Hugo's poem,égendedesSiè however, is not based directly on the _Chanson_, but on two prose adaptations written by Achille Jubinal, and published respectively in the _Musée des Familles_ (1843) and the _Journal du Dimanche _(1846). Yet these stories did little more than furnish the framework for the poem, by far the greater part of which is the original work of Hugo.
_à la barbe fleurie_, white-bearded. Expression taken from the _Chanson_. In mediaeval poetry Charlemagne is always described as an old man.
_Roncevaux_, which we call by the Spanish name Roncesvalles, is the valley in the Pyrenees where Charlemagne's rearguard was attacked and cut to pieces by the Moors during his retreat from Spain.
_Ganelon_, the knight through whose treachery the defeat of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles was brought about.
_les douze pairs_. The twelve Paladins of tradition, who formed Charlemagne's Round Table.
L. 6-10. These words are taken almost verbatim from Jubinal's adaptation of the story in the _Musée des Familles_. Jubinal's words are:
'L'etcheco-sauna (le laboureur des montagnes) est rentré chez lui avec son chien; il a embrassé sa femme et ses enfants. Il a nettoyé ses flèches ainsi que sa corne de boeuf, et les ossements des héros qui ne sont plus blanchissent déjà pour l'éternité.'
In a note Jubinal says: 'Ces paroles sont empruntées au chant basque d'Altabicar.'
_Son cheval syrien_. In the _Chanson_ Charlemagne rides on a _mulet de Sulie (Syrie)_. Jubinal changed the mule into a horse. This is one of the points of detail which show that Hugo followed the modern author.
L. 25. The city, as we learn subsequently, was Narbonne. Narbonne is on the west coast of the Gulf of Lyons, near the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Originally a Roman colony, it was one of the chief seats of the Visigoths, from whom it was taken by the Saracens, when they overran Southern France. Charlemagne took it from the latter in 759. Till the fourteenth century it was a port, but the sand has blocked up the harbour and the town is now some distance from the sea.
_mâchicoulis_, battlements; or, more exactly, a gallery round the tower with openings in it from which projectiles could be hurled upon an enemy below.
_vermeil_. The word is one of Hugo's favourite adjectives, and is used to suggest a bright vivid red, and almost invariably in connexion with objects that have pleasurable associations.