Religion and war are two major themes
that were present during the Middle Ages.
Often times the two were intertwined due to conflicting religious
beliefs. The different beliefs caused
tensions that would escalate to violence and sometimes lead to war. Many times war would ensue because one
religion would think that it was superior to all other religions. One Religion that was infamous for this was
the Catholic faith. The Catholics were responsible for numerous crusades that occurred
during the Middle Ages.
The Song of Roland is an Epic Poem from
the Middle Ages in which the themes of religion and war are entangled. In the poem, Roland and his fellow Christian
soldiers were fighting a crusade against the Moslems. The Christian faith had a significant
influence on the way the soldiers fought.
The Christian soldiers thought that they were doing a just and holy
thing by fighting the Moslems. The Christians
even had an Archbishop with them who rallied the troops and lifted their
spirits in the name of God (1127-1135).
The soldiers were also promised salvation for participating in the
crusade (1135).
Religion has
a major influence on Roland’s life. It directs
his life because his faith was one of the main reasons he was fighting in the
crusade to begin with. He believed in the
cause and fought as valiantly as any knight could. Roland’s sword, named Durendal, contained
several relics which shows that religion was something that was important to
Roland (2345-2350). I think that religion
helped console Roland. As he was dying,
he prayed to God and shortly after the angels appeared (2369-2372).
I think that there are a couple of
lessons an audience could learn from the lengthy death scene and the appearance
of the archangels in The Song of Roland. One thing that they could learn is that they
really would be granted a place in Heaven if they participated in the
crusades. They could also learn how to
act like an admirable knight by fighting to the death for their people and
religion, just like Roland did.
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