‘Ci falt la geste que Turoldus declinet.” We do not know who composed the Chanson de Roland though it has been linked to a man called Turold who is mentioned in the closing lines of the poem and thought to have lived sometime between 1040-1115 AD. The Chanson is the best known example of the ‘chansons de geste’, or songs of deeds which were popular forms of entertainment, propaganda and artistic expression through song or recitation during the C11th – C15th in what is now called France and reached their peak between 1150-1250 AD. For courage mixed with prudence is not foolish,.Like the Iliad, the Chanson de Roland explores where fate will lead good men and like the Iliad, it is not Achilles but Hector in the shape of Roland’s wise friend Olivier who advises caution and is taken down with the rest in violence and betrayal. What Roland characterises in terms of his courage he balances with his lack of foresight.
The main themes concern loyalty, service and betrayal, courage and friendship and the importance of renown. This painting depicts the main events in the Chanson de Roland, an epic lyric poem about the courage and calamity of the central hero, Roland, and his relationships with his feudal overlord, Charlemagne, his peers and the wars to re-conquer the Iberian peninsula from Moorish occupation during the C8th around 4000 lines long. An annotated and updated bibliography introduces leading works relating to La Chanson de Roland. The introduction concludes with a note about special problems in editing and translating the Oxford text. Among the topics covered are the relation between history and myth, the epic’s reflection of prevailing social beliefs and values at the time of its composition (about 1100), and the literary devices employed by the unknown author. The introduction places La Chanson de Roland in the context of the French epic tradition, Charlemagne’s Spanish campaign of 778, the legend of Roland, and the linguistic and literary issues raised by the Oxford text. This new edition pays special attention to the consistency of Saracen proper names. Brault’s editing of the Oxford text includes corrections of the scribe’s obvious errors and new readings of garbled or partially obliterated words, and his translation achieves both elegance and accuracy.
The text and a line-by-line prose translation are printed on facing pages. This new revised edition contains a new preface and makes significant improvements to both the text and the bibliography. It contains the text and translation from his 1978 analytical edition along with an introduction illuminating the poem’s historical and literary background and significance. Gerard Brault’s 1984 student edition of La Chanson de Roland has become a standard text in classrooms.
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