Roland Rollin' Rollin'

"He didn't want to fall...It was a matter of pride. A gunslinger knows about pride--
that invisible bone that keeps the neck stiff."
--Steven King, The Dark Tower series

Steven King's Dark Tower series was mentioned in a recent posting. In it, King's character Roland the gunslinger is adrift in a world which has "moved on," yet he is compelled to pursue his lonely quest to top the Dark Tower, which he believes will heal the world. What follows is a minor pop-culture tour-de-force of Roland the warrior archetypes in the canon. The final mention is perhaps the most damning. You decide.

The legend of Roland has been appropriated in any number of ways, as evidenced even by the above painting, "Roland the Warrior Cat". This entry will not concern itself with anything so frivolous, but rather the serious myth of Roland, originally transcribed in the 12th century French La Chanson de Roland.

In the French story of a relatively minor military engagement, the battle of Roncevaux Pass (778), Roland is leading the rear guard of Charlemagne's troops. He has 20,000 Franks, but he is severely outnumbered by the Saracens, and defeated to a man. His flaw is his ungovernable pride or rashness (demesure). Despite being urged to do so, Roland refuses to blow his horn in distress, thereby assuring his defeat as no reinforcements will arrive.

Encyclopedia Mythica describes Roland as a "Christian hero overwhelmed by the forces of Islam," and "reveals a surprising depth of Roman Catholic hatred for the followers of Mohammed."

Poet Robert Browning, around 1855, wrote "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," a dismal depiction of a chivalric effort for naught, it seems. In a particularly dire stanza:

"What penned them there, with all the plain to choose?
No foot-print leading to that horrid mews,
None out of it. Mad breweage set to work
Their brains, no doubt, like galley-slaves the Turk
Pits for his pastime, Christians against Jews."

Later on, another sad description of the after-effect of any such engagement:

"Not hear? When noise was everywhere! it tolled
Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears
Of all the lost adventurers my peers,--
How such a one was strong, and such was bold,
And such was fortunate, yet each of old
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years."

Browning eloquently expresses that, even if one were "fortunate" he is still "lost", with one moment knelling the woe of years to come. Battle will leave an indelible mark on all involved, and there are no footprints leading out of the "horrid mews."

Finally, to the inimitable Warren Zevon, and his song "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" (1976). Zevon's Roland is a gun for hire who goes where there's "fighting to be done." Sadly, Roland gets his top blown off, but plods on to seek revenge for this mortal wound.

In this somber and stirring mock-epic, not only does the headless Thompson gunner get his man, he continues the fight, "In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley." He simply doesn't know when to call it a day.

All of these warrior Rolands are rash, and do not see the consequences, both physical and psychic, of their undertakings. They fight elective battles, or fight them pridefully.

Submitted for your consideration.

--by Lisa