The defeat of the Christian forces at Roncesvalles and the death in battle of Roland became the subject of the most famous epic of the Middle Ages. The Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) first appeared in the eleventh century, and its four thousand verses represent the essence of the tradition of the medieval romantic poems called the chansons de geste.
The poem tells how Roland refused to sound his oliphant, or horn, to tell Charlemagne of the attack against the rear guard of the Franks, for fear that in coming to their assistance, the emperor might endanger his own life. Instead, the knight fought on with greater valor, killing many of the enemy before he was overpowered.
In keeping with its heroic theme, the poem elevates what was actually little more than a skirmish into a major battle, and it does not hesitate to modify history. Thus the slaughter is attributed to the Arab horde, and not to an isolated Basque tribe. Charlemagne, though only thirty-five at the time of the real battle, is two hundred years old in the poem. Many of the heroes whose deeds are praised seem never to have existed, for in Einhard’s biography of Charlemagne, only Roland and a handful of the king’s knights are mentioned.
Thus the events belong more to fable than history, but the chivalric ideal embodied in the poem had real roots in Carolingian culture. Roland became the quintessential Christian knight, whose steadfast loyalty to his king, combined with his faith in Christ, represented the ultimate fealty of a Christian subject to his sovreign and his God.
The legend conquered Europe, and in the course of the Middle Ages found expression in all the major languages of the continent. Many versions appeared, and it was not long before regular pilgrimages were made to the sarcophagus said to contain the remains of the martyred knight who had died protecting his lord from the scourge of the infidels.