trou·vère 
(tr
-vâr
) also
trou·veur (-vûr
, -v
œr
)
n. One of a class of poet-musicians flourishing in northern France in the 1100s and 1200s, who composed chiefly narrative works, such as the chansons de geste, in langue d'oïl.
[French, from Old French trovere, from trover, to compose, from Vulgar Latin *tropāre; see TROUBADOUR.]