Fun Facts: The Song of Roland and Hauteclaire

If you've read up to chapter XII of A Game of Kings and Pretty Pony Princesses you'd know that Hauteclaire gave himself his name from the French epic The Song of Roland.

Well, I found a translation at an antique bookstore and just finished reading it. Here are some fun facts about the story:
*The story is about Christian franks taking over Spain, murdering Muslims, and proving that the "Muslim faith" is false. Donald Trump would love this book.
*Hauteclaire (spelled Halteclere) is mentioned a total of four times.

The shaft breaks and shatters right down to his hands.
Roland said to him: 'Companion, what are you doing?
I do not care for a stick in battle such as this;
Iron and steel should be put to use.
Where is your sword named Halteclere?
Its hilt is of gold and the pommel of crystal.'
'I could not draw it out,' replies Oliver,
'For my need to keep striking was so great.'

Count Roland calls out to Oliver:
'Lord companion, now Engeler is dead;
We had no more valiant knight than he.'
The count replies: 'May God grant me revenge.'
He urges his horse with his spurs of pure gold,
Wields Halteclere, whose steel is red with blood,
And with great force goes to strike the pagan.
He dealt his blow and the Saracen falls;
Devils carry off his soul.

*This story is fking gory as all hell with brains leaking out of ears, guts falling out of bodies, people being sliced in half. Here's an example with Halteclere!

Oliver feels that his wound is mortal.
He grips Halteclere with its burnished steel
And strikes Marganice on his pointed helmet of gold,
Sending its flowers and stones tumbling to the ground.
He slices through his head right down to his front teeth;
Raising his sword on high he flung him down dead.

*Oliver, the wielder of Halteclere, is blinded in his last battle, in a somewhat eerily similar fashion that befell Hauteclaire in his last battle in the flashback in chapter IX.

It was certainly an fun, surprisingly-action-packed, and gory read.

Here's another gory scene for you to enjoy.

[Roland] grasps the oliphant, which he never wanted to lose,
And strikes [an enemy pagan] on his golden helmet, studded with gold and gems.
He shatters the steel, his skull and his bones;
He put both his eyes out of their sockets
And cast him down dead at his feet.
Then he says: 'Wretched pagan, how did you dare
Grab hold of me, without thought for right or wrong?
Anyone who hears of this will regard you as mad.
Now my oliphant is split at its broad end;
The crystal and the gold have come away.'

Comments

[Root Beer]

XD What a hilarious book.