Song and Legend From the Middle Ages | Page 5

period we are studying.[1]
[1] See Ebert "Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des
Mittelalters".
Vol. I., p. 11.

The result of all these unifying tendencies is to give a strong family
likeness to the productions of the various European
countries of the
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. The subject matter often
varies, but the motive and form of writing are much alike. This likeness
can be seen by a short survey of the more important kinds of literature
of the period.
I. THE NATIONAL EPIC.
In every country in which the national epic grew up it had the same
origin and line of development. First there was the
historical hero.
His deeds were related by the traveling gleeman or minstrel--in brief
chapters or ballads. Gradually mythical and supernatural elements came
in; the number of achievements and the number of ballads grew very
large; in this oral state they
continued for many years, sometimes for
centuries.
Finally, they were collected, edited, and written down--generally by a
single editor. In all cases the names of the poets of the ballads are lost;
in most cases the names of their redactors are but conjectural. "The
Song of Roland", and the "Poem of the Cid" are typical, simple,
national epics. The "Niebelungen Lied" is complicated by the fact that
the legends of many heroes are fused into one poem, by the fact that it
had more than one editor, and by the survival of mythological elements
which mingle confusedly with Christian features. The national epic is
the expression of the active side of chivalry. Italy has no national epic,
both because she was too learned to develop a folk-poetry, and because
the ideas of chivalry were never very active in her history.
II. ROMANCES.
The numberless romances that sprang up in the literary period of the
Middle Ages may be thrown into three groups:
0. Those belonging to the legend of Arthur and the Round Table. They
had their starting point in the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth,
which was partly invented, but had some basis in a tradition

common to the Bretons and the Welsh. The romances based upon
this legend sprang up apparently simultaneously in England and
France. Through minstrel romances, founded upon the Breton
popular tradition, the Arthur legend probably first found its way
into European literature. With it was early fused the stories of the
Holy Grail and of Parzival. In the twelfth century these stories
were widely popular in literary form in France and Germany, and
later they passed into Italy, Spain, and Scandinavia. Their
influence upon the life and thought of Mediaeval Europe is very
important. They did much to modify the entire institution of
chivalry.[1]
[1] Leon Gautier's "Chivalry", chap. IV., Section V.
2. The Romances of Antiquity, of which there are three varieties:
(1) Those which were believed to be direct reproductions, such as the
Romances of Thebes, of Aeneas, of Troy, whose authors

acknowledged a debt to Vergil, Statius, and other classic
writers.
(2) Those based upon ancient history not previously versified, such as
the Romance of Alexander.
(3) Those which reproduced the names and nothing else from

antiquity.
These romances, too, were a common European possession. The most
important and influential of them are the Romance of Troy, and the
Romance of Alexander. They appear in different forms in the literature
of every mediaeval nation in Europe.
3. There was in each national literature a vast number of
unaffiliated
romances. A romance of this group usually contained a love story, a
tale of adventure, or a religious experience in the form of a story. They
are not clearly distinct from the class of popular tales. On the whole,
the romance is more serious and dignified than the tale. Examples of
this kind of a romance are Hartmann von Aue's "Henry the Leper", and
the French "Flore et Blanchefleur".

III. LYRICS.
Perhaps no other part of its literature shows more striking proof of the
common life and interests of Mediaeval Europe than does the lyric
poetry of the period. In Northern France, in Provence, in all parts of
Germany, in Italy, and a little later in Spain, we see a most remarkable
outburst of song. The subjects were the same in all the countries.
Love-the love of feudal
chivalry--patriotism, and religion were the
themes that employed the mediaeval lyrist in whatever country he sang.
In all these lyrics much was made of form, the verse being always
skillfully constructed, sometimes very complicated. The lyric poetry of
Italy was more learned and more finished in style than that of the other
countries.
In Northern France the poet was called a trouvere, in Provence a
troubadour, in Germany a minnesinger. The traveling minstrel was in
France a jongleur (Provencal jogleur). The distinction between trouvere
or troubadour and jongleur is not always to be sharply drawn.
Sometimes in France and Provence