Aymeri de Narbonne

Aymeri de Narbonne is a legendary hero of Old French chansons de geste and the Matter of France. In the legendary material, as elaborated and expanded in various medieval texts, Aymeri is a knight in the time of Charlemagne's wars with the Saracens after the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. He is son of Hernaut and the grandson of Garin de Monglane. He conquers the city of Narbonne, marries a princess named Hermengarde or Hermenjart, and fathers seven sons (Guibert, Bernart, Guillaume, Garin, Hernaut, Beuve and Aymer), the most famous being Guillaume d'Orange, the hero of several popular chansons de geste.

The "Aymeri" of the poems may be conflated with a later historic figure, Aimery II of Narbonne, who was the Viscount of Narbonne from around 1106 to 1134.

Aymeri de Narbonne is the hero of an eponymic early 13th century (c.1205-1225) chanson de geste (based on earlier poems) attributed to Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube (author, as well, of Girart de Vienne which Aymeri de Narbonne follows in four of the five extant manuscripts of this poem). The poem comprises 4,708 verses grouped into 122 rhymed laisses; the verses are all decasyllables except for a short six syllable line at the end of each laisse (a similar use of shorter lines appears in the chansons de geste Aliscans and the Chanson de Guillaume). In Aymeri de Narbonne, Charlemagne, returning home from Spain after the tragic events of The Song of Roland, comes upon the city of Narbonne and offers the city as a fief to whichever of his knights will conquer it, but all the knights refuse because of their despair, except for the young Aymeri. Once he becomes lord of the city, Aymeri seeks the hand of Hermengarde, daughter of Didier, sister of Boniface the king of the Lombards in Pavia. After various adventures, including difficulties with a German lord named Savari (to whom Hermengarde had been promised previously) and attacks from the Saracens, the marriage occurs. The poem ends with a prediction about their future children, seven boys and five girls. The poem was reworked into two prose versions in the 15th century.

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