Matter of France

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History of Literature
The Medieval and Renaissance Periods
Matter of Rome
Matter of France
Matter of Britain
Medieval literature
Arabic literature
13th century in literature
14th century in literature
European Renaissance Literature
15th century in literature

The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of legendary history that springs from the Old French medieval literature of the chansons de geste. Its tales were first developed in these epics, but the stories they told lived on after the medieval epics 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,

De France et de Bretaigne, et de Rome la grant.

(There are but three 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 Roncevaux Pass 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.

[edit] The traditional classification

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:

At Saint-Denis, in the great abbey, we find it written (I don't doubt) in a book of noble lineage that there have been only three gestes in well-defended France (I think no-one will argue with me now).

The lordliest is that of the kings of France.

The next, it is right to say, was of Doon of the white beard, he of Mainz who had many lands. In his lineage were fierce and rugged people; they would have had the lordship of all of France, its power, its knighthood, but they were proud and jealous. Of that lineage, so full of treachery, was Ganelon who by his treason caused great sorrow in well-defended France when he committed in Spain the great felony that caused the death in pagan land of the Twelve Peers of France. You have heard tell in many a song that from the geste that came from Ganelon many a great knight was descended, fierce and bold and of very great fame. They would have been lords of the whole realm of France, but there was pride and treason in them. Through pride (we tell you truly) many a high-placed man has been thrown to earth, as were the angels in heaven (we know it in truth) who, for their crime, were thrown into the prison of hell where they will feel nothing but eternal pain. They lost the holy mansion of heaven by their pride and folly. Just so were Ganelon's kin, who would have been so powerful and famous if they had not been so full of treason. Of this lineage, which did nothing but evil, was the second geste.

The third geste, which was much to be praised, was that of Garin de Monglane of the fierce countenance. In his lineage I can well testify that there was not a single coward or goood-for-nothing or traitor or vile flatterer; rather they were wise and bold knights and good fighters and noble warriors. Not once did they wish to betray a king of France; they strove to help their true lord and to advance his honour everywhere. They promoted Christendom and destroyed and confounded Saracens. This Garin of the fierce countenance had four sons; never were there bolder knights, I think, so that in a whole day one could not describe their prowess. The first son (I will not lie to you) was the fierce Hernaut of Beaulande. The second, as I have heard tell, was the praiseworthy Milon of Apulia. The third was Renier of Geneva, and the fourth was lord Girart the warrior.

(Girart de Vienne lines 8–67; translation after J. J. Duggan)

The cycles can be outlined as follows:

The Geste du roi, whose chief character is Charlemagne himself, seen as champion of Christianity. This cycle contains the best known of the chansons, the Chanson de Roland.
The Geste de Garin de Monglane, whose central character was Guillaume d'Orange. These dealt with knights who were typically younger sons, not heirs, and who seek land and glory through combat with the Infidels.
The Geste de Doon de Mayence, concerning traitors and rebels against royal authority.

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

[edit] The Matter of France in later literature

After the period of the chanson de geste was over, the Matter of France lived on. Its most well known survival is in the Italian epics by Ludovico Ariosto, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Torquato Tasso, and a number of lesser authors who worked the material; their tales of Orlando furioso ("The Madness of Roland") and Orlando innamorato ("Roland in Love") were taken directly from the chansons de geste. These poems, in turn, were imitated in English by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene, although Spenser's work has been separated from the Matter of France and put in the setting of an imaginary faerie land.

Tales of the Matter of France were also found in Old Norse, where the Karlamagnus Saga was written in the thirteenth century in Norway; it contains a synopsis of the main stories of the cycle. 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.

Modern fantasy literature has used the Matter of France far less than the Matter of Britain, although Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions takes place in a fantasy world where it was historical fact. Italo Calvino's fantasy novel The Nonexistent Knight also takes place in the world of the Matter of France.