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THE HARVARD CLASSICS

EDITED BY CHARLES W. ELIOT LLD.



EPIC AND SAGA


THE SONG OF ROLAND

THE DESTRUCTION OF DA DERGA'S HOSTEL


WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES

VOLUME 49

1910




THE SONG OF ROLAND


TRANSLATED BY

JOHN O'HAGAN




_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_


_In the year 778 A.D., Charles the Great, King of the Franks, returned
from a military expedition into Spain, whither he had been led by
opportunities offered through dissensions among the Saracens who then
dominated that country. On the 15th of August, while his army was
marching through the passes of the Pyrenees, his rear-guard was attacked
and annihilated by the Basque inhabitants of the mountains, in the
valley of Roncesvaux About this disaster many popular songs, it is
supposed, soon sprang up; and the chief hero whom they celebrated was
Hrodland, Count of the Marches of Brittany.

There are indications that the earliest of these