The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and His Peers #263373

The Middle Ages were, as we know, the ages of Romance; Romance embodied in Prose — pseudo historic chronicles, pseudo — biographical accounts of noted heroes; in Poetry — short lais, longer poems (metrical romances as we call them), some independent, the greater number falling into groups round some one central figure, and in their entirety forming what we call cycles of Romance. To the mind of a writer of the twelfth century, whose words are quoted above (jean Bode], author of La Chanson des Saisnes), there were three of such cycles, and to them alone might the atten tion of a poet of that day be worthily directed; and of these cycles the respective centres were Charlemagne, Arthur, and Alexander.