la légende des siecles

Pontius Pilate after the Crucifixion, and had not yet succeeded in dying. The combat
takes place in an island in the Rhone, and la Belle Aude, with mingled feelings, watches
from a window her brother and her lover contending for victory. The struggle is full of
tremendous incident. At the outset each of the champions cuts the horse of the other in
two and the fight is continued on foot. Olivier's sword is broken, and Roland invites him
to send for another and take a little rest and refreshment. A boatman goes to Vienne and
procures from the old Jew a famous sword, called Hauteclere, and some wine. The fight
is renewed and lasts till nightfall, when an angel descends from heaven, and orders the
two heroes to be reconciled and to fight together against the Saracens. The warriors
embrace and Olivier promises Roland the hand of his sister. Such was the beginning of
the friendship of the two mighty champions of Christendom.
Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the story, but on a modern prose
adaptation by Achille Jubinal which appeared in Le Journal du Dimanche in 1846. Léon
Gautier indeed, in Les Épopées françaises, says: `Victor Hugo s'est proposé de traduire
notre vieux poème, dont il avait sans doute quelque texte sous les yeux.' But it is clear
from the mistake about the word Closamont and other details that Gautier was mistaken
and that the source from which Hugo drew was Jubinal's reproduction.
Hugo omitted from his adaptation two incidents of great poetic interest, namely, the
picture of Aude watching the fight, and the miraculous intervention of the angel. He
has, on the other hand, inserted the barbaric incident of the fight with trees. He has
eliminated, that is to say, the tender and the religious elements from the story and made
it simply the narrative of a Homeric combat, with more than a touch of the grotesque.
Nevertheless, he has retained the characteristic incident of the chivalrous behaviour of
Roland in sending for a new sword for his enemy and in giving him time for rest, a trait
which finds a parallel in many other Chansons, notably in the story of the battle of
Roland with Ferragus, a Saracen giant. When Ferragus is worn out with fighting,
Roland watches over him while he sleeps, and on his awakening enters into a
theological discussion with him in the hope of converting him to Christianity. When this
pious desire fails, the combat is renewed.
Saint Michael is described in Rev. xii. 7-9 as fighting against Satan and casting him out
of heaven.
Hugo is mistaken in his description of Olivier, who was not lord of Vienne and a
sovereign count, but only the son of Renier, duke of Genoa. The only statement in these
two lines which is correct is that his grandfather was Garin.
L. 27. As already noted, in the original story it is an aged Jew who arms Olivier for the
fight.
Rollon (English Rollo) was the Norse pirate who invaded France in A.D. 912 and
founded the Duchy of Normandy. The reference to him is of course an anachronism.
estoc (c pronounced), a long narrow sword used for thrusting.
cimier (from Latin cyma, the young sprout of a cabbage), the crest on the helmet.