GUILLAUME D'ORANGE, also known as Fierabrace, St. Guillaume de Gellone, and the Marquis au court nez, was the central figure of the southern cycle of French romance, called by the trouveres the geste of Garin de Monglane. This cycle has a measure of unity, the poems being episodic rather than inde pendent. Ms. Royal 20 D xi. (British Museum) contains 18 chansons of the cycle. Guillaume, son of Thierry and Alde, daughter of Charles Martel, was born in the north of France about the middle of the 8th century. He became one of the best soldiers of Charlemagne, and in 790 Charles's son Louis the Pious was put under his charge. He subdued the Gascons, and defended Narbonne against the infidels. In 793 Hescham, the successor of Abd-al-Rahman II., proclaimed a holy war against the Christians, and collected an army of 100,000 men, half of it against the Asturias, half against France. Guillaume met him at Villedaigne, and was defeated, but only after a resistance which so far ex hausted the Saracens that they were compelled to retreat to Spain. He took Barcelona from the Saracens in 8o3, and in the next year founded the monastery of Gellone (now Saint Guilhem le-Desert), of which he became a member in 8o6. He died there in the odour of sanctity in 812.
No less than 13 historical personages bearing the name of William have been thought to have their share in the formation of the legend. William, count of Provence, son of Boso II., delivered southern France from a Saracen invasion by his victory at Fraxinet in 973, and ended his life in a cloister. William Tow head (Tete d'etoupe), duke of Aquitaine (d. 983), showed a fidelity to Louis IV. paralleled by Guillaume d'Orange's service to Louis the Pious. The cycle of chansons which form the geste of Guillaume reposes on the traditions of the Arab invasions, from the battle of Poitiers (73 2) onwards, and on the French conquest of Catalonia from the Saracens. In the Norse version Guillaume appears in his historical environment, as a chief under Charlemagne; but plays a leading part in the Couronnement Looys, describing the formal association of Louis in the empire at Aix (813, the year after Guillaume's death), and after the battle of Aliscans it is from the emperor Louis that he seeks reinforcements. This anachronism arises from the fusion of the epic Guillaume with the champion of Louis IV., and from the fact that he was a general of Louis the Pious, who was titular king of Aquitaine under his father. The inconsistencies between the real and the epic Guil laume are often left standing in the poems. The personages associated with Guillaume in his Spanish wars belong to Provence, and have names common in the south. The most famous are Beuves de Comarchis, Ernaud de Girone, Aimer le chetif, so called from his long captivity with the Saracens. The separate existence of Aimer, who refused to sleep under a roof, and spent his life in warring against the infidel, is proved. He was Had hemar, count of Narbonne, who in 809 was one of the leaders sent by Louis against Tortosa. No doubt the others had historical prototypes. In the hands of the trouveres they became all broth ers of Guillaume, and sons of Aymeri de Narbonne, grandson of Garin de Monglane. Nevertheless when Guillaume seeks help from Louis he finds all his relations in Laon, in accordance with his historic Frankish origin.
The central fact of the geste is the battle of the Archant or Aliscans, in which perished Guillaume's heroic nephew, Vezian or Vivien. At the eleventh hour he summoned Guillaume to his help against the Saracens. Guillaume arrived too late, was himself de feated, and returned alone to his wife Guibourc. This event is related in a Norman-French transcript of an old French chanson de geste, the Chancun de Willame—brought to light in 19o1 at the sale of the books of Sir Henry Hope Edwardes—and in the Covenant Vivien, a recension of an older French chanson. Alis cans continues the story, telling how Guillaume obtained rein forcements from Laon, and how, with the help of the comic hero, the scullion Rainouart, he avenged his nephew's death. Rainouart turns out to be the brother of Guillaume's wife Guibourc, who was before her marriage the Saracen princess and enchantress Orable. Two other poems are consecrated to his later exploits, La Bataille Loquifer, the work of a French Sicilian poet, Jendeu de Brie (fi. I1 70), and Le Moniage Rainouart. The starting-point of Herbert of Dammartin (fl. 1170) in Foucon de Candie (Candie = Gandia in Spain?) is the return of Guillaume from the battle; and the Italian compilation I Nerbonesi seems in some cases to represent an earlier tradition than the later of the French chansons, although its author Andrea di Barberino wrote towards the end of the i4th century. The minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach based his Willehalm on a French original which must have differed from our versions. The variations in the story of the defeat of Aliscans, and the numerous inconsistencies of the narratives have occupied many critics. Aliscans (Aleschans, Elysii Campi) was, however, gener ally taken to represent the battle of Villedaigne, and to take its name from the cemetery outside Arles. Wolfram von Eschen bach even mentions the tombs which studded the field of battle. Indications that this tradition was not unassailable were not lacking before the discovery of the Cliancun de Willame, which, although preserved in a very corrupt form, represents the earliest recension of the story, dating at least from the beginning of the 12th century. It seems probable that the Archant was situated in Spain near Tortosa, and that Guillaume started from Barce lona, not from Orange, to his nephew's help. The account was modified by successive trouveres, and the uncertainty of their methods may be judged by the fact that in the Cliancun de Wil lame two accounts (I1. 450-1326 and II. 1326-242o) of the fight appear to be set side by side. Le Couronnement Looys, Le Charroi de Nimes (I 2th century) in which Guillaume enumerates his services to the terrified Louis, and Aliscans (I 2th century), with the earlier Cliancun, are among the finest of the French epic poems. The figure of Vivien is among the most heroic elaborated by the trouveres, and the giant Rainouart has a touch of Rabe laisian humour.
The chansons de geste of the cycle are: Enfances Garin de Monglane (i5th century) and Garin de Monglane (i3th century), on which is founded the prose romance of Guerin de Monglane, printed in the 15th century by Jehan Trepperel and often later; Girars de Viane (13th century, by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube), ed. P. Tarbe (Reims, 185o) ; Hernaut de Beaulande (fragment 14th century) ; Renier de Gennes, which only survives in its prose form ; Aymeri de Narbonne (c. 121o) by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, ed. L. Demaison (Soc. des anc. textes fr., 2 vols., 1887) ; Les Enfances Guillaume (13th century) ; Les Narbonnais, ed. H. Suchier (Soc. des anc. textes fr., 2 vols., 1898), with a Latin fragment dating from the I1th century, preserved at The Hague; Le Couronnement Looys (ed. E. Langlois, 1888), Le Charroi de Nimes, La Prise d'Orange, Le Covenant Vivien, Aliscans, which were edited by W. J. A. Jonckbloet in vol. i. of his Guillaume d'Orange (The Hague, 18J4) ; a critical text of Aliscans (Halle, 1903, vol. i.) is edited by E. Wienbeck, W. Hartnacke and P. Rasch ; Loquifer and Le Moniage Rainouart (I 2th century) ; Bovon de Commarchis (13th century) , recension of the earlier Siege de Barbastre, by Adenes li Rois, ed. A. Scheler (Brussels, 1874) ; Guibert d'Andrenas (I3th century) ; La Prise de Cordres (13th century) ; La Mort Aimeri de Narbonne, ed. J. Couraye de Parc (Soc. des Anciens Textes fr. 1884) ; Foulque de Candie (ed. P. Tarbe, Reims, 186o) ; Le Moniage Guillaume (12th century) ; Les Enfances Vivien (ed. C. Wahlund and H. v. Feilitzen, Uppsala and Paris, 1895) ; Chayun de Willame (Chiswick Press, 1903) , described by P. Meyer in Romania (xxxiii. 597-618) . The ninth branch of the Karlamagnus Saga (ed. C. R. Unger, 186o) deals with the geste of Guillaume. I. Nerbonesi is edited by J. G. Isola (Bologna, 1877, etc.) .
See C. Revillout, Etude hist. et litt. sur la vita sancti Willelmi (Montpellier, 1876) ; W J. A. Jonckbloet, Guillaume d'Orange (2 vols., 1854, The Hague) ; L. Clarus (ps. for W. Volk), Herzog Wilhelm von Aquitanien (Munster, 1865) ; P. Paris, in Hist. litt. de la France (vol. xxii., 1852) ; L. Gautier, Epopees frangaises (vol. iv., end ed., 1882) ; R. Weeks, The Newly discovered Chanoun de Willame (Chi cago, 1904) ; A. Thomas, Etudes romanes (1891) , on Vivien; L. Saltet, "S. Vidian de Martres-Tolosanes" in Bull. de litt. eccles. (Toulouse, 1902) ; P. Becker, Die alt f rz. Wilhelmsage u. ihre Beziehung zu Wilhelm dem Heiligen (Halle, 1896), and Der siidfranzosische Sagen kreis and seine Probleme (Halle, 1898) ; A. Jeanroy, "Etudes sur le cycle de Guillaume au court nez" (in Romania, vols. 25 and 26, 1896-97) ; H. Suchier, "Recherches sur . . . Guillaume d'Orange" (in Romania, vol. 32, 1903) ; La legende de Guillaume d'Orange (1920).