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tomleetang's review against another edition
4.0
I don't think one can count this among the great epics, but there is something about this long poem that really struck me: how nobly the enemy are portrayed.
Set during the historic Battle of Roncevaux Pass - the only battle King Charlemagne ever lost - The Song of Roland rewrites history to make it a climactic fight between Christendom and the kingdoms of Islam. Composed during a time when Christian and Muslim antipathy was at a peak, the unknown author doesn't whitewash the villains as merely sly and wicked. Instead, the heroes of the Saracens (and the treacherous French Ganelon) are just as noble as those they face; valiant and, above all, understandable, they fight just as fiercely for their beliefs as the noble Roland and King Charlemagne.
Written at a time when being openly Islamophobic would not incur the slightest criticism, there's still plenty of sympathy and admiration to be found in this work for the Muslim host.
Perhaps most interestingly, the ending seems to question the value of having religious wars at all. Certainly not a popular position in the 11th century.
Set during the historic Battle of Roncevaux Pass - the only battle King Charlemagne ever lost - The Song of Roland rewrites history to make it a climactic fight between Christendom and the kingdoms of Islam. Composed during a time when Christian and Muslim antipathy was at a peak, the unknown author doesn't whitewash the villains as merely sly and wicked. Instead, the heroes of the Saracens (and the treacherous French Ganelon) are just as noble as those they face; valiant and, above all, understandable, they fight just as fiercely for their beliefs as the noble Roland and King Charlemagne.
Written at a time when being openly Islamophobic would not incur the slightest criticism, there's still plenty of sympathy and admiration to be found in this work for the Muslim host.
Perhaps most interestingly, the ending seems to question the value of having religious wars at all. Certainly not a popular position in the 11th century.
cami2deschenes's review against another edition
4.0
My god he loved Olivier so much. Seeing him dead killed him.
brendini's review against another edition
4.0
The definitive medieval epic, the Song of Roland is the dramatic tale of Roland’s brave final stand. The narrative is exceptionally well paced, drawing out the tension before battle and describing the conflicts in gruesome detail. The translation here is good, though I can’t help but feel some of the poetry was lost in the translation here. Moreover, my copy contains some, but oddly not all, of the original old French text - why is it partial? Nonetheless, this is a good version of this masterpiece
bkersey01's review against another edition
3.0
good old medieval french literature. probably the last thing I had to read for this course. I’m shockingly interested in the genre and had more fun reading these works than I expected, but this one lacked un petit peu of variety. it was just too much fighting and not enough… anything else. am I gonna keep reading medieval works not for class? who knows. i thought the answer would be a hard no when I first started the class, but now… a solid who knows.
trin's review against another edition
1.0
"Pagans are wrong: Christians are right indeed."
Wow, thanks for that stunning piece of religious thinking, Roland!
If you like sophisticated metaphysical analysis such as that, as well as lavish descriptions of bowels and brains spilling out onto the ground, then boy howdy, is this the book for you! Man. Okay, some works are classics because they're really amazingly good—beautifully written, incisive, profound. Others are classics because they're super old. The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving piece of French literature, is definitely the latter and solely the latter. It is so bad. So bad it's at times deeply hilarious: the MST3K crew would have a field day with this thing. I'm almost tempted to rent the 1978 French film to see if it can attain the same level of ridiculousness, but Klaus Kinski and Co. probably actually tried to make it good. Mistake!
The basic plot of The Song of Roland is this: the Franks are fighting "the Pagans"—a motley crew whom the author(s) seems to think worship both Muhammad and Apollo. Accuracy! Anyway, Charlemagne—whose luxurious white beard is discussed to the point where one begins to fear that the author(s) wants to do something seriously inappropriate to it—leaves his nephew to guard a parcel of land in Spain that those pesky pagans have faux-surrendered. The pagans then attack Roland and his vastly outnumbered group of men. Roland refuses to blow his horn to call for reinforcements. Then a bunch of his dudes are beheaded and Roland's BFF Oliver is all, "Hey, maybe calling for those reinforcements would be a GOOD IDEA?" So Roland blows his horn. Of course, it's too late. We are told in detail how he and what feels like every other man in his army dies. Many of their deaths, such as Oliver's, cause Roland to swoon and pause the battle several pages in order to mourn, tear at his hair, etc.
When all of the Franks are dead, Charlemagne shows up and finds the body of his nephew. Up until this point, I thought Roland was a pretty good swooner. But it turns out he's no match for Charlemagne. When Charley swoons, "Five score thousand Franks swooned on the earth and fell." That is some champion swooning. No wonder he's king.
The rest of the book follows Charlemagne as he proves to the pagans that you wouldn't like him when he's angry. Then, in the last lines of the book, he rends his beard and sobs. Medieval French knights apparently cry more than Project Runway contestants. Who knew?
I almost gave this book a second star because it amused me so much. But no: it's total shit. Racist, intolerant, repetitive, and melodramatic enough to deserve its own Lifetime Original Movie. Uncle, May I Joust With Danger?: The Baron Roland Story. If another eleven-odd centuries pass and we somehow manage to lose this one, I won't be all that sorry.
Wow, thanks for that stunning piece of religious thinking, Roland!
If you like sophisticated metaphysical analysis such as that, as well as lavish descriptions of bowels and brains spilling out onto the ground, then boy howdy, is this the book for you! Man. Okay, some works are classics because they're really amazingly good—beautifully written, incisive, profound. Others are classics because they're super old. The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving piece of French literature, is definitely the latter and solely the latter. It is so bad. So bad it's at times deeply hilarious: the MST3K crew would have a field day with this thing. I'm almost tempted to rent the 1978 French film to see if it can attain the same level of ridiculousness, but Klaus Kinski and Co. probably actually tried to make it good. Mistake!
The basic plot of The Song of Roland is this: the Franks are fighting "the Pagans"—a motley crew whom the author(s) seems to think worship both Muhammad and Apollo. Accuracy! Anyway, Charlemagne—whose luxurious white beard is discussed to the point where one begins to fear that the author(s) wants to do something seriously inappropriate to it—leaves his nephew to guard a parcel of land in Spain that those pesky pagans have faux-surrendered. The pagans then attack Roland and his vastly outnumbered group of men. Roland refuses to blow his horn to call for reinforcements. Then a bunch of his dudes are beheaded and Roland's BFF Oliver is all, "Hey, maybe calling for those reinforcements would be a GOOD IDEA?" So Roland blows his horn. Of course, it's too late. We are told in detail how he and what feels like every other man in his army dies. Many of their deaths, such as Oliver's, cause Roland to swoon and pause the battle several pages in order to mourn, tear at his hair, etc.
When all of the Franks are dead, Charlemagne shows up and finds the body of his nephew. Up until this point, I thought Roland was a pretty good swooner. But it turns out he's no match for Charlemagne. When Charley swoons, "Five score thousand Franks swooned on the earth and fell." That is some champion swooning. No wonder he's king.
The rest of the book follows Charlemagne as he proves to the pagans that you wouldn't like him when he's angry. Then, in the last lines of the book, he rends his beard and sobs. Medieval French knights apparently cry more than Project Runway contestants. Who knew?
I almost gave this book a second star because it amused me so much. But no: it's total shit. Racist, intolerant, repetitive, and melodramatic enough to deserve its own Lifetime Original Movie. Uncle, May I Joust With Danger?: The Baron Roland Story. If another eleven-odd centuries pass and we somehow manage to lose this one, I won't be all that sorry.
costume_man's review against another edition
2.0
Bien que l'intrigue soit vraiment intéressante au début, dès que les scènes de bataille commencent le récit s'enferme dans une sorte de boucle où chaque action se répète, mais avec des personnes différents. Passé la surprise de la description incroyablement violente de la mort des Sarrasins, la lecture de cette chanson de Geste devient assez ennuyeuse.
cathaldon1's review against another edition
4.0
Yes, you list every single man in France and Spain then suffix this list with ‘and they were cool as shit and they’re dead as fuck,’ you can in fact convince the reader that they were cool as shit. Great read.