El Cid

I would like to take a moment to talk about epic film. In the case of El Cid, it seems that epic films are more often based upon epic tales that have already been written than are original tales that stand on their own. El Cid had already been written down, based off of a real figure that lived during the 11^th century AD, long before Charlton Heston became the Spanish hero in the more modern adaptation that we watched in class. This makes it somewhat difficult to analyze culturally. We can analyze the original text, like we did to Roland, in terms of the culture that produced it in medieval Europe, but we can not do the same to the film version of El Cid because it was made in 1961. For the purposes of analysis, however, I will look at it as a text produced during the time of the action rather than as a mid 20^th century film.

Many comparisons can be made between El Cid and Roland. Both take place in medieval Europe. Both heroes display aspects of idealized virtue, including fealty to king, perfect judgment, a master in battle (able to take on 13 men in El Cid’s case), and perfectly devoted to god. They were produced in a warrior culture that valued these things, and the result is that both tales feature a hero assisted by god and close to a king. El Cid has a courtly relationship with Jimena, and displays all the chivalric behaviors that knights of the time held. Following the rules prescribed for knights courting woman.

Mention of the epic villains should be made here as well. The Moors and their plotting can be easily paralleled with Ishtar’s plotting against the heroes in Gilgamesh and Ravana going up against Rama. Indeed, these epics bear so much similarities, that outside of plot, setting, and culture, they have almost all the same features.

The Song of Roland

One of the features of epics is that the protagonist, quite often, is a warrior. Gilgamesh, Rama, Achilles, Ulysses, all of these protagonists are fighters, warriors, and the epics that contain them are full of massive battles, duels, magical weapons, and other fighters. The fact that all of these epics are so fixated on battle is a reflection of their warrior culture. The Song of Roland, produced in the warrior culture of medieval France, is no exception. Even the priest within The Song of Roland, Archbishop Turpin, is a warrior, and slays many pagans by the end of the epic.

What sets the culture that produced The Song of Roland apart is that it was a monotheistic one. Unlike the Mesopotamia that produced Gilgamesh and the India that produced The Ramayana, the Franks pray to one god. Saying that there is one god within Roland would be a mistake however. We are frequently introduced to “Mahomet” and “Apollin,” the gods of the (ironically monotheistic) Moors. In this way, there are actually multiple gods within the epic, despite its creators praying to one. While the gods of Gilgamesh and The Ramayana act independently as developed characters themselves. The Christian god of The Song of Roland, whose purpose, it would seem, is solely to help the warriors of the poem to live and fight in battle.

One of the features important in both The Ramayana and The Song of Roland is that the hero adheres to a certain code. In Ramayana this is the code of grace and virtue held by Hindu culture. In The Song of Roland, it is the chivalric codes held by the knights of medieval Europe that include allegiance to one’s king, god, and other rules for conduct, that hold this spot. Of course, Roland adheres to these codes so strictly, that it results in his death. Part of the warrior code, as we discussed in class, consists of fulfilling one’s duties to the king even if it leads to death. Roland refuses to blow his horn when it is clear that his army is outnumbered, it is more shameful to call for reinforcements than to die fighting.

The Ramayana

Nowhere in the epic genre are we given a more colorful story than The Ramayana. Supernatural weapons, such as Rama’s bow, of great strength, are used against ten-headed monsters such as Ravana, while an army of monkey-people are pitted against demons in battle. The themes of The Ramayana are timeless, as the themes of epics must be. The scope of the epic takes place on the entire Indian continent and Sri Lanka (Lanka, in the story).

Our protagonist is an interesting figure. He possesses near-perfect virtue and was an incarnation of a god, Vishnu. In R.K. Narayan’s prose translation, we learn that “Although Rama was Vishnu, his human incarnation made him unaware of his identity at the moment” (Narayan 13). This allows the epic to take place on a human level, as the protagonist must deal with situations as an ordinary human would, though without supernatural strength of course. Rama is a demigod or, more correctly, as an incarnation of Vishnu, a god in human form. He is imbued with godlike traits like exceptional speed, strength, and power and, except for a couple questionably moral moments- such as Rama killing Vali in a “cowardly” way with his bow from a distance, has perfect morals and judgment in all things, similar to the god of Roland’s Christians

What sets the Ramayana apart from Roland and Gilgamesh is, as I said before, the colorfulness of the story. The world is populated by a monkey race of people, of which Hanuman is one. Monsters and demons with multiple heads fight against armies. It is all quite exciting.