Girard, or Girart, the son of Garin of Montglave, a poor nobleman,
goes with his brother Renier to the court of Charlemagne to seek
his fortune. After being at court for some time he quarrelled with
the Emperor, owing to the latter marrying the widow of Aubery, duc
de Bourgogne, who was pledged to Girart. As a compensation for the
loss of his bride, he was given the Comté of Vienne, in Dauphiné.
When he presented himself before Charlemagne to do homage, the
queen, whose affection for her old lover had changed to contempt,
forced him by a trick to kiss her foot instead of that of her
husband. Some time after, Girart learnt the truth, and, furious at
the insult placed upon him, he rebelled against his sovereign.
Renier, who had been made duke of Genoa, with his son Olivier
and his daughter 'la belle Aude,' came to help him. Charlemagne
besieged Vienne with a great army, and amongst his warriors was
his nephew Roland, who was his principal champion, just as Olivier
was that of Girart. A siege, like that of Troy, ensued, many
doughty deeds being done by the two heroes. In the course of the
fighting Roland sees Aude and falls in love with her. He takes her
prisoner, and almost succeeds in carrying her off to his tent, but
Olivier rescues her. Finally, it is agreed that the quarrel between
the monarch and his vassal shall be settled by a duel between the
two champions. Needless to say, the latter fall in readily with the
proposal. Olivier is armed by an aged Jew, Joachim, who with others
of his nation had fled to Vienne with Pontius Pilate after the
Crucifixion, and had not yet succeeded in dying. The combat takes
place in an island in the Rhone, and la Belle Aude, with mingled
feelings, watches from a window her brother and her lover
contending for victory. The struggle is full of tremendous incident.
At the outset each of the champions cuts the horse of the other in
two and the fight is continued on foot. Olivier's sword is broken,
and Roland invites him to send for another and take a little rest
and refreshment. A boatman goes to Vienne and procures from the
old Jew a famous sword, called Hauteclere, and some wine. The fight
is renewed and lasts till nightfall, when an angel descends from
heaven, and orders the two heroes to be reconciled and to fight
together against the Saracens. The warriors embrace and Olivier
promises Roland the hand of his sister. Such was the beginning of
the friendship of the two mighty champions ofChristendom.
Hugo's poem, however, is not based directly on the story, but on a
modern prose adaptation by Achille Jubinal which appeared in _Le
Journal du Dimanche_ in 1846. Léon Gautier indeed, in _Les Épopées
françaises, says: `Victor Hugo s'est proposé de traduire notre
vieux poème, dont il avait sans doute quelque texte sous les yeux.'
But it is clear from the mistake about the word Closamont and other
details that Gautier was mistaken and that the source from which
Hugo drew was Jubinal's reproduction.
Hugo omitted from his adaptation two incidents of great poetic
interest, namely, the picture of Aude watching the fight, and the
miraculous intervention of the angel. He has, on the other hand,
inserted the barbaric incident of the fight with trees. He has
eliminated, that is to say, the tender and the religious elements
from the story and made it simply the narrative of a Homeric combat,
with more than a touch of the grotesque. Nevertheless, he has
retained the characteristic incident of the chivalrous behaviour of
Roland in sending for a new sword for his enemy and in giving him
time for rest, a trait which finds a parallel in many other
_Chansons_, notably in the story of the battle of Roland with
Ferragus, a Saracen giant. When Ferragus is worn out with fighting,
Roland watches over him while he sleeps, and on his awakening enters
into a theological discussion with him in the hope of converting him
to Christianity. When this pious desire fails, the combat is renewed.
_Saint Michael_ is described in Rev. xii. 7-9 as fighting against
Satan and casting him out of heaven.
Hugo is mistaken in his description of _Olivier_, who was not lord of
Vienne and a sovereign count, but only the son of Renier, duke of
Genoa. The only statement in these two lines which is correct is
that his grandfather was Garin.
L. 27. As already noted, in the original story it is an aged Jew who
arms Olivier for the fight.
_Rollon_ (English _Rollo_) was the Norse pirate who invaded France in
A.D. 912 and founded the Duchy of Normandy. The reference to him is
of course an anachronism.
_estoc_ (_c_ pronounced), a long narrow sword used for thrusting.
_cimier_ (from Latin _cyma_, the young sprout of a cabbage), the crest
on the helmet.
Roland's sword, _Durandal_, which was given him by Charlemagne, plays
the same part in the French _Chansons_ as Siegfried's sword
Balmung in the _Nibelunglied_, or Excalibur in the Arthurian cycle.
Other forms of the name are _Durendas, Durrenda, Durandarda_.
_en franc neveu du roi_, like a real or genuine nephew of the king.
_Tournon_, a town situated on the right bank of the Rhone, in the
department of Ardèche. It still produces a well-known wine, called
_Vins de l'Ermitage_.
1. 70. Here is a curious mistake, which Jubinal originated and Hugo
copied. Closamont was the original possessor of the sword, not
another name for the weapon. The lines in the 'Chanson de Girart de
Viane' are:--
Une en aporte ke molt fut onoree.
plus de c. anz l'ot li iuis gardee,
Closamont fut, k'iert de grand renommee,
li emperere de Rome la loee.
_Sinnagog or Sinnagos_ was the Saracen king of Alexandria with whose
attack on the castle of Garin, Olivier's grandfather, the story of
'Girart de Viane' begins.
1. 144. This is another deviation from tradition, as we have it in
the Carolingian cycle. Roland never married Aude. He was still
betrothed to her when he fell at Roncesvalles.