The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in StoryGuerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
General
The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in Story
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
Epic poetry -- Adaptations
On discovering that Marsile has meantime died of his wound,
Charlemagne orders his widow to France, where he proposes to convert
her through the power of love. The remainder of the pagans are
compelled to receive baptism, and, when Charlemagne again wends his
way through the Pyrenees, all Spain bows beneath his sceptre.
At Bordeaux, Charlemagne deposits upon the altar of St. Severin,
Roland's Olifant, filled with gold pieces, before personally escorting
the three august corpses to Blaye, where he sees them interred, ere he
hurries on to Aix-la-Chapelle to judge Ganelon.
_The Chastisement of Ganelon._ On arriving in his palace, Charlemagne
is confronted by Alda or Aude, a sister of Oliver, who frantically
questions: "Where is Roland who has sworn to take me to wife?" Weeping
bitterly, Charlemagne informs her his nephew is no more, adding that
she can marry his son, but Aude rejoins that, since her beloved is
gone, she no longer wishes to live. These words uttered, she falls
lifeless at the emperor's feet.[11]
From Spain the emperor made retreat,
To Aix in France, his kingly seat;
And thither, to his halls, there came,
Alda, the fair-and gentle dame.
"Where is my Roland, sire," she cried,
"Who vowed to take me for his bride?"
O'er Karl the flood of sorrow swept;
He tore his beard, and loudly wept.
"Dear sister, gentle friend," he said,
"Thou seekest one who lieth dead:
I plight to thee my son instead,--
Louis, who lord of my realm shall be."
"Strange," she said, "seems this to me.
God and His angels forbid that I
Should live on earth if Roland die."
Pale grew her cheek--she sank amain,
Down at the feet of Carlemaine.
So died she. God receive her soul!
The Franks bewail her in grief and dole.
The time having come for the trial, Ganelon appears before his judges,
laden with chains and tied to a stake as if he were a wild beast. When
accused of depriving Charlemagne of twenty thousand Frenchmen, Ganelon
retorts he did so merely to avenge his wrongs, and hotly denies having
acted as a traitor. Thirty of his kinsmen sustain him in this
assertion, one of them even volunteering to meet the emperor's
champion in a judicial duel. As the imperial champion wins, Ganelon
and his relatives are adjudged guilty, but, whereas the latter thirty
are merely hanged, the traitor himself is bound to wild horses until
torn asunder.
Having thus done justice, Charlemagne informs his courtiers they are
to attend the baptism of a Saracen lady of high degree, who is about
to be received into the bosom of the church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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