Guillaume D'Orange: Four Twelfth-Century Epics

Guillaume d'Orange is the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages. Set in the ninth century, the poems on the life of William of Orange grew out of several centuries of oral composition and were written down for the first time in the twelfth century. Changing and growing through the years, the poems reflect historical events from the ninth to the twelfth century.

Joan M. Ferrante writes in the Introduction, "History tells us little of the medieval William of Orange, but legend tells us a great deal. From the legends grew the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages."

"The four epics about Guillaume - 'The Coronation of Louis,' 'The Conquest of Orange,' 'Aliscans,' and 'William in the Monastery' - offer valuable testimony about aspects of medieval political and religious values and about the adaptation of the norms of epic to the needs of what Marc Bloch called 'the first age of feudalism'." - W. Hanning, Columbia University"

Joan M. Ferrante is professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

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