This Is a Reproduction of a Library Book That Was Digitized by Google

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com JC »"»•.'. pxmtv THE SONG OF ROLAND CAMBRIDGE; UNIVERSITY PRESS HoirtJOti : FETTER LANE, E.C. C. F. CLAY, Manager (ESinfmtsf): 100, PRINCES STREET Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. Irfojig: F. A. BROCKHAUS #eto a«rk: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS ttom&as ant Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. All rights reserved THE SONG OF ROLAND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY ARTHUR S. WAY, D.Lit. it AUTHOR OF TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH VERSE OF HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY, THE TRAGEDIES OF AESCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES AND EURIPIDES, THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL, ETC. Cambridge : at the University Press I9r3 Cambrttige: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS INTRODUCTION AMONG the picturesque incidents of the Battle of Hastings, not the -iV. least so is that which preceded the onset, when — as Wace the Norman poet tells us in the Roman de Rou — "Taillefer, the minstrel-knight, bestrode A gallant steed, and swiftly rode Before the Duke, and sang the song Of Charlemagne, of Roland strong, Of Oliver, and those beside Brave knights at Roncevaux that died." No more inspiring battle-chant was ever raised, having regard to 'the character, the traditions, and aspirations of the warriors who listened, and caught fire from his enthusiasm, as a thousand throats thundered forth the refrain " Aoi ! " And to this day France has in all her literature no prouder j heritage than this glorious war-hymn, which quivers all through with passionate loyalty, which throbs with loving patriotism, is fervid with adoring faith and utter trust in God, which is all aflame with that selfless heroism which takes no account of odds, nor holds life dear, nor dreads anything but dishonour. It is a truly national epic. Such epics as those of Milton and Ariosto might have been written by a citizen of any country ; but Homer's poems and the Song of Roland could only have been written by a Greek and a Frenchman respectively : hence they are national epics not only in their subject, but in their origin. Once more, the Chanson shares with Homer's works and the Nibelungenlied the distinction of being the onb/ eg[cs_of_ 578448 vi THE SONG OF ROLAND ^f natural growth, as distinguished from the manufactured epic, the production of a learned poet who has to re-create for himself an age into which he was not born. These are the sole examples of the spontaneous product. In each case the author (or authors) has idealized a less heroic foundation- story, and yet idealized it — not after the manner of Virgil or Tennyson — but only according to the standards of an age very close to, if not practically identical with, that of which he wrote. , In each case the poem, in the form in which it has come down to us, yvas the work of a poet who welded into a harmonious whble ruder materials — ballads, lays, or legends, which had their birth among the men of the very generation which played a part in the events immortalized in song. In the case of the Iliad we have no certain and definite knowledge of what these events were; but for the Song of Roland we are not in the dark at all. The chief heroes are historical personages, and their achievements have changed the history of Europe. ( In the year 778, just when Offa of Mercia was in the height of his power, / the Emperor Charlemagne was in Spain. His project for delivering the land from the yoke of the Saracens had been successful only as far as the Ebro, when tidings of a rising in Saxony, in the far east of his vast dominions, compelled him to return. Having stipulated for the payment by the Saracens of a huge sum in gold, and having received hostages, he led his army back over the Pyrenees. His main body threaded the passes in safety ; but as the rear-guard, encumbered with baggage and treasure, wound slowly round the flanks of the Altobiscar mountain, an avalanche of broken rocks and trunks of trees, a rain of missiles, poured down upon them from a concealed foe, till, in the height of the panic which ensued, the Basque (or Gascon) highlanders burst forth from the black pine-forests which overhang the pass of Roncesvalles, swept down upon the thin, straggling, broken line, hurled it, soldiers, camp-followers, baggage-cattle, in hideous confusion to the gorges below. The chivalry of France fought desperately ; but, encumbered as they were by the weight of their armour, separated from each other, hampered by non-combatants and beasts frenzied with terror, there could be but one ending. Among the slain the old INTRODUCTION vii chronicler Eginhard particularly mentions " Roland, prefect of the marches of Brittany." He adds, that the disaster was never avenged. The Basques vanished with their booty among their trackless mountain-fastnesses; Charlemagne's hands were full on his eastern borders for many years ; but, he adds, " this disaster clouded the king's heart with sorrow amidst all his successes.") Such is all that history tells us of the calamity of the 15th of August, 778. At first sight it seems inadequate material for a national epic — this surprise and massacre of the rear-guard of a retreating army. But there is a certain reticence in the old Latin chronicle which conveys the impression that the disaster is there minimized, as though policy forbade the telling of too much while the king lived. We can infer more from the eagerness with which popular legend took up the story. The bravery of those who perished, their previous exploits, their, honour at Charlemagne's court, the pathos of their end, the mourning for their loss, all appealed strongly to the popular imagination. Revolts of the southern mountaineers were suppressed some thirty years later ; a great invasion of the Saracens was repulsed, and Catalonia and Arragon were definitely annexed : these events were connected in men's minds with the massacre, and soon appeared in legend as a swift vengeance which immediately followed. The jealousy and cupidity of highland tribes seemed unworthy and insufficient to account for so great a calamity ; so the legend transferred it to a treacherous attack on the part of a huge host of Saracens. Again — it is a characteristic rational touch — it was deemed incredible that a French force should bei defeated save by the treason of some one. on their own side ; so the final stroke was added, the invention of a traitor, to whom legend gave the name of Ganelon. As the story, thus magnified, took hold of the public imagination, there were born of it, probably as early as the reign of Charlemagne himself, numerous popular songs and ballads. We find, from the writings of the historians of the time, that such ballads were sung through the length and breadth of the land ; they describe the country-folk chanting them, the women beating time with their hands ; they tell how they were sung in viii THE SONG OF ROLAND farm and fair, in camp and court, and even at the vigils of the saints. These lays were by no means all confined to the subject of Roland, but, as time went on, the latter seems to have played the part of Aaron's rod to the rest, most of which were either merged in it, or forgotten. But there was as yet nothing epic about these chants or ballads. They were short, full of energy and melody, half narrative, half lyric, and served to keep alive the legend, till a poet arose who out of these ruder materials fashioned a great poem. The Chanson de Roland, as we possess it, is not, however, the original epic. It was probably preceded by two others, no doubt shorter and less elaborate in style, and with less wealth of incident. One of these must have been that which Taillefer chanted before William's host at Hastings. Though they disappeared before the popularity of the final version, they left on it some curious traces of their individuality, and of the different periods at which each was composed ; as, for instance, when we find the capital of France called in one place Laon, in another Aix-la-Chapelle, in another Paris. The date of our version cannot possibly be earlier than the eleventh century, since it contains allusions to the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens- which happened in A.D. 969, and to their murder of the Patriarch, which was perpetrated in A.D. 1012. Ldon Gautier decides that it was certainly composed by a Norman poet, and probably by a Norman who had taken part in the conquest of England, or who had at least lived in England. Who the author was, we cannot tell. True, the last line of the poem is, " Here ends the geste which Turoldus declinet " ; whence some have inferred that a certain Th6roulde, Abbot of Peterborough, composed it. But, in the first place, it is not established . that geste there means " poem," and not the " chronicle " on which the poem was founded, or that, if it does mean " poem," it refers to this Chanson, and not to an older one which formed the basis of it : secondly, the meaning of declinet is quite uncertain. It has been supposed to mean " completed " ; but whether the reference is to the chronicler who completed the prose narrative to the authority of which the poet four times appeals, calling it a geste, or to the INTRODUCTION ix scribe who completed the copy which so ends, or to the jongleur who com pleted the recitation, or to the poet who completed the composition of it, no one can definitively pronounce.

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