History Literature / TheSongOfRoland

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The Christians were apparently under the impression the Muslims worshiped the demon Apollyon, among others (Muslims at the time were similarly misinformed about Christian belief).

* [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Hero?]]: When the city of Saragossa falls, Charlemagne has his army demolish the mosques and convert everyone at swordpoint. It would be {{ValuesDissonance}}, except he decides it would be unethical to force Christianity on Queen Bramimonde.
** More a case of ItMakesSenseInContext, as this would have been far from unusual at the time, and Saragossa had been a Christian city (and the seat of one of the oldest dioceses in Spain, as a matter of fact) until its capture by the Moors just over a half century before the events of the story took place.

* TheyJustDidntCare: It's worth noting that the battle of Roncesvalles wasn't even fought against the Spanish, that Charlemagne did not live to 200, and that bishops were banned from fighting.

* BlingOfWar: The Muslim generals wear golden armor with helms encrusted in gems and decorated with flowers, which both go rolling to the ground when one takes a blow to the head. It's like a jihad planned by {{She-Ra}}.

* TheyJustDidntCare: It's worth noting that the battle of ROncesvalles wasn't even fought against the Spanish, that Charlemagne did not live to 200, and that bishops were banned from fighting.

* HoYay: Roland's supposed to be engaged to Olivier's sister Aude, but he seems to like Olivier himself a lot more. He doesn't even think of Aude as he dies, but when Olivier dies Roland weeps and hugs his "''ami'''s" body to his chest.

'''''The Song of Roland''''' (Old French, ''La Chanson de Roland'') is the oldest surviving work of French literature, dating from [[TheHighMiddleAges the late 11th century]]. Taillefer, William the Conqueror's minstrel, charged into battle at Hastings singing a version of it, and if you read the version we have, you can definitely see how it would get the soldiers' blood pumping. A relatively short epic poem, having 4,000 ten-syllable verses, ''Roland'' is the closest thing to a Christian ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]''. Like the Greek epic, it was only one, though almost certainly the greatest one, of a large body of now mostly forgotten works[[hottip:*:''e.g., The Song of William'' or ''The Four Sons of Aymon'']], called in this case the ''Chansons de Geste'' or "Songs of Deeds." Its influence was enormous, and adaptations soon appeared in several European languages such as Latin, Occitan, and Middle High German.

-->Charles the king, our great emperor, has been in Spain a full seven years: he has conquered the high land up to the sea. There is no castle that remains against him; there is no wall or town left to conquer, except Saragossa, which is on a mountain. King Marsilie holds it, he who does not love God; he serves Mohammed and calls on Apollyon; he cannot ward off the ill that will reach him there. [-AOI-] [[hottip:*: And if you want to know what AOI means, join the club -- generations of mediæval scholars have failed to determine its significance conclusively.]]

* AdaptationExpansion: The only historical mention of Roland (from Einhards ''Life of Charlemagne'') is as the warden of the Breton Marches, who was one of several nobles to be killed at Roncevaux.[[hottip:*: "Eggihard, the King's steward; Anselm, Count Palatine; and Roland, Governor of the March of Brittany, with very many others, fell in this engagement"]] Later medieval tradition managed to transform this barely notable figure into a MemeticBadass with his own legendary cycle.

* MultinationalTeam: ''Not'' the troops who perish at Roncevaux, who are all pure French [[hottip:*:and not even from all of what we think of as France, but from the much smaller historic Ile-de-France province surrounding Paris]]. However, the armies in general of Charlemagne, Marsile, and Baligant are drawn from a variety of nations.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: While this probably wasn't trying to be particularly historically accurate, it is worth noting that Charlemagne was involved in a religious conference banning [[BattleBishop battle bishops]]

* NoSocialSkills: Halfway through an argument with Oliver, Roland asks [[CaptainObvious "Are you angry with me?"]] He also finds people wnating to kill him hilarious.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Charlemagne has [[AnimalMotifs animal-themed]] dreams foretelling both the disaster at Roncevaux and the [[EverythingsWorseWithBears trial of Ganelon]].

** More a case of ItMakesSenseInContext, as this would have been far from unusual at the time, and Saragossa had been a Christian city until its capture by the Moors just over a half century before the events of the story took place.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Saracens aren't called Muslims, they're called Pagans, and they worship idols of Mahomet (!), Apollo (!!), and Termagant (''who''?[[hottip:*:The strongest theory is "God of the mages," i.e., Ahura Mazda. Essentially, they saw a new empire pop up in the East and thought "Islam" was just an Arabized Zoroastrianism.]]).
** Furthermore, in real life it was not Muslims, but the local Navarrese who ambushed the baggage train. The Franks had demolished the walls of Pamplona, and their duke was not amused. Thus (at least according to Einhard), the Battle of Roncevaux Pass wasn't against Saracens at all; it was against the Basques, who were Christian.
** And, oh, yeah, Charlemagne didn't reconquer Spain. He took back a tiny piece of the Spanish marches for use as a buffer against Muslim raiders. So yeah, kind of an EpicFail on the whole "research" thing.
** The whole "and calls on Apollyon" thing was probably just propaganda, similar to saying "and they eat babies."

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: [[YourMileageMayVary Your mileage may vary]], but during the first half of the poem, in order to fit the meter, one line will describe something Roland does or did, such as "Roland did x" or "Roland was at x" and the next line will be "And Olivier, the brave and true." The intention is to establish Olivier (or Oliver) as Roland's best friend and the second-best knight of France, and it also fills out the line and completes the meter, but the end result is that everyone, including the ''bad guys'', ends up praising Olivier. A lot. It gets pretty amusing.
* EvilCounterpart: Baligant, Emir of Babylon, and fellow BadassGrandpa is pretty clearly the EvilCounterpart to Charles, who he engages in an epic duel by the end. Possibly [[EvilSorcerer Corselis]] to [[BadassPreacher Turpin]] although the fight isn't nearly as good.

** BadassGrandpa: Charlemagne and Baligant

* BlingOfWar: The Muslim generals wear golden armor with helms encrusted in gems and decorated with flowers, which both go rolling to the ground when one takes a blow to the head. It's like a jihad planned by [[SheRaPrincessOfPower She-Ra]].

* ExpansionPackPast: If you take what happens in ''Orlando innamorato'' ("Roland In Love") and ''OrlandoFurioso'' ("Roland Goes Crazy") as canon with ''The Song of Roland'', then Roland had a pretty interesting life.

* ExpansionPackPast: If you take what happens in ''Orlando innamorato'' ("Roland In Love") and ''Orlando furioso'' ("Roland Goes Crazy") as canon with ''The Song of Roland'', then Roland had a pretty interesting life.

* TheLancer As the famous line in stanza 87 goes, "Roland is brave and Olivier is wise; they are both marvellously courageous." Olivier is a pretty straight-up Lancer to Roland; his clear-headedness balances Roland's recklessness, and, as the second-best knight of France, the closest to a rival that the mighty Roland can have. There's even a little HoYay to round it out.

!!''TheSongOfRoland'' provides examples of:

* FridgeLogic: Charlemagne is described as 200 years old. His sister's son Roland can't be more than 30. How exactly does that work?