Humanising the Enemy: Empathy in Old French Crusade Narrative 

‘From the Song of Roland through Byron and Flaubert, Western Writers have demonised the Muslim World’, observed the distinguished intellectual Ziauddin Sardar (The Saturday Times, July 24, 2004), referring to the oldest and best known of French crusading narratives.

The assertion of the hero Roland that ‘Pagans are wrong and Christians are right’ has dominated critical thinking about the depiction of the religious conflict in medieval French epic. However, while the conviction of the truth of Christianity is constant, the representation of non-Christians in these poems is varied and sometimes surprisingly nuanced.

This lecture examines a wide range of these crusade narratives discussing cases where the enemy is not demonized, but humanized, recognized as like ‘us’ and suffering the consequences of war. 

Hosted by: Esther Dermott (PVC Arts, Law and Social Sciences)