Roland
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Roland ( Italian: Orlando, Frankish: Hruodland, Dutch: Roeland) is a character in medieval and Renaissance literature, the chief paladin of Charlemagne and a central figure in the Matter of France. It is thought the title character of the 12th century Song of Roland, which recounts his final stand against the Muslims during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, is based on a real person who died in that battle (under different circumstances), but the authors of most later chansons de geste and the Renaissance epics Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso made little attempt to establish historical accuracy.
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[edit] Creating a legend
Roland is also an oft-repeated legend: Over the next several centuries, Roland became a "pop icon" in medieval minstrel culture. The legend growing around him, which made him a nephew to Charlemagne (whether or not this was true we do not know), turned his life into an epic tale of the noble Christian killed by Islamic forces, which forms part of the medieval Matter of France. Roland's tale is retold in the eleventh century poem The Song of Roland, where he is equipped with the Olifant (a signalling horn) and an unbreakable sword enchanted by Christian relics and named Durendal. See below for his later history in Italian verse, leading to the epic Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. In the Divine Comedy Dante sees Roland's spirit in the Heaven of Mars together with others who fought for the faith.
In Germany, Roland gradually became a symbol of the independence of the growing cities from the local nobility. In the late middle ages many cities sported the display of a defiant Roland statue on their marketplace. The Roland in Wedel was erected in 1450 as symbol of market justice, and the The Roland in front of the town hall of Bremen (1404) is listed together with the town hall on the List of World Heritage Site from the UNESCO since 2004.
In Catalonia Roland (or Rotllà as Catalan people say) became a mythical powerful giant. Numerous places in Catalonia (both North and South) have a name related to Rotllà.
[edit] Orlando
Orlando is the Italian equivalent of the French Roland. The name Orlando/Roland goes back to a Germanic origin, and is said to mean "One who is famous throughout the land".
[edit] Italian Renaissance romances
He appeared as a central character in a sequence of verse romances from the fifteenth century onwards, including Morgante by Luigi Pulci, Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. The Orlandino of Pietro Aretino then waxed satirical about the 'cult of personality' of Orlando the hero.
The Orlando narrative inspired several composers, amongst which Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, who composed an Italian opera with Orlando in the title role, see: Orlando.
[edit] Later works
Orlando: A Biography was written in 1928 by Virginia Woolf, and could at first sight be seen as adding yet some more episodes to the adventures of the (by now imaginary) Orlando character, but Woolf's story takes a completely different turn, and is set in a time different from that of the Renaissance Orlandos.
Orlando, or Roland, is also depicted in Judith Tarr's novel Kingdom of the Grail. This, however, is historical fiction that involves magic, Merlin and demons.
The name has also been sometimes used for other fictional characters of similar quality, such as Cidolofas 'Thundergod' Orlandu from Final Fantasy Tactics, whose power and skill in in-game terms were (and are) considered by many to be so overpowered, that 'An Orlandu' has seen occasional use as a term for an unbalancingly powerful character in an RPG.
The character, or at least Virginia Woolf's version of him/her, is now a major character in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series, making his/her début in the series with "The New Traveller's Almanac" and is expected to be a major character of Volume 3, or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, set to be released on October 25, 2006. Orlando also was depicted in paintings in the background of panels and on the covers of the first two volumes.
Ensembles like the Orlando Consort took their name from the Orlando character.
[edit] External links
