History Literature / TheSongOfRoland

The plot is a [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory wildly fictionalized version]] of the Battle of Roncevalles or Roncevaux Pass that was fought as UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}'s army left Muslim-controlled UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} in [[DarkAgeEurope 778]]. In the opening scene, the Spanish king Marsile hatches a plot to end his seven-year war with Charlemagne by pretending to convert to UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} and become his vassal. Receiving the Spanish messengers, Charlemagne and his barons debate who to send to Marsile. Our hero Roland volunteers his stepfather Ganelon, to his outrage. Ganelon goes, but conspires with Marsile to ambush the French in the narrow passes of the Pyrénées. The Spaniards fall upon the rearguard led by Roland, the other eleven paladins, and Turpin, the [[WarriorMonk sword-wielding archbishop]]. The rearguard is slaughtered to a man, and when Charlemagne finds out, he gets [[IncrediblyLamePun mediæval]] on the Spaniards. All looks lost for the Muslims, until the Emir arrives with an enormous fleet of troop transports. Thus, we have a family conflict, nested within a conflict between France and Spain, nested within a world war between Cross and Crescent.

The plot is a [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory wildly fictionalized version]] of the Battle of Roncevalles or Roncevaux Pass that was fought as UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}'s army left Muslim-controlled Spain in 778. In the opening scene, the Spanish king Marsile hatches a plot to end his seven-year war with Charlemagne by pretending to convert to UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} and become his vassal. Receiving the Spanish messengers, Charlemagne and his barons debate who to send to Marsile. Our hero Roland volunteers his stepfather Ganelon, to his outrage. Ganelon goes, but conspires with Marsile to ambush the French in the narrow passes of the Pyrénées. The Spaniards fall upon the rearguard led by Roland, the other eleven paladins, and Turpin, the [[WarriorMonk sword-wielding archbishop]]. The rearguard is slaughtered to a man, and when Charlemagne finds out, he gets [[IncrediblyLamePun mediæval]] on the Spaniards. All looks lost for the Muslims, until the Emir arrives with an enormous fleet of troop transports. Thus, we have a family conflict, nested within a conflict between France and Spain, nested within a world war between Cross and Crescent.

The plot is a [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory wildly fictionalized version]] of the Battle of Roncevalles or Roncevaux Pass that was fought as Charlemagne's army left Muslim-controlled Spain in 778. In the opening scene, the Spanish king Marsile hatches a plot to end his seven-year war with Charlemagne by pretending to convert to Christianity and become his vassal. Receiving the Spanish messengers, Charlemagne and his barons debate who to send to Marsile. Our hero Roland volunteers his stepfather Ganelon, to his outrage. Ganelon goes, but conspires with Marsile to ambush the French in the narrow passes of the Pyrénées. The Spaniards fall upon the rearguard led by Roland, the other eleven paladins, and Turpin, the [[WarriorMonk sword-wielding archbishop]]. The rearguard is slaughtered to a man, and when Charlemagne finds out, he gets [[IncrediblyLamePun mediæval]] on the Spaniards. All looks lost for the Muslims, until the Emir arrives with an enormous fleet of troop transports. Thus, we have a family conflict, nested within a conflict between France and Spain, nested within a world war between Cross and Crescent.

-->''Carles li reis, nostre emper[er]e magnes''\\

-->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-] [[note]]And if you want to know what AOI means, join the club -- generations of mediæval scholars have failed to determine its significance conclusively.[[/note]]

* BattleEpic

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Olivier.

* TheHeroDies: Roland.

* KillEmAll: Both armies.

* LastStand: Roncevaux.

* NarrativePoem
* NobleDemon: Baligant, Malprimes, Canabeus, Margariz.

* SwordSparks: The duel between Thierry and Pinabel during Ganelon's trial.
* TragicBromance: Roland and Olivier

* ViewersAreGoldfish: This may be the effect of the poem's habit of repeating descriptions of important actions or speeches, ''viz.'', Marsile's asking Ganelon if Charlemagne will ever tire of going to war. Such repetitions seem to have been a convention in mediæval literature - this is due to the fact that traditional epic poetry, such as ''Literature/TheIliad'', the Aeneid, and of course this poem, was meant to be memorized and recited to an audience. The repetition is a memetic tool for the reciter, who would otherwise have his hands even more full.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The historical Battle of Roncevaux Pass was ''not'' fought against the Muslims at all, but against the Basques -- who themselves were Christians!

* JustSoStory: There's a large gap in the Pyrenees that was supposedly created when Roland tried (and failed!) to destroy Durendal by striking it against the ground.

* BadassGrandpa: Charlemagne and Baligant.

* 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.

* YourHeadASplode: Most brass players will tell you not to use ''quite'' as much pressure as Roland did. Unless you have a thing for brains coming out your ears.

* LastStand: Roncevaux

* MeaningfulRename: Marsile's widow Bramidoine becomes Julienne upon her conversion to christianism.

-->Roland's battle cry

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

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The Muslims in ''Song of Roland'' worship the demon Apollyon and keep idols.[[note]]While "Apollyon" is almost-excusably close to the Arabic word for "God," i.e. "Allah," the idols are so wrong that you don't know if ignorance or malice is the worse excuse--at about the same time as Roland's exploits, the Byzantines were arguing about whether Islam's stricter adherence to the Second Commandment through antipathy towards images and idols were the reason they had won so many battles against the Christians.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The Muslims in ''Song of Roland'' worship the demon Apollyon and keep idols.

'''''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[[note]]''e.g., The Song of William'' or ''The Four Sons of Aymon''[[/note]], 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.

* CoDragons: Baligant's son (Malprimes) and brother (Canabeus) play this role to him. They're the only members of his army to get any characterisation after him, are the BadAss fighters, killing several key Christian knights, and are his most trusted advisors. Both of them have to die before Baligant faces Charles to boot.

* {{Badass}}: Lots of it. [[InvincibleHero Roland]] is of course, the standout.
** BadassFamily: Charlemagne and Roland are related. Baligant, his brother, Canabeus, and his son, Malprimes, are the "[[DesignatedVillain evil]]" version of this.
** BadassGrandpa: Charlemagne and Baligant.
** BadassPreacher: Archbishop Turpin racks up more kills than any of the paladins.

* [[SelfDestructiveCharge Self-Destructive Charge]]: The entire Battle of Roncevaux is pretty much one big Self-Destructive Charge, but one of the most poignant individual examples is when Olivier is stabbed from behind through the chest with a spear and nevertheless charges into the enemy ranks with a fervour so intense that, blinded by his blood loss, he accidentally strikes his best friend Roland on the helm.
* [[ShutUpKirk Shut Up, Kirk]]: Baligant's reply to Charlemagne saying "Accept Christ, and your first friend I'll be!" is "Your sermon's ill-preached." and a blow with his scimitar.
* [[SwordSparks Sword Sparks]]: The duel between Thierry and Pinabel during Ganelon's trial.
* [[BetrayalTropes Traitor]]: Ganelon, who becomes, with [[KingArthur Mordred]] and [[{{Jesus}} Judas]], one of the great exemplars of treachery for the mediæval period.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy Well Done Nephew Guy]]: Roland's mantra is "We'll fight well and then my uncle will love me!", even though his uncle already seems to.

* HonorBeforeReason: Roland refuses Olivier's advice of calling Charlemagne and his army with his Olifant because he prefere to die than looking like a coward

''Nes poet guarder que mals ne l'i ateignet. [-AOI-].''\\

It can be found online [[http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/gallica/Chronologie/11siecle/Roland/rol_ch01.html here]].

* 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. In fact the phrase "Trade a Roland for an Oliver" comes from the fact when they first met, they tried to beat each other in a duel but came out a stalemate. There's even a little HoYay to round it out.

* PlotArmor: When Oliver has lost so much blood that he can't tell friend from foe, he strikes and Roland, cutting his helmet from top to nosepiece. Roland is not injured in any way.

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Aude. She's Olivier's sister and Roland's betrothed.. and that's it. She isn't even mentioned until Roland lies dying and then she promptly dies of grief after finding out that he died in battle. (Their relationship was later fleshed-out in a prequel, ''Girart de Vienne.'')

* [[SelfDestructiveCharge Self-Destructive Charge]]: The entire Battle of Roncevaux is pretty much one big Self-Destructive Charge, but one of the most poignant individual examples is when Olivier is stabbed through the chest with a spear and nevertheless charges into the enemy ranks with a fervour so intense that, blinded by his blood loss, he accidentally strikes his best friend Roland on the helm.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Fate is a constant motif in the Song of Roland. The narrator frequently informs readers that Roland's days are numbered, and the weird thing is, most of the characters seem to know it, too, although "fate" prevents them from doing anything about it.

* 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.

* TheHeroDies: Yup.

* [[KillEmAll Kill 'Em All]]: Again, yup.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The muslims in ''Song of Roland'' worship the demon Apollyon.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Proof that this trope is OlderThanPrint: Roland and Charlemagne were real people and there really was a Battle of Roncevaux Pass, but other than that...

* 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, believing they worshiped God, Jesus and ''Mary'').