Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 254
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Qi a duel fu en Renchevals livrée,
Chascune biere fu mot bien atornée,
Sor les somiers et trosée et levée,
C 6140: Deus .XII. pers dont France est adolée.
Cp. also, as a parallel to the description of the reception by the priests at
Arles, the parallel in the version rimée, depicting the scene at Blaye:
C 6483: A Blavies fu li rois o son empire:
La oi'ssiez si fait duel et tel ire,
C 6485: Soner cez sainz et font cez messes dire,
Chanter yegiles, faire cez sauters lire.
But there are no parallels to the important facts of this saga passage
in any French version of the poem. In O as well as in the version rimée
Roland, Oliver and Turpin are buried at Blaye, at the church of St. Ro-
main.
Pseudo-Turpin has a special version of this episode of the story of
Roland72. Turpin himself is of course not buried at all, Roland is buried
at Blaye, and Oliver at Belin in the same region. But the Chronicle does
not stop there; according to this detailed, pseudo-historical account, prac-
tically all the important chieftains are brought back from Roncevaux and
distributed among Blaye, Belin, St. Seurin of Bordeaux, Nantes, Arles,
and Rome. Most of the heroes are not mentioned in the older versions
of the Chanson de Roland, and we have no reason to doubt that “Turpin”
has treated his sources with as little respect in this part of his tale as in
the descriptions of the battie itself. Having made of Roncevaux a sort of
Ragnarok for practically all the famous heroes of the chansons de geste,
he could afford to be generous in distributing them among famous ceme-
teries. Rome and Nantes are unimportant in this connection; the people
buried there are, naturally, the count of Brittany and the prefect of Rome
with their followers. Two groups remain, on the one hånd Blaye, Belin
and Bordeaux, and on the other, Arles.
Blaye is mentioned in all versions of the poem as the burial place of
Roland, and Bordeaux is also mentioned because the olifant was deposited
there by Charlemagne (O vv. 3684-94). “Turpin” has added Belin, pos-
sibly because at some remote period (in the early 12th century) Belin
really claimed to possess the body of Oliver. The version rimée affirms
that Roland and Aude were buried in the same church, but
72 Ed. Meredith-Jones, Paris 1936, chapter XXIX, pp. 213-17. Ed. in vol. III of
the Textes de la Chanson de Roland, Paris 1941, pp. 80-84.