Bayard

:Otheruses4|1=the magical horse from Medieval and Renaissance poetry "For more information on the racehorse, see Bayardo (horse)"Bayard ("Bayard" is the French form; in Italian he is known as Baiardo and in Dutch as Beiaard) is a magic bay horse in the legends derived from the "chansons de geste", renowned for his spirit, and possessed the supernatural ability to adjust his size to his riders.

Bayard is a redhead with a heart of gold and the mind of a fox.

Bayard first appears as the property of Renaud de Montauban (Italian: "Rinaldo") in the Old French twelfth century "chanson de geste" "Quatre Fils Aymon". The horse was capable of carrying Rinaldo and his three brothers ("the four sons of Aymon") all at the same time and of understanding human speech. Near the end of the work, Renaud is forced to cede Bayard to Charlemagne who, as punishment for the horse's exploits, has a large stone tied to Bayard's neck and the horse pushed into the river; Bayard however smashes the stone with his hooves and escapes to live forever more in the woods. [Les Quatre Fils, 273-4.]

In subsequent chansons de geste, Bayard was said to have been initially won by Renaud's cousin, the magician Maugris, before being given to Renaud. [Hasenohr and Zink, 1257-8.]

In Bulfinch's Mythology, Rinaldo's acquisition of Bayard is described as follows: a disguised Maugris (who had previously acquired Bayard) tells Rinaldo that a wild horse under an enchantment roams the woods, and that this horse belonged initially to Amadis of Gaul and can only be won by a knight of Amadis' lineage. Rinaldo eventually subdues the horse by throwing it on the ground, breaking the enchantment. [Thomas Bulfinch, "Bulfinch's Mythology" (Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1419111094, ISBN 9781419111099), pp.407-8. An online edition of the Bulfinch version can also be found here [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/bulfinch/thomas/b93cha/chap2.html] ]

Bayard also appears in the epic poems on chivalrous subjects by Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto.

Outside the city of Dinant in Belgium stands the "Bayard rock", a large cleft rock formation that was said to have been split by Bayard's mighty hooves. In the next Belgian town of Namur stands a locally famous statue of the Horse Bayard and the Four Aymon Brothers along the River Meuse. There are plenty of named places in Wallonia linked to the legend of Four Aymon Brothers and Bayard.

Note that a magical horse Blind Byard is part of Lincolnshire folklore at Byard's Leap

Bayard is also the name given to Troilus' horse in Chaucer's epic poem "Troilus and Criseyde"

References

* "Chanson de Renaud de Montauban"
* "Orlando innamorato" by Matteo Maria Boiardo
* "Orlando furioso" by Ludovico Ariosto
* Hasenohr, Geneviève and Michel Zink, eds. "Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age". Collection: La Pochothèque. Paris: Fayard, 1992. ISBN 2-2530-5662-6
* "Les Quatre Fils Aymon ou Renaud de Montauban" Presentation, selection and translation in modern French by Micheline de Combarieu du Grès and Jean Subrenat. Paris: Gallimard, 1983. ISBN 2-07-037501-3

ee also

*Veillantif - Roland/Orlando's horse (also called Brigliadoro)