Page:Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting (IA cu31924026512263).pdf/179

 took up the subject and some of the geographical names and historical personages and developed a story of conquest according to his fancy. The enterprise of the Aragonese king was a failure, but Tirant's was naturally a glorious achievement.

It is quite probable that the shipwreck of Heraud as described in the sequel to the romance of Guy of Warwick led to the conception and composition of the conquest. Tirant, like Heraud, was shipwrecked on the African shores, was made prisoner, and became the leader of Moorish forces. And now that Martorell had taken his hero to Africa, what undertaking was he to engage in there? King Peter's expedition came to the mind of the author, and he decided to have Tirant accomplish what the king had tried to do. It is possible, however, that Martorell conceived his hero as conqueror of Barbary even before he thought of the way in which he was to arrive there. But the first theory seems more plausible, for the reason that in Tirant's first activities in Africa no conquest of Barbary and no religious motives are apparent.