‘La Chanson des Saxons’ et sa réception norroise: Avatars de la matière épique (review)

Transmission of Charlemagne material outside the heartland of Western Europe has been too often neglected by scholarship. Texts such as the Karlamagnussaga are often seen merely as mines from which lost chansons de gestes can be excavated. This scholarly study challenges this attitude. The study focuses on Jean Bodel’s Chanson des Saisnes and the two versions of the war against the Saxons contained within the Karlamagnussaga, in branches I and V, but also considers other chronicle material, including the Chronique Rimée of Philippe Mousket. The main texts are placed firmly within the wider context of how cyclification works in both Norse and Old French traditions. A great deal of detail is given about the manuscript tradition and we have what is effectively a thorough introduction to the whole saga (pp. 73–108). The approach taken by Tétrel uses the traditional tools of medieval scholarship, and we find detailed comparative analyses of the texts, stemmata of manuscripts and discussion of possible common sources. Yet the conclusions she reaches differ greatly from those of, e.g. Gaston Paris. Her discussion of previous scholarship is thorough. She does not clearly question the underlying thesis accepted generally by that scholarship: the existence of a Vie de Charlemagne as posited by Gaston Paris. However, she comprehensively criticizes the conclusions based on that assumption. There is awareness of the unreliability of a stemma and the fact that the stemma will always be a simplification, though it may be a useful tool in comparative analysis. This sophisticated awareness of mouvance as a major principle in the cyclic development of the Karlamagnussaga as well as of the Old French chansons de geste may leave us with many questions unanswered but effectively demolishes the old certainties. This is a substantial volume but a rewarding read for those interested in the wider dissemination of chanson de geste material or in the nature of the composite Scandinavian text. The study is divided into three sections, each with subdivisions and each with its own avantpropos: La Composition cyclique: un effort commun à tout le Moyen Age; La Chanson de Guiteclin et la Saga of Guitalon Saxa; Transposition et renouvellement des motifs de l’épopée. This tripartite structure leads to some repetition of material. Quotations are given in Old French and Norse, with French translations provided for the latter, though in one case (p. 60) the translation is integrated into the preceding paragraph and it is not immediately clear that it is a translation. This is, however, a very minor irritation. The book is completed by a detailed bibliography and summary in English. This is of most use, perhaps, for those whose main interest is in the Scandinavian text, yet being a summary it concentrates on the general conclusions and gives little idea of the transformation the source(s) undergo when adopted by and into the Icelandic tradition, a recurring theme in the book and particularly in the third section. There is no index.