The Roman de Rou is made up of four different parts, distinguished by metre and style as well as by their specific function within the overall scheme of the Roman de Rou. The Chronique Ascendante, in monorhyme stanzas containing a varying number of lines (of twelve syllables), shares its formal characteristics with the Deuxième Partie, and the Première Partie, in octosyllabic couplets, announces the Troisième Partie, also in octosyllabic couplets. Wace seems to have planned his poem on a principle of stylistic alternation, possibly reflecting the shifting influences of his various sources, but also pointing to three main phases in the narrative: the origins of the Normans (Première Partie), the first dukes (Deuxième Partie), and the more recent rulers (Troisième Partie). Whatever the vagaries of manuscript transmission and later reception, these three Parts were almost certainly meant to be read in sequence when Wace started his project. The rule of Richard I is thus divided between the Deuxième Partie, where we are told about his childhood, and the Troisième Partie, where we move on to his achievements as a grown man. I shall therefore consider the constituent parts of the Roman de Rou in succession, as one complex narrative.

Chronique Ascendante

The Chronique Ascendante, a concise ascending genealogy of the present ruler with accompanying mention of some of the salient events in the lives of the different dukes, serves as a table of contents for the work proper in a format both compact and easy to memorise. The metre selected appears to be an experiment on Wace's part. The monorhyme stanzas recall strongly the laisses of the chanson de geste, with its epic-heroic stance and claims to a collectively validated authoritative voice, whilst the choice of dodecasyllabic lines with frequent enjambement, as opposed to the self-contained, predominantly decasyllabic line characteristic of the chanson de geste, gives the poem a distinctive rhythm which would have distinguished it clearly from the chanson for its listeners. The implicit message is clear: this is to be a celebratory, epic piece of work, sharing with the chanson de geste a spirit of communal bonding through a quasi-ritual commemoration of past ancestral deeds, but nevertheless with a difference in credentials.