The ''devinalh'' (, roughly meaning "guesswork"), was a
genre
Genre () is any form or type 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 for ...
of
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 ...
lyric poetry
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
practiced by some
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) 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 troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
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 (c. 1147 – 1173) or, in his native Old Provençal, Raimbaut d'Aurenga, was the lord of Orange, France, Orange and Aumelas. His properties included the towns of Frontignan and Mireval. He was the only son of William of Aum ...
,
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 Ademar (; also spelled Guillem, Adamar, or Azemar; fl. 1190/1195–1217) was a troubadour from the Gévaudan in France. He travelled between the courts of Albi, Toulouse, Narbonne, and Spain. He achieved fame enough during his life to b ...
,
Guilhem de Berguedan
Guillem de Berguedà (''c''.1130–1195/6; ''fl''.1138–1192), or Guilhem de Berguedan in Occitan, was a Catalan troubadour and viscount of Berguedà. He was the most prolific Catalan poet of the twelfth century, though he composed in Oc ...
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 Trou ...
* ''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