Bayard

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Bayard

For more information on the racehorse, see Bayardo (horse)
Bayardo (horse)

Bayardo was an United Kingdom Thoroughbred horse racing with an impressive career both on the track and in the breeding shed. He was sired by Bay Ronald who won the Hardwicke Stakes and the City and Suburban Handicap....

Bayard ("Bayard" is the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
form; in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
he is known as Baiardo and in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
as Beiaard) is a magic

Magic (paranormal)

Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a conceptual system that asserts human ability to control or predict the nature through Mysticism, paranormal or supernatural means....
bay horse

Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
in the legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude ....
s derived from the chansons de geste
Chanson de geste

The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poetry that appear at the dawn of French literature....
, 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

Renaud de Montauban

Renaud de Montauban, was a fictional character hero who was introduced to literature in a 12th century Old French chanson de geste also known as the Quatre Fils Aymon ....
(Italian: Rinaldo) in the Old French

Old French

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Encyclopedia

Bayard ("Bayard" is the French

French language

Italian language

Dutch language

Magic (paranormal)

Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a conceptual system that asserts human ability to control or predict the nature through Mysticism, paranormal or supernatural means....
bay horse

Horse

Legend

Renaud de Montauban

Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
twelfth century chanson de geste
Chanson de geste

The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poetry that appear at the dawn of French literature....
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.

In subsequent chansons de geste, Bayard was said to have been initially won by Renaud's cousin, the magician Maugris

Maugris

In the Matter of France, Maugris or Maugis was one of the heroes of the chansons de geste and romance s of chivalry that tell of the legendary court of King Charlemagne....
, before being given to Renaud.

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

Amadis de Gaula

Amadis de Gaula is a landmark work among the knight-errantry fantasy which were in vogue in 16th century Iberian Peninsula, and formed the earliest reading of many Renaissance and Baroque writers....
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.

Bayard also appears in the epic poems

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
on chivalrous

Chivalry

Chivalry is a term relating to the medieval institution of knighthood. It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and courtly love....
subjects by Luigi Pulci

Luigi Pulci

Luigi Pulci was an Italy poet best known for his Morgante, an epic story of a giant who is converted to Christianity and follows the knight Roland....
, Matteo Maria Boiardo

Matteo Maria Boiardo

Matteo Maria Boiardo , was an Italy Renaissance poet.Boiardo was born at, or near, Scandiano ; the son of Giovanni di Feltrino and Lucia Strozzi, he was of noble lineage, ranking as Count of Scandiano, with seignorial power over Arceto, Casalgrande, Gesso, and Torricella....
and Ludovico Ariosto

Ludovico Ariosto

Ludovico Ariosto was an Italians poet. He is best known as the author of the romance Epic poetry Orlando Furioso . The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Roland, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracen with divergents into many side plots....
.

Outside the city of Dinant

Dinant

||-||-||}Dinant is a Wallonia city and Municipalities in Belgium located on the River Meuse in the Belgium Provinces of Belgium of Namur , Belgium....
in Belgium

Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
stands the "Bayard rock", a large cleft rock formation that was said to have been split by Bayard's mighty hooves

Hoof

File:Horse rear hooves.jpgA hoof is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick horny covering. The hoof consists of a hard or rubbery sole, and a hard wall formed by a thick Nail rolled around the tip of the toe....
. In the next Belgian town of Namur

Namur (city)

Namur is a city and Municipalities in Belgium in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the Provinces of Belgium of Namur and of the Walloon Region ....
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

Wallonia

Wallonia is the Francophone southern part of Belgium. This region makes up about 31% of the Belgian population.Since 1970, Wallonia has approximately coincided with the territory of the Walloon Region, which is a federated component of the Belgian state and provides a government and a parliament to both Wallonia and the smaller German-s...
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 by the late 13th century also acquired common usage as a name for any bay colored horse (reddish-brown coat with black mane and tail). Bayard lost its luster as a magic heroic horse and became associated with a clownish, blind and foolish horse. Chaucer first use Bayard to name Troilus' horse in the epic poem "Troilus and Criseyde." That horse, talking while he pranced, admitted that he was bound to be but a horse. Chaucer also used Bayard in the Canterbury Tales (c. 1286) to denote a randy stud in the Reeve's Tale and a blind, foolish horse in the Cannon's Yeoman's Tale: "Though ye prolle ay, ye shul it nevere fynde. Ye been as boold as is Bayard the blynde. That blondreth forth and peril casteth noon." ("Though you search afar, you shall never find it; Be you as bold as Bayard the blind, that blunders forth and perceives no peril.)

Bayard

See also