"The Song of Roland" is acknowledged today as the first masterpiece of French vernacular literature and one of the world"s greatest epic poems. The earliest extant example of a medieval "chanson de geste" ("song of deeds"), its four thousand lines represent the most famous literary celebration of Carolingian mythology from the Middle Ages. Written down around the year 1090, the Song of Roland"s finely crafted verses tell of the betrayal and defeat of Charlemagne"s beloved nephew at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees and of the revenge subsequently sought on his behalf. Although the identity of the surviving work"s author cannot be known with certainty, his poetic genius cannot be doubted. His mastery of chanson de geste compositional techniques transformed an historically minor military setback - the ambush and slaughter of the great emperor"s rearguard by a band of Basque highlanders in August 778 - into the most immediately popular and subsequently cherished artistic...