How we cite our quotes: (Stanza.Line)
Quote #7
"For heroism tempered with common sense is a far cry from madness;
Reasonableness is to be preferred to recklessness.
Frenchmen have died because of your senselessness." (131.1724-26)
If only he'd been alive to protest in the 60's. Oliver gives the best anti-war argument of anyone in the poem. Of course, in a poem this saturated in pagan blood, that's pretty faint praise, but still, Oliver seems to be the only guy articulating an actual reason for not fighting sometimes. Maybe not all war is a good idea. Maybe instead of recklessly allowing 20,000 Franks to perish at the hands of 100,000 Turks, we should have used some common sense—and the oliphant.
Quote #8
"Oh, Durendal, how beautiful you are, how clear, how bright!
How you shine and flash against the sun!" (172.2316-17)
Is anyone else uncomfortable when Roland starts talking to his sword like it's his teddy bear? A lot of knights in the Song of Roland fetishize their swords, seeing them as the symbols of their manhood and knightliness and Christian faith. In this sense, the sword both embodies the glorification of war and also humanizes it. Oh, hey there wicked pagan, this isn't a sharpened metal blade cleaving your skull, it's just my best friend Durendal!
Quote #9
The opposing armies are vast, and the divisions are in fine array.
There is no mountain, valley, or hill between them,
No forest or wood can offer a hiding place,
They see each other clearly in the middle of the open area. (237.3291-94)
Contrast this battle with the battle of Roncevaux: Roland's rearguard was taken by surprise and cut off from the rest of the army in a treacherous mountain pass. Now the war is out in the open with nothing to hide or hinder anyone. This is a more evenly matched conflict: good faces off with evil, no treachery involved.