ABSTRACT
The Chanson de Jérusalem has customarily been seen as the poor relation of the central Crusade trilogy: ‘une copie … parfois servile’ of the Chanson d’Antioche.1 It lacks the vivid historical detail of the Antioche: indeed it contains hardly any material which was not common currency in the sources for the Crusade. Its structure is a close copy of the Antioche, and it contains many of the same characters and topoi. The sequence of single combats is repetitive, and it lacks the colour and verve of the Chétifs. The relative lack of variants compared to the Antioche and Chétifs suggests that it did not attract much contemporary attention; and its one modern edition compared to three for the Antioche says much the same about the interest it evokes (or not) now. Yet it is crucial to the Cycle. The story of the Crusade needed to be completed. The interest lies in how that completion happened and what it tells us about the perception of Crusade and the role of the Cycle.
