Almucs de Castelnau

Almucs de Castelnau or Castelnou (c. 1140 – pre-1184) was a trobairitz (a female troubadour) from a town near Avignon in Provence.

Regarding her first name, Almucs, the following variants have been documented: Almuc, Almou, Almodis, Almurs, Aelmudis, Almaudis, Adalmudis, Adalmua, Adalmues, and Azalmuers.

Works

Almucs' only surviving work is a stanza in a two-stanza tenso (poetic exchange) with Iseut de Capio, another trobairitz. Each stanza of the song, found in a thirteenth-century manuscript chansonnier, is introduced by a razo and accompanied by a miniature. It tells how Iseut de Capio begged Almucs de Castelnau to pardon Gigo (Gui), lord of Tournon (Tornon) in the Vivarais and Iseut's knight, who had committed "a great fault" against Almucs. Gigo, however, neither repented nor sought forgiveness, and so Almucs responded to Iseut in a stanza of her own. This exchange has been dated to around 1190.

Dompna n'Iseus, s'ieu saubes
qu'el se pentis de l'engan
qu'el a fait vas mi tan gran
ben fora dreich que n'agues
merces; mas a mi no.s taing
pos que del tort no s'afraing
ni.s pentis del faillimen,
que n'aja mais chauzimen;
mas si vos fiitz pentir
leu podretz mi convertir.

Lady Iseut, if he showed some contrition
he might be able to erase
the effects of his disgrace
and I might grant him some remission;
but I think I'd be unwise
since by his silence he denies
the wrong he's done, to in any way relieve
a man who was so eager to deceive.
Still, if you can get him to repent his perfidy
you'll have no trouble in converting me.

—Almucs de Castelnau: Dompna n'Iseus, s'ieu saubes (from a tenso with Iseut de Capio) —Meg Bogin

Almucs is also mentioned (...dompna nal murs...) in the poem Ia de chan by fellow trobairitz Castelloza.

Identification

Almodis de Caseneuve

Almucs may be identified with a certain Almodis of Caseneuve, which is not far from Avignon and near Les Chapelins, possibly the home of Iseut de Capio. Chronologically, Almodis and Almucs would have been contemporaries, and the lords of Caseneuve have documented relationships with other troubadours. Almodis was the second wife of Guirand I de Simiane, who also ruled Apt and Gordes. She gave birth to four sons, including Raimbout d'Agould, the second eldest, who, in 1173, accompanied his father on Crusade. Since Raimbout must have been of sufficient age at the time to undergo a long and arduous journey and Guirand's first wife had died in 1151, the marriage of Almodis must be placed between that date and approximately 1161 (assuming that the eldest son would have to have been at least twelve at the time of the Crusade). Bogin suggests that a widower like Guirand would have quickly remarried and that Almodis was therefore probably not born much later than 1140.

If the Guirand de Simiane mentioned in documents of 1113 and 1120 is the same as Almodis' husband, it is probable that he went on Crusade with the hope of dying in the East. In 1150 Guirand witnessed the will of Tibors de Sarenom, the mother of Raimbaut d'Aurenga. In 1184 Raimbout d'Agould made a donation to the Abbey of Sénanque in the name of his parents, who were presumably dead. Raimbout is subsequently mentioned frequently by Gaucelm Faidit as N'Agout.

Wife of Guigo de Randon

It is possible that Almucs was the wife of Guigo de Castelnou de Randon, who flourished around 1200.