The Song of Roland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an early masterpiece of French epic poetry, from the 12th Century. It is a reimagining of Charlemagne’s wars in Spain in the 8th Century in which Roland, his most valiant knight, chooses death before dishonour, guarding the army’s rear from a pagan ambush as it heads back through the Roncesvalles Pass in the Pyrenees. If he wanted to, Roland could blow on his oliphant, his elephant tusk horn, to summon help by calling back Charlemagne’s army, but according to his values that would bring shame both on him and on France, and he would rather keep killing pagans until he is the last man standing and the last to die.
The image above is taken from an illustration of Charlemagne finding Roland after the Battle of Roncevaux/Roncesvalles, from ‘Les Grandes Chroniques de France’, c.1460 by Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 6465 f.113
Guests
- Laura Ashe
10 episodes
Professor of English Literature and Fellow in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford - Miranda Griffin
2 episodes
Assistant Professor of Medieval French at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Murray Edwards College -
Luke Sunderland No other episodes
Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University
Reading list
-
The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization, and Cultural Change, 950-1350
Robert Bartlett (Penguin, 1994) Google Books → -
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature
Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2008) Google Books → -
The Song of Roland and Other Poems of Charlemagne
Simon Gaunt and Karen Pratt (trans.) (Oxford University Press, 2016) Google Books → -
The Chanson de Geste in the Age of Romance: Political Fictions
Sarah Kay (Clarendon, 1995) Google Books → -
The Ornament Of The World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Maria Rosa Menocal (Little Brown, 2002) Google Books → -
King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne
Janet L. Nelson (Penguin, 2020) Google Books → -
Rethinking Heritage: Cultures and Politics in Europe
Robert Shannan Peckham (ed.) (London, 2003) Google Books → -
Theorizing Medieval Race: Saracen Representations in Old French Literature
Victoria Turner (Legenda, paperback 2021) Google Books →
Related episodes
-
The Battle of Tours
16 Jan, 2014 940 History of Europe -
The Holy Grail
15 May, 2003 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
The Nibelungenlied
1 Dec, 2022 830 German and related literatures -
The Battle of Crécy
13 Apr, 2023 940 History of Europe -
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
21 May, 2020 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Iliad
13 Sep, 2018 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures -
Le Morte d’Arthur
10 Jan, 2013 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Agincourt
16 Sep, 2004 940 History of Europe -
Third Crusade
29 Nov, 2001 940 History of Europe -
The Carolingian Renaissance
30 Mar, 2006 940 History of Europe -
The Mabinogion
10 May, 2018 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Piers Plowman
29 Oct, 2020 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Siege of Orléans
24 May, 2007 940 History of Europe -
Alcuin
30 Jan, 2020 270 History of Christianity -
Gerald of Wales
4 Oct, 2012 940 History of Europe -
Beowulf
5 Mar, 2015 820 English and Old English literatures -
Germinal
26 Oct, 2023 840 French and related literatures -
The Battle of Bosworth Field
26 Apr, 2012 940 History of Europe -
The Battle of Lincoln 1217
4 May, 2017 940 History of Europe -
The Battle of Talas
9 Oct, 2014 950 History of Asia
Programme ID: m00114m8
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00114m8
Auto-category: 841 (French poetry)