Muslims Versus Christians in the Early Middle Ages

The Song of Roland (ca. 1100–1300)

In 778, as Frankish forces passed though the Pyrenees on their way back from a military expedition in Spain, Charlemagne’s rear-guard was attacked and annihilated by Basque inhabitants of the region. The Franks commemorated the disaster with songs. Over several centuries, as the real events were forgotten and legends and embellishments were added to the story, the songs changed and evolved. The Song of Roland, an epic poem composed long after Charlemagne’s death, was a product of this process. It recasts the battle as a clash between Christian and Muslim forces, and blames the destruction of the rear-guard on the betrayal of the brave knight Roland by the Frankish traitor Ganelon and his Muslim accomplices. As you read these excerpts from the poem, ask yourself what significance its composers attached to the battle. What lessons were European Christians meant to learn from the events that culminated in Roland’s death?

Charles, King of France,1 the mighty, the Nations’ Overlord,

Through seven full years hath tarried in the land of Spain, hath warred,

Till even down to the sea’s lip he hath conquered the mountain-land,

Till not one castle remaineth whose towers against him stand,

Till never a city nor rampart abideth not cast down,

Save Saragossa, the fortress throned on a mountain’s crown,

Yet holden of King Marsila: our God doth he abhor;

He is servant unto Mahomet,2 and Apollo3 doth he adore:

But he shall not avert God’s sentence thus, and the doom in store.

So there in Saragossa the King Marsila stayed;

And he passed on a day ’neath an olive, he rested under its shade.

On a slab of the sea-blue marble layeth him down the King,

And he smiteth his hands together for the griefs that inly sting:

There warriors twenty thousand, yea, more, stood round in a ring.

And he cried to his great war-captains, to his earls he bemoaned him thus:

“O ye my war-lords, hearken what evils encompass us!

Charles, Overlord of Nations, and goodly France’s King,

Hath come into this our country for our discomfiting.

Ever he draweth nearer; I know how nigh is the fight;

Yet hosts have I none of prowess to shatter his iron might.

As beseemeth the wise and prudent, counsel me therefore ye,

And so from death redeem me, and save from infamy.”

He spake; but of all those paynims [pagans] was none that answered a word,

Till spake at the last Blancandrin, Castel-Valfunda’s lord.

Wise mid the wisest paynims Blancandrin was, and white

Was the hair whose silver ripples with his beard were mingled, a knight

Full knightly: for help of his liege-lord was he full of cunning sleight.

“King, be not dismayed,” he answered, “but to Charles the haughty, the proud,

Send proffer of loyal service, and be utter friendship vowed. . . .

And say: “O King, thou hast tarried so long in the land of Spain,

That well mayest thou turn backward to France and to Aix4 again.

At Saint Michael’s Feast5 will I follow thee thither, thy proselyte,6

And receive the faith of the Christians by holy baptismal rite;

And thy man will I be, with my substance and love to serve my chief,

And will hold all Spain, thy vassal, henceforth of thee in fief.

Yea, hostages shalt thou send him, if this he require of my lord. . . .

[King Marsila takes Blancandrin’s advice and sends him as an ambassador to Charlemagne. Charlemagne listens to the message, then consults with his lords.]

Spake Charles the emperor: “Barons, give ear unto me, my lords.

In council speak for my profit, yea, for your own, your words.

Messengers King Marsila hath sent, be it known unto you:

He is fain of his royal possessions to give rich gifts not a few. . . .

But — but he maketh conditions, that back unto France I fare:

Thereafter to Aix, to my palace, will he follow me, he saith,

And receive by the rite baptismal salvation through our faith,

And be made a Christian: his marches in fief shall he hold of me;

And, so long as life endureth, my servant shall he be.

Hostages ten, yea, twenty, for surety proffereth he.

Howbeit, what purpose he hideth within him, nowise I know.”

“We must needs be exceeding wary!” the Frank lords murmured low.

So made he an end of speaking. To his feet Count Roland sprang.

He abhorred that counsel: clashing against it his voice outrang:

“O righteous lord, all trusting in the word of Marsila were vain!

Full seven years have passed over since we entered the land of Spain.

I have won for thee Morinda and Nobles by this right hand:

I have taken the burg Valterra, have given thee Pina’s land:

Balgherra hath fallen, Tudela is thine, and royal Seville;

Aulert on the Spanish marches, and Pont on its castled hill.

But for this Marsila — a traitor he was, and is traitor still. . . .

There with bowed head unmoving Charles sat, perplexèd sore:

At his beard he plucked, and the knightly fringe of his lips he tore,

The while to his nephew he answered no word of bad or good.

And all the Franks kept silence, till Ganelon forth stood;

For he sprang to his feet, forth striding he came before the King,

And his mien was exceeding haughty, and loud did the scorn of him ring:

“To give ear to a fool in his folly,” he cried, “right ill were it done —

Be it I or another — take counsel of thine own profit alone.

Seeing that King Marsila his promise to thee hath sent

To become thy vassal, with claspèd hands at thy footstool bent,

And to hold all Spain by tenure of fief, his liege-lord thou,

And unto our faith to seal him by holy baptismal vow —

Now therefore, whoso adviseth that we thrust such proffer by,

My lord King, little he recketh by what deaths all we die!

Let counsels of pride with their glamour no longer delude our eyes.

Leave we the fools to their folly; henceforth let us hold by the wise.”

[Charlemagne decides he will offer to let Marsila keep half of Spain if he converts to Christianity. The other half would go to Roland. At Roland’s suggestion, Ganelon is chosen to return with Blancandrin to deliver the message to Marsila. Ganelon, believing that he was chosen because Roland thinks Marsila will kill him, plots with Blancandrin to arrange Roland’s death. Marsila takes Ganelon’s advice to refuse Charlemagne. They set up a plan to leave Roland isolated in battle. The war begins, and Roland with a small number of men face overwhelming odds. Roland dies heroically, and Ganelon’s plot is revealed.]

In the ancient chronicle’s record fair written doth it stand

How Charles sent forth his summons unto vassals of many a land

To gather in full assembly at Aix his chapel-hall:

And the set time was a high-day, a holy festival —

There be that affirm that the Saint’s Day of Silvester the noble7 it was.

That day began the judgment and the trial of the cause

Of Ganelon, whose devising had that great treason wrought.

Now the Emperor giveth commandment that before him he be brought.

“Lords of the land and barons,” King Charles said, “hearken ye!”

This day judge righteous judgment ’twixt Ganelon and me.

He fared with me in mine army unto the land of Spain,

And by his contriving were Frenchmen twice ten thousand slain.

He hath reft from me my nephew, whom never more shall I see,

And Oliver the valiant, the flower of chivalry;

And the Twelve Peers8 also for lucre [money] did he betray to their death.”

Spake Ganelon: “Be I accursèd if aught I deny that he saith!

But this same Roland had wronged me as touching my gold and my land;

And for this I sought his destruction, for this his death I planned.

But for treason — I allow not that herein treason is!”

“Now take we heedful counsel,” said the Franks, “as touching this.”

Lo ye, in the Emperor’s presence standeth Ganelon there:

His frame is goodly-shapen, his visage’s favor is fair.

Had he been but a loyal vassal, he had seemed a noble knight.

He looked on the Franks, on the doomsmen appointed to judge the right,

On his thirty noble kinsmen who had gathered to his side:

With a great voice far-ringing unto them all he cried:

“For the love of God, ye barons, fair hearing to me accord!

I was indeed in the army of the Emperor my Lord,

And I served him at all seasons in love and in loyalty.

Howbeit his nephew Roland had a lodged hate unto me,

And to death did he adjudge me, to a death of shameful pain,

For through him was I forced to be herald unto King Marsila in Spain;

And, save by my wit and my wisdom, I had not escaped the snare.

For the doughty fighter Roland, I defied him then and there:

Yea, Oliver his comrade and the Twelve Peers I defied:

Herein must Charles and his barons bear witness on my side.

This therefore is private vengeance, but of treason not a whit.”

“We will take heedful counsel,” said the Franks, “as touching it.” . . .

Unto Charlemagne his barons returned, and they said to the King:

“Sire, we beseech thee to pardon Count Ganelon in this thing;

So shall he serve thee hereafter in love and in loyalty.

Let him live, we beseech thee; valiant and gently born is he.

Lo, Roland is dead, and never his face again shall we see;

Never by all earth’s treasures may we bring him back from the dead.”

“Unto me have ye all turned traitors!” the King in his hot wrath said. . . .

[Two knights propose that the judgment be determined with a trial by combat. One represented Charlemagne, the other Ganelon. Part of the trial involved leaving hostages to ensure the good behavior of the combatants.]

Scarce have the two knights fallen ere again on their feet they stand;

Pinabel [Ganelon’s knight] is right stalwart, lithe, swift of foot and hand;

Each rusheth to close with other — no war-steeds now have they —

And with great swords golden-hilted smiting hard they essay

To hew asunder the helmets: such giant blows they deal

That a marvel it is that unshattered abideth the morion’s [helmet’s] steel.

Thrilling with hope and with terror looked on each Frankish knight.

“Ah God,” King Charlemagne murmured, “make manifest the right!” . . .

[Ganelon’s knight Pinabel loses the trial by combat.]

Now Counts and Dukes are summoned to the presence of their Lord:

“What think ye,” he saith, “of the kinsmen whom I have kept in ward?

To plead the cause of the traitor Ganelon came they all,

And for Pinabel were they sureties, with him to stand or fall.”

And the Franks with one voice answered: “Let there not live of them one!”

Then gave the King commandment to his headsman [executioner], the grim Barbrun:

“Go thou, hang all those traitors upon the accursed tree!

And by this my beard and its hoary hairs I swear unto thee,

That thy life, if but one escape thee, for the life of him shall be.”

“What task for mine hand were better than this?” did the man reply.

With a hundred serjeants he haled them to their doom all ruthlessly,

And on that tree evil-fruited did he hang them, knights thrice ten.

So is it — a traitor destroyeth with himself his fellow-men.

. . . above all other for this did the Frank lords cry —

That by strangest, fearfullest torment Ganelon should die.

Then four great battle-horses to the midst of the field brought they;

To his feet and his hands they bound them; that outstretched in the midst he lay.

High-mettled and swift are the chargers, four serjeants lash them to speed

Unto where for each stands waiting a filly afar on the mead [meadow].

Ah, now is the traitor delivered to a death of hideous pain!

The joints of his limbs and his sinews on a living rack they strain,

Till suddenly all his body is to fearful fragments rent,

And with crimson streams down-rushing is all the grass besprent.

Ganelon dies as the traitor should die, as the dastard should die!

Shall a traitor live — to triumph, to boast of his felony?

From Arthur S. Way, trans., The Song of Roland, Translated into English Verse (Cambridge, U.K.: University Press, 1913), pp. 1–2, 7–9, 135–137, 140, 142.