Song of Roland

What are the various features of "demonizing" process in The Song of Roland that makes the Franks the good guys, the Muslims the bad guys?

Franks the good guys, the Muslims the bad guys discussing the various features of the demon like process

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No doubt "Turoldus" wanted to fire up French patriotism and Christian zeal. Keep in ind that, although the event on which the poem is based happened in A. D, 776 , the poem as we have it was written about A. D. 1130. (But there IS a tradition that William the Conqueror's bard, Taillefer, rode into battle singing it at Hastings in 1066.) By 1130, of course, the First Crusade had happened and the Second was about to, so an epic about a Christian confrontation with Muslims would have suited the mood of the time. A repeated cry in it is "Christians are right; Paynims are wrong!"

The word"paynim," evidently derived from "pagan," is an indication of how little the author knew about Islam! Instead of recognizing Muslims as strictly monotheistic worshipers of the God of Abraham, he depicts them as polytheistic editorships Demonizing the enemy has always been popular.

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