Mythology; Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature
A terrible vengeance was the one that he took next day, when the
Saracen army was utterly exterminated; and when all the noble dead had
been buried where they fell, save only Roland, Oliver, and Turpin, the
bodies of these three heroes were carried to Blaye and interred with
great honour in the great cathedral there.
Charlemagne then returned to Aix, and as he entered his palace, Aude
the Fair, sister of Oliver, and the betrothed of Roland, hastened to
meet him. Where were the Douzeperes? What was the moaning murmur as of
women who wept, that had heralded the arrival in the town of the
Emperor and his conquering army? Eagerly she questioned Charlemagne of
the safety of Roland, and when the Emperor, in pitying grief, told
her:
"Roland, thy hero, like a hero died," Aude gave a bitter cry and fell
to the ground like a white lily slain by a cruel wind. The Emperor
thought she had fainted, but when he would have lifted her up, he
found that she was dead, and, in infinite pity, he had her taken to
Blaye and buried by the side of Roland.
Very tender was Charlemagne to the maiden whom Roland had loved, but
when the treachery of Ganelon had been proved, for him there was no
mercy. At Aix-la-Chapelle, torn asunder by wild horses, he met a
shameful and a horrible death, nor is his name forgotten as that of
the blackest of traitors. But the memory of Roland and of the other
Douzeperes lives on and is, however fanciful, forever fragrant.
"... Roland, and Olyvere,
And of the twelve Tussypere,
That dieden in the batayle of Runcyvale;
Jesu lord, heaven king,
To his bliss hem and us both bring,
To liven withouten bale!"
Sir Otuel.
THE CHILDREN OF LÎR
"Silent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy water;
Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose;
While murmuring mournfully, Lîr's lonely daughter
Tells to the night-star her tale of woes."
Moore.
They are the tragedies, not the comedies of the old, old days that are
handed down to us, and the literature of the Celts is rich in tragedy.
To the romantic and sorrowful imagination of the Celts of the green
island of Erin we owe the hauntingly piteous story of the children of
Lîr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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