Going back to “The Song of Roland” had for me something shocking. The description of the fight against this enemy, the whole picture presented by the author has some grotesque quality, even for the standards of some contemporary Hollywood films.
All that blood makes us think in movies like “Resident Evil”, in where this very beautiful girl –actually the only reason to watch the movie –kills lots of people in a feast of violence. I saw half of the first of those productions. The girl is beautiful indeed, but she is not beautiful enough to make me see the entire movie. In the film, all that violence has a perfectly moral justification: the people whom the girl kills are not actually humans, not anymore. They were infected by a virus and now they are just vicious animals or demons, and also if they bite somebody, he or she becomes one of them!
“Roland” and his friends are in a position very similar to Milla Jovovich’s in her own plot. They are fighting a resident evil. Saracens are not just conquerors; Christian knights and kings were involved in conquest wars between themselves, but that was totally different. It was just a change of administration of some land. However, Saracens were idolaters who worship Apollo and idols inhabited by demons; so ultimately, they were worshiper of the Devil himself.
There was no point in saying that Muslims actually are forbidden to create a realistic sculpture even for decorative purposes only. The authors of those times only understood two alternatives: Christian or Pagan. If you were not a Christian you were a Pagan, and Pagans are idolaters who are condemned to hell and they also can condemn your own soul if you become one of them – Jews were a complex third alternative, but Jews didn’t want to spread Judaism and maybe that was something in their favor. Muslims wanted to spread the Islam, so they wanted to convert Christians into Muslims.
For the medieval zeitgeist, that was as bad as or even worse than the zombies of Milla Jovovich’s film. A Christian converted to Islam did not only changed his o her status or loyalties, but also condemned him or herself for the eternity! And condemned people could also bring God’s anger to a land under the shape of bad crops, plagues and in unimaginable ways.
The war against Pagans-Saracens was a holy war. It did not matter if they were the followers of Mohamed and the worshipers of Allah, or the followers of Apollo, or the disciples of the Devil. For medieval Europeans, those were just one and exactly the same thing, and details were irrelevant.
The salvation of the soul was in jeopardy, and that was more important than actual life itself.
Roland killing Saracens was more beautiful for them than Milla Jovovich killing zombies for some of us. The difference was that Saracens were a clear and present danger for Christians and not just a weird fantasy. His violence was saint and a true Christian virtue. Luckily, those Christian virtues remain in the middle ages… do they?
Arturo, I agree that the violent discrimination is disconcerting. I also found it interesting, from Tolan’s literary point of view that he suggests the reader “can enjoy the violence…without remorse” because the poet has sufficiently dehumanized the adversary. As I read the text, I have to say, I did not find myself reveling in the “blood and killing.” On the other hand, had the poet completely barbarized the adversary, say for instance making them zombies, I might have jumped on the blood-train.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is a medieval poem... but, what about our modern narrative in movies... or in the news?
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