Review - The Song of Roland

[wilderthan]

I had to read The Song of Roland for medieval lit, mostly because it's an epic of the period, while the other medieval texts are all romances -- I assume that later we'll have to make some comparisons and draw some contrasts. It's interesting to me because of my background with the classical epics -- it reminds me very strongly of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Obviously, they're all oral poems, designed to be memorised and performed, so in terms of language there's a lot of similarity, but there's also a similarity in the heroes -- the honour thing, for example, Roland shares with Achilles: it's better to die with honour than anything else.

I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed it, really. It's very easy to read, in this translation at least, and though the tense shifts in a way that should be awkward, the flow is quite easy to go along with. The descriptions are very... colourful. Which is to say, I winced at certain parts -- like Roland's brains seeping out of his ears, and Ganelon being torn into pieces.

Another interesting thing for me is the portrayal of the pagans, and the way it's been twisted from real history. The "otherness" of the pagans has been highly emphasised -- although also some of them are shown to be good knights so that they're actually a worthy opponent for Charlemagne and Roland to face.

Very interested to know what more my lecturer has to say about this poem.

(No, I don't have a freaking crush on him. Really!)