Triumph over the Mind and Spirit

The Song of Roland seizes upon conversion as an opportunity to triumph over pagans, not just in killing them (triumph through death) but also is asserting that their truth of God and eternity is correct (triumph through life?). And when asked which is worse, to be beaten in death or beaten – perhaps more accurately, captured – in life, Roland definitely leans toward the greater victory being in the one that lasts (infinitely) longer.

The Archbishop Turpin is praised for two skills: that of battle and that of conversion. Roland himself praises the more highly (placing it last of his eulogy before a final blessing) that “Since the apostles there was never such a prophet / For maintaining the faith and winning men over” (v. 2255-2256). Previous to this point we have witnessed Turpin slay countless pagans in battle, but it is this quality that Roland ultimately praises, as if to say that it is far more worthy of praise than mere victory in battle.

The conversion of Bramimonde, perhaps appropriately, begins with the defeat of her husband in battle. She despairs of her gods (which the poet completely inaccurately names as Muhammad, Turvagant and Apollo – but who ever said that medieval Christians had a completely accurate view of Islam?), casting her idols into ditches and otherwise defacing them on pp. 110-111. The emir, Baligant, makes the same transition during his fight with Charlemagne – he “begins to realize / That he is wrong and Charlemagne is right” (v. 3553-3554). It seems that victory in the physical realm is only a stepping stone to victory in the spiritual realm. On the next page (p. 143) the emir attempts to assert feudal lordship by urging Charles to give in and become his vassal, but Charlemagne responds by urging Baligant to give in and accept Christianity, showing that Charlemagne values spiritual dominance over feudal (or martial) conquest.

As the clinching point for his victory, rather than forcibly baptizing Bramimonde along with the hundred thousand pagans left in Saragossa, Charlemagne decides that she will be persuaded to convert. “She will be taken as a captive to fair France; / The king wishes her to become a convert through love” (v. 3673-3674). What he intends is something more than a triumph over someone in battle (through killing them) or a triumph over someone’s free will (by forcing them to be baptized). It is a triumph over the mind and spirit and the ultimate vindication that he is in the right. And indeed, the poem cannot be complete until the last page whereon Bramimonde “has heard so many sermons and parables” (v. 3979) that she desires Christianity actively, not just as an alternative to death. It is the last line of the contained story (before a final epilogue-esque bit about Charlemagne) that “She is a Christian, convinced of the truth” (v. 3987) – this is the symbolic victory Glyn Burgess speaks of in the Introduction, and it is vastly more cathartic to the end of the story than the less than satisfactory (due to the loss of Roland) actual, physical victory over paganism.