Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/675

Rh ROMANCE 651 irle- considerably in the earlier chansons. The final conception jne's appears to be that which is contained in the Fierabras ; 13 but the substitution of new personages for the old ones is so great that it is not possible to regard the douze pairs as a definite set of dramatis personse on the stage. Nor indeed do any of the heroes of the printed prose romances belong to that society, however frequently its members appear in their stories. Originally it would seem that some fortuitous coincidence between the number of the apostles and the number of the captains who headed Charlemagne's evangelizing expedition into Spain had been utilized by some of the monkish legendaries, and thus the early chansons became affected with a mystic respect for the douze jiairs. But each writer allowed himself the licence of excluding and including any warrior he chose in that number. The Pseudo-Turpin makes no reference to such a society, although it gives the names of the more celebrated knights. The full story of Koland has no prose romance to itself (see ROLAND, LEGEND OF). The story of Oliver is in similar case, unless the prose romance of Galien, Oliver's son, may be held to embody it. Regnault de Montauban (the chief of the four sons of Aymon), Huon of Bordeaux, Amys and Milles, Jourdain, Galien, Maugis, Mabrian, and many other heroes of the printed romances are unknown to the earliest ballad-histories of Charlemagne and his barons. Ogier the Dane seems to have grown out of two historical personages, a real Othger or Ottokar, a Frankish margrave of Charlemagne's time, and a real Olgar or Hulger, a Danish or Norse warrior who plundered Aix- la-Chapelle some seventy odd years after the Frankish Othger had accompanied Roland into Spain. Othger fought with the Lombards against Charlemagne in 773 ; and Amys and Milles, in the battle in which they won the crown of martyrdom, are said to have fallen by his hand. Beaten by the emperor, he became his vassal and five years later commanded the advanced guard of the army whose rear-guard was destroyed at Roncesvalles. M. Gaston Paris has admirably discussed the historical bear- ings and the various phases of the original chansons de geste in his Histoire Poetique de Charlemagne, but has dismissed with a brief reference all the printed prose romances we are now about to consider. ali di The Reali di Francia exists both in metrical and in prose form, incia. an( j it is difficult to decide which is the earlier ; the metrical version was certainly current in the 13th century, and there seems little reason to doubt that the prose story was in existence before 1300. The latter was first printed at Modena in 1491. It is a general work on the subject of Frankish romantic history, and is divided into six books, of which the subjects are as follows: (1) Clovis and Rizicr ; (2) Fioravante and Rizier ; (3) Ottaviano de Leone (the emperor Octavian and his sons Florent and Lion) ; (4) Buovo d'Antonna (Bevis of Hampton) ; (5) Buovo avenged by Ins sons Guido and Sinibaldo and King William of England ; (6) birth of Charlemagne, death of Pippin and his natural sons. Thus we may conclude that it was, so far as printed under the name Reali, the first part of a compilation of all the Charlemagne cyclical stories. The first book of the continuation Aspramonte, a translation from the French poem of Aspremont, or rather a prose composition from an Italian version of that poem, exists in MS. The Reali di Francia has been drawn upon by many later writers. Chronicle of the Pseudo-Turpin. The early part of this work was evidently forged by some monk interested in exalting the glory of St James's shrine at Padron in Galicia (Spain), before it was transferred to Compostella. He represents St James as appearing in successive visions to Charlemagne, urging him to conquer Spain, the land in which the saint's bones are laid and of which the Saracens are masters. Charlemagne advances with a Fraukish army and besieges Pamplona, which is invincible to his arms, but falls a prey to his prayers. After further exploits and the founda- tion of many churches, he returns home, but is brought out again very speedily by news that the Saracen king, Aigoland, has once more seized the country. This king is borrowed from the older chansons relating to the war against the Lombards ; but for the 12th century all Charlemagne's foes were Saracens. The topo- raphical difficulty is made light of, and Aspremont is placed in pain. Roland, Oliver, and Ganelon (afterwards infamous for his treachery, the hereditary result of his kinship to the family of sudo- rpin. which Boon of Mayence was the head) distinguish themselves ; Aigoland is beaten and killed. Charlemagne next attacks Navarre, where his paladins enter into single combat with the heathen giant Ferracute, who vanquishes all but Roland, and is overcome by the latter by means of a stratagem. Cordova is next conquered and taken possession of, and Charlemagne retraces Ids steps, but re- members that he has left two other Saracen kings unsubdued Marsilius and Baligant in Saragossa. He sends Ganelon to claim tribute from them ; they contrive to rouse the predestined spirit of traitorousuess in the envoy, and he returns with a false tale, which leads the monarch -to forget military precautions by dividing his army into two portions. He himself with the advanced half passes the Pyrenees in safety, but Roland, Oliver, and the rear-guard are suddenly attacked in the pass of Roncesvalles. All perish in the fight except Roland, who, mortally wounded, dies alone in the wild mountain gorge, after having flung his famous sword away, and blown such a blast upon his horn that it bursts and the sound reaches the ears of Charlemagne. The emperor returns to Ronces- valles, slays the Saracen host, recovers the body of Roland and gets it embalmed, and causes Ganelon to be torn to pieces by wild horses. After a time his health suffers and his death approaches. Turpin becomes aware of a multitude of demons who are preparing to carry off the emperor's soul on account of his sins. They are foiled, however, by St Denis, Avho, in return for Charlemagne's bene- volence towards the church, rescues his soul and bears it to heaven. Fierabras. The basis of this romance was the lost poem upon Fiera- the amir Balan, a Saracen leader conquered by Charlemagne in bras. Italy ; the rest of the book was put together from Turpin and other sources so as to form the one general prose romance of Charle- magne. The scene is changed from Italy to Spain in the prose romance. Fierabras, the giant, is son of Balan, and, after having sacked Rome, is met by the Frankish host ; Oliver encounters and defeats him in single combat ; the giant is converted and baptized by the name of Florent, and receives half his father's kingdom when his father is conquered and slain. Floripas, sister of Fierabras, marries Gui de Bourgogne, who takes the other half. The Spanish prose Historia del Emperadvr Carlo Magno, printed in 1528, is a translation ; there is also a German version. Gucrin de Montglave (or properly Garin de Montglanc). This Garin de romance of the 15th century is based upon the 13th-century poems Mont- on Girard de Vienne and Aimeri de Narbonne of "le clerc Bertrand." glane. It is a spirited and entertaining fiction relating the adventures of the four sons of Garin, one of the heroes of the elder Prove^al cycle, and is misnamed, in so far as it contains only the story of his family, not of himself. The four sons are sent forth to seek ad- ventures. Arnaud, the eldest, asserts his right to the dukedom of Aquitaine against a usurper who has succeeded on his uncle's death. He is treacherously persuaded to seek the hand of the princess Fregonde, daughter of the Saracen sultan of Lombardy. His traitorous kinsman, Hernault, contrives to set Arnaud and the sultan at enmity, and Arnaud is flung into a dungeon, where the daughter, ready to accept Christianity for love of him, secretly visits him. Hernault apostatizes and goes back with a promise of the sultan's help to conquer Aquitaine for himself, but turns aside from some qualm of conscience to confess his sins to a giant hermit, who happens to have been an old comrade of Garin. Thus learning the peril of Arnaud, the giant hermit Ribastre slays Hernault, and, seeking assistance from another old comrade, a converted magician named Perdigon, sallies forth to the aid of the imprisoned hero. In disguise he obtains admittance to the captive and the princess, baptizes the latter, kills the jailer, and sends Arnaud forth free to reconquer Aquitaine and to bring aid, while he and the lady hold the dungeon - tower, which is at once besieged by the sultan. After numerous fights, in which Perdigon's magic is the chief actor, Ribastre and the princess get away without having received help from Aqnitaine, and on reaching that land find Arnaud a prisoner in the power of Hernault's uncle. Ribastre kills the latter ; Arnaud is restored to his duchy and marries Fregonde ; the sultan turns Christian ; and all ends well. But the romance does not close here ; it proceeds to narrate the honours which fall to the other sons, Milon de Pouille, Regnier de" Genes, and Girard de Vienne, or de Toulouse, through the favour of Charlemagne, who feels himself bound to Garin's family in consequence of the obligation attached to a rash game of chess formerly lost by him to that hero. However, when Arnaud's son has grown up, an accidental affront put upon the empress by him changes Charlemagne's friendly feeling to hate. He makes a long war upon Girard in Vienne, who is aided by his brother, and it is agreed at last to settle the affair by a duel between Roland, the emperor's nephew, and Oliver, the son of Regnier de Genes. The two had previously become fast friends, and Roland loves Aude, Oliver's sister ; consequently, although they fight with great vigour and equality of strength, they throw aside their swords in the middle of the combat and embrace one another as worthy brothers -in -arms. A fitting compromise is found between the warring parties in an agreement that they shall all unite and attack the Saracen conquerors of Spain. Then begins the famous expedition which ended at Roncesvalles.