Rollant

Also known as: Rollanz · Family: Franks · Role: count, Charles's nephew, one of the dozen peers · First appears: Laisses VII–XII

In Laisses VII–XII, Rollant comes into Charles’s council with Guenes and Oliver. He is Charles’s nephew and lord’s man, and Oliver is his friend. In Laisses XIII–XVIII, Rollant recalls that Marsilies took the heads of Basan and Basile, counts sent by Charles, and offers to go to Sarraguce with Oliver; Charles forbids them. Guenes is Rollant’s stepfather, but he says, “I'll not love him, so long as I'm a man, Nor Oliver, who goes at his right hand”. After Guenes agrees to help dishonour Rollant and arranges for him to be placed in the rereward, Charles entrusts Rollant with it. Rollant refuses Charles’s offer of half his host, keeps twenty thousand Franks, and sends Gualter del Hum with a thousand to the ravines and crags.

At Rencesvals, Rollant refuses Oliver’s request to sound his horn for Charles. He fights the pagans, killing Aelroth, Chemuble, Valdabron and Grandones, while the Franks suffer heavy losses. When he finally sounds his olifant, blood runs from his mouth and his temples crack; later he slices off Marsilies’s right hand and takes the head of Jursaleu. After Oliver strikes him by mistake, Rollant pardons him, and Oliver dies. Rollant then rides to Gualter, fights on with him and Turpin, tends Turpin’s wounds, and gathers fallen companions, including Gerer. Seeing his dead peers and Oliver, Rollant swoons; as death draws near, he recalls that Charles gave him Durendal in Moriane. He asks God to forgive his sins and dies in Laisses CLXXV–CLXXX.

In Laisses CCV–CCX, Charles finds Rollant’s body and swoons with grief. At Aix, Charles tells Alde, Oliver’s sister and Rollant’s promised bride, that Rollant is dead; she refuses Charles’s offer of Loewis and dies at his feet. Later, Charles accuses Guenes of betraying the peers and causing Rollant and Oliver’s deaths. Guenes says he sought to destroy Rollant because Rollant had cost him gold and wealth, but denies treason.