I don't know how old is the text. From the state of language, it's not thaaaaaaaat old, I mean it doesn't go back to the troubadours! My book says it's a theme of Scandinavian origin and that it's the theme of "the return of the dying knight" of the popular literature of Germanic Flanders and Ile de France. It'd have reached us (Occitans) by Brittany and Aquitaine harbors. It also says that this one is the version from Quercy i.e. Cahors area (good wine there!).
It's been recorded by Rosina de Peira e Martina (her daughter) in 1979 in "Cançons de femnas" (Songs of women), it's how I knew it.

The tune is totally different. It's 6/8, each measure being: dotted quarter and three eighth:

- E E E
A E B B
G C C C
D(up) C C B
A(undotted + eighth rest) D D D
A A A D
F A G Bflat
A G F E
D

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