Family Theater: Song of Roland

Family Theater presents Terry Moore and Jeff Chandler. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network in cooperation with Family Theater Incorporated presents Jeff Chandler as the legendary nephew of Charlemagne in the Song of Roland. To introduce the drama, your hostess, Terry Moore.

Thank you, Jean. It has been nearly 160 years since a French historian discovered in a neglected corner of the museum, I'd elapidated, but still legible parchment manuscript. This was the Song of Roland. The tale at recounts was not new to the scholars of European folklore, for the heroic story appears in the legends of all European nations.

In fact, the recurrent musical theme you will hear tonight is a part of the original Song of Roland, the French soldiers sang in battle for nearly four centuries, recounting the valor of Roland at the Pass of Ronsavalle.

The Pass of Ronsavalle high in the Pyrenees were for centuries, France and Spain have faced each other. To bring back again the epic days of Roland, it is now my pleasure to present Jeff Chandler as the title character in The Song of Roland.

The year is 778, and in a serene arch of near Cordova in Spain, the white haired Charlemagne rests from the seven years of incessant campaigns against the elusive Moorish king, Marcilius, but as the mighty Frankish court spends its days idly in the flowering grove, in nearby Sarah Rosa, the whiley marcilius well-versed in treachery,

calls council with Blanca Dream, wisest of the heroes in the Spanish camp. Wise Blanca Dream, what say you? How shall I resist the disaster that threatens to overwhelm the right arm of Islam? Good King, though we have left no army fit to do battle with the mighty Charles, still I foresee that the Franc will come to terms.