In Robinson's "Mr. Flood's Party," is Roland a legendary knight with Charlemagne or a musician "winding a silent horn"?

Roland is the central character in a classical Old French
epic tale, href="http://omacl.org/Roland/">The Song of Roland,
about Charlemagne that is dated possibly as early as the eleventh century (1000s). One
translation, by Charles Scott Moncrief begins:

readability="11">

Charles the King, our Lord and
Sovereign,
Full seven years hath sojourned in Spain,
Conquered the
land, and won the western
main,

In the epic, Ganelon
commits a crime and betrays Roland who is martyred (slain) and Charlemagne (also called
King Charles
the Great) avenges Roland's death. So a critical part to the epic is Roland's
death, after which he’d appear--if he appeared--as a
ghost.

The allusion in "Mr. Flood's Party" to The
Song of Roland calls up the image of Roland's ghost: "Like Roland's ghost."
The whole allusion reads:

readability="8">

Alone, as if enduring to the end
A
valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn,
He stood there in the middle of the
road
Like Roland's ghost winding a silent
horn.

In the epic, Roland
himself was alone in the moment of his martyrdom. He lifted an ivory horn to use it's
sound to call Charlemagne to his side to rescue him. Now, Mr. Flood stands as young
Roland stood, in "valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn," and symbolically raised his
jug to call his beloved ones to his side. The reply he receives from those who in "other
days had honored him" is "A phantom salutation of the dead" friends long ago lost to
time and death. Roland's horn is silent because he is dead; Flood's "horn" is silent
because his friends are dead.

You can see, now that you
understand the allusion to the Old French classic, that the allusion to Roland means
that in "Mr. Flood's Party," Roland is the name of a young knight who served and was, in
the epic tale, avenged by Charlemagne, King Charles the Great, King of the
Franks.