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.