ENGL 217
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Song of Roland and Marie de France

The Song of Roland and Marie de France are our first medieval works.  We've now left behind Rome, and we're beginning to look at another new culture -- the Christian Middle Ages.

We've been looking at what the ancient Greeks and Romans valued.  It's time now to ask what medieval culture valued.  In the Song of Roland, for example, we have the story of a great king (Charlemagne), a great hero (Roland), and a couple great villains (Marsilion and Ganelon).  So, from this story, what can we say about the values of medieval French culture?

Focus particularly on three episodes.  First, look carefully at how Charlemagne makes the decision to leave Roland in charge of the rearguard and the way in which Roland responds to the job.  Second, focus on Roland's decision not to sound his horn (despite Oliver's prompting him to do so).  Third, focus on Roland's decision finally to sound his horn and Charlemagne's response.

Then, turn to Marie de France, who gives us a somewhat different perspective on the world.  She writes a whole series of stories, or Breton lais, instead of a single heroic narrative.  So, instead of presenting one hero (an Odysseus, Aeneas, or Roland), Marie presents various situations and interactions between men and women.  This kind of story became one of the most popular in all the Middle Ages, and stories like Marie's came to be called romances.

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. Why does Roland agree to command the rearguard?  Why does Charlemagne react the way he does to Ganelon's suggestion that Roland command it?  Why is Roland furious with Ganelon for suggesting him as commander of the rearguard?  Why does Roland refuse the troops offered by Charlemagne?  What do all these actions and reactions tell us about what is important to Roland and Charlemagne?
2. Why does Oliver want Roland to sound his horn?  Why does Roland refuse?  Is he right to refuse?  If so, why does he decide later to sound the horn?  Is he right to do so?
3. What are we supposed to think of Roland?  Is he a tragic hero, to be admired for his courage and his great sacrifice?  Is he a foolhardy show-off, to be criticized for his refusal to admit his need for help?  What is the writer of the poem trying to tell us about what is valuable and good?  What does his culture seem to value in its heroes?  Are medieval values different from the values of ancient Greece and Rome?
4. What do we learn about medieval culture from the fact that a woman, called Marie de France, could become a writer and compose a whole collection of Breton lais at roughly the same time as an anonymous man wrote the Song of Roland?  What do we learn about Marie's values from her story of Lanval?  Do her values seem to differ from those in the Song of Roland?  What code does Lanval live by?  How does he relate to and treat women?  What makes him the hero of the story?  How is he like and unlike Roland?