The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)
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Book Reviews of The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: "Mountjoy!" Surely thou dost geste....
Summary: 5 Stars

the "Introduction." Sayers discusses this "earliest,
the most famous, and the greatest of those Old French
epics which are called Songs of Deeds." Her "Introduction"
is divided into the highly enlightening subsections titled:
The Poem; The Feudal Picture; Vassalage; Tokens; Chivalry;
The Rules of Battle; Nurture and Companionage; Horses and
Swords; and The Verse and the Translation. She says the
poem as we have it "would appear to have achieved its
final shape towards the end of the eleventh century." But
the events described in the epic took place in 778, and
"the anonymous poet describes in detail the betrayal and
slaughter by Saracens of the rearguard of Charlemagne's
army under Roland -- at Rencevaux -- and Charlemagne's
bitter revenge."
Perhaps most interesting in the "Introduction" are Ms.
Sayers' character studies. She sees that in Charlemagne,
"beneath this larger-than-life-size figure, we discern
another: the portrait of the ideal earthly sovereign --
just, prudent, magnanimous, and devout." She goes
further and posits that in the way he is described
in this epic he even seems like an early medieval version
of a "constitutional" monarch. "Beneath all this again
is the personal character of Charlemagne -- his stately
bearing, his courtesy, his valour and strength, his deep
religious feeling, his friendship for Naimon, his warm
affection for his nephew and the Peers.... He rides
and fights among his barons as the greatest baron of
them all."
Roland, on the other hand, in Ms. Sayers' view, has a
character which is "simplicity itself." "Rash, arrogant,
generous, outspoken to a fault, loyal, affectionate,
and single-minded, he has all the qualities that endear
a captain to his men and a romantic hero to his audience.
He has no subtlety at all; other men's minds are a closed
book to him." This particular view of Roland makes him
sound a little like a faithful pooch rather than a
chivalrous knight; and perhaps strains a bit of invective
at Romantics in believing that they prefer no subtlety
in their heroes.
The final aspect which Ms. Sayers stresses is the "essential
Christianity of the poem." "It is not merely Christian in
subject; it is Christian to its very bones." *** "And it
is a Christianity as naive and uncomplicated as might be
found at any time in the simplest village church." However,
it is a Christianity which has already made the concession
to the idea of "just wars" -- and killing for "the right
reasons." Augustine and Constantine take precedence over
Jesus.
This is a very readable translation and Ms. Sayers, who
received a degree in medieval literature from the
Somerville College, University of Oxford, in 1915, does
it great credit with a readable, engrossing translation.
Here is the section on the death of Roland himself (actually
it takes him 3 full stanzas to die; 174, 175, and 176,
even though it seems he has fully expired in the first --):
Now Roland feels death press upon him hard;
It is creeping down from his head to his heart.
Under a pine-tree he hastens him apart,
There stretches him face down on the green grass,
And lays beneath him his sword and Oliphant [his horn].
He's turned his head to where the Paynims are,
And this he doth for the French and for Charles,
Since fain is he that they should say, brave heart,
That he has died a conqueror at the last.
He beats his breast full many a time and fast,
Gives, with his glove, his sins into God's charge.
[174]
-- Robert Kilgore.

Summary of The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)

Poetry Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Poetry