The Sowdone of Babylone. Early English Text Society. Extra Series. No. XXXVIII. 1881. BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN. NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. THE ENGLISH CHARLEMAGNE ROMANCES. PART V. The Romaunce of The Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras his Sone who conquerede Rome. RE-EDITED FROM THE UNIQUE MS. OF THE LATE SIR THOMAS PHILLIPPS, with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary, BY EMIL HAUSKNECHT, PH. D. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD, W.C. MDCCCLXXXI. [«Reprinted 1891, 1898.»] Extra Series, XXXVIII. RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION … v Popularity of the Carlovingian Romances … v Popularity of the Ferumbras Poem … vi The Provençal Ferabras … ix The Fierabras Poem an Enlarged and Recast Portion of the Old Balan Romance … xi The Poem of the Destruction de Rome … xiii MSS. of the French Fierabras … xv The English Sir Ferumbras, its Source, etc. … xvi The Poem of the Sowdan of Babylon, its Sources, its Differences from the Original Balan Romance and from the Ashmolean Ferumbras … xxii Dialect of the Sowdan … xxxiv Metre and Rhymes of the Sowdan … xl Date and Author of the Sowdan … xlv MS. of the Sowdan … xlvii Roxburghe Club Edition of the Sowdan … xlviii ADDITIONS … xlix The Hanover MS. of the French Fierabras Compared With the Sowdan … xlix The Hanover Version Compared With Sir Ferumbras … lii SKETCH OF THE STORY … liv THE ROMAUNCE OF THE SOWDONE OF BABYLONE AND OF FERUMBRAS HIS SONE WHO CONQUEREDE ROME … 1 NOTES … 95 GLOSSARIAL INDEX … 133 INDEX OF NAMES … 141 [p-v] INTRODUCTION. The exploits of Charles the Great, who by his achievements as conqueror and legislator, as reformer of learning and missionary, so deeply changed the face of Western Europe, who during a reign of nearly half a century maintained, by his armies, the authority of his powerful sceptre, from the southern countries of Spain and Italy to the more northern regions of Denmark, Poland, and Hungary, must have made a profound and unalterable impression in the minds of his contemporaries, so that for centuries afterwards they continued to live in the memory of the people. Evidence of this high pitch of popularity is given by the numerous «chansons de geste» or romances, which celebrate the deeds, or are connected with the name, of the great and valiant champion of Christendom.