Turpin. _La Conqueste que
fit le grand roi Charlemaigne es Espaignes_ (pr. 1486) is the same work
as the prose compilation of _Fierabras_ (pr. 1478), and Caxton's _Lyf of
Charles the Grete_ (1485).

The Charlemagne legend was fully developed in Italy, where it was to
have later a great poetic development at the hands of Boiardo, Ariosto
and Tasso. There are two important Italian compilations, MS. XIII. of
the library of St Mark, Venice (c. 1200), and the _Reali di Francia_ (c.
1400) of a Florentine writer, Andrea da Barberino (b. 1370), edited by
G. Vandelli (Bologna, 1892). The six books of this work are rivalled in
importance by the ten branches of the Norse _Karlamagnus saga_, written
under the reign of Haakon V. This forms a consecutive legendary history
of Charles, and is apparently based on earlier versions of the French
Charlemagne poems than those which we possess. It thus furnishes a guide
to the older forms of stories, and moreover preserves the substance of
others which have not survived in their French form. A popular
abridgment, the _Keiser Karl Magnus Kronike_ (pr. Malmo, 1534), drawn up
in Danish, serves in some cases to complete the earlier work. The 2000
lines of the German _Kaiserchronik_ on the history of Charlemagne belong
to the first half of the 12th century, and were perhaps the work of
Conrad, the poet of the _Ruolantes Liet_. The German poet known as the
Stricker used the same sources as the author of the chronicle of
Weihenstephan for his _Karl_ (c. 1230). The earliest important Spanish
version was the _Chronica Hispaniae_ (c. 1284) of Rodrigo de Toledo.

The French and Norman-French chansons circulated as freely in England as
in France, and it was therefore not until the period of decadence that
English versions were made. The English metrical romances of Charlemagne
are:--_Rowlandes Song_ (15th century); _The Taill of Rauf Coilyear_ (c.
1475, pr. by R. Lekpreuik, St Andrews, 1472), apparently original; _Sir
Ferumbras_ (c. 1380) and the _Sowdone of Babylone_ (c. 1400) from an
early version of _Fierabras_; a fragmentary _Roland and Vernagu_
(Ferragus); two versions of _Otuel_ (Otinel); and a _Sege of Melayne_
(c. 1390), forming a prologue to Otinel unknown in French.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The most important works on the Charlemagne cycle of
romance are:--G. Paris, _Hist. poetique de Charlemagne_ (Paris, 1865;
reprint, with additional notes by Paris and P. Meyer, 1905); L.
Gautier, _Les Epop