The Roland poet dehumanized Saracen troops into monstrous semihumans needing no justification to kill

Evidence

His recruits include monstrous semihumans: the Micenes have large heads and spines on their back; the soldiers from Occian have skin as hard as steel armor; those from Malprose are giants (ll. 3214–64). The individual soldiers have names that express their evilness and deformity or that associate them with biblical enemies of God. They include such colorful figures as “Siglorel, the sorcerer who was once in Hell: Jupiter led him there by sorcery” (ll. 1390–92), the kind of enemy whose slaughter calls for no justification. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 689

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels dehumanizing propaganda patterns in modern war — ‘the kind of enemy whose slaughter calls for no justification’ resonates with accounts of enemy-naming in contemporary conflict.