Raoul de Houdenc

Raoul de Houdenc (flourished c. 1200–30 bce) was a French trouvère poet-musician of courtly romances, credited with writing one of the first French romances, told in an ornate, allegorical style.

Little is known of Raoul’s life. His name could have originated from a dozen cities. Certain passages in his writings suggest that he may have been a monk, and it is known that he was trained as a clerk. He was familiar with Paris and seems to have lived as a minstrel, singing sometimes in the street and sometimes at the courts of the minor nobility. His greatest work, the Arthurian romance Méraugis de Portlesguez, was constructed on a single theme, developed through myriad, enveloping allegorical details. Delicate in its psychology and subtle in its expression, the work influenced the courtly tradition. His Songe d’enfer (“Dream of Hell”) may have influenced Dante in writing The Divine Comedy. Raoul also wrote the Roman des ailes (“The Romance of the Wings”), in which he enumerates the qualities necessary for courtly love. An imitator or competitor of the poet Chrétien de Troyes, Raoul may also have been the author of an allegorical poem, La Voie de Paradis (“The Way of Paradise”), and a romance, Vengeance de Raguidel.