Song of Roland Characters

The Happy HeroRoland—that cocky, pious, stubborn, emotional knight—is a variation on the classic tragic hero: well-born, well-loved, and headed straight for disaster. At first it looks like pop...

The Awesome RulerVenerable and experienced and still going strong at 200 years old, Charlemagne has spent his life conducting devastatingly successful campaigns in Spain and across Europe, expandin...

Roland's best friend, equally fantastic knight and high-ranking nobleman, Oliver is the wise and sensible foil to Roland's passionate convictions. Since he is the closest to Roland, he's also the m...

Full of resentment and fear, Marsile wants above all to have peace in Spain and to keep Saragossa away from the Franks. He hates Charlemagne bitterly for what he has done to Spain and wants revenge...

He's a Frankish nobleman and a Christian, but that doesn't make him good. You're never on solid ground with Ganelon. He's as slippery as an eel, and the more you try to figure out what he really th...

Turpin is Charlemagne's Archbishop of Rheims but also a pretty sweet knight, who embodies the tradition of the church militant or fighting Christianity. History time: a century before the Oxford Ma...

Although he has his fighting moments—he kills Baligant's son Malprimes and has an excru-ciatingly close call with Baligant's brother, Canabeus—he's primarily a man of advice. Unfortunately, the...

As cunning as Ganelon himself, Blancandrin is the man of the hour when he formulates the plan to get the Franks out of Spain. Persuading the Saragossans is easy; it takes more skill to sell the pla...

Baligant might just win the gold star for being the most mysterious fellow in the entire poem. Broadly, he serves as a narrative foil to Charlemagne: Charlemagne is ruler of the Frankish empire and...

Although she has a minor role in terms of action, Bramimonde's commentary is crucial to the poem's larger philosophy: she illustrates the uselessness of non-Christian religion and the fundamental w...

Strong, brave, and 100% committed to family, Pinabel fights to the death for Ganelon's reprieve. He's powerful and well-spoken enough to intimidate the rest of the Franks on Ganelon's jury, and giv...

Small and slight, Thierry is the Timon to Pinabel's Pumba—if those furry cartoons had been fighting to the death over Simba's innocence. Thierry's reasons for supporting the death penalty are als...

Alda's a pretty one-dimensional character: she loves Roland so much that when he dies, she dies too. Her big moment comes when Charlemagne offers to replace Roland with his own son, Louis, because...