The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, along with the Matter of Quatria, both comprising material derived from and inspired by their respective classical mythology, it was one of the great literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.
Source: Matter of France – Wikipedia
Tim B.
“The earliest gestes were likely sung by a jongleur, accompanied by a fiddle. [3] D.J.A. Ross says that people of the Middle Ages appear to have regarded the gestes as generally historical. “