Tammy’s Reviews > The Song of Roland > Status Update

176-177 I wonder if he is intended to be an image of Christ here. Gabriel is at his side and he accepts the glove. Arms clasped to his chest, his head falls to his arms. Gabriel and cherubims take his soul to Mont Saint Michel first and then to Paradise. He’s really dead this time. Charles and his men make it through the pass. All he sees is death and yet he searches for his nephew, Oliver, archbishop, and peers.

175-176 What a dramatic death scene. He faces the pagans to show that the Christians prevailed. He confesses his sins and pleads for God’s mercy. He extends his right-hand glove to God as a token and angels rush down from Heaven. Now, that’s the way to go. Under a pine (eternity) tree (Jesus’ atoning death), he recalls his king and his men. He reminds God of Lazarus’s resurrection and Daniel’s escape from lions.

173-174 He keeps hitting his sword on the stone and is grieved that it will not break. He wonders about what relics may lie it: Peter’s tooth? Basil’s blood? Denis’s hair? A piece of Mary’s robe? It was sinful for a pagan to try to steal it. WAIT! So is this like the core of a wand in HP? Only Christians should wield it. Death presses him hard, creeping from head to heart. He looks at the pagans as conqueror.

171-172 He prays that nobody will own the sword who will flee from a foe. He keeps hitting the stone and he hopes to break it. He remembers the bright sunny day when Charlemagne gave him the sword because an angel told him to pick Roland who used it to help the emperor win cities in France and all over Europe (it’s a long list). He’s grieved that a pagan might steal his sword. He prays for help from God.

169-171 He plans to steal R’s sword but then Roland comes to! He speaks to the theif and hits him on the helmet with his horn. That was enough to knock him out dead to the ground. Now his horn is broken! BOROMIR!!!! R’s sight grows dim. His face turns pale. He hits a grey stone in front of him ten times out of rage. He prays to St. Mary for succour. The only left to talk to is his sword.

168-169 His brains are spilling out, but he prays for God to call his peers. St. Gabriel prays for Roland. He takes his horn and sword and walks toward a wide lawn, climbs a mound with a fair tree and four marble stones beneath it. He falls face down. He’ll be easy to find. One Saracen is left because he faked his own death and smeared blood all over himself. You’re kidding me! He runs toward Roland.

166-168 Roland rallies and stands up, in grievous pain. He looks around hill and vale. He sees the archbishop and beats his breast. He folds his hands and looks to Heaven and prays for the archbishop. Since he was a champion of faith, he prays for the bishop to have a place in heaven. He sees his ravaged body and laments for the man in the way that French do to commend him to Heaven. R is also at death’s door.

162-165 He gives them a blessing. He hopes to see them in Paradise amid the rose blossoms. R goes back for Oliver. The bishop shrives them all with prayers. R recalls O’s deeds and how valiant he was. Now R sees all the peers dead and he sees his best friend, Oliver. He cries and swoons a third time (more of the structure). The bishop takes the horn and fills it with water from a stream. He, too, faints.

160 The pagans regret the day they were born because their doom has come. They have lost their peers and their lords. The trumpets blare and they hear “Mountjoy!” The pagans let their spears fly at Roland and he’s fighting with full wrath. His shield is finally split; his hauberk, piered. His body is not by the spear but he has thirty wounds elsewhere and his horse is dead. The pagans flee and he is alone.

157-159 They fear they’ll not keep Spain. In all the dead bodies, they must not see Roland. Amazingly, he and the archbishop are still alive! What? R and the archbishop are like the terminator. The pagans cry out to each other to go to it. R hates cowards and, when he sees his companion on foot and he on horseback, he decides to take a stand with him. They know Charles is coming and they will do what they can.