matter of editorial controversy), is preserved in one Anglo-Norman manuscript of the
second half of the 12th century, Oxford, Bodl., Digby 23 (O). Another manuscript, the
FrancoItalian V^4 , preserves an assonanced text of the same type down to a line
corresponding to line 3,683 of O, after which it joins the rhymed versions. Ms O came to
the Bodleian in 1634, having belonged to Sir Kenelm Digby; it was rediscovered in the
early 19th century by Francisque Michel, who published the editio princeps in 1837 and
who gave the poem its modern title (it has none in the manuscript). This edition
undoubtedly contributed to the resurgence of the study of medieval literature in the 19th
century: the poem, with other chansons de geste, inspired Victor Hugo for parts of his
Légende des siècles, and Gaston Paris chose to lecture on it at the Sorbonne in 1871 as a
contribution to the restoration of French national feeling and morale after the Franco-
Prussian war.
Although isolated, the Oxford Roland was a poem of great influence. It is imitated
stylistically by many other chansons de geste, and its main personages play important
roles elsewhere. Thus, Girart de Vienne, by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, sets out, some
eighty years later, to explain how the hero came to be the sworn comrade of Oliver and
the betrothed of the latter’s sister Aude, as he is in the Chanson de Roland. Roland,
Charlemagne, Oliver, and even Ganelon are important figures in Fierabras, the Voyage
de Charlemagne, the Chanson d’Aspremont, and other poems that make up the King
Cycle (the cycle of epics devoted to Charlemagne and his exploits), but also in epics of
the Rebellious Vassal Cycle, such as the Quatre fils Aymon and Girart de Vienne, in
which Charlemagne ceases to be idealized as he is in the Chanson de Roland.
Toward the end of the 12th century, there was an important rhymed remaniement
(twice as long as O), based on the assonanced version and preserved in five major
manuscripts, the end of V^4 , and some fragments. This version, which seems to have
largely replaced the assonanced version (summarized below), has lengthy extra episodes
recounting an escape by Ganelon on the return journey to France and the death of Aude,
the latter being much expanded with exploitation of the link with Girart de Vienne, a
premonitory dream, and a death preceded by a conver sation with her brother, whose
corpse speaks and invites her to join him and Roland in Heaven. Later, the material goes
into prose versions, such as that compiled or written by David Aubert in 1458 (Croniques
et conquestes de Charlemaine). It is no doubt a sign of the popularity of the subject that
from the early 13th century there was a college of the twelve peers of France, magnates
(six ecclesiastical, six lay) who took part in the lits de justice of the Parlement.
The poem’s influence is also to be seen in non-French versions of the subject. It was
adapted into Middle High German (the Ruolandes liet by the Pfaffe Konrad, whose
version was used by Der Stricker for his Karl der Grosse and by an anonymous author
for Karl Meinet), Old Norse (the Karlamagnús saga), Middle English (Song of Roland
fragment), medieval Welsh (Can Rolant), and Dutch (fragments only); there are related
Latin texts in verse (Carmen de prodicione Guenonis) and prose (the Pseudo-Turpin
chronicle); others in Occitan (Ronsasvals) and Spanish; later, via the Franco-Italian
tradition, the subject reaches Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto, not to mention the Italian
puppet theater, which survives to this day. Three of these texts were most likely
composed in France. The Latin Carmen de prodicione Guenonis (482 lines) has been the
subject of controversies over both dating and localization but was certainly composed
after the Oxford text and probably in France. Preserved in a single manuscript, it is a
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