la légende des siecles

veut entreprendre la conquête. Il n'y a peut-être dans aucune poésie aucun épisode
comparable à ce discours de l'Empereur, lorsqu'il crie à tous ses chevaliers: "Ralés vos
en, Bourguignon et François...je remenrai ici, à Narbonois." C'est ce qu'a bien compris
Victor Hugo, qui a si fidèlement traduit et surpassé encore les beautés du texte original.'
Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the Chanson, but on two prose
adaptations written by Achille Jubinal, and published respectively in the Musée des
Familles (1843) and the Journal du Dimanche (1846). Yet these stories did little more
than furnish the framework for the poem, by far the greater part of which is the original
work of Hugo.
à la barbe fleurie, white-bearded. Expression taken from the Chanson. In mediaeval
poetry Charlemagne is always described as an old man.
Roncevaux, which we call by the Spanish name Roncesvalles, is the valley in the
Pyrenees where Charlemagne's rearguard was attacked and cut to pieces by the Moors
during his retreat from Spain.
Ganelon, the knight through whose treachery the defeat of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles
was brought about.
les douze pairs. The twelve Paladins of tradition, who formed Charlemagne's Round
Table.
L. 6-10. These words are taken almost verbatim from Jubinal's adaptation of the story in
the Musée des Familles. Jubinal's words are:
'L'etcheco-sauna (le laboureur des montagnes) est rentré chez lui avec son chien; il a
embrassé sa femme et ses enfants. Il a nettoyé ses flèches ainsi que sa corne de boeuf, et
les ossements des héros qui ne sont plus blanchissent déjà pour l'éternité.'
In a note Jubinal says: 'Ces paroles sont empruntées au chant basque d'Altabicar.'
Son cheval syrien. In the Chanson Charlemagne rides on a mulet de Sulie (Syrie).
Jubinal changed the mule into a horse. This is one of the points of detail which show
that Hugo followed the modern author.
L. 25. The city, as we learn subsequently, was Narbonne. Narbonne is on the west coast
of the Gulf of Lyons, near the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Originally a Roman colony,
it was one of the chief seats of the Visigoths, from whom it was taken by the Saracens,
when they overran Southern France. Charlemagne took it from the latter in 759. Till the
fourteenth century it was a port, but the sand has blocked up the harbour and the town is
now some distance from the sea.
mâchicoulis, battlements; or, more exactly, a gallery round the tower with openings in it
from which projectiles could be hurled upon an enemy below.
vermeil. The word is one of Hugo's favourite adjectives, and is used to suggest a bright
vivid red, and almost invariably in connexion with objects that have pleasurable
associations.