Masculinity, Mourning, and Epic Sacrifice

Abstract

This chapter navigates how the erotics of grief structure the relationships between leaders and their men in chansons de geste. By focusing on King Arthur's and Charlemagne's eroticization of sacrifice, the chapter suggests reading from the perspective of emotion which permits us to query how a spectrum of love relations work together to uphold and reinforce the codes of a medieval elite shaped by the commemoration of heroic masculinity. The chapter also elaborates on the Chanson de Roland, a recounting of the sacrifice of one of Charlemagne's most trusted men, Roland, in order to save his army by calling for reinforcements. It explores the homosocial emotional world of medieval men in battle in texts such as the Song of Roland, Aliscans, Le roman de Rou, and La mort le roi Artu to better understand how grief, desire, and masculinity intersect in service of elite culture predicated on sacrifice. The chapter argues that the emotional community of the chanson de geste is undergirded by complex performances of masculinity tied to eroticizing grief in service of narrating elite community.