French LiteratureThe Song of Roland

Some Important Information in French Literature• Every French high school student knows (or should!)....It is taught in school that the first piece of French literature

(i.e. not in Latin) is La Chanson de Roland, written at the end of the Xth Century, which tells the story of the death of the a nephew of Charlemagne.

• François Rabelais (1494-1553) and the myth of Gargantua, the good giant :

Poets• 19th centuryVictor Hugo (1802-1885)• 20th centuryJean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

• 16th centuryFrançois Rabelais (1494-1553)• 17th centuryJean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière• 18th centuryMontesquieu (1689-1755)

Famous characters from French literature• Often used in Hollywood

or Walt Disney movies :• Blue-Beard ("Barbe

Bleue"), Cinderella("Cendrillon"), Sleeping Beauty ("La Belle au Bois Dormant"), Little Red Riding Hood ("le Petit Chaperon Rouge") and many others come from "Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye", by Charles Perrault (1628-1703)

• The Little Prince ("Le Petit Prince") was created by writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry(1900-1944)

• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ("Quasimodo") comes from "Notre-Dame de Paris", by Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

• The Three Musketeers ("Les Trois Mousquetaires") is a novel by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

The Song of RolandFrench Literature

The Song of Roland Books (La Chanson de Roland)

Information about the Epic• Turoldus – The poet

who estimated by the scholars who wrote “The Song of Roland” between approximately 10th and 11th century.

- his name was include at the very end of the epic.

• Digby23 – The manuscript where “The song of Roland” was found in 12th century.

• Bodleian Library – Located in Oxford, England where “The Song of Roland” kept.

• Epic – telling a story about a hero or about exciting events or adventures.

Important Details• Charlemagne’s Army – The Army from France.• Marsilla – Muslim King from Spain.• Roland – One of the Charlemagne’s Army (The Protagonist of

the Story).• Ganelon – The stepfather of Roland who betrayed him.• Roncesvalles – The battle Field in the story.• Olifant – A horn made from the tusk of the elephant.• Baligant – Marsilla’s ally from babylon.

The Plot of the EpicThe song of Roland

Charlemagne's army is fighting the Muslims in Spain.

The last city standing is Saragossa, held by the Muslim king Marsilla

Threatened by the might of Charlemagne's army of Franks, Marsilla sends out messengers to Charlemagne, promising treasure and Marsilla's conversion to Christianity if the Franks

will go back to France.

Charlemagne and his men, tired of fighting, accept his peace offer and select a messenger to Marsilla's court. Protagonist Roland nominates his stepfather Ganelon as messenger.

Ganelon, who fears to be murdered by the enemy and accuses Roland of intending this, takes revenge by informing the Saracens of a way to ambush the rear guard of

Charlemagne's army, led by Roland, as the Franks re-enter Spain through the mountain passes.

As Ganelon predicted, Roland leads the rear guard, with the wise and moderate Oliver and the fierce Archbishop Turpin.

The Muslims ambush them at Roncesvalles, and the Christians are overwhelmed. Oliver asks Roland to blow his olifant to call for help from the Frankish army; but Roland proudly

refuses to do so.

The Franks fight well, but are outnumbered, until almost all Roland's men are dead and he knows that Charlemagne's army can no longer save them. Despite this, he blows his olifant to summon revenge, until his temples burst and he dies a martyr's death. Angels take his

soul to Paradise.

When Charlemagne and his men reach the battlefield, they find the dead bodies of Roland's men, and pursue the Muslims into the river Ebro, where they drown.

Meanwhile Baligant, the powerful emir of Babylon, has arrived in Spain to help Marsilla, and his army encounters that of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles, where the Christians are burying

and mourning their dead.

Both sides fight valiantly - when Charlemagne kills Baligant, the Muslim army scatters and flees, and the Franks conquer Saragossa. With Marsilla's wife Bramimonde, Charlemagne

and his men ride back to Aix, their capital in France.

The Franks discover Ganelon's betrayal and keep him in chains until his trial, where Ganelon argues that his action was legitimate revenge, not treason.

While the council of barons assembled to decide the traitor's fate is initially swayed by this claim, one man, Thierry, argues that, because Roland was serving Charlemagne when

Ganelon delivered his revenge on him, Ganelon's action constitutes a betrayal.

Ganelon's friend Pinabel challenges Thierry to trial by combat, in which, by divine intervention, Thierry kills Pinabel.

The Franks are convinced by this of Ganelon's villainy; wherefore he is torn apart by galloping horses and thirty of his relatives are hanged.