THE best-known narrative of the Charlemagne tradition in the whole of Europe was undoubtedly the material connected with the defeat at Roncevaux, the only defeat the historical Charlemagne suffered during his illustrious career. The chanson de geste celebrating the heroic defence of Roland and his companions and the revenge executed by the emperor has dominated critical study of the genre and, since the nineteenth century, has enjoyed particular acclaim as a kind of ‘national’ epic in France itself, appropriated in the early years of modern criticism for a political agenda related to tensions within Europe and specifically between France and Germany. Such political appropriation of this material was not new in the nineteenth century, as we shall demonstrate in this chapter. While there was undoubtedly an older oral tradition relating these events, the oldest extant written version of the chanson de geste is an insular one. The narrative, as noted above in our discussion of the insular reception of the genre, is found in two main strands derived from the chanson de geste and from the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle, itself an early appropriation of the Roland material, where it is given a particularly religious import and semi-hagiographic tone.

La Chanson de Roland

The best known of the all the chansons de geste is often referred to as the Chanson de Roland, the Song of Roland, although it might be more accurate to think in terms of a number of Chansons de Roland. The fundamentals of the narrative in all versions are the same: Charlemagne has been in Spain for seven years and conquered the whole land except Saragossa, which is ruled by the Saracen Marsile, who sends a false message of submission; Charlemagne consequently begins to return to France, leaving his nephew, Roland, in charge of the rearguard. However, Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, has betrayed them and the rearguard is attacked by a large force, in two waves; only when almost everyone has died does Roland blow his horn to alert Charlemagne, who returns, finds the rearguard destroyed, and avenges his nephew's death, defeating first Marsile's army and then that of Marsile's overlord, Baligant.