The Song of Roland
On Absolutes and Relative Values

An introduction to this most famous of Old French texts, explaining its perennial appeal. The book brings to the fore the ethical and religious dimensions of the text, underlining the continuity of a Christian tradition. With clear presentation and fully translated quotations from Old French.

This study focuses on the ethical and religious dimensions of the twelfth-century Old French epic, the Song of Roland. Also this book brings to the fore the ethical and religious dimensions of the text, underlining the continuity of a Christian tradition, which guarantees the intelligibility of a story, told in the remote age of medieval feudality.

The ethical framework. Ethics in practice: heroes, traitor
enemy
good versus evil. The tragedy of waste: inevitability
tragic structure of the text
Christian tragedy?
tragic scale. The justice of God: Ganelon
the Saracens
ultimate victory. Love: friendship
feudal bond and political relatonships
God
family
Roland and Aude.