Oliver

Also known as: Olivier · Family: Franks · Role: count, Rollant's comrade, one of the dozen peers · First appears: Laisses VII–XII

In Laisses VII–XII, Oliver attends Charles’s council with Rollant and Guenes, among others. In Laisses XIII–XVIII, he calls Rollant his friend and offers to go to Sarraguce, but Charles forbids them both. Later, in Laisses LXXIX–LXXXIV, Oliver identifies Guenes as the traitor who chose them for the rearguard, and asks Rollant to sound his horn; Rollant refuses.

In Laisses XCI–CXX, Oliver fights the pagans, killing Falfarun, Malsarun, Turgin, Esturgus, Justin, and Alphaien, and beheading Escababi. Margariz breaks Oliver’s shield, and Rollant tells him that Guenes’s treason is no longer secret. After heavy losses leave only three-score Franks alive, Oliver vows that if he sees his sister Alde again, she will never embrace Rollant.

In Laisses CXLV–CL, the alcaliph wounds Oliver fatally from behind, and Oliver kills him. After Oliver strikes Rollant by mistake, they pardon one another and part in love; Oliver dies, and Rollant mourns him. Laisses CLXIII–CLXVIII names Oliver as the son of Reinier. The poem later reports him dead with Rollant after the battle; Charles has Oliver laid in a white coffer at Saint Romain, and accuses Guenes of betraying the peers and causing Oliver and Rollant’s deaths.