Jaufre Rudel (Jaufré inmodern Occitan) was the prince ofBlaye (Princes de Blaia) and atroubadour of the early- to mid-12th century, who probably died during theSecond Crusade, in or after 1147. He is noted for developing the theme of "love from afar" (amor de lonh oramour de loin) in his songs.
Very little is known about his life, but a reference to him in a contemporary song byMarcabru describes him as beingoltra mar—across the sea, probably on theSecond Crusade in 1147. Probably he was the son of Girard, alsocastellan of Blaye, and who was titled "prince" in an 1106 charter. Girard's father was the first to carry the title, being calledprinceps Blaviensis as early as 1090.[2] During his father's lifetime the suzerainty of Blaye was disputed between thecounts of Poitou and thecounts of Angoulême. Shortly after the succession ofWilliam VIII of Poitou, who had inherited it from his father, Blaye was taken byWulgrin II of Angoulême, who probably vested Jaufre with it. According to one hypothesis, based on flimsy evidence, Wulgrin was Jaufre's father.
According to his legendaryvida, or fictionalised biography, he was inspired to go on crusade upon hearing from returning pilgrims of the beauty of CountessHodierna of Tripoli, and that she was hisamor de lonh, his far-off love. The legend claims that he fell sick on the journey and was brought ashore inTripoli a dying man. Countess Hodierna is said to have come down from her castle on hearing the news, and Rudel died in her arms. This romantic but unlikely story seems to have been derived from the enigmatic nature of Rudel's verse and his presumed death on the Second Crusade.
Seven of Rudel's poems have survived to the present day, four of them with music. His compositionLanquan li jorn is thought to be the model for theMinnesingerWalther von der Vogelweide's crusade songAllerest lebe ich mir werde (Palästinalied).
Nineteenth-centuryRomanticism found his legend irresistible. It was the subject of poems byLudwig Uhland,Heinrich Heine,Robert Browning (Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli) andGiosué Carducci (Jaufré Rudel).Algernon Charles Swinburne returned several times to the story in his poetry, inThe Triumph of Time,The Death of Rudel and the now-lostRudel in Paradise (also titledThe Golden House). InThe Triumph of Time, he summarises the legend:
There lived a singer in France of old
By the tideless dolorous midland sea.
In a land of sand and ruin and gold
There shone one woman, and none but she.
And finding life for her love's sake fail,
Being fain to see her, he bade set sail,
Touched land, and saw her as life grew cold,
And praised God, seeing; and so died he.
Died, praising God for his gift and grace:
For she bowed down to him weeping, and said
"Live"; and her tears were shed on his face
Or ever the life in his face was shed.
The sharp tears fell through her hair, and stung
Once, and her close lips touched him and clung
Once, and grew one with his lips for a space;
And so drew back, and the man was dead.
SirNizamat Jung Bahadur, ofHyderabad, also wrote an epic poem on the subject,Rudel of Blaye, in 1926.
TheFrenchdramatistEdmond Rostand took the legend of Rudel and Hodierna as the basis for his 1895 verse dramaLa Princesse Lointaine, but reassigned the female lead from Hodierna to her jilted daughterMelisende, played bySarah Bernhardt. However, there are older mentions of Rudel loving Melisende, such asFrederic Mistral's 1878 Provençal dictionaryLou Tresor dóu Felibrige which states (translation): "Mélisende, Mélissande or Mélissène, countess of Tripoli, daughter of Aimeri de Lusignan, loved by the troubadour Geoffroi^ Rudel".[4]
More recently,FinnishcomposerKaija Saariaho has written anopera about Rudel and Clémence (the name used for Hodierna) calledL'amour de loin, with a libretto byAmin Maalouf, which was given its world premiere at theSalzburg Festival in 2000 and its US premiere at theSanta Fe Opera in 2002.
