Medieval/Renaissance Classics: Roland

An epic poem recounting the feats of Charlemagne or other kings of the Carolingian era and their barons. The term geste originally meant "heroic deeds" but came also to signify the "historical record" provided by the texts relating them and, by extension, the "family" or "lineage" responsible for them.

(rō'lӘnd), the great French hero of the medieval Charlemagne cycle of chansons de geste, immortalized in the Chanson de Roland (11th or 12th cent.). Existence of an early Roland poem is indicated by the historian Wace's statement that Taillefer sang of Roland's deeds to inflame the men before the Battle of Hastings (1066). Historically Roland was Charlemagne's commander on the Breton border; he was killed in a pass in the Pyrenees when Basques cut off the rear guard of the Frankish army returning from its invasion of Spain in 778.

The Song of Roland is the English title of Chanson de Roland, a French epic poem composed by an unknown author, probably during the eleventh century.

La Chanson de Roland, English The Song of Roland, Old French epic poem that is probably the earliest (c. 1100) chanson de geste and is considered the masterpiece of the genre. The poem’s probable author was a Norman poet, Turold, whose name is introduced in its last line...

Read the Song of Roland online through Project Gutenberg. Anonymous Old French epic, dating perhaps as early as the middle 11th century.

Compiled in the 11th century, The Song of Roland is perhaps the world’s most famous portrait of early European chivalry, piousness, and militarism. This beautifully produced program offers an abridged English version of the battlefield epic, combining richly textured medieval and Renaissance art images with scholarly summaries and interpretations of the work’s major sections. Acknowledging the poem’s historical inaccuracies, the video nevertheless underscores its importance for later European listeners: specifically, as a rallying cry mobilizing Christian forces to embark on the Crusades. An Old French recital of the song’s first six lines begins the program. (73 minutes)

Out of the ashes of the Roman Empire rose the Holy Roman Empire, born during Christmas of 800 in the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome. This program covers the antecedents and the life of Charlemagne, shows life at the court, life of the courtiers and of the peasants, recounts the battle of Roncevaux—site of the epic Chanson de Roland—and counterpoints the glories of the Carolingian Renaissance with the everyday realities of hunger, plague, and constant violence. The program concludes with the first of Europe’s major confrontations between empire and church, in this instance between Henry IV and Gregory VII. (31 minutes)