When students and scholars speak of The Song of Roland, they generally refer to the text in the manuscript Digby 23 at Oxford University, but American scholar of French language and literature
Burland points out that the story of the deaths of Roland and the 12 peers of France at the Battle of Roncevaux circulated in countless oral and written versions. She considers the larger story
of which the manuscript is but a single example, emphasizing its function in affirming and questioning individual and collective identities across time. Quotations are followed by English
translation. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
