Legends Of The Middle Ages Narrated With Special Reference To L

The most ancient relic of literature of the spoken languages of modern Europe is undoubtedly the epic poem "Beowulf," which is supposed to have been composed by the Anglo-Saxons...

Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany, rendered a great service to posterity by ordering that copies of many of the ancient national manuscripts should be made. These copies were pl...

Among primitive races, as with children, animal stories are much enjoyed, and form one of the first stages in literature. The oldest of these tales current in the middle ages is...

[Sidenote: Origin of Poem.] Germany's greatest epic is, without doubt, the ancient poem entitled "Nibelungenlied," or the "Lay," "Fall," or "Calamity of the Nibelungs." Although...

Although the following tales of mythical heroes have some slight historical basis, they have been so adorned by the fancy of mediaeval bards, and so frequently remodeled with ut...

[Sidenote: Hugdietrich.] While Ortnit's ancestors were ruling over Lombardy, Anzius was Emperor of Constantinople. When about to die, this monarch confided his infant son, Hugdi...

DIETRICH VON BERN, whose name is spelled in eighty-five different ways in the various ballads and chronicles written about him, has been identified with the historical Theodoric...

One of the favorite heroes of early mediaeval literature is Charlemagne, whose name is connected with countless romantic legends of more or less antique origin. The son of Pepin...

The different _chansons de gestes_ relating to Aymon and the necromancer Malagigi (Malagis), probably arose from popular ballads commemorating the struggles of Charles the Bald...

It is supposed that this _chanson de geste_ was first composed in the thirteenth century; but the version which has come down to us must have been written shortly before the dis...

[Sidenote: Origin of the legend.] The most mystical and spiritual of all the romances of chivalry is doubtless the legend of the Holy Grail. Rooted in the mythology of all primi...

As Saintsbury so ably expressed it, "The origin of the legends of King Arthur, of the Round Table, of the Holy Grail, and of all the adventures and traditions connected with the...

Fortunately "the question of the actual existence and acts of Arthur has very little to do with the question of the origin of the Arthurian cycle." But although some authorities...

[Sidenote: Origin of the story.] The story of Tristan, which seems to have been current from earliest times, refers, perhaps, to the adventures of a knight, the contemporary of...

[Sidenote: Northern sagas.] Norse, Danish, and Swedish writers have frequently called public attention to the vast literary treasures which are contained in the old sagas or tal...

"Last from among the Heroes one came near, No God, but of the hero troop the chief-- Regner, who swept the northern sea with fleets, And ruled o'er Denmark and the heathy isles,...

[Sidenote: Ballads of the Cid.] The ballads of the Cid, which number about two hundred, and some of which are of undoubted antiquity, were not committed to writing until the twe...

[Sidenote: Cycles of romance.] In the preceding chapters we have given an outline of the principal epics which formed the staple of romance literature in the middle ages. As has...