Hruotland
Hruotland , also Hruodland , in German and French traditionally called Roland , in Basque Errolan , in Spanish Roldán or Orlando , in Catalan Rotllà and in Italian Orlando (* around 736; † August 15, 778 near Roncesvalles ), was Count of the Breton Mark ( Cenomania around Angers) in the Frankish empire of Charlemagne .
He acted as the commander of the rearguard of the Frankish army, with which Karl had led a campaign against the Moors and which was attacked and destroyed again while retreating in the Pyrenees Pass near Roncevaux (Spanish: Roncesvalles ), but contrary to legend, not by Moors, but of - Christian - Basques , who sought vengeance after the attack and sacking of Pamplona by the Franks.
According to legend, Hruotland was buried in Blaye , but the grave was destroyed during the French Revolution . Other well-known fighters of the rear guard are said to have found their resting place at various other sites (Belin-Beliet, Dax, Elne and others). B. Count Eginhard and Count Anselm .
The historic Roland
There is only one document in which the historical figure Hruotland / Roland is mentioned, the Vita Karoli Magni des Einhard . Here is the Latin passage:
“Adjubat in hoc facto Vascones et levitas armorum et loci, in quo res rebatur, situs. Contra Francos et armorum gravitas et loci iniquitas per omnia Vasconibus reddidit impares. In quo proelio Eghartus, regiae mensae praepositus, Anshelmus, comes palatii, et 'Rotlandus' britannici littoris (limitis) praefectus, cum aliis pluribus interficiuntur. "
“In this act, the Basques benefited from the light armament and the location of the battlefield. The Franks were at a disadvantage in everything against the Basques because of the weight of their weapons and the unfavorable location. At this meeting, Eghart, the King's Truchsess , Count Palatine Anselm and Rodland (Roland), the military leader of the Bretannian border district, among others were killed. "
Roland saga and literature
The epitaph of Roland's tomb is in the Paris National Library .
Under the name Roland , Hruotland is the main hero of the old French Rolandslied (composed around 1100), a heroic epic ( Chanson de geste ), which in turn became the template for a large number of literary works throughout Western Europe, up to the 16th century with the Orlando Innamorato by Boiardo and its sequel Orlando Furioso by Ariosto or the epic El Bernardo by Bernardo de Balbuena written in Mexico and printed in Spanish in 1624 in Spanish . The oldest known copy of the Roland song (chanson de Roland) comes from the so-called Oxford manuscript, which was supposedly written around 1100 by a man named Turold.
In these works, but also in part in the older historiography , Roland alias Hruotland is considered the nephew of Charlemagne, but there is no definite evidence for this. The legend about Roland is said to have originated from folk tales among the Franks , but this cannot be proven; the oldest known written document that tells the legend of Roland is the Turpini historia de vita Caroli Magni et Rolandi , ascribed to Archbishop Turpin of Reims , which was known in Spain at the end of the 11th century. In this story, Roland fights the gigantic Moorish fighter Ferracutus, whose only vulnerable spot was his navel. Later the story was expanded to include more and more fantastic elements, including his olifant , a medieval horn , and the sword Durendal : the legend circulates among the Basque mountain dwellers in the area that on stormy nights the echo of his olifant can be heard in the the dying man is said to have pushed to call Charles' main army to help. This Olifant is said to be buried in Bordeaux , his Durendal sword (or a copy of it) is said to be in Rocamadour .
In Catalonia a legend developed around a giant named Rotllà .
City freedom symbol
As the paladin of the mighty King Karl, Roland has been a symbol of the freedom of the cities against the territorial prince since the 14th century, also under the influence of Charles IV . As a sign of this freedom, statues were erected in many cities . This was particularly common in the German cultural area; The Roland Roland from Bremen, established in 1404, is particularly well known here, whose wooden predecessor is said to have been burned on behalf of the unloved Archbishop Albert II of Bremen. Among the people of Bremen, it is seen as a warning against the attack on city and civil rights.
literature
- Hans-Wilhelm Klein: The chronicle of Charlemagne and Roland . W. Fink-Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 978-3-7705-2326-9 (= contributions to the Romance philology of the Middle Ages; Vol. 13)
- Rita Lejeune among others: The Roland saga . Brussels 1966.
- Wolf Steinsieck: The old French Roland song . Reclam, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-15-002746-2 .
- Peter Wapnewski , Carl Wesle: The Roland song of Pfaffen Konrad . Niemeyer, Tübingen o. J., ISBN 3-484-20169-X .
- Adriana Kremenjas-Danicic (Ed.): Roland's European Ways . Europski dom Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik 2006, ISBN 953-95338-0-5 .
Web links
- Article on the Roland song in "Names, Titles and Dates of French Literature"
- Jan Thor, Orlando Furioso (presentation of the work and critical examination)
- Roland and the Olifant. The Roland song. La chanson de Rollant. Der helt Rolant ( Memento from October 26th 2009 on WebCite )
- Konrad the Pfaffe, around 1170 (Bibliotheca Augustana)
- Image of the olifant, the horn from an elephant's tusk, attributed to Hruotland
Individual evidence
- ^ With Konrad the priest "Anshelm ... vone Môringen"; see. Karl Bartsch (Ed.): German poetry of the Middle Ages. Volume 3: The Roland Song . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1874, p. 8 ( Google Books ), with Einhard “Anshelmus, comes palatii (= Pfalzgraf)”.
- ↑ 610 years of Roland Roland. Most prominent Bremer celebrates his birthday. ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Radio Bremen from November 4, 2014.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hruotland |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hruodland |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Count of the Breton Mark (formerly also: British Mark) in Charlemagne's Frankish Empire |
| DATE OF BIRTH | at 736 |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 15, 778 |
| Place of death | at Roncesvalles |