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"Six of my earls will stay home, to guard the gold
The other six will swing their cold iron in heathen lands"
-They rode out of the Frankish lands
Blow the horn Olivant at Roncevaux
They raised their silken sails high on their masts
They sailed out to heathen lands for one and two weeks
The oars and the anchor touched white sand:
Roland, the king's friend, was the first ashore.
They fought at Roncevaux for two and three days;
The blue men fell before Roland's sword and blade.
The mountain of blue men blocked the sun;
One fearful footman asked Roland to blow his horn.
Roland put his horn to his bloodied mouth and gave an angry blow;
The anguished sound carried over mountains and seas for three days.
King Charlemagne, he started to weep:
"What awaits my friend? I hear his horn sounding!"
King Charlemagne,
he sees his friend;
Dead lay Roland, king-friend,
holding on to his sword
King Charlemagne came home,
And everyone was listless.
The ship was filled with silver and gold
And the heathens lay behind, dead.
If the translation doesn't make much sense, it's because this is an old folk song, so the language is old and difficult to translate, and the original has more than 30 verses, so this is less than a third of the whole thing.
The story told is the legend of the battle at Roncevaux (norwegianized to Ronsalavollen). In as few words as possible, the Frankish king Charlemagne chooses six of his twelve knights (Roland among them) to fight the musilm Saracens (the blue men) at Roncevaux in the Pyrenees, and Roland carries a horn called Olivant, which he can blow to call for back-up from the king. The Saracens come in overwhelming numbers, but Roland is proud, and refuses to blow his horn until his sword is split in two, and it is too late. When the king arrives, he finds Roland's body, still clutching the broken sword.
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Glittertind - Rolandskvadet *
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