Song of Roland or La

¶ … Song of Roland or La Chanson de Roland, whose author is unknown, is the greatest, oldest and a very popular medieval epic poem in French, believed to have been written between 1098 and 1100. It relates and presents events that supposedly happened several centuries earlier and during the reign of the Christian emperor Charlemagne (Crosland 1999) as a narrative that omits and ignores historical records. This study will investigate and analyze the epic as a literary work and as a propaganda material. It will explore its historical authenticity as well as establish its literary worth. Previous studies found that the first extant version was rewritten to inspire a holy war against the Muslims of Spain and that this finding is replicated today in the campaign of Christians against the Al Qaeda, the Iraqi militants and enlightened liberals (Lafoley 2005). The present study will use the normative-descriptive method of research in gathering, interpreting and analyzing data derived from an English translation of the epic in 1999 and published accounts, criticisms and analyses on the text from 1991 to the present.

The Song of Roland as a Literary Work

This is one of the hundreds of surviving epics from the 11th to the 14th century, coinciding with the First Crusade and very popular. It is a legendary account on the slaughter of Charlemagne's army in Roncesvalles pass of the Pyrenees mountains by the Saracens o "pagans" and the events before and after the slaughter (Crosland 1999). Charlemagne was the great and famous king of the Franks and a very loyal and militant Christian who lived between 742 and 814. In 800, he was crowned emperor by his ally, the pope, who legitimized his rule over the former Roman empire in Western Europe.

As the background of the poem, Charlemagne has been fighting the Muslims in Spain up to the last city, Saragossa. Fearing Charlemagne's might, Saragossa's Muslim king Marsilla sends the emperor a peace offer of treasure and conversion to Christianity if they would just return to France. Charlemagne accepts the offer and his bold warrior Roland nominates his stepfather, Ganelon, to accompany the Saracen messengers with the message of acceptance. Ganelon resents Roland's selection of him out of fear for his life in the hands of the Saracens and out of hate and envy for Roland. Ganelon retaliates by plotting out against the Franks with the Saracens and ambushing the rear guard in Roncesvals.

The epic relates how the Saracens overcome the Christian army, led by Roland. His faithful companions Olivier and Turpin urge him to blow his Oliphant horn to call for help from the Frankish army but, at first, Roland refuses, but does so when they begin to lose out to the attackers. Roland dies as a glorious martyr's death (Crosant 1999). Charlemagne's army later comes to find only their dead bodies and the pagans fleeing in the river Ebro and drowning there. In the meantime, the powerful emir of Babylon, Baligant, and his army have combined forces with Marsilla against the Franks and, together, they meet Charlemagne's forces in Roncesvals, while the Christians mourn for and bury their dead warriors. Charlemagne kills Baligant and the pagans scatter and run away. The Franks now take Saragossa and ride back to France victoriously.

Before this event, Ganelon is imprisoned and tried by the council of barons (Crosant 1999). The council is at first swayed by Ganelon's claim of legitimate revenge but Thierry argues that Ganelon committed betrayal against the emperor, whom Roland served. Ganelon's friend, Pinabel, challenges and engages Thierry in a duel to settle the conflict and, although weaker, Thierry wins and kills Pinabel by divine intervention. Ganelon is brutally torn by galloping horses and 30 of his relatives hung.

Like other medieval songs of great and heroic deeds, the Song of Roland was transmitted from generation to generation orally and sung by wandering performers called jongleurs during feasts and festivals before it was written down (Bourneuf 2005, Crosant 1999). The written form was derived from a manuscript by a medieval scribe on the performances of these jongleurs. The narrator's voice was that of the jongleur who does the recounting not on a neutral, third-party and omniscient point of observation but as historical facts, which his medieval audiences learn to accept. The events are all in the form of myths and inventions that occurred in the distant past and this separateness makes the heroes and their deeds seem all the more grand and glorious. The narrator does not pretend to know these tales from eye witness but only from his knowledge of such tales and chronicles in order to produce the best effect of credibility for his narrations. One example is his description of the number of foes Roland, Turpin and Olivier killed at Roncesvals. It is also likely that the historical chronicles he uses as basis for the claim are as fictitious as the events he narrates (Crosant, Bourneuf).

The Song of Roland, like other chansons de geste, does not possess the element of surprise: the jongleur tells the story the audiences already know but would like to hear again and again (Crosant 1999, Bouneuf 1999). They know all about the treachery, trial and execution of Ganelon and the vengeance that Charlemagne exacts for Roland's death. Right at the start of the narration, the audiences know that Charlemagne will eventually capture Marsilla and that Ganelon is a traitor.

As an epic poem, the Song of Roland is divided into verse paragraphs of different lengths, called laisses (Crosant 1999, Bourneuf 2005). Many poetic devices hold each laisse together. The epic's structure is symmetrical throughout and centers on the four major and great scenes that balance one another perfectly. The first is Ganelon's treachery and plotting with the Saracen messengers; the second is Roland's martyrdom; the third is Charlemagne's vengeance at Roncesvals; and Ganelon's trial and execution. Repetitions and parallel passages of the poem contribute to the overall purpose and symmetry of the poem. For example, the battle between Roland's rear guard and Marsilla's army is similarly staged and related as the battle between Charlemagne's and Baligant's armies. The two battles are also presented in the same order (Crosant, Bourneuf).

The time element is also slowed down, almost at a standstill, and displays the noble as well as the wicked gestures of the characters in quick summaries with the change of tableaux (Bourneuf 2005, Crosant 1999). After the first laisse, the council of Marsilla unfolds like a drama, the poet or narrator describes the setting of the action and gives the spiels of the advisors of Marsilla. After a quick summary of how Marsilla's messengers ride out of Charlemagne's camp, the tempo goes slowly again. This fast-slow rhythm alternates through long dramatic scenes at regular intervals. Each sentence and each phrase in each laisse stand separately. The reader or spectator must connect one element to the next on his own. The unknown poet or author of the epic does not connect or relate the elements on his own but simply puts them side by side. This technique is called parataxis, meaning "placing side by side" in Greek. The epic is composed roughly of 400 lines of verse, divided into 298 laisses. The lines are mostly decasyllabic and connected by assonance or rhyme. And like all orally recited epics, the Song of Roland has many so-called formulaic phrases ready and on-hand to complete a line and easy to remember. These phrases possess the requirements of the meter and a pleasing repetition of the poem. These formulas are most and particularly present in the battle scenes, which are also highly ritualized (Crosant, Bourneuf).

Songs of great and heroic deeds, like the Song of Roland, are written and meant to be performed (Bourneuf 2005, Crosant 1999). AOI appears on the margins throughout the poem but its meaning remains a mystery. Many believe that it refers to some instructions to the musical accompaniment or some gesture by the jongleur or performer. It, however, does not appear at the critical scenes or mood changes. What the letters exactly mean can only be a matter of speculation. This chanson might not have been played all at once. A proficient jongleur could have summarized the first parts and performed only a small portion of the entire epic. On the whole, the epic as a literary work is meant to be seen and heard with the accompaniment of music and within the context of celebrations and social events (Crosant, Bourneuf).

The basic theme in the Song of Roland is the struggle between good and evil, with the Christian Franks, led by Charlemagne, representing the good and the will of God on one side and the Muslim Saracens, led by Marsilla and Balligant, represented pure evil on the other (Bouneuf 2005, Crosant 1999). According to the line of thought of medieval chansons, good always wins in the end and that such is the inevitable outcome and direction of a good and almighty God who is personally interested in human events. These characters possess freewill, such as Ganelon and his plotting against the Franks. But the God in the epic does intervene to make sure that good really comes out victorious in the end, such as when he makes Thierry win over Pinable in a duel.

The unknown author of the epic presents the Muslims as unquestionably and inherently evil and base, the reverse of the Christians (Bouneuf 2005). Although the Muslims are more monotheistic than Christians and that Christians of the early Middle Ages took Islam merely as another form of paganism, they assumed that Muslims worshipped Apollo. In making this presentation, the poem employs a technique of opposite images, such as 12 Saracen peers matching 12 Frankish peers in battle, opposing armies organizing themselves in the same form, but with Christians outperforming the Muslims and fighting more nobly.

Awesome medieval Christian heroism centers on the idea of vassalage (Bouneuf 2005) and this is the other main theme in the Song of Roland, as exemplified by Roland's fidelity towards Charlemagne and Charlemagne towards God in exchange for protection and reward. This vassalage is recognized and rewarded in proportion to the passion that accompanies it in Roland's pride and martyrdom.

The major characters of the epic are the emperor Charlemagne, Roland, his bosom friends Olivier and Turpin, his stepfather Ganelon, Thierry, Baligant, Marsilla.and Alde. Charlemagne is the leader of the Frankish army, a committed ally of the pope and the crowned emperor of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. He is also the uncle and avenger of Roland. History makes only brief reference to him as the prefect of the Breton Marches. In this epic, he is one of the 12 peers of France, Charlemagne's favorite and a well-honed and very bold warrior. He fully understands the Frankish offensive in Spain as a crusade and is unwilling to enter into a compromise with the Saracens. His popularity produces resentment and envy in his stepfather Ganelon. His friend Olivier is also a brave warrior and one of the 12 peers, but wiser than Roland. Archbishop Turpin fights and dies with them at Roncesvals. He symbolizes Christendom's turn towards militant activity at the time of the Crusades. His style of battle is patterned after the famous speech of Pope Urban II, who directly inspired the First Crusade. Ganelon is a well-respected Frankish baron who takes revenge against Roland by plotting with the Saracens to ambush the rear guard of the Frankish army. Thierry of the council of barons makes the dissenting vote that ultimately condemns Ganelon. He is challenged into a duel by Ganelon's friend Pinabel and wins it, although he is weaker than Pinabel. Marsilla is the pagan kind of Saragossa, which is the last city to resist the Franks. Baligant is the noble emir of Babylon who combines forces with Marsilla against Charlemagne's might. Although Baligant's huge army matches Charlemagne's in size, strength and skill, the epic relates that Charlemagne manages to kill Baligant and avenge Roland's death and, likewise, conquer Spain in one stroke. Alde is Olivier's beautiful sister and Roland's sweetheart who dies of grief when she learns of Roland's death.

The Song of Roland as a Propaganda Text

Neither the author of the epic nor the exact date of its creation, most scholars assume that it was written between 1098 and 1100 during the time of the First Crusade and intended as a propaganda material to inflame Christians against Islam (Borey 2001). Propaganda covers a wide range of artistic creations that intend to listeners and readers to assume a particular viewpoint or course of action, create certain policies or move events according to that viewpoint. The Song of Roland is clearly moved by the spirit of the Crusades at a time when the medieval Catholic Church was at the height of its power and desirous of expanding its hold into the Holy Land. It has only a limited historical basis in narrating the massacre of Charlemagne's army in Roncesvals pass of the Pyrenees mountains. Accurate records of events during this dark period of European history are scarce and the most reliable is that of Einhard, Charlemagne's own biographer. Charlemagne, king of the Franks and a committed Christian and ally of the pope, would use these records to achieve his political purpose. During Charlemagne's time, the rise of Islam was enormous and unstoppable. Although then not yet three centuries old, it had taken North Africa and the Middle East. These new Muslim kingdoms were richer, stronger and culturally and technologically ahead of European kingdoms and tribes. Moslem Spain was an example of a resplendent and sophisticated blend of culture, science and institutions.

In contrast, the Catholic Church was then threatened everywhere and treaded on perilous grounds and difficult times (Borey 2001). Charlemagne wanted to expand his Christian empire, which included large territories of what are Germany and France today and part of Spain. Historical records show that he was unable to overturn the Saracens in Roncesvalles, and that he instead had to change strategies in Spain. He focused on capturing and holding a few areas as a buffer against the Muslims in Spain. His vassals managed to conquer Barcelona in 803 and he was able to maintain control of an area called Spanish March.

The author of the epic seems not to have qualms faking historical facts in suiting it to the spirit of the Crusades (Borey 2001), because it ignores these historical facts. Charlemagne lost the Roncesvalles, yet the epic narrates that he is capable of conquering all of Spain. Roland is historically the Lord of Breton March, yet Charlemagne's biographer Einhard describes him as a Frankish lord and favorite nephew of Charlemagne. The treachery committed by Christian Basques is translated as that only of Ganelon and the Basques are also mis-represented as Muslims, whom the author refers to as Saracens or pagans. In the centuries that transpired from the occurrence of narrated events to the writing of the epic, Charlemagne's person has been magnified to coincide with the offensives of the Crusades, specifically in the conquest of the hugely rich Muslim lands. In 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a famous speech at the Council of Clermont, urging all Christians to raise arms to recapture the land of Christ and they would receive full penance. The epic character Archbishop Turpin recreates and fulfills this line of thought when he grants full spiritual amnesty to the Franks before the Roncesvalles battle and promises salvation and paradise to them. The epic likewise dwells on Charlemagne's personal nobility and personal relationship with God and his receiving divine messages from angels (Borey).

Critics believe that the Song of Roland was written to encourage Medieval Christians to join the Crusades against the Muslims (Lafoley 2005). As such it is a blatant propaganda text in motivation and historically inaccurate and racist in its structure and bent. It presents not only Roland as the heroic martyr but that the terrible revenge of Charlemagne for his death is God's righteous wish. Realizing or not realizing that it was propaganda, the epic accomplished its purpose in acquiring thousands of volunteers to rise in arms against the Muslims. Its language is grand and irresistible and its religious message is emotional and compelling. It inclines audiences to believe that it is them with God on one side and the Muslim enemies on the other. This is the impact, for example, of the image of blood on the young girl and the image of blood on the green grace, centuries apart. The words "liberty" and "freedom" are used as the equivalent of Christianity in and by the epic, interpretations that have gone down through generations to the present in American history (Lafoley).

Charlemagne's revenge of Roland's death at Roncesvalles became deeply and firmly impressed into the minds of the French people (Dominik 2005). It does not appear to be a coincidence that the first extent version of this great chanson was written around 1095 during the launching of the First Crusade. From a political maneuver, it turns into a call for a holy war against the Muslims of Spain on account of their attack on Charlemagnes rear guard at Roncesvalles. The epic delineates and clearly and firmly sets down the meanings of good and evil throughout. It does so distinctively in the battlefield scenes where super-mortal forces clash for the control of the earth, using mortal bodies of Christians and pagans in a way of cosmological significance. While based on historical facts, the Song of Roland went through editing in the three centuries between the massacre and the writing of this epic. It is historically factual that the rear guard of Charlemagne's army was slaughtered at Roncesvalles, but it was the Basques and the Muslims that crushed Charlemagne's forces. Neither were the Franks waging a holy war against Spain. It is known that, a year before the massacre, Sulayman ibn a llcArabi sought the help of Charles or Charlemagne for help against the Emir, cAbdar-Rahman. Charlemagne granted it and set up an huge army to cross the Pyrenees to place sylayment on the throne and take Iberia as a vassal or fief. The re-writing of history in the Song of Roland has been described as a "mythification" of true events. It seeks to hide the fiasco of the Franks' defeat at the Pyrenees mountains to cover-up or reduce the consequences, and to preserve the image and reputation of Charlemagne as head of state. It moves from the concrete and stable realm of history and into the world of legend and myth where symbols prevail, occupy and replace historical facts (Dominik).

The Song of Roland is a national epic that gives religious significance to secular acts and events and interprets Charlemagne's 778 campaign not only as a holy war among mortals but also as the war between good and evil, between God and Satan (Dominik 2005). When memory began to fade concerning the true results of the battle of Roncevalles, the account on the 778 slaughter was rewritten as a moral battle in order to give the French kings, the heirs of Charlemagne, the moral right and imperative to justify their rule and accord the church with a great past and history. This justification was necessary to inspire and move the church's soldiers to do battle on the First Crusade (Lombard-Jourdan, 13 as qtd in Dominik).

The unknown author or authors of the Song of Roland clearly endeavored to affect the reaction and reception of the audience by diverting historical facts and narrating the story from a "valorial" position or perspective (Dominik 2005). In this rehashed perspective or position, the Christians are opposed to the Saracens, who must be converted to Christianity or get killed. Other critics theorize that the author or authors of the chanson projected Christianity onto pagans in order to create a new society specifically marked out as anti-Christian. Now, this anti-Christian society, critics say, serves to convince or even amuse Christians without the society's resembling actual Arabs or the Arab world. The Orient is now viewed as the stage where the entire East is confined and which represents a closed theatrical stage beyond Europe but affixed to it (Daniel, 259-260 in Said, 6365 as qtd in Dominik). The chanson treats the Orient as anti-Occident, which means that if the Occidentals have positive value, the Orientals do not. The Christians' enemies in this epic are collectively referred to as "felons" and "criminals|, whom the Franks had the moral imperative to conquer or crush. The epic presents these enemies as pagans who are heretics who believe in a caricature of the true faith and, therefore, are quite sinful. It paints them as worshipping a trinity of gods, i.e., Apollin, Tervagant and Mahomet, to intercede for them in battle. Their belief in three gods, but not like the Christians' one God in three Persons, has been associated with many heretical movements in the 11th century France, which denied the existence of a Divine Trinity

Under the theological system of Augustine of the Middle Ages, pagans become evil for not accepting or subscribing to the Christian faith (Dominik 2005). Boethius expands Augustine's teaching by concluding that good emanates from God into all men and all things. He contends that beings normally tend towards good according to their nature, but that they can also be deceived into wishing or pursuing evil or act against God's will. He explains that evil can come from the lack of knowledge, from fortune or lack of divine order. The Song of Roland ascribes that evil to pagans because of their lack of knowledge. It interprets that, if all good things come an absolute Good, then Satan is the opposite. And since pagans choose this path towards lack of knowledge and evil and tend towards Satan, they break the uniformity of the cosmological order established by God. He sees that the only way to restore that order and prepare for God's kingdom is either conversion or destruction. Pagans must be killed and sent to hell. In the chanson, the death of a pagan coincides with the action of a demon, as in the death of the dying pagan Escremis de Valterne. In contrast, Christians fight for God and the good. It clearly sets out that, in battle, the pagans are in the wrong and the Christians are in the right. Christians, thus, fight a holy war and vengeance against pagans who are criminal and evil is part of their motivation. Under the system of symbols, Charlemagne must destroy pagan idols by destroying the pagans themselves. One loses the war when he loses his gods (Dominik).