Durendal, translated: Islamic object genealogies in the chansons de geste

The transfer of Saracen arms into Frankish ownership is a leitmotif of many chansons de geste, but one whose significance for translatio imperii has yet to be elucidated. In this essay, I focus on the Chanson d’Aspremont, a twelfth-century epic set in Calabria that narrates the pre-history of Durendal, Roland’s sword of Song of Roland fame, as an object inherited by Roland from its former royal Muslim owner. Drawing on cultural history and a number of object-translation models derived from material and spolia studies, I read the sword’s symbolic transfer as evidence of Norman desire for and appropriation of former Fatimid imperium in Sicily