Blondel de Nesle

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Depiction of Blondel at the equestrian statue of Richard the Lionheart west of Dürnstein , Lower Austria

Blondel de Nesle (* around 1155, † around 1210) was one of the first trouvères in northern France from the small town of Nesle ( Latin: Nigella ) in the Somme department in Picardy . Blondel is credited with at least 24 songs , all of which are love songs .

Live and act

There are various assumptions about his status . It is assumed that he was identical with the noble Jean II. Des Nobles, other authors doubt this and assume that Blondel was rather Jean I des Nobles and thus the father of Jean II. According to other authors, Blondel was not of noble class, but at most a commoner. A total of 24 poems set to music by him have come down to us from the period between 1180 and 1210. He belonged to the circle of poets around Conon de Béthune and was a participant in the Third Crusade . His songs are in the tradition of the Occitan trobadors.

The blonde legend

It was the Trouvère Blondel who , according to the Blondelsage , sought King Richard the Lionheart in the years 1192 to 1194 after his capture on his return journey from the Third Crusade , by going from castle to castle and singing songs everywhere that only he and King Richard know and found near Dürnstein in Austria . There is no evidence that the historical blondel was actually known to Richard the Lionheart.

Blondel is the eponymous main character of the musical Blondel by Tim Rice and Stephen Oliver from 1983.

Editions of works (selection)

  • The songs of Blondel de Nesle. published by Leo Wiese , Society for Romance Literature, Dresden 1907.
  • Trouvères melodies I: Blondel de Nesle. edited by Hendrik van der Werf, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1977.

Web links

Commons : Blondel de Nesle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ Samuel N. Rosenberg: Blondel de Nesle . In: William W. Kibler, Grover A. Zinn (eds.): Medieval France: An Encyclopaedia . Garland Publishing, 1995, ISBN 0-8240-4444-4 , pp. 251 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ a b Blondel de Nesle . In: Samuel N. Rosenberg, Margaret Switten (Ed.): Songs of the Troubadours and Trouvères . Routledge , 2013, ISBN 978-1-134-81914-0 , pp. 239 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ A b Frank McLynn: Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest . Random House, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4464-4925-7 , pp. 228 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Blondel de Nesle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French song poet, one of the earliest trouvères in northern France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1155
DATE OF DEATH after 1200