ABSTRACT
The French chansons de geste, which included more than one hundred poems, were recognized not long after 1200 as falling into three general groups.1 The most famous is the geste du roi, the epics more or less directly connected with Charlemagne, in many of which he appears as the champion of Christendom in wars against the infidel. Of these the best known is the Chanson de Roland. A second group is concerned with his struggles with his vassals. The epics of this group constitute the geste de Doon de Mayence, so called from the supposed ancestor of the rebels. The third concerns the adventures and conquests of William of Orange and members of his family. This group likewise takes its name from the legendary progenitor of the family and is known as the geste de Garin de Monglane. While each of these branches of the French epic has many points of interest, not all are represented in English. Indeed the only Charlemagne romances that have come to us in English verse belong to the cycle of the king, the geste du roi.2
