The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chanson de geste \Chan`son" de geste"\ [F., prop., song of history.] Any Old French epic poem having for its subject events or exploits of early French history, real or legendary, and written originally in assonant verse of ten or twelve syllables. The most famous one is the Chanson de Roland.
Langtoft had written in the ordinary measure of the
later chansons de geste.
--Saintsbury.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.] ||
Usage examples of "chanson de roland".
I earned my passage recalling my days as a jongleur with the goliards, reciting tales fromLa Chanson de Roland and entertaining the crew at their meals with raucous jokes.
As if there had been a Chanson de Roland in which Roland died under a pine, and another in which he became king of France at the death of Charles, using Ganelon’.
I wondered whether I should just translate ``Le Chanson de Roland'' into the clipped cadences of a Second World War officer and pass it off as a modern comment on war rather than attempting the great original task ahead of me.