Charlemagne et ses Leudes, just to the left of Notre-Dame’s façade. They recently removed the fence in front of it!
Two oliphants, a type of horn. Roland has an oliphant that makes a sound so loud it drives fear into the hearts of all his enemies :0
Today’s post (and the last post I’ll write in France) is inspired by a statue right next to the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The statue, Charlemagne et ses Leudes, depicts the Charlemagne of myth rather than reality, flanked on either side by two of his Paladins: Roland and Oliver. I’ve got a bit of a connection to these two guys—especially Roland. Roland is a hero of French legend who’s claim to fame originated with The Song of Roland, a chanson de geste (a type of epic poem from the Middle Ages). It tells the story of the paladins of Charlemagne being betrayed by the Saracens in Spain and dying heroically to protect their king. Roland is their leader, and Oliver is his right hand man. It’s very French, very Christian, and very Middle Ages. And it issued a new age of literature in France and was the inspiration for a lot of writing in the Renaissance across Europe. Roland became an epic hero of the likes of Achilles and Hercules, starring in countless stories following the adventures of the Paladins of Charlemagne.
Ruggiero freeing Angelica. At the Louvre!
Charlemagne’s Paladins are basically the French counterpart to King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, having lots of independently written stories and legends about them from all over Europe. My favorite (and it also happens to be my favorite book in general) is the Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. This book rules. It was written in 1500s Florence, and stars the Italian-ized version of Roland, Orlando. It’s also incredibly influential, having inspired operas, poems, and even Shakespeare plays. The story is an episodic adventure with an ensemble cast with pacing eerily similar to a modern-day TV show. Ariosto is also much more progressive than one would expect a 16th century author to be, having opinions on religious tolerance, gender equality, and diversity that puts most of congress to shame. The (very) basic plot is that Orlando falls in love with the most beautiful woman in the world, goes insane about it, and his friends have to retrieve his wits (which are on the moon) to stop him from destroying all of France. But that’s only a small fraction of the action in the story, and its huge page count makes me love it even more. Some other highlights include: laser beams, lady-knights, inventing the hippogriff, lesbians, Muslim AND Christian heroes and villains, maps of medieval Paris, and going to the moon, Africa, and hell in the same trip.
A cool map of the medieval walls of Paris! (To the author’s knowledge, so probably filled with inaccuracies)
My little hippogriff buddy!
Am I telling you to read Orlando Furioso? Not really—it’s long and you probably don’t want to. But its very very very good. I’m really just making this post because I saw a lot of Orlando related stuff here in Paris and I’ve been silently nerding out about it. I saw a painting of a famous scene in the Louvre! And in the giftshop, they had a hippogriff figurine inspired by the painting! That’s amazing! And this all started because I saw a statue of Charlemagne by the Seine, so thank your local Paris for appreciating literature.
Hey Gabe, words cannot describe how long I’ve been waiting for you to post about that statue! It’s always nice to hear people talk about their interests in life and while I personally won’t be reading Orlando Furioso anytime soon, it’s cool you found a way to bring something you’re interested in towards the dynamic of the class! Thanks for being a good roommate, see you on campus!