Romance Heroes.— The countries of west ern Europe that once formed the Roman Em pire gave birth to a class of heroes and a body of legend that had its inception in the wari waged by Christian princes against the growing and ever-threatening menace of Saracen domi nation. The first clashes between Christian and Moslem came in the 8th century when the stretching south of the Frankish monarchy to wards the Pyrenees brought it in contest with the conquering Moorish emirs of Spain. By a confusion of ideas resulting from the ignorance of Westerns regarding things Oriental, the Saracens and Moors were thought to be idola tors or pagans, whence in literature the Mo hammedans came to be known as Paynims. By a similar misconception Mohammed was con tracted into Mahmet (Malunout) and meant (idol;' and Mahmetry (Mahmoutry) came to signify (idolatry.° In legend, therefore, the Ro mance heroes, down to their last descendants in poetry are the champions of Christianity against paganism. The chief historical character of the earlier wars against the Moors of Spain was the Frankish king, Charles Martel, who from the decisive battles of Tours (A.D. 732) to the capture of Narbonne (A.D. 759), dealt the Sara cens, who had established a kingdom in France, a series of telling death-blows and drove them forever beyond the Pyrenees. His exploits were in legend transferred to his more famous son, Charlemagne, whose wars were chiefly against the pagan and barbarous people, called Saxons, in the countries north of France. His warfare against the Saracens was not so glori ous, and his army on the retreat from Spain was attacked at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, where the noblest of the Frankish chieftains, among them Roland, or Orlando, governor of the marches or frontier of Brittany, were killed. Roland's name became famous in after times and the disaster of Roncesvalles became eventually the most celebrated episode in the whole cycle of romance. It is probably through Roland, therefore, that Charlemagne drew to himself, in the opinion of the early historians and the writers of romance, the more famous exploits of his father and became with his knights once for all the chief heroes of the de geste.p The earliest of these °chansons de geste is the 'Chanson de Roland.' Like Arthur, Charlemagne's person and character became obliterated in the romances and the chief stories circle around his knights, who are called Peers, as being on a footing of equality among themselves, or Palladins (Lat. palatines, from palatium, palace), implying that they were in mates of the palace and intimate associates of the king. The number of the Peers or Palladins is usually 12. Beside Roland they are his friend Oliver; Ogier the Dane; Huon of Bordeaux; Renaud of Montauban; the traitor, Doon of Mayence; Ganelon, treacherously responsible for Roland's death; Archbishop Turpin, as good a specimen of a muscular churchman as Robin Hood's Friar Tuck; William Fierabras; William of Toulouse; William of Orange (the three last probably identical personages); and Vivien, nephew of William of Orange. The later wars
against the Saracens in Spain developed for the Spanish people the Cid and Bernardo del Car pio, the latter the Spanish Roland. Curiously too Alexander the Great became a favorite character in the mediaeval romances.
Bibliography, Greek: Daremberg and Sag lio, (Dictionaire des antiquites); Deneken, F., 'Hems' (in Rosoher's 'Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der griechischen u. r8mischen Mythologie') ; SchOmann, G. F., 'Griechische Altertiimee (Vol. II, 159, 1897) ; Hild, J. A., 'Etude sur les demons' (1%1) ; Wassner, J., 'De heroum apud Gracos cultu> (1883) ; Stengel, P., 'Die griechische Kultusaltertiime0 (1898) ; Rohde, E., 'Psyche' (1905). Teutonic: Grimm, W., 'Die deutsche Heldensage> (1829, 3d ed., 1889) ; Muller, W., (Mythologie der deutschen Heldensage) (1886), and supplement, (Zur Mythologie der griechischen and deutschen Hel densage> (1889); Bugge, S., (Studier over de nordiske crude- og heltesagns oprindelse' (1881-89, Ger. trans. by 0. Brenne, and Helge Digtene i den JEldre Edda, Dees Hjena og Forbindelsea (Eng. trans. by W. H. Scholfield, 'The Home of the Eddic Poems)); Symons, B., (Germanische Heldensage> (in Paul's 'Grundris der germ. Phil.,> Vol. III, 1900; 2d rev. ed., sep arately printed, 1905) ; Chantepie de la Sans saye, 'The Religion of the Teutons) (Eng. trans., 1902) ; Jiriczek, 0. L, 'Die deutsche Heldensage' (3d rev. ed., 1906). Celtic: D'Ar bois de Jubainville, M. H., 'Cours de litterature celtique (12 vols., 1883-1902; 1 vol., trans. into English by R. I. Best, 'The Irish Mytho logical Cycle and Celtic Mythology,' 1903); Rhys, J., 'Celtic Britain> (3d ed., 1904) ; Squire, C., 'The Mythology of the British Isles: An In troduction to Celtic Myth and Romance> (1905) ; Kittredge, G. L., 'Gawain and the Green Knight> (1916) ; Macculoch, J. A., 'Celtic Mythology' (1918, in 'Mythology of all Races,' Vol. III). Romance: Petit de Julleville, L., (Histoire de la langue et de la litterature fran caise en moyen lige> (1896) ; Lanson, G., 'His toire de la litterature francaise (6th ed., 1901); Weston, J. L.,
Fawarcts J. HtmELT, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.