This project analyses the representation of Byzantium and its people in the works of vernacular epic (chansons de geste) produced in medieval France in the long twelfth century (1096-1204). It focuses on texts from the period between the First and the Fourth Crusades – two important milestones in the history of East-West relations. Marked by recurring conflicts between the Byzantines and the Western armies, who crossed their territory on the way to the Holy Land, this period has attracted many students of cultural history. They strived to understand the deeper context of the fall of Christian Constantinople, a former ally, under the crusaders' attack in 1204, pointing to long-developing mutual xenophobia. They based their arguments almost exclusively on the analysis of representations of the respective 'other' in Latin and Greek historiography, and especially the crusader chronicles. Yet the historiography was only one — and a highly politicised — part of the twelfth-century literary production. This project highlights the role of medieval fiction as an equally important witness to contemporary intercultural perceptions. It systematically analyses mentions of Byzantine (Greek) people and places in the Old French epics both qualitatively and quantitatively. Using statistics of positive, negative, and neutral sentiments in the literary descriptions, it questions the scholarly truism about ambivalent, mostly negative Western views of the Byzantines. The project also includes a cross-genre case study of the image of the Byzantine general Tatikios (ca. 1048/1057 - after 1110?). Through it, it explains how fiction's more positive take on Byzantium could reflect the reality of East-West relations more faithfully than 'serious' historical writing.