Santiago de Compostela
Part 4. Chanson de Roland
‘I am also pleased by the Lord
when as first he launches into the attack,
on his armed horse, without a shudder
to embolden his own
by his valiant courage...’1
During the long twelfth century (1050-1250) Europe experienced a renaissance. Centuries of Christian domination had lead to the closing of the Western mind.2 The pilgrimages, Reconquista and crusades brought pre-Christian Greek philosopher’s knowledge, taste for language, rhetoric and clean reasoning back home. A rediscovery of the joie de vivre and joie de penser.3
This post is the continuation of: Santiago de Compostela. Part 3. Europe was born out of the pilgrimage to Santiago...
The appearance, within feudal society, of a new art of living; more human, more refined, more subtle; of seigniorial courts where the ‘courtly ideal’ (courtesy) took shape. Court culture developed in vivid vernacular languages; Castilian in Castile, Flemish in Flanders as opposed to the unitary dead Latin language of the Western church. The court of the duke of Aquitaine (present day Southwest of France) promoted the Occitane language through its troubadours.4 An explosion of creativity from its cradle in the Limousin and Perigord; the art of the troubadours shined over the Terre d’Oc to be explored in a later post.
The knight of chivalry
The Chanson de geste is a long poem or song dealing with some heroic action, a geste, usually located in the distant past. The Song of Roland (reference to Charlemagne), romantic heros like King Arthur, Sir Lancelot (references to Celtic origins preserved in Breton lore brought into a contemporary setting through the quest for the Holy Grail), draw on the themes of pilgrimage and righteous violence.
The ideal knight, the knight of chivalry, is in some sense a crusader: his violence is necessary and altogether virtuous; he is on a pilgrimage aiming for his eternal salvation. The Chanson de geste promotes a culture of heroism; blending prowess and affection, love for a distant idealized lady evoking Marian devotion.
It is against the backdrop of the Reconquista, that a small skirmish from a distant past gave birth to one of France’s canonical epic tales. Although the convivencia, had hardly been the same as tolerance, Spain did nevertheless represent the region of the greatest substantial non-violent contact between Muslims, Christians and Jews. It was, at the time, not unthinkable for Arab rulers of north-eastern Spain to request military assistance and personal intervention from a Christian King.
But some background first. Attacks of Arabs, and Berbers, on Aquitaine (720s) and Province (730’s) weakened these two regions. They called on Martel (grandfather of Charlemagne) for help. He did help, but in return was able to impose his authority on the duchy of Aquitaine in 735 and that of the Provence four years later. In 752 the Visigothic ruler of Nîmes, Agde and Béziers surrendered to Pippin (father of Charlemagne), and in 759 the Frankish king seized Narbonne. Now the expansion of Umayyad authority of the Cordoban emirate in the late 770s offered a great opportunity to Charlemagne himself. As the regional overlords of Barcelona, Zaragoza and Huesca, sent envoys to ask for his help.5
On arrival Barcelona and Zaragoza did however, not open their gates and resisted capture, they may well have had second thoughts seeing two Frankish armies marching towards them. The Arab leaders may have concluded that they were in danger of substituting one possible tutelage for another. Not able to establish his presence south of the Pyrenees, Charlemagne decided to return home.
An ambush occurred at the Pyrenean mountain pass at Roncesvalles. A group of Basque renegades attacked the Carolingian rear guard, led by Anshelm and Hruodland (members of the palatine aristocracy), and massacred it. Charlemagne, humiliated, even unable to avenge the deaths of his courtiers as the Basque had fled, never visited the Spanish frontier again. Hruodland however, becoming the central figure of the Chanson de Roland, a work destined to become a center piece of the European cult of chivalric values.
Chanson de Roland
The twelfth-century literary text depicts the heroic exploits of a Carolingian nobleman named Roland. There is a kernel of truth in the legend as we have seen, during Charlemagne’s campaign into Muslim Spain an ambush had occurred at Roncesvalles. Over generations memory turned the Basque into Arabs and portrayed them as devious cheats, cowardly and immoral pagans.
The song consists of over 4000 verses, I quote (translated) some that relate the aftermath of the battle. Roland tries to keep his sward, Durendal, out of Arab hands (naming swards was seemingly common; the traitor Ganelon named his sward Murgleis, Charlemagne’s sward was called Joyeuse).6 The battle is over. Roland, initially reluctant, has blown his horn (olifant) but the traitor Ganelon delayed the response. Starting at verses 2281-2283; Roland has been wounded and lost conscious and is discovered by one of the Arab knights:
‘He seizes Roland, his person and his weapons and exclaims:
‘Charles’ nephew is defeated!
This sword I will take to Arabia!’
As he drew, the count regained his senses somewhat’.7(Verses 2284-2293)
‘Roland feels that his sword is taken from him.
He opens his eyes and says a word to him:
'You are not one of us, as far as I know!'
He holds the olifant, which he never wanted to give up,
and knocks on the helm jeweled with gold:
he breaks the steel, head and bones.
He made both eyes pop out of his head.
In front of his feet he felled him dead’.(Verses 2297-2306)
‘Roland feels that he has lost his sight, and,
on his feet, as much as he can, he strives;
The color disappeared from his face.
Before him is a kissing stone; ten blows he gives him with despair and rage.
The steel creaks, it does not break or chip.
‘Hey! Said the count, Saint Mary, help!
Hey! Durendal, my good sword, what misfortune are you in?
Since I die, I no longer have charge of you’.(Verses 2312-2318)
’Roland knocks on the sardonyx steps,
the steel creaks, it neither breaks nor chips.
When he saw that he could not break her,
he began to pity her within himself:
‘Hey! Durendal! How beautiful you are! And clear! And white!
In the sun how you shine and shine!’(Verses 2338-2351)
‘Roland knocked against a rock.
He kills more than I can tell you.
The sword creaks, but does not chip or break,
towards the sky it has rebounded.
When the count sees that he will not break it,
he very quietly pitied it within himself:
‘Hey! Durendal, how beautiful and holy you are!
In your golden pommel there are many relics,
a tooth of Saint Peter, the blood of Saint Basil,
the hair of Monsignor Saint Denis, the garment of Saint Mary:
it is not right for pagans to possess you;
Christians must guard you’.
According to some versions Roland holds the sward in his hand and five men could not get it from its grip. Charlemagne himself succeeds and conserves the pommel (counter weight) of the sword because of the relics it contained; as for the blade, he threw it into a lake in an echo of Celtic practices.
Other versions seem to have Roland throw the sward with his last breath all the way over the Pyrenean mountains, it landing in the rock over Roc Amadour. Maybe Charlemagne brought it ‘back’ to Rocamadour, the place from which Roland was supposed to have set out for the campaign (or through a nephew). A replica can be seen stuck in the rock today, as King Henry the younger and his freebooters looted the altar treasure and took the sword during their sack of the monastery (1183). He somehow sells the sword on the spot to a Jew. When he runs away, the bell started to ring by itself, normally the sign a miracle just happened, but this time to curse him!8After leaving Rocamadour he fell ill and died in neighboring Martel9. More on this later, first;
We will explore Rocamadour in the post: The local paths to Rocamadour.
‘E altresi m platz de senhor
Quant es premiers a l’envazir
En chaval armatz, sens temor,
Qu’aissi fai los seus enardir
Ab valen vassalatge …’
Marrou H-I., 1971. Les troubadours. Éditions du Seuil, Points Histoire. ISBN 2 02 000650 2
Freeman C., 2005 (2002). The Closing of the Western Mind. The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. Random House, Vintage books. ISBN 1 4000 3380 2
Rubenstein R.E., 2004 (2003). Aristotles’s Children. How Christians, Muslims, and Jews rediscovered ancient wisdom and illuminated the middle ages. Harcourt Inc., Harvest Book. ISBN 0 15 603009 8
Jordan W.C., 2002 (2001). Europe in the High Middle Ages. Allen Lane, Penguin Books. ISBN 978 0 140 16664 4
Williams H., 2010. Emperor of the west, Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. Quercus. ISBN: 978 1 84916 190 9
Aubert M., 1941. Légendes et Contes du Moyen Age, Classes de 6e et de 5e. Librairie A. Hatier. Illustrations de P. Robiquet
Vers 2281-2283
‘Rollant saisit e sun cors e ses armes,
E dist un mot: ‘Vencut est li niés Carles!
Iceste espee porterai en Arabe.’
En cel tirer li quens s’aperçut alques.’
La chanson de Roland, tome II. Librairie Larousse, Classiques Larousse. ISBN 2 03 870025 7
Galet J-L., 1967. L’Auvezere et ses chateaux. Pierre Fanlac.
Weir A., 1999. Eleanor of Aquitaine, by the Wrath of God, Queen of England. Random House, Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0 224 04424 9