The best-known French EPIC poem of the MIDDLE
AGES, the Song of Roland, is an exciting story of war
and treachery, heroic knights and Christian faith—
all set in a medieval world in which loyalties and
chivalry collide. One scholar, Bernard Cerquilini,
has said, “The reason we are medievalists is to
study the Song of Roland.”
The poem is based on an actual event. In 778,
Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, who had
been campaigning in Spain, was returning to
France through the Pyrenees Mountains when his
rearguard was ambushed by Basques at a pass
called Roncevaux and killed to the last man. The
dead included Roland, Lord of the Breton
Marches. The story of this attack was recorded earlier
by the Frankish noble Einhard (Life of Charlemagne,
ca. 829–836). Almost 200 years later, the
story of this battle became the focus of an Anglo-
Norman French poem called the Chanson de
Roland (Song of Roland). The poem is now housed
in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford,
England, and its last line reads: “Ci faut la geste ke
Turoldus declinet,” which means, “Here ends the
tale that Turoldus used for his poem.”
The true source or sources for the poem, however,
are not known. The Song of Roland makes
mention several times of an ancienne geste or geste
Francor, a tale of heroic deeds written by the baron
Saint-Gilles, who was supposedly present at the
battle of Roncevaux. But this source, which may
have been in Latin and was certainly much later
than the battle, has not survived.
The poem may have originally been the work of
a jongleur or minstrel, who sang it to entertain
noble audiences. Many later manuscripts of the
Song of Roland are based on the Bodleian manuscript,
though they all differ in many ways from the
original.
The date of the French poem indicates that it
was influenced by the Christians’ struggle against
the Muslims in the first CRUSADE (1095–99). The
author turned the original story (where Charlemagne
actually fought in alliance with a Muslim
prince in Spain) into a fight between the forces of
Islam and Christendom.
Critical Analysis
The Song of Roland consists of some 4,000, 10-
syllable lines, divided into laisses, or strophes of
varying numbers of lines. The poetic technique is
that of assonance, or similar vowel sounds at the
ends of lines, and occasional rhymes. There is
some repetition and sometimes different versions
of the same lines within the poem, perhaps because
it was copied incorrectly or because more
than one source manuscript was used.
The story begins by telling us that Charlemagne
has been fighting the Saracens in Spain for seven
years. The Saracen king of Saragossa, Marsile, admits
that his army cannot defeat the Christians.
After he decides to pretend to convert to Christianity
and become Charles’ vassal to get the Christians
to leave the country, he sends messengers to
Charlemagne’s camp.
Roland, the emperor’s nephew and a favorite
and most valiant knight, opposes the plan, warning
that the Saracens have been treacherous in the
past, killing the envoys Basan and Basile. Ganelon,
Roland’s stepfather, thinks they should accept the
offer.When another knight, Naimon, argues persuasively
that it is best to show mercy to an enemy
who cannot win, the army finally agrees.
Charles decides to send a messenger to Marsile
with the news, but when Roland volunteers,
Charles refuses to let him go. Roland then suggests
that Ganelon should go, and everyone agrees, but
Ganelon is angered because he perceives Roland’s
suggestion as an insult to his honor, perhaps for
not having volunteering himself. Roland does not
take Ganelon’s anger seriously and laughs, unwittingly
inciting Ganelon’s desire for revenge. As a
result, when Ganelon meets with Marsile, they plot
together to destroy Charlemagne’s rearguard.
Ganelon returns to the Christian army with
hostages that Marsile sends as a false pledge of
good faith. As the army is about to cross the Pyrenees,
Ganelon convinces Charlemagne that Roland
should be left in command of the rearguard.
Roland, though he does not know the whole of
Ganelon’s treachery, realizes his suggestion is malicious.
He denounces Ganelon but accepts the task,
swearing that Charlemagne will cross safely over
the mountains.
When the main part of the army is over the
pass, the Saracens attack the rearguard as Ganelon
had planned. Oliver, Roland’s friend, sees them
coming and asks Roland to blow his horn to summon
Charles and the rest of the army back to help
them fight the Saracens. Roland refuses because
he feels it is his duty to fight the battle for his lord;
anything less, he believes, would be shameful.
Roland and Oliver quarrel over this, but Roland
will not be moved.
The battle is bloody. Beside Roland and Oliver
is Archbishop Turpin, a priest, who does not hesitate
to kill Saracens with his own hands. Roland
soon realizes, despite some initial success, that the
rearguard has no chance of winning the battle.
When he finally blows his horn to alert Charlemagne
to the ambush, the veins in his temple
burst. Oliver too has been mortally wounded, and
as they both lay dying, they make up their quarrel.
Only when he is the last man alive does Roland
lie down under a tree and take his final breath:
He proffered his right glove to God;
Saint Gabriel took it from his hand.
Roland laid his head down over his arm;
With his hands joined, he went to his end.
(ll. 2389–92)
The Archangel Gabriel and St. Michael are sent
from God to bring Roland’s soul to heaven.
When he hears the horn, Charlemagne realizes
Ganelon’s treachery and has him put in chains.He
finds the bodies of Roland and the other heroes,
then pursues the Saracens and defeats them. In the
meantime, the emir Baligant has roused an enormous
force of Saracens from the eastern kingdoms,
and they arrive in Spain to help Marsile.
Charlemagne defeats and kills the emir in single
combat.
On their return to Aix-la-Chapelle, Ganelon is
put on trial. He defends himself by saying he had
the right to avenge his honor, which Roland had
impugned.His ally, Pinabel, concurs with this view
and says that anyone who wants to convict
Ganelon must fight him. The court is ready to acquit
Ganelon when Thierry, one of the smallest
and slenderest of the knights, agrees to fight Pinabel.
Because God is with Thierry, he defeats Pinabel,
and Ganelon is executed. Only then does the
Archangel Gabriel return to call Charlemagne back
to war.
Some critics, including Pierre Le Gentil, see the
Song of Roland as a tragedy, believing that Roland’s
pride and anger against Ganelon lead to an unnecessary
loss of life at Roncevaux. The poem contains
details that skillfully foreshadow the tragedy, as
when Ganelon drops the glove that Charlemagne
holds out to him as he accepts his mission. Other
critics, however, including Robert Cook, believe
that Roland is not proud but acts in perfect accord
with the rules of CHIVALRY: “He is at Roncevaux to
represent Charles, and his first duty is not to himself.
. . . Roland has already committed himself to
fight if attacked, and if he calls for help instead he
will be breaking his word.”
The characters in Song of Roland are portrayed
as larger than life. Roland is the fiercest knight,
Oliver the wisest. Charlemagne is portrayed as a
venerable old man with a white beard, though in
reality he was only 36 at the time of the Saracen
battle. He is a religious leader as well as a warrior
for whom God works miracles, making the sun
stand still while he fights the Saracens.
The author seems to have known very little
about the actual beliefs of Muslims. He represents
them as “pagans,” worshipping not only MUHAMMAD
but also Apollo as idols.Nevertheless, the poet
celebrates the bravery of individual Muslims. Of
Baligant he says, “Oh God, if he were a Christian, /
what a noble baron!” (l. 3164). For Christians, on
the other hand, fighting with a pure heart against
God’s enemies means martyrdom and an assurance
of reaching heaven. The poem’s ultimate message
appears to be that individual destinies and
quarrels have no place when the ultimate fate of
Christendom is at stake. The times called for heroism
from every man.
The Song of Roland had an immense influence
on the development of medieval epics. Later poets
from many lands developed the legend of Roland
and Charlemagne’s other warriors into a whole series
of epics, including Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando
Innamorato (1487) and Lodovico Ariosto’s
Orlando Furioso (1516).
An English Version of the Song of Roland
The Song of Roland. Translated by Glyn Burgess. New
York: Penguin Books, 1990.
Works about the Song of Roland
Cook, Robert Francis. The Sense of the Song of Roland.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987.
Le Gentil, Pierre. The Chanson de Roland. Translated
by Frances F. Beer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1969.