Abstract
The article shows, how the fear of punishment influences the activities of protagonists of four French medieval epic poems (chansons de geste): Renaut de Montauban, Girart de Roussillon, Raoul de Crambrai and Chevalerie Ogier. Firstly, the basic notions, such as fear, anxiety and punishment are defined. Then, the presentation of penalties following infringement of divine law follows. Also, the public law penalties such as confiscation of fief or disgraceful penalties for knighthood such as hanging, or mutilation are shown. Secondly, the article proves that the perspective of punishment often appears in the analysed epic poems. The protagonists are frequently reminded of the perspective of penalty by external factors, usually by remonstrating vassals. The reference of penalty usually causes no protagonists’ fear, despite expectations. Thus, the rebellious vassals consider the perspective of being punished by their activities.
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