GENELLOUN, GENYLON. Ganelon was Roland's stepfather in the twelfth-century poem La Chanson de Roland. He betrayed the French to the Saracens, and his name became synonymous with treachery. Dante places him in the Antenora, the second division of Circle Nine of Hell, Inf XXXII.122.

Don Pedro is betrayed by a Genelloun-Olyver, that is, an Oliver who is like Ganelon, a friend who becomes a traitor, MkT 2378-2388. The merchant's wife swears to repay the monk and to give him pleasure, or she would be as false as Genylon, ShipT 190-194. The apostrophe on "newe Genylon," NPT 3226-3235, is a parody of the rhetorical ornament found in Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova, Ornata facilis, 1095-1105. The Man in Black says that if he repented of his love, he would be as false as Genelloun, BD 1115-1121. [Genylon-Olyver: Olyver: Rowland]

Genelloun appears once initially, MkT 2389, and once in final rhyming position, BD 1121; Genylon occurs once medially, ShipT 194, and once in final rhyming position, NPT 3227.