An Introduction to the Chansons de Geste by Catherine M. Jones (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: An Introduction to the Chansons de Geste by Catherine M. Jones Mihaela L. Florescu Catherine M. Jones, An Introduction to the Chansons de Geste, New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions ( Gainesville: University Press of Florida 2014) 218 pp. Catherine M. Jones, the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of French and Provencal at the University of Georgia, has produced an excellent introduction to the tradition of the Old French chansons de geste. The resulting book is divided into three major parts. In part one, the chansons are placed in historical and literary context. Part two presents on overview of the numerous texts. Part three looks at six popular chansons in greater detail: La Chanson de Roland, Le Charroi de Nimes, La Prise d’Orange, Raoul de Cambrai, Ami et Amile, and Huon de Bordeaux. Jones approaches the study of the chansons from feminist, postcolonial, and cognitive theory points of view. Jones explains the tradition of the chansons contending that while there are similarities with epics from earlier ages, such as the Homeric epics, the focus of the Old French chansons is more specific than that of its predecessors. The chansons are very much a product of a specific time and place, and often revolve around local conflicts in France usually involving the constant battles for power between the monarchy and the aristocracy and the medieval conflict between Western Europe and Islam. Many chansons de geste are associated with actual historical events. The events depicted in La Chanson de Roland, composed in the late eleventh or early twelfth century were based on an attack on Charlemagne’s troops that took place in 778. The character of Guillaume d’Orange, is loosely based on Guillaume, Count of Toulouse. Historical similarities can be seen even in the portrayal of minor characters. Geographical references and local conflicts are also based in historical fact. Nevertheless, an exact historical reading would be inaccurate as the events the chansons purport to portray were written hundreds of years after they were supposed to have occurred. It is possible the chansons had their start when noteworthy events were recorded contemporarily into lyrical narrative pieces later modified by generations of oral poets. The Old French chansons de geste may have evolved from the Germanic oral tradition prevalent at the time. Itinerant jongleurs in northern France may have been influenced by the traditions of their neighbors. Others theorize that the chansons were inspired by local legends. Neotraditionalists, such as Ramon Menendez Pidal, demonstrate that the early epics [End Page 249] preserved in manuscripts prove the stories predate the oldest surviving texts. Others point to Hellenists Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord’s findings on orally composed epic songs in Yugoslavia as evidence of an example of transmission of stories through an oral tradition which could have been very similar to the method employed to record the Old French chansons de geste. Delving into an even more distant past, Jones explores the possibility that the chansons are related to their older Indo-European forerunners. Joel Grisward’s three ideological identifiers of Indo-European culture are present in the Old French chansons de geste. The sacred, represented by a leader, in the form of a sovereign or a priest, the warrior, and abundance, represented by characters associated with nourishment and riches are the three Indo-European identifiers present in to Old French chansons. Grisward’s theory is further substantiated by the striking similarities in which the chansons align themselves with the earlier substrate of Indo-European themes. In the medieval age, the chansons de geste were distinguished from other writings by their distinctive form. The chansons from the twelfth century were composed in assonanced decasyllabic laisses. The decasyllabic line usually exhibits “epic caesura,” or a division into two parts, 4+6 syllables. The division 6+4 also appears from time to time. “Assonance” refers to the concept of an identical stressed (tonic) vowel at the end of each line. Chansons from the thirteenth century on, made use of the alexandrine verse of twelve syllable lines, featuring a division after the sixth syllable. The thirteenth century saw transition from assonance to rhyme, with many poems undergoing a transformative period containing both...