When Charlemagne’s top general Roland was killed on August 15, 778 by rebel Basques in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, little did he imagine with his dying breath that after starring in many literary works such as the 11th century French Chanson de Roland or the Italian Renaissance epic poem Orlando furioso, he would end up on UNESCO’s World Heritage list thanks to a statue hundreds of miles away in Germany.
Or maybe he did as he expired on that windswept Pyrenean mountain pass; just as we ordinary mortals are meant to see our past lives flash before us in the moment before death, perhaps these super-humans see their future glory flash before them, from the oft-sung heroics celebrated by mediaeval minstrels to ultimate enthronement by the United Nations.
Categories: Germany
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