By Carol Symes, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
‘The age of chivalry’ is a charming phrase popularized in the 19th century. The roots of the medieval code of chivalry are encapsulated in the oldest surviving medieval epic: a fictional version of history popularized by medieval minstrels for the warriors who were their audience. This is the poem that crystallized in writing as the ‘Chanson de Roland’ (The Song of Roland), around the year 1100.
The Background
The time is some three centuries earlier, and the epic’s eponymous hero is the nephew of the Frankish king Charlemagne. The setting is the mountainous northern frontier of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), where the Franks have just defeated a Muslim army. They now face just one remaining obstacle—the castle of the Muslim king, Marsilie, whose stalwart courage has won the Christians’ respect. Ambassadors from the king have arrived and promise his surrender and conversion to Christianity in exchange for the safety of his people. Charlemagne, gracious and exhausted, agrees.
But at least some of his men consider this to be an elaborate ruse. One of them is Roland’s stepfather, Ganelon, who hates and distrusts all Muslims. But Roland doesn’t seem to know that, and publicly suggests that Ganelon be the chosen messenger to Marsilie’s court. Ganelon is both outraged and terrified, certain that Roland intends for this dangerous mission to end in his death; there is clearly bad blood between the two men.
Secretly, then, Ganelon resolves to betray both his stepson and his liege lord, by convincing the Muslim ruler that Charlemagne intends to trick him into surrendering, so that his people will be slaughtered after all. Instead, he incited the king to attack the Christian army as it travels homeward through the Pyrenees. Because Roland is the noblest knight, Ganelon bets that he will volunteer to command the rear guard.
Death of Roland
Ganelon is right. Roland is jealous of his honor and, despite Charlemagne’s resistance, he stays behind to hold the mountain pass while the rest of the army moves into France. As it recedes into the distance, Roland’s men are ambushed and overwhelmed by the waiting Muslims. The Franks fight valiantly, but their cause is obviously lost.
Roland’s sworn companion, Olivier, urges him to call for help by blowing his Oliphant—the intricately carved horn made of elephant ivory that Roland carries at his belt. But Roland refuses, on the grounds that he would never consider endangering his liege lord Charlemagne by any such dishonorable deed. Instead, he will fight to the death.
Fending off attackers and fatally wounded, Roland uses his last ounce of strength to break his sword, Durandal, so that this gift of Charlemagne—made holy by the sacred relic in its pommel—will never fall into heathen hands. Then, with his dying breath, he sounds the Oliphant, and the noise of its strident blast reaches the ears of Charlemagne, who will spend the rest of the story avenging Roland’s death. As Roland had declared to Olivier, “We must not be the theme of mocking songs.”
The worst thing imaginable is public shame and its perpetuation in the minstrels’ repertoire; the best, of course, is to be remembered as the hero of this very tale.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Medieval Legacy. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
The Changed Medieval World
Like the much older epic, the ‘Iliad’, the ‘Chanson de Roland’ is the result of an oral storytelling tradition stretching back hundreds of years. In its 12th century written form, however, it reflects the myriad ways in which the medieval world had changed since the reign of the real Charlemagne, who had died in 814. Its language is no longer the Germanic tongue of Charlemagne’s court, but the romance dialect we call Old French—the direct ancestor of the modern language.
Back in Charlemagne’s time, there was no such thing as knighthood or chivalry, no stone-built castles, and no concept of holy war against the followers of Islam. All of these features were added over time to reflect new realities: most immediately, the ethos and aftermath of the First Crusade, which had ended in 1099 with the short-lived Christian conquest of Jerusalem.
In this form, then, the ‘Song of Roland’ encapsulates a world in which more intense and more intimate interactions between Muslims and Christians have forged new ties and dependencies, as well as new animosities and misunderstandings. Although many of its listeners knew better, the Saracens of Roland’s song are said to worship an unholy trinity made up of Mahoun (a garbled, blasphemous version of the Prophet Mohammed), the pagan god Apollo, and a demon named Tervagant.
Muslims and Christians
And yet, at the same time, the Muslims whom Roland encounters are little different from himself. They are the Franks’ alter-egos—unfailingly noble and chivalrous, worthy adversaries who share the same warrior ethos, customs, and rules of war. They also share the same tastes for weapons and luxury goods. The elephant tusk of Roland’s Oliphant would have come from the West African kingdom of Mali, borne across the Sahara by African and Arab traders, to be carved in the Muslim workshops of Córdoba. His dagger, and maybe even Durandal itself, would have been made of steel forged by Muslim master swordsmiths in Toledo or Damascus, and decorated with motifs and figures prized by warriors regardless of creed.
With the establishment of crusader states in the Levant, and the advent of a Norman kingdom in Sicily, northern European elites had more and more opportunities to get to know their Muslim neighbors in the Mediterranean world, forming ties of friendship or allegiance through the mutual exchange of gifts, admiring or imitating each other’s fashions, sharing music-making and storytelling traditions.
Common Questions about the Age of Chivalry and the ‘Song of Roland’
The ‘Song of Roland’ encapsulates a world in which more intense and more intimate interactions between Muslims and Christians have forged new ties and dependencies, as well as new animosities and misunderstandings.
The Saracens of Roland’s song are said to worship an unholy trinity made up of Mahoun (a garbled, blasphemous version of the Prophet Mohammed), the pagan god Apollo, and a demon named Tervagant.
With the establishment of crusader states in the Levant, and the advent of a Norman kingdom in Sicily, northern European elites had more and more opportunities to get to know their Muslim neighbors in the Mediterranean world, forming ties of friendship or allegiance through the mutual exchange of gifts, admiring or imitating each other’s fashions, sharing music-making and storytelling traditions.
