this
monarch took up his abode near the Rhine to repress the invasions of the
northern barbarians, awe them into submission, and gradually induce them to
accept the teachings of the missionaries he sent to convert them.

[Sidenote: The champion of Christianity.] As Charlemagne destroyed the
Irminsul, razed heathen temples and groves, abolished the Odinic and
Druidic forms of worship, conquered the Lombards at the request of the
Pope, and defeated the Saracens in Spain, he naturally became the champion
of Christianity in the chronicles of his day. All the heroic actions of his
predecessors (such as Charles Martel) were soon attributed to him, and when
these legends were turned into popular epics, in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, he became the principal hero of France. The great deeds of his
paladins, Roland, Oliver, Ogier the Dane, Renaud de Montauban, and others,
also became the favorite theme of the poets, and were soon translated into
every European tongue.

The Latin chronicle, falsely attributed to Bishop Turpin, Charlemagne's
prime minister, but dating from 1095, is one of the oldest versions of
Charlemagne's fabulous adventures now extant. It contains the mythical
account of the battle of Roncesvalles (Vale of Thorns), told with infinite
repetition and detail so as to give it an appearance of reality.

[Sidenote: Chanson de Roland.] Einhard, the son-in-law and historian of
Charlemagne, records a partial defeat in the Pyrenees in 777-778, and adds
that Hroudlandus was slain. From this bald statement arose the mediaeval
"Chanson de Roland," which was still sung at the battle of Hastings. The
probable author of the French metrical version is Turoldus; but the poem,
numbering originally four thousand lines, has gradually been lengthened,
until now it includes more than forty thousand. There are early French,
Latin, German, Italian, English, and Icelandic versions of the adventures
of Roland, which in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were turned into
prose, and formed the basis of the "Romans de Chevalerie," which were
popular for so many years. Numerous variations can, of course, be noted in
these tales, which have been worked over again by the Italian poets Ariosto
and Boiardo, and even treated by Buchanan in our day.

It would be impossible to give in this work a complete synopsis of all the
_chansons de gestes_ referring to Charlemagne and his paladins, so we will
content ourselves with giving an abst