Durendal, also spelled Durandal, is the sword of Roland, a legendary paladin and partially historical officer of Charlemagne in French epic literature. It is also said to have belonged to young Charlemagne at one point, and, passing through Saracen hands, came to be owned by Roland. The sword has been given various provenances. Several of the works of the Matter of France agree that it was forged by Wayland the Smith, who is commonly cited as a maker of weapons in chivalric romances. Etymology The name Durendal arguably begins with a French dur- stem, meaning "hard". Thus Rita Lejeune argued it may break down into durant + dail, renderable in English as "strong scythe" or explained in more detail to mean "a scimitar or scythe which holds, up, resists, endures". Gerhard Rohlfs suggested dur + end'art or "strong flame". The name may also connote the meaning of "enduring". The Pseudo-Turpin explains that the name "Durenda is interpreted to mean it gives a hard strike" (Durenda interpretatur durum ictum cum ea dans). It has been argued also that the fact that Pseudo-Turpin needed to gloss the name is evidence it was not a name readily understood in French, hence a foreign name. One non-French etymology is Edwin B. Place's attempt to construe it in Breton as diren dall, meaning "blade [that] dulls cutting edge" or "blade blinds". Another is James A. Bellamy's Arabic etymology, explaining a possible meaning of the sword's name to be "Ḏū l-jandal" meaning "master of stone". Chanson de Roland According to La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland), the sword was brought by an angel to Charlemagne who was at the vale of Moriane, and Charlemagne then gave it to Roland. In that poem, the sword is said to contain within its golden hilt a tooth of Saint Peter, blood of Basil of Caesarea, hair of Saint Denis, and a piece of the raiment of Mary, mother of Jesus, At the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland took the rearguard to hold off the Saracen army troops long enough for Charlemagne's army to retreat into France. Roland slew a vast number of enemies wielding Durendal. With the sword Roland even succeeded in slicing the right arm of the Saracen king Marsile, and decapitated the king's son, Jursaleu, sending the one-hundred-thousand-strong army to flight. Roland later attempted to destroy the sword by hitting it against blocks of marble,