The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Aymon
AYMON, ā'mȯn, the surname of four
brothers, called respectively Alard, Richard,
Guiscard and Renaud, sons of Aymon or Haimon,
Count of Dordogne, who figure among
the most illustrious heroes of the chivalric
poetry of the Middle Ages; their historic
existence was considered problematical until
M. Longnon in 1879 established the fact that
the Aymons lived in the first half of the 8th
century. Their career furnished rich material
to the romantic narratives of the age of Charles

Martel. A novel, entitled ‘The Four Aymon
Brothers,’ by Huon de Villeneuve, a French
poet of the 13th century, details very minutely
their exploits, and Ariosto conferred a poetical
immortality on the family by the publication of
his ‘Roland,’ in which Renaud, the bravest of
the four brothers, plays continually the most
distinguished part.