The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in particular involving

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...

and his associates. The cycle springs from the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

chansons de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th ...

'', and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

epics and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

s. Together with the

Matter of Britain The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Weste ...

, which concerned

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...

, and the

Matter of Rome According to the medieval poet Jean Bodel, the Matter of Rome is the literary cycle of Greek and Roman mythology, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity, focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius C ...

, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great European

literary cycle A literary cycle is a group of stories focused on common figures, often (though not necessarily) based on mythical figures or loosely on historical ones. Cycles which deal with an entire country are sometimes referred to as matters. A fictional c ...

s that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.

Three Matters

The Matter of France was one of the "Three Matters" repeatedly recalled in medieval literature. It was contrasted with the

, the legendary history of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

and

; and the

, which represented the medieval poets' interpretations of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

mythology and history. The three names were first used by the twelfth-century French poet

Jean Bodel Jean Bodel (c. 1165 – c. 1210), was an Old French poet who wrote a number of ''chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras. Writings Bodel wrote ("Song of the Saxons") about the war of King Charlemagne with the Saxons and ...

, author of the ''

Chanson de Saisnes Jean Bodel (c. 1165 – c. 1210), was an Old French poet who wrote a number of ''chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras. Writings Bodel wrote ("Song of the Saxons") about the war of King Charlemagne with the Saxons and ...

'', a '' chanson de geste'' in which he wrote:

Description

About 1215 Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, in the introductory lines to his ''Girart de Vienne'', set out a subdivision of the Matter of France into three cycles, which have been adopted by many modern critics as a useful means of grouping the ''chansons de geste''. These are his words: The cycles can be outlined as follows:Ross, D.J.A., "Old French", ''Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry''
( Arthur Thomas Hatto ed.), Modern Humanities Research Association, 1980 * The ''Geste du roi'', whose chief character is Charlemagne, seen as champion of Christianity. This cycle contains the best known of the ''chansons'', the '' Chanson de Roland''. * '' La Geste de Garin de Monglane'', whose central character was Guillaume d'Orange, identifiable with William, Count of Toulouse. These dealt with knights who were typically younger sons, not

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...

s, and who seek land and glory through combat with the Infidels. The twenty-four poems of this ''geste'' belong to the generation after Charlemagne, during the reign of an ineffectual Louis. The ''Chanson de Guillaume'' is one of the oldest poems of this ''geste''. * The ''Geste de Doon de Mayence'', in which the hero, as in the ''Geste de Guillaume'', often suffers from royal injustice, but is goaded into rebellion. Central figures of the Matter of France include

and his paladins, especially

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

, hero of ''

The Song of Roland ''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century '' chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It i ...

'', and his companion Oliver, who was frequently cast in conflict with the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

champion Fierabras. Originally, the Matter of France contained tales of war and martial valour, being focused on the conflict between the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools ...

and

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia ...

s or

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinc ...

during the period of

Charles Martel Charles Martel ( – 22 October 741) was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesm ...

and Charlemagne. The ''Chanson de Roland'', for example, is about the

Battle of Roncevaux Pass The Battle of Roncevaux Pass ( French and English spelling, ''Roncesvalles'' in Spanish, ''Orreaga'' in Basque) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne's army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on ...

during the Moorish invasion of southern France. As the genre matured, elements of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

and magic tended to accrue to the tales. The magic horse

Bayard Bayard may refer to: People *Bayard (given name) * Bayard (surname) *Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (1473–1524) French knight Places * Bayard, Delaware, an unincorporated community * Bayard (Jacksonville), Florida, a neighborhood * Bayard ...

, for example, is a recurring figure in many of the tales. The fundamental character of the "Matter of France" is feudal and Christian (in a crusading form). Although viewed as idolators, the Saracens were not necessarily depicted as un-chivalrous. The earliest ''gestes'' were likely sung by a ''

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

'', accompanied by a fiddle. It is apparent that the authors were ignorant of the fact that Islam is monotheistic. D.J.A. Ross says that people of the Middle Ages appear to have regarded the ''gestes'' as generally historical. Einhard's ''Vita Caroli'' describes the Basque ambush at Roncevaux as driving the Frankish rearguard down the valley. The poet who wrote the ''Chanson de Roland'' did not hesitate to update the military tactics to a set-piece cavalry charge on the part of the Saracens, although retaining a landscape unsuitable for couched lances.

List of works

For a list of ''chansons'' that can be attached to each of these cycles, see Chanson de geste.

In later literature

After the period of the ''chanson de geste'', the Matter of France lived on. Its most well known survival is in the Italian epics by

Matteo Maria Boiardo Matteo Maria Boiardo (, ; 144019/20 December 1494) was an Italian Renaissance poet, best known for his epic poem ''Orlando innamorato''. Early life Boiardo was born in 1440,

, Ludovico Ariosto, and a number of lesser authors who worked the material; their tales of ''

Orlando innamorato ''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the " I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a r ...

'' ("Roland in Love")'' and

Orlando furioso ''Orlando furioso'' (; ''The Frenzy of Orlando'', more loosely ''Raging Roland'') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was ...

'' ("Roland Gone Mad") were inspired by the ''chansons de geste''. These works, in turn, inspired Torquato Tasso's ''

Gerusalemme liberata ''Jerusalem Delivered'', also known as ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'' ( it, La Gerusalemme liberata ; ), is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusad ...

'' and Edmund Spenser's '' The Faerie Queene'', although these latter works have been separated from the Matter of France and put in the respective settings of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

and an imaginary faerie land. Tales of the Matter of France were also found in

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

, where the '' Karlamagnus Saga'' was written in the thirteenth century in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

;Ker, W.P., "Metrical Romances, 1200–1500", ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' Vol. I, (1907–21)
/ref> it contains a synopsis of the main stories of the cycle. Indeed, until a major revival in the 19th century breathed new life into the Arthurian cycle, the Matter of France had enjoyed similar renown to the Matter of Britain. Modern fantasy literature has used the Matter of France far less than the Matter of Britain, although L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt set one of their

Harold Shea The "Harold Shea" Stories is a name given to a series of five science fantasy stories by the collaborative team of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt and to its later continuation by de Camp alone, Christopher Stasheff, Holly Lisle, John Mad ...

stories ('' The Castle of Iron'') in the world of the Matter of France, and Poul Anderson's ''

Three Hearts and Three Lions ''Three Hearts and Three Lions'' is a 1961 fantasy novel by American writer Poul Anderson, expanded from a 1953 novella by Anderson which appeared in '' Fantasy & Science Fiction'' magazine. Plot Holger Carlsen is an American-trained Danish engi ...

'' references the Matter of France. Through Anderson's book, the Matter of France also had some influence on the popular '' Dungeons & Dragons'' game. Italo Calvino's fantasy novel '' The Nonexistent Knight'' also takes place in this world.

Notes

External links

''The Matter of France''
by Alexx Kay

by Paula Kate Marmor

by Agnes Grozier Herbertson

by Agnes Grozier Herbertson {{Matter of France Medieval literature Medieval legends History of literature Romance (genre) Metanarratives