The Song of Roland: Translations of the Versions in Assonance and Rhyme of the 'Chanson de Roland'

C. K. Scott Moncrieff, famous as the translator of Proust, began his translating career in 1918 with La Chanson de Roland. Knowing nothing of Old French, he encountered this classic text while recovering from a war wound; the work of translation was a ‘solace’ in time of war, but also a homage to his friend Wilfred Owen and others who had ‘met their Rencesvals’ as the war drew to a close. Scott Moncrieff was no jingoist, but against the cynicism of Siegfried Sassoon's war poetry, he used the Old French epic to celebrate the positive values embodied in the idea of vassalage. Like his Proust, his Song of Roland sought to bring another world to life in English-speaking culture, in all its specific difference. Here this led him to adopt an archaizing and purportedly oral style, notably in the imitation of the assonanced laisses of the original.

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THE COMPARATIVE APPROACH - THE ANNALS OF THE PRIEST OF DIOCLEA AND THE SONG OF ROLAND (L’approche comparative - Les Annales du prêtre de Dioclée et La Chanson de Roland)

Folia linguistica et litteraria ◽

10.31902/fll.28.2019.4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol X (28) ◽

pp. 65-72

Author(s):

Spomenka Delibašić

Keyword(s):

Comparative Research ◽

Research Method ◽

Eleventh Century ◽

Point Of View ◽

Literary Texts ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Cultural Interaction ◽

Cultural Traditions ◽

Chanson De Roland ◽

Song Of Roland

In this article, we propose to study the two texts - The Annals of the Priest of Dioclea, the oldest South Slavic text of great historical value, and The Song of Roland, a song of gesture, usually dated from the last third of the eleventh century, trying to treat them from a comparative and intercultural point of view. The use of the comparative research method will take into account the differences between cultural traditions and other issues relating to different linguistic and social domains. This work invites the construction of lines of inquiry that allow us to establish “links of analogy, kinship and influence, to bring literature closer to other areas of expression or knowledge, or the facts and literary texts between them “(Pichois and Rousseau 174), to analyze relations between two works in order to grasp the whole dimension of historical and cultural interaction. Keywords: The Annals of the Priest of Dioclea, The Song of Roland, Hagiography, Legend, The Southern Slavs, Comparative Approach

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The first records of Prince Vladimir in sources

Зборник радова Филозофског факултета у Приштини ◽

10.5937/zrffp51-33902 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 93-106

Author(s):

Đorđe Đekić

Keyword(s):

Historical Sources ◽

Chanson De Roland ◽

The Balkans ◽

Song Of Roland ◽

Byzantine History

The paper attempts to answer the question of the first records of Prince Vladimir in historical sources. Up to now it has been considered that he was first mentioned in the work "A Synopsis of Byzantine History" by John Skylitzes. However, Henri Grégoire and Raoul De Keyser indicate that the prince was mentioned in "The Song of Roland" ("La Chanson de Roland") as rei flurit, i.e., as the Blessed King. This epic originates from the spring of 1085 in Salerno, which was under the Norman rule at the time. This author agrees and supports the thesis by identifying a great number of concepts which refer to the Balkans (geographically, ethnically). It is believed that the Normans obtained information about the Balkans and Prince Vladimir while they held Dyrrhachium from 1081 to 1085.

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