Tag Archives: charlemange

Basque Fact of the Week, History

Basque Fact of the Week: The Aquitanians, Ancestors of the Basques

6 Comments

The Basque language is what is called an isolate — it has no known living relatives. Contrast that with the other languages of Europe, almost all of which are Indo-European languages, and you can see why Basque has attracted so much attention from linguists. However, just because the Basque language has no living relatives doesn’t […]

Basque Fact of the Week, History

Basque Fact of the Week: The Song of Roland is Really about the Basques

1 Comment

The Song of Roland, one of the oldest major works in French, describes how Charlemagne’s nephew, Roland, takes the rear guard of Charlemagne’s army back through the pass of Roncevaux, where they are ambushed and slaughtered by the Muslims. In reality, it was the Basques that attacked Roland.