''Prise d'Orange'' (literally "Taking of Orange"; also translated "The Capture of Orange" and "The Conquest of Orange") is a mid-

12th century The 12th century is the period from 1101 to 1200 in accordance with the Julian calendar. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and overlaps with what is often called the Golden Age' of the ...

chanson de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, 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 centuries, shortly ...

'' written in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

from

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

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 List of literary cycles, cycle 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 c ...

'', 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 ...

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 ( ; ) 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 various deeds or services for ladies b ...

with an epic story of military conquest. The narrative is humorous and

parodies A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...

the

tropes Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts and entertainment * 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 m ...

epic poetry In poetry, 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. With regard t ...

. 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 , from '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 centuries, shortly before the e ...

'' are a group of around 120 poems composed in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

in the 12th and 13th centuries about nobles affiliated with the Carolingian dynasty. ''Chanson'' indicates that the poems were usually sung. ''Geste'' is from ''gesta'', a Latin word for "deed". ''Prise'' is part of a List of literary cycles, cycle 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 defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

biography" of Guillaume, from youth to old age. Sometimes simply termed the "cycle of Guillaume", this group of chansons is also called ''

'', 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 -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, ...

in the prologue to ''

Girart de Vienne ''Girart de Vienne'' is a late twelfth-century (c.1180Hasenohr, 547-548.) Old French ''chanson de geste">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''chanson de ...

''.

Garin de Monglane Garin de Monglane is a fictional aristocrat who gives his name to the second cycle of Old French ''chanson de geste">chansons de geste'', ''La Geste de Garin de Monglane''. His cycle tells stories of fiefless lads of noble birth who went off s ...

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 The ''Chanson de Guillaume'', also called ''Chançun de Willame'' ( English: "Song of William"), is a ''chanson de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, epic poem that appears at the ...

'', 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 army by a Saracen army. The name 'Aliscans' presumably refers to the Alysca ...

'' as accounts early in Guillaume's life, dominated by his campaigns against

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 fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

guided by divine inspiration, defends

Christendom The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...

against Muslim leaders of

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

. His chief characteristics include good humour, devotion to

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

, and strength. ''Prise'' and other poems in the cycle dramatize

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

concepts such as the

fealty An oath of fealty, from the Latin (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. "Fealty" also r ...

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 ...

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 (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

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 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. He was a p ...

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 is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

of al-Andalus in the early 8th century, William of Gellone never conquered Orange. Tibaut is fictional.

Léon Gautier Léon Gautier is the name of: *Léon Gautier (historian) (1832–1897), French literary historian *Léon Gautier (soldier) (1922–2023), French soldier, D-day veteran {{hndis, Gautier, Leon ...

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 tw ...

, 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

Guillebert de Laon, an escaped prisoner from the

walled city The following cities have, or historically had, defensive walls. Africa Algeria * Algiers * Ghardaïa * Timimoun Egypt See List of Egypt castles, forts, fortifications and city walls. * Al-Fustat * Cairo * Damietta Ethiopia * Harar Libya *Apo ...

of Orange, visits Guillaume in

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

. 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 ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

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 bigge ...

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. The word is comparable to ''compassion'', '' condolence'', or ''empathy''. It derives from the Latin (etymon also of ''piety''). Self-pity is pity directed towards oneself. Two d ...

, 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

verses in

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 the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...

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 ...

, 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 typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

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 (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. 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 Âge''. Collection: La Pochothèque (Paris: Fayard, 1992. ), pp. 62–63. called Andrea da Barberino ( 1370–1431''The Cambridge History ...

. 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, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

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 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. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. 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, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...

. 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 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 chivalri ...

with an epic tale of military conquest. Language traditionally used for epic adventures is repurposed to describe Guillaume's romantic exploits.

Sharon Kinoshita Sharon Kinoshita is a professor of medieval literature, and co-director of the UCSC Center for Mediterranean Studies at UC Santa Cruz. In 2016, she published a new translation of Marco Polo's 'Description of the World', from the Franco-Italian 'F' ...

argues that the juxtaposition of military conquest and the love plot is not accidental. Rather, describing ''Prise'' as a tale of "

conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

-by-

seduction In sexuality, seduction means enticing someone else into sexual intercourse or Human sexual activity, other sexual activity. Strategies of seduction include conversation and Sexual script theory, sexual scripts, paralanguage, paralingual featur ...

", 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 and entertainment * 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 medi ...

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, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

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

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control 12th-century books Chansons de geste Epic poems in French French poems