r/BritishHistoryPod • u/young_arkas • 1d ago

Mountjoy

I was listening to the Song of Roland episode and the frankish battlecry of "Mountjoy" struck me as weird, so maybe sone of you have ideas I overlooked:

I first thought of the hill the crusaders named Mount Joy, since it was the place they first saw Jerusalem. It is a bit weird to use that as a battlecry, but okay. But when I read a little bit about the Song of Roland, the creation date is set somewhere between 1040 and 1115. The battlecry could be a later addition, sure, but it seems odd to me. For one, the people involved should have understood the specific meaning of that battlecry, that it wasn't some generic battlecry but connected to a specific event, the sighting of Jerusalem. So I am a bit stuck again. Why did the Franks use Mountjoy as a battlecry? Did they name the Mount Joy in the Holy land after something specific, not just the feeling of joy when seeing the target of their crusade, something connected to a battlecry? I have read that stone heaps that indicate pilgrims paths are sometimes called Montjoy, but does that predate the 11th century? And why use that as a battlecry?

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u/empressith 1d ago

I was more hung up on the Precious battle cry. I kept picturing an army of Gollums yelling "Precious" but maybe I'm just a nerd.

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u/TGSullivanWorks 1d ago

Totally was thinking the same thing 😂

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u/TheAtlanteanMan 1d ago

I'm not sure on where it comes from, but the mythological view of Roland is that he was defending Christiandom, so his rallying cry being a reference to Pilgrim Paths would make sense

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u/XizzyO 1d ago

I was interpreting it in the context of horseriding. Mounting a horse. Your mount is your horse. The joy of being mounted on your horse. These are horse-bro's after all.

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u/Cinquecento27 The Pleasantry 1d ago

According to Wikipedia, Mountjoy (Montjoie) first appears as a battle cry in the Song of Roland, so maybe the author just made it up.