Medieval Manliness
“Chivalry offers the only possible escape from a world divided between wolves who do not understand, and sheep who cannot defend” -C.S. Lewis, 'The Necessity of Chivalry'
Can reading chivalric poetry from the 1000’s really help you live a better life in 2023? After reading The Song of Roland, I answer that with a resounding “yes!” Medieval writers were not apologetic about idealizing virtues in their characters. A character typically embodied a single virtue: the Pardoner in Canterbury Tales embodied greed, Galahad in Arthurian legends embodied purity. This technique is less familiar to modern readers in the age of the anti-hero.
Yet, successful books from the modern era still draw on this tradition. One series proving to be particularly timeless is Lord of the Rings. Characters embody virtues, the heroes are heroes, and the villains are villains. C.S. Lewis does something similar with his Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis and Tolkien reflect Medieval literature. I'm certain they drew on The Song of Roland too. I make this comparison to illustrate that although The Song of Roland is a thousand-year-old poem about knightly chivalry, you can apply the lessons in it even if you’re not a landlord or a warrior. Our most popular fictions draw on similar themes. The Song of Roland is a display of virtuous friendship, faith, and chivalrous masculinity, an example we should heed.
First, I will summarize the story for those who haven’t read it: The Song of Roland is a dramatized account of the Battle of Ronceveaux (778 A.D.) on the border between Frankia and the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain. In this battle, King Charlemagne’s army is attacked from behind by a large Muslim and pagan force as they march over the Pyrenees from Spain into France. Count Roland is the knight charged with guarding the rear of the column. Without calling for aid, he and his companions take on the entire pagan army. Roland and his knights are all killed in battle along with their Archbishop, but their sacrifice successfully fends off the enemy and saves Charlemagne’s army. The poem is full of prayer, violence, betrayal, feats of knightly courage, and politics among the various characters. To call it dated would be an injustice. There is much you can enjoy and much to learn from Roland and his knights.
Roland chooses twelve barons as companions to guard the rear of Charlemagne’s army. Count Oliver is his right-hand-man, his closest compatriot. Roland doesn’t fight alone. You, nor they, are meant to fight life’s battles alone. Roland and Oliver balance one another. They know one another’s strengths and weaknesses well. Leading up to the battle, Roland’s fatal flaw becomes apparent: vainglory. It is Oliver who points it out. Roland doesn’t call for the main army’s help when he realizes his detachment vastly outnumbered. He takes the opportunity to show off his valor and decides to charge in without calling for aid. It is Oliver who critiques Roland’s hubris in no uncertain terms.
Later, Roland acknowledges his mistake, but his Barons all die in battle for him. Men struggling to ask for help is no new theme. Even Medieval knights were stubborn, probably more so, about asking their fellow men for some assistance. Find your twelve barons. Get around virtuous men. You need to listen to what they have to say when they correct you. You need to be open to hearing criticism. You should have men in your life who will stand next to you during trying times. Find men you can trust as Roland could trust Oliver. Strong, loyal friendships are key to a virtuous life.
Further, Roland and his twelve barons root their courage in Christian faith. It is their faith that motivates them to fight on. Winning honor and displaying valor only make sense in context of defending the vulnerable, loyally serving the Christian king, and opposing those who oppose Christ. They trust in victory because they don’t think they can lose with God on their side.
At first, that belief appears to reinforce a ‘might is right’ theology, stemming from a pagan idea that gods vie for supremacy. When the pagan soldiers lose the battle of Roncevaux, they ostentatiously abandon their gods. They hang their statue of Apollo. The pagans believe that their defeat is attributable to divine abandonment and likewise abandon their divines. Roland and his knights do no such thing in the face of death. Their faith carries them into battle, their trust in the Lord to grand them victory motivates them to fight on.
In dying for their victory, they don’t blame God. They won’t abandon God, even if the victory they trusted in doesn’t come in the manner they expected. The Christian knights exemplify important aspects of faith. In any fight great or small, have faith that God is with you. Serve because it is right. Protect your comrades and the vulnerable because the Lord asks you to. When events go wrong, don’t lose faith. These are positive, unchanging expressions of Christian faith.
Though chivalry is a moral code specifically for medieval knights on and off the battlefield, you can draw from its view of masculinity. Knights were expected to be at the same time well-mannered, peaceable Christians in society, and formidable dealers of death in the field. The safety of Christendom was their responsibility.
The crowning achievement of Medieval chivalry was reconciling great strength with emotional and intellectual depth. In The Necessity of Chivalry, C.S. Lewis argues that this synthesis is more ‘art’ than nature. It is true that we’re animals who participate in competition, hunting, reproduction, and other natural processes. It is also true that we have unique intellectual abilities and souls given by God. The two are sometimes difficult to reconcile. Lewis describes this dynamic in his essay:
“humanity falls into two sections--those who can deal in blood and iron but cannot be "meek in hall", and those who are "meek in hall" but useless in battle”.
Civilization develops warlike tribes into cultivated nations. The trouble is that those cultivated nations aren’t always good enough at fighting to defend their civilization. The genius of the chivalric ideal is fusing the extremes of physical violence and virtuous gentleness. This sums up the quality of “meekness”.
If chivalry is indeed dead, you can look to Roland for an example as you attempt to revive it. Men should be physically strong so that they can fulfill their vocation of service effectively. Modern men are so often called to be sensitive that we don’t feel enough drive for bravery, determination, resistance to evil, and indignation at wrongdoing. Young men are rebelling against the sensitivity trend, but many are turning to unhealthy ‘macho’ expressions of masculinity.
The Medieval Chivalry formula offers the perfect answer. Roland was an able servant and protector because he was a great warrior. He is also a devout Christian who trusts in the Lord. You should not seek violence, but you should not passively avoid confrontation if it’s necessary and just. Medieval Christians saw the necessity for good men of developed character and refinement who could physically defend their civilization and codified it in chivalry.
Like the Hobbits selflessly undertaking the journey to Mordor in Lord of the Rings, Roland’s adventure is supposed to call us up to a new level of virtue. The authors in these stories don’t bother with ‘making it realistic’, because there are plenty of negative motivators and anti-heroes in the real world. Count Roland is firm in faith, unmatched in bravery, and loyal to a fault. He’s a character who makes you want to become better, not one who is like you. The fewer true heroes you read about, the fewer you believe might actually exist. Literature ought to inspire you to go on a difficult trail to excellence, not walk along with you on an easy, mundane path of medioctiry. Medieval expressions of chivalry have much to show us about a virtuous expression of masculinity.