CHARLEMAGNE: ASTOLPHO RESTORES ROLAND’S SANITY

These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. FOR MY FIRST CHAPTER ON CHARLEMAGNE’S PALADINS CLICK HERE.

ASTOLPHO RESTORES ROLAND’S SANITY – Picking up where we left off, the Paladin Astolpho and St. John returned from the moon in the latter’s flying chariot and entered the saint’s palace on a mountaintop. (Yes, I just typed those words.)

Astolpho carried with him the bottle filled with Roland’s sanity from the moon’s Valley of Lost Things. St. John, who was ready to return to Heaven now, parted company with Astolpho by giving him a salve which would heal the blindness of the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) King Senapus.

Mounting his winged hippogriff (part horse, part eagle), our hero flew down from the mountaintop and returned to the court of King Senapus. When he used the salve to cure the king’s blindness, Senapus felt doubly indebted to the Paladin.

Not only had Astolpho driven off or killed all of the Furies preying on Abyssinia, but now that he had restored King Senapus’ vision, he granted the Frankish warrior a boon.

Because Senapus was a fellow Christian, Astolpho asked the king to provide an army to help Emperor Charlemagne repel from his empire the Muslim invaders from North Africa and from Colonized Spain. King Senapus happily agreed and put Astolpho in charge of 100,000 of his best troops. 

Astolpho was thrilled to be able to return to the embattled Charlemagne at the head of an army of allies, just as the Paladin Reinold had recently led a Christian army from England to stand beside the Emperor.

One obstacle remained. King Senapus’ army of 100,000 men lacked enough horses to transport themselves all the way to the land of the Franks. In another example of the way the Tales of Charlemagne combine Christian folklore with ancient pagan myths, the saints in Heaven advised our hero how to acquire enough mounts for the Abyssinian army.

Heeding their words, Astolpho and thousands of Senapus’ men climbed hills and began rolling stones down the inclines. Each rolling stone transformed into a horse complete with bridles, and soon Astolpho was leading the army of 100,000 northwest from Abyssinia to what is now Algeria.

Readers of previous Charlemagne installments may remember that was the homeland of many of the Muslim forces clashing with the Emperor. They may also recall that Reinold and the army from what is now the U.K. had reinforced Charlemagne to the point where he had turned the tables on his land’s invaders and now had many of them besieged.

Astolpho and his army on loan from King Senapus now arrived in North Africa and attacked the Muslim armies there, preventing them from being able to reinforce their own faith’s troops in the land of the Franks.

NOTE: None of this is based on actual military campaigns, remember. It all comes from myths and legends about Charlemagne, just like the earlier battles.

During the period when Astolpho and his troops were taking on their opponents, Roland reentered our story. He had spent all this time crazed from the love potion that had made him love the evil Princess Angelica from Cathay. That madness had come upon him when Angelica married a Saracen warrior and returned to her homeland.

Still insane, the naked Roland’s might was such that he swam from Gibraltar to North Africa and continued preying on any and all human beings to cross his path. Word of his depredations reached the ears of Astolpho, who rejoiced that he would finally be able to use the Bottle of Roland’s Lost Sanity which he had brought back from the moon. (I’m betting it was Tang.)

Setting out with several of his own men and some fellow Paladins who had arrived from Charlemagne’s Empire, Astolpho hunted down the wild Roland. Our heroes managed to subdue Roland, Charlemagne’s nephew.

Astolpho then uncorked the lunar bottle and restored the sanity of the once-great warrior, most prominent of all the Paladins. His comrades happily welcomed Roland back into their ranks. He bathed and shaved himself, feeling ashamed of all that he had done because of the potion making him love Princess Angelica, dating back to the Siege of Albracca.

Roland prayed to God to forgive him and joined Astolpho in his combined army’s North African campaign.     

*** I’ll be examining more tales of Charlemagne soon, picking up from this one. FOR LINKS TO THE PREVIOUS CHARLEMAGNE INSTALLMENTS CLICK HERE.