A Roland for an Oliver

Roland and Oliver were the most famous of the twelve paladins of Charlemagne.

Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, is the hero of Ariosto's epic poem called "Orlando Furioso," Orlando being the Italian form of the name. He is there represented as being eight feet high, and well proportioned.

Oliver was also a knight celebrated for his exploits, and was so nearly a match for Roland that they finally engaged in single combat on an island in the Rhine. They fought for five successive days without either gaining the advantage; so that the expression, "a Roland for an Oliver," means a blow for a blow, a retort for a retort, or a quid pro quo.

History tells us, that in 778, when Charlemagne was busily engaged in organizing the recently subjugated pagan Saxons, and superintending their collective baptism and entrance into the Christian Church, he was visited by a Saracen chief who offered to put the Frankish sovereign in possession of several towns south of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Charlemagne accepted the offer, and marched with a large army through the territory; but, finding that the Saracen had betrayed him, he gave orders to return to France.

It was during the retreat, while the Christian army was slowly threading its way through the narrow valley of Roncesvalles, that Roland, commanding the rear guard, was suddenly surrounded by an immense army of the enemy, who had been lying in ambush, and was slain.

Roland, according to tradition, possessed an enchanted horn, which could be heard at a distance of thirty miles.

With this horn he could have called his uncle to his rescue; but he refused to use it until one hundred thousand of the Saracens lay dead, and but fifty of his twenty thousand men remained to aid him.

After he was mortally wounded, he blew one blast on his horn (Olifant), and threw his enchanted sword (Durandal) into a stream. Charlemagne heard the blast, and returned, but was too late to rescue his nephew.

The oldest version of "The Song of Roland" belongs to the eleventh century; and throughout the Middle Ages it was the most popular of the heroic poems, William the Conqueror having it sung at the head of his troops during his conquest of England. Roland is also the hero of Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato," or "Roland in Love."