Matter of France
The
Matter of France is a body of
mythology and
legend that springs from the
Old French medieval literature of the
chansons de geste. Its tales were first developed in these metrical romances; the stories they told lived on after the romances themselves were no longer widely read.
It was contrasted by medieval French writers with the
Matter of Britain, the legendary history of the
British Isles; and the
Matter of Rome, which represented the medieval poets' interpretations of
Greek mythology and the
history of
classical antiquity. The three names were bestowed by the
twelfth century French poet
Jean Bodel, author of
the Chanson de Saisnes, a
chanson de geste in which he wrote:
- Ne sont que iij matières à nul homme atandant, \n:De France et de Bretaigne, et de Rome la grant.
- (There are but 3 literary cycles that no one should be without: the matter of France, of Britain, and of great Rome.)
Central figures of the Matter of France include
Charlemagne and his
paladins, especially
Roland,
hero of the
Chanson de Roland, and Oliver, a hero who was frequently cast in conflict with the
Muslim champion Fierabras. Originally, the Matter of France contained tales of
war and martial valour, being focused on the conflict between the
Franks and
Saracens or
Moors during the period of
Charles Martel and Charlemagne. The
Chanson de Roland, for example, is about the
Battle of Roncesvalles during the Moorish invasion of southern France. As the
genre matured, elements of
fantasy and
magic tended to accrue to the tales. The magic
horse Bayard, for example, is a recurring figure in many of the tales, as is the
fairy king
Oberon. Sorcerers and wizards appeared as
villains; the heroes were often assisted by magical
relics.
After the period of the
chanson de geste was over, the tales lived on in other literature. Their most well known survival is in the
Italian epics by
Ludovico Ariosto,
Torquato Tasso, and a number of lesser authors who worked the genre, whose tales of
Orlando Furioso ("The Madness of Orlando") and
Orlando Innamorato ("Orlando in Love") were taken directly from the
chansons de geste. These poems, moreover, were imitated in
English by
Edmund Spenser in
The Faerie Queene.
Tales of the Matter of France were also found in
Old Norse, where the
Karlamagnus Saga was written in the
thirteenth century in
Norway, and contains a synopsis of the main stories of the cycle. In
Spanish literature, the epic of
El Cid recreates much of the atmosphere of the earliest
chansons de geste. Indeed, until the
Celtic revival in
Britain and
Ireland breathed new life into the Arthurian cycle in the
nineteenth century, the Matter of France and the Matter of Britain were more or less equally renowned divisions of medieval legend.
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