La tradición épica de las Enfances de Carlomagno y el Cantar de Mainete perdido

Abstract

In this article, I try to offer a revision of the problems in the tradition and evolution of the Charlemagne's youthful exploits epic legend and to reconsider the possibility of a Spanish epic poem on this subjet. To do so, it is one of my concerns to explain the relationship between the two main summaries of the legend in medieval Spanish literature: the one contained in the Estoria de España, and the cyclic version contained in the Gran conquista de Ultramar and the Crónica fragmentaria. On the other hand, I reconsider the alussions to this legend in the Iberian Peninsula along the Xlllth-century, in order to show that this allusions only present the narration of the life of Charles in Toledo, proving the unity of this mentions and the kind of evolution of the legend. Finally, I analize the summary of the EE, which allows to secure the existence of a Castillan epic poem translated from a lost French chanson de geste, probably around the end of the XIIth-Century or the beginnings of the Xlllth-Century.