Medieval French Literature - The Chanson de Geste

The Chanson De Geste

At the beginning of the 13th century, Jean Bodel, in his Chanson de Saisnes, divided medieval French narrative literature into three subject areas:

• the Matter of France or Matter of Charlemagne
• the Matter of Rome - romances in an ancient setting (see roman below)
• the Matter of Britain - Arthurian romances, Breton lais (see roman below)

The first of these is the subject area of the chansons de geste ("songs of exploits" or "songs of (heroic) deeds"), epic poems typically composed in ten-syllable assonanced (occasionally rhymed) laisses. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in around three hundred manuscripts. The chief theme of the earliest French epics was the court of Charlemagne, Charles Martel and Charles the Bald and their wars against the Moors and Saracens, or disputes between kings and their rebellious vassals.

The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland (earliest version composed c. 1098), seen by some as the national epic of France (comparable with Beowulf in England, the Song of the Nibelungs in Germany and the Lay of el Cid in Spain). It is perhaps no coincidence that the Song of Roland was first written down at a date very close to that of Pope Urban's call (1095) for the First Crusade; its plot may be seen as a glorification of the crusader ethos.

The earliest chansons de geste are (more or less) anonymous. They are popular literature (aimed at a warrior class, some say, though the evidence for this is inconclusive). They use an assortment of stock characters: the valiant hero, the brave traitor, the shifty or cowardly traitor, the Saracen, the giant, and so forth. But they also reveal much of the fears and conflicts that were part of the audience's experience. Kings are vain, foolish, old or wily. Insults that threaten honour or cause shame are seen to provoke bloody conflict, which may arise simply from competitiveness among knights or noble families. For discussion of the much debated origins of this epic genre, see Chanson de geste.

Approximately one hundred chansons survive, in manuscripts that date from the 12th to the 15th century. Not long after Jean Bodel (above), Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube in his Girart de Vienne set out a grouping of the chansons de geste into three cycles, each named after a chief character or ancestral figure, and each with a central theme, such as loyalty to a feudal chief, or the defence of Christianity. This is a list of the cycles with a few of the chansons that belong to each:

• The Geste du roi. In these the chief character was Charlemagne or his heirs, and a pervasive theme was his role as the divine champion of Christianity. This cycle contains the earliest and best known of the epics --
  • The Song of Roland (c. 1098 for the Oxford text, the earliest version: several others exist, including an Occitan version)
  • Fierabras (c. 1170)
  • Aspremont (c.1190-1200)
  • Huon de Bordeaux (c.1216-1268)
  • Chanson de Saisnes by Jean Bodel (1200)
• The Geste de Garin de Monglane, whose central character was William of Orange. These dealt with knights who were typically younger sons without an inheritance who sought land and glory through combat with the Saracens.
  • Chanson de Guillaume (c.1100)
  • Couronnement de Louis (1130)
  • Charroi de Nîmes (1140)
  • Prise d'Orange (1150?)
  • Aliscans (1165)
  • Aymeri de Narbonne and Girart de Vienne by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube (1190–1217)
• The Geste de Doon de Mayence (or the "rebel vassal cycle"); this cycle was concerned with rebels against (often unjust) royal authority and its most famous characters were Renaud de Montauban and Girart de Roussillon.
  • Gormond et Isembart
  • Girart de Roussillon (1160–1170)
  • Renaud de Montauban or Les quatre fils Aymon (end of the 12th century)
  • Raoul de Cambrai (end of the 12th century)
  • Doön de Mayence (mid 13th century)
• A fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath, and including:
  • Chanson d'Antioche
  • Les Chétifs

New chansons tended to be produced and incorporated into the existing literature in two ways:

• A separate period or adventure in the life of an established hero was told (for example, his childhood).
• The adventures of one of the ancestors or descendants of an established hero was told.

This method of epic expansion, with its obsession with blood line, was to be an important compositional technique throughout the Middle Ages. It also underscores the symbolic weight placed within this culture on family honor, paternal fidelity and on the idea of proving one's filial worth.

As the genre matured, it began to borrow elements from the French roman and the role of love became increasingly important. In some chansons de geste an element of self-parody appears, as in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne.