Here, as Collier says, "Poor inch of nature' is all that is wanting, but, that away, how much of the characteristic beauty of the passage is lost" (Intro., xxxiii). CORRELATED STORIES. When, in 1852, Konrad Hofmann edited the two old French Carlovingian poems, Amis et Amiles and Jourdains de Blaivies, he did not observe the intimate relation which a part of the latter chanson bears to the celebrated and widely disseminated story of Apollonius of Tyre. As soon as the common origin of the two poems became clear to him, he published in the Sitzungsberichte der philosophischphilologischen Klasse der k.-b. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Munchen (S. 415-418), 1871, a paper on "Jourdain de Blaivies, Apollonius von Tyrus, Salomon und Marcolf." John Koch, in 1875, in an Inaugural Dissertation at Königsberg, again demonstrated the identity of the two stories, and finally Hofmann completed the study in his Amis et Amiles und Jourdains de Blaivies (Erlangen, 1882). We have already noted in speaking of the persistence of the saga that in old French there was but one prose version of the Apollonius, and no new poetic rendering of the story; a circumstance a little surprising when we remember with what avidity the old French grasped new materials, and reduced them to acceptable and popular forms. It is therefore a satisfaction to recognize the old romance undergoing a metamorphosis in the epic of Jourdains de Blaivies. Berger next published an edition of Orendel (Bonn, 1888), a middle high German minstrel song which originated, Berger thinks, as early as 1160 (Paul and Braune 13, i). In the twelfth century, the court circles of Germany looked to France for literary inspiration. The most notable epics of the Rhineland that were uninfluenced by the courtly epic were Orendel and Salomon and Markolf. The Crusades form the background of these poems; the scenes are in the Orient, and the incidents are wars between heathen and Christian. Through varying repetition of the original fable, and by the introduction of auxiliary motives, sufficient bulk for a romance was obtained, and the characters of the beggar, the pilgrim and the minstrel were introduced. Orendel is a king of Treves who wins the love of Bride, the heiress of Jerusalem; wanders like Ulysses; twice frees the Holy Sepulchre, and brings the Holy Coat to Treves. His counterpart is in Snorre's Edda, i, 276, which in Norway was connected with the myth of Thor. Müllenhoff disentangled the primitive mythical Teutonic saga upon which the minstrel based his story (Deut. Altertumskunde, i, 32). L. Beer (Beiträge, 13, i) opposed the conclusions of Müllenhoff, which, however, were reasserted by F. Vogt in Paul's Grundriss, ii, 1, 63, 64. Svend Grundtvig pointed out similarities of incident and construction in Orendel and the Danish ballad (see page 232), and finally Singer (Apollonius von Tyrus, pp. 3-33) has compared in detail the three pieces, Orendel, Jourdain and the Danish ballad. The relationship between Orendel and the Apollonius saga has been farther discussed by Tardel (Untersuchungen zur mittel hochdeut. Spielmannspoesie, Schwerin, 1894). It is necessary for us to deal connectedly with this singular group of widely separated yet curiously united fables.1 In the French poem Jourdain's parents have been murdered by Fromont, and their lands taken from them. Jourdain is cared for and educated by the faithful Renier. Fromont sends out two traitors, to whom he promises five hundred pounds if they bring the child to him. Here the likeness is closest to the old French prose version in which Antyocus (Antioch) is a vassal of the father of Apolonie. When the father is dead, Apolonie is reared by Transqualeon, the provost (prevost) of Tarse. Antyocus oppresses his subjects and is warned by his wife that the people may invoke Apol onie. Thereupon Antyocus sends out thirty men to lay hold upon Apolonie, but he escapes all dangers (si loing que il fust perille). The reward offered to him who shall bring Apollonius alive is in some of the Latin MSS. 100 talents (Riese), and in others fifty. In the Bohemian and Swedish prose versions it is 500 talents. Jourdain escapes the danger that menaces him, through the device and the devotion of Renier, who sacrifices his own child in his stead (Nyrop-Gorra, Storia della epopea francese, 196). After a time, when Jourdain is well grown, he serves Fromont, unrecognized by him, as a page, but Fromont hates him, for he resembles his slain father (Girard). One day Jourdain carries a 1 There is a very rare folks-book published in Paris in 1520 entitled, Les faitz et prouesses du noble et vaillant cheualeir Jourdain de blaues filz de Girard de blaues lequel en son vinant conquesta plusieurs royaulmes sur les Sarrazins. Paris, Michel le noir, 1520. 2 In Timoneda's Patrañuelo, No. 37, an only son is sacrificed to save a friend's son. golden vessel filled with wine to Fromont, who keeps him kneeling. Jourdain complains; Fromont threatens him with worse treatment, whereupon Jourdain retorts and Fromont strikes him with a stick. across the head so that he bleeds. Jourdain escapes to Renier, who discloses to him the secret of his birth. Jourdain goes with armed men to Fromont, finds him at the table and with his sword strikes off his nose. In the battle that ensues, Lohier, the son of Charlemagne, takes part and is killed by Jourdain, who takes flight, pursued by the emperor. The old tale of incest is abandoned by the French author. Hofmann sees in Karl (Charlemagne) the image. of Antiochus in the old story, but Singer with more reason fancies Fromont to replace Antiochus, and that Karl is only introduced in order to carry the story back to the well-known Carlovingian type.1 The poet adds a ghastly humorous touch when he says that Fromont, in order not to suffer alone the shame of his mutilation, orders his knights to have their noses cut off. Singer compares the narrative in the Kaiserchronik and in Toledoth Jeschu (Zeitschrift d. Vereins f. Volkskunde, ii, 295). In the adventures that follow, there is an attack by Saracens, of which we shall speak later. Jourdain springs from the deck of the Saracen ship into the sea, and clinging to a tree bough bites his arm and is cast up by the sea upon a foreign shore. The biting of the arm is an allusion to the medieval belief that the sea would permit no bleeding or wounded thing in its dominion (see page 281). "Il s'est navrez el bras de maintenant N'avoit autre arme, dont il se fust aidant, Por ce le fist, gel voz di et creant, Mers ne puet sanc souffrir ne tant "2 (J. de B., 1260). Apollonius after his shipwreck arrives at Pentapolis, on the north African coast, in the kingdom of Archistrates, who is depicted as a Greek. Jourdain finds himself in the realm of King Marcus, who is a Christian. In both stories the heroes stand upon the beach lamenting their unhappy fate, when they espy a poor fisherman. The fisher is a good fellow, of a gentle heart, who feeds and 1 As in Huon of Bordeaux. It is the familiar legend of Charlemagne pursuing a vassal who has killed his son. 2 Cf. Modersohn, Die Realien in Amis und Amiles und Jourdain de Blaivies, Lingen, 1886, p. 37. clothes the unfortunate hero and directs him to enter the city (thus in Godfrey of Viterbo, Pericles and the Italian and elder Greek versions of the Apollonius). Jourdain spends the night with the fisher, apparently that the contest in which he is to engage may take place after matins, and perhaps also for the sake of the picture of the minster and the royal party issuing from it. Thus the evening meal of the Latin and all other versions becomes a morning meal. While in Apollonius the hero displays great skill in ball playing, in Jourdain the sport is fencing. The king exclaims: "Who will fight with me?" ("qui vueult iestre mes pers a' l'esquermie"). Jourdain undertakes to resist him, and astonishes the king with his skill. After the sport Jourdain is left alone, but the king sends a messenger to him, who finds him weeping and at first inclined to think the king's invitation a mockery because of his squalid appearance. The king's daughter, Oriabel, is attracted by the handsome youth, and believes him, because of his beauty and manly bearing, to be of gentle blood (see verses 1408-1414). She begs permission of her father to give clothes to the unknown. He replies, "Ma belle fille gel voi et si l'otroi . . . . Quant la pucelle entendit de l'anfant. Que li porroit donner le garnement." She sends him a splendid robe and waits upon him at the ablutions before the meal; and he, by reason of his modesty, becomes the favorite of the king and the beloved of Oriabel ("et la pucelle l'en ama plus trois tans"). In Apollonius the princess is not present at the ball play, but appears at the meal which follows it, and the dejected Apollonius is drawn to the banquet by the king and consoled. The princess asks her father who the stranger is, and goes herself to him and inquires his history. One day Jourdain gives way in the orchard to his grief. He is overheard by the princess, who discovers his secret. Apollonius is overheard by the king playing upon his harp and bemoaning his fate (so in Copland and Wilkins). It has been remarked (Singer, p. 21), that there is here a trace of the influence of a group of märchen in which a hero enters the service of a king, and is surprised in his secret meditations in the garden by the king's daughter. A number of parallel tales are to be found in J. G. von Hahn's Griechische und albanesische Märchen. Similarly in Karlmeinet and Gran Conquista (Bartsch, p. 17) Karl reveals his high lineage alone and lamenting. 1 Singer, p. 21. The romances differ in the union of the lovers. The pacific character at this point of the Apollonius narrative will be recalledhow Apollonius instructs the princess in music, and is chosen by her as her husband, though she is sought in marriage by lofty suitors. The French epic is more turbulent and clamorous. At an incursion of the Saracens, Jourdain is armed by the king's daughter, is dubbed a knight and engages the chief of the enemy, Brumadant, whom he slays, and brings his head as a bridal gift to Oriabel, whom he marries.1 Apollonius resolves to return to Tyre, when he learns of the terrible fate of Antiochus and his daughter. Jourdain longs to see his foster-father, Renier, whom he hopes to find living upon the isle of Mekka or Mesques. Jourdain's wife insists upon accompanying her lord in his sea voyage. Like the wife of Apollonius, she is pregnant, and during a storm is delivered of a child, whereupon-an interesting divergence from the ancient story-she is thrown alive and conscious into the sea. The priests advise this horrible act, which is again a consequence of the medieval belief that the sea would suffer no wounded body (the body of Oriabel is lacerated) to remain upon or within it. Jourdain fights with the sailors, but is overpowered by them, and the body of the queen, as in the elder story, is thrown into the sea." In the Christian French story, the resuscitation of the appar In the old French prose version the princely wooers from Cypress and Hungary are rejected. They declare war. The princess asks Apollonius if he can fight. In the battle he distinguishes himself and saves the old king. 2. Die Erklärung der Stelle, die R. Schröder (Glaube und Aberglaube in den Afr. Dichtungen, S. 129) gibt, ist unrichtig und sein Verweis auf die Magdalenenlegende hilft nicht weiter, da die Frau dort wirklich tot ist und nur durch ein Wunder erweckt wird. Immerhin ist die Parallele interessant: auch dort (s. Roman. Forsch., iv, 493, ff.; Passional ed., Hahn, 379, 28 ff.) gebiert eine Frau auf einem Schiffe ein Kind und stirbt an der Geburt, die Winde wachsen zu Stürmen an, die Marner verlangen von dem Ehemann dass er den Leichnam überbord werfe, denn so lange dieser auf dem Schiffe sei, würden sich die Winde nicht legen" (Singer, p. 23). "Cil chapelain ont lor livres tenus, Que por la damme, qui acouchie fu, Que mers ne sueffre arme qui navre fust Qui en cors soit ne navrez ne ferus" (J. de B., 2154). |