Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/632

 538 Outlines of European History Crusade. In the latter part of the twelfth century the romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table begin to appear. These enjoyed great popularity in all western Europe for centuries, and they are by no means forgotten yet. Arthur, of whose historical existence no one can be quite sure, was supposed to have been king of Britain shortly after the Saxons gained a foothold in the island.^ In other long poems of the time, Alexander the Great, Caesar, and other ancient worthies appear as heroes. The absolute dis- regard of historical facts and the tendency to represent the warriors of Troy and Rome as medieval knights show the in- ability of the medieval mind to understand that the past could have been different from the present. All these romances are full of picturesque adventures and present a vivid picture of the valor and loyalty of the true knight, as well as of his ruthlessness and contempt for human life. Besides the long and elaborate epics, like Roland, and the romances in verse and prose, there were numberless short stories in verse (the fabliaux), which usually dealt with the incidents of everyday life, especially with the comical ones. Then there were the fables, the most famous of which are the stories of Reynard the Fox, which were satires upon the customs of the time, particularly the weaknesses of the priests and monks. Section 93. The Troubadours and Chivalry Turning now to southern France, the beautiful songs of the tiviibadours, which were the glory of the Provengal tongue, reveal a gay and polished society at the courts of the numerous feudal princes. The rulers not merely protected and encouraged the poets — they aspired to be poets themselves and to enter the ranks of the troubadours, as the composers of these elegant 1 Malory's Mort d/AriJutr, a collection of the stories of the Round Table made in the fifteenth century for English readers, is the best place to turn for these famous stories.