Jordan Fantosme

Jordan Fantosme (died c. 1185) was an Anglo-Norman historian, chronicler, and trouvère. He was a cleric and probably the spiritual chancellor of the Diocese of Winchester. His major work is an Anglo-Norman verse chronicle of the war between Henry II of England and his son Henry the Young King and William I of Scotland in 1173–1174. As literature, it stands, according to its latest editor, "absolutely first class".

It has been conjectured that Fantosme was an Italian (named Giordano Fantasma) who came to England in the train of Henry of Blois. A few lines from his poem suggests that he was Scoto-Norman, but this may have been inserted for the sake of the minstrels who would be reciting the piece. On the other hand, Fantosme may have simply identified with his adopted country, he referred to messengers of William, who were also subjects of the Young King, as noz (ours). Considering his evident knowledge and skill in the Anglo-Norman language, the most likely hypothesis is that he was Anglo-Norman.

Fantosme was in fact a partisan of Henry II, though his work has been noted for its impartiality and admired for its detail and vigour. Nonetheless, it has been criticised frequently in the past, because of its unusual metre, as a deterioration of the continental French style, but more recent analysis by R. C. Johnston has led to the conclusion that in fact Fantosme's chronicle represents a conscious insular style of French verse. This hypothesis rests in part on the assumption that Fantosme integrated some characteristics of Occitan verse (perhaps coblas by the troubadour Jaufre Rudel) he encountered during a stay in Poitiers in the 1140s, where he probably studied under Gilbert de la Porrée. Fantosme was a contemporary and often claimed to be an eye-witness of the events he describes, but another probable source is Richard of Ilchester, his bishop. His work is in general a reliable historical source.

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