The Song of Roland

About

The Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland, c. 1100) is the oldest surviving major work of French literature and the defining poem of medieval chivalric tradition: the story of Charlemagne's nephew Roland, who delays sounding the horn to summon help while his rearguard is annihilated at Roncevaux, dying rather than admit he needs rescue. Scott-Moncrieff's translation — the same scholar who translated Proust — renders the Old French with unusual fidelity. The poem's spare, formulaic grandeur is quite unlike anything in the classical tradition and enormously rewarding to read aloud.