The Battle of Roncevaux (Tournai tapestry)

The Song of Roland

Unknownc. 1100
MedievalModerateEpicOld FrenchMedium · 224 pages
Influence64th pct
Popularity31st pct
Where it ranks
#161of 194Overall#9of 10Medieval

Read this if you…

  • are into France for some messed up reason
  • want to read one of the epic poems that's not as good as the others
  • like knights and bravery and stuff

Skip this if you…

  • haven't read all the best epics already
  • are turned off by overly biased christian vs muslim theme

Why It Matters

This is where French heroic literature starts. Roland's last stand set the template for the noble doomed-battle story, and writers kept reusing that shape for centuries. It's also one of the main sources of the whole chivalry code, the honor and loyalty stuff knights were supposed to live by. No Roland, no Arthurian legend in the form we know it.

The Groblé Take

Super quick and easy chivalric poem, classic knight and bravery stuff

Connections

Where to go next

Built Onwhat came beforeThe Song of RolandThe Gospels

  • The Gospels by Matthew. The Song of Roland built on it. - *The Song of Roland* is built on the Gospel passion — read the betrayal and death of Christ first and the chanson's shape clicks into place - Roland's death recalls the Passion, his twelve companions the Twelve Apostles, and the emir's temptation Satan's offer to Jesus in Matthew 4 - Ganelon is the poem's Judas: the Gospels gave the medieval imagination its archetype of the traitor, and Roland's poet spends it here
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

A multi-episode panel compressing the Battle of Roncevaux into a single frame: ambush, combat, Roland blowing the horn, his death, Charlemagne's discovery.

Simon Marmion

Charlemagne weeps over the body of Roland after the rear-guard is destroyed at Roncevaux.

Mounted knights of Charlemagne clash with Marsile's Saracen forces in dense, banner-filled combat; Roland visible among the Frankish ranks.

1490

Roland, exhausted and bloodied amid heaps of slain Saracens, raises the oliphant to his lips on a mountain ridge.

Gustave Doré, 1869

Roland fallen at Roncevaux, oliphant cracked beside him, with a winged figure or companion attending.

Roland mounted on Veillantif blows the oliphant, holding Durendal aloft, with Roland's Breach in the Pyrenees behind him.

Wolfgang von Bibra

Roland lies dying on the grass at Roncevaux, his oliphant beside him, as a companion mourns over his body.

Jean Fouquet, 1460

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$13.00$12.12

Glyn Burgess

Penguin Classics · 1990

Burgess gives you the poem's martial energy in clean prose, no fake-medieval gloss layered on top. His intro on Charlemagne's actual campaign and the chanson de geste tradition is the best short primer in print.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

Dorothy L. Sayers

Penguin Classics · 1957

$14.00$13.05Buy
#3

Michael A.H. Newth

Italica Press · 2011

Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“The count Rollanz, though blood his mouth doth stain, / And burst are both the temples of his brain, / His olifant he sounds with grief and pain.”

— Roland sounds the olifant, laisse CXXXV · trans. Scott-Moncrieff

“Roland is brave, and Oliver is wise; both are marvelous vassals.”

— The Song of Roland

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