THE SONG OF ROLAND [2 Bd.e]. An Analytical Edition -- Vol. I: Introduction and Commentary / Vol. II: Oxford Text and English Translation.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - sehr guter Zustand / very good condition - Introduction -- The Historical Event -- The Song of Roland is an epic poem that recounts the events surrounding the death of Charlemagne�s nephew Roland at Roncevaux in the Pyrenees. The Emperor and his men were journeying home after a military campaign in Spain. The disaster actually took place in the year 778, some three centuries before the poem is generally dated. -- In 732, twenty-one years after landing on the Spanish Peninsula, the Saracens were decisively stopped at Poitiers by Charles Martel (688?-741), Charlemagne�s grandfather. Throughout this Muslim advance, however, Christians in the Asturias, the northwestern corner of Spain, had succeeded in resisting the general onslaught. By the ninth century the Christians had broadened their dominions to encompass a number of adjacent provinces, including Galicia and most of Le�o the south and east. -- Christian reconquest of the northern tier of Spain was greatly facilitated by internal dissention among the Arabs. At the invitation of Suleiman, the Arab governor of Barcelona�and recognizing an : pportunity to establish a buffer against the Saracen threat from south : from the Pyrenees, and to make converts to Christianity�Charlemagne amassed an army and entered Spain in two main columns in 778. Alerted to a Saxon uprising to the north and forced to lift the siege of Saragossa, Charlemagne took a number of hostages including Suleiman himself, whom he suspected of treachery, and fell back on Pamplona, destroying it and forcing its inhabitants, including many Christians, to flee. As the Franks were making their way back across the Pyrenees, Gascons ambushed the rearguard, killing all its defenders. Loaded down -- with booty, they escaped into the night. Charlemagne was unable for the moment to avenge this stunning defeat, but he returned several -- years later and established a zone of Frankish influence in the northern tier of the peninsula known as the Spanish March.