Lives Sold Dear: chivalry and feudalism in The Song of Roland

The characters in The Song of Roland at first glance often seem strange to modern eyes. They are obsessed with honor, prone to sudden outbursts of emotion and seem to enjoy splitting their enemies from nasal to navel just a bit too much. Upon closer reading, however, patterns begin to emerge from their actions. Their obsession with honor comes from a fierce devotion to familial and feudal prestige; their emotional outpourings are the expressions of a “noble knight”1, and their ferocity in battle is both necessary and a way to win glory for both themselves and their lord. The lives of the characters in The Song of Roland seem inextricably linked to both feudalism and chivalry. This is hardly surprising as most of the characters in the chanson are knights—they are neither at the top of the pyramid nor at the bottom. Their position depends upon their relationship to the people around them. Five of seven main characters—Roland, Olivier, Archbishop Turpin, Ganelon, and Baligant—are not just knights but lords as well. Nearly everything they own depends upon their feudal relationship with their lord. While feudalism determines a knight's place in their world, chivalry determines how they ought to act based on their position. Many times throughout the chanson, characters state what they believe they should do based on their knightly code. There seem to be several themes around which this code can be grouped. Ganelon's family is a surprising example of the theme of familial loyalty. At the beginning of The Song of Roland, several members of Ganelon's household offer to travel with him to meet Marsilla.2 Ganelon refuses, asking them to bring his love to his wife and son—a stark contrast to the disdain with which he had treated his step-son Roland just a few laisses earlier. Ganelon's family again shows him loyalty at the end of the chanson when they offer to be held as a promise that Pinabel will fight in Ganelon's stead.3 This (some might say, blind) loyalty to