Crusade cycle

The Crusade cycle is an Old French cycle of chansons de geste concerning the First Crusade and its aftermath.

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 Chanson d'Antioche, which is the basis for the "historical" section of the cycle. The original Chanson d'Antioche is lost, but it was edited in the 12th century by Graindor de Douai, who also edited the Chanson de Jérusalem, and possibly wrote the Chanson des Chétifs himself. These three chansons form the basis for the rest of the cycle, and are more historically oriented than the Romances that grew up around them.

The protagonist of these three chansons is Godfrey of Bouillon, around whom the rest of the cycle is based, in a much more romanticized form. These connect Godfrey with the legend of the 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 Duchess of Bouillon, whose land has been seized by Regnier of Saxony, whom he challenges to a duel. The Swan Knight defeats Regnier and wins the daughter of the Duchess in marriage. They have a daughter, Ida, who can see the future and knows that she is destined to be the mother of 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.

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