an exploit of gallantry. A Swedish prince had a beautiful daughter, whom he intrusted (probably during some expedition) to the care of one of his officers, assigning a strong castle for their defence. The officer fell in love with his ward, and detained her in his castle, spite of all the efforts of her father. Upon this he published a proclamation through all the neighbouring countries, that whoever would conquer the ravisher and rescue the lady, should have her in marriage. Of all that undertook the adventure, Regner alone was so happy as to achieve it: he delivered the fair captive, and obtained her for his prize. It happened that the name of this discourteous officer was Orme, which, in the Islandic language, signifies serpent; wherefore the Scalds, to give the more poetical turn to the adventure, represent the lady as detained from her father by a dreadful dragon, and that Regner slew the monster to set her at liberty. This fabulous account of the exploit is given in a poem still extant, which is even ascribed to Regner himself, who was a celebrated poet, and which records all the valiant achievements of his life 2.

With marvellous embellishments of this kind, the Scalds early began to decorate their narratives: and they were the more lavish of these in proportion as they departed from their original institution; but it was a long time before they thought of delivering a set of personages and adventures wholly feigned. Of the great multitude of romantic tales still preserved in the libraries of the North, most of them are supposed to have had some foundation in truth; and the more ancient they are, the more they are believed to be connected with true history 3.

It was not probably till after the historian and the 2 See a translation of this poem among "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry," printed for Dodsley, 1764, 8vo.

3 Vide Mallet, Northern Antiquities, passim.

bard had been long disunited, that the latter ventured at pure fiction. At length, when their business was no longer to instruct or inform, but merely to amuse, it was no longer needful for them to adhere to truth. Then succeeded fabulous songs and romances in verse, which for a long time prevailed in France and England before they had books of chivalry in prose. Yet in both these

countries the Minstrels still retained so much of their original institution as frequently to make true events the subject of their songs; and, indeed, as during the barbarous ages the regular histories were almost all written in Latin by the monks, the memory of events was preserved and propagated among the ignorant laity by scarce any other means than the popular songs of the Minstrels.

II. The inhabitants of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, being the latest converts to Christianity, retained their original manners and opinions longer than the other nations of Gothic race; and therefore they have preserved more of the genuine compositions of their ancient poets than their southern neighbours. Hence the progress, among them, from poetical history to poetical fiction is very discernible: they have some old pieces that are in effect complete romances of chivalry 5. They have also (as hath been observed) a multitude of Sagas or histories on romantic subjects, containing a mixture of prose and verse, of various dates, some of them written since the time of the Crusades, others long before but

6

4 The Editor's MS. contains a multitude of poems of this latter kind. It was probably from this custom of the Minstrels, that some of our first historians wrote their Chronicles in verse, as Robert of Gloucester, Harding, &c.

5 See a specimen in second vol. of Northern Antiquities, &c. p. 248, &c.

6 Eccardi Hist. Stud. Etym. 1711, p. 179, &c. Hickes's Thesaur. vol. ii. p. 314.

their narratives in verse only are esteemed the more ancient.

Now as the irruption of the Normans into France under Rollo did not take place till towards the beginning of the tenth century, at which time the Scaldic art was arrived to the highest perfection in Rollo's native country, we can easily trace the descent of the French and English romances of chivalry from the northern Sagas. That conqueror doubtless carried many Scalds with him from the North, who transmitted their skill to their children and successors. These, adopting the religion, opinions, and language of the new country, substituted the heroes of Christendom instead of those of their Pagan ancestors, and began to celebrate the feats of Charlemagne, Roland, and Oliver; whose true history they set off and embellished with the Scaldic figments of dwarfs, giants, dragons, and enchantments. The first mention we have in song of those heroes of chivalry is in the mouth of a Norman warrior at the conquest of England; and this circumstance alone would sufficiently account for the propagation of this kind of romantic poems among the French and English.

But this is not all; it is very certain that both the Anglo-Saxous and the Franks had brought with them, at their first emigrations into Britain and Gaul, the same fondness for the ancient songs of their ancestors which prevailed among the other Gothic tribes, and that all their first annals were transmitted in these popular oral poems. This fondness they even retained long after their conversion to Christianity, as we learn from the examples

7 i. e. Northern men: being chiefly emigrants from Norway, Denmark, &c.

8 See the account of Taillefer in vol. i., Essay, and note.

9 Ipsa CARMINA memoriæ mandabant, et prælia inituri decan tabant; qua memoria tam fortium gestorum à majoribus patratorum ad imitationem animus adderetur.-Jornandes de Gothis.

of Charlemagne and Alfred'. Now Poetry, being thus the transmitter of facts, would as easily learn to blend them with fictions in France and England as she is known to have done in the North, and that much sooner, for the reasons before assigned. This, together with the example and influence of the Normans, will easily account to us why the first romances of chivalry that appeared both in England and France 3 were composed in metre, as a rude kind of epic songs. In both kingdoms tales in verse were usually sung by minstrels to the harp on festival occasions: and doubtless both nations derived their relish for this sort of entertainment from their Teutonic ancestors, without either of them borrowing it from the other. Among both people narrative songs on true or fictitious subjects had evidently obtained from the earliest times. But the professed romances of chivalry seem to have been first composed in France, where also they had their name.

The Latin tongue, as is observed by an ingenious

1 Eginhartus de Carolo Magno. "Item barbara et antiquissima CARMINA, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur, scripsit." c. 29.

Asserius de Ælfredo Magno. "Rex inter bella, &c. . Saxonicos libros recitare, et MAXIME CARMINA SAXONICA memoriter discere, aliis imperare, et solus assidue pro viribus, studiosissime non desinebat." Ed. 1722, 8vo, p. 43.

2 See above, pp. 3, 8, &c.

3 The romances on the subject of Perceval, San Graal, Lancelot du Lac, Tristan, &c., were among the first that appeared in the French language in Prose, yet these were originally composed in Metre: the Editor has in his possession a very old French MS. in verse, containing L'ancien Roman de Perceval; and metrical copies of the others may be found in the libraries of the curious. See a note of Wanley's in Harl. Catalog. no. 2252, p. 49, &c. Nicolson's Eng. Hist. Library, 3d ed. p. 91, &c.-See also a curious Collection of old French Romances, with Mr. Wanley's account of this sort of pieces, in Harl. MSS. Catal. 978, 106.

writer 4, ceased to be spoken in France about the ninth century, and was succeeded by what was called the Romance tongue, a mixture of the language of the Franks and bad Latin. As the songs of chivalry became the most popular compositions in that language, they were emphatically called Romans, or Romants; though this name was at first given to any piece of poetry. The romances of chivalry can be traced as early as the eleventh century 5. I know not if the Roman de Brut, written in 1155, was such: but if it was, it was by no means the first poem of the kind; others more ancient are still extant. And we have already seen, that, in the preceding century, when the Normans marched down to the battle of Hastings, they animated themselves by singing (in some popular romance or ballad) the exploits of Roland and the other heroes of chivalry 7.

So early as this I cannot trace the songs of chivalry in English. The most ancient I have seen is that of Hornechild, described below, which seems not older than the

4 The author of the Essay on the Genius of Pope, p. 282. 5 Ibid. p. 283. Hist. Lit. tom. vi. vii.

6 Voi Préface aux "Fabliaux et Contes des Poëtes François des xii. xiii. xiv. & xv. siècles, &c." Paris, 1756, 3 tom. 12mo. (A very curious work.)

7 See the account of Taillefer in vol. i. Essay, and note. And see Rapin, Carte, &c.-This song of ROLAND (whatever it was) continued for some centuries to be usually sung by the French in their marches, if we may believe a modern French writer, "Un jour qu'on chantoit la Chanson de Roland, comme c'étoit l'usage dans les marches. Il y a long temps, dit-il [John K. of France, who died in 1364], qu'on ne voit plus de Rolands parmi les Franqois. On y verroit encore des Rolands, lui répondit un vieux Capitaine, s'ils avoient un Charlemagne à leur tête." Vide tom. iii. p. 202, des Essaies Hist. sur Paris de M. de Saintefoix, who gives, as his authority, Boethius in Hist. Scotorum. This author, however, speaks of the complaint and repartee as made in an assembly of the States, (vocato senatu,) and not upon any march, &c. Vide Boeth. lib. xv. fol. 327. Ed. Paris. 1574.