Par les penitence cumandet a ferir: the legitimacy of combat against the pagans in the Song of Roland and in the Song of William.

Author(s)

Lucas Bittencourt Gouveia

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-04-26

Examining board members

Marcelo Candido da Silva; Neri de Barros Almeida; Carlos Roberto Figueiredo Nogueira

• Advisor: Marcelo Candido da Silva

Abstract

The Song of Roland, explored in the nineteenth century as the main text of French literature, was heavily exploited over the past 150 years, often with political uses, not always expressed. Despite extensive work by literary studies, there hardly any historical research on its Christian content and its possible association with the legitimacy of the combat against the pagans. This work investigates how the pagans are represented in the gestas of the late eleventh century, and how they build an otherness through religion, morality, territoriality, and ethnicity.It also investigates how Christians are represented in a pan-European unity, in a superposition of the notions of empire and Christianity, and how their fight against the heathen is legitimated and even sanctified through the martyrdom of their knights. (AU)