The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages

Mirabile Paul

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages

Mirabile Paul

Received: 7 March 2019 Accepted: 12 April 2019 Published: 26 June 2019

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Abstract

The author examines the centripetal compositional forces and the itinerant centrifugal forces that produced the Chanson de Roland and diffused the Chansons de Roland since its remote Nordico-Germanic and Gallo-Roman origins to their wide-scale geographic settlings in western mediaeval Europe. To demonstrate this dual force, the author traces the Figure of a sand-glass which visualizes the first migrating compositional flow from the wide plains of Scandinavia, through sedentarized Gaul and on to the battlefield of Roncevaux Pass, and the second propagating flow from the oldest extant Oxford version to the eight variants which, although scattered over different countries, are very much inter-related since they all drew inspiration from Roland's heroic death at the eventful battle of Roncevaux. The nine versions of the Chanson de Roland founded the mediaeval western European poetic koinê.

DOI	10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19
Published in	International Journal of European Studies (Volume 3, Issue 1, June 2019)
Page(s)	52-66
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sand-glass, Centripetal Compositional Forces, Centrifugal Itinerant Forces, Poetic Koinê, Orature

References

[1]	Saint Thomas of Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Benziger Bros. Edition, 1947. Saint Thomas of Aquinas believed that the elements of the 'mixture' needed to be emptied of their properties before being integrated into a whole (unio), whereas, Duns Scotus refuted this belief and postulated that however assimilated, the elements in question had to retain their original properties in order for the demonstration to be analysed and repeated. I am in full agreement with Duns Scotus.
[2]	Or, 3,997 according to other versions. See J. J. Duggan, La Chanson de Roland/The Song of Roland: The French Corpus, Brepols, 2005. Joseph Duggan, Formulaic Style and Poetic Craft, California, University Press, 1973. See also, Jean Rychner, La Chanson de Roland, Genève, Droz, 1955.
[3]	Gérard Moignet, La Chanson de Roland, Paris, Bordas, 1969. For this text, and for my article in general, I refer to Gérard Moignet's excellent translation and study on La Chanson de Roland.
[4]	Andrew Taylor, Textual Situations, U. S. A., University of Penn State, 2001, and Ian Short, Manual of Anglo-Normand, Oxford, Anglo-Normand Text Society, 2013.
[5]	M. K. Pope, From Latin to Modern French, Manchester, Manchester Press, 1952 pp. 120-135.
[6]	W. W. Skeats, Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Oxford, 1983, page 430.
[7]	José Maria de Miguel Lacarra, 'A propos de la route de Roncevaux et du Lieu de la bataille in Annales de Midi: Revue de la France Méridionale, Vol. 78, N° 77-78, 1966. Translation Pierre Bonnassie.
[8]	R. Abdal, R. M. Pidal, J. Favier, A. de Riquer, 'Carolmago en Roncevalles: un error militar viario', El Miliario, N°1, 2005. They believe that: “Hoy se admite generalmente que en Roncevalles, los atacantes fueron gentes vasco-navarras, ayudadas seguramente por musulmanes zaragonzanos y pamploneses.” “Today it is generally acknowledged that the ambushers at Roncevaux were Basques from Navarra, surely helped by Muslims from Aragon and Pamplona.” (My translation).
[9]	Alonso Dámaso, La Primitiva épica francesa a la luz de une 'Nota Emilianense' in Revista de Filología Española, XXXVII, 1953, pp. 1-94.
[10]	Joseph Bédier, Les légendes épiques, Paris, H. Champion, 1967. (Three volumes). The Song of Roland is discussed in volume three.
[11]	Ramon Menéndez Pidal, En Torno al Poema de Cid, Barcelona, 1970.
[12]	Ramon Menéndez Pidal, Cantar de Mio Cid Vol III, Madrid, Espasar Calpe, 1945.
[13]	Cantar de Mio Cid, verse 2307. Modern Version.
[14]	Carlos Alvar, Roldán en Zaragoza: poema épico provenzal, Zaragoza, Disputación, 1978, page 13.
[15]	Ramon Menéndez Pidal, 'Roncevalles, un nuevo cantar de gesta española del siglo XIII in Revista de Filología Española, IV, 1917, pp. 105-204.
[16]	Jordanas, De Origine Actibusque Getarum (The Origins and Deed of the Goths), 551-552. Jordanas was an Ostrogoth chronicler of the sixth century.
[17]	Rosamond Mekitterick, Charlemagne, The Formation of a European Unity, Cambridge, 2008. She states that no palace, summer or winter, was more important than another.
[18]	Jacques Stiennon and Rita Lejeune, La Légende de Roland dans l'Art du Moyen Age, volume I and II, Liège, 1967.
[19]	Jean-Marie Pardessus, Lex Salica, chez August Durand Libraire, 1843.
[20]	Jean Flori, 'Sémantique et société médiévale. Le verbe adouber et son évolution au XIIè siècle. Annales: Economie, Sociétés, Civilisation, vol. 31, N° 5, 1976, pp. 915-940. And 'Les origines de l'adoubement chevalresque: étude des remises d'armes dans les chroniques et annales latins du 9ème au 13ème siècle', Traditio, vol. 35, 1979, pp. 209-272.
[21]	Jean Flori, Cabelleros y caballería en la Edad Media, España, Paidos, 2001.
[22]	Paul Mirabile, La Genèse de la Chanson de Roland, France, Voies Itinérantes, 1987.
[23]	Gaston Paris, Revue des Langues romanes, 1860, page 385.
[24]	Margaret Jewette Burland, Strange Words: Retelling and Reception in the Medieval Roland Textual Tradition, USA., University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
[25]	Sharon Kinoshita, Medieval Boundaries: Rethinking Differences in Old French Literature, U.S.A., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
[26]	George Fenwick Jones, The Ethos of the Song of Roland, Baltimore, John Hopkins Press, 1963 for the juridical elements read in the Chanson de Roland.
[27]	Raoul Mortier, Les Chansons de Roland, Paris, De la Geste Francor, 1940.
[28]	Margaret Jewette Burland, Strange Words: Retelling and Reception in the Medieval Roland Textual Tradition, ibid. She discusses the Occitan version of Roncevals as well as Châteauroux and the fifteenth century 'Galien restore' versions. I have studied neither the Occitan nor the 'Galien restore' versions.
[29]	Danielle Buschinger, Le Curé Konrad, adapteur de la 'Chanson de Roland', Cahiers de Civilisation médiévale, Paris, 1983, pp. 95-115. The formula is: '… ir vil leihten ougen vor liede weingten bluot.' 'From her eyes so clear she cried grief-filled bloody tears' (my translation). This mediaeval epic formula is also read in the Turkic epic tale Dede Korkut Kitabı: '… kara suzme gozlerin kas yas dolu.' '… her black,slit eyes filled with bloody tears' (my translation), and in the Chinese epic narrative Ji Bu Ma Zhen, Ji Bu Insulting the Enemy (Camp): (xuè lèi) 'bloody tears'. Iris Murdoch rehabilitated the mediaeval epic formula in her novel The Sandcastle: 'They sat looking down into the stubble. “Tears of Blood,” said Felicity. This was an ancient ritual.' London, Penguin, 1957, page 143.
[30]	Ferdinand Brunetière, Revue des Deux Mondes, Paris 1879, page 143.
[31]	Bernard Cerquiglini, La Naissance du Français, Paris, P. U. F., 2013.
[32]	Gerard J. Brault, Song of Roland: An Analytical Edition: Introduction and Commentary, U. S. A., Penn State Press, 2010.
[33]	Claude Gauvard, Alain de Libera, Michel Zinc, Dictionnaire du Moyen Age, Paris, P.U.F., 2004. This dictionary is an extraordinary work for both general and detailed information concerning mediaeval life.

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Mirabile Paul. (2019). The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. International Journal of European Studies, 3(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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Mirabile Paul. The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. Int. J. Eur. Stud. 2019, 3(1), 52-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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Mirabile Paul. The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. Int J Eur Stud. 2019;3(1):52-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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@article{10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19,
  author = {Mirabile Paul},
  title = {The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages},
  journal = {International Journal of European Studies},
  volume = {3},
  number = {1},
  pages = {52-66},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijes.20190301.19},
  abstract = {The author examines the centripetal compositional forces and the itinerant centrifugal forces that produced the Chanson de Roland and diffused the Chansons de Roland since its remote Nordico-Germanic and Gallo-Roman origins to their wide-scale geographic settlings in western mediaeval Europe. To demonstrate this dual force, the author traces the Figure of a sand-glass which visualizes the first migrating compositional flow from the wide plains of Scandinavia, through sedentarized Gaul and on to the battlefield of Roncevaux Pass, and the second propagating flow from the oldest extant Oxford version to the eight variants which, although scattered over different countries, are very much inter-related since they all drew inspiration from Roland's heroic death at the eventful battle of Roncevaux. The nine versions of the Chanson de Roland founded the mediaeval western European poetic koinê.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages
AU  - Mirabile Paul
Y1  - 2019/06/26
PY  - 2019
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DO  - 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19
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AB  - The author examines the centripetal compositional forces and the itinerant centrifugal forces that produced the Chanson de Roland and diffused the Chansons de Roland since its remote Nordico-Germanic and Gallo-Roman origins to their wide-scale geographic settlings in western mediaeval Europe. To demonstrate this dual force, the author traces the Figure of a sand-glass which visualizes the first migrating compositional flow from the wide plains of Scandinavia, through sedentarized Gaul and on to the battlefield of Roncevaux Pass, and the second propagating flow from the oldest extant Oxford version to the eight variants which, although scattered over different countries, are very much inter-related since they all drew inspiration from Roland's heroic death at the eventful battle of Roncevaux. The nine versions of the Chanson de Roland founded the mediaeval western European poetic koinê.
VL  - 3
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Author Information

Mirabile Paul

Department of Western Languages, Heilongjiang International University, Haerbin, China

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Mirabile Paul. (2019). The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. International Journal of European Studies, 3(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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ACS Style

Mirabile Paul. The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. Int. J. Eur. Stud. 2019, 3(1), 52-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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AMA Style

Mirabile Paul. The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages. Int J Eur Stud. 2019;3(1):52-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19

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@article{10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19,
  author = {Mirabile Paul},
  title = {The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages},
  journal = {International Journal of European Studies},
  volume = {3},
  number = {1},
  pages = {52-66},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijes.20190301.19},
  abstract = {The author examines the centripetal compositional forces and the itinerant centrifugal forces that produced the Chanson de Roland and diffused the Chansons de Roland since its remote Nordico-Germanic and Gallo-Roman origins to their wide-scale geographic settlings in western mediaeval Europe. To demonstrate this dual force, the author traces the Figure of a sand-glass which visualizes the first migrating compositional flow from the wide plains of Scandinavia, through sedentarized Gaul and on to the battlefield of Roncevaux Pass, and the second propagating flow from the oldest extant Oxford version to the eight variants which, although scattered over different countries, are very much inter-related since they all drew inspiration from Roland's heroic death at the eventful battle of Roncevaux. The nine versions of the Chanson de Roland founded the mediaeval western European poetic koinê.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Compositional Making and Geographic Itinerancies of the Chansons de Roland During the Early and Late Middle Ages
AU  - Mirabile Paul
Y1  - 2019/06/26
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19
T2  - International Journal of European Studies
JF  - International Journal of European Studies
JO  - International Journal of European Studies
SP  - 52
EP  - 66
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2578-9562
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijes.20190301.19
AB  - The author examines the centripetal compositional forces and the itinerant centrifugal forces that produced the Chanson de Roland and diffused the Chansons de Roland since its remote Nordico-Germanic and Gallo-Roman origins to their wide-scale geographic settlings in western mediaeval Europe. To demonstrate this dual force, the author traces the Figure of a sand-glass which visualizes the first migrating compositional flow from the wide plains of Scandinavia, through sedentarized Gaul and on to the battlefield of Roncevaux Pass, and the second propagating flow from the oldest extant Oxford version to the eight variants which, although scattered over different countries, are very much inter-related since they all drew inspiration from Roland's heroic death at the eventful battle of Roncevaux. The nine versions of the Chanson de Roland founded the mediaeval western European poetic koinê.
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
ER  -

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