Les origines et la structure de la Chronique de Morée

Török, Ábel (2024) Les origines et la structure de la Chronique de Morée. ACTA ANTIQUA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 64 (3-4). pp. 547-565. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

The paper discusses the creation of the Chronicle of Morea (Τὸ Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως), the author's intentions and the structure of the work. The endings of the two earliest Greek manuscripts of the Chronicle differ: one continues the story of the Peloponnesian Franks in chronological order, the other ends with a significantly earlier, out-of-place legend of Sir Geoffroy de Briel, of almost 400 lines, a story mentioned thousands of lines earlier in the other manuscript. An overall analysis of the poetic work and the significance and location of this detail suggest that the Chronicle, like the ancient epics, may have been composed of smaller units that were performed as separate pieces. The first half of the paper examines the structure of the Chronicle in detail, exploring what holds the individual units together and for what purpose they were structured as an organic whole. It then analyses the issues of the above-mentioned story, which does not fit the structure: the excerpt contains several folktale motifs, but also parallels with the stories of the antiheroes of the chansons de geste (Crusade cycle). It shows the possible links between the Chronicle and the Old French chansons and how the French literary and cultural tradition influenced the work.

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