Romantic Story of Famous Troubadour

In the late XII century, Arnaut de Mareuil, was less famous troubadour, than his contemporary Arnaut Daniel. Yet, contemporary sources claim that he surpassed Daniel in elegant simplicity of form and delicacy of sentiment. And in terms of his heritage he is definitely luckier, because from twenty-five to twenty-nine of his songs survived and six of them with music!

One of medieval romanticized biographies tells us that he had been a clerk from a poor family, who eventually became a jongleur. He created his talented songs at the courts of Toulouse and then Béziers. He was deeply in love with the countess Azalais of Toulouse and proudly considered himself to be her best friend. His surviving poems contain lyric cycle telling of his love to Azalais. However, king Alfonso II of Aragon, who competed with Arnaut for her love, won in this love triangle. Jealous king persuaded Azalais to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Saving his life, Arnaut fled to Montpelier, where he settled at the court of William VIII, who became his patron and protector.

Amusing Trace in the History

We don’t know the exact name of a troubadour and patron of troubadours Dauphin d’Auvergne. He is sometimes called Robert, but there is no solid evidence that it was really his name. We do know that he was born around 1150 and died either in 1234 or 1235. He was from the wealthy and noble family and his full title was Count of Clermont and Montferrand. Dauphin added the second title through the marriage to Guillemette de Comborn, countess of Montferrand.

All troubadours that worked with him or sang at his court left their trace in his history. Those were the times! Among these troubadours were Peirol, Perdigon, Peire de Maensac, Gaucelm Faidit, and Uc de Saint Circ. One musical exchange between Dauphin and Perdigon marks a stage in the poetical debate, begun by Guilhem de Saint-Leidier and taken up by brilliant trobaritz Azalais de Porcairagues and Raimbaut of Orange, as to whether a lady is dishonored by taking a lover who is richer than herself. A song on the same subject was composed by Guiraut de Bornelh and king Alfonso II of Aragon. Contemporaries claim that Dauphin was amazing and witty poet. His cousin, bishop Robert of Clermont used to exchange satirical and erotic verses with him, as did famous Richard the Lionheart.

Mystical Island Thule

As I start my story about mythical lands, continents and cities, I can’t pass by the legend of Thule. In Classical sources Thule is a place, usually an island located either in the far north, often northern Great Britain, possibly the Orkneys or Shetland Islands, or Scandinavia. In the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance the location of Thule was thought to be in the west and north, often Iceland or Greenland. They suggest that the name also denotes any distant place located beyond the borders of the known world. The Greek explorer Pytheas was the first who wrote of Thule after his travels between 330 BC and 320 BC. Strabo in his Geography written in 30 of our era, mentions that Thule is a six days’ sail north of Britain, and is near the frozen sea. Half a century later in 77, Pliny the Elder mentions Thule again and even describes it as a place in which there be no nights at all. Other late classical writers and post-classical writers keep on mentioning Thule over and over again. Some of them state that Thule is a large island in the north inhabited by twenty-five tribes.

During the Middle Ages the name was sometimes used to denote Greenland, Svalbard, or Iceland. A municipality in North Greenland was even formerly named Thule after the mythical place. The Thule People, A paleo-Eskimo culture and a predecessor of modern Inuit Greenlanders, was even called Thule people. Nowadays Southern Thule is a collection of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. The island group is overseas territory of the United Kingdom and uninhabited. The concept of Thule was so popular that this mysterious island lent its name to lends its name to the 69th element in the periodic table, Thulium.

It is interesting to note that Nazi occult mystics believed in a historical Thule and Hyperborea as the ancient origin of the Aryan race. They wrote a pile of material stating that mythical Thule, a Nordic equivalent of the vanished culture of Atlantis. They thought that a race of giant supermen lived in Thule, linked into the Cosmos through magical powers. And these inhabitants had psychic and technological energies far exceeding the technical achievements of the 20th century.

Lucky Bernart de Ventadorn

We should not be surprised that there is so little to find about famous troubadours of the Middle Ages. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the Cathars of Occitania in the south of France. It was a decade long struggle that had as much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control southwards than it did with heresy. In the end, both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated. Lost of invaluable manuscripts were burnt and many castles that kept this wisdom of ages were destroyed.

So the life and creations of a great troubadour composer and poet Bernart de Ventadorn is no exception. Yet he may consider himself very lucky comparing to other troubadours. Bernart is unique among secular composers of the 12th century in the amount of music which has survived. Out of his 45 poems, 18 have music intact, an unusual circumstance for a troubadour composer. Naturally, music of the trouvères from the North of France has a higher survival rate, because they were not touched by Albigensian Crusade, which scattered the troubadours and destroyed many sources.

Yet we again have to dive into the world of Middle Ages rumors digging out the little details about him. So what do we really know? According to one of his contemporaries, Bernart de Ventadorn was possibly a son of a baker in French castle Ventadorn in France. But another contemporary indicates that he was the son of either a servant, a soldier, or a baker and his mother was also either a servant or a baker. From evidence given in Bernart’s early poem, he most likely learned the art of singing and writing from his protector, viscount Eble III of Ventadorn. He composed his first poems to his patron’s wife, Marguerite de Turenne. Forced to leave Ventadour after falling in love with Marguerite, he traveled to Montluçon and Toulouse, and eventually followed Eleanor of Aquitaine to England and the Plantagenet court; evidence for this association and these travels comes mainly from his poems themselves. Later Bernart returned to Toulouse, where he was employed by Raimon V, Count of Toulouse; later still he went to Dordogne, where he entered a monastery. Most likely he died there in the last decade of the 12th century.

We really don’t know the date of Bernart’s birth or death. We can only guess that he was born somewhere in the thirties of 12th century. And we place his most productive time of work between 1147 and 1180. Bernart is often credited with being the most important influence on the development of the trouvère tradition in northern France. He was well known there, his melodies were widely circulated, and the early composers of trouvère music seem to have imitated him.

Brother and Sister Troubadours

Early Medieval troubadours and trobairitz make an extremely interesting part of European music in its roots. I found sources related to many of them while doing my researches for local web analytics company . The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in the Occitan language of southern France, but it subsequently spread throughout Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Simultaneous movements sprang up in northern France and Germany. Though it lasted slightly longer in Italy and Spain than in France, the art of the troubadours declined and eventually died out in the late 13th century.

A 12th-century trobairitz Tibors de Sarenom was the elder sister of the famous troubadour Rimbaud d’Orange. Her date of birth is unknown. She was appointed Rimbaud’s guardian by their mother’s will, which indicates to specialists that she was, probably over fifteen at the time. Later Tibors had two consecutive husbands. She married first Bertrand de Les Baux and then Goufroy de Mornas, but survived each. Contemporaries tell us of beautiful songs that she created. Unfortunately, out of all her work only one song in the form of canso has survived. The attached prose explanation of the song called “razo”, survived as well. Both canso and razo were written in Occitatan. Tibors is also mentioned in an anonymous ballad dated to between 1220 and 1245, where she acts as the judge of a game of poetry. Tibors died in 1181.

We know a little bit more about Tibors’ brother Raimbaut of Orange, who was born around 1147. By the way, in Occitan his name is pronounced as Raimbaut d’Aurenga. Raimbaut was the lord of lands of Orange and Aumelas. His properties included the towns of Frontignan and Mireval. He was a major troubadour, having contributed to the creation of cryptic style, in troubadour poetry. About forty of his works survive, his love to rare rhymes and intricate poetic form.He died in 1173 and was mourned by many. Other famous troubadours like Giraut de Bornelh, and even trobairitz Azalais de Porcairagues, composed songs about him.