Customer Reviews

The Song of Roland (Dover Thrift Editions)

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The Song of Roland is the most famous of the "chansons de geste" (songs of deeds) of the Middle Ages. It provides a fascinating view into the spirit of warriors of that time and their motivation. The Song of Roland gives an idealized picture, of course, and if we can believe the historians, the medieval knights never lived up to their chivalric ideal.

The Song of Roland is not commonly included in the canon of must-read classics. Except in France, maybe. I assume the reason is that people in our time do not trace back their roots to the feudalism of the Middle Ages, and that they consider the chapter of chivalry closed after Cervantes's satirical portrait of knighthood in "Don Quixote". In one respect, however, this gory tale of slaughter, martyrdom and revenge is very contemporary. It illustrates the mindset of crusaders who see the world in terms of Good and Evil, and the language they use to incite contempt of the other party.

Apart from its historical value, the Song of Roland is also worth reading as literature - as an outstanding example for the heroic epic and as a piece of art whose "simple yet elevated style and tone of high moral purpose" (R. Harrison) is reminiscent of the Old Testament.

The three most easily available translations of the Song of Roland in the market are:

W.S. Merwin's 1963 prose translation with introduction, re-published in paperback by Random House's "Modern Library" in 2001 (ISBN 0375757112). His nine-page introduction is a succinct but sufficient overview of the historical events of AD 778 that became the basis of the Song of Roland. The translation stands out for its readability, and Merwin's choice of modern English makes the descriptions of violence even more direct and graphic: "And Oliver rides through the battle, with his spear shattered to a stump, charges against Malun, a pagan, breaks his gilded shield with the flowers painted on it, knocks the eyes out of his head and brings his brains tumbling down to his feet." (page 43).

Robert Harrison's 1970 translation for Penguin Book's budget line "Mentor Books" (ISBN 0451528573) captures the throbbing, urgent rhythm of the verse form best: "Olivier now gallops through the fray - / his lance has snapped, he only has a stump - / and goes to strike a pagan, Malsaron. / He breaks his gilt, fleuron-emblazoned shield, / bursting both his eyeball from his head - / his brain comes tumbling downward to his feet - " (page 93). "Fleuron-emblazoned" is quite enigmatic compared to Merwin's clear "with the flowers painted on it", but Harrison redeems himself by choosing "bursting" to emphasize the violence of the attack. The big plus of Harrison's book is his 42-page introduction. He explains the logic of medieval chivalry, why cruelty coexisted with sensitivity, and butchery with prayer. One interesting concept is the medieval "ethos of success," or in other words the idea that the outcome justifies the means: When a knight killed another knight it was the will of God that this had happened, no matter by what means. Make the opponent trip and chop off his head - see, God is on your side. Harrison goes to quite some length to introduce the instruments of war, the armor and weapons, which is very helpful since the main body of the Song of Roland is about the glory and slaughter of battle.

Glyn Burgess's 1990 translation for Penguin Classics (ISBN 0140445323) is the most recent translation of the three. He stays closest to the form of the original, which gives his translation a certain wooden inflexibility but also a not entirely unbecoming pathos. His translation of Olivier's attack on Malun is quite telling: "Oliver rides through the thick of the fray; / His lance shaft is broken, only a stump remains. / He goes to strike a pagan, Malun; / He breaks his shield, wrought with gold and flowers, / and smites both his eyes out of his head. / His brains come spilling out over his feet;" (page 72) While the use of "wrought" and "smite" sounds a bit old-fashioned, "spilling" is an excellent choice. Burgess added a 19-page introduction to his translation. It focuses mostly on the literary qualities of the Song of Roland; for the first-time reader of the Song of Roland, Harrison's introduction is more helpful. The additional value of the Penguin Classics edition lies in an Appendix with about one third of the original version of the "Chanson de Roland" - the key passages of the work in Old French.

While all three translations have their pros and cons, I tend to recommend Harrison's book over the two others. It strikes a good balance between the clarity of Merwin's prose translation and the wooden feel of Burgess's more literal verse translation. In addition, it impresses with its useful introduction and its unbeatable value for money.

I have had a chance rather vividly to contrast this version with the Glyn Burgess translation, and Harrison is not only more readable, it's better poetry. I use the book in a class of eighth grade boys in New York (who love it), and by mistake a bought a slug of the Burgess translation. Then I had some boys with Harrison, some with Burgess, and the howls from the Burgessites were considerable. Harrison is just a better, livlier, even funnier translation.

The translation is very good, but there are some formatting errors that I found irritating. Specifically, there aren't line breaks within the poetry on the Kindle, even when you can tell that there should be one. It looks like it's just an issue with formatting the original file to the Kindle format, so hopefully that will get fixed in the future!

Cost being a factor in determining books to be purchased by students, I strongly recommend this translation by Leonard Bacon (1914). The lines are mainly in iambic heptameter (seven beats per line) with a clear caesura, which facilitates a student's oral reading of the poem. Though the original French used assonance more than end rhyme, Bacon does rhyme his English lines. Compared to the iambic pentameter of the Dorothy L. Sayers translation, Bacon's is a little faster paced, but one senses the hoofbeats of the horses with two more beats per line, which isn't altogether bad for an epic poem about a military massacre. Though a good choice in terms of price, Bacon's translation lacks glosses of archaisms (e.g., the word "eme" is not explained as an archaism of "uncle"). Still, the teacher can supply these as necessary. For [the money], you can't go wrong!

This is an old translation and it shows in its maddening inconsistancies. For example, rather than simply referring to the protagonist as Roland, he is called "Rollant," "Rollanz";Ganelon, the treacherous Frank, is referred to as "Guenes"; Charlemagne goes by at least three other names (Carlun?). Other archaic spellings dominate too, like "Mahumet" for Muhammed, and gafaluns for whatever they might be.

The syntax and diction are stiff and unnatural and line breaks are not noted. Here's a taste:

"His arms to bear has shewn great lustihead; In vassalage he is well famoused; Christian were he, he'd shown good barronhead."

So, it is a great story, but the best thing about this version is its price.

This FREE(!) Kindle book, Song of Roland, is translated by C.K. Moncreiff.

We were reading this in class with three different translations: Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert Harrison, and this one, C.K. Moncreiff. This Kindle version refers to Roland as Rollanz and Rollant which takes a little getting used to since the entire story is his song. Ganelon is known as Guenes in this version, Saracens as Sarrazins. If you get that wrapped around your brain, the reading is easy to understand. We thought Dorothy Sayers was the most difficult, with this version and Robert Harrison's being much easier.

The Kindle version has no introduction. Most version give a very long summary before the story.

It is broken down nicely into laisses and numbered with Roman numerals. It follows the exact same numbering and laisses as all other versions. A laisse is a type of stanza, of varying length, found in medieval French literature, specifically medieval French epic poetry.

What a sad, sad story of faithful Roland to his King Charlemagne, and the sweet love of Roland's fiancée, Aude, who upon hearing of Roland's death, dies of grief. What a treacherous story of jealousy and betrayal by Roland's stepfather, Ganelon; and the villain, Marsilion, and his ambush which causes the death of Roland at Roncevaux.

This is a great version of a wonderful story that has been around since August 15, 778.

Finished Roland today. Classic. A really great read. The translation I have is a fairly rich one. It appears not to be a literal translation that sometimes falls flat. The richness of this little French epic is wonderful.

The Song of Roland is a great introduction to the great epics of the world because of its shortness and richness. It follows all the epic rules with the exception of lenght. There are a host of characters outside the main cast. Each one is given a few lines of description to cover the basics: where, who, and what they are doing. Sometimes the how and why come in as well, but not always.

As most epics go this one is really a great story of valiance and deception. It was meant to be spoken. This can be seen even in the english translation. The cadence is excellent most of the time being easy to read. It tends to be a bit repeditive, but that is a partial flaw of being an epic. The characters being so many tend to be described in the same way such as the Knights being describe as the best vassal as ever was or he mounted on his destrier a swifter one there was not. Phrases such as these tend to repeat, but this is just the story being told aloud for a few centuries before being committed to paper. Some phrases just come up more than once. I know it has happened in both the Odyssey and the Illiad, so if it was okay for Homer, well, its okay here too.

I tend to take my time when reading books of this sort, but it could be read in a weekend if one was so inclined. The only advice I could include would be keep your dictionary close by for looking up all the mideval armaments. Othewise enjoy, or should I say "Monjoy!"

This is a review of the audio book version that uses a translation by D. D. R. Owen. The narrators are an ensemble cast with different voices for each major character. This includes some sound effects such as sounds of battle, horns blowing, and some music.

Overall, I enjoyed this recording. The audio quality was marginal, which detracted from a good performance. Having different voices helped differentiate who was speaking and the sound effects also were useful and did not distract from the story. I did not give this audio book 5 stars mainly because of the audio quality.

I found the translation to be easy to understand, though I have never read another translation with which to compare it.

The book itself was a very interesting look into the medieval mind. The violence was graphic; the Christians were all good and the Muslims were all bad. The title character was an amazing fighter, who passionately loved his king and his friends. There was treachery and many other elements of a good story.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in this time frame. Obviously, it does not fit in with our current political correctness, but it is a fascinating glimpse into our history and what western culture was like 1000 years ago.

The Song of Roland anon

This historical battle occurred on August 15, 778. Nobody knows who wrote this poem. Charlemagne attacked Spain. Upon his return, the rearguard was attacked and killed to the last man. Saracen Spain was a constant threat to Christian France. So too the separatist Christian Dukes of France. This poem must have been written before the 12th century. Some say the episodes in this poem were copied from real events in the First Crusade and other literary works. Carolingian society was based on a primitive form of feudalism. The Oxford University version of the "Song of Roland" is the oldest known version, 3998 lines of verse divided into 291 paragraphs. It is written in Anglo-Norman French of the early twelfth century. There are other versions of the poem. [Interest in Roland seems to have waned in modern times.]

King Charles of France had conquered most of Spain except for the mountain city of Saragossa where King Marsilla ruled. Marsilla's advisor Blancandrin suggested giving wealth to Charles so he would leave Spain. It is better to lose hostages than a kingdom. Count Roland says Marsilla can't be trusted and Charles should continue the war, but the others disagreed. Charles wants to send an envoy to Marsilla. Roland suggests his stepsire Ganelon. Ganelon is angered by this perilous task. Ganelon and Blancandrin speak together. Ganelon tells Marsilla of Charles' wishes, the latter is angered. But Blancandrin tells Marsilla what Ganelon told him. Ganelon says the conflict would cease after Roland died. Ganelon advises paying tribute so Charles will return to France. Then Marsilla can attack Roland in the outnumbered rear guard.

The treaty will mean peace in their time. Charlemagne accepts the tribute and Marsilla's promise, then leaves for France. Roland will command the rear guard in the narrow pass with just the soldiers given to him. The Saracens plan a great victory to discourage Charlemagne. Olivier sees the mighty army of the enemy and asks Roland to sound his horn so Charles will return with his army. Roland refuses to call for help. There are individual attacks at first, the Franks win. Then the enemy forces close in for sword fights. At this time there is a raging storm in France, a sign of turmoil. Now the Saracens win, continuous battle whittles down the French forces. Did Roland make a mistake in not calling for help earlier? King Charles orders his army to return. Olivier is wounded unto death yet fights on. Soon only Roland is left, but he is also wounded, and dies. When King Charles arrives in Roncesvals he finds the ground covered with the dead. The Saracens retreat to Spain, then with reinforcements, they attack Charlemagne's army. But Charles kills their leader and the Saracens flee. The French attack and conquer Saragossa. After this victory Ganelon is tried for treason. He says his quarrel with Roland was personal, based on a grudge. Trial by combat settles the question. Ganelon is a traitor and is torn apart by four horses. Next Charles has to invade a new country. He is growing weary of his life.

although the song of Roland is a very poetic, i just could not follow the story, this rating is my own opinion, i know many historians that believe this is one of the most beautiful stories ever written.