The Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) is the oldest known chanson de geste (Old French epic poem). The earliest surviving version dates from around 1100: the sole manuscript is from the second half of the twelfth century (MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 23). The poem is written in assonanced laisses (strophes of unequal length). A later twelfth-century reworking into rhyme, known as the Rhymed Roland, knew greater success in the Middle Ages, but the Oxford text is more studied today.
The Chanson de Roland transforms the historical event of a Gascon attack on the rearguard of the army of the emperor Charlemagne as it crossed the Pyrenees in 778, turning it into a heroic defeat by a Saracen army that outnumbers the rearguard by five to one. The original skirmish between two “Christian” groups becomes a piece of crusading propaganda opposing Christians and Saracens, who are portrayed as worshippers of the heathen gods Muhammad, Apollo, and Tervagant.
The poem begins with the Saracens plotting to deceive Charlemagne into giving up his war in Spain by feigning a desire to make peace and convert to Christianity. The Christians are persuaded to accept these terms by Ganelon, Roland’s stepfather, supported by Naimon, Charlemagne’s wisest counselor. Ganelon and Roland, Charlemagne’s nephew, quarrel over the nomination of Ganelon as ambassador to the Saracens. This leads to a betrayal by Ganelon, intended to be against Roland but involving the whole Christian army. Ganelon plots with the pagan king Marsile to ensure that Roland will lead the rearguard, telling Mar-sile that Roland can be defeated if he attacks the rearguard in two waves.
All goes according to plan: Roland, his companion Oliver, and the rearguard die at the battle of Roncevaux, near a pass across the Pyrenees. Before engaging in battle, Oliver advises Roland to summon Charlemagne by sounding his horn (the Olifant). Roland refuses. However, before his death he decides that, having given his all, he should now inform Charlemagne of the fate of the rearguard; this time it is Oliver who disagrees, but Roland goes ahead and blows his horn. The two quarrels over the blowing of the horn have been central to scholars’ interpretations of Roland’s character. Hearing the horn, Charlemagne returns to find the slaughtered rearguard. He pursues Marsile to avenge their deaths. The pagans are defeated, Marsile fleeing to Saragossa. What follows, the arrival on the scene of Baligant, overlord to Mar-sile, is considered by most scholars to be an interpolation, though it is integral to the text as we now have it. The clash between the armies of Baligant and Charlemagne, culminating in a single combat between the two leaders, is presented in ideological terms, a battle between Christian and non-Christian, good and evil. God, inevitably, is on Charlemagne’s side, and with his encouragement Charlemagne and Christianity triumph. The narrative concludes with justice being done; following a judicial combat between the champions of Ganelon and Charlemagne, Ganelon is found guilty and condemned to death with his followers.
There is no doubt in the poem that the role of a vassal is to serve both God and king. Archbishop Turpin tells the men in the rearguard before the battle that if they confess their sins they will die as martyrs. The action takes place in northern Spain rather than the Holy Land, and the links with the Reconquista are clear, but the ideology is that of the First Crusade (1096-1099).
-Marianne J. Ailes
Bibliography
Ailes, Marianne J., The Song of Roland: On Absolutes and Relative Values (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 2002).
Pensom, Roger, Literary Technique in the Chanson de Roland (Geneva: Droz, 1982).
Van Emden, Wolfgang, La Chanson de Roland (London: Grant and Cutler, 1995).
World History
