The Anonymous' biography
Elaine Graham-Leigh in The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade (2005)
"Nothing is known about the author save what can be deduced from the work itself. The author has been described as a Toulousan: he refers to Bishop Foulques of Toulouse as 'our bishop' and his stress on the battles for Toulouse has been held to indicate a Toulousan perspective. This is not, however, the only possible interpretation of the author's allegiance, since the focus of the passages on Toulouse is not on the citizens but on the Count of Foix and his sons. This interest in Foix also shaped the earlier passages on the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, some of the most important passages in the continuation of the Chanson which give unique details of the debates over Toulouse and Foix and in which the only lord from Languedoc to speak at any length is the Count of Foix.
The complimentary epithets heaped on Roger Bernard, son of Raimond Roger of Foix and himself Count of Foix from 1223, in the later part of the Chanson imply a particular connection between him and the author; an implication strengthened by the passage referring to him as 'valiant Roger Bernard, who gave me gold and glory'. It is possible that the continuator of the Chanson was a court poet at Foix; since Foix was in the diocese of Toulouse, this presents no contradiction with the reference to Bishop Foulques as 'our bishop'." (p. 34)Mark Pegg in A Most Holy War (2008)
"He was most likely a soldier of Toulouse or Foix ..." (p. xxii)The Anonymous' bias
Janet Shirley (translator) in Song of the Cathar Wars (1996)
"His [William of Tudela's] anonymous continuer, however, is whole-heartedly on the side of the southerners. This does not mean that he supported heresy; on the contrary, he indignantly denies that any of his heroes were guilty of such an error and asserts their orthodoxy." (p.1)
"The Anonymous is a passionate opponent of the crusade, thinks no villainy too evil to be ascribed to its commander, Simon de Montfort, and shouts for joy at each success won by Count Raymond or by his son, 'the brave young count'." (p.2)
"There are several asides in the text expressing gratitude to generous donors, as for example the reference by the Anonymous in laisse 194 to Roger Bernard, son of the count of Foix, que m daura e esclarzis, 'who gave me gold and glory'. The last few laisses, too, display an astonishing command of adjectives: not one of the lords mentioned but is valiant, heroic or generous, and never does the Anonymous repeat himself; he has several new epithets ready every time. Surely this gives us a clue to the likely composition of his audience, among whom he intends shortly to be passing round his hat." (p.5)
Malcolm Barber in The Cathars (2000)
"As the anonymous author of the Chanson saw it, the crusade destroyed this world. Writing in the late 1220s he looked back nostalgically to a time when what he called paratge had been the central element in aristocratic society." (p. 55)Elaine Graham-Leigh in The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade (2005)
"A connection for the continuator with the counts of Foix provides a context for his wholehearted opposition to the crusade, an opposition which shows a clear difference in approach between his perspective and that of Guillaume de Tudela and places his work squarely within the tradition of later vernacular writing about the crusade." (p. 35)Laurence Marvin in The Occitan War (2008)
"The Anonymous is actually the most partisan of the three writers already mentioned [Peter of Les Vaux de Cernay, William of Tudela and the Anonymous], yet he provides us detail for the latter stages of the war which would be unavailable otherwise. Probably from Toulouse, he most likely accurately reflects Toulousan attitudes during the second half of the war.
...
As good as he is on the siege of Toulouse, we have to be careful when the Anonymous talks about goings on in the crusader camp. Simon of Montfort and some of the papal legates come off as stock villains in a melodrama in which the people of the south represent the heroine tied to a railroad track. In that sense, however, the Anonymous is no different from Peter Vaux-de-Cernay, who does much the same thing inverted."(p.26)
Mark Pegg in A Most Holy War (2008)
"He ... was furious. He hated the "French from France" and, less impressed with fate as a despot, saw all terror emanating from Simon de Montfort. He was intensely nostalgic about the world destroyed by the crusade." (p. xxii)
"The anonymous troubadour's verses thrill with a moral clarity so sharp and sarcastic that even Christ Himself was briefly humbled by his wrath." (p. 130)The Anonymous' style
Janet Shirley (translator) in Song of the Cathar Wars (1996)
"[The Anonymous] was a man of genius." (p.2)
"The Anonymous ... can toss showers of words into the air and catch them again, can make the morning air shimmer before our eyes as the knights ride to war along the riverbank with the sun glinting on their armour and on the waters of the Garonne. More than this, he has great economy of style, never any hint of long-windedness or padding, and his command of dialogue is such that we read on in amazement, thinking, for example, 'How brave of that man to speak to Count Simon like that!' before we catch ourselves up and remember that the whole conversation can only be invented." (p.2)
Mark Pegg in A Most Holy War (2008)
"This rage and sentimentality were transformed into sublime and moving poetry .... Guilhem de Tudela's canso was transformed by the anonymous troubadour into one of the great poems of the Middle Ages." (p. xxii)
The Anonymous' reliability
Janet Shirley (translator) in Song of the Cathar Wars (1996)
"The anonymous author who wrote the larger part of the Canso proves equally reliable [to William of Tudela]. Where he can be checked against such texts as the Hystoria albigensis of Peter of Les Vaux de Cernay ... he is accurate, and where he is the sole authority to mention the presence of individuals at such-and-such a scene, he is often supported by charter evidence. His narrative is, however, to some extent uneven. Some events, such as the siege of Beaucaire, are told in great detail, others are skated over or omitted. E. Martin-Chabot, most recent editor of the Canso, claims that this unevenness indicates our author's presence at some events and absence from others and that this is in itself good evidence of his reliability ....Malcolm Barber in The Cathars (2000)
The lively speeches the Anonymous puts into his characters' mouths are of course not meant to be taken literally; they serve to set differing points of view before the audience in a vivid way and to keep the action of the poem moving. Some of them also enable the partisan author to depict Simon de Montfort in a thoroughly repulsive light - here are all these admirable crusaders, we think, great men from the north like the count of Soissons, telling the wicked count to behave better, and yet he persists in his cruel ways! It is easy to forget that these are literary devices and that in all probability the count of Soissons and the others never dreamed of uttering such remarks." (p.5)
"The pro-southern anonymous continuator of the Chanson, who invents a series of colourful speeches for the participants in the Fourth Lateran Council held in November 1215, placed Raymond Roger at the forefront of the debate." (pp. 52-53)
The pro-southern continuator of the Chanson includes a dramatic set-piece which purports to be an account of the arguments put forward before the pope at the council. All the participants are endowed with an eloquence seldom found in real life, but it is likely that beneath the vivid words the poet puts into their mouths, he is conveying a fundamental truth about their respective positions." (p. 138)Elaine Graham-Leigh in The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade (2005)
"Although it [the Chanson] was ... written some years after the events which it describes, the author seems to have been well informed about events in Languedoc, and does not appear markedly less reliable than either Guillaume de Tudela or Pierre des Vaux. This is the case even when the author was describing events outside Languedoc, such as the proceedings of the Fourth Lateran Council.
Although the debates over the counts of Toulouse and Foix at the Fourth Lateran Council are presented in dramatised and dramatic fashion which must have owed much to the imagination of the author, there is no reason to regard the continuation as essentially unreliable about the Council. It is possible that the author had access to first hand sources of information about the proceedings in Rome in 1215, particularly if he had been associated with the court of the Count of Foix." (p. 35)Graham-Leigh then discusses the portrayal of the Pope at the Fourth Lateran Council and concludes:
"... the inherent unlikelihood of Innocent's behaviour as described in the continuation of the Chanson presents problems for this source's acceptance as a reliable and well informed account. These problems are not, however, insoluble: it is possible to accept both the continuation's reliability and its presentation of the Pope if it is interpreted within the later tradition of anti-crusade writing of which it was undoubtedly a part." (p.36)Graham-Leigh then notes "open criticism of the Church and the papacy would have been much more dangerous" for the Anonymous than for better-protected, later authors, "and it is possible that this consideration shaped the continuation of the Chanson."
Mark Pegg in A Most Holy War (2008)
"The anonymous troubadour, not surprisingly, cherished half-heard half-truths." (p. 143)
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