"Ci falt la geste": Scribal Closure in the Oxford Roland

Abstract

Most literary readings of the Chanson de Roland have been influenced, directly or obliquely, by the discussion surrounding its origins and hypothetical mode of composition-a discussion whose centrality in the scholarly literature is attributable to two principal, mutually conditioning factors. First, there arises the problem of the relationship between the so-called Oxford version of the poem (ms. Digby 23 of the Bodleian Library), and a series of other versions of the same story, some having survived in various Old French dialects, and some in foreign translations (German, Norse, Welsh, to mention only a few).1 While the plot is essentially the same, the differences among the versions are so fundamental as to make the task of abstracting one single text from them virtually impossible.2 Although the Oxford Roland is generally considered to be the best, and is certainly the oldest surviving example, the awareness of a possible earlier state of the text, confirmed by variant episodes in the later versions, has led many scholars to dwell upon the text's