I'm the leader of a Men's Rugby club known as the Tafurs, the name of which is based on the Legend of King Tafur. I'm trying to learn more about this topic and am attempting to compile some type of brief history of the subject for the team. From what I can gather, based on a few poems and I found, as well as some other forum posts, he was the leader of a band of poor beggars during the first crusade, they captured a city, and cannibalized the inhabitants. They subsequently became a formidable fighting force, who then stayed to defend the Holy land.
Limited Sources so far:
Most complete source thus far, although I am suspect of it: http://www.shadowedrealm.com/medieval-forum/topic/1479-tafurs/
Contains a poem on the King and some limited info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maarrat_al-Nu%27man
Planning on making a trip to the library to see if they have anything on it tonight after work. If anyone could clarify this for me or point me in a direction I'd be very appreciative.
Most of the folk/legend will be in French- which is probably why you're running into trouble
This is an unpublished paper (understand the implications of that) that breaks down some non English texts: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=revisioning
And this seems to be a a pretty decent scholarly article from the vantage point of folklore and cannibalism: Sumberg, Lewis AM. "The Tafurs and the First Crusade." Mediaeval Studies 21, no. 1 (1959): 224-246. http://brepols.metapress.com/content/828786q114256350/
remember, when in doubt, always always always ask google scholar for EXACTLY what you want :D