeks likewise points out "not a small number of inconsistencies and repetitions", concluding that "so full is this poem of wearisome commonplaces, so deficient in epic power, that no one has yet been found to claim for it the slightest merit."
Plot
![Antonio de Pereda - San Guillermo de Aquitania - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Antonio_de_Pereda_-_San_Guillermo_de_Aquitania_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Guillebert de Laon, an escaped prisoner from the
walled city
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
of Orange, visits Guillaume in
Nîmes
Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...
. He describes the beauties of the Saracen-held city, defended by 20,000 men and ruled by King Arragon, son of Tibaut. Guillebert also tells of Orable, queen of Orange and Tibaut's stunningly beautiful wife.
Guillaume is growing restless at Nîmes: there are no minstrels or women to distract him, no rivals to fight. So he decides to see Orange for himself, resolving to take "la dame et la cité" (the woman and the city). His nephew Bertran declines to come with him, but Guielin, another nephew, comes along. Guillaume, Guielin, and Guillebert disguise themselves as Turks and travel along the
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
and
Sorgue
The Sorgue is a river in Southeastern France lying between the foothills of the Alps and the Rhône. It is long. Its source is near the town of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, Vaucluse department. It is the biggest spring in France and the fifth biggest ...
until they reach Orange. Pretending to bring news of Tibaut from Africa, they infiltrate the city and make their way to Gloriette, the tower where Orable lives.
Still in Turkish disguise, Guillaume meets Orable and charms her with stories of the great Guillaume of Nîmes. His ruse is eventually discovered. Guillaume and his henchmen kill the queen's guards and take the palace for themselves. Orable is won over to Guillaume's side and, out of
pity
Pity is a sympathetic sorrow evoked by the suffering of others, and is used in a comparable sense to '' compassion'', ''condolence'' or ''empathy'' – the word deriving from the Latin ''pietas'' (etymon also of '' piety''). Self-pity is pi ...
, gives him her husband's armour.
The fighting has not yet ended. Orange's Saracen defenders enter the palace through a secret entrance. They retake the palace and imprison Guillaume, Guillebert, and Guielin. Orable frees them in exchange for Guillaume's hand in marriage, which he accepts. Meanwhile, Guillebert is sent back to Nîmes to muster reinforcements.
When King Arragon returns, he has Guillaume, Orable, and Guielin imprisoned again. They again escape. Nîmes's forces, led by Bertran—who has now reconsidered his participation in the expedition—arrive and take the city. Guillaume and Orable marry. She is baptized Guibourc. They live (mostly) happily ever after, remaining in Orange while fighting off the Saracens.
Structure
''Prise'' comprises 1,888
decasyllable
Decasyllable (Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual ve ...
verses in
laisse A laisse is a type of stanza, of varying length, found in medieval French literature, specifically medieval French epic poetry (the ''chanson de geste''), such as ''The Song of Roland''. In early works, each laisse was made up of (mono) assonanced ...
s. Decasyllable metre is standard across the ''chansons de geste'', including in those chronicling Guillaume's adventures, and in Old French epic generally. The ''laisse'' is a group of lines, of varying length, into which ''chansons'' are divided. A ''laisse'' is defined by the vowel sound that ends each of its lines: all lines in a ''laisse'' have
assonance
Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in America ...
with one another, such that the same vowel sound is repeated at the end of each line.
The verse of ''Prise'' is repetitive and formulaic. A basic element of Old French epic poetry is the
hemistich
A hemistich (; via Latin from Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin and Greek poetry, the hemistich is generally confined to ...
, or half-line. ''Prise'' has approximately 3,700 hemistichs in total, 39 percent of which are repeated. Barbara D. Schurfranz argues that repetition, more than its division into ''laisses'', gives ''Prise'' structural integrity. In her view, repetition emphasizes the connections between distinct narrative elements, draws the reader's attention to important plot points, and reinforces ''Prise'' comic episodes in particular.
Textual history
The text of ''Prise'' dates from the mid-12th century, circa 1160–1165. Nine
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
s survive that contain ''Prise'' and other poems in the cycle dealing with Guillaume and his exploits. Five of the nine are housed at the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
. The manuscripts were likely compiled by more than one poet; ''Prise'' itself is anonymous.
The surviving version of ''Prise'' is based on a lost version of the same story. The earlier version was probably composed at the beginning of the 12th century, before the surviving versions of ''
Li coronemenz Looïs'' (''Couronnement de Louis'') and ''Charroi de Nîmes'', and was more focused on war than on romance and adventure. Scholars have inferred the existence of a proto-''Prise'' from discussion in ''
Vita sancti Wilhelmi'', a text written at Gellone which also describes a campaign against Orange; and other texts including ''
Chanson de la croisade contre les Albigeois'' (1213), ''Chanson de Guillaume'', , and ''
I nerbonesi'', a work by
Andrea da Barberino
Andrea Mangiabotti,Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age''. Collection: La Pochothèque. (Paris: Fayard, 1992. ), pp. 62–63. called Andrea da Barberino ( 1370–1431''The Cambridge Histo ...
.
The older, lost ''Prise'' also describes a
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...
of Orange by Tibaut, Arragon's father and (the now) Guibourc's husband. In this episode, called ''Siège d'Orange'', Tibaut returns to recapture the city and wife that he lost to Guillaume in the portions of the narrative that survive. As points out, it would be odd if the "prideful" Tibaut did not try to avenge Guillaume's conquest. ''Siège'' was thought to be completely lost until 2021, when Tamara Atkin discovered a 47-line
fragment
Fragment may refer to:
Entertainment
Television and film
* "Fragments" (''Torchwood''), an episode from the BBC TV series
* "Fragments", an episode from the Canadian TV series ''Sanctuary''
* "Fragments" (Steven Universe Future), an episode f ...
of it, incorporated into the
binding of a 1528 book, in the
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
Around 1450, ''Couronnement'', ''Charroi'', and ''Prise'' were adapted in a prose text called ''
Roman de Guillaume d'Orange'', which survives in two manuscripts. ''Roman'' and ''Prise'' differ in several respects: in ''Prise'', Guillaume is shown meeting Orable for the first time, for instance, whereas in ''Roman'' they know each other already. Orable's conversion to Christianity is also treated differently in the two versions.
Willem Jozef Andreas Jonckbloet edited ''Guillaume d'Orange, Chansons de geste des XIe et XIIe siècles'', a collection of ''chansons'' including ''Prise'' first published in 1854. Blanche Katz edited a version published in 1947, using the same manuscripts as Jonckbloet. Her edition reproduces several folios of the manuscript in
facsimile
A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
. edited ''Les Rédactions en vers de la Prise d'Orange'', first published in 1966. Régnier's ''Rédactions'' contains three separate reconstructions of ''Prise'' based on three families of manuscripts. At least four editions of ''Rédactions'' were published. An edition by Claude Lachet, based on a single manuscript, was published in 2010.
Claude Lachet and Jean-Pierre Tusseau's translation of Régnier's manuscript reconstruction into modern French was published in 1972, with a second edition in 1974. Both editions were based on Régnier's Old French reconstruction. Joan M. Ferrante's English translations of ''Prise'', ''Couronnement'', ''Aliscans'', and , the first English versions of each, were first published in 1974. Lynette R. Muir's English ''Prise'', published in a volume edited by
Glanville Price Glanville or Glanvill may refer to:
People Given name
*Glanville Downey (1908—1991), American historian
*Glanville Williams (1911–1997), Welsh legal scholar
Surname
*Ann Glanville (1796–1880), Cornish rower
*Brandi Glanville (born 1972), Ame ...
and based on the Old French text in Régnier's ''Rédactions'', followed in 1975. A set of English translations of ''Prise'' and several other ''chansons'' by Michael A. H. Newth was published in 2014.
Interpretation
''Prise'' blends a
chivalric romance
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric k ...
of
courtly love
Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...
with an epic tale of military conquest. Language traditionally used for epic adventures is repurposed to describe Guillaume's romantic exploits. Sharon Kinoshita argues that the juxtaposition of military conquest and the love plot is not accidental. Rather, describing ''Prise'' as a tale of "
conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
-by-
seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
", she argues that it treats love and war as two sides of the same coin. Lucas Wood suggests that the combination of epic and romance tends to "trivialize" epic themes such as feudalism and military might. According to Minnette Grunmann-Gaudet, ''Prise'' narrative is shaped by Guillaume's struggle between the opposing roles of lover and conquering hero.
Orable (Guibourc) is cast as a faithful "helpmeet-heroine" who supports Guillaume on the battlefield and in the bedroom. She is an example of the Saracen princess, a
trope
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
in medieval literature in which a woman coded as "non-Western" marries a "Christian knight". The trope appears in at least 15 ''chansons de geste'' and Orable herself appears in several ''chansons'' other than ''Prise''. Kinoshita suggests that Orable represents a foreign world to be conquered and converted by Christendom: "to seduce Orable and to convert her to Christianity is to assimilate Orange to
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
Christendom, under the tutelage of the intrepid Count Guillaume." However, Charles A. Knudson notes that it is the Saracen princess, not the knight of Christendom, who generally professes her love first—and helps the knight escape from Saracen clutches. In other respects, Orable is not consistent with the trope: she is older than most Saracen princesses and, unlike in other ''chansons'', her meeting with the hero, Guillaume, is not by chance.
By contrast with other ''chansons'' about his exploits, the Guillaume of ''Prise'' is generally motivated by love as opposed to fealty or religious fervour. He is weak-willed and mercurial, depending on encouragement from his more purpose-driven companions. Summarizing the views of several critics, Grunmann-Gaudet describes Guillaume as "a ridiculous caricature of the epic hero". Guillaume's weak will is contrasted with Orable's firmness of mind: she proposes marriage to him and upbraids him for his inconstancy.
Compared to earlier ''chansons de geste'', the tone of ''Prise'' is playful, comic, and parodic. According to William W. Kibler, Joseph Bédier's 1908 study ''Les Légendes épiques'' was the first to treat ''Prise'' as a comic text. Logan Whalen argues that ''Prise'' is not the only funny ''chanson'': ''Couronnement'' and ''Charroi'', writes Whalen, also have a comic style. Claude Régnier calls ''Prise'' a "masterpiece of humour", noting its "discreetly parodic" use of tropes of the epic genre. Joseph J. Duggan, dismissing Régnier's suggestion, says ''Prise''s "unimaginative" use of epic tropes "approaches
self-parody
A self-parody is a parody of oneself or one's own work. As an artist accomplishes it by imitating their own characteristics, a self-parody is potentially difficult to distinguish from especially characteristic productions. Self-parody may be us ...
".
Explanatory notes
Citations
Works cited
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{{Authority control
12th-century books
Chansons de geste
Epic poems in French
French poems