- Roland blows the oliphant. The sound carries thirty leagues, all the way to Charlemagne, who immediately knows that means Roland's men are in trouble. Ganelon tries to contradict him.
- Roland sounds the horn again, so hard this time that his brain bursts—but not enough that he actually dies. Charlemagne hears this too and again announces that Roland's men are in a battle.
- Ganelon jumps in to save his scheme. After denying the battle outright, he suggests that Roland is only blowing the horn out of arrogance, to impress the other Franks. He illustrates this argument with a story about Roland taking Naples without Charlemagne's orders and then cleaning the battlefield blood with water so no one would know.
- Roland blows a third time and now Duke Naimes agrees with Charlemagne that Roland must be in a tough spot. The Franks arm themselves and ride out to save Roland if possible.
- Charlemagne seizes Ganelon and gives him to his kitchen servants to guard. They tear out his beard and beat him up before chaining him to a pillar.
- Back in the mountain pass, Roland meditates on his dead comrades and the great things they did for France. He is sad that he can't save them even though they died for his sake. The one thing he can do, however, is fight some more bad guys with Oliver.
- Roland kills twenty-five Saracens. The archbishop notes that he is an example of a truly good knight. If a man can't fight this well, he should be in a monastery.
- The desperation of the Franks makes them fight to the death. Marsile kills a bunch of the remaining sixty knights, only stopping when Roland rides by enraged and chops off his hand and then kills his son for good measure. The pagans can't believe such outnumbered people keep fighting instead of fleeing. Instead, 100,000 of them decide to leave, including Marsile.
- But there are still 50,000 Ethiopians left and Roland is definitely not done. He calls to the remaining Franks to kill at least fifteen Saracens for every Frank that dies. The sight of their black skin makes him particularly furious—racist.
- The pagan Marganice spears Oliver through the chest and exults that because Oliver is such an awesome knight this one death avenges all the dead Saracens. Although Oliver knows his wound is fatal, he uses his remaining minutes to wreak as much havoc as possible, beginning with Marganice. After slicing his head down to the teeth, he dismembers as many other Saracens as he can reach.
- Roland spares a moment in the fighting to greet Oliver in sadness. France will never be the same without him, he says, and then faints.
- But Oliver has so much blood in his eyes that he doesn't recognize his friend, and as he nears him, he whacks him on the head. Luckily his sword doesn't connect with Roland's head. It certainly brings Roland back to consciousness though. "Don't you know who I am?" he asks. And once Oliver hears his voice, he recognizes his mistake and apologizes.
- Oliver dismounts, prays to God, and dies. Roland cries about this and faints again.
- He is roused to more action when Gautier de l'Hum, an old but valiant knight, calls to him in in his death throes. He, Gautier, and the archbishop launch another attack.
- Wounded, Archbishop Turpin still manages to knock off another 400 Saracens, no biggie.
- Roland, already battling a burst brain, blows the oliphant again but so feebly that Charlemagne hearing it knows he is near death.
- He orders his men to blow their bugles in return. The pagans hear this answering blast and know that fresh men are on the way. Four hundred of them mount a last savage attack on the surviving rearguard. Knowing that Spain and the larger war is lost, they toss their spears at Roland. But it's hard to mess with that guy. God makes sure that the spears pierce his shield and armor but not a point enters his body.
- While the Saracen army runs back to Spain, Roland tends to the archbishop and then wanders the field, collecting his closest knights, including Oliver, and laying them out beside Turpin.
- He is so paralyzed with grief that the dying archbishop drags himself to his feet, tries to take the oliphant to a nearby stream for water, but dies mid-crawl.
- Roland laments Turpin's death but feels his own approaching. He climbs a nearby hill and faints near the four marble statues there.
- A Saracen hidden in the grass seizes his chance. He grabs Roland's sword to kill him once and for all. But Roland awakes just in time. With the oliphant he breaks the Saracen's head open.
- Now he wants to break his sword before he dies so no unworthy pagans get to use it.
- The problem is, his sword is so rad that it won't break. It has conquered so many lands and done so much good for the Christian faith. Roland knocks it over and over against a stone but finally realizes that it's too holy to be destroyed.
- He lies down on the grass to die, with his sword and oliphant underneath him and his face turned to Spain to indicate that he died honorably. Once he says his confession and offers his right glove to God, angels carry his soul to heaven.