The First Crusade took place from the year 1096 to 1099. According to Robert the Monk's retelling of Pope Urban II's speech at the Council of Clermont, the Pope describes the enemy as: “…a race from the kingdom of the Persians, a cursed race, a race completely alien to God, a generation indeed that has not turned its heart or entrusted its spirit to God…” This description is intended to highlight the Christians, whom Pope Urban was addressing, pagans aside. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? it served a similar purpose for the French people at the time of the Second Crusade, nearly fifty years later By manipulating the details of the actual Battle of Roncesvalles Pass, The Song of Orlando reveals a nation embroiled in culture hatred. foreign and pagan in the midst of the Second Crusade. Orlando's Song is based on the Battle of Roncesvalles Pass which took place in 778; however, the author of the story took many liberties in his retelling. The battle was originally between two Christian factions, the Franks and the Basques ( source ), and the Basque forces would not have matched the 400,000 men as suggested in the fictionalized version. Even Charlemagne was not 200 years old. The distinctive difference between the factual account of the Battle of Roncesvalles and the version told in Orlando's Song is curious. The Song of Orlando is thought to have been written between 1129 and 1165, nearly 400 years after the battle. The story would have been passed down by oral tradition for those four centuries, and it is not a stretch to assume that many details would not have remained the same. However, it is unlikely that the opposing force could be changed naturally from the Basques to the Saracens. . Instead, the author of the Song of Orlando may have deliberately made this change as a kind of propaganda for the Second Crusade. A story that brought to light the same kind of religious zeal that led to the Crusades. Although they were partially involved, the First Crusade took place largely without France. When the Second Crusade arrived, however, the French were eager to fight. French Christians had a real hatred for the Muslims against whom they would eventually wage war, and that hatred is represented, and perhaps even amplified, in the Song of Orlando. Brewster Fitz says in his article: “Cain as condemned and converted? The narrative of the Canticles of Orlando projects a new order of Christianity, which stands in relation to the pre-Crusader order as the New Testament era does to the Old Testament era. This narrative is driven by guilt. Its telos is to judge, condemn, kill or convert all forms of the Other, both internally and externally, sacrificially absolving radical guilt. This goal of Christianizing the entire world is precisely the line of thinking that sparked the Crusades, and The Song of Roland goes so far as to manipulate history to spread a message in support of that line of thinking. Interestingly, the Second Crusade took place from 1147 to 1149, a three-year span that fits perfectly with the period in which The Song of Orlando was supposedly written. This supports the theory that the Basques were transformed into Saracens so that the battle could be seen as a religious battle, a clear example of Muslim betrayal in history from which the French could draw inspiration in their real-life battle against pagan culture . the fictional tale, The Song of Orlando, focuses on two particular groups: the Franks and the Saracens. The Franks are the “good guys,” the group to which the readershould associate with and root for. The Franks are Christians, God-fearing men who hold their religion close to their hearts. They are portrayed as a righteous and loving people, even going so far as to pray for their enemies, the Saracens. Although it is a minor detail, it is also worth mentioning that the Franks are a light-skinned people as this is in deliberate contrast to the darker skin of the Saracens. Their leader, Charlemagne, is described as powerful and just. In the very first stanza it says: Charles the King, our Lord and Sovereign, has sojourned in Spain seven whole years, has conquered the land and conquered the western continent, now no fortress remains against him. Charlemagne is a sovereign ruler and a powerful conqueror. This homage would have immediately won the support of any 12th-century Frenchman. If the Franks are a portrait of morality and reason, the Saracens are the opposite. The Saracens are pagans who do not worship the true God. Their king, Marsiles, "does not fear the name of God" (1.7) and "invokes the help of Apollinus" (1.8). Apollin most likely refers to the Greek god Apollo, a deity that the Franks would have considered pagan. If this contrast were not enough, the author says: King Marsilies lay in Sarraguce, went to a cool orchard; there he sat on a throne, of blue marble. Charlemagne travels, conquers, governs. In contrast, King Marsilie “lies” in his cool orchard where he sits comfortably on his throne. He is not a strong and inspiring leader like Charlemagne, but the opposite. Furthermore, the Saracens, as antagonists, are simply portrayed as evil. Their only goal is to defeat the righteous and virtuous Franks. These Saracens are considered the cultural "other" in Orlando's Song because their culture is contrasted with that of the Franks. Their differences are highlighted to show the contrast between the two races of people and further solidify the Franks as the indisputable "good guys". Parallelism is used to draw quick comparisons between Franks and Saracens. The Franks are Christians and the Saracens are pagans. The Franks are a loving people and the Saracens are not. The Franks have light skin, while the Saracens have dark skin. This method creates two sides, one decidedly good and one decidedly bad, and helps the reader quickly become involved in the story by putting everything, literally, in black and white. . This practice is common in all periods of literature; however, it is particularly important in Orlando's Song due to the historical context of the tale. This definition of the Saracens as “the other” is in line with Fitz's analysis of the supposed “new era of Christianity” in which all “others” must be converted or destroyed. In this chanson de geste, Charlemagne's fight against the Muslims appears to be a prototype of every crusade, insofar as, despite all odds, the Christians – the French in this case – will achieve a decisive victory. The argument seems to go that their unshakable faith in Christ will make the French strong enough to defeat the pagan enemy. This belief was succinctly expressed in the famous apothegm: "Paien unt tort et crestens unt dreit". The last line of that quote is the most important. The French sincerely believed that the pagans were wrong and the Christians were right. This idea justified religious wars such as the Crusades in the minds of the Franks and, as the parallel in the Song of Orlando suggests, is the entire basis for Charlemagne's fictional war against the Saracens. Further evidence of the Song of Orlando as thinly veiled political propaganda is peppered throughout the story, hidden in plain sight in the author's choice of words and obviously biased analysis. Sitting in his orchard,. 2015.