hammedans. This is an all pervading element in romantic and chivalric
fiction. The Northmen believed in giants and dwarfs; in wizzards and
fairies; in necromancy and enchantments; as well as the Oriental
natives. It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that the immense tide of
song which inundated Europe from the eleventh to the sixteenth century,
under the form of metrical romances, ballads, and songs, was made up of
confluent streams from classical, Oriental, and Gothic mythologies. The
Troubadours of Province (from Provincia, by way of eminence), the
legitimate successors of the Latin citharcedi, the British bards, the
northern scalds, the Saxon gleemen, and English harpers, all contributed
in turn to form English minstrelsy and French romance. The Latin tongue
ceased to be spoken in France about the ninth century. The new language
used in its stead was a mixture of bad Latin and the language of the
Franks. As their speech was a medley, so was their poetry. As the songs
of chivalry were the most popular compositions in the new or Romance
language, they were called Romans, or Romants. They appeared about the
eleventh century. The stories of Arthur and his round table are
doubtless of British origin. It is evident that the Northmen had the
elements of chivalry in them long before that institution became famous,
as is shown by the story of Regner Lodbrog, the celebrated warrior and
sea king, who landed in Denmark about the year 800. A Swedish Prince had
intrusted his beautiful daughter to the care of one of his nobles who
cruelly detained her in his castle under pretence of making her his
wife. The King made proclamation that whoever would rescue her should
have her in marriage. Regner alone achieved her rescue. The name of the
traitorous man was Orme, which in the Islandic tongue means a serpent,
hence the story that the maiden was guarded by a dragon, which her bold
deliverer slew. The history of Richard I. is full of such romantic
adventures. Shakespeare, in his play of King John, alludes to an exploit
of Richard in slaying a lion, whence the epithet "Coeur de Lion,"
which is given in no history. He says:

"Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose
Against whose furie and unmatched force,
The aweless lion could not wage the fight
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand:
He that perforce robs lions of their hearts
May easily winne a woman's."

This allusion is fully explained in the old rom