The "Song of Roland" is based on a real historical event connected with Charlemagne's unsuccessful campaign in Spain in 778. Due to the betrayal of Ganelon, the Breton count Roland, his loyal friend Olivier, and the wise archbishop Turpin, part of a small rear-guard detachment become trapped in an ambush in the Roncevaux Pass. The brave warriors find themselves cut off from Charlemagne's army and are forced to engage in a bloody battle against vastly superior enemy forces... The poem gained widespread popularity and inspired a series of works centered around its titular character (the poems by M. Boyardo "The Lovestruck Roland", L. Ariosto "The Frenzied Roland", etc.), and had a significant impact on European literature. The "Song of Roland" is published in the classic translation by Yu. B. Korneev with detailed notes by A. A. Smirnov.
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