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242 SIR ALDINGAK. |
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iron bands." AH these three tests are found in the Faroe ballad, which brings in Memering besides, and thus furnishes a transition to the Danish, which sayS nothing about the trial by fire, and has only the duel. Finally the English ballad completes the circle with the pile at which the queen was to be burned, in case she should not be able to prove her innocence by the duel.
At a time uncertain, but earlier than the 14th century, this legend was transplanted into the literature of Southern Europe. It is found in various Spanish chronicles, the earliest the Historia de Calaluha of Bernardo Desclot, written about 1300; also in a Provencal and a French chronicle of the 17th century. In most of these the part of the queen's champion is assigned to the well-known Raimund Berengar, Count of Barcelona, who, in the year 1113, took Majorca from the Moors. The popularity of the story is further proved by the Spanish romance, El Conde de Barcelona y la Emperatriz de Alemania; the French romance L'Histoire de Palanus, Comte de Lyon ; and a novel of Bandello, the 44th of the Second Part. This last was re-written and published in 1713, with slight changes, as an original tale, by M™ de Fontaines (Histoire de la Comlesse de Savoie), whence Voltaire borrowed materials for two of his tragedies, Tancrede and Arte'mire.
By the circuitous route of Spain the story returns to England in a romance of the 15th century, The Erie of Tolous (Ritson, Metr. Rom. iii. p. 93). Nearly related with this romance is the German storybook (derived from the French) on which Hans Sachs founded his tragedy, Der Hitter Golmi mil der Iterzo- |
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