BEDIER, JOSEPH (1864-1938), French scholar, was born Jan. 28 1864, in Paris and was appointed professor of mediaeval French language and literature at the College de France in He won the degree of docteur-es-lettres with Les Fabliaux, a work on early French poetry which was crowned by the Academie Fran caise. The publication of his Roman de Tristan et Iseult (lgoo) set a European seal on his reputation. In Les Legendes epiques (1908) he developed, with a wealth of picturesque detail, his theory that the great cycles of romance grew up along the pilgrim routes of mediaeval France. He thus supplied an ingenious and romantic interpretation of the Charlemagne, Guillaume, and Quatre Fils Aymon cycles, which directly contradicted the theory of their origin from a primitive common epic material maintained by Gaston Paris and his successors. Bedier's exquisite and lucid style gained him innumerable admirers among scholars and lay men alike.