Song of Roland Themes

Ganelon's betrayal of Roland is the driving force behind the whole tragedy from the moment Ganelon first starts thinking of getting even with Roland after being named envoy to Ganelon's trial and b...

Roland and Oliver are the main BFFs here. Their friendship is deep, based on mutual respect but complicated by the authority Roland holds over Oliver by virtue of his superior social and military p...

Wait, did we wander into Hamlet? No one's dad died (and that's an angel not a ghost) but yeah, in the Song of Roland pretty much everyone is out for revenge. Marsile wants revenge for the seven yea...

Where to begin? Just think how much of this poem is some description of war. Some scholars have suggested that the medieval fascination with warfare is similar to the modern fascination with romanc...

The Franks are good because they are Christian and the Saracens are bad because they're not. It's almost that simple. There is some nuance because the Saracens can be admired despite their wicked w...

So, mortality v. immortality: they're different. One means you're dead and the other means you're alive forever. But for the guys in the Song of Roland, they're not as far apart as you might think....

Duty defines the relationships in the Song of Roland: feudal duty as knights to Charlemagne (through obedience, reverence, and military service); patriotic duty to France (preserving her "fair" na...

The Oxford Manuscript was produced at a time of intense religious xenophobia, when clergymen were actively agitating for war against Muslims and Jews. It dates from 1140-1170, right around the time...

The Song of Roland opens a window on to how ideal feudal power worked in the Middle Ages—or at least how 12th-century nationalist poets wanted it to work. Charlemagne's government is carefully de...