Charlemagne’s Defeat in the Pyrenees

The Battle of Rencesvals is the one of the most dramatic historical event of the entire eighth century, not only in Vasconia but in Western Europe. This monograph examines the battle as more than a single military encounter, but instead as part of a complex military and political conquest that began after the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and culminated with the creation of the Kingdom of Pamplona in 824. The battle had major (and largely underappreciated) consequences for the internal structure of the Carolingian Empire. It also enjoyed a remarkable legacy as the topic of one of the oldest European epic poems, La Chanson de Roland. The events that took place in the Pyrenean pass of Rencesvals (Errozabal) on 15 August 778 defined the development of the Carolingian world, and lie at the heart of the early medieval contribution to the later medieval period.

Impact of the Battle in the Medieval Tradition

This chapter focuses on the magnitude of a historic episode that became a key literary and artistic topic of early medieval European art. It analyzes the characterization of the Frankish heroes as depicted in the epic poem La Chanson de Roland and in the Historia Caroli Magni et Rotholandi, and the interpretation of the battle by the master glassmaker who manufactured the exceptional stained-glass window of the Chartres cathedral, four centuries later. Chartres has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which identifies the glass as ‘the high point of French Gothic art’. It is fascinating to study how real characters became legendary heroes and how real, historic events became legends; especially interesting is the analysis of the intentions behind this conversion from reality into fantasy.

Le temps signifiant et le Moyen Âge français

An analysis of “weather events” and their meaning in works of French medieval literature – La Chanson de Roland, Le Chevalier au lion, Le Roman de la rose, Le Livre du Cuer d’amours espris and Le Debat d’entre le gris et le noir – finds different forms of interaction between the outside world and human beings. Whether a connection between man and nature is mediated by God, set by the human arrangement of or incursion into a natural setting, or left so loose as to suggest nature’s indifference to human witness, weather contributes to the picture.

The first records of Prince Vladimir in sources

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.

At Roncevaux without Roland: Giovanni Codagnello’s Gesta Carli Francorum regis (1219–1222)

Giovanni Codagnello, a notary from Piacenza (c.1154–c.1234), wrote in his Liber rerum gestarum (1219–1222) a very personal re-elaboration of the defeat at Roncevaux, which he entitled Gesta Carli Francorum regis. Codagnello’s account is one of the oldest witnesses to the circulation in Italy of the legend of Roncevaux, but it has so far escaped the notice of scholars who have studied the Roland tradition in Italy. This article examines which version of the legend Codagnello knew. According to the author, he was familiar with a rhymed redaction of the Chanson de Roland. If this is the case, then it means that an exemplar of the Roland rimé was already circulating in northern Italy at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Micro-introducción a Homero

¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de Homero? Es difícil concebirlo como un hombre, como un individuo histórico, y los antiguos griegos conocían sobre él tan poco como nosotros. Incluso si examinamos sus poemas, no podemos captar ningún rasgo de la personalidad de un autor. Pero su lenguaje y su estilo nos dicen lo suficiente como para comprender que lo que hemos estado buscando en un solo poeta debe encontrarse en una tradición. La Ilíada y la Odisea deben entenderse como documentos de poesía oral tradicional y no de literatura: al menos en el sentido de que no estaban destinados a ser leídos. Aunque desde siglos se consideren los arquetipos de todas las literaturas occidentales, su lugar está entre la concurrida compañía de los cantores anónimos que nos legaron obras maestras como Beowulf, Mahabharata, Chanson de Roland. What do we talk about when we talk about Homer? It is difficult to conceive him as a man, a historical individuum, and the ancient Greeks knew about him as little as we do. Even if we question his poems, we cannot grasp any trait of an author's personality. But his language and his style tell us enough to understand that what we were searching in a single poet must be found in a tradition. The Iliad and the Odyssey must be understood as documents of oral-traditional poetry and not of literature: at least in the sense that they were not meant to be read. Although they have been considered for centuries the archetypes of all western literatures, their place is among the crowded company of the anonymous singers who gave us masterpieces like Beowulf, Mahabharata, Chanson de Roland.