Song of Roland
The chanson de geste of Roland's last stand at Roncevaux Pass, the oldest and greatest of the French epics.
Core Characteristics
- Composed around 1100 in Old French, from the 778 ambush of Charlemagne's rearguard by Basques.
- Roland refuses to blow the horn until it is too late, and dies a martyr to feudal loyalty.
- Its couplet assonance — laisses — carried the story through three hundred manuscript versions.
Related Concepts & Sources
European, Heroic Virtue, Nibelungenlied