Song of Roland Friendship Quotes

Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold. Blancandrin arrives as an enemy messenger but returns as Ganelon's best pal. This spontaneous friendship is not a positive thing though. If Ganelon is willing to get buddy-buddy with the enemy, what else will he stoop to? This is the first step on his slippery slope to treachery.

Roland and Oliver are besties, but that doesn't mean they're always on the same page. Yes, they're both first-class knights and honorable guys, happy to chop down hundreds of pagans. But when it comes to thinking about these things and why they should do them, they part ways. Roland wants to do what's right and honorable, for God and country, even if what's right and honorable is also really stupid. Oliver wants to do what is reasonable and sensible, even if that makes him look weak.

Even though Oliver and Roland are the two amigos, Oliver still chews Roland out for his decision not to blow the oliphant. Their friendship is not based on white lies. Oliver could have said, "OMG Roland, I love you so of course I think you're right. It's a really unique idea, fighting a gazillion pagans with 20,000 Franks without calling for help." But real friends don't let friends die fighting stupid wars. Oliver does his best to dissuade Roland precisely because he's such a good friend.

Once Roland sees the devastation of the battle, Franks dying left and right, he realizes there's no way out of this but spearing, swording, and pagan-killing. The irony here is that Roland promises not to fail Oliver by fighting more, not by actually following his advice. To be fair, it's too late now to win this battle, and both Oliver and Roland know by now that they'll soon be dead.

Although Oliver has been majorly ticked off at Roland, this speech announces his forgiveness. The poet reaffirms that Roland is his friend, and Oliver himself tells Roland to fight next to him. They know they don't have long to live, so they should spend their remaining time together.

Even in his moment of death, Oliver thinks of Roland and asks God to bless him, demonstrating just how much he cherished their friendship.

This is either an unexpected moment of slapstick or a small example of the tragedy of death. Did you laugh when Oliver accidentally hit Roland? Neither did we. But when you think about how it might play out in a movie, for instance, it starts to seem kind of funny.

On the other hand, when you realize that Oliver is so blind and incapacitated that he mistakes his best friend for the enemy, it isn't funny at all. It drives home the message that war destroys friendship—by killing people, yes, but also by drawing them apart. Roland and Oliver have the biggest argument of their lives over this war and whether to fight it unassisted.

It's a little ironic that Roland is upset because Oliver was so brave, as if Oliver were the one to blame for his own death. Wasn't it Roland who had the hissy fit over the oliphant? But once Oliver is dead, Roland only remembers how much they loved each other—so much, in fact, that he doesn't want to live without him. Sadly, he won't have to for long.

The poet makes it clear that Roland and Oliver are best buds, but Roland through his actions proves his friendship for all the rest of the Franks as well. These aren't just men fighting for him; they are "companions" who were very dear to him.

Note the softening of Charlemagne's tone from the formal way he spoke to Roland at the beginning of poem. No longer is he speaking as Roland's king and commander-in-chief but as his friend. Death seems to make Roland dearer to everyone.