William of Cabestany

Wilhelm von Cabestany, illumination

Wilhelm von Cabestany ( Catalan Guillem de Cabestany or Occitan Guilhem de Cabestanh ; * around 1160, † after 1212) was an Occitan knight and trobador .

Life

Historical facts about the life of Wilhelm von Cabestany are not available; his birthplace could have been the place Cabestany in Roussillon . Arnau de Cabestany, a small nobleman from the region, is sometimes mentioned as his father. According to a text from 1534, he is said to have fought alongside Peter II of Aragón in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). After that his track is lost.

plant

Of the total of 9 love canzones ascribed to Wilhelm von Cabestany, 7 are considered authentic; the authorship of the other two is controversial. The Provençal poet and philologist François-Juste-Marie Raynouard , the rediscoverer of medieval Provençal literature, published some of his poems in his influential work Choix des poésies originales des troubadours in 1816 .

"The eaten heart" (Le Cœur mangé)

The legend of the eaten heart, which has been handed down since the 12th century and which was later taken up and varied by many authors, was famous and literarily extremely fertile. According to her, a man killed his wife's lover (amant) and secretly gave her lover's heart to eat; after the meal he told her what had happened and presented her with the lover's severed head, whereupon she threw herself out of the window.

This story can already be found in the work Tristan and Isolde by Thomas d'Angleterre from around 1170. A short time later, Wilhelm von Cabestany also took it up and used it in his poems. As a lover of Sorimonda, the wife of Count Raimon, he is said to have been the victim of a similar murder himself.

literature

Michel Adroher: Les Troubadours roussillonnais (XIIe - XIIIe siècles). Pézilla-la-Rivière 2012, ISBN 978-2-908866-42-1 .
Martín de Riquer: Guillem de Cabestany . In: Los trovadores. II, Barcelona 1984, p. 1065, ISBN 978-84-344-0547-9 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm von Cabestany - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ John E. Matzke: The Legend of the Eaten Heart . In: Modern Language Notes . Vol. 26, No. 1 . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1911, pp. 1-8 , doi : 10.2307 / 2915976 , JSTOR : 2915976 (English).

personal data
SURNAME	William of Cabestany
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Guillem de Cabestany; Guilhem de Cabestanh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Occitan poet
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1160
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cabestany
DATE OF DEATH	after 1212

[1] John E. Matzke: The Legend of the Eaten Heart . In: Modern Language Notes . Vol. 26, No. 1 . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1911, pp. 1-8 , doi : 10.2307 / 2915976 , JSTOR : 2915976 (English).