The wealth and variety of imagination displayed in these legends will, I hope, prove that the epoch to which they belong has been greatly maligned by the term "dark ages," often applied to it. Such was the favor which the legendary style of composition enjoyed with our ancestors that several of the poems analyzed in this volume were among the first books printed for general circulation in Europe. Previous to the invention of printing, however, they were familiar to rich and poor, thanks to the scalds, bards, trouvères, troubadours, minstrels, and minnesingers, who, like the rhapsodists of Greece, spent their lives in wandering from place to place, relating or reciting these tales to all they met in castle, cottage, and inn. A chapter on the Romance literature of the period in the different countries of Europe, and a complete index, will, it is hoped, fit this volume for handy reference in schools and libraries, where the author trusts it may soon find its own place and win a warm welcome. CONTENTS. I. BEOWULF II. GUDRUN III. REYNARD THE FOX IV. THE NIBELUNGENLIED V. LANGODARDIAN CYCLE OF MYTHS VI. THE AMBLINGS VII. DIETRICH VON BERN VIII. CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PALADINS IX THE SONS OF AYMON X. HUON OF BORDEAUX XI. TITUREL AND THE HOLY GRAIL XII. MERLIN XIII. THE ROUND TABLE XIV. TRISTAN AND ISEULT XV. THE STORY OF FRITHIOF XVI. RAGNAR LODBROK XVII. THE CID XVIII. GENERAL SURVEY OF ROMANCE LITERATURE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE--Lévy FUNERAL OF A NORTHERN CHIEF--Cormon GUDRUN AND THE SWAN--Kepler BROWN THE BEAR CAUGHT IN THE LOG--Wagner REYNARD PREPARING FOR BATTLE--Kaulbach GUNTHER WINNING HIS BRIDE--Keller SIEGFRIED'S BODY BORNE HOME BY THE HUNTSMEN--Pixis ASPRIAN SLAYING THE LION--Keller FALKE KILLS THE GIANT--Keller THE VICTORIOUS HUNS--Checa THE TOMB OF THEODORIC THE DEATH OF ROLAND--Keller HUON BEFORE THE POPE--Gabriel Max HUON AND AMANDA LEAP OVERBOARD--Gabriel Max PARZIVAL UNCOVERING THE HOLY GRAIL--Pixis ARRIVAL OF LOHENGRIN--Pixis THE BEGUILING OF MERLIN--Burne-Jones SIR LANCELOT DU LAC--Sir John Gilbert ELAINE--Rosenthal ISEULT SIGNALS TRISTAN--Pixis THE LOVERS AT BALDER'S SHRINE--Kepler FRITHIOF AT THE COURT OF KING RING--Kepler STRATEGY OF HASTINGS--Keller THE CID'S LAST VICTORY--Rochegrosse LEGENDS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER I. BEOWULF. "List! we have learnt a tale of other years, Of kings and warrior Danes, a wondrous tale, How aethelings bore them in the brunt of war." _Beowulf_ (Conybeare's tr.). The most ancient relic of literature of the spoken languages of modern Europe is undoubtedly the epic poem "Beowulf," which is supposed to have been composed by the Anglo-Saxons previous to their invasion of England. Although the poem probably belongs to the fifth century, the only existing manuscript is said to date from the ninth or tenth century.