The Song of Roland
In Our Time4 Nov 2021

The Song of Roland

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an early masterpiece of French epic poetry, from the 12th Century. It is a reimagining of Charlemagne’s wars in Spain in the 8th Century in which Roland, his most valiant knight, chooses death before dishonour, guarding the army’s rear from a pagan ambush as it heads back through the Roncesvalles Pass in the Pyrenees. If he wanted to, Roland could blow on his oliphant, his elephant tusk horn, to summon help by calling back Charlemagne's army, but according to his values that would bring shame both on him and on France, and he would rather keep killing pagans until he is the last man standing and the last to die.

The image above is taken from an illustration of Charlemagne finding Roland after the Battle of Roncevaux/Roncesvalles, from 'Les Grandes Chroniques de France', c.1460 by Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 6465 f.113

With

Laura Ashe Professor of English Literature and Fellow in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford

Miranda Griffin Assistant Professor of Medieval French at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Murray Edwards College

And

Luke Sunderland Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University

Studio producer: John Goudie

Episoder(1081)

Philippa Foot

Philippa Foot

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century, Philippa Foot (1920 - 2010). Her central question was, “Why be moral?” Drawing on Aristotle and Aq...

13 Jun 202458min

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the greatest poet of his age', Thomas Wyatt (1503 -1542), who brought the poetry of the Italian Renaissance into the English Tudor world, especially the sonnet, so pr...

6 Jun 202458min

Mercury

Mercury

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet which is closest to our Sun. We see it as an evening or a morning star, close to where the Sun has just set or is about to rise, and observations of Mercury...

30 Mai 202453min

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest European playwrights of the twentieth century. The aim of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was to make the familiar ‘strange’: with plays such as Mother C...

23 Mai 202459min

Napoleon's Hundred Days

Napoleon's Hundred Days

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrived with fewer than a thousand men, yet three weeks ...

16 Mai 202458min

Lysistrata

Lysistrata

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' comedy in which the women of Athens and Sparta, led by Lysistrata, secure peace in the long-running war between them by staging a sex strike. To the men ...

9 Mai 202455min

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and his role in the development of electrical systems towards the end of the nineteenth century. He made his nam...

2 Mai 202452min

The Kalevala

The Kalevala

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Finnish epic poem that first appeared in print in 1835 in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire and until recently part of Sweden. T...

25 Apr 202450min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-katastrofe
henrettelsespodden
historier-som-endret-norge
rss-benadet
historier-som-endret-verden
aftenposten-historie
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
historiepodden
med-egne-oyne
rss-frontkjemperne
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
sektledere
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
liberal-halvtime
rss-gamle-greier
taakeprat
vare-historier
rss-politisk-preik
virkelig-grusomt