Aliscans

Chanson de geste of the Cycle de Guillaume. Composed in the 1170s it exploits material also known from the second part of the Chanson de Guillaume. The hero, Rainoart, is the gigantic brother of Guillaume's wife, Orable-Guibourc. Guillaume finds him working as a slave in Louis's kitchen at Laon, whither he went to raise a new army following his failed attempt to avenge Vivien in the battle fought at Aliscans, a site associated with the Gallo-Roman cemetery at Arles. Rainoart fights with a tinel (a massive wooden yoke for carrying water-buckets). The poem's 8, 000 lines mix epic cliché and inventive, often comic, verve. Aliscans exerted considerable influence on the later romans de chevalerie, as parodied by Rabelais.

[Philip Bennett]