You may have heard (or read) my impression of the Roland legend’s German incarnation. Pfaffe (Priest) Konrad, sometime in the 12th century I think, translated the French Song of Roland into German, at the request of a wealthy patron. He did not pass on the opportunity to pepper the text with, literally, pages of moralistic sermon: “Oliver asked Roland again to blow his horn, and again Roland refused, and WOE TO HIM THAT IS TOO PROUD TO CALL FOR HELP FOR GOD WILL” etc.* So, okay, I thought; the Germans more or less knew the legend as the French had conceived it, with few changes except to make a religious martyr bordering on fanatic out of Roland. Seemed to make sense: in the days of yore, specifically during Charlemagne’s reign, both France and Germany were under his direct rule; and so the legend should be more or less the same, right?
Tutt’altro, as the Italians say. There’s a whole ‘nother thing.
A Google search reveals that the Roland-of-Rolandseck legend seems to exist in many versions. Here’s one whose wording I like. The “this” refers to Rolandsbogen, or Roland’s Bow, the stone window shown in the image. It stands on the Rhine, not very far from Bonn, in an area called Rolandseck (Roland’s Corner).
This is all that remains of the fortress that was built as a toll castle by the archbishops of Cologne in 1100. After the “Rolandsbogen” collapsed in 1840, its restoration was paid for by public donations.
According to the legend Sir Roland, a knight, built the castle for his bride, Hildegund, the daughter of the Knight of Drachenfels. Roland went off into battle against the Saracens and Hildegrund learned of his supposed death. She went into retreat at the convent on the Rhine Island of Nonnenwerth, and when Roland came home, he was heartbroken. Every day he looked out of his bow window at the convent and when Hildegund died soon after, they found him dead as well – at his window.
So, to sum up: the German legend retains the bit about Roland dying at Rencesvalles, but disregards it as rumor that is in fact untrue. Instead, Roland dies of lovesickness, staring out the window at the convent across the water, in which his beloved is wasting away in the name of love and Jesus.
*That isn’t an actual quote.
