Hey, folks, Time to crack open a new series idea I have
been batting around for a while now.
I’ve been playing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons lately, and have always been a fan
of fantasy.
One of the things I was curious about though, is where some of these concepts that show
up over and over again in fantasy come from.
So, to kick off the series, let’s find out what a Paladin is.
I’m Tristan Johnson, and this is Step Back History.
For those not down with fantasy games, the Paladins are portrayed as holy warriors.
A knight who wields a big hammer and holy magic.
So, it might not surprise you the Paladins were knights.
Their name comes from the Latin word Palatine, which in the Roman empire was a word for a
government official.
Paladin was the name for members of the round table for the legendary king Charlemagne.
Ok, so Charlemagne was an important figure in European history.
The collapse of the Roman Empire shattered Europe.
Charlemagne is famous for conquering enough land to claim he could be the new emperor
of a Catholic Roman Empire.
The pope crowned him, and he became the Holy Roman Emperor.
Today, he’s considered a founding figure for western Europe, especially for France
and Germany.
So Charlemagne is quite a big figure in western Christianity.
His knights then were also considered important for the whole Christianity thing.
There are a lot of legends written about these Paladins, some true, but many many more likely
fiction.
The first use of the word is in reference to not companions of Charlemagne, but one
of his Vassals named Roland.
We don’t know much about him, except he was a lord who died in the Battle of Roncevaux
Pass in 778.
This battle was an important one.
The Franks fought against Basques in a pass in the Pyrenees Mountains.
The Franks lost and is one of Charlemagne’s only defeats.
However, they consider it an epic defeat, like a medieval Alamo, and it cemented Roland
and his Paladins as legends.
It’s all written down in a 12th-century book called the Song of Roland, one of the
oldest pieces of French literature in existence.
The Paladins then had fictional stories told about their exploits in a number of events.
Some would were based on other famous 8th century exploits of the Frankish Empire, such
as their clash with the Umayyad Al-Andalus documented in a book called the Marca Hispania.
This was a period in which most of Spain was the territory of Muslims from the kingdom
of Al-Andalus, and so the Paladins gained even more of a reputation as bold warriors
for the Christian cause.
These stories then ballooned into a cast of characters, known as the twelve peers, or
the twelve Paladins of Roland.
There’s Oliver; Rolands best friend, Gérin, Gérier, Grandonie, Bérengier, Otton, Samson,
Engelier, Ivon, Ivoire, Anséis, and Girard.
The names and membership of the twelve peers changed at different points, but the number
did stay at twelve.
It’s an important number in Christian symbology.
During the Italian Renaissance, the stories of the Paladins were a craze.
The Italian versions of William Shakespeare Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosta
wrote plays, and books, and poems about the Paladins.
Their list of Paladins turned Oliver into a rival of Roland, a couple were Muslims who
converted to Christianity, a sorcerer, the Duke of Bavaria, and Ganelon the Betrayer.
The character of Ganelon appears in the famous Dante’s Inferno.
This would be the peak for Paladin stories.
Charlemagne stories went into decline, probably due to the whole Protestant thing, and the
term Paladin began to become a word for any chivalrous hero.
The English borrowed these stories and made their own famous king with a round table of
knights.
Yeah, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table are based on Charlemagne and the Paladins.
In the 19th century, poets, artists and authors wrote a lot of new material about King Arthur
and his knights, but Charlemagne didn’t get the same attention, which gave King Arthur
the fame, and the Paladins relative obscurity.
I should mention J.R.R.
Tolkien found out about this and was shocked to find English mythology was of all things
FRENCH.
His Middle-Earth work was a way to build an original English mythology.
Stories about the Carolingian knights have faded into obscurity, but Paladins still exist
as a term for chivalrous knights.
Paladins are in every fantasy video game today, however, thanks to Dungeons and Dragons.
The D&D Paladin is a holy warrior, playing up all those legends about great heroic knights
of chivalry, but also with touches from the image of the Crusader and Knights Templar.
One such addition is the hammer.
Often depiction of Paladins in fantasy includes hammers.
This comes from the crusades, when priests joining in would use a mace or hammer instead
of a sword, supposedly because they couldn’t draw blood.
I tried to look up how true this was, but couldn't get it verified.
So the fantasy Paladin comes from early medieval knights who fought for the holiest emperor
in Christian history, who then had many fictional tales told about them through the centuries.
Mix that with the image of Christian crusaders, templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic knights
and you have the modern day Paladin.
Oh, I should mention I pitched the idea for this series to Patrick from the channel Name
Explains.
If you click on the thingy or look in the description, you’ll find out why they call
Hobbits halflings in Dungeons and Dragons.
Also, I’d love to return to this series.
What fantasy staple do you want me to investigate next?
Tell me down in the comments.
Make sure to subscribe and push the bell notification so my videos roll high initiative!
I’d like to thank all of these chivalrous knights, especially Sir Kerry the Bold and
Lady Don the indomitable.
You’re making this all possible.
Now, grab another Diet Pepsi, and roll a history check for the next, Step Back.