page_title: Paladin
section_title: Modern reception
hierarchical_section_title: Paladin / Modern reception
caption_attribution_description: According to a legend linked to Arthurian myth, a Danish king known as Ogier the Dane, was taken to Avalon by Morgan le Fay. He returned to rescue France from danger, then travelled Kronborg castle, where he sleeps until he is needed to save his homeland.
context_page_description: The paladins are twelve fictional knights of legend, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the mediaeval chanson de geste cycle of the Matter of France, where they play a similar role to the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian romance. In these romantic portrayals, the chivalric paladins represent Christianity against a Saracen invasion of Europe. The names of the paladins vary between sources, but there are always twelve of them led by Roland. The paladins' most influential appearance is in The Song of Roland, written between 1050 and 1115, which narrates the heroic death of Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
  The legend is based on the historical Umayyad invasion of Gaul and subsequent conflict in the Marca Hispanica between the Frankish Empire and the Emirate of Córdoba. The term paladin is from Old French, deriving from the Latin comes palatinus, a title given to close retainers.
  The paladins remained a popular subject throughout mediaeval French literature.
context_section_description: Paladin was used informally of the closest confidants of the German Emperor. Thus, Die Gartenlaube in 1871 named  Albrecht von Roon, Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke as "the three Paladins of the German Emperor". Similarly, British generals Garnet Wolseley and Frederick Roberts have been dubbed  "Queen Victoria's Paladins". Following this template, Adolf Hitler used to refer to Hermann Göring as his Paladin.
  While the Arthurian "Matter of Britain" enjoyed a major revival in the 19th century in the hands of the Romantic and Victorian poets, writers, and artists, the "Matter of France" has generally received less attention. The Song of Roland has nevertheless inspired numerous modern works, including  Graham Greene's The Confidential Agent (1939),
  and Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
  Emanuele Luzzati's animated short film, I paladini di Francia, together with Giulio Gianini, in 1960, was turned into the children's picture-story book, with verse narrative, I Paladini de Francia ovvero il tradimento di Gano di Maganz ("The Paladins of France or the treachery of Gano of Maganz", 1962). This was  republished in English, as Ronald and the Wizard Calico (1969).
  In the later 20th century, Paladin has become a trope in modern fantasy. A "Paladin" character class was
  first introduced in 1975 for Dungeons & Dragons in Supplement I – Greyhawk.
  The Dungeons & Dragons character class was reportedly inspired by the protagonist of the 1962 fantasy novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, which was itself a pastiche of various elements of medieval and post-medieval legend, including elements of the Matter of France.
  I paladini—storia d'armi e d'amori is a 1983 Italian fantasy film.
  As a character class in video games, the Paladin stock character was introduced in 1985, in The Bard's Tale.
caption: Hans Peder Pedersen-Dan's 1907 statue of Holger Danske (Ogier the Dane) in the casemates at Kronborg castle, Denmark
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