Epic
The Song of Roland
La Chanson de Roland
Anonymous · 1100
Synopsis
After seven years of war in Spain, Charlemagne has only Saragossa left before him, where King Marsile reigns. When negotiations open, his nephew Roland proposes his own stepfather, Ganelon, as ambassador; Ganelon conceives a grudge and conspires with the Saracens to have the army's rearguard attacked as it crosses the mountains. Roland commands it. Surprised at Roncevaux, his companion Olivier urges him repeatedly to sound the horn to recall the emperor, and Roland refuses.
Context
This epic rests on a real event: on 15 August 778, Charlemagne's rearguard was massacred in an ambush by Basque mountain people. By around 1100, the attackers have become Saracens and an obscure prefect has become Roland, the emperor's nephew. The oldest surviving text is the Oxford manuscript, copied in the twelfth century in Anglo-Norman: 4,002 lines in 291 laisses, with a final mention of a certain Turoldus, author, copyist or reciter. It was first published in 1837 by Francisque Michel.
Who it is for
About four thousand decasyllables in assonanced laisses, made for recitation by jongleurs; a bilingual edition is necessary.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first great surviving monument of literature in the French language; translated into English, notably by Glyn Burgess for Penguin in 1990.
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