King Horn, Floriz and Blauncheflur, The Assumption of Our Lady
General
King Horn, Floriz and Blauncheflur, The Assumption of Our Lady
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Legends; Romances, English
What, then, is the relation of H. C. to K. H. and to R. H.? Wissmann
says, apparently with truth: “Das Gedicht von Horn Childe hat von dem
Gehalt des K. H. nichts bewahrt, was nicht auch R. H. hätte.” On the
other hand H. C. has a number of important traits in common with R. H.,
for instance, the names: Herland (R. H.); Herlaund, Arlaund, Harlaund,
Arlond, etc. (H. C.); Allof (R. H.); Haþeolf (H. C.); Wikel (R. H.);
Wiȝel (H. C.); Haþerof (R. H.); Haderof (H. C.) and Hunlaf (R. H.);
Houlac (H. C.); further, Haderof’s ignorance of Herland’s intention to
palm him off as Horn, the love of the Irish princess for Horn, Horn’s
meeting with Moioun (Moging) and Wikard, and his riddle of the net told
here, the tournament and the contest between Horn and Moioun, Horn’s
thanks to king Houlac (Hunlaf). From the considerable French element in
the vocabulary of H. C., including frequent rime words, the French form
Cornwayle riming with the French phrase _saun faile_, it is reasonable
to suppose that the author was acquainted with French, and the general
tone of the romance, the feudalism inculcated by King Haþeolf, 133 ff.,
the tournaments and the general air of luxury in addition to the
above-mentioned striking traits in common with R. H., suggest almost
inevitably that the author of H. C. must have been acquainted with, and
influenced by, the French version.
The Scottish ballads of Hind Horn (cf. Child, as above, I, 187), as said
above, emphasize only one element of the original story, namely, the
separation of Horn and the princess, and their reunion through the
agency of the magic ring. The story in Hind Horn agrees more closely
(notably in the function of the ring, peculiar to the Northern versions)
with H. C. than with R. H. or K. H., and seems to rest, along with H.
C., on a northern version of the story.
The later French romance _Ponthus et la belle Sidoine_ is an adaptation
of the French version (R. H.) of the Horn story. It is purely an
artificial product based on R. H., and has little bearing on the origin
and history of the version in hand. It is interesting in this connection
as showing how possible it is to tell the same story with different
names, the only name in common between R. H., and the adaptation being
that of the steward Herlant. (Cf. English translation, King Ponthus and
the Fair Sidone, edited by F. J. Mather, Publ. of the Mod. Lang. Assoc.
of America, xii, 1-150.) The story of Ponthus also appears in a German
_Volksbuch_ (cf. Simrock, I. 1 ff.).
[Footnote I-2: Brede (R.) und Stengel (E.). _Das agn. Lied vom
wackern Ritter Horn._ Ausg. u. Abh. VIII. Marburg, 1883. Also Fr.
Michel. For the Bannatyne Club, 1845.]
[Footnote I-3: Wissmann (Th.), Quell. u. Forsch. XVI. Strassburg,
1876.]
[Footnote I-4: For complete list of traits peculiar to R. H. cf.
J. Caro, in Eng. Stud. xii, 331-2.]
[Footnote I-5: Cf. the relation of the English version of Fl. and
Bl. to the French original.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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