'Many people in Aachen consider him [Charlemagne] a saint,' said Stefanie, a willow-haired tour guide in the cathedral. 'They pray to him and they say miracles happened because of him. But the Vatican refuses to accept this because of all the Saxons he killed. As if all the other saints were so pure!'
N. Jubber, Epic continent (2021), 149
Roland makes vague references to Christianity, but he only prays at the very end of his life; and even then he devotes fewer lines to God than to his beloved sword, Durandal. Like the heroes of Germanic and Greek mythology, from Achilles to Beowulf, his true idol worldly status, measured by the blood you shed and the blood shed on your behalf.
...
With its odds and ends of ritual and relics, Rocamadour can feel like a theme park for pious Catholics... and gaze at a gleaming sword impaled in the rock face. That's what I was here for: to feast my eyes on Durandal, the French Excalibur.
N. Jubber, Epic continent (2021), 140
