Another form of narrative literature in the Middle Ages is that of Romances, and the great products of it are the Arthurian Romances and the Romances of Antiquity.THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE OFROMANCES is a set of romantic stories founded on the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, with which was early fused the legend of the Holy Graal.The legend has sources as far back as the ninth century, but expanded into definite shape in France and England in the twelfth.It had its first and highest popular development in France.Here they were collected and thrown into verse by Chrestien de Troyes.It became at once a general European possession and expanded to vast proportions.In England the Arthur stories flourished both independently and as translations from French.Sir Thomas Malory collected in the latter part of the fifteenth century a great number of these sources, translated, edited, abridged, and rewrote the whole into that charming book "Morte D'Arthur".It is accepted that this book, though so late, gives a true impression of the characteristics of the older romances.We select from this rather than from other translations of French originals, to give a mediaeval flavor to the selection and have the advantage of quoting a classic.
Alongside the Arthurian Romances, flourished many romances of antiquity.The more important of these cycles are the ROMANCE OFALEXANDER and the ROMANCE OF TROY, while others worth mentioning are the ROMANCE OF THEBES and the ROMANCE OF AENEAS.They are all very long poems, consisting of series of stories partly derived from classic sources, partly invented by trouveres.They are important (1) as connecting, however loosely, mediaeval with classical literature, and (2) as showing some scholarship on the part of their authors and interest in general culture.
FROM MORTE D'ARTHUR.
Book I.Chapter 23.
How Arthur by the mean of Merlin gat Excalibur his sword of the Lady of the lake.
Right so the king and he departed, and went until an hermit that was a good man and a great leach.So the hermit searched all his wounds and gave him good salves; so the king was there three days, and then were his wounds well amended that he might ride and go, and so departed.And as they rode, Arthur said, I have no sword.No force, said Merlin, hereby is a sword that shall be yours and I may.So they rode till they came to a lake, the which was a fair water and broad, and in the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.Lo, said Merlin, yonder is that sword that Ispake of.With that they saw a damsel going upon the lake: What damsel is that? said Arthur.That is the Lady of the lake, said Merlin; and within that lake is a rock, and therein is as fair a place as any on earth, and richly beseen, and this damsel will come to you anon, and then speak ye fair to her that she will give you that sword.Anon withal came the damsel unto Arthur and saluted him, and he her again.Damsel, said Arthur, what sword is that, that yonder the arm holdeth above the water? I would it were mine' for I have no sword.Sir Arthur king, said the damsel, that sword is mine, and if ye will give me a gift when I ask it you, ye shall have it.By my faith, said Arthur, I will give you what gift ye will ask.Well, said the damsel, go ye into yonder barge and row yourself to the sword, and take it and the scabbard with you, and I will ask my gift when I see my time.So Sir Arthur and Merlin alight, and tied their horses to two trees, and so they went into the ship, and when they came to the sword that the hand held, Sir Arthur took it up by the handles, and took it with him.And the arm and the hand went under the water; and so they came unto the land and rode forth.
Book III.Chapter 1.
How king Arthur took a wife, and wedded Guenever daughter to Leodegrance, king of the land of Cameliard, with whom he had the Round Table.
In the beginning of Arthur, after he was chosen king by adventure and by grace--for the most part of the barons knew not that he was Uther Pendragon's son, but as Merlin made it openly known,--many kings and lords made great war against him for that cause; but well Arthur overcame them all; for the most part of the days of his life he was ruled much by the council of Merlin.
