Can any of your readers and correspondents, versed in "legendary lore,"
reconcile the two different tales of which "Roland the Brave" is the hero?
The one related in Mrs. Hemans's beautiful ballad describes him as reported
dead, and that his fair one too rashly took the veil in "Nonnenwerder's
cloister pale," just before his return. The story proceeds to tell how in
grief her lover sought the battle-field, and finally fell, with other brave
companions, at Roncesvalles.
I have been surprised, when perusing Dr. Forbes's highly amusing narrative
of his holiday in Switzerland (pp. 28-9.), to find that he identifies
Roland with the hero of Schiller's beautiful ballad, who rejoiced in the
unromantic appellation of _Ritter Toggenburg_. _That_ unhappy lover,
according to the poet, being rejected by his fair one, who could only
bestow on him a sister's affection, sought the Holy Land in despair, and
tried to forget his grief; but returning again to breathe the same air with
his beloved, and finding her already a professed nun, built himself a hut,
whence he could see her at her convent window. Here he watched day by day,
as the poet beautifully says; and here he was found, _dead_, "still in the
attitude of the watcher."
"Blickte nach dem Kloster drueben,
Blickte Stunden lang
Nach dem Fenster seiner Lieben
Bis das Fenster klang,
Bis die Liebliche sich zeigte,
Bis das theure Bild
Sich in 's Thal herunter neigte
Ruhig, engelmild.
. . . . . .
"Und so sass er viele Tage
Sass viel' Jahre lang,
Harrend ohne Schmerz und Klage
Bis das Fenster klang,
Bis die Liebliche sich zeigte, &c. &c.
"Unde so sass er, eine Leiche
Eines Morgens da,
Nach dem Fenster noch das bleiche
Stille Antlitz sah."
Was this Ritter Toggenburg, the hero of Schiller's ballad, the nephew of
Charlemagne, Roland, who fell at Roncesvalles? Is not Dr. Forbes in error
in ascribing the Ritter's fate to Roland? Are they not two distinct
persons? Or is Mrs. Hemans wrong in her version of the story? I only quote
from memory:
"Roland the Brave, the brave Roland!
False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand
That he had fall'n in fight!
And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,
Thou fairest maid of Allemain.
Why so rash has she ta'en the veil
In yon Nonnenwerder's cloister pale?
For the fatal vow was hardly spoken,
And the fatal mantel o'er her flung.
When the Drachenfels' echoes rung--
'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!
. . . . . .
She died; he sought the battle plain,
And loud was Gallia's wail,
When Roland, the flower of chivalry,
Fell at Roncesvalles!"