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133
Roland has set Olifant to his lips,
Firmly he holds it and blows it with a will.
High are the mountains, the blast is long and shrill,
Thirty great leagues the sound went echoing.
King Carlon heard it and all who rode with him.
"Lo, now, our men are fighting", quoth the King.
...134
The County Roland with pain and anguish winds
His Olifant, and blows with all his might.
Blood from his mouth comes spurting searlet-bright
He's burst the veins of his temples outright.
From hand and horn the call goes shrilling high:
King Carlon hears it who through the passes rides,
Duke Naimon hears, and all the French beside.
Quoth Charles: "I hear the horn of Roland cry!
He'd never sound it but in the thick of fight."The Song of Roland, trans. by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1971 (1937), p. 119.
PLACE: Pyrenees, Spain
TIME: 8th century A.D.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The war between the French and the Spanish Moors. - The Olifant was a horn made of ivory, and is used specifically, almost as a proper name, to denote Roland's horn, made of an elephant's tusk, and adorned with gold and jewels about the rim.
253
...
Whoso had seen those shields smashed all to bits,
Heard the bright hauberks gride an the mail-rings rip,
Heard the harsh spear upon the helmet ring,The Song of Roland, trans. by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1971 (1937), p. 184.
PLACE: Pyrenees, Spain
TIME: 8th century A.D.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The war between the French and the Spanish Moors.
258
Neither forget they their battle-cries to shout;
From the Emir the call "Precieuse!" resounds,
Charles shouts "Mountjoy!" his battle-cry renowned;
They know each other by these clear calls and loud,The Song of Roland, trans. by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1971 (1937), p. 187.
PLACE: Pyrenees, Spain
TIME: 8th century A.D.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The war between the French and the Spanish Moors.
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