story with a strong crusading spirit. Charlemagne and his peers display most, if not all, of the seven cardinal virtues. Even the proud Roland dies humble and contrite, and Charlemagne’s early indecision is resolved later in the poem when he becomes a courageous leader. The pagans, on the other hand, embody the seven deadly sins. They are treacherous and greedy, and they fight for personal glory or material gain rather than for principle or faith. In this world of black-and-white morality, there are no good pagans, and the treasonous, deceitful Ganelon is severely punished for his perfidy. By contrast, the good Charlemagne is rewarded by the direct intervention of the archangel Gabriel, who deals the pagan Saracens a final defeat by slaying their leader, Baligant, while God makes the sun stand still. Divine intervention even affects the trial of Ganelon. The Christian cause is never questioned, nor is there any doubt about its justice. The forced baptism of the Saracen captives is described without qualm, just as is the battlefield bloodshed. If contradictions appear to later readers, they certainly did not occur to the medieval mind, for religious faith—by no means the least of the cardinal virtues—obliterated any inconsistencies between, for example, the virtue of temperance and the slaughter of pagans.

The heroic theme in The Song of Roland is closely linked to the religious, since most heroic deeds are performed in the name of religious principle. The hero’s role, however, requires dedication to ideals that have only peripheral, if any, relationship to religious precepts. Loyalty and bravery are held in high esteem, but they are such basic heroic ideals that they are more implicit than explicit in the poem. Decision of major issues, or even of major battles by single combat, is another heroic ideal that often manifests itself in the poem. In addition, the motifs of victory and defeat, treason and vengeance, weigh heavily in the balance of heroic ideals. Still another factor, which later readers might call team spirit, is the knightly obligation to subsume individual or personal honor and glory in furtherance of a cause. Thus Roland’s early pride, especially his insistence on the use of force to subdue the Saracens and his subsequent refusal to blow his horn to summon Charlemagne’s aid until all are dead or dying, is eventually brought low. Finally, Roland regrets his stubborn pride in a vivid demonstration of the need for that heroic ideal, teamwork. Not all is a self-evident exercise in primitive democracy. Charlemagne’s word is still law, although the most powerful peers insist on having a voice in decision making; nor is there much attention paid to morality (as distinct from ethics) or to social courtesies. In fact, a pristine system of social and political justice characterizes Charlemagne’s court as an essential ingredient in the heroic ideal, quite apart from religious considerations altogether. Thus the unique features of the heroic ideal are distinguishable from religious precepts.

The Song of Roland is a remarkable panorama of medieval life and thought, imaginatively perceived. To those who would say that it is false history, one can answer only with the cliché that fiction is often truer than history, for that is certainly the case in The Song of Roland. The poem affords so vivid a picture of medieval reality that its historical accuracy is irrelevant; it presents psychological, emotional, and sociological realities that transcend factual data to reach a new plateau of reality, one reflecting the spirit of the times rather than the substance. In this sense, the Song of Roland is, despite its ethical simplicities and its literary primitiveness, remarkably successful as a document of the medieval spirit, a characteristic that may explain its enduring popularity.