THE SONG OF ROLAND
Translated by Dorothy Sayers
Discussion Questions:
1. What is the moral of the story?
2. Of what does the tragedy consist? Which is the sin which brings it about? With the loss of a sense of sin, has modern man lost a sense of tragedy? How has tragedy been redefined?
3. What do we make of Charlemagne's fainting and weeping at the death of Roland? Lamentation has a venerable history but what is accomplished by it? Has modern man lost or gained by his inability or unwillingness to lament tragedy?
4. Does Roland have the qualities of a romantic hero? Does Roland's pride disqualify him as a hero? How do the qualities of Roland compare to those of modern romantic heroes?
5. Is the theme of Roland - the clash of civilizations - great enough to qualify the poem as secondary epic**? Does its primitive style disqualify it?
6. Does the naive and uncomplicated Christianity of the poem appeal to us and/or modern men in general?
** See 'A Preface to Paradise Lost' by C.S.Lewis for an explanation of this term
