The Song of Roland

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1095

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The Song of Roland is an epic narrative poem and the most outstanding example of a chanson de geste. The poem consists of between 290 and 298 laisses, or verse paragraphs averaging about 14 lines each. Though the original manuscript of Roland has 291 of these verse paragraphs, editors and scholars have made their own divisions. The entire poem consists of 4,002 decasyllabic (10-syllable) lines. These lines usually have a caesura (implied pause) after the fourth syllable. The original’s rhyme scheme is either based on assonance, in which the last words of a line share a concluding vowel sound, or complete rhymes, in which the last words of a line share a concluding vowel and consonant sound. This sound is consistent within each laisse.

Since modern English contains fewer rhymes than Roland’s French, English translations of Roland rarely attempt to replicate the original’s meter or rhyme scheme. Glyn Burgess’s version translates the meaning of each line directly from the French but does not rhyme or maintain a consistent meter.

Contemporary editors often translate chanson de geste as “song of deeds.” However, the Old French term geste also encompasses ideas of family, people, or history. In this way, the chanson de geste that dominated French literature from the 11th to the 15th century is a variant of epic poetry. Epic poetry focuses on the extraordinary deeds of characters who exemplify or represent a larger people. Typically, these literary works shape the ethical and moral framework of their society. The earliest epics, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh or Homer’s Iliad, also double as works of mythology.

Repetition

Many early modern poets intended their works to be performed orally and from memory. This is especially true for the epic form, which employs formulaic sentence structure and repetitive imagery as mnemonic aids. Scholars who believe that the surviving Roland is a written version of an oral text point to the poem’s use of repetition as evidence.

Like many oral epics, Roland repeats phrases, scenes, and even whole lines. When the Saracen leaders discuss Charlemagne, for instance, they repeat the line “To my knowledge he is over two hundred years old” (Lines 524, 539, 552) three times. The speaker could intend this repetition comically, to emphasize how little knowledge the Saracens have of Charlemagne and his forces. Similarly, when Oliver advises Roland to “blow [his] horn” (Line 1051), the poem repeats the phrase “Companion Roland, blow your horn” (Lines 1051, 1059, 1070) to replicate Oliver’s pleading tone.

The narrative’s repetition of scenes is perhaps the most interesting of Roland’s formal qualities. Roland only sounds “his oliphant in great agony” (Line 1762) once in the poem, but the speaker returns to the scene shortly afterward and repeats it in reverse with some variation: “Roland is bleeding from the mouth; / In his skull the temple is burst. / He blows the oliphant with pain and anguish” (Lines 1785-87). This repetition of an entire scene allows the narrator to capture the battlefield’s detail by including concurrent events.

Parataxis

Parataxis is a rhetorical device wherein the writer juxtaposes the clauses of a sentence without connecting them grammatically. The Roland poet uses parataxis as a method to move from one action to another without a sense of causation. This replicates the chaos of a battlefield and gives the poem a cinematic quality, since the narrative voice cuts from one image to the next. When Charlemagne establishes his garrison in Saragossa, for example, the speaker says he “left a thousand warriors there; / They guard the city for the emperor” (Lines 3677-78).

When Ganelon delivers Charlemagne’s message to the Saracens, he states that Charlemagne “requires / That you receive the holy Christian faith; / He wishes to give you half of Spain as a fief” (Lines 430-32). This grammatical disconnect (represented by a semi-colon) between the conversion and Charlemagne’s wish to return part of Spain is an example of parataxis. Here the device works to demonstrate that, in Ganelon’s offer, the gift and the religious conversion do not follow each other.