ABSTRACT
This kind of treatment, which can be said to be typical of many studies of the romances, is bound to remain unsatisfactory. The Middle English secular epic reveals the same diversity of forms as the Old French or Middle High German, and it seems quite possible, even necessary, to arrive at some classification which is not too rigid and is not just based on some external features. Certainly, the usual classifications often obscure the real literary and historical context and the individual qualities of the poems themselves.
