The Harvard Classics-Epic and Saga Part 1

The Harvard Cla.s.sics.

Epic and Saga.

by Various.

_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_

_In the year 778 A.D., Charles the Great, King of the Franks, returned from a military expedition into Spain, whither he had been led by opportunities offered through dissensions among the Saracens who then dominated that country. On the 15th of August, while his army was marching through the pa.s.ses of the Pyrenees, his rear-guard was attacked and annihilated by the Basque inhabitants of the mountains, in the valley of Roncesvaux About this disaster many popular songs, it is supposed, soon sprang up; and the chief hero whom they celebrated was Hrodland, Count of the Marches of Brittany.

There are indications that the earliest of these songs arose among the Breton followers of Hrodland or Roland; but they spread to Maine, to Anjou, to Normandy, until the theme became national. By the latter part of the eleventh century, when the form of the "Song of Roland" which we possess was probably composed, the historical germ of the story had almost disappeared under the ma.s.s of legendary accretion. Charlemagne, who was a man of thirty-six at the time of the actual Roncesvaux incident, has become in the poem an old man with a flowing white beard, credited with endless conquests; the Basques have disappeared, and the Saracens have taken their place; the defeat is accounted for by the invention of the treachery of Ganelon; the expedition of 777-778 has become a campaign of seven years; Roland is made the nephew of Charlemagne, leader of the twelve peers, and is provided with a faithful friend Oliver, and a betrothed, Alda.

The poem is the first of the great French heroic poems known as "chansons de geste." It is written in stanzas of various length, bound together by the vowel-rhyme known as a.s.sonance. It is not possible to reproduce effectively this device in English, and the author of the present translation has adopted what is perhaps the nearest equivalent--the romantic measure of Coleridge and Scott.

Simple almost to bareness in style, without subtlety or high imagination, the Song of Roland is yet not without grandeur; and its patriotic ardor gives it a place as the earliest of the truly national poems of the modern world._

THE SONG OF ROLAND

PART I

THE TREASON OF GANELON

SARAGOSSA. THE COUNCIL OF KING MARSIL

I

The king our Emperor Carlemaine, Hath been for seven full years in Spain.

From highland to sea hath he won the land; City was none might his arm withstand; Keep and castle alike went down-- Save Saragossa, the mountain town.

The King Marsilius holds the place, Who loveth not G.o.d, nor seeks His grace: He prays to Apollin, and serves Mahound; But he saved him not from the fate he found.

II

In Saragossa King Marsil made His council-seat in the orchard shade, On a stair of marble of azure hue.

There his courtiers round him drew; While there stood, the king before, Twenty thousand men and more.

Thus to his dukes and his counts he said, "Hear ye, my lords, we are sore bested.

The Emperor Karl of gentle France Hither hath come for our dire mischance.

Nor host to meet him in battle line, Nor power to shatter his power, is mine.

Speak, my sages; your counsel lend: My doom of shame and death forefend."

But of all the heathens none spake word Save Blancandrin, Val Fonde's lord.

III

Blancandrin was a heathen wise, Knightly and valiant of enterprise, Sage in counsel his lord to aid; And he said to the king, "Be not dismayed: Proffer to Karl, the haughty and high, Lowly friends.h.i.+p and fealty; Ample largess lay at his feet, Bear and lion and greyhound fleet.

Seven hundred camels his tribute be, A thousand hawks that have moulted free.

Let full four hundred mules be told, Laden with silver enow and gold For fifty waggons to bear away; So shall his soldiers receive their pay.

Say, too long hath he warred in Spain,-- Let him turn to France--to his Aix--again.

At Saint Michael's feast you will thither speed, Bend your heart to the Christian creed, And his liegeman be in duty and deed.

Hostages he may demand Ten or twenty at your hand.

We will send him the sons whom our wives have nursed; Were death to follow, mine own the first.

Better by far that they there should die Than be driven all from our land to fly, Flung to dishonor and beggary."

IV

"Yea," said Blancandrin, "by this right hand, And my floating beard by the free wind fanned, Ye shall see the host of the Franks disband And hie them back into France their land; Each to his home as beseemeth well, And Karl unto Aix--to his own Chapelle.

He will hold high feast on Saint Michael's day And the time of your tryst shall pa.s.s away.

Tale nor tidings of us shall be; Fiery and sudden, I know, is he: He will smite off the heads of our hostages all: Better, I say, that their heads should fall Than we the fair land of Spain forego, And our lives be laden with shame and woe."

"Yea," said the heathens, "it may be so."

V

King Marsil's council is over that day, And he called to him Clarin of Balaguet, Estramarin, and Eudropin his peer, Bade Garlon and Priamon both draw near, Machiner and his uncle Maheu--with these Jomer and Malbien from overseas, Blancandrin for spokesman,--of all his men He hath summoned there the most felon ten.

"Go ye to Carlemaine," spake their liege,-- "At Cordres city he sits in siege,-- While olive branches in hand ye press, Token of peace and of lowliness.

Win him to make fair treaty with me, Silver and gold shall your guerdon be, Land and lords.h.i.+p in ample fee."

"Nay," said the heathens, "enough have we."

VI

So did King Marsil his council end.

"Lords," he said, "on my errand wend; While olive branches in hand ye bring, Say from me unto Karl the king, For sake of his G.o.d let him pity show; And ere ever a month shall come and go, With a thousand faithful of my race, I will follow swiftly upon his trace, Freely receive his Christian law, And his liegemen be in love and awe.

Hostages asks he? it shall be done."

Blancandrin answered, "Your peace is won."

VII

Then King Marsil bade be dight Ten fair mules of snowy white, Erst from the King of Sicily brought Their trappings with silver and gold inwrought-- Gold the bridle, and silver the selle.

On these are the messengers mounted well; And they ride with olive boughs in hand, To seek the Lord of the Frankish land.

Well let him watch; he shall be trepanned.

AT CORDRES. CARLEMAINE'S COUNCIL

VIII

King Karl is jocund and gay of mood, He hath Cordres city at last subdued; Its shattered walls and turrets fell By Catapult and mangonel; Not a heathen did there remain But confessed him Christian or else was slain.