This study will provide a comparative analysis of two works of medieval literature from France and Japan--The Tale of the Heike and The Song of Roland. The study will consider the warrior code of the two cultures, prevailing religious beliefs, chivalry and the status of women, the concept of honor, and loyalty to the lord. Both works are representative of the literary traditions prevalent in the two centuries and cultures of their creation, with emphasis on the militaristic nature of the life lived by the good, courageous, loyal warrior.
Although both works emphasize a religious or transcendent element, the French tale being Christian, the Japanese being Buddhist, both also are marked by suggestions that despite all the heroics in battle, humans suffer deeply and despair at times of knowing the meaning of life. Despite the fact that the French warriors fight and kill pagans and die for Jesus Christ and Christianity above all, Charlemagne at the end of Roland is driven to declare, "God, how tiring is my life!" (Roland 175). At the very beginning of Heike, we read of the underlying world view that colors the Japanese epic:
The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind (Heike 23).
Still, despite the claims of exhaustion and impermanence, the bulk of both works exists to glorify some aspect of the lives of the warriors of the two cultures, especially their will, courage and loyalty in the face of overwhelming odds.
Certainly in Roland the heroic life and death of the protagonist and other feudal warriors loyal to Charlemagne are seen as the epitome of human existence, with Christianity serving as a context and reason for such heroism.
Cantor writes that the Song is an expression of the ...