In this collection of essays Gérard Gouiran, one of the world's leading and much-loved scholars of medieval Occitan literature, examines this literature from a primarily historical perspective. The book will be of interest to all those curious about this hitherto little-known subject.

Gérard Gouiran was born in 1945 at Le Rove, which was then a small village close to Marseille. His parents often spoke Occitan between themselves, but avoided doing so with their children for fear of damaging their education. It was only after studying Classics in Marseille and then Paris that Professor Gouiran rediscovered the Occitan language, and from then on he has devoted himself to medieval literature. Best known for his magisterial edition of the troubadour Bertran de Born, he has written - and spoken - widely on troubadour lyric, epic, and romance.

Linda M. Paterson taught at Northeastern University, Boston, USA for two years before moving to the University of Warwick, UK in 1971 where she is now Professor Emerita. Her books include Troubadours and Eloquence (1975); The World of the Troubadours: Medieval Occitan Society, c.1100-c.1250 (1993); Culture and Society in Medieval Occitania (2011); and Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Responses to the Crusading Movement, 1137-1336 (2018).

Part 1: Women and Saracens in the Occitan chansons de geste; 1. Silhouettes of women in the Occitan and Old French Roland texts; 2. Belauda's garden; 3. Aude, Iphigenia, Polyxena; 4. So dis la donna: 'Oy, bel sira Rollan, mos maritz es en malaür lo gran': Saracens and the Saracen woman in Rollan a Saragossa; 5. The Saracen from the depths of Hell to the gates of salvation; 6. Between Saracens and Christians, or the decapitated horse; Part 2: Aspects of war in Occitan chansons de geste and lyric poetry; 7. Per las lurs armas devon tostemps cantier: intertextuality effects between Ronsasvals and certain lyric planhz; 8. The first appearance of the herald in literature and the early war songs of Bertran de Born; Part 3: The Albigensian Crusade; 9. Drama queen? Worse: a jongleur! - or how to discredit an opponent: the representation of Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, alias Folquet de Marseille, by the anonymous author of the Song of the Albigensian Crusade; 10. The French against Montfort? The war councils held by Simon de Montfort in the second part of the Song of the Albigensian Crusade; 11. The good use of rebellion; 12. The Toulousains cry 'Toulouse!', the Gascons 'Comminges!' ... The Comminges parallels in the Song of the Albigensian Crusade; 13. The troubadour and the lord: history as viewed by the anonymous author of the Song of the Albigensian Crusade; 14. Las Novas del heretje, or who benefits from propaganda?