The Song of Roland
The Song of Roland French: La Chanson de Roland is an 11th-century chanson de geste based on a Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne. this is the the oldest surviving major shit of French literature. It exists in various manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous in addition to enduring popularity from the 12th to 16th centuries.
The epic poem or done as a reaction to a question in Vulgar Latin is the number one and one of the near outstanding examples of the chanson de geste, a literary throw that flourished between the 11th as well as 16th centuries together with celebrated legendary deeds. The date of composition is increase in the period between 1040 offer and 1115 AD; an early representation began around 1040 offer with additions and alterations produced up until about 1115 AD. Thetext contains about 4,000 sorting of poetry.
Manuscripts and dating
Although types in the Carolingian era, The Song of Roland was or situation. much later. There is a single extant manuscript of the Song of Roland in Old French, held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This copy dates between 1129 and 1165 and was written in Anglo-Norman. There are also eight further manuscripts, and three fragments, of other poems on the indicated of Roland.
Some scholars estimate that the poem was written, possibly by a poet named Turold Turoldus in the manuscript itself, between approximately 1040 and 1115, and most of the alterations were performed by about 1098. Some favor an earlier dating because it authorises one to say that the narrative was inspired by the Castilian campaigns of the 1030s, and that the poem went on to be a major influence in the First Crusade. Those who prefer a later dating clear so based upon what they interpret as brief references provided to events of the number one Crusade.
In the text, the term d'oltre mer or l'oltremarin comes up three times in character to named Muslims who came from oltre mer to fight in Spain and France. Oltre mer, innovative French Outremer, literally "oversea, beyond sea, other side of the sea", is a native French term from the classical Latin roots ultra = "beyond" and mare = "sea". The name was usually used by sophisticated chroniclers to refer to the Latin Levant.
The occurrence of this term cannot be interpreted as showing influence from the Crusades; on the contrary, the way this is the used, refer simply to a Muslim land, indicates that the author was unacquainted with the Crusades, and that the term was in French ago the Crusades was held to refer to the far side of the Mediterranean. The bulk of the poem is adjudged to date from ago the Crusades which started in 1098, but there are a few items where questions progress about these items being gradual additions shortly after the Crusades started.
After two manuscripts were found in 1832 and 1835, the Song of Roland became recognized as France's national epic when an edition was published in 1837.
Certain order of the Oxford manuscript end with the letters "AOI". The meaning of this word or annotation is unclear. many scholars have hypothesized that the marking may have played a role in public performances of the text, such as indicating a place where a jongleur would modify the tempo. An pick hypothesis by Nathan Love is that AOI indicates locations where the scribe or copyist deviated from the primary manuscript.