Chanson de geste

A medieval French narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, especially those associated with Charlemagne and his knights. These poems were often composed in verse and performed aloud.

Old French: The Romance language spoken in northern France during the Middle Ages. The poems were composed in the language’s medieval forms.
The Song of Roland: An Old French epic poem about Roland’s death at the Battle of Roncevaux. It is the best-known chanson de geste and a defining account of heroic loyalty.
Carolingian dynasty: The Frankish dynasty that ruled much of western Europe from the eighth to tenth centuries. Its rulers and wars became the poems’ central legendary past.
Romance (heroic literature): A medieval narrative genre centered on chivalric adventure, love, and individual quests. Romances generally favor courtly adventure over the collective warfare of chansons de geste.
laisse: A stanza in medieval French epic poetry, often built around a single assonance. Chansons de geste are organized into these distinctive verse units.
The Song of Guillaume: An Old French epic poem about William of Orange and the defense of Christian territory. It anchors a cycle of poems about the deeds of Guillaume and his lineage.
Charlemagne: King of the Franks and emperor whose reign expanded Frankish power across western Europe. His court and campaigns form the imagined center of many poem cycles.
Arthurian literature: Medieval narratives about King Arthur, his court, and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian tales offer a distinct courtly world alongside Carolingian heroic cycles.
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words, without requiring matching consonants. Rather than regular rhyme, assonance commonly links lines within a laisse.
Raoul de Cambrai: A medieval French epic poem about a destructive feud between rival noble families. Its violence complicates the genre’s ideals of loyalty and noble conduct.

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