SOURCE: Ramey, Lynn T. “Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland).” In Epics for Students, edited by Marie Lazzari, pp. 96-99. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.

In the following essay, Ramey discusses positive and negative elements of the description of the Saracen in The Song of Roland.

The oldest known epic in France, The Song of Roland, which dates from around 1100, bears traces of the battles that had taken place about 200 years earlier. While ostensibly telling the story of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles in 778, the events of The Song of Roland have been shifted into a contemporary setting, superimposing a long history of concerns about the Muslim upon the palpable fear of Muslim invasion that gripped France in Charles Martel's and Charlemagne's time. The historical basis of the battle, most likely a decimation of Charlemagne's rear guard in 778 by Basques, then in control of the mountains separating present-day France and Spain...