The Song of Roland is one of the earliest and most studied works of French literature. Though poets wrote in the French language prior to Roland, none of their works survive to the present day.

Roland participates in the tradition of epic poetry, a genre that accounts for some of the oldest and most influential works in the Western literary canon. Epics tend to be long narrative poems of supernaturally heroic deeds that culminate in the founding of a nation or national identity; these poems are often rooted in historical events that define a people’s identity or ethics. Moreover, typically, epic poets construct their works to be easily memorized for oral recitation. Roland’s repetitive structure suggests that its author intended it to be memorized and performed orally (See: Literary Devices). The surviving version of Roland is one of many written variants, all of which are likely based on an oral original.

Roland is one of many French chansons de geste, or songs of deeds. This mode of old French epic relates the events surrounding the reigns of Charlemagne and his successors. Like Roland, these poems focus on the superhuman deeds of particular heroes of French history.