The Historical Anachronism In The Song of Roland

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DAS ERSTE INTERNATIONALE SYMPOSIUMZU DEN DEUTSCH-TÜRKISCHEN HISTORICHEN UNDKULTURELLEN BEZIEHUNGEN 8-10 OKTOBER 2009

The Historical Anachronism In The Song Of Roland

Fuat BOYACIOĞLU1*

A confi rmed and accepted project action named “Promotion of the Civil Society Dia-logue between European Union and Turkey” has been realised on 20 August 2007 between Selçuk Universty (Konya/Turkey), Freie Uni-versity, (Berlin/Germany) and Karamanoğlu Mehmet University (Karaman/Turkey) of which I am representative and contact per-son. This EU grant action aims to support the civil society dialogue on historical and cultural issues within EU countries; to solve anachronism problems between Turkey and European countries, especially Germany; to strengthen contacts and mutual exchange of experience between civil society in Turkey and European countries; to create mutual understandings of historical and cultural interactions between Turkey and Germany, especially for the NGOs that established re-lated objectives; to constitute an interaction aiming at enhancing the quality of historical and cultural policies; to found a dialogue be-tween Germany and Turkey; to develop joint researches on historical and cultural studies helping to design policies aimed at achieving equality of citizenship rights in EU.

As mentionned above, one of the most important obstacles to hinder probably the

* Associate Professor in Selçuk University, Faculty of Letters, Department of French Litterature and Lan-guage, Konya /Turkey.

intercultural dialogue is the anachronisme which means “-from the Greek ανά (ana: against, anti-) and χρόνος (chronos: time)-is an error in chronology, especially a chrono-logical misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other.”2 The tra-dition of anachronic narration of any histori-cal event has brougth the sprites to the mis-understanding among people from diff erent cultures. These misunderstandings either voluntary or involuntary cause the preju-dices againts the other. Thus, these preju-dices have been transferred from generation to generation. They have increased world-widely hostilities among people. The human beings claiming that they became modern and civilized by the cultural accumulation throughout history made or witnessed two world wars causing the death of fi fty mil-lions persons in XXth century. The cruel and despotic men captivated of their ambi-tion possess the material power and the ad-vanced technology and the States constitued by them killed and continue to kill innocent men. These two great world wars made deep and irrecoverable wounds in their physical and mental healths3. To remove the confl icts,

2 All the texts in French or Turkish cited in this study have been translated into English by us. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronism.

3 See Fuat Boyacıoğlu, Andre Gide’de Erken Anlatı Tekniği (La Mise en abyme chez André Gide), Konya, Publications of

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I. ULUSLAR ARASI TARİHÎ VE KÜLTÜREL YÖNLERİYLE

TÜRK-ALMAN İLİŞKİLERİ SEMPOZYUMU8-10 EKİM 2009

wars, prejudices, the relations sould be well established and the mutual intercultural dia-logue should be promoted among people from diff erent cultures.

In this study, we would like to handle The Song of Roland, the oldest epope of French literature constitutes a good and interest-ing exemple for the anachronic narration of a given historical event which had occured in the history. The existence of the Orient in the French litt erature goes up to the Middle Age. The conception of the Orient evolves throughout the centuries by presenting dif-ferent aspects. In this period, the religious feelings play a great role on the comprehen-sion of the Orient. The Christians of the Mid-dle Age were aspiring to go to the Holy Land where Jesus Christ was born, and they were purposing to retrieve the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ from the Turks. This situation would increase the Crusades. In The Song of Roland (French: La Chanson de Roland), it was told that the campaigns of the french king Charlemagne were made againts the Mus-lims of Saragosse4 also named “Saracens”. This French epope describes the story of one of the crusades of Charlemagne representing the Christendom against the Muslim Sara-cens in Spain.

It has been tried to determine the identi-fi cation of the poet of The Song of Roland. The last verse of the epope in old french: “Ci falt la gesta que Turoldus declinet”5 gives us sev-eral speculations. Turoldus (Thurold), Nor-mand poet has been presumed as author of The Song of Roland. The oldest manuscript had been discovered by a young research-er named Henri Monin in Oxford in 18376.

Şahin, 2006, p. 1. 4 See Cemil Göker, La Turquie dans les Romans et les

Contes de Voltaire, Ankara, Publications of Ankara University, 1971, p. 3.

5 “Ici la geste que Turold decline” in modern french. The verb “decline” in french offers several meanings: sing, copy or compose. For this reason, we can’t understand clearly if Turold is the singer, the copyist or the author

6 See Edmond Richer, Histoire de la Littérature française, Pa-

This epope has various manuscript versions. This shows us that it had a great popularity from 12th to 14th centuries. This epic poem consisting of 4,004 lines is the fi rst and most outstanding example of the chanson de geste, a literary form that fl ourished between the eleventh and fi fteenth centuries and celebrat-ed the legendary deeds of a hero7.

The Song of Roland in which an anachronic narration is in question seems to cause the historical and cultural hostilities and preju-dices between Christians and Muslims. Ac-cording to Philippe Walter, “This story is woven with anachronisms and invented characters, artifi cial or marvellous situations (like the miracle of the sun which stops his running).”8 In this epope, the Spanish ag-gressors in the Batt le of Roncevaux Pass in the mountains of the Pyrenees became Mus-lim Saracens whereas they were Christian Basques. According to Kléber Haedens, “as in all the chansons de geste, the historical truth seems very ill-treated...”9 In this sub-ject, André Cordier says: “A priori, the con-stant alteration of the history allows to reject the redaction of the poem longtime after the the event: the distancing in the time ex-plains only this deformation of the historical reality.”10 For Edmond Richer, the franc rear-guard had been surprised and destructed by Basques in Roncevaux Pass in 778’s. This historical event longtime forgott en, had been exploited brilliantly by the Trouvers, poet-composers in Northern French (langue d’oïl) of XIth century: more concerned with the greatness than the truth, they weren’t con-cerned with the history, but they had well

ris, Hachette Editions, 1978, p. 8.7 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Roland.8 Philippe Walter, Roland, Trıstan, Perceval : Troıs Vısages

du Heros.Mediıeval Europeen, in h ttp://www.iehei.org/Identi-te_europeenne/2008/Philippe_WALTER.pdf

9 Kléber Haedens, Une Histoire de la littérature française, Pa-ris, Bernard Grasset Publications, 1970, p. 20.

10 André Cordier, Historical and Litterary Notice in La Chanson de Roland, extraits, Paris, Library Larousse, 1935, p. 9.

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imagined the magnifi c legend11.The content of the poem passes beyond the historical event: “the Basque Christians who destroyed Charlemagne’s Frankish army at Roncevaux were transformed into Muslim Saracens”12 presented as pagan. The enemies att ain the number of hundered thousands, Roland is given as the nephew of Charlemagne, Gane-lone becomes a traitor, the pagans had been punished and annihilated; briefl y the history became a imposing legend. According to André Cordier, “the author of Song of Roland and his contemporaneous were incorrectly informed about the Islamism: they consider the Muslims as pagans who adore the idols: Mahomet, Tervegant and Apollon.”13

The presentation of of the Muslims in this epope constitues a problem for the poet: he must make them unquestionably evil and agents of Satan, clearly less noble, less man-ly, and less brave than the Christians, but nonetheless a worthy enemy. His solution is to make the Saracens the reverse image, the evil twins, of the Christians, both opposite and identical. For instance, the Muslims of The Song of Roland worship Mahomet, Terve-gant and Apollon refl ecting the form of the Christian Trinity but signifying the most vil-lainous idolatry. The Song of Roland, the nar-rator begins by this sentence:

“Charles the King, our Lord and Sovereign,Full seven years hath sojourned in Spain,Conquered the land, and won the western main,Now no fortress against him doth remain,No city walls are left for him to gain,Save Sarraguce, that sits on high mountain. Marsile its King, who feareth not God’s name,Mahumet’s man, he invokes Apollin’s aid,Nor wards off ills that shall to him att ain”14

11 See Edmond Richer, Ibid., p.8.12 http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/

islam/pages/literature.html13 Ibid., p.17.14 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Ro-

land, p. 1.

When the saracen peer Blancandrin comes before the sarracen emir Marsile, he says:“Lord save you, Sire, Mahum and Apollin, whose holy laws here run!”15 In other passage, it is said: “Marsilium with courtesy they greet:May Mahumet, who all of us doth keep,And Tervagan, and our lord ApolinePreserve the king and guard from harm the queen!”16

It is very known that the “Muslims are ac-tually much more strictly monotheistic than Christians; the Christians of the early Middle Ages saw in Islam, which they knew next to nothing about, just another form of pagan-ism, as signifi ed by the notion that Muslims worshipped the ancient Greek god Apollo.”17 In his work named Histoire de la Litt érature française, Gustave Lanson says : “we are far from the history with Saracens (Sarra-sins in french) who had taken the place of the basque mountainers, and these pagans, idolators, Saracens, moreover valiant and ac-complished “barons”, if they were christians: with this white-bearded and two hundered years old Charlemagne, majestic symbol of the christian kingdom18.

The majority of the historians agree nowadays on saying that the Frankish Car-olingian army confronted, in fact, the basque guerilla not the saracen army...right in the period of Reconquest of Europe and of con-quests in Orient, it is strongly possible that the text of Song of Roland had been writt en in order to give a historical foundation to the crusades and to transform a territorial war in a holy war.19 The concept of crusade, holy war arises from the contact between these

15 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Ro-land, p. 10.

16 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Ro-land, p. 58.

17 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/songofroland/context.html.

18 Gustave Lanson, Histoire de la Littérature française, Paris, Librairy Hachette, 1906, p. 24.

19 See. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Chanson_de_Roland.

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two diff erent world: the islamic world and the christian world. For Alain Ruisco, “the Crusades were made because this mus-lim enemy was inassimilable in the eyes of kings and popes of christian Occident. Is it naturel, in these conditions, that the historiographers of that time confound-gaily all the enemies of this Occident? By a mental phenomenon frequent in the human history –the autointoxication – the Basques, the Normands ou the Hungarians became saracens.”20

Historical BackgroundTheUmayyad State based on the arabe

racism in the Middle East had been col-lapsed in 750’s. In stead, the Abbaside State had been founded. However, the Umayyad State in Spain was surviving. It was the re-maining of Umayyad Empire.This wasn’t a pleasing situation for the Abbasid caliph. The Abbasides wanted to take this State un-der their domination. In 777, pro-Abbasid rulers of northern Spain contacted the Caro-lingian to request help against the powerful Ummayyad Caliphate in southern Spain, still led by Abd ar-Rahman I. The “Spanish Ab-basids sought support for their cause in Pep-in’s Francia; he was content to oblige because the Cordoban dynasty posed a constant mili-tary threat to southwestern France.”21

The abbaside eff orts of taking the Anda-lus Umayyad State under their sovereignty were continued during and after the caliph Mansur’s period. For this reason, the com-mandant es-Seklebî went to Spain. Sending a message in this subject to Sulayman al-Ara-bi, the governor of Barcelona, he declared to form alliance with him. But, Sulayman al-Arabi not only refused the proposition of es-Seklebî, but also made war with him

20 Alain Ruisco, Des Sarrasins aux Beurs, une vieille méfi ance in http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr

21 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid-Carolingian_al-liance, Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe Richard Hodges, p.120.

and defeated his army. After this, es-Seklebî went to Tudmir.There, Abd ar-Rahman, emir of Cordoba understanding that es-Seklebî came to destroy his reign, made him killed inValancia.22 A rumor concerning the fact that Abd ar-Rahman, emir of Cordoba would demolish the Abbaside State in Da-mascus had been propaged. While Abd ar-Rahman, emir of Cordoba was preparing for this expedition to Damascus, a revolt had been occured in Barcelona and he gave up this project.23

The situation was so complicated that Abd ar-Rahman had diffi culty to assure the political unity. In the northern regions of Andalusia, everyone almost wanting to benefi t from the chaos and possessing a lit-tle of power was declaring his independ-ance. Even, there are those who want to seal an alliance with the french king Char-lemagne24, considered as “Glaive of God”25. Charlemagne was desiring to profi t from this chaotic situation in Andalusia. “While Spain was at this time an extremely prosper-ous, even splendid, Muslim state, European Christianity was rather fragile. Many of the tribes of Europe were pagan, Islam was ex-panding with phenomenal rapidity, and Spain in particular, at the southern borders of Charlemagne’s land, represented just how precarious was Christianity’s hold.”26 In the period of Charlemagne, France became a re-ligion state. He declared himself that he was the representative of God on the Earth. Dur-ing his sovereignty, the religion and the State were nested. Thus, the political power be-came the religious power. Hereinafter, Char-

22 See Cited by İhsan Süreyya Sırma http://www.ihsansurey-yasirma.com/seyahatname/endulus-2007/18,İbnu’l-Esîr, el-Kâmil, Vol:VI, p.54.

23 Cited by İhsan Süreyya Sırma, Ibid., İbnu’l-Esîr, el-Kâmil, Vol:VI, p.62.

24 Cited by İhsan Süreyya Sırma, Ibid. el-Hajji, et-Tarihu’l-Endelus, p.219.

25 Cited by İ. Süreyya Sırma, Ibid, R. M-Goulard, Ronce-vaux, p. 31.

26 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/songofroland/context.html.

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lemagne would make war for the Christen-dom.27 Charlemagne was planning to profi t from this chaotic situation in Spain. He was refraining from Abd ar-Rahman wanting to unify again Andalusia confused by the inde-pendency dreams of diff erent cities. He was wanting to abolish Abd ar-Rahman’s dynas-ty. Some muslims governors were desiring to collaborate with Charlemagne in order to lay low the reign of Abd ar-Rahman I. Sulayman al-Arabi, the pro-Abbasid Wali (governor) of Barcelona and Girona was one of them28. He sent a delegation to Charlemagne in Pad-erborn, off ering his submission, along with the allegiance of Husayn of Saragosse and Abu Taur of Huesca in return for military aid. Their masters had been cornered in the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I. The three Umayyad rulers also conveyed that the caliph of Baghdad, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was preparing an invasion force against Abd ar-Rahman. 29

Seeing an opportunity to extend Chris-tendom and his own power and believing the Saxons to be a fully conquered nation, Char-lemagne agreed to go to Spain. It seems that Sulayman al-Arabi induced Charlemagne to invade Andalusia by promising him an easy surrender of its Upper March of which Saragosse was the capital. The King didn’t make up his mind until the winter, but he fi nally decided to launch an expedition into the Iberian peninsula the next year30.

Taking into consideration the alliance of Sulayman al-Arabi, Charlemagne passed across the Pyrenees in 778. He led the Neus-trian army across the Western Pyrenees that crossed Vasconia and went into the Basque

27 See Charles Benamon, L’Avenir des religions en France, Dia-logue interreligieux ou affrontement? Monaco, 2000, pp.79-80.

28 Cited byİhsan Süreyya Sırma, Ibid., el-Hajji, et-Tarihu’l-Endelus, s. 220.

29 Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid-Carolingian_alliance.

30 Cited byİhsan Süreyya Sırma, Ibid.,İbnu’l-Esîr, el-Kâmil, Vol. VI, p. 14.

Country, while the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern Pyrenees through Catalonia. His troops were welcomed in Barcelona and Girona by Sulayman al-Arabi. As he moved towards Saragosse, the troops of Charlemagne were joined by troops led by al Arabi. Abd ar-Rah-man of Cordoba sent his most trusted gener-al, Thalaba Ibn Obeid, to take control of the possibly rebellious city and to prevent the Frankish invasion. Husayn and Ibn Obeid clashed repeatedly; eventually Husayn man-aged to defeat and to imprison Ibn Obeid..31

Abd ar-Rahman of Cordoba sent his most trusted general, Thalaba Ibn Obeid, to take control of the possibly rebellious city and to prevent the Frankish invasion. Husayn and Ibn Obeid clashed repeatedly; eventually Husayn managed to defeat and to imprison Ibn Obeid. Reinforced in his autonomous po-sition, Husayn became reluctant to yield his new privileged status to the Frankish king and refused to surrender the city to Char-lemagne, claiming that he had never prom-ised Charlemagne his allegiance. He seems to have tried to appease Charlemagne by giving him the prisoner General Ibn Obeid and a large tribute of gold, but Charlemagne was not easily satisfi ed, putt ing Sulayman al-Arabi in chains. Meanwhile, the force sent by the Baghdad caliphate seems to have been stopped near Barcelona. After a month of siege at Saragosse, Charlemagne decided to return to his kingdom.32

The RetreatAs the Frankish army retreated towards

Pamplona they suff ered an ambush led by the relatives of al-Arabi. Sulayman al-Arabi was liberated and brought to Saragosse, where both conspirators jointly resisted a new att ack by Abd ar-Rahman. Sulayman al-Arabi would eventually be murdered by

31 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle of Roncevaux Pass.32 Ibid.

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al Ansari. Charlemagne also suff ered an at-tack from the Basques in central Navarra. After stopping at Pamplona, Charlemagne ordered that the walls of this strategic city be destroyed, possibly fearing that it could be used by the Basques in future rebellions. Some primary sources suggest that he de-stroyed the city altogether.

The Battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Mountains of the Pyrenees

The batt le itself took place in the even-ing of Saturday 15 August 778, causing nu-merous losses among the Frankish troops, including several most important aristo-crats and the sack of the baggage, probably with all the gold given by the Muslims at Saragosse. After their success, the att ackers took advantage of the night to fl ee.

According to E Lévi Provençal, after the defeat of Saragosse, Charlemagne and his army were ambushed by the basques at Ron-cevaux pass by marching across the Pyre-nees in 778.Frankish army was defeated and all of soldiers were almost killed in this bat-tle.33 The Vita Karoli mentions the names of the most important paladins killed among many others: Eggihard, Mayor of the Palace, Anselmus, Palatine Count and Roland, Pre-fect of the March of Britt any.34

The Basque ArmyThe guerrilla army of the Basques is not

well known. A later source, the anonymous Saxon Poet, talks of the Basque spears, which fi ts with the Pyrenean and Basque tradition that would be present much later among the almogavars. A typical such mountain war-rior would have two short spears and a knife or short sword as his main weapons, and would not normally wear armour. Pierre de

33 See E. Lévi Provençal, Histoire de l’Espagne Musulma-ne, Vol. I, pp.124-125 and the same author, L’Espagne Mu-sulmane au Xème Siècle, Institutions et vie sociale, p.123.

34 Thorpe, Lewis Two Lives Of Charlemagne ISBN 0-140-44213-8. Cited by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass.

Marca, a Bearnese author, suggests that the att ackers were a reduced number of mostly lo-cal Low Navarrese, Souletines, and Bazata-nese, whose main motivation may well have been plunder. Nevertheless he also suggests that the Duke of Vasconia, Lop, may have been their commander.35 This opinion is also held by the authors of the General History of Languedoc who claim that Duke Lop was the leader of the Gascons that att acked Char-lemagne.36

The presence of people from other areas beyond those mentioned by de Marca is very likely anyhow. It is diffi cult to imag-ine why Bazatanese were there and not, for instance, the people of nearby Aezkoa or Salazar valleys. There are even att ributions to Guipuscoans, like a dedication in a chapel of Pasaia that gives thanks to Our Lady of Piety because of her support to their alleged participation in this batt le. Nevertheless the date mentioned (814) may refer to the Sec-ond Batt le of Roncevaux.

ConsequencesThe Franks failed in capturing Saragosse

and suff ered signifi cant losses at the hands of the Basques. They would only be able to establish the Marca Hispanica a decade later, when Barcelona was fi nally captured. Saragosse remained an important Muslim city, capital of the Upper March and later of an independent emirate, until the 11th cen-tury. Defenceless Pamplona was captured by the Muslims soon after and held by them for some years, until in 798-801 a rebellion expelled them as well and helped to consoli-date the Banu Qasi realm and eventually the constitution of the independent Kingdom of Pamplona in 824.

35 Pierre de Marca, Historie du Béarn (quoted by Narbaitz, op.cit.). Cited by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ron-cevaux_Pass.

36 Devic and Vaissette, Historie Genérale du Languedoc, 1872 (quoted by Narbaitz, op.cit.) Cited by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass.

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LegendThese historical events survive in The

Song of Roland, but they had been altered: the history had been transformed into legend. Two centruies after his death, Charlemagne who had struglled againts a great number of unbelievers, appears as initiator and hero of the Crusades to the frenchs and he and his peers were considered as the prototypes of Chivalry before its institution. Since there-fore, the anachronism take place in the french poems37.The young king who was 36 old years in 778’s became an old king of 200 years old “the white-bearded emporor”. He was considered as a living king and an or-ganisator of the holy wars, this is to say, the Crusades. Roland became his nephew; he had an inseparable friend, Olivier. This per-son was an invented character. The Spanish aggressors weren’t any more the Christian Basques but Muslim Saracens, and Charle-magne, rather than marching north to sub-due the Saxons, returned to Spain and took revenge of the deaths of his knights. The ex-pedition of Charlemagne in Spain became a crusade against the Saracens in Spain. This epope narrates the struggle of Christians against the infi del, this is to say the struggle of the good against the evil.

Over the years, this batt le was mytholo-gized by oral tradition into a great confl ict between Christians and Muslims, although, in fact, both sides in the batt le were Christian. In According to the tradition, the Basques are replaced by a force of 400,000 Saracens. (Charlemagne did fi ght the Saracens in Ibe-ria, though not in the Pyrenees.) The Song of Roland, which commemorates the batt le, was writt en by an Turoldus(Thurold), nor-mand poet. It is the earliest surviving of the chansons de geste or epic poems of medieval France in the northern dialect or langue d’oïl which became later the French language.

37 See a group of professors, Précis d’Histoire littéraire, Paris, Librairie générale, 1922, p. 13.

The Summary of The Song of RolandCharlemagne’s army is struggling

againts Muslim Saracens in Spain. The last city resisting is Saragossa, under the rule of King Marsile and Queen Bramimonde. Afraid of the power of Charlemagne’s army, Marsile sends out messengers to Charle-magne, promising treasure and Marsile’s conversion to Christianity if the Franks will go back to France. The epope begins with these sentences:“The king Charles, our grand emperor stayed in Spain: until the sea, he conquered the upper land. There isn’t any castle which holds up him; neither wall nor city remained to pull down excluding the city of Saragosse located on a mountain.The king Marsile (a legendary hero) take hold of this city. Marsile who doesn’t like God, but serves Mahomet and invokes Apollon; but he can’t abstain from the misfortune who is going to come over him.”38

By his very wise man Blancandrin, the king Marsile will promise to be Charle-magne’s vassal and a Christian convert in exchange for Charlemagne’s departure. He says to his men: “Go now, my lords, to him,Olive-branches in your right hands bearing;Bid ye for me that Charlemagne, the King,In his God’s name to shew me his mercy;Ere this new moon wanes, I shall be with him;One thousand men shall be my following;I will receive the rite of christening,Will be his man, my love and faith swearing;Hostages too, he’ll have, if so he will.”39

But once Charlemagne is back in France, Marsile will play a trick on his promises. Charlemagne and his vassals, tired of the long war, receive Marsile’s messengers and try to choose an envoy to negotiate at Mar-sile’s court on Charlemagne’s behalf. After having discused, the accord of the king Mar-

38 La Chanson de Roland, extraits, Paris, Library Larousse, 1935, p. 17.

39 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Roland, p. 3.

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sile with his men, the king Charlemagne ac-cepted the proposition of Ganelon as follows: “Believe not any one,My word nor theirs, save whence your good shall come.Since he sends word, that King Marsiliun,Homage he’ll do, by fi nger and by thumb;Throughout all Spain your writ alone shall runNext he’ll receive our rule of ChristendomWho shall advise, this bidding be not done,Deserves not death, since all to death must come.Counsel of pride is wrong: we’ve fought enough.Leave we the fools, and with the wise be one.”40

Whom Charlemagne will send up as messanger to Sarragosse, to Saracen King Marsile? After diff erent men of Charlemagne had been proposed, Roland, a courageous paladin, nominates his stepfather, Ganelon. Ganelon is enraged to the proposition of Ro-land; he fears that he will die in the hands of the Saracens and suspects that this is just Ro-land’s intent. He has long hated and envied his stepson. Riding back to Saragosse with the Saracen messengers, he fi nds an oppor-tunity for revenge from Roland. He tells the Saracens how they could ambush the rear-guard of Charlemagne’s army to be surely led by Roland as the Franks pick their way back to Spain through the mountain passes, and helps the Saracens plan their att ack:“Franks, chevaliers, says the Emperour then, Charles,Choose ye me out a baron from my marches,To Marsilie shall carry back my answer.Then says Rollanz: “There’s Guenes, my goodfather.Answer the Franks: “For he can wisely manage;So let him go, there’s none you should send rather.And that count Guenes is very full of anguish;Off from his neck he fl ings the pelts of marten,And on his feet stands clear in silken garment.Proud face he had, his eyes with colour, sparkled;Fine limbs he had, his ribs were broadly arched

40 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Roland, pp. 5-6.

So fair he seemed that all the court regarded.Says to Rollant: “Fool, wherefore art so wrathful?All men know well that I am thy goodfather;Thou hast decreed, to Marsiliun I travel.Then if God grant that I return hereafter,I’ll follow thee with such a force of passionThat will endure so long as life may last thee.”

Answers Rollanz: “Thou’rt full of pride and madness.

All men know well, I take no thought for slander;

But some wise man, surely, should bear the answer;

If the King will, I’m ready to go rather.”41

Ganelon intrigue with the Saracens in or-der to revenge on Roland:“Fair Master Guene,”says then King Marsilie, “Shew the device, how Rollant slain may be.”Answers him Guenes: “That will I soon make clearThe King will cross by the good pass of Size,A guard he’ll set behind him, in the rear;His nephew there, count Rollant, that rich peer,And Oliver, in whom he well believes;Twenty thousand Franks in their companyFive score thousand pagans upon them lead,Franks unawares in batt le you shall meet,Bruised and bled white the race of Franks shall be;I do not say, but yours shall also bleed.Batt le again deliver, and with speed.So, fi rst or last, from Rollant you’ll be freed.You will have wrought a high chivalrous deed,Nor all your life know war again, but peace.”42

After Ganelon returns with assurances of Marsile, Roland, as he predicted, ends up leading the rearguard. The twelve peers, later known as the Paladins, Charlemagne’s greatest and most beloved vassals, go with him. Among themt here was Oliver, a wise and prudent man and Roland’s best friend. The fi ery Archbishop Turpin, a clergyman who also is a great warrior takes place in the

41 http://omacl.org/Roland/r234-291.html, The Song of Roland, p. 7.

42 Ibid., p. 13.

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rearguard of the frank army. At the pass of Roncevaux , the twenty thousand Christians of the rearguard are ambushed by a Saracen force. Oliver counsels Roland to blow his ol-ifant horn, to call back Charlemagne’s main force, but Roland proudly refuses. While the Franks fi ght magnifi cently, there’s no way they can continue to hold off against the Saracens, and the batt le begins to turn clearly against them. Roland blows his olif-ant so that the emperor Charlemagne will return and avenge them. Roland blows so hard that his temples burst and he dies soon afterward. He dies facing the enemy’s land, and his soul is escorted to heaven by saints and angels.

When Charlemagne and his men reach the batt lefi eld, they fi nd only dead bodies. The Saracens run away, but the Franks pur-sue them, chasing them into the river Ebro, where they all drown. Meanwhile, the pow-erful emir of Babylon, Baligant, has arrived in Spain to help his vassal Marsile. Baligant and his enormous Muslim army ride after Charlemagne and his Christian army, meet-ing them on the batt lefi eld at Roncevaux where the Christians are burying and mourning their dead. Both sides fi ght val-iantly. But when Charlemagne kills Baligant, all the Saracen army scatt er and fl ee. Now Saragossa has no defenders left. The Franks take Saragossa where they destroy all Jewish and Moslem religious monuments and force the conversion of everyone in the city, with the exception of Queen Bramimonde. With Marsile’s wife Bramimonde, Charlemagne and his men ride back to Aix, their capital in sweet France.

Ganelon is put on trial for treason, because he said before going to Saragossa: “...There I will work a litt le trickery...”43 and “Sire, an-swers Guenes, “all this is from Rollanz; I’ll not love him, so long as I’m a man, Nor Ol-iver, who goes at his right hand;The dozen

43 Ibid., p. 8.

peers, for they are of his band, All I defy, as in your sight I stand.”44 Pinabel, Gane-lon’s kinsman and a gifted speaker, nearly sways the judges to let Ganelon go. But Thierry, a brave but physically unimposing knight, says that Ganelon’s revenge should not have been taken against a man in Charle-magne’s service: that constitutes treason. To decide the matt er, Pinabel and Thierry fi ght. Though Pinabel is the stronger man, God in-tervenes and Thierry triumphs. The Franks give Ganelon a traitor’s death: Four chargers are brought out and tied to Ganelon’s feet and hands...four sergeants drive them past the spectators towards a stream...Ganelon is lost, his ligaments will be stretched intoler-ably until all his limbs are torn apart. They also hang thirty of his kinsmen.

Charlemagne announces to all that Bramimonde has decided to become a Christian. Her baptism is celebrated, and all seems well. But that night, the angel Gabriel comes to Charlemagne in a dream, and tells him that he must depart for a new holy war against the pagans. Charlemagne prepares for yet another bloody war.

It is tolerable that the legendes exaggerate the historical events because of their anach-ronic character. But the readers should’nt consider them as real.The perception of the legends as real causes the prejudices and the misunderstandings. In his article named “Des Sarrasins aux Beurs, une vieille méfi ance”45 which can be translated as “From Saracens to Beurs46, an old mistrust”,Alain Ruisco

44 Ibid., p. 8.45 From Saracens to Beurs, an old mistrust 46 Beur is a verlan (French slang) term for a descendant of

immigrants of North African origin living in France. The word is a reversal of the syllables of the word arabe

(Arab in French), formed through the process of verlan. It is a term that can be pejorative in certain cir-

cumstances. The term „beur“ is also used in French- speaking Belgium and Spain. Its similarity to the word

„Berber“ is entirely coincidental, and it may be used to describe anyone of North African ethnic origins, whe-

ther Arab, Berber or otherwise. Their languages are predominantly French and Arabic (http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Beur).

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exposes very well that the anachronism caused the intersocietal prejudices and hostilities specially between Arabs and Frenchs, generally between Muslims and Christians.He begins his article with these sentences: “Why is this tenacious mistrust of a non-negligible party of french people against the Maghrebins who live in France? Or moregenerally against muslims?”47 For him, the antiarab racism in France goes up to the Middle Age, Reconquista and Cru-sades and some constitutifs elements of the historical culture of Frenchs are intimately related to the confrontations the arabo-muslim world: Batt le of Poitiers in 732, Bat-tle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, the Crusades of Saint Louis and other Crusades accord-ing to the chronological order.48

The batt le of Poitiers in 732 has been one of the most important confronta-tions between Arabs and Frenchs. In this subject,Chateaubriand says : “This is one of the most great events of the history : if the Saracens had been victorious, the world would be mahometan.”49 He want to say connotatively that the christian civilisation triumphed against the barbarism in this bat-tle. However, the historical studies agree on the reduction of signifi cance of the batt le of Poitiers. The arab conquest became a reality. But the arab raid on Poitiers was only aim-ing to pillage the city Tours and the richness of Abbaye Saint-Martin. But it isn’t question of any goal of territorial conquest and any ambition of political and permanent domi-nation. The historian Henri Pirenne writes in this matt er : “This batt le of Poitiers has not any importance as it is att ributed. It isn’t comparable to the victory winned over Atil-la. It characterizes the end of a raid .”50

47 Alain Ruisco, Des Sarrasins aux Beurs, une vieille méfi ance in http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr

48 See Ibid.49 Cited by Alain Ruisco, Ibid.50 Henri Pirenne, Mahomet et Charlemagne, Alcan, Bruxelles,

NSE, 1936. Cited by Alain Ruisco, Ibid.

This legendary war had been presented to the schoolboy generations as constitu-tive of the french nation. For exemple, it fi gures among “the thirty days which made France”51 according to the famous collection of Gallimard. Charles Martel who had however some raids against the churches became the symbol of the ram-part of Christianity. This is a completly anachronic or historical deviation.Dur-ing the war of Algeria, the commandos of the Organisation of Secret Army(OAS) of Frenchs took the name of Charles Martel. In a next day of 11 September 2001 Att acks, Stéphane Denis, a journalist of Figaro was explaning calmly that the Occident had’nt to feel shame for the Crusades. His highest argument is that he never hear from an ar-abe who apologised from the arab invasion until Poitiers. Finally, during the presiden-tial election, everyone could see the slogan on the walls of the cities: “Martel in 732, Le Pen in 2002.”52

There are a lot of exemples increasing the prejudice and hostility in certain litt er-ary books. For exemple, André Lagarde and Laurent Michard, famous historians of French Literature say: “the exploits of Car-olingian peer cavaliers Roland and Olivier face to fanatic Saracens att acking in num-ber. However, if nobody contest that the batt le of Roncevaux had really occured, it is known since longtime that Roland died face to basque guerillas.”53

In a considerable thesis named Les Mu-sulmans dans les chansons de geste du Cycle du Roi related to the image of muslims in the medieval literature, especially in The Song of Roland, Paul Bancourt, an academi-cian, exposes diff erent lines of diabolic ac-

51 Jean-Henri Roy and Jean Deviosse, La Bataille de Poitiers, Gallimard Publications, Paris, 1966. Cited by Alain Ru-isco, Ibid.

52 See Alain Ruisco, Ibid.53 André Lagarde and Laurent Michard, Manuel of literature

utilised in the years1960-1970 by the students since the 6th until senio class. Cited by Alain Ruisco, Ibid.

601


tuality and underlines that these medieval texts writt en in the XIth and XIIth had these cliches: the Saracens (the term already very ambiguous designating all the mus-lims without any distinction between them) “agents of bad sprite similaire to devils” are deceitful and sneaky by stabing in the back and raping women.54 The Saracens became the scapegoat throughout all the Middle Age.

The “infi dels” for the Christians of the Middle Age designate implicitly or explic-itly the muslims. Chateaubriand mentions the crusade as one of the only epic subjects which braves (Génie du Christianisme, 1816). Delacroix depicts in 1841 a lyric picture “En-trée des croisés dans Constantinople” (Entry of Crusaders in Constantinople/Istanbul). Vic-tor Hugo celebrates the french heroism in the poeme named “1453” in La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the centuries)55: “The Turks in front of Constantinople,Saw a giant cavalier,With a golden and dark green shield,Followed by a familiar lion.

Mahomet Two under the fortress walls,He called out: Who are you? The giant says: My name is Funeral,And you, your name is Nothingness.

My name under the sun is France,I will go back in the clarity,I will bring the deliverance,I will bring the freedom.My armor is golden yellow and greenLike the sea under the sky is bleu;Behind me the shadow is open;The lion who follows me is God.”56

54 See Paul Bancourt, Les Musulmans dans les chansons de geste du Cycle du Roi, 2 volumes, Publications de l’Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 1982. Cited by Alain Ruisco, Ibid.

55 Lire « 1453 », poem written in 1858. Cited by Alain Ru-isco, Ibid.

56 Victor Hugo, La Légende des Siècles, Second Volume, Pa-ris, Nelson Publications, p.

As clearly seen, Victor Hugo a world-widely famous author exposes heroi-commi-cally and illogically his rancor and hostility againts the Turks because of having taken Constantinople/Istanbul from the Byzan-tines. Those who read such a poeme of a worldwidely known writer can have a hate against Muslims.

An incessant confrontation is occur-ing between these two worlds. When the Frenchs in 1830 att empt to conquest Algeria, they are in a state of sprite predisposing to a new holy war but the religious motivation has not been fi rst. However the hostility to the false religion impregnates all the french society. The confrontation didn’t cease re-ally. All the french generations had the echos of this confrontation: war carried by Abd El-Kader (1832-1847), the revolt of Kabylie (1871), the struggle against Kroumirs and establishment of the protectorate on Tu-nisia(1880-1881), the conquest of Marocco and establishment of the protectorate on this country(1907-1912), the revolt in Alge-ria(1916-1917), the war of Rif (1924-1926), revolt and repression in Algeria (May,1945), confrontations in Marocco with the Sultan and the party of Independance/Istiqlal (1952-1956) with Neo-Destour in Tunisia(1952-1954).57

In addition to these, Alain Ruscio says: “The islamophobia and the antiarabe rac-ism are consubstantial in the french cul-ture? Yes or no! It shouldn’t forget that, fac-ing to this affi ched hostility, another party of the country (France)rose up permanent-ly against this affi ched hostility. There have been always Frenchs for saluting the majesty of muslim civilisation, the beauty of its reali-sations. It should read Eugène Fromentin(Un été dans le Sahara, Une année dans le Sahel) or this sentence of Lamartine writt en in 1833 : “ It should do justice to the cult of Mahomet who imposed especially two important reli-

57 See Alain Ruisco, Ibid.

602



gious obligations: the prayer and the charity (...) These are two very sublime realities of each religion. What’s more,Lamartine prais-es Islam: “ Moral, patient, resigned, charita-ble, and tolerant of its nature.”58

In conclusion, The Song of Roland illus-trates extravagantly and exaggeratively an ordinary historical event. As it has been read from generation to generation, it seems to cause the historical and cultural hostili-ties and prejudices between Christians and Muslims. In this epope, the spanish aggres-sors in the Batt le of Roncevaux Pass in the mountains of the Pyrenees became Mus-lim Saracens whereas they were Christian Basques. The Saracens became the scapegoat in Europe throughout all the Middle Age. The Song of Roland being an epic poem had been writt en in order to give a historical sup-port to the Crusades and to transform a ter-ritorial war in to a holy war. The concept of crusade, holy war arises from the contact be-tween these two diff erent world: the islamic world and the christian world.

This anachronic poem encouraged and incitedto write other works to commove in-ternationnally the hostility feelings. It is nor-mal to read Song of Roland as an epic story de-scribed with anachronic actionsand invented characters, artifi cial ormarvellous situations on condition that it shouldn’t be regarded as real.

In the same way, the anachronic works writt en against the christian religion and christian conception in the muslim world shouldn’t be taken into consideration to evaluate the historical events as well as those writt en against the muslim religion and muslim conception in the christian world. To remove the confl icts, wars, prejudices, the peaceful relations sould be well estab-lished and the mutual intercultural dialogue should be promoted among people from dif-ferent cultures. We consider that the studies

58 Alain Ruisco, Ibid.

like“Promotion of the Civil Society Dialogue between European Union and Turkey” will con-tribute to the world peace. ■

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The Historical Anachronism In The Song of Roland

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