The First Stanza of The Song Of Roland

A detailed Summary of The First Stanza of The Song Of Roland

Charlemagne, the king of France, has waged war in Spain against the Saracens for seven years. He has conquered the entire Spain and there isn't any city left to invade but only Saragossa, which is located upon a mountain. It is the city of pagan King Marsile. He has no love for God for he is a follower of Muhammad and besides, he prays to Apollo. No matter what he does, he will be unable to prevent his ruin.

There is no place where we are told about these seven years except for the first stanza, for the rest of the poem tells about specifically the seventh year of Charlemagne's war in Spain. This stanza is definitely a brief summary of background of the whole poem, and the poet gives the course of the story immediately at the beginning. So with this opening, audiences have the basic idea of the story, which will be developed in the rest of the poem that is built upon the same basic idea.

The first line of this stanza begins with the name, Charles, who is the king of Franks and it is entirely reserved for Charlemagne and his attributes. The first attribute referring to Charles is "the king" which could be simply taken as his title. But, just after that, the poet assigns another attribute, "our great emperor", to Charles. Although

On the last lines of the first stanza, the tone of the poem gets dramatic. The poet identifies Marsile and Saracens as the ones who do "not love God" and tells us of the inevitability of their defeat against Christians. Saracens really haven't got a chance, for they are not Christian. Therefore the poet sees being Christian far more superior to any goodness or any other high characteristics. Consequently the fact that Saracens deserves the death is explicitly emphasized here once more. But with their God's will, Christians will eventually win, although they must struggle. And in the first stanza we are able to understand that what is told in the rest of the story is more than an ordinary fight or war. There is a sense of dignity in

this second one seems to be very same as the first one at first glance, it means more than a title. At this point we have come to realize that the poet is also a Frank. Furthermore, here the tone is extremely emotional, for the poet expresses Franks' engagement and admiration to their king by these words. And this is developed in the rest of the poem as the concept of a good vassal.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 890
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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