About this book
La Chanson de Roland, rendered into English by Léonce Rabillon, brings the thunderous pulse of medieval verse and the legend of Roland and Charlemagne vividly into the present. This classic epic poem—rooted in myths and legends, poetry, and high medieval literature—recounts the heroic ethos of a Christian knightly culture and the famed encounter at Roncevaux Pass that became the touchstone of chivalric honor. Rabillon’s translation follows Léon Gautier’s scholarly seventh edition and the Oxford manuscript closely, preserving ancient names and prosodic accents while making the poem accessible to modern ears. Listeners will encounter soaring battle-scenes, rigid codes of fealty, themes of loyalty, sacrifice, and the clash of cultures as framed by medieval imagination, all conveyed in the compressed, chant-like diction of Old French epic. Historical context—Charlemagne’s seventh-century campaigns and the poem’s likely 11th-century composition—illuminates how legend and history entwine in this foundational work. Ideal for fans of medieval epic poetry, students of literature and history, and anyone drawn to myths and legends of heroism and duty, this audiobook offers a scholarly yet thrilling translation that preserves the grandeur and moral intensity of one of Europe’s oldest literary monuments.
