Do you think the typical listener to a recitation of the Song of Roland would have spotted the discrepancies? Basically in this story Charlemagne receives gifts from the Muslim King, which is a trap. So Roland sends his stepdad ,Ganelon, to negotiate with the Muslims. Ganelon becomes so mad because of this that he swears to get revenge on the French, so he betrayed them.  Ganelon returns to Charlemagne and lies to him. Ganelon leads Charlemagne’s men to war. Roland and his best friend Oliver are two of these men. Oliver sees Muslims coming so he tries to convince Roland that his dad betrayed them. Roland does not believe him until the end of the first battle then agrees. Oliver then pleads with Roland to blow his trumpet for reinforcements, but he refuses this three times. Roland doesn’t blow his trumpet because he believes that honor is more important that winning. Oliver believes that winning is more important than honor. So when the second wave of Muslims came Roland finally blows his trumpet. Both of them die, but Charlemagne hears the trumpet and comes to the rescue. 

According to Wikipedia “The Song of Roland  is an 11th-century chanson de geste based on ]the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux in AD 778, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne.” According to Cornell College, “Olivier: Roland’s best friend, comrade, and the brother of Aude. He is also referred to as Oliver.” According to Cornell College “Roland: Charlemagne’s nephew and leader of the French army’s rear guard.” This poem twisted the historical event of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778. In the poem there was an invasion of Spain by the ruler Charlemagne to help a set of Muslims to defeat another set of Muslims. Even though this poem twisted the real event in so many ways to the point it made no sense, the Europeans still liked it. 

According to Google recitation is “the action of repeating something aloud from memory.” According to Google discrepancies means “a lack of compatibility or similarity between two or more facts.” Do you think the typical listener to a recitation of the Song of Roland would have spotted the discrepancies? Yes. There are a few discrepancies and some of them are obvious. For example the troops. At first Charlemagne had 140,000 troops. After he fought with the Muslims he lost 20,000 troops. Later he had 335,000 troops.