Turold is one of the tituli on the Bayeux tapestry. Which of two figure is being identified is uncertain, as is the identification of the namesake with a known historical person. He may be the same person as Turold of Rochester.
Turold is one of the tituli on the Bayeux tapestry. Which of two figure is being identified is uncertain, as is the identification of the namesake with a known historical person. He may be the same person as Turold of Rochester.
The tapestry mentions a small number of important figures by name. When they are mentioned, their name is depicted directly above their head. For this reason, some believe that Turold is not the messenger in red who would later become Constable of Bayeux, but the man who appears to have a form of dwarfism and is holding the messenger's horse's reins. [1] It should also be noted that Turold was a common name at the time of the creation of the tapestry, and it is possible that both figures bear the name "Turold".
The dwarf figure appears to be a jongleur or minstrel based on his wide breeches and flared tunic, leading some to further conjecture that he could be Turoldus as mentioned in the Chanson de Roland. Jongleurs of this era could be extremely skilled, therefore could reasonably be the mysterious author or performer of that poem. However, as Turold and its derivatives were popular names at the time of the creation of the oldest surviving copy of the Chanson de Roland, it is also possible the Turoldus mentioned is a third and entirely different person than those shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. This is the prevailing hypothesis among modern historians. [1]
Harold Godwinson, also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England. His death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England.
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th century, within a few years of the battle. Now widely accepted to have been made in England perhaps as a gift for William, it tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans and for centuries has been preserved in Normandy.
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.
Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was military governor of the Breton March, responsible for defending Francia's frontier against the Bretons. His only historical attestation is in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, which notes he was part of the Frankish rearguard killed in retribution by the Basques in Iberia at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
The Song of Roland is an 11th-century chanson de geste based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in AD 778, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in Medieval and Renaissance literature from the 12th to 16th centuries.
The chanson de geste is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours and trouvères, and the earliest verse romances. They reached their highest point of acceptance in the period 1150–1250.
Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.
A chanson is generally any lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of French pop music which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. The genre had origins in the monophonic songs of troubadours and trouvères, though the only polyphonic precedents were 16 works by Adam de la Halle and one by Jehan de Lescurel. Not until the ars nova composer Guillaume de Machaut did any composer write a significant number of polyphonic chansons.
The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great European literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.
Taillefer was the surname of a Norman jongleur (minstrel), whose exact name and place of birth are unknown. He travelled to England during the Norman conquest of England of 1066, in the train of William the Conqueror. At the Battle of Hastings, Taillefer sang the Chanson de Roland at the English troops while juggling with his sword. An English soldier ran out to challenge him and was killed by Taillefer, who then charged the English lines alone while singing and was engulfed, killing at least four more English in the process. Strangely, Taillefer is not depicted, by name at least, on the Bayeux Tapestry.
Colin Muset was an Old French trouvère and a native of Lorraine. He made his living in the Champagne by travelling from castle to castle singing songs of his own composition and playing the vielle. These are not confined to the praise of courtly love that formed the usual topic of the trouvères, but contain many details of a jongleur's life. His complete works are eighteen: nine attributed in chansonniers, three self-referencing, and six whose attributions are based on modern scholarship. Twenty one poems credited to him were edited and published by Joseph Bédier in 1912 (Paris). Two further editions appeared in 2005: one by Callahan and Rosenberg with translations into modern French, and, with translations into Italian, an edition by Massimiliano Chiamenti, which reduced his authentic corpus to sixteen poems. Oxford Music online, lists 12 songs. Nine of his poems have surviving music. Seven are chansons jongleuresques, that is, songs describing the life of a jongleur. His three serventois condemn the avarice of the nobility, but his moralising is balanced by self-deprecating humour. He also wrote two descorts, one lai, and one cynical tenson with Jacques d'Amiens.
Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, Medieval literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century.
A ghost character, in the bibliographic or scholarly study of texts of dramatic literature, is a term for an inadvertent error committed by the playwright in the act of writing. It is a character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose. As Kristian Smidt put it, they are characters that are "introduced in stage directions or briefly mentioned in dialogue who have no speaking parts and do not otherwise manifest their presence". It is generally interpreted as an author's mistake, indicative of an unresolved revision to the text. If the character was intended to appear and say nothing, it is assumed this would be made clear in the playscript.
Turoldus or Turold is the name traditionally given to the author of the 11th-century French poem The Song of Roland. Efforts to make a convincing further identification of the identity of Turoldus have failed. The Latin form Turoldus is equivalent to the personal name Thorold.
William the Conqueror had men of diverse standing and origins under his command at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With these and other men he went on in the five succeeding years to conduct the Harrying of the North and complete the Norman conquest of England.
In The Song of Roland, Blancandrin is the instigator of the pagan plot against Roland and Charlemagne. He first appears in the final line of the second stanza of the poem as the only pagan who speaks to give King Marsile counsel, and is then described as the wisest of the pagans and a good and worthy knight, which are uncommon sentiments when describing the 'Saracens' throughout the poem. He suggests that Marsile accept the Christian faith and become a vassal of Charlemagne, as well as offering many gifts and the nobles' sons as hostages for execution if the Frank leaves Spain for Aix. He then acts as messenger to Charlemagne.
Turstin fitz Rolf, also known as Turstin le Blanc and Tustein fitz Rou played a prominent role in the Norman conquest of England and is regarded as one of the few proven companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Jordain de Blaivies is an Old French chanson de geste written in decasyllables around 1200. It is an adventure story, largely inspired by the ancient story of Apollonius of Tyre. It survives in a single manuscript. The original was never popular, but it was reworked into a different metre and also adapted into prose in the 15th century. The prose version was printed with illustrations in 1520.
Turold may refer to: