Prejudice as Revealed in "The Song of Roland"

Prejudice as Revealed in The Song of Roland

Unfortuantely, the role of ignorance and jealousy combining to breed fear and hatred is a recurring theme in history ultimately exhibiting itself in the form of prejudice. As demonstrated through the altering of historical events in The Song of Roland, the conflict between the Christian and Islamic religions takes precedence over the more narrow scope of any specific battle and is shaped, at least in part by the blind perception of a prejudice born of the ignorance and envy Christian Europe had for representatives of the non-Christian world. To fully see this prejudice and its effect on the participants, it is necessary to recognize the circumstances of the "real" battle along with the altering characters and settings attributed to its later writing, understand the character and beliefs of the participants, and carefully examine the text itself to see how prejudice comes into play.

The historical battle described in The Song of Roland, took place on 15 August 778 and involved the ambush and slaughter of Charlemagne's rearguard by Basques (Burgess 9). Victims of treachery, those killed included Roland of Breton (Burgess 10). This battle was a part of the fighting to create the Spanish March which served as a buffer zone between Spain and the Franks of Charlemagne (Koeller). While this particular ambush was relatively insignificant, the incident was transformed into a rallying cry for the Christian armies of Europe when taken and reworked by a later poet.

External evidence indicates the epic poem was written no earlier than 1060 and no later than the second half of the twelfth century with the generally accepted time begin 1098-1100 which coincides with the time of the First Crusade (Burgess8). "The society which the poet took as his model was that of his own day" (Southern 230). Evidence that Roland was written much later than the time of the events recounted lies in the presence of people who were not born until long after the historical event (Southern 230), the shifting of Roland from being a Breton to being a Frankish knight (Burgess 10), the inclusion of conquests attributed to Charlemagne for places he had never been (Roland 270-3), and the shifting of the antagonists from the Basques to the Muslims since this struggle with Islam can be given a later date (Burgess 8). Until the time of the crusades, Christians and Muslims had interacted at least on a surface level through trade activities. Christian Europe had been exposed to the wealth and knowledge of the Arabic world; however, with the movement to the crusades the attitude towards the Muslims shifted to one of religious intolerance. Recognizing that Roland deals with issues that are germane to the Europe of the crusades helps to establish the connection between the religious intolerance that had begun to surface in Europe and the events of the poem.

Before examining the text for details, the two major forces need to be examined more closely. In the events recounted in The Song of Roland, the protagonists are the Latin Christians who follow the teachings of the Pope in Rome. Up until the time of Charlemagne the peoples of Western Europe fall into a category described by historians as barbarians (Koeller). They were illiterate, loosely structured warrior bands built around the semi-nomadic lifestyle reminiscent of the Neolithic agrarian village. They had no large urban centers, no cultural life, and little in the way of material possessions. These Christians of Charlemagne's day mingled with the Christians of the 11th to 12th centuries when Roland was written were firmly entrenched in the hierarchy of feudal society. Well grounded in the "externals of feudal custom," they quarrel over "the fine points of social obligation and feudal etiquette" because these were what they deemed to be most important (Southern 230-231). Along with these feudal codes, "the church . . . interjected a religious element . . . [where] it sought to use the fighting spirit of the feudal class for Christian ends." (Perry 202).

In contrast to the Christians are the antagonists, the Muslims, who are pagans in the eyes of the Christians. To understand the propaganda effects of The Song of Roland, the Islamic beliefs and people must first be examined historically. Islam arose from the teachings of Mohammed around the year 600. There are five pillars of belief central to Islam and its adherents. These pillars include the Shahada, the profession of faith wherein each believer affirms "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet"; the Salat, offering of five daily prayers; Sawm, the sunrise to sunset fast during Ramadan; Zakat, the giving of 1/10 of your income to support the poor; and Hajj which was a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a believer's lifetime if at all possible (Koeller). A simple religion, it quickly attracted a large following in the Arabic world. Belevers were extremely devout in their adherence to the five basic tenets of their faith. Because of their interaction in the trade routes and subsequent conquering of much of the former Roman Empire, the Muslim people became a wealthy people as a whole. They also became academic leaders preserving the heritage of the Greco-Roman world in Arabic translation and taking this knowledge even further through their own scholarly pursuits (Koeller). These were the historical Moslems that are difficult to recognize in The Song of Roland.

The Christians in The Song of Roland show the ignorance that is the foundation of prejudice in the way they talk of the Muslims whom they are fighting. One of the prime areas of discrepancy is in the constant references to the pagan trinity -- Apollo, Muhammad, and Tervagen (Roland 3490-3491 et al). The first pillar of belief for the Muslims states that there is no God but Allah. Muhammad was a prophet, nothing more. There is no place for this so-called trinity in the Islamic beliefs. References are made to statuary used in idolatrous worship (Roland 3268, 3492-3493 et al) and yet, when preserving the Greco-Roman culture, the one area the Muslims refused to bring in was in the arts -- they would allow no pictures or statues -- because they took very seriously the biblical command about not making graven images (Koeller). Because the Christians viewed the "unknown Moslem world [as] a wonder-world of fantasy and evil" (Southern 231), their envy of the wealth and scholarly skill combined with this sense of group evil combined to cause them to fail to recognize the similar outlooks that their two religions had in numerous areas.

The Christians in The Song of Roland perceive the Muslims to be evil villains, incapable of any act of good. Although Ganelon is the overall lowest form of man in the poem, this is because as a Christian he allowed himself to fall under the temptation of the devil via the Muslims. By playing on Ganelon's hatred of Roland and his greed, the Muslims are able to entice Ganelon to become a traitor (Roland 515-517, 627-641, 648-653). Thus, even in Ganelon, the lowness of the Muslims is present. When confronted with the emir, it is almost humorous that the Christians are still unable to address their misconceptions about the people they are fighting. All they can say is "if only he were a Christian!" (Roland 3164). These Christian knights were quite capable of admiring and envying the physical and material superiority exhibited by the emir and others of their adversaries, yet they could never accept a Moslem knight as good without his becoming a Christian since to their minds Christianity was the foremost characteristic to be sought in life. They could envy his appearance, but they could not accept any implications of goodness or superiority because of their prejudice. The Christians identify the Muslims as ones who do "not love God" (Roland 7). After that identification, the Muslims can never fully measure up to the Christian ideal as presented by the knights of Roland which build upon the role of their Christian faith as their point of motivation and justification. Simply stated "the pagans are wrong and the Christians are right" (Roland 1015). How sad that even when faced with men who conveyed both physical and intellectual superiority, they could not see it for the blindness that comes from prejudice.

The Christians also spend a great deal of time talking about the wealth of their opponents. The Christian knights are constantly aware of the material superiority of the Muslims as reflected in the ostentatiousness of their camp and armor (Roland 1003). There is also an inability to accept this obvious contrast while knowing themselves to be superior as Christians. Their feelings of superiority furnish them with the justification to pursue the conquering of the Muslims on holy grounds. However, in a time when the primary means of gaining riches was by conquering and claiming a share of the booty (Koeller), it seems appropriate that the great wealth to be won should be a point of focus for the Crusading Christians who under the guise of spreading Christ were actually seeking personal wealth and glory.

The late date of its writing in comparison to the actual events being recounted suggests that Roland was written at least partly to serve as a rallying cry for the Christian forces pursuing their holy war against the Muslims in the First Crusade. Written to justify the battle with Islam, The Song of Roland unintentionally provides an excellent example of the type of propaganda used to feed prejudice. It plays upon the differences in people and exaggerates these by offering ridiculous explanations for them. Just as the Christians fought the Muslims fueled by this prejudice and greed, the historical pattern has been shown to recur frequently throughout history -- whether the slave issue of the nineteenth century United States or the Nazi treatment of Jews in the twentieth century -- man takes the unknown and distorts it into hatred rather than seeking enlightenment. This is the true tragedy of The Song of Roland and man's unwillingness to learn from history.

Works Cited

Burgess, Glyn trans. The Song of Roland. NY: Penguin Books, 1990.

Koeller, David. Lectures on Western Civilization to 1500. Phillips University. Enid, Fall 1992.

Perry, Marvin, et al. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics and Society. 4th ed. Vol. I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.

Southern, R.W. The Making of the Middle Ages. London: The Cresset Library, 1967.