SOURCE: Schurfranz, Barbara. “Thiebaut du Plesseis in Garin le Loheren: An Echo of La Chanson de Guillaume?” Romance Notes 21, no. 2 (winter 1980): 243-47.

In the following essay, Schurfranz concentrates on the role of Thiebaut in Garin le Loherain and on links between this figure and Thiebaut de Bourges of La Chanson de Guillame.

In La Chanson de Guillaume, Thiebaut de Bourges and his nephew Estourmi indirectly cause Vivien's death. Though lacking any heroic qualities whatsoever, these two reprobates did not gain, as did Ganelon, the standing of archtraitor in chanson de geste literature, and mention of either of them in other epics is rare.¹

In Garin le Loheren, the death of one of the two central figures, Begon, is caused indirectly by a certain Thiebaut du Plesseis, the brother of an Estourmi. Thiebaut's relatives (the Bordelais) are involved in an intermittent long-standing feud with Begon's family (the Loherens). Thiebaut...