I’ve been thinking for a long time about writing a review about a tale I accidentally found on Amazon. Thus, I want to share with you some information and interpretations regarding this French medieval story most of you probably haven’t heard of.
Aucassin and Nicolette is an anonymous Old French chantefable (creation comprising of prose and verse), probably from the 12th or 13th century. Its only remaining source is a manuscript kept in the National Library of France, in Paris. The story fascinated authors such as Andrew Lang and Francis William Bourdillon, who translated the tale in English. I read both translations and I found them very good and similar, but I prefer Lang’s version, because it’s more melodious and it sounds a little more old-fashioned than the other one. However, in this review I will quote and use some of Bourdillon’s explanations from the preface of his edition and a few critical ideas from the Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
Bourdillon thinks that sometimes we need to leave behind modern complicated novels and turn to old and simple tales, which we may find “more moving, more tender, even more real, than all the laboured realism of these photographic days.” (Loc. 10) He compares Aucassin and Nicolette with Romeo and Juliet, Cupid and Psyche and other classic romances, but the things that make this Old French chantefable stand out are the “perpetual touches of actual life, and words that raise pictures (…)” (Loc.12). The translator speculates that the plot is not original, because the particular form of this tale pre-exists in the Arabian or Moorish culture. Thus, Bourdillon suggests that the story probably comes from Spain, the place where two religions and mentalities met. To be more exact, the plot doesn’t seem to take place in Provence, where Old French literature flourished, but in Spain. The British poet argues that Carthage doesn’t refer to the Tunisian city, but to Cartagena (a port in South-East Spain), Valence is not the city situated on the Rhône river, but Valencia, and the fictional name Torelore – the place where Aucassin and Nicolette shipwrecked – could be Torello.
That being said, let’s take a look at our protagonists. Aucassin is Count Garin or Warren of Beaucaire’s son, who should fight against Count Bulgarius or Bougars of Valence, his father’s enemy. However, the lad refuses to become a knight and save the besieged city, because he has fallen in love with Nicolette, a christened Saracen girl, who was taken as a slave from her Carthage and brought up in a culture different from hers. Unlike the other knights, Aucassin doesn’t care too much about duty or glory; he is constantly daydreaming about his sweetheart and laments when the two lovers are separated from each other by their parents.
A thing I haven’t expected to read in a 13th century tale is the young man’s idea about religion. More precisely, during an argument with the Viscount, Nicolette’s ‘father in God’, Aucassin replies that he would rather go to hell than to heaven, because there he would find all the great knights, courteous ladies, lovers, artists, princes and all the riches of the world. Well, he is certainly not your typical medieval Christian! Actually, if you look carefully at his name, Aucassin sounds pretty Moorish, unlike his sweetheart’s Christian name. Bourdillion writes that Aucassin could be related to the 11th century king of Cordova, Alcazin, whose name was turned into French.
Now let’s turn our attention to the relationship between the young man and the beautiful maiden. If Aucassin doesn’t like to fight against his father’s enemies, maybe he is better at fighting for his love interest, right? Unfortunately, he is more of a philosopher than a man of action, though you might expect more motivation. Even though he goes to Nicolettte’s house, fights and captures the Count of Valence just for the covenant’s sake or looks for his beloved into the forest, the young lady is in charge of their relationship. For example, she runs away from home in order to save herself from Count Beaucaire’s rage and determination to kill her. And, in order to return to her lover’s land, she dresses up as a troubadour. No damsel in distress has the courage and the wit to do such a thing; at least I haven’t read of such women in medieval literature. It is true that Nicolette has sugary soliloquies like her lover and the narrator excessively praises her beauty, which matches perfectly with the medieval female ideal – the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman with light complexion and small, delicate hands.
The unusual twists and unspecific elements found in this story made critics see this tale as a parody of the epic, romance and saint’s life. Actually, this chantefable satirises many Old French genres, such as amor de lonh or distant love; here, the maiden is the one who searches for her lover, not vice versa.
Karl Uitti writes in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages that Aucassin and Nicolette combines elements from various Old French genres, such as ‘chanson de geste’, ‘lyric poems’ and ‘courtly novels’. He states that the term ‘chantefable’ appeared for the first time in the last line of 
this tale: “No cantefable prent fin”.
Some situations, such as the pregnant king in childbed and the rival armies, who fight against each other with baked apple, eggs and cheese projectiles, are truly hilarious scenes that reminded Lang of Rabelais’ grotesque humour. In real life, people fought in wars over food, not with food. If Aucassin and Nicolette’s romance was not enough to exemplify gender role reversals, the author throws in another one: the king lays in childbed and the queen is at war with the royal army. However, if we leave behind the comic side of the scene, we could follow Bourdillon’s interpretation of this strange behaviour. According to his research, in many cultures there was a custom named Couvade, in which the father mimicked labour pains, to sympathise with the mother and to protect her and the newborn against evil spirits. As a matter of fact, Strabo took notes of this ritual in his writings.
In short, everything seems to be upside down in Aucassin and Nicolette, from the protagonist’s antiheroic character, the lady’s determination to be with him, their “against the grain” relationship, to the bizarre and funny situations they encounter.
by Alina Andreea Cătărău
Image source: Kinuko Craft
Text online: audio; French version; Francis William Bourdillon; Andrew Lang
[…] în Aucassin et Nicolette sunt parodiate mai toate genurile literare medievale, acum ne îndreptăm atenția spre o epopee […]