Chanson de Geste

Abstract

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.