Early English Hero Tales

which we are coming to know something, and through some of which we have

nd upon the ruins of a wonderful old abbey called Tintern Abbey, about which, some six hundred years later, an English poet called Will

ou, when the breeze Hath found you out among the trees And calls you forth again. This plot of orchard ground is ours;[Pg 76] My trees they are, my Sister's flowers; Here rest your wings when they are weary; Here l

onmouth. That was some seven hundred years ago. No doubt the little town was very busy even

, two fine battle songs were written. They were the "Song of Brunanburh" and the "Song of the Fight at Maldon." These were written in the tenth century. "The Charge of the Light Brigade," compose

g

y of Death Rode the six hundred. "Forward the Light Brigade! Charge

knew Some one had blunder'd: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason

nd what he was supposed to be doing was jotting down accurately historical events year after year. Some of the chronicles written in this way have become the c

e found the story of King Lear and his three daughters, Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia-Lear, the hero of Shakespeare's play, "King Lear," written over four hundred years later. There, too, is the story of Ferrex and Porrex. Geoffrey had a nimble quill pen with which to follow his nimble wit. He writes of Julius C?sar and of how he came to Great Britain. What Ge

d on its shores that beautiful city Tintagel, where Queen Igraine, the mother of Arthur, lived. But in Geoffrey's chronicle she was called Igerna. A name is sometimes like a long,

f mountains like a lump of sugar in the bottom of a deep cup. Outside this little village is a hill called Dinas Emrys. Geoffrey looked northward out of his golden window in Monmouth, and what do you think

a tower on Dinas Emrys, but whatever the wo

a youth who has never had a father. You must sacrif

ssenger reached Caernarvon, thirteen miles away from Beddgelert and the hill Dinas Emrys, they found two boys playing games and quarreling

lad who had no father, with whose blood the foundation

d Merlin, "to come before me an

urse the magicians did not wish to come. But King Vortiger

foundations of the tower, you have told the King to kill me and to cement the stones with my

no answer, for the

and your workmen to dig into the ground, and you wil

done, and a pond

agicians, "Tell me, ye false men

ere afraid

g

e pond to be drained, and at the bottom you will see

d pond out came the two dragons, one red and one white, and, approaching each other, they began to fight, blowing forth fire f

rlin to explain what this me

rom the lily and the nettle, and silver shall flow from the hoofs of bellowing cattle. The

Merlin meant, or what Geoffrey thought he

e mystical stones and had value to heal and cure men. When these stones were found too heavy to be lifted by human hands, Merlin found a way, nevertheless, to lift them. Then the stones of the Giants' Dance were carried across the sea and placed in England at Stonehenge. It is an exciting story

is more almost than ever did exist. And of the coming of St. Augu

lace, Geoffrey tells stories which vary greatly from what was actually known to be history. Then, too, this chronicle is full, as you have seen, of miraculo

ry-telling grew out of the Chronicles, the so-called historical literature. The men of Geoffrey's time said that "he had lied saucily and shamelessly." No doubt he had. Yet these same men could not help reading the stories he told, for they were so interesting that all men read them. What he had

as the work of Wace, a Norman trouveur, or ballad-singer. But Geoffrey's stories were too good to let drop even after they had been through so many hands. An English priest in Worcestersh

have chuckled many a time over what the world had made out of his nimble story-telling wits. English literature could not be at all the same, in e

the Normans would never have become so strongly English in feeling if English patriotism, even after the conquest of 1066, had not remained very much alive. The English had written down in English some of the proverbs of their former King Alf

Geoffrey of Monmouth, and laughing for joy because the man who "lied so