The work is generally considered to have two distinct halves: the first tells of Guillaume of Orange, his nephew Vivien and the latter's young brother Gui and their various battles with Saracens at L'Archamp; in the second half of the poem (after 2000 lines), Guillaume is aided by Rainouard, a giant.

[2] The poem exists in only one 13th-century manuscript, written in an Anglo-Norman dialect, which only was brought to light in 1901[4] at the sale of the books of Sir Henry Hope Edwardes.

The manuscript has since passed to the British Library (British Library, Add MS 38663), It is the only chanson de geste concerning the deeds of William of Orange that was not included in the cyclic 13th-century collections of chansons de geste generally referred to as the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange.

Much of the poem's material (especially the second half) was also expanded and adapted by the later chanson de geste Aliscans.

The chanson appears to be based on William of Gellone's battle at the Orbieu or Orbiel river near Carcassonne in 793.