AYTION, the surname of four brothers, called respectively Alard, Richard, Guiscard, and Renaud, sons of Aymon or Haimon, count of Dordogne, who figure among the most illustrious heroes of the chivalric poetry of the middle ages; but their historic existence must be considered problematical, as the deeds attributed to them possess in so large a measure a miraculous character. What basis of fact may underlie the fanci ful accretions of mythology, it is now impossible to determine. Their career belongs to the cycle of marvels, of which Charlemagne is the central point, and their adventures furnished rich material to the romantic narratives of Italy in the 15th and 16th c., and, in fact, were the exclusive subject of some of these. A novel, entitled Les Quatre Pils Aymon, by Huon de Villeneuve, a French poet of the age of Philippe Auguste, details very minutely their exploits. Finally, Ariosto conferred a poetical immortality on the family by the publication of his Roland, in which Renaud, the bravest of the four brothers, plays continually the most distinguished part. The traditions concerning them
are not uniform or consistent. Some have a Provencal origin; but the author or authors of the popular German book which Tieck has edited and published, entitled The Beauti ful and Entertaining History of the Four Brothers Aymon, and of their Horse Bayard, with the Deeds and Heroic Feats that they Accomplished against the Pagans, in the Time of Char lemagne, seem to have drawn from a different source. The most probable hypothesis, therefore, is, that the varieties in these poetic legends are due to the fancy and national predilections of the particular authors, and that there originally existed a single tradi tion, out of which the whole sprang.