The ''devinalh'' (, roughly meaning "guesswork"), was a
genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
of
Old Occitan
Old Occitan (, ), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is some ...
lyric poetry
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, t ...
practiced by some
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''.
The tr ...
s. It takes the form of a riddle, or series of riddles or cryptograms and is, if read literally, mostly nonsensical. Known practitioners include Guilhen de Peiteu,
Raimbaut of Orange
Raimbaut of Orange (Old Provençal: Raimbaut d'Aurenga; 1147 – 1173) was the lord of Orange and Aumelas and an influential troubadour in the Kingdom of Arles in the Holy Roman Empire. His properties included the towns of Frontignan and ...
,
Giraut de Bornelh
Giraut de Bornelh (; c. 1138 – 1215), whose first name is also spelled Guiraut and whose toponym is de Borneil or de Borneyll, was a troubadour connected to the castle of the viscount of Limoges. He is credited with the formalisation, if not the ...
,
Guilhem Ademar,
Guilhem de Berguedan and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras.
The term was created by modern scholars of Old Occitan and was never used by the troubadours themselves to refer to a specific type of poem.
Examples
This was a rare genre, of which only a handful of examples exist; among them:
*
Farai un vers de dreit nien' by
Guilhen de Peiteu, the first known example
*
Las frevols venson lo plus fort' by
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras
__NOTOC__
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Vaqueyras (fl. 1180 – 1207) was a Provençal troubadour and, later in his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courtsAmelia E. Van Vleck, ''The Lyric Texts'' p. 33, in ''Handbook of the Troub ...
* ''Taflamart faflama hoflomom maflamal puflums siflima eflementre boflomonaflamas geflemens'', a
cryptogram
A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by ...
by
Cerveri de Girona
References
Kay, Sarah: ''Courtly Contradictions: The Emergence of the Literary Object in the Twelfth Century'', Arthuriana, Vol. 13 No. 3 (2003) pp. 118-120
External links
{{Western medieval lyric forms
Western medieval lyric forms
Occitan literary genres