Dictionary:
chanson de geste (də zhĕst')  |
Any of more than 80 Old French epic poems of the 11th to the 14th centuries celebrating the deeds of historical or legendary figures, especially the exploits of Charlemagne and his successors.
[French : chanson, song + de, of + geste, heroic exploit.]
| Music Encyclopedia: Chanson de geste |
A type of epic poetry in which (to judge by contemporary descriptions and the scraps that survive) each line was sung to the same melody. About 100 examples survive, mostly from the 12th century; they are northern French in origin. They treat heroic exploits or the lives of the saints; the most famous is The Song of Roland (c 1080).
| Literary Dictionary: chanson de geste |
chanson de geste
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: chanson de geste |
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| French Literature Companion: Chanson de geste |
Major medieval French narrative genre, with a distinctive verse form and broadly historical content: geste means ‘history’ as well as ‘deed’; it can also mean ‘lineage’. Chansons de geste are often also referred to as ‘epic poems’, because they are substantial works running to many thousands of lines whose major subject-matter is heroic action; the term ‘epic’ also serves to underline the opposition between them and medieval ‘romance’, the other major narrative genre of the period. The best-known examples of chansons de geste are those celebrating the heroic careers of Roland and William of Orange [see Guillaume, cycle de], both of whom appear to have been real historical figures from Carolingian times. Chanson de geste texts are difficult to date, but the genre flourished from at least the late 11th until the early 14th c., and longer if one includes the recasting in prose (or mise en prose) [see Burgundian court Literature] of earlier verse texts throughout the 14th and 15th c.; these mises en prose continued to be printed in the 16th c. There are over 100 surviving chansons de geste, not all of which have yet been edited. Nearly all are anonymous. The earliest named author is Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube (late 12th c.).
Unlike romances, which share the same metre as many other medieval French genres, chansons de geste are immediately recognizable because their metrical form is virtually unique to them. (It is also found in some saints' lives.) They are composed in strophes of varying length called laisses; all the lines of each laisse share the same assonance or rhyme. Laisses may be as short as three or four lines, or as long as several hundreds. In some early poems there is a close correspondence between narrative shape and laisse division; the story develops in a manner similar to the English ballad, with an episode being recounted in each strophe. Another ballad-like feature of these early poems is their use of repetition. Similarities of phrasing from one laisse to another impart a lyrical quality to the poems, and by the same token diminish their narrative impetus. It is sometimes unclear whether the same events are being re-narrated from different points of view, or whether different events are being described with a disconcerting similarity. The lyricism of the chansons de geste was probably also manifested in performance, since it appears that they were sung or intoned, and not, as were romances, simply read aloud.
Chansons de geste are usually monometric, i.e. all the lines are of uniform length, the decasyllabic line predominating but coming under increasing competition from the alexandrine from the late 12th c. onwards. A very few texts—including the early Gormont et Isembart—are in octosyllables. Whatever its length, the line is divided into two by a regularly placed caesura, which cuts the decasyllable 4-6 (exceptionally 6-4), and the alexandrine 6-6. Just as the laisse tends to correspond to a unit of narrative, so these 4- or 6-syllable hemistichs are often syntactically self-contained; and as there is repetition between laisses, so there is a tendency for hemistichs to recur, both within a given poem, and from poem to poem. This feature has led to the chansons de geste being described as ‘formulaic’, the repeated hemistichs being termed ‘formulae’.
This terminology derives from Homer studies, and reflects a concern to compare the chansons de geste with other epic literatures. The degree of ‘formulaicness’ of chansons de geste and other epic texts has been diversely calculated, and the results used to defend the view that the chansons de geste were originally an oral genre. ‘Formulae’, it is suggested, were a stock of ready-made poetic building-bricks enabling a singer to put together in performance the details of a narrative whose overall framework he would reproduce from memory (and which, moreover, would be already known to his audience). The manuscript versions which we have are merely the fossilized remains of poetic material which in the Middle Ages lived through constant recreation and retelling. Writing preserves individual texts, but it also distorts the fluidity and plurality of the medieval works.
The respective roles of orality and writing in the production of the chansons de geste are, however, a matter of controversy. Even though the poems were performed orally, they may not have been performed entirely from memory, or with a high degree of improvization. In cases where the same chanson de geste survives in several manuscript copies, variations between the copies may result from rival oral versions, but they may equally arise from editorial decisions or from the vagaries of medieval scribal practice. ‘Formula’ might be a romantic term for ‘cliché’, and certainly there could be reasons other than oral improvization for cultivating patterns of repetition. Given the disagreement on these issues, it is difficult to give a straightforward account of the form of the chansons de geste.
There are analogous problems when we address their content. Here the major puzzle is that most chansons de geste have some kind of anchorage in historical fact, usually from the Carolingian era. How did 8th- and 9th-c. material find its way into 12th-c. poems? Were they composed in the manner of historical novels, using chronicle sources for information? The main weakness of this solution is the poems' wild inaccuracies: they seem as eager to misrepresent historical incidents as to dramatize them. Alternatively, was there a continuous tradition of oral narrative, stretching back to contemporary celebrations of historical events, but eventually distorting them through its constant retelling and embroidering upon them? The major problem with this hypothesis is that such evidence as survives for this alleged 300-year period of activity is insufficient to prove that there was a continuous literary tradition, as opposed to a tradition of family or local legends with no fixed form. The question of sources and origins is complex and, it would appear, irresolvable. There is no doubt, however, that the chanson de geste texts we now have show traces of reworking, or remaniement; how far back in time such remaniements extend, and whether they were predominantly oral or written, remains unknown.
An interesting testimony to the character of the chansons de geste is that of Jehan Bodel. In the prologue to his chanson de geste, Les Saisnes, he characterizes them as ‘true’ in contrast with Arthurian romances (‘empty and entertaining’) and adaptations of the classics (‘learned’). The ‘truth’ of the chansons de geste may not be informed by learning, and certainly not by the accuracy sought by modern historians, but they do capture perceptions about historical reality. These poems are concerned with lived experience, which they construct as a curious amalgam of present moral and political preoccupations and past circumstances. France's heroic age—the Carolingian empire—becomes a fictional setting for heroic figures onto whom contemporary dilemmas can be displaced and through whom they can be investigated.
In the prologue to his Girart de Vienne, Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube classifies chansons de geste into three gestes: those of the emperor Charlemagne; those dealing with William of Orange and his family; and those that deal with rebels or traitors. This analysis is far from satisfactory for categorizing texts (Girart de Vienne itself could be said to belong to all three), but it does suggest three ways of envisaging the roles of king and aristocracy in the chansons de geste, and thus of categorizing their political content. In the geste du roi, barons collaborate with the king, usually in a context of holy war or crusade; in the William poems a weak king Louis, son of Charlemagne, is only kept in power by the selfless service of his vassals; and in the poems featuring rebel barons, the social fabric is represented in various stages of disintegration as powerful factions within France war with each other, and the king is either under attack himself (as in Renaut de Montauban) or powerless to end the fighting (as in Raoul de Cambrai). The historical struggles represented in the chansons de geste are a powerful lens through which to view broader political and moral issues: the value and cohesion of social bonds such as feudalism, friendship, lineage, or the emergent concept of ‘the nation’; the validity of different means of settling disputes or enforcing authority, such as violence, coercion, litigation, or negotiation; the acceptability of social difference created by factors such as race, religion, legitimacy, gender; the threat to political stability posed by ambition, duplicity, or illicit sexuality.
It is impossible to judge the audience of the chansons de geste. They may have been heard by all social groups. The 12th-c. chronicler William of Malmesbury alleges that a jongleur performed the Chanson de Roland to encourage the invading force at the Battle of Hastings, but modern scholars take this account with a pinch of salt. From the late 12th c. onwards, with the rise in importance of the poems dealing with rebel barons, chansons de geste become less favourable to the aristocracy and more akin to social satire, and this change may have brought with it a widening of audience.
Poems from all three of the gestes enumerated by Bertrand are reworked in prose. Jean d'Outremeuse (14th c.) and David Aubert (15th c.) both made massive prose compilations of earlier epic poems, and many other mises en prose survive that are anonymous. Although the date, status, and origins of our chanson de geste texts are all uncertain, it is clear that they were an enormously succesful and influential genre throughout the French Middle Ages.
[Sarah Kay]
Bibliography
| Columbia Encyclopedia: chansons de geste |
Bibliography
See W. C. Calin, The Epic Quest (1966), J. Crosland, The Old French Epic (1971), and N. A. Daniel, Heroes and Saracens: A Reinterpretation of the Chansons de Geste (1983).
| Poetry Glossary: Chanson De Geste |
Literally, a song of heroic deeds, it refers to a class of Old French epic poems of the Middle Ages.
| Wikipedia: Chanson de geste |
The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères (troubadours) and the earliest verse romances. The French chanson gave rise to the Old Spanish tradition of the cantar de gesta.
Contents |
Composed in Old French and apparently intended for oral performance by jongleurs, the chansons de geste narrate legendary incidents (sometimes based on real events) in the history of France during the eighth and ninth centuries, the age of Charles Martel, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, with emphasis on their conflicts with the Moors and Saracens. To these historical legends, fantasy is gradually added; giants, magic, and monsters increasingly appear among the foes along with Muslims. There is also an increasing dose of Eastern adventure, drawing on contemporary experiences in the Crusades; in addition, one series of chansons retells the events of the First Crusade and the first years of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Finally, in chansons of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the historical and military aspects wane, and the fantastic elements in the stories dominate.
The traditional subject matter of the chansons de geste became known as the Matter of France. This distinguished them from romances concerned with the Matter of Britain, that is, King Arthur and his knights; and with the so-called Matter of Rome, covering the Trojan War, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the life of Julius Cæsar and some of his Imperial successors, who were given medieval makeovers as exemplars of chivalry.[1]
The poems contain a small and unvarying assortment of character types; the repertoire of valiant hero, brave traitor, shifty or cowardly traitor, Saracen giant, beautiful Saracen princess, and so forth is one that is easily exhausted. As the genre matured, fantasy elements were introduced. Some of the characters that were devised by the poets in this manner include the fairy Oberon, who made his literary debut in Huon de Bordeaux; and the magic horse Bayard, who first appears in Renaud de Montauban. Quite soon an element of self-parody appears; even the august Charlemagne was not above gentle mockery in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne.
The origin of the chanson de geste as a form is much debated. The nineteenth century medievalist Gaston Paris, recognising that they drew on an oral epic tradition, identified this with narrative songs (sometimes called cantilenae) that are occasionally mentioned by contemporary authors in other genres.
Such songs about important events were sometimes being sung very soon after the military events described. As a first example, a contemporary historian records that the names of those who fell at the very minor ambush at Roncesvalles were on everyone's lips sixty years after the event, indicating the growth of a legend quite out of proportion to the original incident -- a legend that would result, long afterwards, in the various versions of the Song of Roland that are now known.[2] As a second example, there are references to contemporary songs on the subject of the First Crusade in two historical sources on that Crusade,[3] supporting the statement by Graindor of Brie, composer of the surviving Chanson d'Antioche, that he had drawn on the original work of the jongleur and participant Richard le Pèlerin. The Spanish Cantar de Mio Cid shows that a comparable narrative tradition existed in Spain at the same period.
Gaston Paris also believed that the early singers followed the courts of kings and military leaders, as did Norse skalds (lyric poets) and some Celtic bards, but the evidence on this is less conclusive.
Another school of thought, championed by Joseph Bédier, holds that the poems were the invention of the poets who wrote them. Bédier further suggests that some of the stories were first invented by monks, who used them to advertise pilgrimage sites by connecting them not only with saints but also by legendary heroes of folklore. Magical relics frequently appear in the tales. This point of view has fewer proponents since the development of Oral theory; it is additionally problematic because monks were specifically forbidden to dabble in the literature of the jongleurs.
Early chansons de geste are composed in ten-syllable lines grouped in assonanced stanzas (meaning that the last stressed vowel is the same in each line throughout the stanza, but the last consonant differs from line to line). These stanzas are typically called laisses. Stanzas are of variable length. An example from the Chanson de Roland illustrates the technique. The assonance in this stanza is on e:
Later chansons are composed in monorhyme stanzas, in which the last syllable of each line rhymes fully throughout the stanza. A second change is that each line now contains twelve syllables instead of ten. The following example is from the opening lines of Les Chétifs, a chanson in the Crusade cycle. The rhyme is on ie:
The songs were recited (sometimes to casual audiences, sometimes possibly in a more formal setting) by jongleurs, who would sometimes accompany themselves, or be accompanied, on the vielle, a mediæval fiddle played with a bow. Several manuscript texts include lines in which the jongleur demands attention, threatens to stop singing, promises to continue the next day, and asks for money or gifts. Since paper was extremely expensive and not all poets could read, it seems likely that even after the chansons had begun to be written down, many performances continued to depend on oral transmission. As an indication of the role played by orality in the tradition of the chanson de geste, lines and sometimes whole stanzas (especially in the earlier examples) are noticeably formulaic in nature, making it possible both for the poet to construct a poem in performance and for the audience to grasp a new theme with ease.
Approximately eighty chansons de geste survive, in manuscripts that date from the 12th to the 15th century. Several popular chansons were written down more than once in varying forms. The earliest chansons are all (more or less) anonymous; many later ones have named authors.
About 1215 Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, in the introductory lines to his Girart de Vienne, subdivided the Matter of France, the usual subject area of the chansons de geste, into three cycles, which revolved around three main characters (see quotation at Matter of France). There are several other less formal lists of chansons, or of the legends they incorporate. One can be found in the fabliau entitled Des Deux Bordeors Ribauz, a humorous tale of the second half of the 13th century, in which a jongleur lists the stories he knows.[4] Another is included by the Catalan troubadour Guiraut de Cabrera in his humorous poem Ensenhamen, better known from its first words as "Cabra juglar": this is addressed to a juglar (jongleur) and purports to instruct him on the poems he ought to know but doesn't.[5]
The listing below is arranged according to Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube's cycles, extended with two additional groupings and with a final list of chansons that fit into no cycle. There are numerous differences of opinion about the categorization of individual chansons.
The chief character is usually Charlemagne or one of his immediate successors. A pervasive theme is the King's role as champion of Christianity. This cycle contains the first of the chansons to be written down, the Chanson de Roland or "Song of Roland".
The central character is not Garin de Monglane but his supposed great-grandson, Guillaume d'Orange. These chansons deal with knights who were typically younger sons, not heirs, who seek land and glory through combat with the Infidel (in practice, Muslim) enemy.
This cycle concerns traitors and rebels against royal authority. In each case the revolt ends with the defeat of the rebels and their eventual repentance.
This local cycle of epics of Lorraine traditional history, in the late form in which it is now known, includes details evidently drawn from Huon de Bordeaux and Ogier le Danois.
Not listed by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, this cycle deals with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath.
The chansons de geste created a body of mythology that lived on well after the creative force of the genre itself was spent. The Italian epics of Torquato Tasso (Rinaldo), Orlando innamorato (1495) by Matteo Boiardo, and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto are all founded on the legends of the paladins of Charlemagne that first appeared in the chansons de geste. As such, their incidents and plot devices later became central to works of English literature such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Spenser attempted to adapt the form devised to tell the tale of the triumph of Christianity over Islam to tell instead of the triumph of Protestantism over Roman Catholicism. The German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach based his (incomplete) 13th century epic Willehalm, consisting of seventy-eight manuscripts, on the life of William of Orange. The chansons were also recorded in the Icelandic saga, Karlamagnús .
Indeed, until the 19th century, the tales of Roland and Charlemagne were as important as the tales of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, and the Italian epics on these themes were still accounted major works of literature. It is only in the later nineteenth and twentieth century that the Matter of France was finally eclipsed by the Matter of Britain.
The narrative structure of the chanson de geste has been compared to the one in the Nibelungenlied and in creole legends by Henri Wittmann[26] on the basis of common narreme structure as first developed in the work of Eugene Dorfman[27] and Jean-Pierre Tusseau[28]
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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