ABSTRACT
PAIAMEDES, a French prose romance of the thirteenth century, predating the cyclic version of the Prose Tristan. The work, which is anonymous (although attributed in the prologue to Elie, or Helie, de Borron), is preserved as part of the Compilation of Rusticiano da Pisa and, in fragmentary form, in several manuscripts. The full title of the work (according to some manuscripts) identifies its heroes as Palamedes, Meliadus (the father of Tristan), and Guiron Ie Courtois. The last two of them play prominent roles, respectively, in the two halves of the romance; in fact, the two parts of the work could be-and often were-considered to be independent texts, and the titles Meliadus and Guiron (or Gyron) Ie Courtois were attached to them.
