chanson de geste:

A French type of medieval narrative poem, the genre of the chanson de geste, to which the Roland belongs, is made up of poems whose subject is the deeds of great feudal clans--literally "songs about deeds." From its earliest occurrences in Old French, however, the word geste can mean "lineage, family" as well as "deeds," an association not unnatural in a society in which a man's reputation depended to a considerable extent on the conduct of his relatives and ancestors. They are  intended to be sung or chanted and purporting to have some basis in French history. Similar to stories of Arthur and his knights of the Table Round, the chansons describe a series of fabulous exploits, usually involving Charlemagne and his paladins, the Twelve Peers. The most famous chanson de geste is the Song of Roland. The poems vary in length from 1,800 to 18,000 lines, arranged in verse paragraphs called strophes or laisses, with assonance of the final stressed vowel and only occasional rime. The lines themselves contain ten syllables, with a caesural pause after the fourth syllable. The chansons de geste, of which some 80 are extant, were for the most part composed in the 12th century.

One hundred and fifteen chansons de geste are now extant in manuscripts written in either old French or Old Provencal, the Romance language spoken in southern France during the Middle Ages. Unfortunately only one example of the chantlike music has survived, and even that comes to us indirectly, in a parody,the Chanson d'Audigier, of which a single verse is sung in the thirteenth-century Play of Robin and Marion by Adam de la Halle.

The historical events which the chansons purport to immortalize are treated with little regard for the facts; but the poems are unintentionally revelatory of the customs, manners, and attitudes of their day--the crusades and the infidel, feudal relationships and feudal loyalties. On the basis of these attitudes and other stylistic characteristics, the chansons may be conveniently divided into three groups.

1) The earliest are stark and terse in style and deal in grim terms with the treacheries of the "paynim" (pagan) Saracen and with his conversion after many heroic battles, much bloodshed and often, the death of the hero. The heroes of this first group of chansons accept the feudal concatenation of society and quite unabashedly seek land and plunder in Palestine as avidly as the Holy Sepulcher.

2) The second group of chansons, later, longer narratives, monotonously repetitious in plot, are concerned with civil war and with violent deeds of disloyalty and revenge among Charlemagne's retainers. These tales reflect the growing incompatibilities of the feudal system and the dissatisfaction of the knights with the increasing royal power. Embodying the special point of view of the barons, many of these poems represent Charlemagne as harsh, unreasonable, and splenetic.

3) Into still later chansons, which may be said to constitute the third group, were introduced romantic elements such as foundling princes, giants, and fairies. These last long-winded and fantastic tales include a mass of adventures which bears no organic relation to the plot and are punctuated by outbursts of frenzied hate and equally passionate love between the protagonists-easily converted Saracen princesses and handsome, crusading Christian knights. it was these tales in their still more distended Spanish versions which Cervantes had read; in Don Quixote he laughed them out of existence.