Rohlfs
MRS. See GREEN, ANNA KATHERINE.
ROLAND (Italian, Orlando; Spanish, Roldan), the name of the most prominent hero in the Charlemagne legend. Unlike most legendary heroes, Roland is a figure in history as well as in poetry and fable.
All that we know of him is contained in one line of Eginhard's "Vita Karoli," chap. ix., and that simply records his name, Hruodlandus, his rank of prefect or warden of the march of Brittany, and his death at the hands of the Gascons in a valley of the Pyrenees.
The oldest form in which we have the "Chanson de Roland" is that of the MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, written presumably toward the end of the 12th century; but this is evidently by no means its oldest form as a consecutive poeт.
Besides the Oxford MS. there are half a dozen others ranging from the 13th to the 16th century. The differences between the earlier and later are significant. In the Oxford MS., which is one of the little pocket copies opies carried by the jongleurs, the assonant rhyme (that which disregards the consonants and depends on the accented vowel) is maintained throughout, the same assonance being kept up to the end of each break or paragraph. In the later MSS. the assonant is turned into the full consonant rhyme, and the poem expanded to twice or thrice its former length. The first shape is the poem as sung; the second as adapted for readers when the minstrel was no longer the sole vehicle, for poetry and reading was becoming a common accomplishment.
A very close German version, the "Ruo- ROLAND landes Liet," shows that early in the 12th century the chanson had passed out of its native country and language; and it is almost as closely followed in the Icelandic "Karlamagnus Saga" of the 13th. The "Chanson de Roland" is the foundation of the Charlemagne legend. Charles's wars and quarrels with his vassals would no doubt of themselves have furnished themes for the jongleurs, but the legend, culminating in the Morgante of Pulci and the Orlandos of Boiardo and Ariosto, is the outcome of the story of Roland and Roncesvalles.