Elias, from a 13th-century chansonnier

Elias (de) Fonsalada (fl. late 12th/first quarter of the 13th century)[1] was a troubadour from Bergerac in the Périgord (the Diocese of Périgueux according to his vida).[2] Only two cansos of his survive.

His vida goes further in describing him as a handsome man of the middle class, the son of a burgher and jongleur, who himself became a jongleur.[3] The biographer did not regard him as an accomplished trobaire (troubadour/composer/inventor of poetry) but as a noellaire.[2] This word has been open to interpretation. Boutière and Schutz in their French compilation of the vidas of the troubadours translate it as "auteur d'un genre particulier" (author of a particular genre) or "beau parleur" (good conversationalist).[2] Later Levy traced its etymology to novelador, "auteur de novelles" (author of novas, novels), and Egan, in her English translation, has taken this up as "storyteller".[2] A nova was probably a narrative, as opposed to lyric, work.[4] Thus Elias' vida provides a rare glimpse of narrative vernacular writing in Occitan at the height of the troubadour art.

The poem En Abriu is assigned to Elias in manuscript C (a 14th-century work now known as f.f. 856 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris).[5] This attribution, however, is contradicted by other sources and the poem is usually given to Marcabru.

Notes

  1. ^ His two cansos have been assigned to the last years of Peter II of Aragon by Manfred Raupach (Jewers, 200 n29).
  2. ^ a b c d Egan, 32. His entire vida, in original Occitan, goes: N'Elias Fonsalada si fo de Bragairac, del avesquat de Peiregors. Bels hom fo molt de sa persona, e fo fils d'un borges que se fetz joglar; e n'Elias fo joglars atressi. No bon trobaire mas noellaire fo; e saup benestar entre la gen.
  3. ^ Jones, 309.
  4. ^ Jewers, 195.
  5. ^ Gaunt et al., 324.

Sources

  • Egan, Margarita (ed. and trans.) The Vidas of the Troubadours. New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0-8240-9437-9.
  • Gaunt, Simon; Harvey, Ruth; and Paterson, Linda M., edd. Marcabru: A Critical Edition. Boydell & Brewer, 2000.
  • Jewers, Caroline. "The Name of the Ruse and the Round Table: Occitan Romance and the Case for Cultural Resistance." Neophilologus. Vol. 81, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 187–200.
  • Jones, W. Powell. "The Jongleur Troubadours of Provence." Publication of the Modern Languages Association, Vol. 46, No. 2. (Jun., 1931), pp. 307–311.
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