Le héros lettré dans les chansons de geste

A select number of chansons de geste give the starring role to the sapienta of the scholarly hero. This scholarly education functions not only as a complement to fortitudo but as an element of the “counter-narrative” which includes other forms of knowledge associated with peripheral characters (doctors, hermits, magicians, and polyglots). This article examines the status of the learned epic hero in relation to scholarly networks in order to appreciate the value of intellectual education in these texts.