ed),
and of _Fulk Fitz Warine_ are treated, is certainly partly due to this
circumstance. Although the last of these works has come down to us
only in a prose version, it contains unmistakable signs of a previous
poetic form, and what we possess is really only a rendering into prose
similar to the transformations undergone by many of the _chansons de
geste_ (cf. L. Brandin, _Introduction to Fulk Fitz Warine_, London,
1904).

The interinfluence of French and English literature can be studied in
the Breton romances and the _romans d'aventure_ even better than in
the epic poetry of the period. The _Lay of Orpheus_ is known to us
only through an English imitation; the _Lai du cor_ was composed by
Robert Biket, an Anglo-Norman poet of the 12th century (Wulff, Lund,
1888). The _lais_ of Marie de France were written in England, and the
greater number of the romances composing the _matiere de Bretagne_
seem to have passed from England to France through the medium of
Anglo-Norman. The legends of Merlin and Arthur, collected in the
_Historia Regum Britanniae_ by Geoffrey of Monmouth ([+] 1154), passed
into French literature, bearing the character which the bishop of
St. Asaph had stamped upon them. Chretien de Troye's _Perceval_ (c.
1175) is doubtless based on an Anglo-Norman poem. Robert de Boron (c.
1215) took the subject of his Merlin (published by G. Paris and J.
Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols., _Societe des Anciens Textes_) from Geoffrey of
Monmouth. Finally, the most celebrated love-legend of the middle ages,
and one of the most beautiful inventions of world-literature, the
story of Tristan and Iseult, tempted two authors, Beroul and Thomas,
the first of whom is probably, and the second certainly, Anglo-Norman
(see ARTHURIAN LEGEND; GRAIL, THE HOLY; TRISTAN). One _Folie Tristan_
was composed in England in the last years of the 12th century. (For
all these questions see _Soc. des Anc. Textes_, Muret's ed. 1903;
Bedier's ed. 1902-1905). Less fascinating than the story of Tristan
and Iseult, but nevertheless of considerable interest, are the two
_romans d'aventure_ of Hugh of Rutland, _Ipomedon_ (published by
Koelbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889) and _Protesilaus_ (still
unpublished) written about 1185. The first relates the adventures of
a knight who married the young duchess of Calabria, niece of King
Meleager of Sicily, but was loved by Medea, the king's wife. The
second poem is the sequel to _Ipomedon_, and deals with the wars and