If anyone reading this thread has any actual contemporary references to length and method of performance of stories (whether romance, epic, chanson de geste, fabliau or anything else - but stories) in the 11th - 14th centuries in Europe, please let me know. There are references to stories being told at great feasts and in the marketplaces, and some of those references talk of the performers making great use of their voices and their bodies, which is why we can assume that they were acting out the story to a large extent. However we also know that a lot of these performers were reading out loud, rather than working from memory. At great feasts, the performances took place between other events such as food, jousting and other "variety acts" like jugglers and acrobats, so it is unlikely that the audience would have been sitting still for as much as 3 hours for one story. The tale I'm working on, written at the court of Aragon in Occitan in the early 13th century, is 11000 lines long and according to one study of the piece could have taken around 10 hours to tell in its entirety. Which is why I doubt if it ever was performed as one piece from start to finish. There are also references to books being read in instalments over a period of days, which seems more likely. I haven't found any references to readers or tellers also playing instruments at the same time, however - there are lists of stories, and lists of instruments and tunes, but not combined. And a further complication is that the verbs to say and to sing are, at times, interchangeable, which makes the detective work even more difficult.
But, as I said, if you can point me at actual references to any further information I'd be really grateful.
Ian, I'll certainly let you know when I have a full-length rendition ready.