Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is a poem by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), first published in 1855 in the collection entitled Men and Women. Browning said the poem had come to him in a dream, and said of it, "When I wrote this, God and Browning knew what it meant. Now God only knows."

Related Topics:
Poem - Robert Browning - 1855

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The name Roland, references to his horn, general medieval setting and the title childe (a medieval term not for a child but for an untested knight) suggest that the protagonist is the paladin of The Song of Roland, the 11th-century anonymous French chanson de geste. However, The Song of Roland does not feature a tower or a solitary quest by Roland, and is not clearly related to the Browning poem.

Related Topics:
Roland - Knight - The Song of Roland - Chanson de geste

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There does appear to be a connection to an old Scottish ballad and fairy tale called "Childe Roland and Burd Ellen". The connection is indirect: Browning acknowledged that the last line and title of the poem is a line in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act III, Scene 4). That line, part of a nonsense stanza recited by Edgar, is thought to have been a reference to the ballad.

Related Topics:
Fairy tale - Shakespeare - King Lear

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"Childe Roland" has served as inspiration to a number of popular works of fiction, including:

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• American author Stephen King for his Dark Tower series of stories and novels (1982-2004).
• Canadian science-fiction author Gordon R. Dickson for his "Childe Cycle" series of novels (1959-2001).
• American science-fiction author Andre Norton for the fourth novel in her "Witch World" series (1967).
 
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