Charlemagne is standing in the midst of his vanquished rearguard in the valley of Roncevaux, lamenting the demise of his kinsman Roland. Before the fallen hero can be laid to rest, however, his death needs retribution. Ganelon is brought before the Emperor and summarily tried by battle, during which he is defeated by Charlemagne's champion Thierry. Found guilty of treason, Ganelon is next drawn, hanged, disembowelled, and quartered by four horses tearing apart his body. Almost immediately afterwards, Roland, Oliver and the rest of the ‘douceper’ are prepared for burial: their bodies are eviscerated, embalmed with sweet spices and wrapped in hides and lead. Others are covered in salt.

This is obviously not the traditional ending of the Chanson de Roland. Following roughly the same course of events, the author of Otuel and Roland – an early fourteenth-century Middle English redaction of the French Estoire de Charlemagne – nevertheless changes several significant details. Ganelon fights for himself rather than being represented by Pinabel, who dies in the Chanson. It is also the first fight in which he is engaged. He is immediately tried on the battlefield instead of in Charlemagne's court. He is not just torn apart by four horses as a punishment for his treason, but is subjected to a range of agonising procedures. The author includes more details of the funerary preparations for Roland's body and those of others. Some of these changes the author found in his source, the ‘Johannes’ translation of the Latin Historia Karoli magni by Pseudo-Turpin.