chansons de geste

views updated Jun 08 2018

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.