Bertran de Born

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Bertran de Born
Illustration from Bibliothèque Nationale, MS cod. fr. 12473, 13th century

Bertran de Born (before 1140 at Born Castle in Périgord ; † around 1215) was a French baron and one of the most famous trobadors of the 12th century.

Live and act

Bertran de Born was the eldest son of Bertran de Born, Herr von Hautefort , and his wife Ermengadis. He had two younger brothers, Constantine and Itier. His father died in 1178, after which Bertran was his successor as Lord of Hautefort. At that time he was married to his first wife, Raimonda, and had two sons.

Hautefort is on the border between Limousin and Périgord. As a result, Bertran became involved in the conflicts between Heinrich II Plantagenet's sons. In addition, he also fought for control of Hautefort.

According to the feudal customs of this region, he was not the only lord of Hautefort, but ruled it jointly with his brothers. There were other cases of co-rule among the trobadors, the best known being the "four trobadors of Ussel" (three brothers and a cousin) and Raimon de Miraval and his brothers. This was a typical strategy promoted by the actual territorial rulers of the principalities (such as the Archduchy of Aquitaine or the County of Toulouse) to reduce the influence of local feudal lords and involve them in feudal conflicts within their families. Bertran's conflict, especially with his brother Constantine, is at the center of his poems, which were dominated by political themes.

Bertran de Born, from an MS with songs by the Trobadors, Bibliothèque Nationale Française

His first datable work is a Sirventes from 1181, but at that time Bertran already had a good reputation as a poet.

In 1182 he stayed at the court of his overlord Henry II of England in Argentan . In the same year he took part in the revolt of Henry the Younger against his younger brother Richard the Lionheart , Count of Poitou and Archduke of Aquitaine. He wrote songs to Adémar V of Limoges and others calling on them to rebel and took an oath against Richard of Limoges. His brother Constantine stood on the opposite side, which is why Bertran banished him from the castle in July.

Heinrich the Younger, whom Bertran praised and criticized in his poems, died in 1183; Bertran wrote a planh (dirge) in his memory called "Mon chan fenisc ab dol et ab maltraire". Another lament for Heinrich ("Si tuit li dol el plor el marrimen"), which was once attributed to Bertran, is now recognized as the work of Rigaut de Berbezill. In his punitive campaign against the rebels, Richard - together with Alfonso II of Aragon  - conquered Hautefort and handed it over to Constantine de Born. Henry II later returned it to the poet Bertran de Born, and Constantine apparently became a mercenary.

In the fight against Philip II of France , Bertran fraternized again with Richard, to whom he now faithfully and passionately clung, always trying to stir up the fight, not always by honest means. Bertran tried several times to sow discord between the Angevins in order to maintain his independence. He gave them the following nicknames: Heinrich the Younger was Mariniers (sailor), Gottfried von Bretagne was Rassa , and Richard was christened Oc-e-Non (Yes-and-No) by him . When Gottfried died, Bertran also remembered him with a lament called A totz dic que ja mais non voil .

Furthermore, he was in contact with a large number of other trobadors as well as with the northern French Trouvères Conon de Béthune , to whom he turned with the pseudonym Mon Ysombart .

Although Bertran also composed some love songs, he was above all a master of the Sirventes. The Provencal song manuscript of the Vatican , No. 5232, shows him heavily armed with a shield and a lance. His war songs were spread by minstrels and had a great political impact in the Anglo-French battles of the 12th century. Be.m Platz lo gais temps de pascor , in which he describes the war and his delight in it,

«[...] m space [...]
Massas e brans elms de color. escutz trauchar e desguernir. veirem a l'entrar de l'estor. e maintz vassals ensems ferir. don anaran aratge. chaval dels mortz e dels nafratz. et quan er en l'estorn entratz. chascus om de paratge. no pens mas d'asclar chaps et bratz. que mais val mortz que vius sobratz.
Ie-us dic que tan no m'a sabor. manjar ni beure ni dormir. coma quan also cridar a lor. d'ambas las partz et also ennir. chavals vochs per l'ombratge. e also cridar aidatz. e vei chazer per los fossatz. paucs e grans per l'erbatge. e vei los mortz que pels costatz. to los tronzos from los cendatz.
Baro metetz en gatge. chastels e vilas e ciutatz. enanz qu'usquecs no-us guerreiatz.
Papiols d'agradatge. aN Oc-e Non t'en vai viatz. e dijas li que trop estai en place. »

was translated into English by Ezra Pound :

"... We shall see battle axes and swords, a-battering colored haumes and a-hacking through shields at entering melee; and many vassals smiting together, while there run free the horses of the dead and wrecked. And when each man of prowess shall be come into the fray he thinks no more of (merely) breaking heads and arms, for a dead man is worth more than one taken alive.
I tell you that I find no such savor in eating butter and sleeping, as when I hear cried 'On them!' and from both sides hear horses neighing through their head-guards, and hear shouted 'To aid! To aid! ' and see the dead with lance truncheons, the pennants still on them, piercing their sides.
Barons! put in pawn castles, and towns, and cities before anyone makes war on us.
Papiol, be glad to go speedily to 'Yea and Nay', and tell him there's too much peace about. "

Even the brief appearance of a peace in 1189 elicited loud complaints. When Richard (already King) and Philip were still hesitant to start the Third Crusade , Bertran sent them songs in which he praised the heroic defense of Tire by Conrad of Montferrat (“Folheta, vos mi prejatz que eu chan” and “Ara sai eu de pretz quals l'a plus gran “). When Richard was released from captivity (on suspicion of being involved in Conrad's murder), Bertran welcomed him with Ar ven la coindeta sazos . Ironically, one of Bertran's sources of income was the Châlus-Cabrol market, where Richard was seriously injured in 1199.

After also Bertran's second wife had died, he was in 1196. Monk and member of the Cistercian - Abbey of Dalon which he made many grants over the years. His last datable song was written in 1198. The last recorded entry about Bertran was in 1202. His presumed year of death was 1215, based on an invoice for a candle for his grave.

His complete work consists of 47 works, 36 in the manuscripts unanimously ascribed to him and 11 rather controversial ascriptions. Some of the melodies of his songs also came to us. As a trobador, he adored Maenz (Mathilde) de Montognas, Guicharde de Montpensier, Tibors von Montausier and Mathilde , the Anglo-Norman wife of Henry the Lion, in poems . A relationship with Queen Eleonore cannot be proven.

family

Bertran de Born was married twice. With his first wife, Raimonda, he had two sons (both knighted in 1192) and a daughter:

Bertran, also a trobador, was still alive in 1223.
Itier, died in 1237.
Aimelina, married Seguin de Lastours.

With his second wife, Philippa, he had two other sons:

Constantine, who together with his father became a monk in Dalon.
Bertran the Younger, who was still alive in 1252.

Later literary representation

Doré's illustration of Bertran in Hell, from Dante's Inferno

According to a Vida (a short prose biography written in Occitan) of Henry II, the latter believed that Bertran had sparked the rebellion of his son, Henry the Younger. Therefore, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri banished him as a discord in the eighth circle of hell (Canto XXVIII) of his Divine Comedy , where he has to carry his severed head as a lantern. This has to be seen symbolically: He has to walk split in hell as he split families in life. Gustave Doré processed the scene in an illustration from the Divine Comedy, which says:

I saw - this terrible picture is still my companion -
a trunk without a head went on with that host of
misfortunes in the depths.

He held his cut head by the hair
And let it hang from his hand as a lamp
And sighed deeply at how close he was to us.

[…]

And said: “Here you see the most terrible of the plagues!
You who appear breathing in hell,
Say: Is one harder to bear?

Now listen if you think you’re talking about me;
I am Beltram of Bornio, and Johannen,
The King, I once gave bad advice,

So that then son and father began war,
As between David and Absalon once,
through Ahitophel feuds relax.

Now, for a fair reward, I must see my brain
separate from its source in the trunk,
Because I separated the father and the son,

And as I did, it happened to me.

(from Carl Streckfuß 'transmission of the Divine Comedy, Inf. XXVIII, V. 118–123 and V. 129–142)

Bertran also appears as a secondary character in Maurice Hewlett's novel The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay (1900), which refers very much to the portrayal of Bertran in Dante. He is described as "a man of hot blood, smoke and anger" with "ill temper". One character says of him: "He was a great poet, a great thief, and a stupid fool."

His memory, however , was better looked after by Ezra Pound , who translated some of his songs. In addition to translating his works, Ezra Pound also wrote some poems based on Bertran's life and works, such as Na Audiart (1908), Sestina: Altaforte (1909), and Near Perigord (1915 ). There are also some allusions to the trobador in Pounds Cantos.

In Germany, too, some works were influenced by Bertran's life. For example, he is the title hero of a ballad by Ludwig Uhland and a three-stanza romance by Heinrich Heine . He plays an important role in Lion Feuchtwanger's novel The Jewess of Toledo .

literature

  • Gérard Gouiran (editor and translator): L'amour et la guerre: L'œuvre de Bertran de Born . 2 volumes. Aix en Provence / Marseille 1985
  • William D. Padden, jr., Tilde Sankovitch & Patricia H. Stäblein (eds. And translators): The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born . Berkeley, Los Angeles & London 1986

Secondary literature

  • Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy
  • Maurice Hewlett: The Life & Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay . London 1900 e-book from Project Gutenberg.
  • Robert Kehew (ed.): Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours . Translated by Ezra Pound, WD Snodgrass & Robert Kehew. Chicago, 2005, ISBN 0-226-42933-4
  • Ezra Pound: Poems & Translations . New York 2003
  • Albert Stimming: Bertran de Born, his life and his works . Hall 1879

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernard Delvaille, Mille et cent ans de poésie française , Robert Laffont, Paris, 1991, p. 168
  2. ^ Robert Kehew (Ed.): The Lark in the Morning. P. 144f
  3. ↑ In 1212 Bertran and Count Archambaud II of Périgord took the Ligic feudal oath against King Philip II of August for Hautefort . See: Catalog des actes de Philippe Auguste , ed. by Léopold Delisle (1856), no.1409, p. 320.
  4. ↑ Bertrand de Born . ( Wikisource )
personal data
SURNAME Bertran de Born
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French troubadour
DATE OF BIRTH before 1140
PLACE OF BIRTH Périgord
DATE OF DEATH around 1215