Trouvères were medieval lyric poets from northern France who wrote in Old French, mainly during the 12th and 13th centuries. Like the troubadours of southern France, they composed courtly songs about love, honor, and chivalry, often for performance with music. The term usually refers to the group as a whole; the singular form is trouvère.
Example
At winter court, the minstrel sang
of love that held through iron and frost;
her name became the lamp he bore
through every darkened hall.