Aiquin
Aiquin (also spelled Aquin or Acquin),[lower-alpha 1] subtitled La conqueste de la Bretaigne par le roy Charlemaigne[lower-alpha 2] ("The Conquest of Britain by King Charlemagne"), is a medieval Old French chanson de geste (heroic narrative) about the rivalry between a Saracen king, Aiquin, and the Christian emperor Charlemagne. The French medievalist Joseph Bédier called it a "consolidation of history and legend in an imposing ensemble."[1] It survives in one fifteenth-century manuscript, BnF fr. 2233, now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is usually attributed to Garin Trosseboeuf,[lower-alpha 3] possibly a cleric of Dol, and was probably written in the late twelfth century. It is the oldest extant French text from Brittany.[2]
The setting of the chanson is almost certainly corresponds to the period 919–37 in Breton history, when the Normans (Vikings newly settled in northern France) persistently raided Brittany.[1][2] It conflates Saracens (Sarrasin) and Arabs (Arabis) with Normans (Norois), and places Aiquin's origins in the north country (Nort pais).[1] It also turns Roland, the Frankish hero of the earlier Chanson de Roland, into a native Breton.[2]
Inspired by Aiquin, the family of the famous French soldier Bertrand du Guesclin (died 1380) claimed to descend from the Saracen king.[3]
Editions
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Sources
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Notes
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hanak 1971, p. 408.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ailes 2012, p. 157.
- ↑ Jones 2004, p. xviii, n. 19, citing Marius Canard (1929), "L'origine sarrazine de Bertrand du Guesclin", Revue Africaine (Algiers), pp. 1–26
