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Psychology & SocietyThe Song of RolandC. K. Scott-MoncrieffThe Song of Roland

The Song of Roland

C. K. Scott-Moncrieff

Psychology & SocietyEnglish
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In 778 the emperor Charlemagne is returning to France after seven years of war in Spain. Betrayed by Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, the rearguard led by…

Catalogue details

Author
C. K. Scott-Moncrieff
Category
Psychology & Society
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

In 778 the emperor Charlemagne is returning to France after seven years of war in Spain. Betrayed by Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, the rearguard led by Charlemagne's nephew Roland is ambushed by a vast Saracen army in the mountain pass of Roncevaux. Too proud to blow his horn, the Oliphant, to call for help, Roland fights on beside his friend Oliver and Archbishop Turpin until nearly all are dead; only then does he blow it, so hard that his temples burst, and Charlemagne returns to take revenge.

Context and significance

The oldest major work of French literature, composed around 1100 in some four thousand lines, the poem turned a small historical defeat, in which the real attackers were Basques, into a crusading epic against Muslims, and it reflects the outlook of the age of the First Crusade. This is the 1919 translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, later famous as the translator of Proust. Compare The Nibelungenlied.

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