H. R. Conrad: The Chanson de Geste to-day.

k.A, 54 Seiten + 2 Seiten Vorwort. Gebunden Leinen.

Manuskript, maschinegeschrieben und gebunden, der Name des Autors (?) steht nur auf dem Buchrücken zur Datierung: keine Literaturangabe ist jünger als von 1935 "The few ideas here given shy and tentative expression are the result of some six years' reading in French epic poetry. A small section of this Layer was already in notes before the end of my undergraduate days. Other tasks intervened, however, and these were laid aside. The essay has received its final form at odd moments, while I was working forty-five hours a week in a foreign Bank and has suffered much from being written a few lines at a time, principally in trains, restaurants, public parks. by the wayside during country walks and even at my office desk, rather than in the quiet so necessary for satisfactory work. On principle I would consider it more important than my previous dissertation, despite its insufficiency and its schematic nature, for any attempt at a general survey must rank above a mere search for fact, however valuable its results. As to its intrinsic value, I am under no illusion. The final verdict, nevertheless, is not for me to pronounce. Its findings are a personal appraisal of the present state of chanson de geste research. I hope to have preferred the authority of the texts themselves and of the political and social history of medieval France to that of any particular critic,without at the same time wishing to conceal in any way my great indebtedness to all who have written .." "It is this curious coincidence - at first it seems little more - that may give the key to a different conception of the epic in France, a conception less unified and less perfect in form than that of Bédier, but more in accordance with reality and with the general trend of research. These three poems, "Roland", "Guillaume" and "Gormond et Isembard" are all contained in manuscripts of Angle-Norman origin, clothed in a superficial facing of Angle-Norman forms. Of anything corresponding to them there is no trace in Continental sources until the undoubtedly later re-written versions, contemporary with the mass of the chansons we know. Using Continental manuscripts only, the earliest certain chapter in the history of the chanson de geste must remain untold. Why have these texts of undisputed French origin left no trace in their own land? The argument "ex silentio" is indeed a poor one for s period when evidence is so fickle. In itself the situation is not unparalleled, as the survival of German epic in the Edda shows the same process active in an even more remarkable way, bridging a far wider gap of intervening time and distance. Logically it can only be explained in one of two ways ..." Wikipedia: "Die Gattung der Chanson de geste (von lat. gesta „Kriegstaten“) zählt zu den ältesten erzählenden Gattungen der französischen Literatur. Ihre Entstehung fällt in das 11. oder sogar schon 10. Jahrhundert, doch ist ihre Blütezeit das 12. Jahrhundert. Die spätesten Chansons dieser Gattung entstanden im 13. Jahrhundert, die Stoffe und zentralen Figuren der langlebigen Gattung dienten jedoch noch bis ins 15. Jahrhundert hinein als literarisches Material. Sprachlich sind sie zum Teil der Altfranzösischen und zum Teil der Okzitanischen Sprache zuzuordnen ...".