Turold

Turold ( Latin Turoldus in ) is the name which appears in last the worms of the oldest drafting of the Song of Roland (ms. of Oxford), composed in an Anglo-Norman dialect towards 1090: “ Ci falt epic that Turoldus declinet ”.

The family of this Trouvère was Norman. He is reproduced itself on the Tapisserie of Bayeux, being distinguished, with his sons, with the Bataille of Hastings. Its name also appears in the Domesday Book.

This is Turold simply the copyist of the manuscript? Is he the author even of the drafting of Oxford or one of those which preceded it? The vagueness of the expressions employed makes the answer about impossible. Geste could indicate the poem itself, and this word seems to support the second assumption; but it would be reconciled with difficulty with declinet , which can hardly apply but to one juggler or recitator.

Turold is a Scandinavian first name of origin ( Thorold ) imported in Normandy by the Viking S and very popular in ducal Normandy of the S: it is at the origin of a typically Norman patronym at the base, Théroulde (present especially in the Pays of Caux).

Reference

Gervais of the Street, historical Tests on the bards, jugglers and trouveres Norman and Anglo-Norman , Caen, Mancel, 1834

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