Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"
    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"
    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"
    Ebook50 pages35 minutes

    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Epics for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Epics for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 20, 2016
    ISBN9781535820585
    A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Crusade Leaders

      Jun 20, 2019

      Crusade Leaders
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Two Argonnes

      Feb 23, 2018

      The Two Argonnes
      24 min read

    • Article

      Dunkirk And The Dunes

      Nov 6, 2018

      Dunkirk And The Dunes
      18 min read

    • Article

      Hergest Ridge

      Jul 7, 2023

      Hergest Ridge
      3 min read

    • Article

      Gaming On The Margins

      Jun 10, 2022

      Gaming On The Margins
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hot Valks live!

      Oct 28, 2021

      ● WHO SAID CLASSICAL MUSIC IS dead? Well, catch yerself on, because Serj Tankian, lead singer of Armenian-American metalheads System of a Down, is coming to park his love guns on your lawn. The guy who brought you Genocidal Humanoidz (Azerbaijanis? I

      3 min read

    • Article

      Heraldic Roots

      May 5, 2023

      Being seen on the battlefield was important long before the development of heraldry, and shields have always been an obvious vehicle for displaying that identity. The ancient Greeks bore shields with both collective and individual emblems, whilst the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Going Dutch

      Dec 8, 2021

      THIS work covers a period neatly book-ended by two sea journeys: those of Matilda, William the Conqueror’s Flemish-speaking wife, and the Dutch William of Orange in 1688. Between the two dates, the fortunes of Anglo-Dutch literary relations, like tho

      5 min read

    • Article

      Knightly Markers

      Jul 7, 2023

      The problem is that the things that supposedly made heraldry so useful – that it was a system of individual symbols, utilizing bold designs visible at a distance – actually worked against its effectiveness. It might be conceivable that a knight would

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Greatest French Crime Writer You’ve Never Heard Of

      Mar 9, 2017

      The crime and espionage author Frédéric Dard is without doubt the most prolific and widely read Francophone writer with whom hardly anybody in the English speaking world, even serious crime genre aficionados, is acquainted. In the second half of the

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Clash Of Kings At Agincourt

      Mar 27, 2020

      A Clash Of Kings At Agincourt
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Diplomacy

      Jun 11, 2020

      The Art Of Diplomacy
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Final Frontier

      Dec 23, 2020

      CATHOLICS ARE PECULIARLY morbid. That, at any rate, struck me as the most plausible explanation. It must have been 15 years ago, and I was with a group of Englishspeaking aficionados learning handson capework in the breeders’ practice rings around Sa

      3 min read

    • Article

      Diversions

      Sep 10, 2021

      Why do I hate the sound of my voice when it’s recorded, yet it sounds dulcet in my own head? Your own voice travels through your skull to your middle ear when you’re speaking, adding different frequencies to the sound you hear. Plus, a recording won’

      4 min read

    • Article

      Town & Country Notebook

      Jul 12, 2023

      1) The lines ‘By the pricking of my thumbs/Something wicked this way comes’ appear in which Shakespeare play?2) North Country Cheviot is a breed of which farm animal?3) Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) was Court painter for which English king?4) Lewes is

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Trauma Of War

      Jul 14, 2021

      The Trauma Of War
      8 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Mar 18, 2021

      Anniversaries
      4 min read

    • Article

      You’re Descended from Royalty and So Is Everybody Else

      Jan 4, 2018

      Charlemagne, Carolingian King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, the great European conciliator; your ancestor. I am making an assumption that you are broadly of European descent, which is not statistically unreasonable but certainly not definitive.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Sublime in Seville

      Oct 28, 2021

      Sublime in Seville
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Death Of Chivalry

      Nov 26, 2020

      The Death Of Chivalry
      10 min read

    • Article

      No Man Is An Island

      Sep 15, 2017

      No Man Is An Island
      9 min read

    • Article

      The medieval Mills & Boon

      May 13, 2021

      The medieval Mills & Boon
      7 min read

    • Article

      Town & Country Notebook

      Jun 28, 2023

      1) The word ovine refers to which animals? 2) Boudicca was the ruler of which East Anglian tribe? 3) What cordial is made from the flowers of Sambucus nigra? 4) Which famous spy-novel writer also wrote children’s book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang? 5) What

      4 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Apr 15, 2021

      Troops cross the Irish Sea to help a disgraced king regain his throne Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster (shown below) has not had a good press. According to the historian Gerald of Wales, he was “a man who liked better to be feared by all than lov

      5 min read

    • Article

      On Bended Knee

      Nov 2, 2022

      On Bended Knee
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Anonymous's "Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)" - Gale

      10

      Song of Roland

      Anonymous

      C. 1130

      Introduction

      The Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland), generally believed to have been composed around 1130, is the oldest surviving French epic. It is the preeminent example of the chanson de geste, or song of great deeds, a poetic form usually used to tell stories of heroism rather than the accounts of love relationships that became more popular later in the twelfth century. The work knew an astounding success throughout the Middle Ages. Versions of the tale were popular in England, Wales, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy until about 1500, but the story languished during the Renaissance (1500–1700). Starting in the late nineteenth century, scholars in France and Germany began to study the tale, noting its relevance to the formation of modern-day France. The epic draws a line between France and Islamic Spain. By describing sweet France (la douce France) as consisting of a particular people, faith, and territory, the anonymous author lays the foundation for the emerging French nation-state.

      The story establishes the eighth-century Charlemagne as the father of France. Particular attention is given to naming specific barons who were, in fact, not contemporaries of Charlemagne but twelfth-century feudal lords, contemporaries of the anonymous author or authors of the Song of Roland. The story glorifies these barons by contrasting their honor, valor, and courage with the treachery of the Muslims, then called Saracens. The Christian forces of the French defeat the Muslims with divine intervention and great determination.

      The characters of the story are still revered in French culture in modern times. The treasonous French baron, Ganelon, who betrays the noble Roland to the enemy, embodies deception. Roland, Charlemagne's nephew, serves as a model of obedience and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. Song of Roland serves as the foundation of French literature, giving modern readers insight into the inception of the cultural life of France.

      Author Biography

      Little is known about the anonymous author or authors of the Song of Roland. The oldest surviving manuscript, the Oxford Digby 23, is signed Turoldus and written in Anglo-Norman, a language predominant in England following the Norman invasion from France in 1066. K. Sarah-Jane Murray's 2004 essay on the Digby 23 manuscript explains how the scribe copied the text and how marginal comments prove its popularity in medieval times. Murray also explores connections between the French epic and Plato's Timaeus, with which it was bound.

      Few people outside the clergy in medieval France and England were literate, so Turoldus may have been a monk. One school of thought asserts that the epic shows signs of being composed orally, perhaps copied down by Turoldus and other scribes when the story was performed at a feast or celebration. The extent to which the text's first scribes might have added their own creative touches to the story is not known, but scribes are generally considered to be recorders of traditional tales, and not authors of original

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1