ABSTRACT
As the poet of the 13th-century Middle English romance Richard Cœur de Lyon points out, the chansons de geste, the romans antiques, and the Arthurian cycle were equally popular in England and France. He could have added Germany and Italy, the Scandinavian countries and the Iberian Peninsula. Although the "matter of France, the matter of Rome, and the matter of England" have not found the same favor with all literary traditions, the vogue these tales and tale-cycles enjoyed in medieval Europe from Iceland and Ireland to Central and Southern Europe is a remarkable phenomenon. Change, however, is a con comitant of diffusion. The Old French Chanson de Roland is as different from its retelling in prose in the Old Norse Karlamagnus saga as are Chrétiens romans courtois from Malory’s Morte d Arthur. The study of these adaptations, translations and re-compositions has provided valuable insights into the interdependence of textual transmis sion, literary fashion and poetic creation. While the chansons de geste
found only sporadic imitations in medieval Germany, Arthurian romances of the courtly type were the major influence on the develop ment of the Middle High German courtly romances. The "national character" of the chansons de geste prevented their adoption in medieval Germany, where epic poetry based on the Germanic legends was still popular in noncourtly circles. In England, on the other hand, only a few Middle English Arthurian romances can be described as courtly; when courtly literature in English arose in the late 14th century, Italian poetry had become more fashionable than the Arthurian romans courtois.
