Character Clues
Character Analysis
Actions
Embroider this on your sampler: actions speak louder than words, at least in the Song of Roland, wherethis is the primary mode of characterization. Ganelon betrays the Franks; therefore, he is a deceitful traitor. Roland has conquered many lands for Charlemagne; therefore, he is a good knight.
Direct Characterization
Sometimes you just gotta say it how it is. In the Song of Roland there's not a lot of beating around the bush. Sure, some guys get worse the more you know about them, like Ganelon, but most are introduced with all their badness or goodness front and center. Take Abisme, who rides into the poem with this accompanying description:
There was no viler man than he in his company.
He has evil vices and has committed many great crimes,
He does not believe in God, the Song of Holy Mary;
He is as black as molten pitch. (125.1632-35)
Not a lot of room for growth in there. Then again, Abisme appears in stanza 125 only to bite it in stanza 126, so he's of necessity kind of a flat character. Characters with bigger roles, like Roland, Oliver, and Ganelon, tend to demonstrate their personalities through their speeches and actions. It's mostly in the heat of battle, when people are introduced only to die the next minute, that characters get this direct treatment.
Location
If you're from Spain, Africa, or any other non-Christian land, you're a baddie—but in different ways. Some are bad because the African sun has burnt their skin black, others because living in a barbarous non-Christian land has made them "bray and whinny" like horses or "yelp like dogs" (255.3526-27).
The Franks, on the other hand, often seem good only because they come from "fair France," a description repeated so consistently that it's like the official name. But just like the pagans, the Franks are good in different ways.
Although "Frank" sometimes means "anyone living in Charlemagne's empire," it can also just mean, "people from France." When this happens, it gives the poet the opportunity to point out the different virtues of the non-Franks, people who were conquered by the French but were absorbed peacefully into the empire and now serve Charlemagne.
The main place this happens is during the windup to Charlemagne's mega-war with the Emir, when each division of the Frankish army is composed of different nationalities. Although they're all described as equally valiant, some get extra nuggets of description. The Bavarians, for instance, are top-rung:
Charles holds no other people on earth in higher esteem,
Except the men of France. (3031-32)
The Breton knights have painted spear shafts (221.3055); the men from Lorraine and Burgundy have "sturdy spears with short shafts." (224.3080)
Physical Appearances
Most of the Franks are handsome and strong; most of the pagans are ugly and strong. In particular, the poet objects to the Africans' black skin (143 and 144). But like a 1987 Toyota Corolla, this binary division sometimes breaks down. A lot of the pagans are good-looking warriors, like Margariz of Seville, whose beauty drives women wild:
Not one of them sees him without becoming all aglow,
When she sees him she cannot help becoming all smiles.
No other pagan has such knightly qualities. (77.958-60)
For Margariz and the other strong, handsome pagans, this beauty and courage serves as a sad contrast to their wickedness in fighting for the wrong side. If only they were Christian knights, they would be so great!
As for the Franks, the young ones are able-bodied and cute and the old ones, like Charlemagne, are able-bodied and venerable with beautiful long beards. During Ganelon's trial, the physical differences between Pinabel (pro-Ganelon) and Thierry (anti-Ganelon) are meant to heighten the drama and miraculous ending of their trial by combat.
Pinabel is "big and strong, brave and agile" (278.3839)—an obvious favorite—while Thierry is "spare of build, slight and slender" (277.3820). But despite his physical handicap, Thierry triumphs by being right. Through God's help he smashes strong Pinabel into a useless, very dead heap.
Social Status
High social status in the Song of Roland usually enhances your goodness. Unless it doesn't. For Roland, being a count and the emperor's nephew gives concrete social meaning to his greatness as a knight: this guy really is a pillar of France, a leader of armies, one of the Twelve Peers, and a close relative of Charlemagne.
On the other hand, Ganelon is also a high-ranking nobleman but that doesn't stop him from being so unvalued that Charlemagne sends him off to Marsile without blinking a kingly eye. It also means that his treachery, once it's exposed, is even worse. As a Peer of the realm and honored knight, Ganelon betrays the best of his country when he plots with Marsile.
Many of the pagans are described as rulers or noblemen, but this rarely contributes to their character development.