The New International Encyclopædia/Roland, The Song of
RO'LAND, Fr. pron. rṓ'läN', .
An old French epic poem or chanson de geste of
the end of the eleventh century, pronounced by
competent critics one of the masterpieces of
French literature. The work, consisting of 4002
assonant verses in decasyllabic form, arranged in
laisses or stanzas of varying length, takes its
name from its chief character, Roland, prefect of
Brittany, and, according to tradition, nephew of
Charles the Great. Nothing definite is known
concerning its author, though some commentators
identify him with a certain Turoldus
mentioned in the last verse. The narrative of
the poem runs briefly as follows: Charles, King
of the French, has for seven years successfully
fought the ‘Saracens’ of Spain. News of his
victories reaches Marsíle, commander of the infidels,
who, fearing for his own sceptre, sends
messengers to the French to sue for peace. After
deliberation, Charles appoints Ganelon, the
personal foe of Roland (here represented as Roland's
stepfather), to arrange terms with Marsíle.
Incited by his bitter hatred of Roland, Ganelon
seizes the opportunity to gratify his desire for
vengeance. Having reached the ‘pagan’ court, he
artfully proposes to Marsíle to betray the
French rearguard under Roland into Marsíle's
hands, when the main army of Charles shall be
fairly on its way home. The plan is accepted;
Ganelon returns to Charles, and the French army
crosses the Pyrenees into France, while Roland
remains behind in the mountains with a guard
of twenty thousand men. At Roncevaux, or
as the text says Rencesvals (the plain of Ros),
he and his valiant band are overwhelmed by a
‘pagan’ army of twenty times their number. The
details of this disaster, which Europe regarded
during centuries as the representative struggle
of Christian against Moslem, constitute the kernel
and real beauty of the poem. The effect of
the drama is heightened by making the heroic
but reckless Roland in part responsible for the
catastrophe. His boon companion Oliver, whose
courage is second only to his prudence, in three
beautiful laisses (each on a different assonance)
beseeches Roland to wind his horn and bring
Charles to the rescue. Only when his doom is
complete, when his companions, the twelve peers
of France, including the warlike Bishop Turpin,
lie slain about him, will Roland raise the horn
to his lips and summon his liege with his dying
breath. The poem then draws rapidly to a close.
Charles, at whose prayer the Almighty arrests

the sun in its course, reënters Spain on the same
day, utterly routs the ‘pagans,’ and returns to
France, sorrowful but triumphant. At the
tidings of Roland's death, Alde, his betrothed
(Oliver's sister), falls lifeless at the Emperor's feet.
Ganelon is finally found guilty by the ‘judgment
of Heaven’ and is condemned to be torn ‘limb
from limb’ by infuriated stallions.

In this form the Chanson de Roland was
carried to almost every nation in Europe. It was
put into German verse by a certain Conrad about
1130, later into Norse prose and into English
verse; the story early penetrated to Italy: it was
known to Dante, and after several recastings it
was adapted to the national character by the
poets Pulei (Morgante maggiore), Boiardo
(Orlando innamorato), Ariosto (Orlando furioso),
and Berni (Orlando amoroso). In Spain
national jealousy displaced religious zeal. Roucevaux
became a Spanish victory, and the dawn
of Spain's national glory. Finally the legend
cast abroad the names of its heroes, some of
which became localized in foreign parts, notably
‘Roland’ in Northern Germany about Bremen.
The legend is also the theme of several operas.

The historical facts underlying the story are
told by Einhard, the biographer of Charles the
Great. He relates that on August 15, 778,
while passing through a defile of the Pyrenees,
part of the French army was attacked by
the mountaineers, the Basques, who, owing to
their light armor, gained an easy victory. In
this battle perished “Eggihard, provost of the
royal table; Anselm, count of the palace; and
Roland (Hruotlandus), prefect of the March of
Brittany.” This is the sole dictum of history
on the hero's character. But two Latin works,
a chronicle of the twelfth century attributed to
Turpin, and a poem De Proditione Guenonis of
the same date, reveal two versions of the legend
preceding that represented by the French poem.
From evidence in these works it is held that the
legend of Roland was first fashioned in Brittany,
recast in Anjou, and given its present form in
the country surrounding Paris or the Ile de
France. The best manuscript of the French poem
is the famous “Digby 23” of the Bodleian
Library, Oxford; it is apparently in the writing of
a scribe of the middle of the twelfth century.

As a literary production, the Chanson de
Roland is worthy to be classed with the two other
great mediæval epics, the Beowulf and the
Nibelungenlied. Doubtless they are both its
superiors on the æsthetic and human sides; each of
them is a more or less complete expression of a
past stage of civilization, whereas the Roland
represents only a part of the French nation, the
feudal barons. Yet, in its rough grace, it excels
them both in directness, and, above all, in the
expression of a national spirit.

. Consult: Seelmann,
Bibliographie des altfranzösischen Rolandliedes
(Heilbronn, 1888). The best editions of the text are
by Gautier (Tours, 1899); by Müller (Göttingen,
1878); by Stengel (Leipzig, 1900). For
criticism consult especially G. Paris, Poèmes et
légendes du moyen age (Paris, 1900). Translations:
J. O'Hagan (London, 1880) in the metre
of “Christabel”; Rabillon (New York; 1888) in
blank verse; an excellent German translation is
that of William Hertz (Stuttgart, 1861); and by
far the best in modern French is the blank verse
translation of Joseph Fabre (Paris, 1902).