The
chanson de geste
, old French epic narrative poems, was the most significant medium of transmission of the
matière de France
between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Only a few texts became fully appropriated into Middle English popular culture through translation into Middle English romance: the narratives of
Fierabras
,
Otinel,
and the
Chanson de Roland
traditions, with the same narratives also being translated into Irish (
Fierabras
and the
Pseudo‐Turpin Chronicle
) and Welsh (
Otinel
,
Roland
, and the
Pseudo‐Turpin Chronicle
). There is, however, evidence that the
chansons de geste
– particularly the legendary feats and conquests of the emperor Charlemagne – were widely read in French‐language texts by Insular readers. In the Insular as well as the Continental context the genre had strong political engagement.
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