Introduction

Charlemagne has fought in Spain for seven years, and only the city of Saragossa still holds out. The Saracen king offers a false peace, and Charlemagne sends Roland's stepfather Ganelon to negotiate; Ganelon, who hates Roland, plots with the enemy. As the army returns home, Roland, commanding the rearguard, is ambushed by a hundred thousand foes at the pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees. His friend Oliver urges him to sound his horn and call the army back, but Roland in his pride refuses, until almost all around him have fallen; then he blows the horn so mightily that his temples burst. This epic of four thousand lines, based on a real battle of 778, is the oldest classic of French literature.