I think it's very clear that they all know this is massive danger of death. But the point about this then is, should roland have blown his horn? Well, then the rest of the army would have come back. Then there would have been a pitched battle, but i think it's clear that it would not have had necessarily a predictable outcome. And so when oliver says to roland, if we all die here, charlemagne will lose his best supporters, will lose his right arm, he will fail. The poem doesn't stint on the tragedy of that,. I mean, the scenes where he looks at the hills and he looked at the corpses of his men,
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an early masterpiece of French epic poetry, from the 12th Century. It is a reimagining of Charlemagne’s wars in Spain in the 8th Century in which Roland, his most valiant knight, chooses death before dishonour, guarding the army’s rear from a pagan ambush as it heads back through the Roncesvalles Pass in the Pyrenees. If he wanted to, Roland could blow on his oliphant, his elephant tusk horn, to summon help by calling back Charlemagne's army, but according to his values that would bring shame both on him and on France, and he would rather keep killing pagans until he is the last man standing and the last to die.
The image above is taken from an illustration of Charlemagne finding Roland after the Battle of Roncevaux/Roncesvalles, from 'Les Grandes Chroniques de France', c.1460 by Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 6465 f.113
With
Laura Ashe
Professor of English Literature and Fellow in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford
Miranda Griffin
Assistant Professor of Medieval French at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Murray Edwards College
And
Luke Sunderland
Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University
Studio producer: John Goudie