A Possible Forerunner of the National Epic of France

Abstract

In Richer's History of France, written in 996 for Gerbert of Rheims, there is an account of one of Odo's campaigns against the Normans, which critics have uniformly rejected as being too romantic to rest on facts. The time of the campaign, according to Richer, would be the spring of 892, when Odo had withdrawn his troops from France proper, and was refitting them at Le Puy (now in Haute-Loire). The Normans had overrun Britanny, had reached the Loire, and were preparing to raid the country to the south of that river. When this news reached the king, he at once put himself at the head of his army and marched to meet the invaders. His way led him by Brioude, where he stopped to offer gifts at Saint Julian'g shrine, through Clermont and on to the north. He found the pirates in the act of laying siege to Montpensier (near Aigueperse, in Puy-de-Dome). A council of war gave Odo the opportunity to exhort his nobles to remember the military prowess of their ancestors, who had subdued nearly the whole world and humbled even the pride of Rome, and then battle was joined. The foe fell by thousands. Victory was within the grasp of the French, when a Norman ambush advanced on the field. But its presence was betrayed by its shining weapons, and the French had time to reform their lines, and listen to another appeal from Odo to undergo death even in the defense of their fatherland and for Christianity's sake. However, the ranks hesitated. Leaders were lacking. The nobles to a man had been wounded in the first fight, and now pleaded their wounds as excuse. There was no