The shadow of the bear: An archeology of names in the Roman de Guiron

New approaches built over the past ten years make it possible to address several long-standing questions regarding Guiron le Courtois. In particular, these studies illuminate ambiguities related to the literary origins of the protagonist and of his family. Guiron’s lineage as well as that of Galeholt le Brun, his mentor, include powerful individuals; and yet these strong characters remain peripheral, seldom crossing into the orbit of the Arthurian court. Of their lives only certain segments are known, and these alternate with imprisonment and incognito chivalric adventures. The Roman de Guiron, the core narrative of the cycle, most likely drew the protagonist’s name from the tradition of Arthurian lais but reinvented from scratch his chivalric biography, playing on the ambiguity of the relations between Guiron’s family and the Bruns, the family of Galeholt. One mirrors the other, and both seem to converge towards the archaic figures of the giant and the bear, while the plot unfolds in an unusual retro-chronology, drawing the reader’s sight to their origins.