Crusade cycle

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The Crusade cycle is an

chansons de geste concerning the First Crusade
and its aftermath.

History

The cycle contains a number of initially unrelated texts, collated into interconnected narratives by later redactors. None of the poems in the cycle survive independently, and the thirteen separate collections are all organized in different orders with different texts. The manuscripts were all written between approximately 1350 and 1425, in northeastern France, probably in Picardy.

The original poem in the cycle was the

Romances
that grew up around them.

The cycle

Godfrey's ancestors and his early life

The protagonist of these three chansons is

Swan Knight
. Even medieval redactors recognized that this part of the cycle was fanciful and did not quite match the historical chansons, and they are usually separated in the manuscripts. The first episode chronologically within the cycle is the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, which survives in two forms, the Elioxe and the Beatrix. In the former, Elioxe has children with King Lothair; in the latter, Beatrix is married to King Orient. In both cases, they have seven children, who are all turned into swans. All but one are able to transform back into humans; this swan then leads the boat of one of his brothers, known as the Swan Knight. Some manuscripts have a version that combines both stories into one.

The Swan Knight's adventures bring him to the defense of the dispossessed

Eustace, Godfrey, and Baldwin. The Swan Knight, however, must leave Bouillon when his wife asks his true identity. After leaving Bouillon, his name is revealed to be Elias, and his brother, the swan who led his boat, finally regains his human form. Meanwhile, Elias' kinsmen, the knights Pons and Gerart, decide to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
, but cannot because the land is under Muslim control. They are seized by Cornumarant, the king of Jerusalem, but he befriends them and allows them to complete their pilgrimage. After drifting at sea for many months they return to Bouillon and recognize Elias as the Swan Knight.

Years later, Ida is married to Count

Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert Curthose
, among others. Cornumarant intends to assassinate Godfrey but is overcome by the latter's glory; he realizes he can never hold Jerusalem if Godfrey invades, thus planting the idea for the crusade in Godfrey's mind. Cornumarant, returns to Jerusalem and is accused of treason for not having accomplished his task; many battles and duels are fought. During this time, Godfrey arrives and attacks the cities of Syria.

"Historical" cycle

Main article: Chanson d'Antioche

This leads to the original, and undoubtedly the most famous, poem in the cycle, the Chanson d'Antioche. Its subject is the preaching of the First Crusade, the preparations for departure, the tearful goodbyes, the arrival at Constantinople and the siege and taking of Antioch, where King Corbaran (a corruption of the name of Kerbogha, the atabeg of Mosul who came to Antioch's defence in 1098) is defeated by Godfrey and the Crusaders. The lost original poem was said to have been composed by Richard le Pèlerin, who was present during the siege. Although a fictionalized account of the First Crusade, it is based on historical events and is not as fabulous and romanticized as the poems dealing with Godfrey's early life.

Following the capture of Antioch, Corbaran returns home with the Christian chétifs ("captives"). Corbaran is accused of treason by the sultan for losing the battle, and one of the Christian prisoners must fight a duel in his place. The chétifs then attack and kill the

Arpin of Bourges
saves Corbaran's son from various misadventures, and the chétifs are set free to join the rest of the crusaders on the way to Jerusalem.

The cycle then returns to Godfrey, now outside Jerusalem, who recruits the chétifs into his army. Bohemund is present at the

Toghtekin of Damascus
).

There is also a much shorter prose work, known as the Godefroi de Buillon, a summary of the entire cycle. The author of this work complains about the length of the poetic cycle, and focuses less on the fantastical life of Godfrey and more on the historical crusade. It is one of the first works of prose fiction in French literature.

Editions

The Chanson d'Antioche was first edited by Alexis Paulin Paris in 1848. Subsequent editors of the cycle as a whole include Stengel in 1873, Smith in 1912, Krüger in 1936, Duparc-Quioc in 1955, Sumberg in 1968, and the critical editions published by the University of Alabama (1977–2003).

The University of Alabama editions are divided as follows:

  1. La Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne: Elioxe, ed. Emanuel J. Mickel Jr., and Beatrix, ed. Jan A. Nelson
  2. Le Chevalier au Cygne and La Fin d'Elias, ed. Jan A. Nelson
  3. Les Enfances de Godefroi and Le Retour de Cornumarant, ed. Emanuel J. Mickel
  4. La Chanson d'Antioche, ed. Jan A. Nelson
  5. Les Chétifs, ed. Geoffrey M. Myers
  6. La Chanson de Jérusalem, ed. Nigel R. Thorp
  7. The Jérusalem Continuations, part I: La Chrétienté Corbaran, ed. Peter R. Grillo
  8. The Jérusalem Continuations, part II: La Prise d'Acre, La Mort Godefroi, and La Chanson des Rois Baudoin, ed. Peter R. Grillo
  9. The Jérusalem Continuations: The London-Turin Version, ed. Peter R. Grillo
  10. La Geste du Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Edmond A. Emplaincourt
  11. Godefroi de Buillon, ed. Jan Boyd Roberts

Bibliography

  • Emanuel J. Mickel Jr., and Jan A. Nelson, gen. eds., The Old French Crusade Cycle, University of Alabama Press.
  • Susan B. Edgington, "Albert of Aachen and the Chansons de Geste" in The Crusades and their sources: essays presented to Bernard Hamilton ed. John France, William G. Zajac (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) pp. 23–37.
  • Filippo Andrei, "Alberto di Aachen e la Chanson de Jérusalem," Romance Philology 63 (2009): 1–69, special issue: Romania Mediterranea II.
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