chansons de geste

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chansons de geste

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

chansons de geste [Fr.,=songs of deeds], a group of epic poems of medieval France written from the 11th through the 13th cent. Varying in length from 1,000 to 20,000 lines, assonanced or (in the 13th cent.) rhymed, the poems were composed by trouvères and were grouped in cycles about some great central figure such as Charlemagne. The origin of the form is disputed, but probably the first chansons were composed after the year 1000 by the joint efforts of wandering clerks and jongleurs (itinerant minstrels) to attract pilgrims to shrines where heroes of the chansons were supposedly buried. Sung by jongleurs to the accompaniment of a primitive viol, they spread to England, Germany, Italy, and Iceland. The earlier chansons—epic, aristocratic, and militantly Christian—passed as real history to their medieval listeners, though much of the material was legendary. Some later chansons utilize fantastic adventure or reflect bourgeois elements. The oldest extant chanson, and also the best and most famous, is the Chanson de Roland, composed c.1098-1100 (see Roland ); others are Raoul de Cambrai, Huon de Bordeaux, Aliscans, and Renaud de Montauban.

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).

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chansons de geste

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | © World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

chansons de geste (Fr. ‘songs of deed’) Epic poems, written in Old French between the 11th and 14th centuries, generally dealing with the campaigns of Charlemagne. These anonymous narratives, of which some 80 survive, describe semi-fictional events in the lives of Guillaume d'Orange, Girart de Roussillon, Roland and others.

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chansons de geste

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

chansons de geste, epic poems in Old French embodying legends which had grown up about earlier historical figures. The earliest extant versions are from the 12th cent. and use the legends to embody problems and difficulties of feudal society: either the stresses within the feudal system itself caused by conflicting loyalties, as in Raoul de Cambrai and Girart de Roussillon; or those caused by the impact of the Crusades on feudalism, as in the Chanson de Guillaume and, above all, in the Chanson de Roland (see Roland). These epics gradually grew into three cycles, first delineated by Bertran de Bar-sur-Aube, a writer of two such poems in the early 13th cent.: firstly, the geste du roi, those dealing with the Charlemagne of legend and his knights; secondly, those dealing with Charlemagne's rebellious vassals, the geste de Doon de Mayence; and thirdly, the William of Orange cycle, the geste de Garin de Monglane. The genre followed the usual development of narrative literature during the Old French period: the earliest poems, the Roland and Gormont and Isembart, are heroic; the 12th-cent. poems, with William of Orange as their hero, are more realistic; the later poems have courtly and marvellous elements in them, and lose the tragic seriousness of the earlier works. Similarly, the later ones become more elaborate in style, while the early poems were written in a simple, formulaic style of great dramatic force. The only parallel English poems are those concerned with Charlemagne, such as the fragmentary Middle English Song of Roland (see Ferumbras and Otuel).

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chansons de geste." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chansons de geste." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 16, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-chansonsdegeste.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "chansons de geste." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-chansonsdegeste.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article La Geste francor; edition of the Chansons de geste of MS.Marc.Rr. XIII (=256); 2v.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2009
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La Geste francor; edition of the Chansons de geste of MS.Marc.Rr. XIII (=256); 2v.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2009; 512 words ; 9780866983969 La Geste francor; edition of the Chansons de geste of MS.Marc.Rr...Studies; v.348 PQ1463 The chansons de geste ("songs of heroic...text reproduces all of these chanson de geste in a single format...versions of the individual chansons in different languages ...
The meaning of amputation in the chansons de geste.(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: Symposium; 3/22/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...dramatic tension in the chansons de geste, both sides must surfer...injuries do not. The chanson poets highlight the...Keywords: amputation, chansons de geste, corruption...dramatic tension in the chansons de geste, both sides...and Turpin in the Chanson de Roland, for ...
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Magazine article from: Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association; 1/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...article are taken from several chansons de geste from the Cycle of Charlemagne...people. As the singers of the chansons were dependent on their audiences...thirteenth centuries sang chansons to their Old French-speaking...who wrote down for us the chanson de geste, Gaydon, ...
Moses and the princess: Josephus' 'Antiquitates Judaicae' and the chansons de geste.
Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 3/22/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...marriage, is a familiar theme in the chansons de geste.(1) Indeed, it has received...time the majority of the first chansons de geste were composed. The De...familiar to modern readers of the chansons de geste: Tharbis was the daughter...
What are chansons de geste?(ASK CALLiOPe)(Brief article)
Magazine article from: Calliope; 1/1/2006; 496 words ; Chansons de geste, French for "songs of valorous deeds...form, and artistic merit varied. The chansons were sung or chanted, but almost none...on historical characters and events, chansons de geste are not history. Rather, they...
Gaydon: Chanson de geste du XIIIe siecle.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 3/22/2008; 647 words ; Gaydon: Chanson de geste du XIIIe siecle, ed. Jean Subrenat...France's foremost specialists in the chanson de geste, is very welcome indeed. Gaydon is a 'sequel' to the Chanson de Roland: Gaydon is in fact the sobriquet...
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Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2006; 564 words ; ...3: Miscellaneous romances, Oriental romances, chansons de geste. Ed. by the Austrian Academy of Sciences et al...miscellaneous romances, oriental romances, and chansons de geste. All the text is in English. Indexes will be in...
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Le Moniage Guillaume: chanson de geste du [XII.sup.e] siecle.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 3/22/2004; ; 700+ words ; Le Moniage Guillaume: chanson de geste du [XII.sup.e] siecle, edition...euro]. This closing poem of the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange offers an...et miroir de toutes les autres [chansons] composees sur Guillaume et sur...
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chansons de geste. Other (Public Domain)

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