Review (PDF) Song Of Roland
Library of Liberal Arts title.
Paperback: 148 pages
Publisher: Pearson; 2 edition (March 15, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0024198358
ISBN-13: 978-0024198358
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.5 x 7.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #735,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #115 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > European > French #531 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Themes & Styles > Epic #607 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > World Literature > European
This review relates to the volume -The Song of Roland-,Translated and with an Introduction by Dorothy L. Sayers,Penguin Classics, 1957 (first translation, 1937). 206 pp.There seems little point in giving a work of world literaturea rating of stars as to whether it is better or lesser thansome other work of world literature, even of the same genre.The rating for this review is based on this particularedition and translation.The excellent qualities of this Penguin edition includethe "Introduction." Sayers discusses this "earliest,the most famous, and the greatest of those Old Frenchepics which are called Songs of Deeds." Her "Introduction"is divided into the highly enlightening subsections titled:The Poem; The Feudal Picture; Vassalage; Tokens; Chivalry;The Rules of Battle; Nurture and Companionage; Horses andSwords; and The Verse and the Translation. She says thepoem as we have it "would appear to have achieved itsfinal shape towards the end of the eleventh century." Butthe events described in the epic took place in 778, and"the anonymous poet describes in detail the betrayal andslaughter by Saracens of the rearguard of Charlemagne'sarmy under Roland -- at Rencevaux -- and Charlemagne'sbitter revenge."Perhaps most interesting in the "Introduction" are Ms.Sayers' character studies. She sees that in Charlemagne,"beneath this larger-than-life-size figure, we discernanother: the portrait of the ideal earthly sovereign --just, prudent, magnanimous, and devout." She goesfurther and posits that in the way he is describedin this epic he even seems like an early medieval versionof a "constitutional" monarch.
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