Battle of Roncevaux Pass

In the epic poem, “The Song of Roland” the tale depicts the Battle at Rencevaux in which the protagonist is betrayed and serves as a martyr to justify the Crusades. The Crusades were a medieval military expedition by the Roman Catholics to purge the Muslims from the Holy Land. With this definition of the Crusades, one can conclude that the “Song of Roland” should not be considered apart of the Crusades as the poem’s context is historically inaccurate, written long after the events, and lacks a credible

The Song of Roland tells the story of King Charlemagne’s nephew, Roland, and the attack of the French rearguard caused by Ganelon’s betrayal. An epic hero is someone who is braver, stronger, and smarter than an ordinary person that a society admires and wishes to emulate. An epic hero also fights for a noble cause, for their King or for those who cannot defend themselves. Roland is a perfect example of an epic hero. Along with being an epic hero, Roland is also a true knight, and lives his life according

Hatred and Wealth Many readers of “The Song of Roland” find that the hatred and belittling of Roland and Ganelon is very evident but is not really explained why they hate each other. It is easily seen they have a relationship as step-father and step-son that can be quite full of altercations in most cases yet, Roland is still not letting friends such as Oliver talk about Ganelon even when they have noticed being set up for death. The scholar T. Atkinson Jenkins has looked into reasons for the hatred

in society and never strayed from it. Nobility were no exception to this as we can see in the case of Roland, a great knight whose life is portrayed in The Song of Roland. The setting of Roland’s life is during the Carolinian era during the battle of Roncevaux between France and the Islamic people. The unknown author of this epic poem portrays Roland as a near faultless man who is able to uphold the duties of knighthood and sustain his place in the feudalistic society. We can see many examples of

Feudalism in Song of Roland Song of Roland, the oldest major surviving work of French literature, is an epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 C.E. between the Franks and the Basques. It is believed that the epic circulated in song form before it was written down between 1040 and 1115 by Turoldus, a Norman poet. The epic served a political role in inspiring the Frank Christian warriors during the Crusades of the 1100’s, a series of wars against the Islamic world over the control of