Abstract

Women characters in the chanson de geste have recently received more attention as part of critical interest in women and their roles throughout history. However, the humor of their roles in these poems and the facets of that humor have not been closely examined. This article looks at women in two different gestes, the William of Orange and royal cycles, and one non-cyclical poem, to determine that women create humor as do men in the same gestes: by humor, repartee and incongruity of clothing, weapons, or action and that this humor is not in isolation but in relation to male protagonists.