CHANSON DE ROLAND. — By this title, though others more or less appropriate might be found, is designated the oldest Chanson de geste known to us, and certainly one of the finest. In the form closest to the original, it is preserved in the Oxford manuscript, which dates from the second quarter of the 12th century and contains 4002 verses (epic decasyllables in assonant laisses) written in the Anglo-Norman dialect; there are also six other versions of the same poem, more extensive and more recent, which nevertheless help to remedy oversights and lacunae in the said manuscript, which nonetheless remains fundamental.
Chansons de geste (v.) for questions concerning its origins and formation, it will suffice to note here that the poem takes its inspiration from a precise historical event (the defeat of Roncesvalles, 15 August 778), but mixes in characters and secondary events, or events falsely attributed to the period in which the defeat occurred; nevertheless, even though it contains elements that may have reached it from a considerably ancient tradition (e.g., reflections of Germanic civilization and customs), or that may be considered to belong to earlier nuclei of the legend (e.g., the fraternal friendship between Orlando and Oliver and the episode of Baligant), the Oxford version belongs to the period in which it was composed and sung (the last third of the 11th century) and is the unified and coherent work of a truly great poet, whether or not he was that Turoldo named in the final verse, as to whose identification opinions are still greatly divided.
Its spirit is in fact that of the Crusades, which makes Charlemagne and his paladins the vigorous and generous champions of Christendom and, at the same time, the heroic defenders of their homeland and of their honor as men and soldiers. The development of the action is simple and straightforward, like the language itself used to narrate it, but the author proves himself master of a sophisticated technique, a refined artistic sense, and a sober yet effective emotional power; these qualities make his work a masterpiece of the religious and patriotic feeling of the nascent neo-Latin civilization.
Ruggero M. Ruggieri