A verse romance approximately 11,000 lines long, its main character is equivalent to Sir Griflet son of Do, a Knight of the Round Table known from other literature and deriving ultimately from the minor Welsh deity Gilfaethwy, son of the ancestral goddess Dôn ( compare the name of Jaufre's mother, Dovon ) and a character in Math fab Mathonwy, fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.
[1][2][3] Translations of Jaufre were popular on the Iberian Peninsula; a version of the tale (from a Spanish redaction) even exists in Tagalog, the language of the Philippines.
Arthur enters to find a horned beast larger than any bull, with a shaggy red (Occitan: saur "sorrel") coat, a pugnosed snout, large eyes, and long teeth.
The young man who had just arrived asks to follow this knight and avenge the offence committed, but Arthur's seneschal Kay mocks him, saying that this is a drunken boast.
Jaufre continues on his voyage, and comes across a splendid white lance suspended from a beech tree.
The dwarf prays for mercy and Jaufre commands him to carry the white lance to the court of King Arthur.
Jaufre cuts off his arms and legs, then frees the 25 men the sergeant had held prisoner, and sends them all to the court of King Arthur.
Jaufre encounters another man, who tells him to go no further: a dangerous leper is in the neighborhood, who has killed a knight and kidnapped the maiden (daughter of a Norman count) being escorted.
Jaufre vanquishes this foe, cutting a span of his sleeve, severing his arm, gashing his leg, and beheading him.
But during combat, Jaufre suffers head injury from the dropping mace, and a final kick renders him unconscious.
The house crumbles once it loses its enchantment, and Jaufrey declares he will resume his pursuit of Taulat, who killed a knight "right before Queen Guilalmier (Guinevere)",[a] instructing the leper, the maiden, and the others he saved to seek King Arthur's court.
Initially threatening him, Augier eventually tells Jaufre that he will find the answer if he goes to the neighbouring castle and presents himself to the eldest of the two ladies who are caring for an injured man.
Jaufre approaches the elder of the two women, who informs him of the reason behind the lamentations: once a month for seven years, Taulat has forced the injured man, who they care for and who is the true lord of the land, to be flogged up a steep hill until all his wounds open.
When an adversary killed her husband, she feared for her life, and evoked the demon of the black knight to guard her and her two sons.
Jaufre fights him and conquers, recognises that the girl is Augier's daughter, and takes her on horseback in the direction of her father's house.
They dine in the magical underground world that evening, with the lady promising to return Jaufre to Brunissen the following day.
The bird lifts King Arthur in its talons and flies around, in sight of the knights and ladies, who tear their clothes to shreds in their desperation.
The king pardons, and sends for all the master tailors to come to his court and make lavish clothes to replace those torn to shreds.
Jaufre and Mélian distrustfully prepare themselves against attack, but the lady promises them her goodwill, and erects great tents where they can enjoy a nuptial meal.
The lady offers Jaufre the tent as a gift, and casts a magic spell on him to protect him against savage beasts; she gives Brunissen the gift of pleasing everyone who sees her, whatever she says or does; she gives Mélian the assurance that he will never be a prisoner again; she offers their entourage a chariot full of gold and precious objects.
The old woman, who is mother of the leper and giant Jaufre killed, says that she will no longer bar the path with magic.
[13][b] Against a later dating is the fact that James I did not really win his first battle against "those who do not believe in God" (presumably the Saracens), and the poem is quite explicit about this point.
It could be interpreted that, ignoring a previous failed expedition to Peníscola, the poet refers to the sensational conquest of Majorca in 1229-1231, when king James was in his early twenties.
Among the camp who supported the earlier dating was scholar Rita Lejeune, who ventured to suggest that the romance may have been one of the sources that Chrétien de Troyes drew upon.
[13] The literary style also points to a later date, for instance, King Arthur is portrayed in somewhat negative light, and a "certain stiflement of adventures".
[17] The ms. B text appeared in an abridged form (c. 8900 lines) in Raynouard's Lexique Roman (1838), but later published complete in Hermann Breuer edition (1925).
[19] The first modern translation was by Jean-Bernard Mary-Lafon [fr] published 1856, illustrated with twenty woodcut engravings by Gustave Doré,[20] using the abridged ms. B text printed in Raynouard's Lexique Roman.
[27] A 16th century Spanish prose version also appeared, commonly referred to as Tablante de Ricamonte [es] in shorthand (first published 1513 under the full title: La coronica (sic.)
[21][29][f] Material from the Spanish version was also incorporated into Portuguese chapbooks of the 18th century, compiled by António da Silva.
Under the name Tablante de Ricamonte it is Taulat (and not Jofre) who is given the role of eponymous protagonist in the Spanish prose version of Jaufre.