Roland and Oliver, French Folklore

This story takes place in France over a thousand years ago when Charlemagne was king. At a high festival to celebrate his recent military victories, Charlemagne became angry with one of the most powerful barons in France, old Count Gerard. Outraged, Count Gerard renounced his loyalty to the king and declared he would no longer pay taxes. Knowing Charlemagne would likely attack his home, Count Gerard returned to his stronghold castle in Viana to fortify it and prepare for a long siege.

Indeed, King Charlemagne embarked on a great siege against Count Gerard's stronghold castle of Viana. The king vowed he would never leave until the proud Count Gerard was humbled in the dust before him. For nine weeks Charlemagne besieged the castle and allowed no one to come in or to go out. Yet so well supplied was the garrison with all food, drink, and comforts needed for life that they cared but little for the blockade.

Both the besiegers and the besieged took every opportunity to annoy one another. If Charlemagne's warriors dared approach too near the walls, they were driven back by a shower of arrows from crossbows. If the men of Viana ventured outside the gates or beyond the moat, a troop of Charlemagne's horsemen drove them back at the point of the lance.

Weeks passed. Still the wearisome siege continued. Some say that Charlemagne was encamped around Viana for seven months; others say it was seven years. In any event, during the siege the whole country for miles on every side was laid waste. What had once been blooming meadows, fields and gardens was now trodden into a desert. The vineyards were destroyed, the orchards cut down, the houses of the country folk burned and destroyed. Great indeed was the distress caused by this quarrel between the king and the count.

Yet both the king and Count Gerard remained steadfast. All winter long Charlemagne's men sat by their campfires and guarded the approaches to Viana. By spring, the woods began to brighten with greenish hues and flowers sprang up in the meadows and birds sang soft and sweet. Many knights thought of how their time was being wasted in this fruitless war against one of their own countrymen, and they longed to ride away in quest of other, more worthy adventures. The king tried hard to press the siege and to bring it to a speedy close, but in vain.

One day a party of strange knights rode into the camp and brought stirring news to the king. The king of Spain, they said, had crossed the Pyrenees and was carrying fire and sword and dire distress into southern France. Unless Charlemagne left quickly, the rich provinces of Aquitaine and Gascony could be lost!

The king was much troubled when he heard this news and he called his advisors together to ask their advice. All declared at once in favor of ending the siege of Viana, finding some sort of peace with Count Gerard, and marching without delay against the invaders. But Charlemagne could not abandon his vow.

"Which is better," cautiously said one duke, "to forsake a vow which may have been made too hastily, or to sit here helpless and surrender a precious part of our homeland to invaders?"

"It seems to me," said another duke, "that the present business might be brought to a close another way. Let two knights be chosen, one from each side, and let the combat between them decide the question between you and Count Gerard."

Charlemagne and his advisors were much pleased with this plan. A messenger with a truce flag was sent into the fortress to propose the plan to Count Gerard. On the other side, the men inside the castle of Viana were likewise arguing with one another how best to end the stalemate. They, too, were tired of fighting against the king, and knew that their food supplies and provisions would run out, indeed, they were already beginning to run low. So they very gladly agreed to the terms.

Charlemagne and his advisors selected Charlemagne's valiant nephew Roland to represent the side of the king. Count Gerard selected his grandson, the formidable Oliver, to represent his interests.

Early the following morning, King Charlemagne's nephew Roland was ferried over to an island in the river Rhône where Oliver was already waiting. The signal was given. The two knights put spurs to their steeds and dashed toward each other with the fury of tigers and the speed of the wind. The lances of both were shivered in pieces against the opposing shields, but neither was moved from his place in his saddle. Quickly they dismounted and drew their swords.

For more than two hours the two knights thrusted and parried, warding and striking, but neither gained an advantage over the other. At last, however, Oliver's sword broke after striking Roland's helmet with a too-hearty blow; his shield, too, was split from top to bottom. Left with no weapon to defend himself, Oliver made up his mind to die fighting, and he stood ready to fight with his fists. Roland was pleased to see such pluck.

"Friend," he said, "great is your pride, and I love you for it. I may be the nephew to the king of France and his champion today, but great shame would be upon me were I to slay an unarmed man. Choose for yourself another sword and a more trusty shield, and meet me again as my equal."

So Oliver bade his squires to bring him another sword from the castle, and Roland sat down upon the grass and rested. Three swords were sent over to Oliver, and the knight chose one. Roland rose from the grass and the fierce fight began again. Never were weapons wielded with greater skill. The sun rose high in the heavens, and still each knight stood firmly in his place, thrusting and parrying, striking and warding, and gaining no advantage over his foe. After a time, however, Roland struck his sword with such a force into Oliver's shield that he could not withdraw it.

Now it was Oliver's turn to face an unarmed enemy. "My worthy foe," said he, "it is not our fate for one of us to vanquish the other through the use of swords and shields. Let us decide this matter hand to hand." He threw his own sword and shield aside, and the two of them rushed together to seize each other and to throw one another down.

Moved by the same thought, each snatched the other's helmet and lifted it from his head. At that moment they stood there, bareheaded and face to face. Perhaps it was something they recognized in one another's eyes, perhaps a ray of light settled down between them, but at once they rushed into one another's arms.

Great was the wonder of King Charlemagne and his advisors, and equally great was the astonishment of Oliver's kinsmen, the Vianese of Count Gerard's castle. Knights and warriors from both sides of the river hastened to cross to the island. They were eager to know the meaning of conduct seemingly so unknightly. But when they came nearer they saw the men, who had fought each other so long and so valiantly, now standing hand in hand and pledging their faith as brothers-in-arms. And with one voice all joined in declaring that both were equally deserving of the victory.

Charlemagne's heart was touched by the spectacle. "Count Gerard of Viana," he cried, "all this trouble between you and me is ended and forgotten. If you have harmed me, I freely forgive you. No penny of taxes shall you pay for land or castle. I ask only that your pledge of loyalty be restored."

Then Count Gerard ungirt his sword from his side and uncovered his head, and knelt before the king. He placed both his hands between those of the king and said, "From this day forward I become your man of life and limb, and of all worldly reverence, and unto you I will be loyal and true. To no other lord will I grant obedience."

Then the king raised him gently from the ground and kissed him, and answered, "Count Gerard of Viana, I grant you the lands and the castle of Viana, to have and to hold without any payment of taxes, or any other service except that which is called for in an honorable war."

Then the other knights, in the order of their rank, came and knelt likewise before the king, and each in his turn promised his loyalty. And the king forgave each one all the wrong that he had ever done him, and gave back to each all the lands and all the honors that he had held before.

"And now," said King Charlemagne to Count Gerard, "I will sup with you tonight in your lordly castle of Viana."

Great was the wonder of the Viannese when they saw the king enter their halls, not as the prisoner but as the friend and guest of the count. And great, indeed, was the joy when it was known that peace had been made and that the wearisome siege was at an end. In the broad feast hall a rich banquet was spread, and the night was devoted to feasting, music and merrymaking. From the moment they refused to continue fighting each other, Roland and Oliver were inseparable.

Source: http://www.storiestogrowby.com/stories/roland_oliver_france.html

A Saam's Tale, Finnish Folktale

One day, in the land above the Arctic Circle where the Saams and the Lapps live, a young Saam youth named Sergevan ventured on a hunting trip. After three days his food supplies were nearly gone and no deer had been found. Having no better idea, when he noticed an overgrown path, he followed it.

The path led deep into the woods to a hut, and sitting on its front step was a very old woman.

She looked up. "Peur?" she said in a raspy voice as he approached.

"What?" said the young man. "That's the name of my great-great-great grandfather."

"You look just like him," said the old woman. "I was supposed to marry your great-great-great grandfather - oh, the memories of my Peur from so long ago!"

The old woman coughed and Sergevan offered her what was left of his food and drink. Since she had no teeth, she gnawed and sucked on his crust of bread and jam.

"Why didn't the two of you marry, if you don't mind my asking?" said Sergevan after awhile.

"I might as well tell you," said the old woman. "Always he took the other side! If I said it was raining, he said it was snowing. If I said it was hot in the tupa, he said it was cold. If I said to go right, he went left. Oh, Peur, Peur! - what a life we would have had if only you had listened to me at least some of the time!"

The old woman noticed Sergevan's hunting arrows and supplies and empty bag. "You must be far from home. You're welcome to stay here tonight. Have you had no luck hunting?"

"There's no deer anywhere!" said Sergevan. "I've looked and looked."

"There's plenty of deer," said the old woman. "You just need to know how to look. Your great-great-great grandfather used to lure the deer by singing. When he stole up to the deer, he'd come so that the wind blew at his back. Now, that's why your great-great-great-grandfather . . ."

In a flash, Sergevan grabbed his bows and arrows and bolted back into the tundra. By the end of that day he returned to the old woman's hut, empty-handed. He didn't want to be unkind to an old woman, but in his heart he felt angry she had given him wrong advice.

"I came back to tell you that your advice did not work," he said, grim-faced.

"You are just like your great-great-great-grandfather!" said the old woman. "He never listened to me either! Now if you had only let me finish what I was saying, I would have said that he'd come up to the deer with the wind at his back and that's why he . . . wasn't a good hunter! When the wind is at your back the deer catches a whiff of human scent and runs away. The wind must be blowing toward your face, so the human scent blows away from the deer. And singing only tells them that you're there - you must be absolutely silent."

"Ah!" said Sergevan. "I'll go back to the tundra now."

"Not now - not at night!" said the old woman. "Sleep here and leave at daybreak, that's the best time to go hunting."

When dawn broke, Sergevan headed back to the tundra. He silently crept up on a deer while the wind was blowing on his face and sent a single arrow flying. Later that day, he and the old woman feasted on his game.

"You are almost like family to me," Sergevan said. "Why don't you come live with my family?"

"I could have been your great-great-great grandmother," said she. "But you know, when they get old, all animals stay at their nest or cave. I will stay here."

"Then I will stay with you," said the youth.

And so Sergevan and the old woman lived for a number of happy years in her hut with plenty to eat and plenty to talk about.

Source: http://www.storiestogrowby.com/stories/saams_tale_finland.html