The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Chronicles #63 ｜ The Song of Roland ft. Elizabeth Heverin： Part II

00:00:00.000 It's very important that we talk about, before the battle, the prayers of Archbishop Turpin,

00:00:22.540 where he goes on to say,

00:00:24.680 When Roland sees it now must be combat

00:00:27.860 More fierce he's found than lion or leopard 1.00

00:00:30.880 The Franks he calls, and Oliver commands 0.91

00:00:34.240 Now say no more, my friends, nor thou, comrade 0.60

00:00:38.340 That emperor, who left us Franks on guard

00:00:41.540 A thousand score stout men he set apart

00:00:44.540 And well he knows, not one will prove coward

00:00:47.900 Man for his lord should suffer with good heart

00:00:51.840 Of bitter cold and great heat bear the smart

00:00:54.540 His blood let drain, and all his flesh be scarred. Strike with thy lance, and I with Dorendal,

00:01:01.800 with my good sword that was the king's reward. So, if I die, who has it afterwards? Noble vassals,

00:01:09.640 he well may say it was. From the other part is the Archbishop Turpin. He pricks his horse and

00:01:16.040 mounts upon a hill, calling the Franks, sermon to them begins. My lord's barons, Charles left us

00:01:23.400 here for this. He is our king. Well may we die for him. To Christendom good service offering.

00:01:31.600 Battle you'll have. You all are bound to it. For with your eyes you see the Saracens. Pray for

00:01:38.080 God's grace, confessing him your sins. For your soul's health our absolution give. So though you

00:01:45.720 die, blessed martyrs shall you live. Thrones you shall win in the great paradise. The Franks

00:01:52.740 dismount, upon the ground are lit, the Archbishop God's benedictions gives, for their penance 0.72

00:01:59.120 good blows to strike he bids. The Franks arise and stand upon their feet, they're well absolved 0.96

00:02:06.120 and from their sins made clean, and the Archbishop has signed them with God's seal, and next they

00:02:12.820 mount upon their charges keen. By rule of knights they have put on their gear, for battle all

00:02:19.740 apparelled as is meat the count roland calls oliver and speaks comrade and friend now clearly

00:02:27.800 have you seen that squenellan hath got us by deceit gold hath he taen much wealth is his to

00:02:34.640 keep the temper of vengeance for us must wreak king marsilius hath bargained for us cheap at

00:02:41.260 the sword's point he shall yet pay our mead fantastic passages there so we get the archbishop 0.90

00:02:48.620 absolving all of these Christian knights of their sins. 0.95

00:02:52.720 I mean, obviously, we're going deep into crusader ideology now. 0.62

00:02:57.700 And it absolutely, as you said previously, speaks to the time period

00:03:02.380 that this particular Anglo-Norman copyist, whether or not there's a name

00:03:07.900 towards the end of this, by the way, whether it is unknown

00:03:11.180 or whether the answer is staring us clear on the face,

00:03:14.120 that the original writer of this was Talordas, whose name is at the end. We don't know if he

00:03:22.500 was a copyist or whether he was the original. It's left ambiguous. But we see in here this

00:03:28.220 pure crusader ideology that going to fight against the infidel, the pagans, God's enemies, 0.90

00:03:35.820 is the holiest thing you can do. And you will all receive martyrdom as a result of this,

00:03:42.200 Because you're fighting for truth, and truth is the only way to martyrdom. 0.95

00:03:48.040 Really, it's not just the crusades that brings forth this idea of you'll go to heaven if you die in this fight against non-Christians and Christians. 0.93

00:04:01.880 It's actually, again, it's a very Germanic idea of, look, you'll go to heaven, you'll go to... 0.60

00:04:08.440 Asgard.

00:04:09.120 Asgard.

00:04:09.760 Of Valhalla.

00:04:11.020 Of Valhalla.

00:04:11.760 yeah or sovereign god if you play skyrim um if you die a warrior if you die a noble death yes

00:04:21.800 it's a very old one it isn't it isn't something that's that's come about with christianity and

00:04:27.080 with the crusades it's a it's a very sort of heroic ideal absolutely that you will you will

00:04:34.280 be absolved of your mistakes and the sins you have done in your life if your death is one

00:04:40.700 of truth sacrifice and it's true you could be a very bad man in your life but if your death was

00:04:49.260 a sacrifice to save people um to save something higher than yourself to save something higher

00:04:57.820 than yourself then in your death you're a good man and it reminds me of this beautiful painting

00:05:04.700 of a Roman soldier during the destruction of Pompeii.

00:05:12.580 And it was based on bones they found of a guard

00:05:19.760 that stood on duty whilst his city was banning

00:05:23.880 and allowed for the people to escape,

00:05:26.320 knowing that he was going to reach his end

00:05:28.980 and be banned alive by the volcano.

00:05:31.620 But he stood and he did his duty

00:05:33.780 and through that he died a truly noble death.

00:05:36.920 I remember Spengler talked about that exact moment.

00:05:39.580 He said, that's heroism.

00:05:40.820 That is heroism.

00:05:41.960 You can see the painting in Liverpool Walker Gallery.

00:05:44.180 It's up there.

00:05:44.800 It's just beautiful.

00:05:45.300 I'll have to go and visit.

00:05:46.520 I remember it as a kid.

00:05:47.740 It's still there. 1.00

00:05:49.760 But it's true.

00:05:50.600 It's like we know nothing of that man.

00:05:52.000 We don't know what type of god he was.

00:05:54.820 Maybe he was not a so nice person.

00:05:57.820 Maybe he was a drunk.

00:05:58.620 you know maybe he he didn't live a noble life but in that moment everything else doesn't matter

00:06:06.400 it's in that moment he's a hero and he and it's quite amazing that he's remembered now throughout

00:06:13.340 all of history because of just bones that remained because he stood and did his duty

00:06:17.780 it's like the last words of nelson it's like thank god i did my duty thank god i i can die a noble

00:06:25.360 death that everything i have done wrong in my life is absolved via this last ultimate fetus act

00:06:35.040 and that's that's what's again so important about this book it is well in that way you know it's

00:06:41.760 very because like so many things that are coming out in the early you know high middle ages

00:06:46.800 literature they're obviously building off of heroic deeds like from the ancient pagan

00:06:55.140 Germanic cultures, the Germanic heroic ideal, but then it's always being reconciled with the

00:07:02.180 newer metaphysical Christian doctrine. You get that with the Nibelungenlied, which I covered

00:07:10.900 many, many chronicles ago last year. But these are people who are inspired by historical peoples

00:07:19.960 who were not Christian, but their deeds were so mighty

00:07:23.960 and then they get reconciled with the Christian framework

00:07:26.900 into that moral system.

00:07:29.540 But ultimately, yeah, having that, the last stand,

00:07:32.580 whether it's the Battle of Maldon, whether it's the Song of Roland,

00:07:38.720 whether it's Hagen's final stand in the Nibelungenlied,

00:07:43.600 these are always shown as virtuous things to fight to the last,

00:07:47.680 to give all that you have to give like sulu yeah yeah that's why it's such a great film yeah because

00:07:55.600 of that very reason um but also as well here the way that roland is remarking the fact that his

00:08:01.520 sword was given to him by charlemagne that that everything great about roland and the mighty man

00:08:09.760 he is and how proud he is and as he goes on later to to remember the glorious victories he's won

00:08:17.020 he is prideful of those but they're all an extension of the patrician figure that charlemagne

00:08:26.480 is and the greatness that he has given roland the opportunity to have that shut that his that

00:08:33.940 charlemagne the king is a wellspring from which roland's own greatness and that charlemagne's

00:08:42.400 greatness springs from the greatness of God. And so everything is working in this great chain of

00:08:50.380 being. Everything is flowing down with this bounty and this sense of duty and oaths and

00:08:59.720 obligation and fealty. And the moment that someone decides to be untrustworthy, the moment that

00:09:06.840 someone decides to be deceptive, this breaks the system.

00:09:12.060 And in breaking the system, you're actually breaking the covenant with God.

00:09:17.180 Yep.

00:09:18.860 And that is why he obviously dies a horrible death.

00:09:22.840 Is he sure? 0.87

00:09:23.200 In the end, Gonellon. 0.99

00:09:24.180 He chose it. 0.88

00:09:24.800 He chose a dishonorable death.

00:09:26.480 Yeah.

00:09:26.620 That was his choice.

00:09:28.200 Yeah, that was his mistake.

00:09:29.160 And it's interesting, because with Gwellen, it doesn't matter what his heroic deeds were

00:09:34.880 in his life, how noble he was.

00:09:36.840 What members is that last moment in his very being.

00:09:40.700 He chose treachery above everything he's accomplished.

00:09:43.820 And so he deserves to be remembered in that way.

00:09:47.860 And he deserves to get into limb from limb,

00:09:51.860 tear from his very body.

00:09:54.380 In the same way that, metaphorically speaking,

00:10:00.900 Ganelon had spoke about being done to Charlemagne,

00:10:03.940 about tearing his right arm away,

00:10:06.120 tearing his left arm away

00:10:08.040 and metaphorically being

00:10:09.700 the great vassals that Charlemagne had

00:10:12.020 around him and so this metaphor

00:10:14.220 gets put into the

00:10:16.000 physical towards the end

00:10:17.960 where he is literally torn apart

00:10:19.880 so you know

00:10:22.080 George Lucas, kind of like poetry

00:10:23.860 they rhyme. It's just so sad when

00:10:25.840 true heroes die

00:10:27.200 on honourable deaths like William Wallace

00:10:29.780 you know, when he's hung, drawn and quartered

00:10:32.320 Moving on

00:10:32.940 anyway away from this scottish slot propaganda so we get these great moments and um also as well

00:10:45.140 so marseille the king of the saracens is on the battlefield and he's also there with his nephew

00:10:51.620 he's also there with his son and there's this passage i'd like to read where it says marseille's

00:10:57.420 nephew. His name is Illroth. First of them, all canters before the host, says of our Franks

00:11:03.800 these ill words as he goes. Felons of France, so here on Oz you close. Betrayed you has he that 0.80

00:11:10.700 to guard you ought. Mad is the king who left you in this post. So shall the fame of France

00:11:16.800 seduced be lost, and the right arm from Charles' body torn. When Roland hears what rage he has,

00:11:23.420 by god his steed he spurs gallops with great effort he goes that count to strike with all

00:11:31.140 his force the shield he breaks the harbrook's seamon sews slice the heart and shatters up the

00:11:38.300 bones all of the spine he severs with that blow and with his spear the soul from body throws

00:11:45.700 so well he's pinned he shakes in the air that corpse that his spears hilt he's flung it from

00:11:53.140 the horse. So in two halves Eroth's neck he broke. Nor left him yet, they say, but rather spoke.

00:12:01.400 Avant, Calvert, a madman Charles is not. No treachery was ever in his thought. Proudly he

00:12:08.940 did who left us in this post. The fame of France a douse will never be lost. Strike on the Franks, 0.97

00:12:16.060 ours are the foremost blows, for we are right, but these gluttons are wrong. And so again, 0.97

00:12:23.140 It is an army of truth against an army of falsehood.

00:12:27.400 And if you speak wrongly of the king, if you bring the honour of the king,

00:12:33.560 and by extension, the honour of the nation into disrepute,

00:12:39.860 then that is something to be fairly aggrieved about.

00:12:45.660 And it's something to take up honour as a matter of course.

00:12:51.000 And so we get these, for the sake of time, I can't go into them all. Obviously, as always, read it for yourself. These remarkable images of battle, and they are very, very graphic and gory. But throughout all of it, we just see Roland fighting on at the host of his men, at the head of his host, as all of his men, all these great men of Charlemagne's army begin to fall around him.

00:13:15.920 and eventually oliver has been acquitting himself brilliantly uh archbishop turpin

00:13:21.560 is running riot like he is on a kill streak he's on a kill to death ratio of about a thousand

00:13:29.780 warrior priest at this point yeah the warrior priest yeah the warrior monk and we see him here

00:13:36.640 and they're all shouting cries of mong joie which is this call that they constantly invoke

00:13:41.080 He's like Martin Septim.

00:13:43.080 Martin Septim! Hail! Hail!

00:13:46.080 Right. Elder Scrolls references for days.

00:13:49.080 Well, he was played by Sean Bean.

00:13:51.080 Sean Bean. He's for Emyr. 0.69

00:13:53.080 So there you go.

00:13:54.080 I'm not used to giving speeches.

00:13:56.080 But you see all of this going on.

00:13:58.080 And then you immediately, eventually, we come to the point where

00:14:02.080 the Frankish host has been worn down.

00:14:05.080 And actually, as well, Roland has taken the hand of the king. 0.95

00:14:09.080 He's cut off the Muslim king's hand and beheaded his son. 0.83

00:14:14.360 And so it's not like the Moors, like, yeah, sure, they've got numbers to throw at this,

00:14:18.900 but they've lost people they could not afford to lose either. 0.95

00:14:22.700 And given that the entire logic from the Muslim perspective of waging this battle was to take 0.80

00:14:30.040 key players from Charlemagne's army, well, you've lost them too. 0.99

00:14:33.840 because they know they've lost it's sort of them just wanting again like you said just to take out

00:14:40.940 the knights and just just end it all really yes um it's really just a suicide mission for them

00:14:47.000 yeah i mean it gets to that point um before that i found the line um first 110 where it goes to

00:14:57.240 france and there's all these bad omens happening in france and it goes throughout all france

00:15:01.940 terrific tempest wise thunderous head the stormy wind blows high or measured rain and hail fall

00:15:08.980 from the sky and many say this is the latter time the world is ending and the great doom is sign

00:15:14.740 they speak not true they cannot read the signs that roland's death calls forth this mighty cry

00:15:21.280 if you enjoyed this piece of premium content from the lotus eaters

00:15:24.780 head to our website where you can find more

00:15:31.940 Thank you.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 12, 2026

PREVIEW： Chronicles #63 ｜ The Song of Roland ft. Elizabeth Heverin： Part II

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