The First Stanza of The Song Of Roland

Charlemagne, the king of France, has waged war in Spain against the Saracens for seven years. He has conquered the entire Spain and there isn’t any city left to invade but only Saragossa, which is located upon a mountain. It is the city of pagan King Marsile. He has no love for God for he is a follower of Muhammad and besides, he prays to Apollo. No matter what he does, he will be …

…and the course of the whole poem. With these very first lines, we definitely know that Saracens will lose and suffer near death. They represent devil, for they don’t love Christian God. By following the simple idea that nothing happens without the will of God, we are not very surprised that Christians are so sure that they are going to win. And this is simply the core of the basic idea of the story.