Chansons de geste and other similar medieval romance epics can be seen as examples of "[t]he dynastic interest of [contemporary] families... to establishing a genealogy and the history of the family and region," as Emanuel Mickel explains in "Fictional History and Historical Fiction" (62). And though lineage has been often considered in connection to these texts, particularly in terms of claiming to be a direct descendant of Charlemagne, there are few studies dealing with family formations and relationships. This does not imply that there are no work on medieval families and the epics. This session seeks to bridge the work of Lucy A. Sponsler on women as mothers in Spanish epic literature, Carolyne Larrington's on siblings in medieval European literature, and Finn E. Sinclair's on mothers in chansons de geste.

Presentations will deal with regional literature in Romance languages (for instance Italian, Old Occitan, Old French, Medieval Castilian), comparative approaches to medieval epics in these languages, or the connections between literary and other studies considering formation of families and lineages. These diverse approaches bring further diversity to our session.

Each presenter will limit their paper to no more than 20 minutes, allowing to a rich conversation and exchange among participants and audience after all presentations are done.