Pierrepont at a Crossroads of Literatures: An Instructive Parallel Between the First Branch of the KARLAMAGNÚS SAGA, the Dutch RENOUT and the Dutch FLOVENT

In the French original of the first branch of the Karlamagnús Saga [fKMSI], in the Dutch Renout and in the Dutch Flovent - three early 13th century texts from present-day Belgium - a toponym Pierrepont plays a conspicuous part (absent, however, from the French models of Renout and Flovent); fKMSI and Renout even have in common a triangle: "Aimon, vassal of Charlemagne - Aie, his wife - Pierrepont, their residence". The toponym is shown to mean Pierrepont (Aisne) near Laon in all three texts. In fKMSI, it is due almost certainly to the intervention of one of two Bishops of Liège (1200 - 1238) from the Pierrepont family, and in the other two texts to a similar cause. Consequently, for fKMSI a date "before 1240" is proposed.