La politique et l'histoire dans les chansons de geste

An analysis of incidences of divine intervention in the songs of the so-called "rebel" cycle shows God to be torn between his earthly representative, the emperor-king, and the primitive hero whom he protects. The hero, himself often divided between Christian sentiments and barbarian instincts, lives his life above and beyond the moral universe. The combat in which emperor and vassal are engaged is but an image, a reflection, of the struggle within the hero's breast : these two images, geometrically identical, are of the same nature ; they are the expression of the conflict between the Christian universe and the uncivilized world of the barbarians from which the medieval world was born. Since the conflict cannot be treated openly, the political themes serve as an outlet. Such a correspondance between political and metaphysical worlds strongly links the chanson de geste with a platonic school of philosophy, Augustinism, and the one fatally disappears with the death of the other.Boutet Dominique. La politique et l'histoire dans les chansons de geste. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 31ᵉ année, N. 6, 1976. pp. 1119-1130