Legends of the Middle Ages

Legends of the Middle Ages

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Title: Legends of the Middle Ages Narrated with Special Reference to
Literature and Art
Author: H.A. Guerber
Release Date: May 27, 2004 [EBook #12455]
Language: English
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[Illustration: CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE.--Levy.]

LEGENDS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
NARRATED WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LITERATURE
AND ART
BY H.A. GUERBER
"Saddle the Hippogriffs, ye Muses nine, And straight we'll ride to the
land of old Romance" WIELAND
1896

DEDICATED TO MY SISTER ADELE E. GUERBER
"Men lykyn jestis for to here, And romans rede in diuers manere
"Of Brute that baron bold of hond, The first conqueroure of Englond;
Of kyng Artour that was so riche, Was non in his tyme him liche.
"How kyng Charlis and Rowlond fawght With sarzyns nold they be
cawght; Of Tristrem and of Ysoude the swete, How they with love first
gan mete;
"Stories of diuerce thynggis, Of pryncis, prelatis, and of kynggis; Many
songgis of diuers ryme, As english, frensh, and latyne." Curser Mundi.
PREFACE.

The object of this work is to familiarize young students with the
legends which form the staple of mediaeval literature.
While they may owe more than is apparent at first sight to the classical
writings of the palmy days of Greece and Rome, these legends are very
characteristic of the people who told them, and they are the best
exponents of the customs, manners, and beliefs of the time to which
they belong. They have been repeated in poetry and prose with endless
variations, and some of our greatest modern writers have deemed them
worthy of a new dress, as is seen in Tennyson's "Idyls of the King,"
Goethe's "Reineke Fuchs," Tegnér's "Frithiof Saga," Wieland's
"Oberon," Morris's "Story of Sigurd," and many shorter works by these
and less noted writers.
These mediaeval legends form a sort of literary quarry, from which,
consciously or unconsciously, each writer takes some stones wherewith
to build his own edifice. Many allusions in the literature of our own day
lose much of their force simply because these legends are not available
to the general reader.
It is the aim of this volume to bring them within reach of all, and to
condense them so that they may readily be understood. Of course in so
limited a space only an outline of each legend can be given, with a few
short quotations from ancient and modern writings to illustrate the style
of the poem in which they are embodied, or to lend additional force to
some point in the story.
This book is, therefore, not a manual of mediaeval literature, or a series
of critical essays, but rather a synopsis of some of the epics and
romances which formed the main part of the culture of those days. Very

little prominence has been given to the obscure early versions, all
disquisitions have been carefully avoided, and explanations have been
given only where they seemed essential.
The wealth and variety of imagination displayed in these legends will, I
hope, prove that the epoch to which they belong has been greatly
maligned by the term "dark ages," often applied to it. Such was the
favor which the legendary style of composition enjoyed with our
ancestors that several of the poems analyzed in this volume were
among the first books printed for general circulation in Europe.
Previous to the invention of printing, however, they were familiar to
rich and poor, thanks to the scalds, bards, trouvères, troubadours,
minstrels, and minnesingers, who, like the rhapsodists of Greece, spent
their lives in wandering from place to place, relating or reciting these
tales to all they met in castle, cottage, and inn.
A chapter on the Romance literature of the period in the different
countries of Europe, and a complete index, will, it is hoped, fit this
volume for handy reference in schools and libraries, where the author
trusts it may soon find its own place and win a warm welcome.

CONTENTS.
I. BEOWULF
II. GUDRUN
III. REYNARD THE FOX
IV. THE NIBELUNGENLIED
V. LANGODARDIAN CYCLE OF MYTHS
VI. THE AMBLINGS
VII. DIETRICH VON BERN
VIII. CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PALADINS
IX THE SONS OF AYMON
X. HUON OF BORDEAUX
XI. TITUREL AND THE HOLY GRAIL
XII. MERLIN
XIII. THE ROUND TABLE
XIV. TRISTAN AND ISEULT
XV. THE STORY OF FRITHIOF
XVI.