Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/288

262 was Count of Angoulême about 1100. The account we have of him is derived from an anonymous Canon of Angoulême who wrote in 1159 a history of the Bishops and Counts of Angoulême. He seems to derive his accounts chiefly or entirely from hearsay or popular tales, as he speaks of "committing to writing and memory" certain "out of numerous deeds," as if they had not been written before; and the phrase "it is commonly said" clearly shows the origin of the following:

"This William (Guillermus) was of moderate stature and egregious bravery, so that in a body of this size greater valour, as I think, never existed. For with a stroke of his lance he pierced certain knights through shield and breast-plate, and slew them: and it is commonly said that he was never thrown from his horse by military onset."

His wars appear to have been chiefly against his neighbours or revolting vassals in the disorderly days of King Robert. And especially against the powerful William, Duke of Aquitaine, and his adherents. But it is easy to see that in a very few generations, in the confused perspectives of popular tradition, he and his predecessor in fame would become mixed up. The enemies against whom the younger Taillefer had fought offered no special attractiveness to the popular mind. They were not Saracens, or Saxon pirates, or Norse invaders, but neighbours and fellow-countrymen. And so it was inevitable that the popular imagination should credit him with some more famous foe. Thus the younger Taillefer took the place of the elder as the conqueror of the Norse invaders. And what was left for the elder but to have been one of the splendid warriors of Charlemagne; in fact to become the "uncle who went with Charlemagne into Spain," whom the Saintongese Turpin mentions, as well as the Chronique? It is to be noted that if the younger Taillefer died about 1120, as is supposed,