Chansons de Geste
        The Chansons de Geste of the 12th Century focus on three themes. The defeat of Roland, the exploits of William of Orange, and the rebellion of the northern nobility after the death of Charlemagne. Parallels to these are to be found in El Cid and the Nibelungenlied.

The Song of Roland:
La Chanson De Roland: Oxford Text and English Translation.
2 volumes. edited by Gerard J. Brault. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1984.
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(Many other editions available)

Song of Roland.
Ed. Dorothy L. Sayers. Penguin USA, 1957.
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William Count of Orange:
William, Count of Orange: Four French Epics.
ed. Glanville Price. translated by G. Price, L. Muir, and D. Hoggan. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
Out of print.

Guillaume d'Orange four Twelfth-Century Epics.
translated by Joan M. Ferrante. NY: Columbia University Press, 1991.
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William serves as an example of the ideal baron in his loyalty to Charlemagne's successor Louis.

Raoul:
Raoul de Cambrai.
edited and translated by Sarah Kay. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
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A cautionary tale of Raoul, a talented warrior with no concern for others and little restraint on his actions. Raoul's wronging of his vassals also shows how vassals should not be treated.

Poems closely related to the Chansons de Geste

ca. 1200
Nibelungenlied.
translated by A.T. Hatto. Penguin USA, 1965.
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ca. 1140
The Poem of the Cid: A Bilingual Edition With Parallel Text.
prose translation by Rita Hamilton and Janet Perry. Viking Press, 1985.
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(Many editions in print.)

Merwin, W. S. Poem of the Cid.
English verse translation by W. S. Merwin. NY: New American Library, 1962.
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Romances of Chivalry

ca. 1060 Ruodlieb:
The Ruodlieb: The First Medieval Epic of Chivalry from Eleventh-Century Germany. translated by Gordon B. Ford Jr. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965. Out of print.
Several other editions have been printed since 1959 and copies should show up readily among the rare and used book dealers. This tale follows Ruodlieb's growth towards maturity in a world that is much less like the enchanted worlds of the romances that were written later.

Waltharius and Ruodlieb.
edited and translated by Dennis M. Kratz. NY: Garland Publishing, 1984.
Out of print.
Another edition of Ruodlieb this time with the 9th or 10th Century German epic of Walter of Aquitaine.

Ruodlieb : The Earliest Courtly Novel After 1050.
(North Carolina University, Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures : No 23) edited by Edwin H. Zeydel. AMS Press, 1959.
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ca. 1180 Perceval/Parzival:
Including a new critical text and translation:
Chrétien De Troyes: The Story of the Grail (Li Contes Del Graal, or Perceval).
edited and translated by Rupert T. Pickens, William W. Kibler. Garland Pub, 1990.
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Numerous translations are in print under the title of Perceval or The Story of the Grail.
The earliest of the Grail stories written. The three works following derive largely from this unfinished manuscript.

1195-1210

Eschenbach, Wolfram von. Parzival.
ed. & trans. A.T. Hatto & Penguin USA, 1980.
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(Many editions in print.)
A telling of the Grail story by one of the most influential German authors of the era.

1203-1213?
High Book of the Grail. ed. & trans. N. Bryant.
(Cambridge, 1978).
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      The author assumes a knowledge of Chretien de Troyes' Romance of Perceval but takes an original tack on the story. Here Arthur and his knights attempt to impose the new law of Christianity upon the island, and are also depicted more as a kingdom than as individual knights.

ca. 1225
The Quest of the Holy Grail.
trans. Pauline M. Matarasso. Penguin USA, 1970.
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Tristan:
Two Early versions of the Tristan story:
Beroul, 12th cent. The romance of Tristan; and, The tale of Tristan's madness.
translated by Alan S. Fedrick. Penguin, 1978.
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Perhaps the oldest surviving record of the story of Tristan and Isolde.

ca. 1170-1180
Thomas of Britain. Tristran (Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Vol 78, Series A).
translated by Stewart Gregory. NY: Garland Publishers, 1991.
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Gottfried, von Strassburg. Tristan and Isolde.
edited and revised by Francis G. Gentry. NY: Continuum, 1988.
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(There are many other editions with variations in the spelling of the title ... sometimes just Tristan.)

ca. 1200 Hartmann von Aue
Hartmann von Aue. Iwein.
edited and translated by Patrick M. McConeghy. NY: Garland Publishing, 1984.
Out of print.

His works are discussed at length in:
Jackson, W.H. Chivalry in Twelfth-Century Germany: the works of Hartmann von Aue.
Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1994.
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ca. 1505
Garci Rodrigues (or Odonez) de Montalvo. Amadis of Gaul: A Novel of Chivalry of the 14th Century Presumably First Written in Spanish.
translated by Place, Edwin B. and Behm, Herbert C. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 1974.
Out of print.
This story may be as old as the late 13th century, but the earliest surviving version of this work was the result of the editing and rewriting of the story by the author above. In this version the story of Amadis' feats of arms are woven together with that of his love for the daughter of the King of England. Amadis is a more idealized hero than the images of Tristan or Lancelot.

1518
De Castillo, Gabriel Velazquez. Clarian de Landanis: An Early Spanish Book of Chivalry.
Juan De La Cuesta, 1995.
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Along with Amadis of Gaul this seems to be one of the precursors to and targets of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Compilations of Romance Literature.
Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation.
5vols. general editor by Norris J. Lacy. NY: Garland Publishing, 1993-.
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The Vulgate Cycle is the common name for the entire body of the chivalric romances. A very nice edition but somewhat expensive. Since smaller editions containing some of the stories are available one might want to check out a copy of this from a library just to find out what other titles to seek out.

Lancelot of the Lake.
edited by Corley, F. W. Corin. Oxford Univ Press, 1989.
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The Prose Lancelot makes up a large portion of the Vulgate Cycle ... of course it consists of tales of Lancelot.
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