Stories of Charlemagne
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Conditions and Terms of Use Copyright © Heritage History 2009 Some rights reserved This text was produced and distributed by Heritage History, an organization dedicated to the preservation of classical juvenile history books, and to the promotion of the works of traditional history authors. The books which Heritage History republishes are in the public domain and are no longer protected by the original copyright. They may therefore be reproduced within the United States without paying a royalty to the author. The text and pictures used to produce this version of the work, however, are the property of Heritage History and are licensed to individual users with some restrictions. These restrictions are imposed for the purpose of protecting the integrity of the work itself, for preventing plagiarism, and for helping to assure that compromised or incomplete versions of the work are not widely disseminated. In order to preserve information regarding the origin of this text, a copyright by the author, and a Heritage History distribution date are included at the foot of every page of text. We request all electronic and printed versions of this text include these markings and that users adhere to the following restrictions. 1) This text may be reproduced for personal or educational purposes as long as the original copyright and Heritage History version number are faithfully reproduced. 2) You may not alter this text or try to pass off all or any part of it as your own work. 3) You may not distribute copies of this text for commercial purposes unless you have the prior written consent of Heritage History. 4) This text is intended to be a faithful and complete copy of the original document. However, typos, omissions, and other errors may have occurred during preparation, and Heritage History does not guarantee a perfectly reliable reproduction. Permission to use Heritage History documents or images for commercial OLIVER AND FIERABRAS. purposes, or more information about our collection of traditional history resources can be obtained by contacting us at [email protected] Original Copyright 1902 by Alfred J. Church 2 Distributed by Heritage History 2009 PREFACE "Huon of Bordeaux," again, fills four volumes in the Extra Series. But the original chanson is contained in one of the four and is complete in itself. This, too, I have considerably I have endeavoured to tell in this volume the story of compressed and shortened. The same process has had to be Charlemagne, the Charlemagne, it must be understood, not of applied to all before they could be made acceptable to the history, but of Romance. The two personages are curiously readers of to-day. I hope that they have not lost their life and different. Each writer of a romance had naturally a hero of his colour and human interest. own. As he had to exalt this hero, he could hardly help depreciating the king. Charlemagne suffers by comparison with The stories of which I have made use are "The Four Sons Roland and Reynaud very much as, in the Iliad, Agamemnon, of Aymon" (I-XI); "Ralph the Collier" (XII-XIII), a genuinely the over-lord of the Greeks, suffers by comparison with the English production, it would seem, as no French original has subordinate King, Achilles. The real Charlemagne was a very been found; "Fierabras," taken from the "Lyf of Charles the great personality, one that impressed his age as deeply as any Grete" (XIV-XXIV); "The Song of Roland" (XXV-XXXV), and man has ever done; in these stories he often appears petty, "Duke Huon of Bordeaux" (XXXVI-XL). This has been put last in capricious, and obstinate. Then the romance writers were order, as it represents Charlemagne grown old and weary of Frenchmen, and they make the great king a Frenchman, holding power. The death of the great King is only mentioned as his court in Paris, and surrounded by great French lords. They imminent in the romance which I have followed; I have added an began to write when the air was full of the crusading spirit, and abridged account of it from the contemporary biography written their work is coloured accordingly. The enemy is always a by Eginhard. The story of Huon is peculiarly interesting to us Saracen or a follower of Mahomet. There could not be a more because it introduces the fairy King Oberon, who was to become curious instance of this than is to be found in the story of the so important a figure in English literature. death of Roland. In the romance Charlemagne's rear-guard is I have to express my obligations to the Introduction, destroyed by an overpowering force of Saracens. What really written by Mr. Sidney Lee to the first part of "Duke Huon of happened was that it was attacked, probably for the sake of Bordeaux." plundering the baggage, by a gathering of mountaineers, who are ALFRED J. CHURCH. called Gascons by the chroniclers, but were, in fact, Basques. Then, again, we find the romance writers in sympathy with the Oxford, July 17, 1902. great feudatories, indicating the time before the French monarchy had become consolidated, when the king at Paris had all that he could do to hold his own against his powerful vassals, the Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, and the English king. The Charlemagne romances, as translated by Lord Berners and William Caxton, occupy twelve volumes in the Extra Series of the Early English Text Society. Some of these are variants of the same story. There is a romance of "Ferumbras," for instance, which gives substantially the same tale as that which occupies eleven chapters in this volume. Original Copyright 1902 by Alfred J. Church 3 Distributed by Heritage History 2009 OF THE DOINGS OF THE FRENCH KNIGHTS ............................ 57 ABLE OF ONTENTS T C OF GUY OF BURGUNDY......................................................... 60 THE SLAYING OF LOTHAIR ..................................................... 5 OF RICHARD OF NORMANDY ................................................ 64 HOW THE DUKE BENES CAME BY HIS END ............................. 7 HOW THE BRIDGE MANTRYBLE WAS WON ........................... 67 HOW IT FARED WITH THE BRETHREN .................................... 10 OF THE END OF BALAN THE ADMIRAL .................................. 69 THE COMING OF ROLAND ..................................................... 13 HOW GANELON WENT TO KING MARSILAS .......................... 71 OF THE TREACHERY OF KING JOHN ...................................... 16 THE TREASON OF GANELON ................................................. 75 OF THE CRAFT OF MAWGIS .................................................. 19 OF THE PLOT AGAINST ROLAND ........................................... 78 MORE DEEDS OF MAWGIS .................................................... 23 HOW THE FRENCH PREPARED FOR BATTLE ........................... 80 HOW MAWGIS BECAME A HERMIT ....................................... 26 THE BATTLE ......................................................................... 82 OF WHAT BEFELL AT MONTALBAN ...................................... 28 HOW ROLAND SOUNDED HIS HORN ...................................... 85 HOW PEACE WAS MADE ....................................................... 32 HOW OLIVER WAS SLAIN ...................................................... 86 OF REYNAUD'S END ............................................................. 36 HOW ARCHBISHOP TURPIN DIED .......................................... 88 HOW RALPH ENTERTAINED THE KING .................................. 38 THE DEATH OF ROLAND ....................................................... 90 HOW RALPH WENT TO COURT ............................................. 40 HOW CHARLEMAGNE SOUGHT VENGEANCE ......................... 91 HOW FIERABRAS DEFIED KING CHARLES ............................. 42 OF THE PUNISHMENT OF GANELON ....................................... 96 HOW OLIVER FOUGHT WITH FIERABRAS .............................. 45 HOW KING CHARLES SENT HUON ON AN ERRAND ................ 98 HOW OLIVER AND OTHERS WERE TAKEN PRISONERS ........... 48 HOW HUON MET WITH KING OBERON ................................ 101 HOW OLIVER AND HIS COMRADES FARED. ........................... 50 OF THE END OF THE FALSE DUKE MACAIRE ....................... 103 OF THE BRIDGE OF MANTRYBLE .......................................... 53 HOW HUON CAME TO BABYLON ......................................... 106 OF THE DOINGS OF FLORIPAS ............................................... 55 HOW HUON RETURNED ....................................................... 110 Original Copyright 1902 by Alfred J. Church 4 Distributed by Heritage History 2009 CHAPTER I arms by mid-summer next, or else I will besiege his city of Aygremont." THE SLAYING OF LOTHAIR The next day Lothair departed, having a hundred knights with him, armed for battle. As they went they uttered many King Charles held a great court in his capital city of Paris threatenings against the Duke, if he should not submit himself to at the Feast of Pentecost. Thither came the Twelve Peers of the King. France, and many other men of note, besides strangers from It so chanced that a spy heard them talk in this fashion, Germany, England, and other realms. One of the chief of the and, making all haste, came to the Duke and told him. "There Frenchmen was Aymon, Duke of Ardennes, who brought with come messengers," he said, "from King Charles, threatening him his four sons, to wit, Reynaud, Alard, Guichard, and terrible things, and the King's own son is with them." Then the Richard. All these four were marvellously fair, witty, and Duke asked his lords what he