1. 144. This is another deviation from tradition,
as we have it in the Carolingian cycle. Roland
never married Aude. He was still betrothed to
her when he fell at Roncesvalles.
The poem on part of which this is based is an anonymous
Chanson written in the thirteenth century and
belonging to the cycle known as the cycle of Guillaume.
The story is as follows. Charlemagne is returning
from Spain, after the defeat at Roncesvalles, his
army discouraged, his knights exhausted, and wishing
only to be at home and in comfort. Suddenly he
catches sight of a city, surrounded by a crenelated
wall, splendid within, with a palace the roofs of
which shine in the sun, its feet bathed in the sea,
which is covered by the ships of its commerce.
Charlemagne wishes to attack it, but the duke of Bavaria
advises him to let it alone; it is garrisoned by thousands
of pagans and his men are exhausted. The Emperor
addresses several of his barons in turn, offering
to each the city if he will take it. One and
all refuse: Charlemagne upbraids them for their
cowardice, bids them go home, and declares he will
take the town by himself. Then Hernaut de Beaulande
brings forward his son Aimeri, who volunteers to undertake
the task. With the aid of one hundred barons
he captures the city and is made Count of Narbonne.
Hugo has selected the first and the best part of the
Chanson for modernization. Leon Gautier
(Les Epopees francaises) says: ’Rien
n’egale en majeste le debut de ce poeme, dont
le denoument est presque trivial... Rien de plus
ennuyeux que le recit de tant de combats contre les
Sarrasins; rien de plus attachant que le tableau de
ce grand desespoir de Charlemagne a la vue de Narbonne,
dont aucun de ses Barons ne veut entreprendre la conquete.
Il n’y a peut-etre dans aucune poesie aucun
episode comparable a ce discours de l’Empereur,
lorsqu’il crie a tous ses chevaliers: “Rales
vos en, Bourguignon et Francois...je remenrai ici,
a Narbonois.” C’est ce qu’a
bien compris Victor Hugo, qui a si fidelement traduit
et surpasse encore les beautes du texte original.’
Hugo’s poem, however, is not based directly
on the Chanson, but on two prose adaptations
written by Achille Jubinal, and published respectively
in the Musee des Familles (1843) and the Journal
du Dimanche (1846). Yet these stories did
little more than furnish the framework for the poem,
by far the greater part of which is the original work
of Hugo.
a la barbe fleurie, white-bearded. Expression
taken from the Chanson. In mediaeval poetry
Charlemagne is always described as an old man.
Roncevaux, which we call by the Spanish name
Roncesvalles, is the valley in the Pyrenees where
Charlemagne’s rearguard was attacked and cut
to pieces by the Moors during his retreat from Spain.
Ganelon, the knight through whose treachery
the defeat of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles was brought
about.
