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

161-162 The pagans flee to Spain but without a horse R cannot pursue. He turns to the archbishop and treats his wounds with bandages. He tells him he will find their friends and bring them to his sight. The archbiship is glad the pagans have left the field. I love the structure of this poem. R goes and finds the peers and lifts them up and carries them to the archbishop. On his knees, the latter lifts his hands.

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.

156-157 R fights and fights and, when the end is near, he sounds his horn again but it is faint. Charlemagne hears it none the less but also knows it is R’s last call. C tells the host to blast the trumpets with all their might. Sixty thousand play and the valleys ring. The pagans are unappy at what that means. They know the French coming through the pass will rout them. If R survives, he will chase the to the end.

154-156 His horse is killed right out from under him. In spite of that, he leaps to his feet and stands. He tells R he will fight as long as life is in him. He wants to impress Charlemagne that he spared noone. I’m scratching my head at the reference to St. Giles here (looked it up--nada). Roland is the last man standing -- it’s what I thought would happen. It had to! He fights in spite of grievous pain.

152-154 W is dying and R comes to him in haste, full of grief and anger. The three fight on, because W has enough in him to take down more pagans. This is like the Spartans at Thermopylae, grossly outnumbered and fighting to the death. Walter dies first, but he was dead man walking anyway. The archbishop’s helmet and shield split, His head is wounded and his hauberk and mail are pierced, too. Four spears stick him.

150-152 Roland weeps at the sight of his best friend, lying on the ground face down. He grieves to be alive. Then he swoons while in the saddle a second time. Swooning, is that a figurative death? He revives and three remain: R, the archbishop, and a guy named Walter Hum are left. W is grieved that all his men have been mowed down. He calls on R because his spear is shattered and his shield, split. He’s been pierced.

149-150 O’s eyes are covered in blood; he’s blind. His head wasn’t cut so it’s is from other parts of his body. R tells him how he’s loved him as a brother. O says he can’t see R but recognizes his voice. They bow to one another and part with great love (that of comrades in arms). O feels the pangs of death. O gets off his horse and kneels. He makes his confession, clasps his hands, and prays for rest in Paradise.

147-148 In the mean time, he’s lopping off body parts left and right because he knows it’s a mortal wound and he’s going to do as much damage as possible wether it be limbs or weapons. He shouts, “Mountjoy!” and calls out to Roland that they will part from one another today. R sees that his face is grey. R is grief striken and gives him words of comfort and then swoons in his saddle.

145-146 Why is Oliver’s back turned? Was this while speaking to his men? Also are Roland, Oliver, and Turpin the tripartite soul (body, mind, and hear)? Anyway, O is pierced from back to front. The pagan says that his death alone pays for all their loss. O has enough left in him to kill the pagan who got him! WOW! Then he tells the pagan he will never be able to go back home and brag. O cries out to R for help.