Bluegrass Messengers

The Story of Horn and Rimenhild- Schofield 1903

The Story of Horn and Rimenhild
by William Henry Schofield PMLA, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1903), pp. 1-83
 

I.-THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD

From a Middle-English poem narrating the events of the Trojan war,[1] we learn that formerly in England, when folk gathered "at mangeres and at grete festes," they listened gladly after meat to the "fair romance" of Horn, which "gestours" were then wont to recite; and, having this romance before us, we can readily understand the reason of its popularity: it interests us, as it did our forefathers, not only because it tells a tale of an ever-pleasing type, but also because it purports to record native English tradition.

Mi leue frende dere,
Herken & Se may here,
& ge wil vnder stonde;
Stories ge may lere
Of our elders hat were
Whilom in his lond.

These words, with which, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, a minstrel secured the attention of English auditors to a version of the story of Horn, form an appeal to which we also willingly respond. Not content, however, with simple enjoyment of the story as such, we nowadays, in a scholarly spirit, are disposed to inquire more deeply as to its significance. We desire knowledge concerning its origin, the historical conditions that it reflects, the scene of action of the happenings, the relation of the unlike redactions in which it is preserved. Questions on these points have, in truth, been asked over and over again since the time of Bishop Percy; but satisfactory answers have not been forthcoming, and still dispute is rife. Just now, indeed, interest in the many vexed problems that the tale presents seems greater than ever before. Within the last two years the oldest of the English versions has been twice re-edited in England, by Mr. Joseph Hall, of Manchester, for the Clarendon Press, and by Dr. George H. McKnight, of Ohio State University, for the Early English Text Society, while a third new edition, by Prof. Morsbach, of Gottingen, is announced to appear shortly. Some results of his investigations in the subject Prof. Morsbach has already made known in an interesting article;[2] and Dr. Otto Hartenstein, of Kiel, in his doctor's dissertation recently published,[3] has traversed the whole field of discussion with thoroughness and care. A glance at the extensive bibliography (occupying some twelve pages) that accompanies his work will suffice to indicate how much comment the story in its different forms has evoked. Since, however, no theory regarding the origin and development of the story commands general assent, since no theory, indeed, even to most of its advocates, has seemed more than fairly probable, I have been led to examine the subject anew, and would now offer those results of my investigations which appear to be of value. The opinions I have reached after renewed examination of the cycle from various points of view, will be seen to differ much from those now current. I shall be happy if they prove to have sufficient foundation in fact to ensure acceptance by the scholarly world.

----I.----
Of the several extant versions of the tale of Horn and Rimenhild, two only are of real importance in determining its fundamental character:[4], the simple song of an English minstrel known as the Geste of King Horn[5] (which will be referred to here as KH), written about the middle of the thirteenth century; and 2, an elaborate French poem entitled Horn et Rimenhild [6] (HR), composed in the century preceding.[7] Although in its present shape KH is much later than HR, it evidently represents a more primitive form of the story.

This earlier form, however, it does not reproduce exactly. Written primarily, it seems, for public delivery before audiences of plain people, it is unaffected in tone and unadorned in style. To suit the purpose of its production, the theme is treated succinctly, with but little detail. In comparison with  KH, HR is a very sophisticated product. While the former has only some 1,550 short lines, the latter comprises about 5,250 alexandrines. In tone HR is courtly and feudal, in style elaborate and refined. It is fashioned in the guise of an epic chanson de geste, and contains abundant evidence of having been composed by a well-informed, cultivated, and pious man for the upper classes of Anglo-Norman society.

The precise relation of these two poems to each other, we need not for the moment discuss. Whatever be the immediate source either may have had, it is clear that ultimately both go back to a lost Anglo-Saxon version of the same narrative. To discover the features of this account, both, then, must be carefully examined, for neither has exclusive authority. KH is an imperfect guide chiefly because of the condensation and simplification that the material has undergone. On the other hand, HR must be treated with caution for the opposite reason, that in it the theme is much expanded by the introduction of extraneous material, the whole, moreover, being conceived in a foreign spirit. Those features in which the two versions agree, we may safely regard as original, and inasmuch as most of the incidents in KH find parallels in HR, we are justified in relying on its account in the main; but HR, being older and more detailed, may of course have preserved original features not in the English song, or there in varying form.

In brief; the narrative is as follows: The king of a land called Sudene is slain by hostile seamen, who thereupon take possession of his realm. His young son Horn they set adrift with several companions helpless on the sea. After a day and night their boat is cast ashore by the wind in the country of Westerness, in Britain, and the youths speedily make their way to the residence of the king near by. There they are treated with all kindness and as time passes grow steadily in favor. Horn especially distinguishes himself by his unusual beauty, accomplishments, and prowess, and the princess Rimenhild engages him in love. Their intimacy is betrayed by a traitorous friend; the king will accept no explanations; and Horn is banished from the land. Before they separate the two lovers agree to be faithful to each other for seven years, and Rimenhild gives Horn a ring as a keepsake, to inspire him in struggle. Leaving Britain, he journeys by boat to Ireland, where also he wins renown and is offered the Irish king's daughter to wife. He refuses without offence and remains there in all honor until he hears that his lady is to be married against her will to the king of Fenice (Reynes). Collecting a body of Irish followers, he returns in haste to Britain (Westerness), gains access to the wedding-feast in disguise, and reveals himself to the unhappy bride by putting the ring in the beaker of wine that she offers him to drink.

Finding her still true, he assembles his men, slays his opponents, and rescues Rimenhild from her plight. Without delaying, however, to consummate a marriage with her, he sets out to recover his native land. While he is restoring it to order and establishing peace, Rimenhild is beset by another lover, this time Horn's old comrade, Fikel (Fikenhild), who has forced her to his castle. Warned by a dream of this trouble, the hero returns, gains admittance to the palace with some of his followers, disguised as minstrels, and soon disposes of the traitor and his men. He gives to one of his friends the land of Rimenhild's father, to another that of the first rival suitor, and a third he weds to the princess of Ireland, before he himself returns with Rimenhild to his own country "among all his kin."

-----II.-----
The chief bone of contention among scholars concerning this traditional tale has ever been the determining of the scene of action, on which obviously depends the understanding of its significance as an historical record. The unusual difficulty of the problem all writers on the subject have admitted. Ten Brink, for example, remarks: [8]"In Havelok the geographical, if not the historical, points of union with fact are clearly defined. The Horn-saga is inextricably confused in both these respects." But nevertheless he, like many others, confidently maintained a wide-reaching theory on the basis chiefly of an unwarranted identification of a single place-name. "So much is clear," he says (p. 231), "the North Sea and its neighboring waters, and their shores, were the scene of the action." This statement, it seems, rested almost solely on the conviction that Sudene (Suddene), the name of Horn's home, was the same as the name of the people mentioned in Beowulf the SuSdene, South Danes, and therefore might be interpreted as South-Dane-land. Since the other places mentioned could not be made to fit this localization, the poem was naturally declared confused. This old explanation[9]  has been supported by many other distinguished scholars, notably German, sometimes with strong emphasis.

Suchier, for example, but two years ago, in his excellent History of Old French Literature, stated his belief that Sudene was "sicher" Denmark.[10] Matzner,[11] Korting[12] Wilker,[13] and others in Germany likewise accepted this theory; and that it still flourishes there is evident from the fact that Morsbach, the latest writer on the subject, accepts it apparently without question.[14]

On the other hand, the German who has of late examined the whole matter the most thoroughly, Dr. Hartenstein, deliberately rejects this hypothesis,[15] and reverts to one which has found chief' favor among English and French critics, namely, that Sudene was a district in the south of England. To Francisque Michel, the first editor of HR, is due the credit of formulating this theory.[16] Observing that in one manuscript of Gaimar's History of the English (written 1147-1151) the name of Surrey was given as Sudeine, Michel identified this with the Sudene of the romance, and concluded that Surrey was Horn's home. The fatal objection to this theory, that Surrey was inland, while all the places mentioned in the story were plainly on the sea-coast, was emphasized first by Dr. Ward, who, in a valuable article on the English poems,[17] suggested that perhaps the Sudene there mentioned was intended to include the whole of the ancient kingdom of Sussex. Still, on the whole, Dr. Ward was inclined to regard the name simply as "a vague poetical designation," and, connecting the hero with the Isle of Purbeck, "close to which the Danes had one of their strongholds in 876-7," concluded that "Dorsetshire has a very fair claim to be considered as the birth-place of the Horn legend." This view was adopted in a measure three years later, in 1886, by Soderhjelm,[18] and by various other writers since,[19] such as Dr. McKnight[20] and Mr. Hall,[21] the recent editors of KH, who agree in placing Horn's home on the south coast of England. Mr. Hall, it may be said, asserts further, though without any real evidence, that Sudene is "the country of the Southern Damnonii, that is, Cornwall."

Thus the two opposing views, that the home of the hero was "South-Dane-land" (supposedly Denmark), or that it was in the south of England, both now find vigorous support. Both obviously cannot be right. Perhaps neither the one nor the other. There are no doubt many students of the poems, like Miss Billings,[22] who feel that the problem still awaits the correct solution.

----III.----
Before attempting to determine more definitely the topography of the tale, it is well to rid our minds of an erroneous notion which in the past has caused confusion. If I mistake not, every one who has written on the subject has assumed without hesitation that the Bretaine mentioned in HR as the land to which Horn and his companions were driven in the rudderless boat was continental Britanny, Little Britain.

Yet it is quite clear, if one stops to consider the matter, that it is to the insular Britain, to Great Britain, that the Anglo-Norman poet referred. A vast deal of heated dispute[23] has arisen lately regarding the signification of Britannia, Bretaine, and the adjective Breton, in mediaeval Latin and French documents. Considerable divergence, most recognize, is apparent in actual practice, and general rules governing all cases would be difficult, if not impossible, to establish. But on one point there is abundant evidence, that Britannia (Bretaine) was constantly used from early times throughout the Middle Ages in England as the correct designation of the island of Britain.

Instances from Latin works are too numerous to need mention. A few from documents in English and French will suffice to establish the fact.

The Laud MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle[24] begins as follows: "Brittene igland is ehta hund mila long & twa hund brad. & her sind on piis iglande fif gepeode. Englisc. & Brittisc. & Wilsc. & Scyttisc. & Pyhtisc."

At the close of The Battle of 'Brunanburh (a poem in the Chronicle, A. D. 937) Brytene is similarly used:

eastan hider
Engle and Seaxe upp becomon
Ofer bride brimu, Brytene sohton.

Wace thus explains how the name became attached to the island:

La terre avoit nom Albion,
Mais Brutus li canga son nom.
De son nom Bruto nom li mist
Et Bretaigne son nom li fist.25
And Gaimar, speaking of the English, remarks:
La terre kil vont conquerant,
Si lapelent Engeland.
Este vus ci un acheson
Par que Bretaigne perdi son nun.[26]

In Sir Gawene and the Carle of Carelyle,[27] we read:

The yle of Brettayn i-cleppyde ys,
Betwyn Skotland and Ynglonde iwys,
In story i-wayte aryghte
Wallys ys an angull of ]t yle.

And thus in The Glene Knight:[28]

List, when Arthur he was king
he had all att his leadinge
the broad Ile of Brittaine;
England & Scottland one was
& Wales stood in the same case.

On the pivotal locality Sudene,[29] however, as we have seen, there has been no such unanimity of opinion. Yet the identification of this place is of first consequence. Here evidently we should begin our investigation.

Dismissing from our minds the various guesses so far
made, we turn to the texts themselves to see what actual
information they offer concerning Sudene, Horn's home.
In the first place, in the English poem KH it is called
definitely an island (1. 1318), and is located in the west (bi
weste, 1. 5). This island was apparently not remote from
Britain (England), for we are informed that the boat in
which the youths were placed drifted hardly twenty-four
hours, though during that time very rapidly, before it was
cast ashore.
be se bigan to flowe
& Horn child to rowe;
Pe se Fat schup so fasste drof
Fe children dradde ]erof....
Al be day & al be ni;t,
Til hit sprang dai liSt
Til Horn saS on be stronde
Men gon in Fe londe. (C Text, 11. 117-126.)
Later, when in Sudene, having dreamed during the night
of Fikenhild's treachery, the hero starts back in the morning
to rescue his bride, he accomplishes the journey in a similar
short space of time.
1Other forms of the name in KH are Sudenne, Sodenne, Suddene, Suddenne;
in HR Suddene, Suthdene. Compare the variant spellings of London
in La3amon's Brut: Lundene, Lundenne, Londene, Londenne (in the A.-S.
Chronicle, Lundenne). Compare also the variant spellings of Surrey, below,
p. 12. In Gaimar's Chronicle we find Mercene, Merceine, Mereenne <A.-S.
Myrcena.
10
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Horn gan to schupe ride,
His feren him biside ....
Er bane Horn hit wiste,
Tofore he sunne upriste,
His schup stod vnder ture
At Rymenhilde bure. (C 1425 ff.)
Of the same journey, undertaken by Horn immediately after
his bridal, we read:
Horn gan to schipe ride
And hys knygtes bi side
Here schip gan to croude
?e wind hym bleu wel loude'
Honder Sodenne syde,
Here schip bigan to glide
Abowte myd ni;te. (O 1332 ff.)
With a strong favorable wind, Horn and his companions
reached Sudene before midnight of the day on which they
set forth.
The French poet informs us further that it was a northwest
wind (del norwest uentant, 1. 105) that drove the boat
from Sudene to Britain (England).
If, then, we look, as these indications direct, for an island
off the west coast of England to which a strong northwest
wind would blow a boat within twenty-four hours, our eyes
are fixed at once on the Isle of Man. That does not seem
to serve, however, until we remember that Man was one of
the group regularly called by the Norsemen Surreyjar, "South
Isles," because of their position in respect to the Orkneys
(Orkneyjar). The "South Isles" included the Hebrides and
1 MSS. L and C have at this point the following additional lines, obviously
contradictory and meaningless:
Bi]inne (wy]inne) daies flue
bat schup gan ariue. (C 1295-96.)
A similar haphazard rhyme occurs in another place:
Her bul paens ariue(d)
Wel mo Pan flue. (C 807-808.)
11
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Man; and any one of them might be called in the singular
Surrey, Sudrey, even as any one of the Orkneys Orkney.
In Latin the Orkneys (Orcades) were called Orcania, and the
Hebrides likewise Sudreia. The natural form of these names
in early English would be Orkneye and SuS6reye (Sudreye);
but in French they were written differently. In HR, as
frequently in French, and in translations of French works,
like La3amon's Brut, we find the spellings Orcanie, Orcenie,
Orceine, Orcene; and in another French work, already referred
to, occurs the English place-name Su'reye (Sudreye) in the similar,
perhaps analogous, form Sudeine. In Gaimar's chronicle,
as Michel first pointed out, we read:
Edelbrit fu felt reis de Kent,
E de Sudeine ensement. (11. 955-56.)
Sudeine here is the reading of the best manuscript, but
variant readings of the same name in Gaimar are: Sudreie,
Suthdreie, Sutraie, Sudrie, Suthrie, Surrie. The present Surrey,
of course, is meant. In form the old name of Surrey was
identical with that of the Isle of Man, Su-reye (Sudreye),
though the two differed etymologically in the last part. No
one, then, can deny that Sudeine, Sudene, is a name which, at
least in a French work, might have been given to the Isle
of Man.2 The Isle of Man fulfils all the indications of
1 Note that the translation of Oreadas insulas in the Alfredian version of
Orosius (pp. 24, 58, note) is Orcadus bcet igland.
2 In La3amon's Brut (III, 7) we read that knights came to Arthur:
Of Scotlond of Irlond
Of Gutlond of Islond
Of Noreine of Denene
Of Orcaneie of Maneie.
Noreine (in another MS. Norene) is Norway, which elsewhere in the same
work is written NorkpwaieN, orewaie3e,N orweye, Norhweie, Norweine (r, 186,
191, 198). In IlI, 252, we find again the forms Noreine, Norene; and for
Denmark Denene, Dene. Maneie (Man) in another Ms. is written Mayne.
Another good parallel appears in La3amon's spelling of the old kingdom
of Moray (Moravia). Alongside Murcef (II, 507) occur Mureine (II, 487),
Mureinen (II, 559), Muraine, Morayne, Muriane, Morene (11. 4352, 10746,
12
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Horn's home in the oldest versions of the story, and being
the centre of viking sway in the Irish Sea during the ninth
and tenth centuries, it is a most natural place to locate events
like those in our cycle of poems, which, as I hope to show,
reflect the life of that period.
But, granted the identification of Sudene and the South-
Isle Man, does this clear up the situation? From this
starting-point, can we trace Horn's journey readily ? If not,
then the identification is of little service. If so, it is sufficiently
confirmed.
When the hero is set adrift, he comes first, as we have
seen, to a land vaguely called by the French poet "Britain,"
but by the English minstrel more precisely Westernesse,l
Westnesse. This latter name I take to indicate a ness or
promontory in that region which later Middle English
writers2 frequently call "the west country," the west of
England, in the neighborhood of North Wales.3 The difference
between the two forms of the name is apparently only
that in the one case the Norse ending -r of the adjective vestr
has been preserved and in the other dropped.4
The Scandinavian use of the designation "west" for Great
Britain and Ireland is clearly preserved in HR in the name
Westir. Fortunately, we are in no doubt as to this locality, for
the French poet twice tells us definitely what land was meant.
21048, 22178; I, 272, 318). Note also that the name of Modun's land is
spelt Fenenie as well as Feneye, Fenoie, Finee.-The medial -r- in Sudrey was
sometimes omitted in Old Norse; cf., for example, the form Sau8eyjum in
Laxdoela Saga, ed. Kr. Kaalund, p. 33.
1Ms. C has regularly Westernesse0, and H always Westnesse except in
1. 989, where both Mss. have Estnesse and in 1. 1250 where O alone has this
name. In neither of these cases, however, is Estnesse original. On this
point see Morsbach, p. 319.
2E. g., The Grene Knight, 11. 39, 515 (Percy Folio Ms., II, 58 if.); Lay Le
Freine, 1. 29 (Weber, Met. Roms., Edinb., 1810, I, 358).
3 For a more definite localization, see below, p. 24.
4 Cf. the district of Scotland called Sutherland, where the -r of the adjec.
tive suir, south, is preserved; also Auster Wood, near Bourne, Lincolnshire
(see G. S. Streatfeild, Lincolnshire and the Danes, London, 1884, p. 129).
13
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
(a) En Westir ueut aler. ki est regne preisez:
Yrlande out si a nun. al tens dauntiquitez. (11. 2130.)
(b) Yrlande . lors fu Westir nom6e. (1. 2184.)
Dr. Ward (p. 452) connected this name Westir (Ireland) with
the Norse adjective vestr, suggesting that the syllable -ir
was a retention of the ending -r. This is also the view of
Morsbach (p. 320) and others. I regard the syllable -ir
rather as the contraction of the 0. N. ey(j)ar, the whole
name then meaning "Western Isles," the Norse designation
of all the British Isles, and Ireland in particular as the
most remote. Sometimes we find instead of this the word
Vestrlond, "the lands of the West," which agrees with the
wording in the following passage from KH, which describes
how Horn left Westerness.
To Pe hauene he ferde,
& a god schup he hurede,
pat him scholde londe
In westene londe.l (C 751 ff.)
That Ireland is the hero's destination is here also clearly
stated 2 (" He arivede in Yrlonde "), and, in agreement with
the French poem, the information is given 3 that when Horn
returned to rescue his lady, he was accompanied by Irish
followers, whom he collected before he sailed.
In the French poem (1. 2937) Diuelin, the Norse name of
Dublin, is mentioned as the city where dwelt the king of Westir.
1There is surely no reason to identify Westir and Westernesse as some
scholars have done, or to regard the latter as having " gradually supplanted"
the former (see Ward, pp. 451-53). We cannot therefore agree with Dr.
McKnight, who, following the suggestions of Dr. Ward, remarks that
' it is not at all impossible to conceive that in the original, simpler form of
the story, there were but two scenes to this drama, and that Westernesse of the
English version, and Westir of the Norman version, alike refer to Ireland,
only that on account of the amplification of the story, one came to think
of Aylmar's kingdom as in England, and added a -nesse to the Norse form
Westir (Vestr) so as to make it fit a promontory on the western end of the
south coast of England, in Devonshire or Cornwall" (edition, p. xx).
C 1513; cf. O 785, C 1002.
3C 1004, 0 1045; C 1290, L 1298.
14
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
When Guffer, his son, is slain in a conflict with invading
pirates, his body is carried to a Chastel de Beauni near by,
which may perhaps be the present Dun Boyne (Dun means
" castle ") a short distance from Dublin.
From Ireland Horn sails back to England where he saves
Rimenhild from falling into the hands of a rival suitor, who
in KH is said to be lord of Reynes, Reynis (C 951, L 959).
This place, only once mentioned in the English minstrel's
song, occurs five times in the earlier and more literary French
version, and is there invariably spelt with an initial F-.
We may assume this, therefore, to be correct. In one place,
not in rhyme (1. 3959), the French writer spells the name
Fenice,l which points back to the form of which the English
is a corruption. A composite Freynes would account for
both. But where shall we locate this country? Hitherto
no one has made even a likely guess.2 Modun's land, we
Other forms of the name in the French are: Fenie, Finee, Fenoie, Fenoi.
To the first appears to correspond the spelling in MS. O of KH, Reny; but
this may be only an accident. The parallel MS. L reads: " Kyng Mody of
Reynis / at is Hornes enemis (959-60)," for which O has more grammatically:
"King Mody of Reny/ hat was Homes enemy (994-95)." Inasmuch
as C and L agree in the spelling Reynes (Reynis), there can be no doubt
that this was the original form.
In another place in the English poem we have a hint as to the situation
of the place: " He riuede in a (under) reaume / In a wel fayr streume / her
kyng Mody was syre" (O 1550 if.; L 1525 if.). " On the western side of the
peninsula of Furness," says Mr. Fishwick (History of Lancashire, London,
1894, p. 84), " lies the island of Walney, which has near to it several other
small islands, on one of which was built the ancient castle or peel long
known as the Pile of Fouldrey. The waters near to its site formed a
natural harbour capable of floating, even at low tide, the largest vessels at
that early period in use, and to protect that and the adjacent country this
castle was erected. It is of great antiquity; it was certainly there in the
twelfth century." Perhaps Walney influenced the varying spellings of the
names in HR.
2Paulin Paris identified it without comment with Finland (Hist. Litt.,
xxI, 563; cf. prince finnois, p. 565); Mr. Hall (p. lv) with Rennes in
Britanny. Morsbach says (p. 313): "Die metrische Betonung ist Reynzs.
Uber den Namen selbst weiss ich nichts bestimmtes zu sagen. Wenn
Reynis, wie wahrscheinlich, ein germanischer (wirklicher oder fingierter)
15
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
observe, was on the coast, since he takes ships to get to the
city of the English king (1. 3986); and there is no indication
that it was remote. It seems, indeed, to have been near
Rimenhild's home, for when, at the end of KH, Horn is
represented as establishing his friends one after another in
the possessions which had come into his power, upon leaving
Westerness, he goes first to Modun's land, then on to Ireland,
and finally home to Man. We may then with confidence
identify Freynesl with the district of Lancashire, north of
Morecambe Bay, now as of old called Furness. This region
was settled in very early times, and there still remains at
Aldringham Moat Hill on the sea-shore the ruins of a castle
which probably dates from the tenth century.2 From the
Life of St. Cuthbert we learn that between 677 and 685
the adjoining district of Cartmel was given to the saint
" with all the Britons in it." 3 The famous abbey of Furness
was founded in 1127, and exercised control of the Church
of Man in the twelfth century.4
Ortsname und in Reyn + is zu zerlegen ist, so konnte Reyn dem ae. re3n
entsprechen, welches auch in Ortsnamen an erster stelle vorkommt (v.
R. Miiller, ~ 44, s. 82); is k6nnte ae. is ' es' sein. Vgl. Is-land. Ubrigens
ist auch an regn-iss denkbar."
1Furness is usually written Fumes in the Chronicon Manniae (e. g., A. D.
1126, 1134, 1228); cf. the spellings of Calais, Cales, Calyce, Callyce (Percy
Folio ms., I, 318 if.).
2 See H. Fishwick, History of Lancashire, pp. 48-49.
3See James Croston, Historic Sites of Lancashire and Cheshire, London,
1883, p. 255. Croston says: "From this time a chasm of something like
five centuries occurs in the history. Whether the monks retained possession
of the lands after the death of Cuthbert, or whether the place was ravaged
by the Danish invaders, is not known with certainty, but as no mention of
it occurs in the Doomsday Survey, it is not unreasonable to assume that
the place had been laid waste during some of the Danish incursions,
and the church St. Cuthbert reared destroyed." We may note that
when Horn leaves England for Ireland he changes his name (in KH) to
Cutberd.
4 On Furness Abbey, see John Timbs, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of
England and Wales, I, 298 ff.; A. W. Moore, Sodor and Man, London, 1893
(Diocesan Histories).
16
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Horn, it is evident, simply makes a little circuit to neighboring
lands on the coast of the Irish Sea about the Isle
of Man.
Every locality mentioned in KH has thus been reasonably
identified save one, and to that we may now turn our attention.
In the land of Aylmar, king of Westerness, was a
body of water called store (stoure, sture). In L 1455 we
read: "Homes ship astod in stoure" (cf. O 1482: "Hys
schip stod in store"). In C and L, in another place (11. 685,
687): "Aylmar rod bi sture (stoure)." The name store (stoure,
sture) is, I think, certainly the Old Norse st6r d, i. e., big
river. It was formerly applied to any large river,1 and there
are even now in England four rivers called Stour (in Kent,
Essex, Worcestershire, and Dorsetshire) and a Stor aa in
Denmark flowing into the North Sea. Here it seems to me
to refer to the Mersey, not only because it fits the situation
admirably, but also because this river is definitely mentioned
in the prose romance of Tristan as the place to which Tristram
and Ysolde drifted, like Horn, in a boat from the same
quarter.2
Unlike the English popular song, the sophisticated French
chanson de geste abounds in place-names, but most of these
have no significance in the present study.3 There are a few,
1 Note the passages cited by Fritzner, Ordbog over det Gamle Norske Sprog,
1896, s. v.: "sextigir st6orr falla i hana (Donau)," i. e., "sixty big rivers
fall into the Danube;" " jann tima sem storar oesast afyvirvaettis regnum,"
i. e., " that time when big rivers flow furiously on account of very great
rains." Wissmann was not, then, astray in his remark concerning stoure:
"es steht vielleicht fur Fluss iiberhaupt" (Untersuchungen, p. 107).
2Roman en prose de Tristan, ed. L6seth, pp. 468 ff.; see below p. 25, note.
3To read of a horse of Hungary (1590), or of Castilia (3316), or of
Servia (3418), of a "cendal" from Russia (1580), or a sword made at La
Rochele (3311), is no more significant than the mention of Canaan, the
Jordan, or Africa. Nor will anyone be troubled by such phrases as
the following:
1. Pur tut lor de Melan. ne largent de Pavie (702).
2. Nel donast pur tut lor. le rei de Portigal (1992).
3. Ioe ne crei plus beaus seit. de si qua Besencon (612).
2
17
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
however, which cannot be ignored. Already we have found
two or three (Westir, Divelin, and perhaps Chastel de Beauni)
which appear to have been in the original version. We must
then examine the others to see whether they also suit the
supposed scene of action.
Throughout, as all who have read KH have recognized,
the English poet condenses his story as much as possible, and
on this account has sometimes obscured the situation. We
have an instance of this succinct treatment of the narrative
in the few statements regarding Horn's mother, the wife of
King Murry, who, when her husband was slain by the
heathen pirates, fled to a solitary cave and lived there alone
"under a roche of stone,"' where the hero again found her,
"in a roche walle,"2 when long after he returned home. The
French poet not only explains the situation clearly, but gives
us the name of the locality to which the queen fled, namely,
Ardene, "un eros sur la mer" (4879 ff.). With complete disregard
of probability, Francisque Michel identified this cros
sur la mer with the Ardennes, which he describes (p. 420) as
a " vaste pays sur la fronti6re de la France et de l'Allemagne."
Paulin Paris pointed out3 that this was unreasonable; but it
was nevertheless repeated by S6derhjelm.4 A more recent
writer, Mettlich, in 1895, gave as his opinion that Ardene
4. Li colier sunt dor. overe a Besencon (621).
5. E quant Herlaund les out . nes donast pur Maskun
Une bone cite. ke tienent Borgoignun (623-4).
6. Horn i seruit le ior. ki passot par franchise
Trestuz ki i esteient. entre Bretaigne e Pise (924-25).
7. entre Peitiers e Pise (819).
8. entre Rome e Paris (1082).
9. entre Norweie e Frise (828).
France is named only once (1307), and like most of the other foreign
names occurs in rhyme.
I1 n'ot tel cheualer par escu ne par lance
Pus icel tens en aca el realme de France.
1C 71, L 79; cf. O 79. 2C 1384; cf. L 1396, 0 1427.
Hist. Litt., xxii, 566. 4 Romania, xv, 579.
18
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
was some region that received its name "im Gegensatz zu
Suddene;"' but what he meant by this is not clear. It seems
to me, on the contrary, that in Ardene we probably have
preserved the name of an actual place in the Isle of Man.
Ard in the Manx language means "Height," and there is
one height in the island which is still known simply as The
Ard. This cliff, according to the description2 of Mr. A.
W. Moore, the historian of the island, rises "about 500 feet
above the sea," and on the top are still the remains of an old
castle. The French poet, familiar with the Ardennes of
France, or the forest of Ardene in England (mentioned
frequently in French versions of the romance of Guy of
Warwick), or simply perhaps with the ending of Sudene in
mind, wrote it in the form in which it appears in the single
passage where it is mentioned.
We have seen that Aylmar, the British king, was in his
own land when on the shore of a stoure, " big river," which
seems to be the Mersey. Other indications in the French
poem point in the same direction.
Of certain pirates who attack the king of Britain, we read
(C 1325): "a un port ariuerent. kom apele Costance."
Costance is evidently the corruption of the name of some
port on the coast of Britain, southeast from Man.3 The
French poet altered the name before him for the sake of
rhyme, and to make it look French (cf. Coutances). Possibly,
then, the port intended may be Garston4 on the Mersey.
1 Bemerkungenz u den anglo-normannischenL ied vom wackern Ritter Horn,
Miinster, 1895, p. 34, note 1.
2 Surnames and Place-Names in the Isle of Man, London, 1890, p. 167. Of
Chastel-yn-Ard (Castle of the Height) Mr. Moore says: " The length of the
remains is, from east to west, 105 feet, breadth at west end 40 feet. This
place is also called Cashtall Ree Goree, but this is quite a modern
name."
3 Mettlich and Hartenstein (p. 28) identify it with Coutances in Normandy.
4In La3amon we find Gursal = Cursal (24339), Gloffare= Clofard (24358),
Geryn = Cherin (24394), Organeye = Orcaneye (22527). Constance is written
Costance, Costanz, Costace (13026 ff., 13720,13404). In Wace we find Costans
(6689), Costant (6642), Costan (6629).
19
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
On behalf of the king of Britain, Horn sets out overland
with a large company to subdue the count of a neighboring
district, called Angou, Ango, who has caused his master trouble
(1737). The land here mentioned is certainly not Anjou, as
Michel suggested (p. 419),' though the French poet no doubt
was quite familiar with that place. It seems to me most likely
the island of Angul, the present Angles-ey. We may note
that the -ey of this name, being the Norse word for island,
was not necessarily connected with it.2
The departure of Horn and his retainers from Ireland is
thus described by the French poet:
Tost sunt as nefs uenuz . e tost sunt eschipez.
Les ueilz traient arunt. kar bon fud li orez.
Ia ne fineront mais . si seront ariuez.
Icoe fud al tierz di 3 quant li ior fud finez.
Ke il pristrent un port. qui mut lur fud eisiez.
Kar de uile e de gent. fud aukes esloignez.
Bois i out enuiron. dedenz sunt enbuschiez.
Qui trestuz les couerit. quil ne sunt auisez.
La poust bien dan . Horn. lunc tens estre muciez.
Quil ni fust par home . ne oiz ne trouez. (C 3922 ff.)
Horn leaves his companions in this forest retreat, on the side
of the river, where they would not be discovered, and makes
his way alone on horseback through the woods to the city.
On the way he meets a palmer, who, in response to his
inquiry, informs him that
Li reis est a Lions . ki est cite uaillant.
Et la tendra sa cort. si ad barnage grant. (C 3956-57.)
Likewise Hartenstein, pp. 21-22.
2 In the account of a Western foray of the year 1098 by the Norse poet,
Gisli Illugason, for example, we read as follows:
H6,om hildi met Haraldz froenda
Onguls vi"l ey innan-ver6a.
"I fought beside Harold's kinsman inside the island of Ongul (Anglesey)."
(Corpus Poeticum Boreale, II, 242)-Cf. Bretoue = Bristol, in the Anglo-
Norman Boeve de Haumptone, ed. Stimming, 1899, 1. 2584.
3Note that this was about the time it would naturally take at that time
to get from Dublin to the Mersey.
20
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
This place, "the valiant city of Lions," is at first sight
very disturbing. To what city in the neighborhood could
the poet have made reference? The answer appears to me1
to be the present Chester, formerly called Caer Lion (Leon,
Legion), the City of Legions.2
This identification, however, must be reconciled with the
specific information given regarding the place in HR. There
it is stated that at Caer Lion there was a Benedictine monastery
of St. Martin, and that there dwelt an archbishop called
Taurin.3 The foundation of these statements is not absolutely
clear, and yet they seem to have a certain warrant. As
Ormerod, the historian of Cheshire, says:4 " Mention of a
bishop of Chester in ages anterior to the Norman Conquest,
occurs in several of the old chronicles and legends, and may
not be improper for notice, though more as a matter of
curiosity than history. Henry Bradshaw, the monk of St.
Werburgh's, enumerating the three archbishops constituted
1 Michel identified it (p. 441) with "Lyon, ville de France, chef-lieu du
departement du Rh6ne." Soderhjelm (Romania, xv, 591, note) inclined
to the same view. Mettlich (Bemerkungen, etc., p. 34 note, 42) favored
St. Paul de Leon in Britanny. Haigh (The A.-S. Sagas, London, 1861,
p. 68) connected it with King's Lynn in Norfolk.
The only name given the place in the English poem is "castel" (C
1041-42; 1466). This perhaps means nothing definite; still we may
observe that the English translation of Castra Legionum, in Welsh Caer
Leon, was Laegeceaster, or simply Ceaster, which became Chester; and
Ceaster was frequently translated Castel. In La3amon, e. g., the name of
Lancaster is given as Lane-castel, Leane-castel (14244). Note also in this
connection the verses on Chester in Trevisa's translation of Higden's
Polychronicon (Ed. Babington, Rolls Series, London, 1869, 1, 81) : " Chestre,
Casteltoun as he were, Name take] of a castel." See the interesting account
of the city, ii, 77 ff. There "many men of westene londes" got assistance
(83).
2 See Bede, Bk. II, ch. 2 (A. D. 603); Nennius, { 7; William of Malmesbury,
Bk. I, ch. 3 (trans. Giles, p. 43); Florence of Worcester, trans.
Forester, p. 460. Cf. Drayton, Polyolbion, 11th Song, "fair Chester, call'd
of old Carelegion."
3 C 4067 ff.; cf. "de Saint Beneit," 5137.
4 The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, ed. Thos. Helsby,
London, 1882, 1, 92.
21
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
by Lucius, places ' the second o'er North Wales in the city
of Legions.' Hoveden says that Chester was a Bishop's see
whilst it was under the dominion of the Britons; and an
ancient MS. (formerly in the possession of Henry Ferrers,
Esq., and printed in the Monasticon, I, 197) informs us of
Egbert's intending to have his daughter, St. Edith, veiled by
the then bishop of Chester. 'And the King Egbryght for
the wollenesse that was in Sent Modwen, betoke to hure his
dowghtur Edyth, to norych, and to kepe, and to informe hur,
after the reule of Sent Benett, and after to veyle his dowghtur
of the Boschoppe of Chester.' There was, it may also be
noted, a church of St. Martin in Chester, the foundation of
which, says Ormerod, was 'certainly anterior to 1250, as
appears by a deed among the evidences of the earl of Shrewsbury.'
"' No archbishop of Caer Leon, to my knowledge,
was ever called Taurin; but the name is very suspicious,
inasmuch as it occurs only once and that in HR and in
rhyme, being moreover otherwise familiar.2
There is some reason to believe that Thomas, the author
of HR (where only this name occurs), writing after Geoffrey
and familiar with the localization of Arthur's residence at
Caer Leon on the Usk, had this latter place, and not Caer
Leon on the Dee in mind. This supposition is strengthened
by a comparison of HR at this point with certain parts of
I Ormerod-Helsby, ,, 332.
2It is possible to regard it as due to the influence of Geoffrey, who
established one Tremounus as "Archbishop of the City of Legions" (Bk.
VIII, ch. 10). Wace speaks of "Tremonus, uns sages hom, Arcevesque
de Carlion" (8207 ff.). La3amon writes his name Tremoriun, Tremorien,
Temoriun (11. 29715-16, 29746-47). This name is possibly the same as
that of Tremerin, "the Welsh bishop," whose death in 1055 the A.-S.
Chronicle records (ed. Earle and Plummer, iI, 445). It is perhaps worth
noting that there is said to have been a bishop of Mercia (and therefore
of Chester) in 659 called Trumhere (see Wm. Hunt, The English Church
from its Foundation to the Norman Conquest, London, 1899, p. 104; Searle,
A. S. Bishops, etc., Camb., 1899, p. 242). There was, it appears, a martyr
Taurinus, reputed bishop of York in the second century (see Fuller, Church
History of Britain, ed. James Nichols, London, 1868, I, 20); for the legend
of St. Taurin, see Ordericus, lib. v., c. vii.
22
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Thomas's Tristan, which presents such close parallels to HR
in the account of the hero's journey to Ireland that one
cannot help thinking that it furnished our author a model in
his artistic elaboration of the simpler narrative that he had
before him. When, even as Horn, Tristram feels forced to
leave Dublin (Deuelin) and return to England, he embarks
for Caer Leon. As we read in Sir Tristrem, the Middle
English minstrel version of Thomas's poem:
Riche sail pai drewe,
White and red so blod.
A winde to wil hem blewe
To Carlioun Pa;i ode.l
It would certainly have been very natural for a French poet
to identify the Caer Leon of his original with Arthur's residence
Caer Leon, especially when he recognized, and was
perhaps endeavoring to enforce, the parallelism of his hero's
adventures with those of Tristram. Indeed, he might well
have introduced the name under such circumstances without
any justification of misunderstanding.
As we see from the passage from HR last quoted, Horn
made his way from the place he landed (probably the southern
bank of the Mersey) through a wild forest to Caer Leon.
That this situation was original is apparent from the words
of KH:
He let his schup stonde
& 3ede to londe.
His folk he dude abide
Vnder wude side. (C 1021 ff.)
As is well known, the land about Chester was formerly
thickly wooded.2
Ed. Kolbing, 11. 1299 ff., cf. 1159, 1389.
2Only one other geographical indication in HR is worthy of note:
Herselot, the attendant of Rimenhild, is said to have been a daughter of
Godfrei of Albanei. This country appears to be the old Albania, Scotland.
Geoffrey, it will be remembered, represents Britain as divided into three
parts: Albania, Cambria, and Loegria (Bk. II, chap. 1). The duke of
Albania in Geoffrey becomes the Duke of Albany in Shakspere's Lear.
23
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
It was then, it appears, in the district about Chester and
the Mersey that Aylmar of Westerness formerly ruled. Thename
of Aylmar's land guides us to the exact location.
The Western-Ness' seems pretty certainly the peninsula of
the Wirral. This, it should be remembered, was a favorite
resort of the Norsemen, a district long dominated by them.
As Vogt says :2 That Wirral must have exerted a strong
attraction for the Norwegian vikings we may well believe,
not only because of the excellent harbors of the peninsula
(among them Birkenhead, the present suburb of Liverpool),
but also because of its desirable situation between the mouths
of two rivers by which it seemed as if created to provide a
temporary encampment for a great host of colonizing vikings.
On this tongue of land .... there is now scarcely a single
place-name of Anglo-Saxon origin, while everything reminds
us of our forefathers [the Norsemen]. In the middle of the
peninsula lies the village of Thingwall, and round about
one Norwegian estate or locality after another: Raby, Irby,
Grisby, Kirby, Shotwick, Holme, Thurstanston, etc. The
Norwegian viking-colonists must thus have completely rid
the whole peninsula of its earlier settlers, established themselves
there, and bequeathed it as allodial property to their
descendants." This district of western England was much exposed
to viking inroads. Chester, the end of Watling Street,
was an important port from which many an armament sailed to
ravage or conquer about the Irish sea. It was frequently the
gateway to Northumberland for Scandinavians in the West.3
The prominence of this "west country" in actual consideration4
perhaps occasioned its frequent mention in romance.
The land of Norgalles (North Wales) and the adjoining dis-
1 Norse names in -ness are legion (cf. Inverness, Caithness). A Westness in
Rousey (Orkneys) is mentioned several times in the Orkneyinga Saga.
' Dublin som Norsk By, Christiania, 1896, p. 174; cf. Streatfeild, Lincolnshire
and the Danes, London, 1834, pp. 29-30.
3 Cf. Worsaae, Minder om de Danske og Normcendenei England, Skotland og
Irland, Copen., 1851, pp. 56 ff.
' In the time of King Alfred the English army warred against the Danes
at Chester on Wirhealum (A..S. Chron., A. D. 894; cf. of Wirheale, A. D. 895).
24
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHJLD.
trict of Logres are the scene of many an adventure with
which the name of Tristram is particularly connected.' As I
hope to show later,2 that famous hero lived in other regions
familiar to Horn. This country is memorable, too, as one
in which the noble Gawain once journeyed.
Now ride3 his renk Jur3 he ryalme of Logres,
Til hat he ne3ed ful nogh in to ]e Norle Wale3;
Alle >e iles of Anglesay on lyft half he halde3,
& fare3 ouer Pe forde3 by Pe for-londe3,
Ouer at be Holy-Hede til he hade eft bonk,
in be wyldrenesse of Wyrale.3
Guinglain, too, "The Fair Unknown," Gawain's son, traversed
the Wirral on his way to rescue from distress the queen of
Wales who dwelt at Snowdon.4
Contemplation of the Wirral, we recall, stirred the patriotic
Drayton to enthusiasm and he describes with spirit the peril
of its position between two mighty rivers:
where Mersey for more state.
Assuming broader banks, himself so proudly bears,
That at his stern approach extended Wirral fears,
That what betwixt his floods of IMersey, and of Dee,
In very little time devoured he might be.5
Finally, in this connection, I may state the fact that at
least one family of people called Horn dwelt in the Wirral in
1330, for then Peter, Abbot of Vale Royal, paid four of
them, named William, John, Thomas and Warin, divers sums
for provisions needed at the feast of the Assumption.6 This,
however, is not a matter to be much considered.7 It is not
1 See Loseth, Le Roman en Prose de Tristan.
2 In an article on "The Home of Sir Tristram," to appear shortly.
3 Syr Gawayn and the Grene Kny3t, 11. 691-701 (Madden, Sir Gawayne, p. 27).
4Libeaus Desconus, ed. Kaluza, 1890 (Altengl. Bibliothek, v), 1. 1068.
5 Polyolbion, Song xi.
6 See Ormerod-Helsby, History of Cheshire, ii, 167.
7There is a Ilornby Wood and a Horncastle in Lincolnshire (Streatfeild,
pp. 135-36); but this has no more significance. Innumerable places are
called Horn-this or that. Yet scholars have sometimes been disposed to
set much store by a particular one.
25
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
on such coincidences that I would base an argument for the
Wirral as the land of Horn's protector, Aylmar of Westerness.
V.
With all the localities mentioned in the different poems (if
they have been here correctly identified) Norsemen were, I
repeat, very familiar, and in the three places where the hero
seems to have lived, the Isle of Man, the western-ness of the
Wirral, and Ireland, they had made settlements. The placenames
all depend on forms that Norsemen might have used.
Some (e. g., Westir, Sudene, Store) are evidently based on
such as they only would have first employed. The tale,
indeed, as I shall try to make clear presently, bears every
indication of having been originally a Norse saga. Most of
the characters, then, acting as they do according to the
manner of Norsemen in viking times, we should naturally
expect to bear Norse names. I say " most of them," because
it would as a matter of fact be exceptional if all the personal
names in the story were exclusively of any one origin. The
Norse sagas abound in foreign names (Kormak, Magnus,
etc.) borne by Scandinavians, and inferences regarding nationality
which have only proper names as a basis are perhaps
almost as little convincing with respect to early Scandinavia
as nowadays in Europe or America. But, in truth, certain
names that we know to have been in the early story of Horn
were such, it appears, as Scandinavians might have borne,
and others of English personages are suitable to them.
The names of the personages in the English and French
versions of our story show great divergence. It is not simply
that the same names are spelt somewhat differently in the two
redactions; that would cause us little trouble, for we should
be surprised were it otherwise. Any one who has studied
comparatively the various versions of any mediaeval story is
prepared for the most astonishing transformations and substitutions
in the proper names, and is satisfied to do the best
26
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
he can to explain the divergences, knowing that changes are
due not simply to misunderstandings of scribes and faulty
transmission, but to the deliberate desire of redactors to win
personal success by making improvements, which often completely
disfigure the original monument. Little disposed to
retain names of places or persons with which they and their
auditors were unacquainted, the French frequently substituted
those with which all were familiar, keeping usually within
the bounds of easy transference, but sometimes making the
boldest leaps. Thus, after the Crusades, Surrey inevitably
suggested Syria to a Frenchman, Ermonie Armenia, and
Albanie Almania, and the whole scene of action might be
changed by reason of some such simple confusion. Alterations
of topography, moreover, were commonly made with
deliberation to satisfy the whim of a patron or local pride.'
An English minstrel was capable of establishing Orpheus at
Winchester, "a city of Thrace."
When we compare KH with HR in this matter of proper
names of persons, we observe that the troublesome differences
are due to wilful changes on the part of one or other author.
Deliberate substitution and not misunderstanding must account
for complete dissimilarity. The two poems agree, as we have
seen, in the topography, except that HR, being more literary
and complete, preserves names not found in the succinct version
KH. But the same cannot be said of the characters. In
both poems occur in about the same form Horn, Rimenhild,
Modun, and Wikel (Fikenhild); but these are all.2 In KH
Horn's father is Murry, in HR Aalof; in KH his mother is
Godhild, in IR Samburc; in KH the hero changes his name
to Cutberd, in HR to Gudmod; his true companions in KH,
Apulf and Arnoldin, have no counterparts in HR; in KH
the British king is Aylmar, in HR Hunlaf; in KH his
steward is Ailbrus, in HR Herlant; in KH the king of
1 Cf. the remarks on Pontus, below, Section Ix.
2 On Aalof and Gudmod, which occur in one MS. of KH, as well as in
HR, and seem original, see below, pp. 29 ff.
27
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Ireland is purston, in HR Gudred (Gudreche); his sons in
KH are Berild and Harild, in HR Guffer and Egfer; his
daughter in KH is Rimenild (Reynild), in HR he has two
daughters Sudburc and Lemburc.1
Besides, in HR we have many additional names unparalleled
in KH. Certain of these are probably an inheritance from
the story of Horn's father Aalof, which Thomas connected
with that of Horn.
Baderolf, the emperor of Germany, has a daughter Goldeburc;
her son Aalof marries Samburc, daughter of King
Silaf, and with her gets Horn; Baderolf's brother is Haderof
(Harderon), the father of Modun; Aalof's seneschal is Hardred
and his sons Haderof and Badelac; the son of Horn and
Rigmel is Hadermod; the British king Hunlaf has a son
Batolf; the father of the seneschal Herlant is called Torel,
his son Jocerant; the confidante of the princess is Herselot.
The traitors in true epic style are of one race; he who deceived
Aalof was Denerez; it was his nephew Wikel who deceived
Horn; yet Wikel's brother Wothere is faithful to him. The
heathen African kings are Gudbrant, sultan of Persia, and his
six brothers are Rodmund, Rollac, Gudolf, Egolf, Hildebrant,
Herebrant; his son, a younger Rollac, is the murderer of
Aalof.
Inasmuch as the majority of these names were surely not
in the original saga, but were gathered in by Thomas, the
author of HR, when he saw fit to join diverse material and
fashion an epic cycle, they must be left out of consideration
in the present discussion: we are, of course, concerned with
such names only as we can be fairly certain were in the
primitive story of Horn. In determining these, we should
certainly place our chief reliance on the indications of KH;
but that version is not necessarily right in all particulars,
for reasons already emphasized.
1 For a list of the proper names in HR, see Mettlich, Bemerkungen, 1895,
pp. 39 ff.; cf. Hartenstein, pp. 44 ff., 75 ff., 81 f.--Note that unlike names
appear in the different versions of Havelok; see Prof. Skeat's edition, p.
xxxix.
28
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
The hero in all primitive versions of the story is called Horn.
This was a common word in Old Norse as in Anglo-Saxon, and
might well have been borne by a Norseman as a proper name.
There is no need, therefore, to regard it as a transformation of
any other name, no matter how well known and similar.l In
each of the three important versions a play of words appears
which establishes the name in its present form in the lost
original of all. In KH Horn begs Rimenhild to "drink to
Horn of horne" (1145); and in HR we read: "corn apelent
horn li engleis latimier" (4206).2
When the hero reaches Ireland, he determines, like Tristram,
to change his name. What this assumed name was, we cannot
be absolutely sure. In HR it is Gudmod (0. N. GunSmo6r);
but in two MSS. of KH it is Cutberd (Cuberd). Inasmuch as
there appears no particular reason why the Anglo-Norman
poet should give a Scandinavian name to his hero if it was
not in his original, while an Englishman might easily (forgetfully
or deliberately) have substituted for it the name of a
well-known British saint, Gudmod seems to have the best
authority. That the Harleian MS. of KH agrees with HR
on this point is perhaps some support for this contention.
In three cases this manuscript agrees with HR, as opposed
to the other two manuscripts of KH, in names of persons.
This has usually been thought3 to indicate simply that the
1 It has sometimes been connected with Orm (Horm); cf. Suchier, Gesch.
d. franz. Lit., p. 111. Might it not be quite as well Orn (Horn) ? There
are no less than ten persons of this name in Landnamabok (Udg. af det
Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab, Copen., 1900, p. 403), and the name
occurs frequently elsewhere. It was borne by the father of Ingolf, the first
settler in Iceland (Eyrbyggja Saga, chs. 6, 18). When in the years 955-57
the Icelander Olaf the Peacock sailed west from Norway to visit his
grandfather King Myrkjartan (Muircertach) of Ireland, a man of distinction
named Qrn (Horn) was the captain of his ship (Laxdoela Saga,
ed. Kaalund, 1888-91, pp. 60 ff.); see below, pp. 45 if. The initial H- was
added or omitted in proper names as scribes saw fit.
2Cf. also Horn Child, 11. 385-386.
sCf. Ward, pp. 465ff.; Hall, p. liii; Morsbach, p. 310; Hartenstein,
p. 75 note.
29
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Harleian scribe was familiar with the French poem; but it
is certainly strange, if this be true, that in each case where
he borrowed from HR he appears to have reverted to the
original form, whereas he never follows HR in any of its
variations.
A case in point is the name of Horn's father. In HR he is
called Aalof, Aaluf, Aelof,' a French corruption, I believe, of
the English Anlaf, Anelaf, Analaf, the 0. N. l1dfr. This is
the name that appears also in the Harleian Ms. of KH. But
in the other two MSS. of that poem, the king of Sudene is
called Mlurry (Mory).2 This, I think, may be due to a mistake.
In considering the lines with which the minstrel begins,
A sang ihc schal 30U singe
Of Murry he kinge.
I cannot rid myself of the suspicion that this name of Horn's
father is the result of a careless reading or a misunderstanding
of oral transmission. In the beginning, was it not said, I ask
myself, that the hero's father was king of Moray, the ancient
district of Moravia? Moray was famous in romantic fiction
as the domain of Urien, father of Arthur's nephew, Ywain.
In Wace we read:
De Moroif Uriens li rois,
Et Yvains ses fils li cortois.3
And in La3amon:
Of Murieue king Vrien
And his faeire sune Ywsein.4
1Trisyllabic, to be sure, but not from Ethelwulf, as Suchier (p. 111) and
Morsbach (pp. 311-12) have conjectured; cf. Hartenstein (p. 132), following
Gering. See the spellings in the A. S. Chron., ed. Earle and Plummer,
II, 334. Note that the Harleian text of KH has Allof wherever written
(11. 4, 33, 73).
2The variant spellings are: Murry, Murri, Mury,y, Mor, Morye, Moye,
Moy. Morsbach (pp. 298, 312) thinks the name "echt Nordisch."
3 LI. 10521-22; cf. 9864 ff.
4Brut, ed. Madden, II, 599; cf. II, 507 (11. 22177 ff.). Gaimar relates
" corn Iwain fu felt reis De Muref e de Loeneis " (11. 5-6).
30
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
With such phrasing before us, we recognize the easy possibility
of mistake. The original text may have read "De Moroif
Aalof li rois " (" Of Murieue king Aalof") and the Aalof have
been lost in transmission.' It is perhaps well to say that
formerly a king might at the same time rule both Man and
Moray. Not only Arthur but also more historical monarchs
held control of both. Concerning the traitorous depredations
of the Saxons, La3amon remarks:
Ar'ur wes bi nor6e: and noht her of nuste.
ferde 3eond al Scotlond: & sette hit on his a3ene hond.
Orcaneie & Galeweie: Man & M1urene.
and alle pa londes: he Per to seien. (21043 if.)
King Godred Crovan of Man, in the last quarter of the
eleventh century, likewise exercised wide dominion. According
to the chronicle of the island, he "subdued Dublin and
a great part of Leinster, and held the Scots in such subjection
that no one who built a vessel dared to insert more than
three bolts."2 Still earlier, in the ninth century, Thorstein,
1An instance of a similar variation may be found in La3amon (11. 23109 if.)
where the same statement is thus diversely made in the two MSS. printed
by Madden on opposite pages.
For beo] icumen of Norwei3e For me beoh tydinge icome
niwe tidende vt of pan londe
hat Sichelin king per is ded. Pat Pe king of Cisille his dead.
2See A. W. Moore, History of the Isle of Man, London, 1900, I, 103. The
name Godred is derived from O. N. GuSri'r, Gu6frb6r (Irish Gothfraidh,
Eng. Godfrey). In Manx tradition this king is commemorated as an almost
mythical king, to him being attributed the establishment of a legislative
body, the committal of the laws to writing, and the formation of an army
(Moore, 1. c., I, 92, 152). His traditional name is Goree (or Orry). Can it
be that " the land (or country) of Gore," frequently mentioned in Malory
and elsewhere, was his domain? Urien, it should be observed, was king of
both Moray and "the land of Gore." Gore was also the land of Bademagus.
The enchanter Mongan, in the Lai du Cor (ed. Wulff), was king of
Moraine. On the connection of Morgain la f6e with the place, see the
forthcoming Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance (ch. 10),
by Dr. Lucy A. Paton (Radcliffe College Monographs, Ginn & Co., Boston),
a very valuable treatise. Orry reminds us of the Urry of Malory (Bk. xix,
31
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
son of the Norse king of Dublin, Olaf the White, not only
conquered the Sudreys but more than half of Scotland,
including Moray.] My conjecture, then, that Horn's father
was king of Moray as well as of Man does not conflict with
historical possibility. Aalof, the name he bears in HR and
in one MS. of KH certainly has the weight of authority. It
is a Scandinavian name which a French writer would not be
likely to introduce, whereas the occurrence of Miory (Murry)
in the other two MSS. of KH is explicable as a mistake.
In KH the hero has two comrades, Apulf (Ayol) and
Arnoldin, who do not appear in HR. That they were in the
original of both is therefore doubtful; but they probably
were. Apulf may be a form of the 0. N. Aupalfr (Au]6lfr),2
of which two instances may be found in Landnamab6k (p.
330). Arnoldin is doubtless only a French adaptation of
Arnaldr, of frequent occurrence.3
chs. 10 ff.) the knight of Hungary (!) who travelled through Scotland and
England for the healing of his wounds.
In another place I shall probably treat more fully of the Isle of Man as
a land of myth and legend, of "sortilege and witchcraft." Here I need
only remark that its eponymous hero, Manannan mac Lir, was a magician
and a sea-god (see A. C. L. Brown, Revue Celtique, xxII, 339 ff.), and that
the island was conceived of as the otherworld. In the ancient tale of
The Turke and Gowin (partially preserved in the Percy Folio Ms., ed. Hales
and Furnivall, i, 88 ff.), which is at bottom the account of a visit to the
wonder-world (as will be shown shortly in an article by my friend Dr.
Webster), the scene is laid in the Isle of Man. Man seems also to have
been called Falga in Irish story (the dinn.shenchas). This Mr. Alfred Nutt
considers as "a synonym of the Land of Promise." "It is possible," he
remarks, "that these names date back to a period when the Goidels inhabited
Britain and when Man was par excellence the Western Isle, the
home of the lord of the otherworld" (Voyage of Bran, London, 1895, i,
213; cf. Henderson, Fled Brierend, Irish Texts Society ii, London, 1899,
p. 142).
1See Landnamabok, c. 82 (ed., p. 36): "j'eir vnnu Katanes [Caithness]
ok Sudrland Ros ok Mersevi [Moray] ok meir enn halft Skotland. var
porsteinn Par konungr yfr adr Skotar sviku hann ok fell han Jar i orrostu."
2 Perhaps identified in the first English version with A.-S. A1ulf, /Epelwulf;
see Earle and Plummer, II, 335; Searle, Onomasticon, 1897, pp. 75 f.
3See Landnamab6k, p. 326; Ari's Isldnderbuch, ed. Golther, p. 21; Vigfusson-
Mobius, Fornsogur, Leip., 1860, Index; cf. Morsbach, p. 308.
32
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Horn's traitorous friend is regularly called in HR Wikele.
This form is supported by the reading Fykel in the Harleian
MS. of KH, and has distinctly the best authority. Here we
have the third instance where the Harleian MS. of KH
agrees with HR, where the latter seems to preserve the original
form of the name.1 The reading Fikenhild in the other
two MSS. of KH is very suspicious, for a man's name should
not end in -hild. Fikenhild is probably a corruption which
arose by association with Rimenhild, or for convenience of
rhyme. In the two places where it first appears (26, 647) it
rhymes with child. The name Fykel (Wikel) looks like the
A.-S. ficol, "false," and was probably fitted to the character
in the first English version of the story by reason of his
attributes.2
Horn's mother in KH is named God(h)ild, which would
be in Old Norse Go6Shildr, Gunnhildr. This is doubtless
original. The name of the hero's mother in HR, namely,
Samburc, is pretty certainly an inheritance in the French
poem from the introductory account of Aalof, his father,
which Thomas joined to the story of Horn.
Inasmuch as Dublin was the capital of a Norse kingdom
at the time this story arose, it is natural that the Irish ruler
should have a Norse name. This is the fact whether we
accept the reading of HR or KH. In the former he is
called Gudred (H 3571) or Gudreche.3 This is the 0. N.
Guwr60r, which we have seen developed in Manx tradition
into Goree. As Dr. Alexander Bugge shows,4 this name
occurs in the genealogy of the Norwegian royal race of
Westfold. The Irish king Gudred, surnamed VeiSikonuingr
1Morsbach can hardly be right in thinking Fikel a contraction of
Fikenhild (pp. 314-315). As he observed, Searle (p. 242) has Fikil.
2 In the late French Pontus (on which see below, Section ix) this personage
appears as Guenelete, which, says the editor (p. xviii), "is clearly only
a double diminutive of Guenes, the arch-traitor."
3 On the different forms of the name, see Ward, pp. 462-63.
4 The Royal Race of Dublin, in his Contributionst o the Hist. of the Norsemen
in Ireland, I ( VidenskabselkabefSsk rifter, II), Christiania, 1900, pp. 13 ff.
3
33
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
(Hunting-king), was, he believes, an ancestor, or at least a
relative of Olaf the White. In all three MSS. of KH, however,
the king of Ireland is called purston (0. N. porstein),L
and this is, therefore, likely to be original. But the matter
must be left undecided. In any case, I repeat, the king bore
a Scandinavian name.
The sons of the Scandinavian king of Dublin bear in
KH the names Harild (A]pyld, Ayld) and Berild (Byrild,
Beryld). Harild is probably the 0. N. Haraldr, the other
forms being corruptions of Arild. Berild would then correspond
to an 0. N. *Beraldr; but while Haraldr is common,
no instance of this name is at hand.3 In Anglo-Saxon,
however, occur corresponding names Beroldus, Berewald,
Beorwald, (Beornweald, Beorhtweald),4 from which it may
derive. Yet neither Harild nor Berild may have been in
the original.
If we examine the names of those who dwelt at the court
of Westerness, we discover that all have! English names, as
we should expect. In KH the king is Ailmar (Aylmar)5
which is a French writing of the A.-S. IEpelmcer. No great
English king ever bore this name; but it should be remembered
that we have here to do only with a chieftain of
Westerness, who in the course of time gained the romantic
designation of king. There was an "i2Epelmer ealdorman"
For the variation in spelling, see Morsbach, p. 313.
2 Cf. Morsbach, pp. 307-308. MS. C has Alrid, 844.
3 In HR the two sons are Guffer and Egfer; but these are probably not
original. Geoffrey of Monmouth (Bk. I, ch. 12) represents a Goffarius
Pictus as living in the time of Brutus. Egfer may be the same as Egfert,
Egbert, Ecgberht. Ecgberht, king of Wessex, ruled from 828-837.
4Searle, pp. 103, 104, 541.
5See Morsbach, pp. 304 ff. The name Hunlaf in HR is a good A.-S.
form (see Searle, p. 307); but it is perhaps only a writing of Unlaf, which
occurs sometimes for Anlaf (Olaf), e. g., in the A. S. Chron. (ed. Earle
and Plummer, I, 126); and in Gaimar, 3536, where Anlaf is also written
Anlans, Anlas, Anfal, Oladf (11. 3536, 3550, 4687). Langtoft has Anlaf,
Analphe, Anlaphe.-The name Houlac in HC is apparently Havelok, another
form of Olaf; cf. Ward, Catalogue, p. 461.
34
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
who, according to the A.-S. Chronicle, in the year 1013,
yielded to Svein, " ba weasternan lpegnas mid him."1
Ailmar's steward is called Ailbrus (Aylbrus), or Apelbrus.
The first form, according to Morsbach (p. 306), was in the
foundation MS. of KH, while the second was probably introduced
by a later scribe or singer. This is apparently a
French corruption of the A.-S. jEpelberht, which appears in
Gaimar as Adelbrit, Albrict, Edelbert, Edelbrit, Edelbrut, etc.
A Frenchman might have fashioned Ailbrus out of Ailbrut
by analogy of other words with final -s or -t (-c) according
to the case;2 or the form in KH may be due simply to the
exigency of rhyme: the first time Ailbrus occurs in the poem
(224-5) it rhymes with hus.
The name of the English princess appears in a great variety
of forms in HR and in the different MSS. of KH. All of
them, however, seem to be based on an original Rimenhild,3
which is the A.-S. Irmenhild, Eormenhild, transformed by
metathesis. It should be observed that the Irish princess
bears what seems to be the same name, (H)ermenyld, Hermenyl.
The form in which the name of both princesses appears,
namely Reynild, Reynyld, reminds us of the 0. N. Ragnhildr,4
with which it may have been confused. It is customary, it
may be said, in 0. N. sagas to fashion foreign names in native
likeness. Thus, for example, in the Gunnlaugssaga, Ethelred
the son of Edgar is named Apalrapr Jatgeirsson. The two
Rimenhilds of our story, both of whom are devoted to the
hero, present a striking parallel to the two Ysoldes (Ishild?)
whom Tristram won in love.
1 Dr. Ward thinks that this alderman, of Devonshire, "w as probably the
Athelmar the Great, whose son was executed by Cnut in 1017" (p. 450).
2 Cf. Carados, Caradoc, Caradot; Mordres, Mordrec, Mordret; Constans, Constant;
cf. Anlaf, Anlans, Anlas, in note 4, p. 34, above.
3 In KH: Rimen(h)ild, Rymen(h)ild, Rimenyld, Rymenyld, Remenyld,
Reymnyld, Rymenil, Reymild, Reymyld, Rymyld, Rimyld, Reynyld; in HR:
Rimenil, Rigmenil, Rimignil, Rigmel, Rimel; HC has Rimnild.
Compare, however, A.-S. Regenhild (Searle, pp. 397, 572); Rimhild, p.
401; cf. also Ragnell in the romance of The Weddynge of Sir Gawen (ed.
Madden, 1. c., pp. 298a ff.; cf. Child, I, 289 if.).
35
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
The name of the king of Furness, who might have been a
Briton,l is given in HR as Modun (Modin), for which KHI
has Modi (Mody). This seems to be a British name.2 There
was a Madudhan king of Ulster in 940.3 In the Orkneyingasaga
(ch. 5) mention is made of an Earl Moddan, chief of
Caithness, who is said to have had many friends and relatives
in Ireland, and who was surprised and slain by one Thorkel
in 1017.
To recapitulate: Horn (Godmod), his father Aalof, his
mother Godhild, his companions Apulf and Arnoldin, the
king of Ireland purston (or Gudred), and his two sons
lHarild and Berild(?), all bear names which may well be
modifications of Norse forms; while the English king
Aylmar, his daughter Rimenhild, and his steward Aylbrus,
appear to have English names. The name of the rival
suitor, Modun, on the other hand, looks British, but occurs
in a Northern saga. Finally, the traitor Fykel (Fikenhild)
seems to have been given an Anglo-Saxon name suitable to
his character.
VI.
If, then, the names of the persons as well as of the places
are Norse, or such as were familiar to Norsemen, the inference
lies near that the story of Horn was originally a Norse saga.
By "Norse" I mean here Norwegian-Icelandic. The story
as first recorded seems to me an outgrowth of the Norwegian,
See the passage concerning Cuthbert, quoted above, p. 16, note.
2 Maddan is the name of a British king in Geoffrey (Bk. II, ch. 6). A
bishop of Scotland called lllodan is mentioned in the Metrical C'hron. of
Scotland, Rolls Series, Ii, 190, 639.-Morsbach (p. 310) connects Modi with
the 0. N. IM6Si (Thor's son) and suggests that the -in in the parallel form
may be a French ending; but this is quite unlikely. Hartenstein (p. 132)
suggests A.-S. Mdd-wine(?).-In Horn Child the spelling Moioun is a
corruption of Modun, and Moging of Mllodin. As for the latter, cf. Magan
= Madan in La3amon, 15748, and the various spellings of Merlin, such as
Marling (id., II, 237 ff.). Searle (p. 352) has Moding; but this is doubtless
another name.
3 See Moore, History of the Isle of Man, I, 91.
36
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
and not the Danish,l incursions on England, and to date
therefore from the ninth or tenth centuries when Norwegian
settlements flourished in " The Western Isles." Whether the
saga be a record of actual events or not, it reflects the life in
Great Britain during an impressive period, when Northerners
held control of Western waters, when the lands along the
coast were never secure against viking depredations, when
kings ruled in petty principalities only so long as they were
able to resist encroachment and invasion, and when control
passed suddenly from men of one nation to those of another.
During this period the Isle of Man was a centre of viking
influence, a meeting place for opposing forces, an ever-coveted
vantage-ground for invading fleets.2 The events of the story
1 This word has for ages been used with deplorable looseness.
2 (" From the first arrival of the Vikings, till about 850," says Mr. Moore,
"Man with its unfortunate inhabitants was probably at the mercy of any
powerful marauders who thought it worth plundering. Then came the
period of settlement, after which for nearly a century, it seems to have
been ruled by a dynasty subject to the Scandinavian kings of Dublin and
Northumbria, and probably of the same family, if not occasionally identical
with them. This was followed by a brief subjection to the Scandinavian
rulers of Limerick, from whose hands Man fell, towards the end of
the tenth century, into those of the earls of Orkney. The power, which
continued till about 1060, was exercised through subordinates, who were,
latterly, of the Dublin line of kings whose predecessors had ruled it previously.
From 1060 to 1079 it again fell into the hands of Dublin. As
to the suzerainty of Norway, it seems to have been, for the most part,
merely nominal, though it was probably more felt during the time of Orkney
than of Dublin rule. It must, however, be borne in mind that there
is much room for conjecture about the events of this period; all, in fact, we
can state with certainty is that Man inevitably became the prey of the
strongest ruler in the western seas for the time being" (History of the Isle
of Man, I, 99-100).
It should be observed that, according to HR, the ruling families of Ireland
(Westir), Sudene, and Orkenie were intimate. The king of Dublin
remarks concerning the hero's home:
Bien conois le pais. en Suddene fui ia.
E bien conui Aaluf . le bon rei ki i regna.
Prist mei a cumpaignun . sun aueir me dona. (2361 ff.)
Later he speaks "Del bon rei Aalof . ki esteit mun iure" (3781). At his
court was a son of the king of Orkenie who waited upon the princess.
(2450; cf. 3575.)
37
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
appear most natural located there. They are such as might
have been experienced by the Norwegians who were preponderant
in its control,1 such as they would have been likely
to record.
Northern sagas abound in passages descriptive of viking
expeditions by way of the Orkneys into the Irish sea.2 The
careers of warriors thus journeying in quest of adventure
and fame were often commemorated in contemporary verse.?
They were kept in memory by their friends and relatives
in succeeding generations. Orally transmitted for centuries
before being written down, the facts growing dimmer and
dimmer in the ever-increasing obscurity of the past, the final
written records contained fable as well as fact. What were
at bottom narratives of actual events thus often appeared later
with strange accretions due to popular desire, in the guise of
elaborate fiction.
Is the tale of Horn and Rimenhild of such a nature?
Was Horn an historical personage whose career formed the
This has been clearly shown by Dr. Alex. Bugge, who writes as follows:
"From the time of Olav Kvaran, members of the same race were kings
of Dublin and of Man, and often the same person ruled both kingdoms.
There is no doubt that the Norse settlers in Ireland and in the Isle of
Man belonged to the same people. Nearly thirty Runic inscriptions have
been found in Man-probably from the end of the 11th century. Only
one of these is in Swedish; all the others are written in tile Norwegian
language, not one being in Danish. And we all know that probably from
the time of Harald Haarfagre, and at any rate from the end of the 11th
century down to 1266, the Isle of Man was a dependency of Norway.
This proves that the Norsemen in the Isle of Man were Norwegians" (The
Norseme inn Ireland, p. 11). Cf. Moore, History, I, 84 if.; A. Goodrich-Treer,
Outer Isles, Westminster, 1902, "The Norsemen in the Hebrides," pp. 272 ff.
2 Compare, for example, Eyrbyggja Saga, chaps. I, xxix; Johnstone, Antiquitates
Celto-ScandicaeC, open., 1786, passim.
3 Hallfreth VandreeSaskAld thus refers to a journey to the West made by
his patron, the famous king, Olaf Tryggvason: "The young king waged
war against the English and made a slaughter of the Northumbrians. He
destroyed the Scots far and wide. He had a sword-play in Man. The
archer-king brought death to the Islanders [of the Western Islands] and
Irish; he battled with the dwellers in the land of the British [Wales],
and cut down the Cumbrian folk" (Corpus Poetioum Boreale, Ir, 95).
38
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
basis for romantic narrative? Or has in his case, as in so
many others, the hero of a folk-tale simply been given "a
local habitation and a name ?" These are questions to which
no certain answer can now be given. I can produce no
evidence to connect Horn clearly with any Northern hero
of the name. But still probability seems to me to favor the
hypothesis that the story before us is fact plus fable rather
than the reverse.
We are fortunate to have in Old Norse an instance of this
combination-a saga dealing with an historical personage of
the tenth century where truth has received poetic embellishment.
The saga of GunnlaugS erpent-tonguea nd Helga the
Fair' was not, I believe, dissimilar in origin to that of Horn
and Rimenhild. Actually, of course, they are in no way
connected; but there are certain likenesses between them in
both theme and manner of treatment which show that they
reflect like conditions, echo like sentiments, and were perhaps
once fashioned in the same style.
Gunnlaug, the son of Illugi, a prominent chieftain in Iceland, when
fifteen years old leaves his father's home and travels to the land of Thorstein,
a neighboring chieftain, who receives him well and invites him to
remain there. He is given instruction in law2 by Thorstein and conducts
himself well. His chief satisfaction the young man finds in play with
Thorstein's daughter Helga, reputed to be the fairest woman in Iceland.
Quickly the two become enamored of each other, and their association is
not interrupted for some time until it becomes known that Gunnlaug
wishes to make Helga his wife. Thorstein, however, is strongly opposed to
the plan, and insists that their betrothal must at least be postponed a long
period. Gunnlaug is required to leave the country for three years and
seek distinction abroad, during which time Helga shall wed no other. If
he does not return by then, however, she shall again be free. Gunnlaug
procures a ship and sails "out" with certain companions. He touches
first at Norway, but soon betakes himself to England. There Ethelred
then ruled and Norse was understood at his court. The hero secures an
audience with him, greets him well and answers fittingly the king's inquiries
as to his origin. Being a very handsome youth, of great physical strength
1 Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu, ed. Mogk, Halle, 1886.
'Cf. Hornchild, 272 ff.: "He bad Harlaund schuld him lere | e ri3t
forto se I he lawes boie eld & newe."
39
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
and uncommon boldness, and skilful as a poet, he finds distinguished favor
with Ethelred and is fortunate enough to rid him of one of his worst
enemies. Single-handed he slays a gigantic bearsark whom the king has
long feared, and on this account wins not only Ethelred's gratitude, but
"great fame in England and far about in other places." After remaining
a while there, Gunnlaug asks the king's permission to leave. The latter
grants it reluctantly, because he appreciates his accomplishments and
bravery, and urges him to return. Gunnlaug promises to do so and then
sails to Dublin (Dyflin), over which then ruled the Scandinavian king
Sigtrygg, son of Olaf Kvaran. There too he is welcomled and given
presents. He does not, however, remain long but continues his journey to
the Orkneys, afterwards to Sweden, and finally returns to England.
Meanwhile a rival in Iceland, by name Hrafn (Raven), has pressed suit
for Helga and an arrangement has been made that she shall be married to
him on a certain day at the expiration of the three years' tryst. " But
Helga thought all ill of the arrangements." She is unalterably attached
to Gunnlaug and will marry no other but by necessity. Her lover, however,
ignorant of her trouble, remains with Ethelred at his urgent request
to assist him in his strife with hostile Danes. Peace being secured, he
returns home in all haste to Iceland, is informed on the way of Helga's
approaching marriage, and arrives upon the scene while the celebration is
in progress. As for Helga, 6 it was the saying of most men that the bride
was sad; that is true, as is said, that one remembers long what happens in
one's youth; now it goes to her so."
We need not follow the story farther except to say that Gunnlaug is
prevented from making an attempt to recover Helga, but afterwards slays
his rival in a duel, and dies himself from a wound treacherously delivered
him by his opponent. Helga's devotion to her lover was manifest at all
times. She ended her life gazing fondly on a scarlet mantle which
Gunnlaug had given her, a present that Ethelred had made him in
gratitude for great service.
The agreements of this story with that of Horn and
Rimenhild are noteworthy: the position, age, beauty, and
accomplishments of the hero; his early departure from home
and welcome by a neighboring lord who gave him instruction;
his association with his host's beautiful daughter by
whom he is ardently loved; the opposition of the father
to the marriage; the necessity of his departure from the
country; the love-tryst of three (seven) years; his journey
to foreign lands (to Dublin in both cases); his flattering
reception by foreign monarchs; the service he renders them
against their enemies; their reluctance to have him leave
40
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
them; his hurried journey home to his betrothed; his learning
on the way of her enforced marriage to a rival suitor; his
arrival upon the scene while the feast is being celebrated;
her joy at his return and unwavering affection.-These are
surely worthy of consideration. They indicate not the slightest
historical connection between the two stories, but do establish
the fact that in general character they are sufficiently alike
to make it probable that like that of Gunnlaug and Helga
the love of Horn and Rimenhild was once recounted in
Old Norse.
It should be noticed, moreover, that the two narratives have
certain stylistic features in common. Conspicuous among
these is the device of dreams for motivating conduct. The
whole career of Helga is outlined to Thorstein in a dream,
even as Rimenhild dreams of the interruption of her happiness
with Horn. Hrafn dreams of his approaching conflict with
his rival, even as Horn of Fikenhild's treachery. Dreams,
indeed, are very characteristic of Old Norse story,1 and in
two other instances appear in the Gunnlaugssaga before us.
This saga is at bottom history. Gunnlaug is an historical
personage who was born in 983 and died in 1009. He visited
England in 1001 and Dublin the following year. Still the
saga in its present shape is not all trustworthy. Apart from
the matter of anticipatory dreams, which are incredibly precise,
we observe such folklore features as Hrafn's treachery towards
the hero, his pleading for a drink out of his helmet that he
might get his opponent off his guard, and his fighting on his
stump after his leg is off, of which abundant parallels have
been collected.2 History is sometimes wrenched a little for
artistic effect. In order to account for the hero's slow return
to Iceland, it is said that he remained in England at the
urgent request of Ethelred, whose retainer he was, to aid him
'Cf. Henzen, Die Traume in der altnord. Sagaliteratur, Leip., 1890.
2See Child, Ballads, Parts vi, 306; VIII, 502; ix, 244; x, 298. On
Gunnlaug's "trick of reserving a peculiarly formidable sword," a commonplace
in Northern sagas, see Part III, 35, note.
41
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
in opposing the Danes, for Svein Forkbeard was then dead
and King Cnut threatened invasion. This was in 1006 and
Cnut did not succeed Svein until 1014. It is not likely true
moreover that the "holmgang" of Gunnlaug and Hrafn was
the last of its kind, and of itself brought about the disestablishment
of that ancient institution. But above all, it
is here noteworthy that the whole saga is conceived as an
artistic whole, and kept within strict bounds. It is simply
the enaction of the events in a dream. Thorstein dreamed
one night that, while before his house, he saw on the ridge
a fair and beautiful swan which seemed to be his. From the
fells flew a great eagle and alighted beside the swan and
conversed with her, and she seemed pleased. Then another
eagle flew thither from another direction and strove to win
her. Thereupon the two birds fought fiercely and long, and
finally both fell from the ridge, one on each side of the house,
and both died. The swan remained after, but was sad. Then
came a hawk and sat beside her and was blithe towards
her, and the two flew away together in the same direction.
Whereupon the chieftain awoke. This dream is interpreted
to Thorstein so plainly as having reference to the career of a
daughter yet unborn that he makes every provision for her
"exposure" when she comes to life; but his designs are
thwarted, and the saga unfolds itself in strict accordance with
the dream.
Similarly, the saga of Horn was artistically rounded. It
was fashioned in the likeness of a common form of story
favored in England, known as the "exile and return" type.
The present introduction is about as likely to be true as that
in the Gunnlaugssaga. The account of the boy's exposure
in a rudderless boat which carries him unknown to a foreign
land where he is brought up by strangers, certainly looks
like romantic embellishment.1 But apart from this there is
1 See Mr. Hall's note (edition, pp. 102-103), where he cites, among other
passages, the following from William of Malmesbury (De Gestis Regun
Brit., i, 121): "Iste (Sceaf) ut ferunt, in quandam insulam Germaniae
42
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
practically nothing at all in the narrative as preserved in the
most primitive version, namely KH, which might not have
happened in actual life.' The story is entirely devoid of the
marvellous. The ring which in later versions has magic
properties had none at first. It was simply a memento of
the lady whose name was engraven upon it, a keepsake which
would serve to inspire the hero to his best effort in struggle
(569 ff.). Another of the same kind Rimenhild gave to Horn's
foster-brother Apulf. Certain exaggerations, to be sure, appear
in the popular versions of the story alone preserved, as, for
example, when in KH Horn is represented as slaying an
hundred pirates (1. 616); but this was simply a round number
introduced by a late minstrel for effect. On the whole, the story
is singularly free of the extravagant or improbable. It contains
no more fiction, perhaps, than the sagas of the old kings of
Norway, like Olaf Tryggvason, or even Asser's life of our
own King Alfred, certainly not so much as the popular
accounts of Hereward, Fulk Fitz Warren, or Eustace the
Monk, these last historical persons of a later period.
On the contrary, it is interesting to observe how strictly
our story is in accord with actual occurrence. It affords
Scandzam, de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur appulsus,
navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens,
ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus,
et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc
Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur" ("cf. Ethelwerd, M. H. B., p.
512"). Attention has also been called to the fact that Athelstan is said
to have set his brother Eadwine adrift in a boat (Lappenberg, England
under the A.-S. Kings, London, 1845, II, iii). Let me add a reference to
the interesting story of Mordred, prince of Orkanie (as recorded in the
13th-century prose Merlin, ed. G. Paris and J. Ulrich, S. A. T. F., Paris,
1886, I, 204 ff.), who was shipwrecked in the Irish sea and borne by the
waves in his cradle to shore, where he was discovered by strangers who
nourished him and brought him up. Note also that Arthur exposed a
large number of noble youth in a rudderless boat to the mercy of the sea,
to save the land of Logres, as he believed, from misfortune; but the boat
came safely to land and the youth were welcomed to a neighboring castle
(id., 207 ff.).
1 Whether or not it really did, is another question.
43
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
reliable pictures of what actually happened in the epoch of
the Norwegian depredations in the Western Isles. Note, for
example, the coming of the heathen vikings to Sudene. King
Murry discovers this as he rides by the sea one summer's day:
He fond bi Pe stronde and he selue ri3t anon,
ariued on his londe ne schaltu todai henne gon.'
schipes fiftene ...
wit Sarazins kene.1 ]e pains come to londe
He axede what iso3te & neme hit in here honde:
Oher to londe bro3te pat folc hi gunne quelle
A Payn hit of herde & churchen for to felle.
& hym wel sone answarede: her ne moste libbe
'pi lond folk we schulle slon Pe fremde ne he sibbe
and alle hat Crist luuel vpon But hi here la3e asoke
& to here toke.2 (35 ff.)
Horn's mother escapes the general destruction and manages
to worship the Christian God in a lonely cavern.
Vnder a roche of stone,
her heo liuede alone,
her heo seruede gode
A3enes he paynes forbode,
her he seruede Criste
hat no payn hit ne wiste.3 (73 ff.)
'As Mr. Hall notes (ed., p. 97): "The following passage describing the
first appearance of the Danes in England forms a good parallel. 'Regnante
Byrhtrico rege piissimo super partes Anglorum occidentales .... advecta
est subito Danorum ardua non nimia classis, dromones numero tres; ipsa
et advectio erat prima. Audito etiam, exactor regis, jam morans in oppido
quod Dorceastre nuncupatur, equo insilivit, cum paucis praecurrit ad
portum, putans eos magis negotiatores esse quam hostes et praecipiens eos
imperio, ad regiam villam pelli jussit: a quibus ibidem occiditur ipse et
qui cum eo erant.' Ethelwerdi Chronicorum, lib. iii (M. H. B., p. 509)."
2To quote again from Mr. Hall (p. 98): "The Northern heathen
behaved with peculiar barbarity to Christian clergy and buildings. The
following entry is of a type frequent in the earlier chronicles: 'Verum
Majus Monasterium, quod non longe a Turonis erat, funditus eversum
centum viginti monachos, bis binos minus, ibidem gladio percusserunt,
praeter abbatem et viginti quatuor alios qui cavernis terrae latitantes
evaserunt,' Chroniques d'Anjou, i, p. 49."
3 Good evidence that such a situation was not uncommon is afforded by
Jocelin in his Life of St. Patrick: ' Tempus autem tenebrarum Hibernici
44
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
The value of KH, moreover, as a source of genuine
information regarding the manners and customs of early
Scandinavians and Germanic peoples has been strongly
emphasized by Wissmannl and others, and needs no further
remark here. In all respects it is found to accord with
information on the subject available elsewhere, notably such
as is given by Saxo Grammaticus, the twelfth century Danish
historian.
Before leaving this part of the discussion, I should like
to call attention to a famous journey of a Norseman to
Ireland, which resembles that of Horn in more than one
particular-to that, namely, of Olaf the Peacock thither in
955, as recorded in the Laxdoela Saga 2 (ch. 21).
Olaf was the son of an Icelandic chieftain, by name Hoskuld. His
mother was an Irish princess who had been carried from home and
enslaved when but fifteen years old. She secretly taught her boy Irish
and when he grew up urged him to visit her father west over sea. Provided
with a great gold ring that her father had given her as a child and
other tokens, he set sail to Norway with a ship-captain named Orn
(Horn). There King Harald showed him great favor and friendship.
"Then Harald the king asked how old a man he was. Olaf answered,
'I am now eighteen winters.' The king replied, 'Of exceeding worth,
indeed, are such men as you, for as yet you have left the age of child but
a short way behind; and be sure to come and see us when you come back
again.'" In the king's opinion, "no goodlier man had in their day come
out of Iceland." With a company of sixty armed men Olaf sailed to
Ireland. Hardly had he come to land when he was observed by people
congregated on the shore. When they discovered that the visitors were in
warlike array, they fled straightway to their king fearing that a viking
host was upon them. " So now the Irish break their journey, and run all
together to a village near. Then there arose great murmur in the crowd,
illud autumant quo prius Gurmundus, ac postea Turgesius, Noruagienses
principes pagani in Hibernia debellata regnabant. In illis enim diebus
Saucti in cavernis et speluncis, quasi carbones cineribus cooperti, latitabant
a facie impiorum qui eos tota die quasi ones occissionis mortificabant.'
Colgan, Trias Thaumaturga, p. 104 (quoted Hall, edition, p. 99).
'Anglia, iv, 342-400; MclKnight, The Germanic Elements in the Story of
King Horn (Pubs. of the MllodL. ang. Ass. of America, xv, 1900, 221 if.); Hall,
edition, passim (cf. pp. 94, 96, 97, 121, 127, 135, 144, 145, etc.)
2 Ed. Kr. Kaalund, Copen., 1889-91; trans. Muriel A. C. Press, Temple
Classics, 1899, pp. 55 ff.
45
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
as they deemed that, sure enough, this must be a warship, and that they
must expect many others; so they sent speedily word to the king, which
was easy, as he was at that time a short way off, feasting. Straightway he
rides with a company of men to where the ship was." Thereupon followed
a parley in which Olaf explained who he was and showed his ring. Convinced
of their kinship, the king invited him and his followers to Dublin
and they dwelt there with him. Thus we read: "The king was seldom at
rest, for at that time the lands in the west were at all times raided by
war-bands. The king drove from his land that winter both vikings and
raiders. Olaf was with his suite in the king's ship, and those who came
against them thought his was indeed a grim company to deal with. The
king talked over with Olaf and his followers all matters needing counsel,
for Olaf proved himself to the king both wise and eager-minded in all
deeds of prowess. But towards the latter end of the winter the king
summoned a Thing, and great numbers came. The king stood up and
spoke. He began his speech thus: 'You all know that last autumn there
came hither a man who is the son of my daughter, and high-born also on
his father's side; and it seems to me that Olaf is a man of such prowess
and courage that here such men are not to be found. Now I offer him my
kingdom after my day is done, for Olaf is much more suitable for a ruler
than my own sons.' Olaf thanked him for this offer with many graceful
and fair words, and said he would not run the risk as to how his sons
might behave when Myrkjartan was no more,-said it was better to gain
swift honour than lasting shame; and added that he wished to go to
Norway when ships could safely journey from land to land, and that his
mother would have little delight in life if he did not return to her. The
king bade Olaf do as he thought best." Olaf parted from the king with
the greatest friendship and sailed back to Norway and thence to Iceland.
On account of this journey he gained great fame. Soon after his return
he married Thorgerd, a sister of Thorstein Egilsson, the father of Helga,
Gunnlaug's beloved. " Every one who saw Olaf remarked what a handsome
man he was, and how noble his bearing, well arrayed as he was as to
weapons and clothes" (ch. 22).
Such works as the Laxdoela Saga and the Gunnlaugs Saga
are the records of events preserved for centuries in oral
tradition. Yet not being subjected to much outside influence,
developing among people who had a fine feeling for truth
in narrative, they are in the main exact. Being recorded in
prose, the happenings appear more real than if they had been
elaborated in verse. The story of Horn and Rimenhild was
likewise first orally transmitted. But it was perpetuated
by foreigners, who treated it as fiction, and it was recast in
46
THE STORY OF HORN AND R1MENHILD.
poetic form. Inevitably it assumed a certain resemblance to
foreign models after which it was fashioned, and it reflected
to some extent the sentiments of the redactors. In a crusading
epoch we are not surprised to have heathen vikings envisaged
by the French as pagan Saracens,l or their leaders as giants.
Nor does it startle us that Horn, even in the most primitive
version, is pictured as a romantic warrior, whose fairness of
itself lighted a bower (KH, 1. 385).2
Fairer ne mihte non beo born
Ne no rein vpon birine,
Ne sunne vpon bischine:
Fairer nis non bane he was,
He was bri3t so ,e glas,
He was whit so Ie flur,
Rose red was his colur. (10 if.)
After being "dubbede to kni3te wi] swerd & spures bri3te"
(499), there was nothing else possible for such a hero than
that he should demean himself, as he declares his desire to
do, according to the conventions of chivalry.
Also hit mot bitide, Wit sume oiere kni3te
Mid spere i schal furst ride, Wel for his lemman fi3te,
& mi kni3thod proue, Or he eni wif take:
Ar ihc he ginne to wo3e. For Ii me stondel' Pe more rape.
We bet kni3tes 3onge, Today, so Crist me blesse,
Of o dai al isprunge, Ihc wulle do pruesse
& of ure mestere For Pi luue in e felde3
So is be manere Mid spere & mid schelde. (543 ff.)
All this, however, is external decoration. The picture of
Horn has been touched up and given a new frame. But it
remains in KH the tale of an adventurous Norse youth who
had experiences similar to those of Gunnlaug and Olaf in
the West. It was, indeed, not uncommon in early viking
1S ee WissmannA, nglia,i v, 383 if.
2 Cf. HR 1053. " De la belte de Horn tute la chambre resplent."
Geoffrey of Monmouth says (Bk. IX, ch. 14) that in Arthur's time
ladies "esteemed none worthy of their love but such as had given a proof
of their valor in three several battles."
47
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
times to have noble youths brought up among strangers until
they came to maturity, and given aid by them to recover
lands of which they had been forcibly deprived. Even
without the spur of necessity occasionally applied, ambitious
warriors travelled widely in the path of adventure. They
went from one court to another to obtain knowledge of the
world and experience of men. Assistance in war was desired
by chieftains everywhere, and strong fighters were gladly
received by any king. Personal bravery was above all lauded
in this age of independent achievement and valorous deeds
won ever substantial reward, even to the hand of a princess
and the control of a kingdom. Were visitors to foreign
courts also accomplished in music, poetry, or manly sports,
they were thrice welcome; for festivities were as frequent
as combats, and some "abridgement" was necessary to "beguile
the lazy time." In pastimes of various sorts men and
women associated and deep attachments were then naturally
formed. We have many instances of international marriages
between historical personages which were productive of important
political results, many cases where the love of great
leaders o'ermastered their prudence and led to the rash
imperilling of their own and their followers' lives. The
story of Horn and Rimenhild is the natural product of such
conditions. In my opinion, it was originally an Old Norse
saga recording what were possibly actual events of the tenth
century, but in the guise of romance, and with certain
accretions of fancy which became attached to it in the course
of a long period of varied transmission.'
1 " We must remember," says Dr. Alex. Bugge, " that for centuries the
Norsemen held sway in Erin, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. It is,
therefore, easy to understand that their rule, their wars, their victories
and defeats, must still be remembered in many ways" (Norse Element in
Gaelic Tradition of Modern Times, p. 26). Morsbach, too, was right in saying:
"Die sch6ne romanze vom 'Konig Horn' erinnert uns wie kaum ein
anderes Denkmal so lebhaft an jene zeit, in welcher Angelsachsen, Skandinavier
und Franzosen sich zu gemeinsamer kulturarbeit auf englischem
Boden zusammenfanden" (p. 323).
48
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
This theory, it will be observed, is opposed to any
hitherto held. Four different explanations of the origin of
the story have in the past been offered. An old view maintained
by various writers from Grimm's' time on, that it
was of German origin, is now seldom maintained. It was
based on a misapprehension of the meaning of the Germanic
names in HR and a false assumption regarding Sudene.
More recent scholars, such as ten Brink, KSrting, Suchier,
Morsbach, and others, recognized its Scandinavian character,
but again, chiefly because of the wrong identification of
Horn's home, or a misunderstanding of the opening of Horn
Child, believed it Danish. Korting even conjectured that
it might have been brought over by the Danish settlers when
first they came to England.2 Ward, Soderhjelm, McKnight,
Hartenstein, and others, have thought that it arose in the
south of England, largely because the name of Surrey in
Gaimar's chronicle was identical with that of Horn's abode.
Following the same line of thought, Hall has recently
advanced again3 the untenable theory that the story was
at bottom British. These theories have all seemed unsatisfactory
even to those who framed them. Manifest difficulties
have in each instance been acknowledged, and the situation
has invariably been declared obscure. On the contrary, the
hypothesis of Norse origin offers a reasonable solution to
the whole problem. It explains the agreement of the story
with similar sagas of the North and the actual occurrences
that they record, enables us to determine definitely the scene
of action, clears up the darkness surrounding the names of
persons and places, and will be found, I think, to throw
light on its development.
1Museum f. altd. kunst u. Litt., Berlin, 1811, II, 303 ff.; cf. Stimming,
Engl. Studien, i, 355; Wiilker, Gesch. d. engl. Litt., 1896, p. 98.
2Cf. also Morsbach, p. 298.
3 Nyrop (Den OldfranskeH eltedigtning, Cop., 1883, p. 219) thought it "efter
al Sandsynlighed et rent bretonsk Sagn eller rettere AEventyr."
4
49
WILLT.T4M HENRY SCHOFIELD.
VI.
The history of the story in literary form is not easy to
trace. A great deal of discussion has arisen concerning the
interrelation of the extant versions, and the most divergent
views are held. It is not my purpose to give here a rgsum6
of previous opinion, but rather to state simply my own idea
of how the story was developed and preserved.
That the narrative was, in the first instance, an actual
Norse tradition, I have endeavored to show. We have no
evidence, however, that in this form it was ever committed
to writing, and probability is not much in favor of the
supposition. On the contrary, there is good reason to believe
that it became literature in Anglo-Saxon. So far as Horn is
concerned, we have no express statement to that effect; but
of its companion poem Aalof and of the similar romances of
Tristan and Waldef,1 we have definite evidence that English
versions existed before the Norman Conquest, and of Waldef
at least that the form was metrical.2 Note the following
passage from the last-named poem:
Ceste estoire [Waldef] est molt amde,
e des Engles molt record6e,
des princes, des dues e des reis.
1 C. Sachs, Beitrage zur Kunde altfranz.,e ngl. u. provenzL. iteratur aus franz.
u. engl. Bibliotheken, Berlin, 1857, p. 47. This poem, not yet published, is
said to contain ca. 22000 lines. It is contained in " Ms. Middlehill, 8345-
cf. Cat. Libr. Manuscript, in Bibl. D. Thomae Philipps, etc., 1837" (Hartenstein,
p. 110n.). Cf. Suchier, Gesch., p. 113. The passage quoted is
commented on by G. Paris, Rorn., xiv, 604 ff.; Sudre, Bom., xv, 555;
Soderhjelm, Rom., xv, 576; Rottiger, Der heutige Stand der Tristanforschung,
Hamburg, 1897, p. 8.
2 The fifteenth century Latin translation of this romance by John Bramis,
monk of Thetford, begins: " Primitus subsequens regis Waldei filiorumque
historia suorum in lingua anglica metrice composita et deinde ad instanciam
cujusdam femine que ipsam penitus linguam nesciret quam non alio quam
amice nomine voluit indagare a quodam in linguam gallicam est translata.
at vero nouissime eandem historiam . . . muneribus compulsus sum . . .
in latinum transferre sermonem." (Sachs, p. 51; Ms. 329 of Corpus Christi,
Cambridge.)
50
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
mult iert am6e des Engleis,
des petites gens e des granz
jusqu' a la prise des Normanz ...
puis i ad asez translatees,
qui molt sunt de plusurs amtes
corn est Bruit, cor est Tristram
qui tant suffri poine et hahan,
co est Aelof li bon rois ....
This statement we readily believe, for only by an English
intermediary could the material have easily become accessible
to the Normans. Other evidence, moreover, supports the
assumption of antecedent probability: as we have already
seen, there was in the original of KH and HR an English
pun on the name of the hero.l In HR, moreover, English
words appear, which, taken along with other considerations
of language and metre, show that the poem was composed
in England.2
There is a prevalent opinion that this lost Anglo-Saxon
romance was the direct source of KH. It is repeatedly stated
that this is the one exception to the rule that all English
romances are drawn from the French. But unfortunately
this statement is not well founded. Much as we should like
to believe that KH descends directly from an early English
poem without mediation of the French, it looks as if that
view could no longer be sustained. My own consideration
of the proper names of the poem, particularly Sudene, showed
me that they were such as could be satisfactorily explained
only on the hypothesis of a French original. And very
recently Morsbach has given good support to this view by
independent study along the same lines.3 Ailmar, Ailbrus,
See above, p. 29.
2 Not necessarily, however, that it was based directly on an English work,
as most have assumed. The oath witegod (C 4013), indeed, occurs in a part
almost certainly added by Thomas; see below, pp. 64 ff. Cf. Madden, p.
xlvii; Hist. Lilt., xxlI, 55; Wissmann, Untersuchungen, p. 120; Hartenstein,
pp. 26 f.
3Foerster-FestgabeH, alle, 1902, pp. 297 ff.
51
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Ayol, Cutberd (Cubert), Arnoldin, etc., to say nothing of
Sudene, wllich Morsbach did not understand, are clearly
French transformations of Germanic names, and pretty
certainly point to a French redaction from which they were
drawn. One or two French names might possibly have
been introduced by an English writer, following an Anglo-
Saxon original, because there was much French spoken in
England, but it is hard to believe that practically all he
could thus accidentally have transformed. It should also
be observed that the language and metre of KH is far more
French in character than we should expect if the poem were
drawn directly from the Anglo-Saxon. In the C text appear
95 French rhymes' and the French element in the vocabulary
is considerable. But, above all, the tone is quite unlike that
of any Anglo-Saxon poem. It is sophisticated in the mediaeval
style.2 The phraseology is marked by the conventions of
foreign romance. Indeed, the more carefully we study the
subject the more evident, I think, it becomes that the theory
of purely native transmission is an assumption dictated chiefly
by desire.
The arguments that in the past have been used to support
the hypothesis are really of little weight. They are chiefly
two, the simplicity of the story, and its so-called Germanic
tone. These, however, one may readily admit without any
consideration of the language of the redactors. If, as is
'According to Hartenstein's count, pp. 114 ff. Yet Hartenstein, it
should be said, decided, though with some hesitation, against a French
source; and has apparently not been moved since by Morsbach's arguments
(see Engl. St., xxxi, 282 if.). His objections will, I hope, disappear in
consideration of the facts here adduced, concerning Sudene, Modun, etc.
2 Cf. McKnight's discussion of the style of KH (edition, p. xx f.). Ten
Brink says (History of Eng. Lit., trans. Kennedy, I, 227): "The Song of
Horn must be counted as a metrical romance, in view of its contents, its
structure, its dress, and mounting. The age of romantic chivalry distinctly
left its impress upon the material derived from an obscure transition
period." He calls KH a roman d'aventure and notes that "the influence
of the age of chivalric poetry upon manners and culture is unmistakable"
(p. 231).
52
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
probable, the foundation of the story was Norse, and it was
recorded in Anglo-Saxon, we should expect it to preserve the
characteristics of Germanic works. Translation, of course,
does not imply the elimination of early features. In truth,
however, it is the popular rather than primitive appearance
of KH that has chiefly led people to assert its independence
of the French. But this is obviously due to the purpose of
its production, its character as a "song" fashioned for public
delivery. If KH is succinct and hurried, if it is in a native
metre, and popularly presented, so also is Sir Tristrem, which
we know to be nothing but a condensation of the work of
the Norman Thomas. All sorts of native metres (alliteration
as well as tail-rhyme and other strophes) never so employed by
foreigners were utilized by Englishmen to transmit material
taken from the French. If KH seems Saxon in tone, so
also, and to a far greater degree, does the alliterative Brut
of La3amon, which, written earlier and vastly more national
in language and spirit, is nevertheless in the main based on
the French roman of Wace. There is not the least show of
English patriotic feeling in KH, while La3amon betrays it
to the full. The stories of the English heroes Waldef
(Walqeof), Havelok, Guy of Warwick, Beves of Hampton,
Hereward, Fulk Fitz Warren, and others, were, it is well
known, recorded in French. There is, indeed, as has already
been said, no single instance where purely native transmission
of an English romance is demonstrable, and the burden of
proof-a heavy burden-rests on him who would claim it
for Horn. I have given over unwillingly the view I have
long had on this point, but it seems to me now impossible
to maintain it with good reasons, and cogent arguments are
distinctly opposed. KH, it seems to me most probable, is
based on a Norman redaction of the Saxon account of Horn.
Whether this redaction was in the form of a romance like
Thomas's Tristan, or in that of a "Breton lay" like the
Lai d'Aveloo, no one can say positively, and the matter is
not of much consequence. The two forms are not, of course,
53
WTTITJTAYH ENRY SCHOFIELD.
exclusive of each other. The story of Havelok, we remember,
was narrated in French not only in lay but also in romance
form.1 Whether romance or lay, this French poem was
probably written about the middle of the twelfth century,
and was a simple and lucid narrative. From it was drawn
directly KH, which shows no features that might not have
been in its source, though it is unnecessary to assert that all
were.2
Although the most primitive version is thus discovered to
have passed through a Norman-French intermediary, this fact
entails less consequence than might be supposed. It should
be kept in mind that the basis of all the known redactions
is without doubt an Anglo-Saxon account, which, had the
Norman Conquest not occurred, would probably have perpetuated
itself in the English vernacular. The mistake is
frequently made of regarding native productions as foreign
simply because they happen to have been written down in what
we now regard as a foreign language. In the twelfth century
French was familiar from birth to most of the Englishmen
who had skill to write. Patriots then composed and recorded
English works in French. Fortunately, we have the Geste
of King Horn in a form which, in substance at least, is not
unlike the original English treatment of the theme. Though
ultimately Norse, it is in a very real sense an English story.
VII.
The extant Anglo-Norman poem called Horn et Rimenhild
is plainly a more elaborate product. The story now appears
amplified in incident, sophisticated in language, and feudal
in tone-in a word, made over evidently in the style of the
1 See Putnam, The Lambeth Version of Havelok (Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass. of
Amer., xv, 1900, 1 ff.); cf. The Lay of Havelok the Dane, ed. Skeat, Oxford,
1902, pp. xlvii if.
2The original manuscript of KH is lost, the three extant copies being
so unlike in details that recent editors have not tried to establish a critical
text.
54
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
continental French epic. No longer a lay or romance, it
has the semblance of a chanson de geste. There is no need
to postulate as source of HR another poem than the French
original of KH. That both HR and KH have in common
the form Sudene (Sudenne) shows that they had probably the
same source; for if HR had been drawn directly from the
English this spelling would hardly have been the same in
both cases. The writers of Anglo-Norman epics (such, for
example, as Beves) working freely, inclined rather to substitute
a localization in the East for scenes in their own neighborhood.
It is a matter of surprise, indeed, that SuSreye was not at
once made over into Syrie, Syria, by a writer in a Crusading
epoch. In KH the heathen Norsemen are termed Saracens.
This identification, which in the beginning was French, was
probably already present in the original French romance
from which not only it but also HR probably derive, and
thus transformation in the style of the Carolingian epic was
natural.
The early romance was revised by Thomas1 with the
intention of making it part of a cycle. The first section
of the trilogy he planned was to deal with the history of
Horn's father Aalof, the second with Horn himself, and the
third with his son Hadermod. That the part concerning
Aalof was written is clear, not only from the frequent references
in HR itself to the story there developed, but also
from the explicit statement of the author of Waldef, above
quoted. The third part, on the contrary, we cannot be sure
was written. Thomas informs us (5420 ff.) that not he but
Gilimot his son was to accomplish the task. From the
following passages in HR one might perhaps infer that a
story of Hadermod had been developed; and that it was
of the ordinary Crusading type, which Horn only by chance
escaped.
1 Note that Thomas had, as he says, a parcherin before him (HR, 11. 2933,
3981), or an escrit (1. 192).
55
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
(a) Uncore est par cest Horn conquis regne Persan,
E par le fiz cestui ki ore est en ahan,
Ki paens destrurat d'ici qu'al flum Jordan.
Nes i purrat tenser Mahum ne Teruagan. (O 82 ff.)
(b) Le vaillant Hadermod de Rigmel engendrat
Ki Asf[r]iche cunquist e que pus regnat
E ki tuz ses parens de paens uengat
De pruesce e de sen trestuz les ultreat. (O 5237 if.).
We tremble to think what sort of a hotchpotch of adventure
this trilogy would have offered if it had all been finished.
How hard it would have been to straighten out the topography
if Horn had actually been represented as conquering Persia,
and his son as fighting victoriously against pagans by the
river Jordan, and avenging on them there the wrongs of
his father. In truth, however, no trace of any composition
by Gilimot remains; and we may surmise that it was not
executed for the same reason that seems to have kept Wirnt
von Gravenberg, the author of Wigalois, from tracing the
career of the hero's son Li Fort Gawanides as he promised,
namely, the lack of sufficient appreciation and encouragement
on the part of the public to which the poet appealed.'
To judge from the plan outlined by Thomas, the work would
not have been such as to make us greatly regret its loss.
Whether Aalof is a story of quite independent origin
simply attached to Horn by the poet Thomas, who desired
to round out the narrative of his hero in epic manner, or
whether it is merely the elaboration of hints previously
present in the source of KH, it is not now possible to
ascertain definitely. The former view is certainly the more
probable. Finding in his original certain vague information
concerning Horn's father, King Allof of Moray (?), he
introduced alien material to elaborate his account. Every
Norse saga tells briefly of the parentage of the heroes, yet
without lingering long to do so. But it was the custom
Cf. my Studies on the Libeaus Desconus (Harvard Studies and Notes in
Phil. and Lit., Iv, 1895, pp. 2, 212).
56
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
of chivalrous poets to present the exploits of succeeding
generations in long-drawn-out narrative.
So far as we can tell from the summary of Aalof in HR
(250 ff.), it was sufficiently like Horn to have been reasonably
considered as a suitable counterpart; for it too was one
of the numerous tales modelled on the familiar "exile and
return" formula. Horn's father, we learn, was a foundling,
kindly reared by a king named Silaf (Silaus). When he
grew up he was discovered to be of royal lineage, the son
of Goldeburc, daughter of Baderolf, emperor of Germany,
and Silaf gave him the princess Samburc to wife. Previously
he had distinguished himself by his prowess and worthy
deeds, overcoming many heathen warriors, but had been the
victim of calumny on the part of a traitor Denerey. We
infer that these unjust accusations concerned his relations
with the princess and no doubt resembled those directed
against Horn by Wikel (who in HR is represented as the
nephew of this traitor), and that, being in some way
vindicated and his real origin recognized, he was decreed
the king's heir. After Silaf's death he assumed power and
for ten years defended well his realm against the heathen
until finally he was overcome by an invading host and
put to death. His son, however, lived to achieve revenge
for this disaster. Not perhaps until this story was joined
to that of Horn, was the hero given the name Aalof or
his land called Sudene.
Without by any means endeavoring to fix the source,
but simply to show a similar story recorded, I would call
attention to the narrative of a foundling like Aalof, which
is related in that part of the saga of Olaf Tryggvason
which deals with the Danish kings of Northumberland.'
Olaf, surnamed " the Englishman," ruled in Northumberland, tributary
to King Ring of Denmark. One of his descendants was Gorm, who had
many thralls. Some of the latter discovered a child, evidently of noble
Chs. 61, 62; trans. Sephton, pp. 75 ff.; see below, p. 68, n. 1.
57
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
origin, exposed in a forest. They bore him to the king who christened the
child Knut, because of a knot tied in the fine linen wherein he was wrapped.
"He was brought up in the king's court," we read in the saga, "and
quickly showed cleverness and skill beyond his contemporaries. King
Gorm, having no son of his own, loved his foster-child, Knut, to such a
degree that he adopted him as his own son, esteeming him so far above all
his own kinsmen as to make him his successor in the kingdom. He was
called Knut the Foundling. King Gorm's reign over the land was not of
long duration, and he died a natural death; but before he expired he
caused Knut to be chosen king over all the realm that he held in Jutland."
Later, Knut is informed from the Saxon thralls who had exposed him that
he was the son of a much-loved sister of an Earl Arnfinn, ruler over the
land of Holdseta, and that they had been bidden make away with him
that the affair might be kept secret. "Wherefore he was called Thrall-
Knut. He had a son whom he named Gorm, after his foster-father. The
reign of Thrall-Knut was not a long one and yet he was a famous king.
After Knut, his son Gorm was made king and reigned subject to the sons
of Ragnar Lothbrok, being regarded with special favour by Sigurd Snake
i' th' eye."
Some such story as this may well have formed the basis
of the romance of Aalof, being adapted by Thomas to elaborate
the career of Horn's father previously given in but vague
outline. Thomas intended thus to enhance the reputation of
his chief hero, even as in Arthurian romance later Galahad
was represented as the son of Lancelot and his counterpart
Parzival as the father of Lohengrin. In like manner, in Old
Norse saga, Ragnar Lothbrok was connected by a fictitious
marriage with Sigurth and the Volsungs. The names in HR
indicate that the story of Aalof was not in origin Norse, but
West Germanic. By means of the combination of the two
stories, names appear in HR which were evidently not there
in the beginning: Baderolf, emperor of Germany, his daughter
Goldeburc and brother Haderof (Harderon); King Silaf
(Silaus), and his daughter Samburc; the seneschal Hardred
and his sons Haderof and Badelac; the daughters of the
king of Ireland Lemburc and Sudburc, who marry two of
Hardred's sons; the whole group of African kings Gudbrant,
Sultan of Persia, and his six brothers, Rodmund, Rollac,
Gudolf, Egolf, Hildebrant, and Herebrant, and perhaps
58
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
others. These were as foreign to the primitive story of
Horn as that of the hero's son Hadermod. Grimm and
the rest who in the past have utilized them to establish the
German origin of the tale were plainly at fault.
A new character, likewise introduced from alien saga,
though perhaps not so remote in origin, is that of Batolf,
whom Thomas represents as a son of the king of Britain,
Rimenhild's brother, and the composer of a lay on the subject
of his sister's love. That this is a late addition is obvious
if only from the fact that Horn is pictured as singing it
in Ireland before his love was consummated, during the
period of his first separation from Rimenhild, while he was
ignorant of her condition. Under an assumed name, the
hero is dwelling at the court of the Irish king, where he
ever distinguishes himself anew by his skill in manly sports,
hunting, chess, and music. The king's daughter conceives
a passion for him, but he holds aloof from any entanglement.
One evening, after he has finished a game of chess with
her, the young princes suggest that she play on the harp
and she accedes. She harps two lays, and would, she explains,
gladly harp another, but of it she knew only half; her
dearest wish was to know the whole. It was the lay of
Batolf concerning Rimel's love for Horn, which already
was known to fame. Each of the others then harps a lay
in turn.
A eel tens sorent tuit harpe bien manier
Cum plus fu gentilz hor e plus sout del mestier. (2824 f.)
Finally the instrument comes into the hands of the disguised
hero, and all marvel at his wondrous skill.
Lors prent la harpe a sei, si comence a temprer.
Deu! ki dune l'esgardast cor il la sot manier,
cum ses cordes tuchot, cum les feseit tremler,
asquantes fait chanter, askantes organer,
de l'armonie del ciel li pureit remembrer.
Sur tuz ceus ke i sont fait cist a merveiller.
Kant celes notes a fait, prent s'en a munter
e par tut autres tons fet les cordes soner.
59
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Kant il ot issi fait, si cumence a noter
le lai dunt or ai dit de Batolf haut e cler,
si cum funt cil Breton de tel fait custumer.
Apres en l'estrument fait les cordes chanter
tut issi cum en vois l'aveit dit en premer.
Tut le lai lor a dit, n'en vot rien retailler.1
Thomas, in composing this part of his poem, evidently
wrote with the Tristan in mind,2 here imitating the scenes
in which that hero figured as a stranger at the courts of
Cornwall and Ireland. No one could have written the
beautiful description just quoted without full familiarity
with Breton lays and the power to perpetuate their charm.
It is probable that the hero of the primitive saga was,
like Gunnlaug, a poet, perhaps skilled in music. Certainly,
in the original of KH and HR he was represented as a
harper. Just as Tristram in disguise reveals himself to
Ysolde, who is being carried off by a hated suitor Gandin,
through familiar lays that he harps before her, so Horn
in a like situation, when Fikenhild has abducted his bride,
and is about to rescue her, enables Rimenhild to penetrate
his disguise by the same device.3
He sette him on Pe benche
His harpe for to clenche.
He makede Rymenhilde lay,
& heo makede walaway.
Rimenhild feol yswo3e
Ne was Per non bat lou3e. (1475 if.)
1Ll. 2830 ff.; quoted after Warnke, Lais der Marie de France, 2nd ed.,
p. xviii f., q. v.
2Cf. Wissmann, Anglia, iv, 393 ff.; Untersuchungen, pp. 108 f.
3As Wissmann observed (Anglia, iv, 393). Note the words of Gottfried
von Strassburg:
Er harphete an der stunde
S8 rehte suoze einen leich,
Der Is6te in ir herze sleich
Und ir gedanken alle ergie
So verre daz si weinen lie
Und an ir Amis was verdAht. (13324 ff.)
Cf. my Chaucer's Franklin's Tale (Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer., xvi, 441).
60
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Apparently, the story of Horn was somewhat Bretonised in
its first French form. If so, Thomas went but one step
further in the same direction in enforcing the likeness of
his hero to Tristram.
We cannot conclude from the narrative of Thomas that
there really existed a lay on the subject of Horn's love,1 and
it is quite improbable that the lay of Batolf sung by the
hero himself publicly at the Irish court dealt with that
theme, any more than that of Gurun which Tristram sang
when a stranger at the court of Cornwall.2 That there existed
a "Breton lay" with Batolf for a hero is, on the contrary, very
likely. We can, however, only conjecture what it was about.
I venture to suggest that it may have told the same story
that Geoffrey of Monmouth recounted of Baldulph the Saxon,
whom he pictured in his own peculiar way as an opponent
of Arthur. To gain access to his brother Colgrin, confined
in York by Arthur's army, Baldulph adopted a stratagem
for the success of which he appears to have become famous.
In Geoffrey's words,3 "he shaved his head and beard, and
put on the habit of a jester with a harp, and in this disguise
walked up and down in the camp, playing upon his instrument
as if he had been a harper. He thus passed unsuspected
and by a little and little went up to the walls of the city,
where he was at last discovered by the besieged, who thereupon
drew him up with cords, and conducted him to his brother.
At this unexpected, though much desired meeting, they spent
some time in joyfully embracing each other, and then began to
consider various stratagems for their delivery." The shrewd
1If so, it was, like all "Breton lays," in British or in French, and not in
English, as Stimming (Eng. St., I, 355) and McKnight (ed., p. xii) suppose.
The source of HR and KH may possibly have been in the form of a French
"Breton Lay;" see above, p. 53.
2 Gottfried's Tristan, ed. Bechstein, 11. 3503 if.
3Bk. IX, ch. I (trans. Giles, Six 0. E. Chrons., p. 231). Cf. La3amon's
Brut, II, 428 ff, where the hero's name is spelt Baldulf, Baldolf. Botolfr was
a name borne by Norsemen; cf. Landnamabok, p. 333; BHaconarsaga, ? 48
(A. D. 1218); Kristnisaga, 20.
61
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
Geoffrey, we suspect, here simply adapted a popular tale for
his purpose, a tale which, quite as well as Haveloc, or Gurun,
or other stories in no wise of Celtic origin, might have been
fashioned in the popular style of a " Breton lay." This story,
it will be noticed, presented a situation similar in general
character to that in Horn, where also the hero assumes the
disguise of a minstrel as the only means of penetrating
Fikenhild's castle and gaining access to Rimenhild, and it
may have been this similarity that suggested to Thomas its
adaptation in his narrative. The incident itself, it should
be added, was of a sort favored in England. Witness, for
example, the pleasant story told by William of Malmesbury
1
of how Olaf managed to enter Athelstan's camp as a minstrel
spy and departed thence unharmed, because, though recognized
by a former follower, he was yet not betrayed.
This episode, in truth, in the story of Horn (the second
rescue by the hero in disguise) does not impress one as original.
There was an abundance of popular stories slightly varying
from one another, and if one feature found favor it was often
duplicated in the same romance by minstrels who thought
thus to increase the effect. In our opinion, however, this
repetition is to be deprecated. Not only is it inartistic; it
also arouses unjust suspicion regarding the value of the narrative
as essentially a true tradition. Incidents in romances,
no more than miracles in saints' lives, can be duplicated
without making the modern reader uneasy; but apparently
the mediteval mind was not so disturbed. The authentic
achievements of both saints and heroes were embellished
by legend without prejudice to their fundamental truth.
If the account of Rimenhild's second rescue may be wholly
fiction, that of the first may also have been in parts poetically
adorned. We have seen how in ostensibly veracious saga
1De Gestis Regum Anglorum, I, 142 f.; cf., for other references, Hall, pp.
174-175. We recall also King Alfred's visit as a juggler to the camp of
the Danes (Ingulph, William of Malmesbury); and in romance Sir Orfeo's
conduct after his return from fairyland.
62
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Gunnlaug, after an absence of several years, arrived home
on the very day when his betrothed lady was being forcibly
wedded to another, and he was only prevented by an accident
from visiting the marriage feast then in progress and demanding
his own. On the other hand, there existed in England
numerous popular stories, presenting a like situation romantically,
without any likely basis in fact. A hero obtains
admission to the marriage banquet, disguised as a beggar,
reveals himself to the bride when she is passing the wine
about, and succeeds in winning her away from a discomfited
rival. Such a tale is told in the Vita Herewardi Saxonis.1
Another Geoffrey adapted to his purpose in his Historia,2
making it occur in the time of Cadwalla, about 630. It is
interesting to observe that while Wace contents himself with
reproducing Geoffrey's account, La3amon alters it considerably.
His variations are all in the direction of popular tradition.3
Evidently he was familiar with a native story still more like
that of Horn than Geoffrey's narrative, and with it in mind
made changes in his original.
That the story of Horn reflects historical conditions and
may be at bottom fact, I have endeavored to show. To
go further, and try to establish its historicity throughout in
its present form, would be to evince ignorance of the ways
of romance. I have already emphasized its likeness to the
numerous tales of the "exile and return" type, and pointed
out parallels to the picturesque feature of the exposure in
the rudderless boat. Here I need only add mention of the
well-known fact that in popular tradition exist many stories
Cf. Wissmann, Untersuchungen, p. 110; Ward, p. 449; Hartenstein, pp.
137 f.
2Bk. XII, ch. 7; cf. Wace, 14693 ff.; La3amon, IT, 234ff. Wissmann
calls attention to the passage in La3amon, "zum beweise dasz einzelne
Ziige unseres Gedichtes ganz allgemeiner Natur waren die jeder Spielmann
nach Belieben verwenden konnte" (1. c., p. 111).
s Cf. his account of the origin of the Round Table; on which see A. C. L.
Brown, The Round Table before Wace (Harvard Studies and Notes, viI, 183-
205).
63
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
which in general parallel the central incidents of the poems
before us. As Professor Child has said :1 " Certain points
in the story of Horn-the long absence, the sudden return,
the appearance under disguise at the wedding-feast, and the
dropping of the ring into a cup of wine obtained from the
bride-repeat themselves in a great number of romantic tales.
More commonly it is a husband who leaves his wife for
seven years, is miraculously informed on the last day that
she is to be remarried on the morrow, and is restored to
his home in the nick of time, also by superhuman means."
These statements Professor Child has enforced with abundant
illustration. Such stories, it appears, were particularly
common in the epoch of the Crusades, and could hardly
have failed to influence the saga of Horn then taking new
shape.
Folk-lore embellishment is manifest in KH as well as in
HR and was therefore present in their original; but Thomas
in his narrative increased the amount. He still more complicated
the story by the introduction of new incident. I
will mention here but one example, namely an episode that
is represented by the poet as occurring while Horn is making
his way in disguise to Caer Lion to recover his bride.2 I can
do no better than reproduce Professor Child's observations
at this point:
3 "When Horn was near the city, he stopped
to see how things would go. King Modun passed, with
Wikel, in gay discourse of the charms of Rimild. Horn
called out to them insultingly, and Modun asked who he
was. Horn said he had formerly served a man of consequence
as his fisherman: he had known a net almost seven years
ago, and had now come to give it a look. If it had taken
any fish he would love it no more; if it should still be as
he left it, he would carry it away. Modun thinks him a
'Ballads, I, 194; cf. also W. Splettstosser, Der heimkehrende Gatte u. sein
Weib in der WeltlitteraturB, erlin, 1899.
2HR 3984-4057; also in Horn Child, 901-936.
3 Ballads, I, 191, note.
64
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
fool. This is part of a story in the Gesta Romanorum, of
a soldier who loved the emperor's daughter, and went to the
holy land for seven years, after a mutual change of fidelity
for that time. A king comes to woo the princess, but is put
off for seven years, upon her alleging that she has made a
vow of virginity for so long. At the expiration of this term,
the king and the soldier meet as they are on their way to
the princess. The king, from certain passages between them,
thinks the soldier a fool. The soldier takes leave of the
king under pretence of looking after a net which he had
laid in a certain place seven years before, rides on ahead,
and slips away with the princess."'
Evidently Thomas was familiar with some such story as
that in the Gesta and cleverly adapted it to embellish his
narrative. Perhaps it was suggested to him by Rimenhild's
foreboding dream (in KH) of the fishing-net in which should
be caught an evil fish. Having used this motive earlier
than it was first intended, he adapted another riddle for the
hero's interview with his lady, not, of course, so suitable.
To her he explained that "he had been reared in that land,
and by service had come into possession of a hawk, which,
before taming it, he had put in a cage: that was nigh seven
years since: he had come now to see what it amounted to.
If it should prove to be as good as when he had left it, he
would carry it away with him; but if its feathers were ruffled
and broken he would have nothing to do with it. At this
Rimild broke into a laugh, and cried, 'Horn, 't is you, and
your hawk has been safely kept!"' As Professor Child says:
"The riddle of the hawk slightly varied is met with in the
romance of Blonde of Oxford and Jehan of Dammartin,2
1 ( Gest.R om.O, esterleyp,. 597,N o.1 93; Grasse1,1 1, 59; Maddenp,. 32;
Swan,I , p. lxv. A similar story in Campbell'sT ales of the West Highlands,
I, 281,' Baillie Lunnain.' (SimrockD, eutscheM archenN, o. 47, is apparently
a translatiofnr omt he Gesta.)"
2Ed. Le Roux de Lincy, pp. 98, 109, 114.
5
65
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
and, still further modified, in Le Romant de Jehan de Paris."
'Horn et Rimenhild,' it will be observed, has both riddles,
and that of the net is introduced under circumstances entirely
like those in the Gesta Romanorum. The French romance
is certainly independent of the English in this passage." 2
This is sufficient to indicate the freedom with which Thomas
elaborated his material. It affords us occasion to observe how
stories grow from simple beginnings, by slow accretions of
kindred incident, with such alterations of tone and array as
was demanded by the age of the redaction and the nature of
the audience to which it was addressed.
VIII.
We now come in the history of the story to a version the
relation of which to the rest has often been misconceived, to
the Middle English strophic romance Horn Child and Maiden
Rimnild (HC), which being in part preserved in the famous
Auchinleck MS., could not have been written later than 1325,
and, to judge from the style and allusions, probably not
much earlier. In trying to determine the original scene and
character of the Horn saga, I have deliberately left this out
of consideration, for it is very far from primitive. It is a
reconstruction, a new composition, a late product of degenerate
minstrelsy. In general, it resembles the French poem HR
with which it shows definite agreements as opposed to KHI;
'Ed. Montaiglon, pp. 55, 63, 111. Suchier thinks that HR contains
the germ of the story in the Gesta and in Beaumanoir's romance Jehan et
Blonde (see Oeuvres Poetiques de Philippe de Remi, Paris, 1884, I, p. cxi; cf.
Gesch., p. 111). Cf. Gr6ber, Grundriss, II, 771; Hartenstein, pp. 138-139.
Mr. Ward remarks (p. 457): "The French writer probably invented
Horn's encounter with Wikele and Modin merely to introduce the parable,
for nothing else comes of it. The writer thinks it necessary, after all, to
put a parable into Horn's mouth when he is addressing Rimel; but this
repetition, which we may be sure was not in the original, is comparatively
commonplace; Horn saying that he has come back after seven years for a
falcon, but he will not claim her if she has cast her feathers or broken her
wing."
66
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
but, as already said, the author has subjected his material
to great change. Throughout the localities are unlike, the
whole situation having been transformed by the introduction
of new elements to replace the old. There is now no mention
of Sudene or the coming of the hero to Britain in a cast-away
boat. Instead, Horn's father is made king of Northumberland
and his struggles to defend his realm against his foes from
Denmark and Ireland are narrated in detail. The heathen
vikings of the saga in its early form were undoubtedly Norsemen,
and it was on the western coast that they landed, but
Norsemen were naturally confused with other Scandinavians
who meanwhile had made raids on England, and as a result
in HC the earlier introduction was rejected. The hostile
seamen are represented as Danes, and their depredations are
definitely localized in Yorkshire.
King Hapeolf (for this is now the father's name, not Aalof,
Murry, or Hunlaf), we read, ruled England from the Humber
north "in to pe wan see."
Out of Danmark come an here,
Opon Inglond forto were,
Wip stout ost & vnride,
Wit yren hattes, scheld & spere;
Alle her pray to schip iai here
In Clifland bi Tese side. (49 if.)
Hapeolf assembles a large body of men and rides rapidly
against them.
On Alerton more al hai mett,
Per were her dayes sett,
Failed hem no roum;
SePPen to Clifland Pai rade,
her Pe Danis men abade,
To fel Pe feye adoun. (67 ff.)
After an all-day's struggle the English are triumphant, slaying
many of their opponents. They laud their leader and
enjoy the fruits of victory. Soon after the king goes hunting
67
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
" on Blakeowe more," then feasts at Pickering, and afterwards
rides to York.
Here, as every reader of the poem has observed, we are
on well-known ground, all the places mentioned being in
the North Riding of Yorkshire. The narrative bears the
impress of reality; it is the record of an actual depredation
by Danes on Northumberland, in which the invaders after
a temporary success were defeated by the English with great
slaughter.
It has not, I believe, been hitherto noticed that we have
in the Old Norse saga of King Olaf Tryggvason what might
be an account of this very incursion. In the early part of
Ethelbert's reign, we read in the saga, "England was invaded
by a Danish host, under the command of Knut and Harold,
sons of Gorm the Old. They harried Northumberland in all
directions, and brought much people into subjection, claiming
the land as their heritage, because it had been the possession of
the sons of Lodbrok and of many others of their forefathers.
King Ethelbert collected a large army, and encountered them
north of Cleveland, slaying many of them." 1 An English
account of this conflict, or another like it, might have been
the basis of the corresponding information in HC.
The author of HC has preserved the record of still another
struggle. This time the English king was attacked from a
different quarter.
Out of Yrlond cor kinges Pre,
Her names can y telle he,
Wele wikouten les:
Ferwele & Winwald were her to,
Malkan king was an of Po
Proude in ich apres;
Al Westmerland stroyed kay. (148 ff.)
The king assembled a large army to meet them.
'Trans. Sephton (Northern Library, I), London, 1895, ch. 64, p. 80.
This saga is a compilation of the first half of the thirteenth century, but
is of course based on earlier sources.
68
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
Fe Irise ost was long & brade,
On Stainesmore Per aai rade,
jai 3af a crie for prede;
Hende Ha]eolf hem abade,
Swiche meting was never made,
Wik) sorwe on ich aside:
Ri3t in a litel stounde
Sexti iousand were layd to grounde
In herd is nou3t to hide;
King HaJeolf slou3 wit his hond,
hat was comen out of Yrlond,
Tvo kinges pat tide. (181 ff.)
After a long struggle, however, he was himself slain by
Malkan, who yet dearly won his victory, f6r he had to
withdraw to Ireland with but thirteen followers, the remnants
of a great host. Thereupon an earl of Northumberland, by
name Thorbrand, usurped power, and King Hapeolf's young
son Horn was secretly carried south by his guardian to the
court of the English king.
This narrative I cannot completely elucidate, but it is
possible, I think, to show that it too is based on actual
occurrences. The king JHajeolf of the poem, who ruled
England from the Humber north in to "the wan see" is,
I believe, unquestionably the Eadulf who in 966 was made
Earl of Northumbria from the Tees to Myrcforth.' "The
wan see" is of the same meaning as Myrcforth, which was
the Scandinavian name for the Firth of Forth. The Malkan
of the poem, who was allied with the Irish in making the
incursion into Hapeolf's land, is to be identified with Malcolm
of Scotland. The record is of one of the several incursions
made into Northumbria by the Scots under Malcolm or his
sons in which he was aided by Irish friends. That in HC
the decisive meeting took place at Stanmore was doubtless
a fact. As Mr. Skene says (p. 369): "Immediately after the
1 ' Eadulf, cognomento Yvelchild, a Teisa usque Myrcforth praeponitur
Northymbris." Libellus de adventu, Sax. Ch., p. 212 (quoted Skene, Celtic
Scotland, Edinburgh, 1876, j, 369, note 42).
69
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
unsatisfactory expedition against the Strathclyde Britons, the
Scots [under Kenneth, son of Malcolm] are recorded in the
Pictish Chronicle to have laid waste Saxonia or the Northern
part of Northumbria as far as Stanmore, Cleveland, and the
pools of Deira, that is the part of Northumbria which had
been placed as a separate earldom under Eadulf."
But the actual events to which HC makes reference seem
to have taken place in the time of the succeeding Malcolm.
Again I would quote from Mr. Skene (pp. 384 f.): " Malcolm
appears to have inaugurated the commencement of his reign
by the usual attempt on the part of the more powerful kings
of this race to wrest Bernicia from the kings of England, but
which resulted in defeat and a great slaughter of his people.
The Ulster Annals tell us that in the year 1006 a great battle
was fought between the men of Alban and Saxonia, in which
the men of Alban were overcome, and a great slaughter made
of their nobles; and Simeon of Durham furnishes us with
other details. He says that '(uring the reign of Ethelred,
king of the English, Malcolm, king of the Scots, the son of
King Kyned, collected together the entire military force of
Scotland, and having devastated the province of the Northumbrians
with fire and sword, he laid siege to Durham. At
this time Bishop Aldun had the government there, for WalJeof,
who was the earl of the Northumbrians, had shut himself up
in Bamborough. He was exceedingly aged, and in consequence
could not undertake any active measure against the enemy.
Bishop Aldun had given his daughter Ecgfrida in marriage
to his son, a youth of great energy and well skilled in military
affairs. Now when this young man perceived that the land
was devastated by the enemy, and that Durham was in a state
of blockade and siege, he collected together into one body a
considerable number of the men of Northumbria and York, and
cut to pieces nearly the entire multitude of the Scots; the king
himself and a few others escaping with difficulty."'
This account is drawn from a curious tract ascribed without
70
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
warrant to Simeon of Durham, but printed with his works.1
It is, says the editor, "an authentic though fragmentary record
of the wild and miserable age of Ethelred, concerning which
we possess so little direct testimony .... The date of writing
seems to have been about 1090." The narrative that it contains
of Uchtred's later career reads like the Latinisation of
an English story, and has perhaps more value as romance
than history. One feature, however, of special interest to
students of HO, I would here emphasize, namely that the
hero's chief enemy, by whose connivance he was slain, was
called Thorbrand, and that we remember was the name of the
earl of Northumberland who usurped the land after Hatheolf's
murder. Had the single fragment of HC been two lines
shorter than it is, we should not have had this name preserved.
Had we all of HC we might be able to detect other features
in which the author distorted the original story of Horn in
order to fit into it other events; for the MS. breaks off just
when the hero is returning to Northumberland to win back his
father's possessions and avenge him on Thorbrand. Acc:,rding
to the tract, Aldred, son of Uchtred, who succeeded Eadulf,
killed Thorbrand, who was responsible, we have seen, for
his father's death, and the blood feud continued through
generations.
His information regarding these incursions into Northumberland
the author of HC may have derived wholly from
oral tradition; but I think it was not so. So great is the
1De Obsessione Dunelmi (Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. Thomas
Arnold, Rolls Series, London, 1882, I, 215 ff. The tract by mistake dates
the siege at 869 instead of 1006, when it appears actually to have occurred;
cf. Freeman, Norman Conquest, I, 329 note; Skene, I, 385; edition, p. 215.
Uchtred was really slain in 1016 when defending his earldom against Cnut;
but the tract has it otherwise. In revenge for a previous injury, Thorbrand
suborned men to slay Uchtred when he was going to a conference with Cnut:
"Die statuto, cum intrasset ad regem de pace locuturus, per insidias cujusdam
potentio, nomine Turebrant cognomento Hold, milites regis, qui post
velum extensum per transversum domus absconditi fuerant, subito prosilientes
loricati in Wiheal comitem cum suis XL. viris principalibus qui
secum intraverant obtruncaverunt " (p. 218).
71
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
resemblance in general phraseology and spirit to certain Anglo-
Saxon poems recording conflicts of Englishmen with Danes
and Irish in the same era that it seems to me likely that the
events of which we have an echo in HO were at one time
similarly recorded. I would call particular attention to the
poem called the Battle of Maldon, or Byrhtnoth's Death,' which
commemorates a hard struggle between English and Danes in
981, during the reign of the same Ethelred at whose court
Gunnlaug sojourned and in whose time, as we have seen,
Malcolm invaded Northumbria. We are indeed fortunate to
have this poem. The Latin tract perpetuating an English
account of the Scotch invasion echoed in HC is preserved
in a unique manuscript; but no single manuscript of the
Battle of Maldon is now extant. There did exist one in 1726,
and then the antiquarian Hearne transcribed and published
it. Five years after, however, this unique document was
destroyed in the great Cottonian fire.
The vigorous lines of HC descriptive of the leader's call to
struggle against the invaders (157 ff.) certainly resemble the
opening of the A.-S. poem in general features, as any one
will observe who will bring the two passages into comparison;
and elsewhere similar situations are described.2 Byrhtnoth's
sturdy reply to the foreigners' demand for tribute (45 ff.) is
filled with the spirit that echoes in the words of HC:
Better manly to be slayn,
fan long to live in sorwe & pain,
O3ain outlondis kede. (166 fE.)
The exultation of the English poet over the defeat of the
men of Ireland is likewise conceived in the spirit of that
excellent battle-song in the Chronicle commemorating the
Battle of Brunanburh (A. D. 937).3 Compare, for example,
the following lines:
Grein-Wiilker, Bibl. d. ags. Poesie, I, 358 if.; Bright's A.-S. Reader,
pp. 149 ff.
'Cf. HC 61ff. and Maldon 122ff.; HC 73ff. and M 103ff.; HC 247 ff.
and M 191 ff., 202 ff.
3 Grein-Wuilker, I, 374 ff.; Bright's A.-S. Reader, pp. 146 if.
72
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
bo king Malkan wan Pe priis,
Oway brou3t he no mo ywis,
Of his men hot Pritten,
Pat wounded were in bak & side;
]ai flei3e & durst nou3t abide,
Daaet, who hem bi mene I
To Yrlond he com o3ain,
& left her fair folk al slain
Lieand on he grene.
]arf hem noiJar ni3t no day
Make her ros hai wan Je pray,
Bot slowe be king, y wene.
(229 ff.)
Swylce 'Ser eac se froda mid fleame com
on his c-ye norS, Constantinus,
har hilderinc hrSman ne 1orfte
meca gemanan; he wses his maga sceard,
freonda gefylled on folcstede,
beslaegen aet ssecce, and his sunu forlet
on welst6we wundum forgrunden
geongne set gfue. Gylpan ne Sorfte
gewiton him ha Nor'Smenn nsegledcearrum,
dreorig daro'a laf, on Dinges mere
ofer deop water Dyflin secan,
And eft Iraland, sewiscmode.
(37-56.)
The famous struggle of Brunanburh, indeed, presents a
situation very like that in HC: the Scots and Irish allied
against the English of Northumbria, a long and bloody fight
in which all but a very few of the invaders were slain, their
melancholy return journey through the west country and on by
ship to Dublin.' The Anlaf (Olaf) referred to in the A.-S.
poem, who was the leader of this body of Irish auxiliaries
of the Scotch king Constantinus, was a son of the Norwegian
Gudred who in HR is represented as king of Dublin in
Horn's time.2 HC gives the names of the two Irish chieftains
who assisted Malcolm, namely Ferwele and Winwald ;
but I have found these nowhere else mentioned. Unfortunately,
documents recording the events of this troublesome
period are few and far between. Later tradition confused
different invasions, and picturesque features were transferred
from one to another. The narrative in HC is a blending
of similar traditions from the period of Northumbrian invasion
'According to Florence of Worcester (ad an. 937) the battle of Brunanburh
lasted all day; the same statement is made in HC, 73 ff. A long
and circumstantial account of this battle is given in the 0. N. Egils saga,
ed. F. J6nsson, 1886-88, pp. 158 fi. See Skene's Celtic Scotland, I, 350 if.:
Two Saxon Chrons., ed. Earle and Plummer, II, 139 if.
2Skene, 1. c., I, 357.
3 Possibly Fergal and Fingal.
73
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It is noteworthy, moreover,
that it has mythic decoration. Sixty thousand, we are
told, fell in one battle, but ever the leader of the English
host was unconquerable.
When king Haleolf on fot stode,
be Yrise folk about him 3ode,
As houndes do to bare;
Whom he hit opon he hode,
Were he neuer kni3t so gode,
He 3aue a dint wel fare;
He brou3t in a litel stounde
Wele fif kousende to grounde
Wit his grimly gare
he Irise ost tok hem to red,
To ston kat douhti kni3t to ded,
hai durst nei3e him na mare.
Gret diol it was to se
Of hende Haheolf hat was so fre,
Stones to him hai cast;
hai brak him boke legge & kne,
Gret diol it was to se,
He kneled atte last.
King Malcan wi] wrethe out stert
& smot king Haleolf to he hert;
He held his wepen so fast,
hat king Malcan smot his arm atvo,
Er he mi3t gete his swerd him fro,
For nede his hert to biast.
(205 ff.)
This certainly reminds us of the fight between I?rmunrek
and the sons of Guthrun and Jonakr, as recorded in the Old
Norse Ham]ismdl (st. 25) and the Volsungasaga (ch. 42). The
warriors held out persistently against superior numbers, for
no weapon harmed them, and their opponents marvelled.
Finally, their enemies were instructed (in the Volsungasaga,
by Odin) to cast stones at them, and they thus lost their
lives. Whether this embellishment was derived from an
earlier poem on Northumbrian history to which the author
of HC had access, or was simply introduced by him from
oral tradition, we cannot say. Elsewhere, it may be noted,
he shows himself' familiar with Germanic tradition. He
mentions a sword, "Bitterfer," "the make of Miming and
Weland it wrought" (400 ff.).
The first 250 lines, or thereabouts, of HC are clearly,
then, more or less trustworthy records of the struggles of
the English against Danes, Scotch and Irish in Northumberland.
They embody genuine tradition. But-and this is
important to remember-there is not the slightest evidence
that they were ever connected with the story of Horn before
74
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
the composition of HC. They were certainly not in the
primitive poem on which KH and HR depend. It is not
an independent stream of traditions concerning Horn that
is here preserved, as many even now-a-days would have us
believe.' We are now dealing with a late and unwarranted
combination of diverse traditions. HC has practically no
value in helping to establish the original form of the story
of Horn.
The introduction is obviously the most interesting and
significant part of the romance. As for the rest, it is but
a distorted version of the story as familiar to us in HR.
The poem is a product of a late period when old themes
were being boldly remodelled to satisfy depraved tastes, when
in the composition of romances little respect was paid to the
authenticity of tradition, when art was yielding to artifice
and originality to convention. The features in which the
central story of HC varies from that in HR are not, it is
evident, based on ancient and genuine traditions concerning
the hero, but rather the deliberate alterations of a redactor
who was effecting new combinations such as were then in
vogue. Having completely transformed the introduction,
he was led, nay forced, to shift the scene of action of the
ensuing events. When the life of Horn, now a prince of
Northumberland, is imperilled after the death of his father,
he flees with his guardian2 to the court of King Houlac in
1 Notably Stimming (Engl. St., I, 354 fl.), Caro (Engl. St., xrI, 351 ff.),
Hartenstein (pp. 58, 100, 105, 121), McKnight (ed., p. xv), and Hall (ed.,
p. liv). On the contrary, Wissmann (Untersuchungen, pp. 103-104) and
Ward (p. 459) recognized their different character, though without being
able to show the source.
2 By name Arlaund, Herlaund (0. N. Erlendr)-a name inherited from
HR, though the rl6e is changed. In HR he is Hunlaf's seneschal to
whose care Horn and his companions are confided. In HC, the introduction
being different, he is represented as their guide to Houlac's
court. As to Houlac, it should be noted that this is the same name as
Havelok, a form of Hunlaf, Olaf. Dr. Ward (pp. 463-64) very plausibly
connects Hunlaf of Britain and Houlac, who dwelt "fer sou]e in England,"
75
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
the south. There he is heartily welcomed and grows up
in honor, evincing such unusual powers that even at the age
of fifteen he has achieved fame. Two of his followers go
to France, two others to Brittany. He himself, when banished
from the king's court, sets out on horseback across country
to Wales and enters the service of King Elidan at Snowdon.
On his behalf, to right certain definite wrongs, he journeys
to Ireland, landing it may be said at a haven called Yolkil
(Youghal?). The rival suitor Modun (Moging, Mogeoun)
is now represented as an earl of Cornwall. It is naturally
to Northumberland that the hero returns to recover the lands
which at Hatheolf's death had been usurped by Thorbrand.
It were distracting without advantage to enumerate the
many minor features in which HC varies from KH and HR.
The author clearly had a wide acquaintance with medieval
romance of a late sort, and did not hesitate to furbish the old
story of Horn to make it match others then enjoying popularity.
He makes mention of Sir Tristram, and plainly
altered features of the earlier narrative to accentuate the
already striking resemblance between the two lovers. The
conventionality of his poem in both phraseology and incident,
its inconsistencies and vagaries, its tiresome " rhyme doggerel,"
and many meaningless lines, are faults so conspicuous that
Chaucer's ridicule, we can but admit, was richly deserved.1
He mentions Horn Child as one of the " romances of pris"
which Sir Thopas so far surpassed in worth. Unfortunately,
many writers in modern times, ignorant of the early romances
with Olaf Tryggvason, who harried the Sudreys, Cumberland and Wales.
The name Erlendr frequently occurs in the saga of Olaf (trans. Sephton,
1895). Indeed, the story of Olafs boyhood, reminds us of Horn's as well
as Havelok's (cf. Ward, pp. 436 ff.).
1 On the style of HC, see K6lbing, Amis and Amiloun, p. Ixiv; Tristan Sage,
p. xxxi f.; Caro, Eng. St., xii (1889), 347 ff; Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt,
viii, 197. As Caro, the editor, says (1. c., p. 350): "wir finden in unserer
romanze nicht nur gemeinplitze, sondern anch directe wiederholungen aus
anderen gedichten, oder, wenn man nicht so weit gehen will, wenigstens
sehr wunderbare anklinge an andere romanzen."
76
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
of manifest power and charm, have thoughtlessly or disingenuously
declared that the poet sneered at all the productions
of minstrelsy, and used this as an excuse for pharisaically
passing by on the other side. The Geste of King Horn, we
may feel confident, had Chaucer but known it, would have
received his praise. Simple, direct, graphic, vigorous, it has
characteristics of Old Norse saga, and establishes in the minds of
those who properly regard it an ineffaceable impression which
they gladly retain; while on the contrary Horn Child leaves
the reader dissatisfied and scornful because of the mistakes in
literary judgment on the part of the author.
X.
There is one interesting innovation in HC which should
here be mentioned because it serves to differentiate this version
and those depending on it from the earlier ones. In KH and
HR, we remember, Rimenhild gives Horn a ring as a remembrance,
to spur him to high accomplishment in battle. In HC
the ring thus bestowed by the heroine is of a magic character;
it will change color if she is untrue to Horn, simply wan if
her thought is changed, but red if she yields to solicitation.
If, on the other hand, the hero is unfaithful to his plighted
troth, Rimenhild will recognize it by seeing his shadow in a
spring near her arbor. When Horn is in Ireland, his ring
changes color and he returns home in haste.
This feature of the discoloration of the ring appears also
in the several (nine or ten) Scottish ballads of Hind Horn,
and is sufficient to establish their close kinship with the late
romance. They agree with HO also in another noteworthy
feature, that of the proposed elopement of the bride; and they
have certain striking verbal resemblances in common.' Inas-
1 For these see Child, Ballads, i, 192; cf. Hartenstein, pp. 87-93, 122 ff.
The only indication of locality in the ballads is Scotland (A, H); near
Edinburgh (D); in Newport town (F). If any weight is to be attached
to this localization, it is in favor of a connection with HC.
77
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
much, however, as they deal only with the episode of Horn's
return to the king's court and reunion with his lady, and are
preserved only in very modern records of oral tradition, it
has been found difficult to determine their exact relationship
to HC. Professor Child's judicious words it is well to recall:
" The likeness evinces a closer affinity of the oral traditions
with the later English or the French, but no filiation.
And were filiation to be accepted, there would remain the
question of priority. It is often assumed, without a misgiving,
that oral tradition must needs be younger than anything
that was committed to writing some centuries ago; but this
requires in each case to be made out; there is certainly no
antecedent probability of that kind." The wisdom of these
words all will recognize. But Professor Child wrote when the
origin and development of the Horn saga seemed to be a
hopeless muddle. The situation has meanwhile become clearer.
No good reason at present requires us to postulate the existence
of still another English version of the story in which
earlier than in HC were introduced the features in which it
and the ballads agree. Now that we know better the method
of composition of that romance and are aware that these
features are innovations of the author, we realize that the
ballads must be based more or less directly upon his account.
That we cannot establish more accurately their pedigree, need
not disturb us, for such "waifs of popular tradition" (to use
Professor Child's happy phrase) have, like Topsy, simply
"growed" without thought of whence they came. Most of
them were recovered from the vicissitudes of oral wandering
within the nineteenth century. Through them the story has
been perpetuated among the people of England for nearly
a thousand years, and possibly still remains popular in
remote parts. Such links as these bind the present to the
past.
78
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD.
XI.
Meanwhile in France the tale of Horn and Rimenhild had
been otherwise transformed. Both hero and heroine across
the channel completely lost their identity and were presented
to continental readers with new names and new costumes, in
unlike association. King Ponthus and the Fair Sidone are
characters with whom it does not take us long to become
acquainted. The prose romance of their career was written,
it appears, about 1387 by the French knight Geoffrey de
la Tour Landry 1 and was intended to exalt his distinguished
family, somewhat as the romance of Melusine was written to
glorify the family of Lusignan. Finding the story of Horn
ready at hand, the chivalrous author simply rehandled it to
suit his private purpose. Dr. Mather has pointed out 2 that
he " has used every essential element of the plot of HR, but
has filled in the skeleton freely by invention, amplification,
and occasional borrowings." Into details regarding these
changes I need not here enter. Suffice it to remark that the
topography has once more undergone change. The story is
now definitely localized in Galicia and England. Scenes are
enacted in places in France with which La Tour Landry and
his family were familiar. The characters include many bearing
the names of the local nobility. It is most important,
however, to note that a totally different spirit animated this
version of the Horn story than any of its predecessors. The
interest of the book consists chiefly in its portrayal of an ideal
knight of later chivalrous times. Ponthus is essentially a book
of courtesy, fitted for the instruction of noble youth. As a
story it drags; its style has little distinction; its composition
1See G. Paris, Rom., xxvi, 468-70. From the hero of the romance,
according to M. Paris, Ponthus de la Tour Landry, grandson of the author,
got his name.
2 King Ponthus and the Fair Sidone (Pubs. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of America,
xiI.) p. xvii; cf. Hartenstein, pp. 140 ff.
79
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
faulty; but its inspiration was worthy and its influence
widespread.
The romance of Ponthus was popular in France. It was
repeatedly copied and printed. It was reproduced in foreign
tongues. Evidently it appealed first of all to those in high
station. About the middle of the fifteenth century, a daughter
of James I of Scotland, the wife of the Archduke Sigismund
of Austria, translated it into German. But its popularity
speedily became great also among the masses, and in chap-book
form it had a long life both at home and abroad. It appeared
in Low German and Dutch in the seventeenth century. As
early as the beginning of the fifteenth it was turned into English.
Wynkyn de Worde printed it in 1511. This translation
is naturally to us of greater interest than the rest. It is,
we are told, an improvement on the original. In witness,
observe Dr. Mather's appreciation, (p. xlviii): "From the
point of view of style, faible ouvrage the French Ponthus certainly
is. Better things may be said of the English translation.
It will I believe be difficult to find any English prose
of the first-half of the fifteenth century on the whole so fluent
and readable. Briskly and easily the story chatters along,
when most of the prose of the time lumbers in hopeless monotony.
Style, in the sense in which Malory, Pecock, or a
modern has style, the story has not. It is more like good
unaffected talk than anything else,-no slight merit at the
time, and a merit almost wholly the translator's. Just as the
homespun virtues, and equally clear-cut vices of the book
cannot compete in interest with the subtle union of sensuality
and religious mysticism that in Malory exercises a somewhat
morbid fascination, so the clearness and brightness of its
English, excellent for its subject, may appear insignificant,
almost inaudible, when Malory resounds in full volume; yet
there is room for both, and none of the early English prose
romances is likely to suffer less by the contrast."
80
FILIATION OF VERSIONS OF THE STORY * Old Norse Saga of Horn.
(Possibly actual events of the 10th century.)
*Anglo-Saxon Version.
(Perhaps in alliterative metre.)
* West-Germanic Story~ (?~)*~A~n~ ~I n e n. s~~*Anglo-NormVaenr sion.
A|l -i InVri(Metrical romance, or lay.)
Anglo-Saxon Version
(Not preserved).
Anglo-Norman Chansons de Geste.
Aalof - Horn et Rimenhild (12th century). (Not preserved). *French Redaction(?)
French Prose Romance
(Ponthus et Sidoine (ca. 1387). I
German Prose
Pontus (ca. 1450).
Icelandic Rimur
(16th century)
English Prose Ponthus (15th century).
WTTTLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.
XII.
If the results of this investigation, as shown in the accompanying
table of filiation of the different versions, are, as I
hope, correct, it is evident that we have three French redactions
of the story of HIorn written during the twelfth and
fourteenth centuries, dependent each on its predecessor, from
which were derived three corresponding English versions
independent of one another. In each language the three
redactions differ greatly in form as well as in spirit, the first
in simple metre, the second more complicated, the third prose.
Each version is freer than the last in the treatment of the
material. New elements are added at every stage; new incidents
are regularly substituted for old; new names appear as
the centuries pass. The motive of the composition ever
changes. Starting as a simple record of heroic tradition,
assuming soon the sophistications of romance, it becomes
finally a means of glorifying a single family, "a noble storye,
whereof a man may lerne mony goode ensamples, and yonge
men may here the good dedes of aunciente people that dide
much goode and worschip in their days." The hero in the
first English version was a Norseman, in the second an
Englishman, in the third a Frenchman. Steadily the influence
of continental conceptions increases. Steadily the traces
of its Northern origin disappear. Journeys by land replace
those by sea. The action shifts more and more from the outlying
islands to the mainland of Europe and the East. Viking
warriors become crusading knights. Each redaction reflects
the manners and sentiments of the age when it was fashioned.
The last version is a far fetch from the first.
Strangely enough, it is in this last form that it returns to
its early home. In the tenth century Horn was, it seems
probable, a hero familiar to the Norse. In the sixteenth,
under the name of Pontus, he revisited his native land: on the
basis of the German romance, Icelandic rimur were then written
commemorating his deeds.
82
THE STORY OF HORN AND RIMENHILD. 83
Guingamor and other heroes of Celtic fable went to dwell
in the otherworld unmindful of their past and after three
hundred years journeyed home to find themselves forgotten
there. Twice that number of years elapsed from the departure
of the hero Horn from Scandinavia to an otherworld of fiction
and his final return to the North. Meanwhile, "old times
had changed, old manners gone." No one recognized the
richly-clad stranger even where he was born. The Icelanders
marvelled without understanding when they heard of his
career.
Few stories illustrate better the extraordinary transmutations
that popular tradition is empowered to undergo. Saga
lives long by repeatedly shifting its shape.
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD.

Footnotes:

1 MS. Laud 595 in the Bodleian, fol. I ff.; see Warton-Hazlitt, History of English Poetry, 1871, II, 122-23.
2 Die AngeblicheO riginalitiit des friihmittelenglischen "King Horn " (Festgabe fir Wendelin Foerster, Halle, 1902, pp. 297-323).
3 Studien zur Hornsage (Kieler St. zur engl. Phil., Heft 4), Heidelberg, 1902, pp. 1-152.
4. As to the late English romance Horn Child, see below, Section VIII.
5. For enumeration of the editions, etc., see Hartenstein, pp. 3 ff. Quotations are here made from Hall's edition, Oxford, 1901. Though otherwise admirable, this edition contains a very inadequate and confused chapter on "The Story " (pp. li-lvi).

6. Ed. Fr. Michel, Bannatyne Club, Paris, 1845; ed. Brede and Stengel (Ausgaben u. Abhandlungen, viii), Marburg, 1883. Quotations are here made from the Cambridge MS. as printed by Brede and Stengel. 

7. By a strange blunder, which many (even some of the latest, e. g., Hall,
p. liv, McKnight, pp. viii, xii, Billings, Guide, p. 5) of those who have
written about the English poems have unhappily made, this poem has
been thought younger than KH, and much labor has been wasted trying
to show either that it was, or that it was not, based on the latter. As a
matter of fact, while there has been no final determination of the exact date
of HR, all romance scholars are now agreed that it antedates the oldest
English version. For example, Gaston Paris (Manuel, 2nd ed., p. 248)
puts it about 1170; Siderhjelm (Rom., xv, 593, n. 2; 594) "au milieu ou
vers la fin du xiie sikcle;" Suchier (Gesch. d. franz. Litt., 1900, p. 109) in
the reign of Stephen (1135-1154); Gr6ber, however, (Grundriss der rorn. Phil.,
II, 573) thinks this too early a date. For a discussion of the question, see
Hartenstein, pp. 19 if., who concludes: " Es ergiebt sich aus dem Vorherstehenden
auf Grund sprachlicher (Suchier, Soderhjelm) wie rhythmischer
(Vising, Gnerlich) Merkmale als Entstehungszeit des uns erhaltenen RH etwa die Mitte des 12. Jh."

8. Gesch. der engl. Litt., ed. Brandl, Strassburg, 1899, I, 177 (trans. Kennedy, p. 150).
9. Haigh (The A.-S. Sagas, London, 1861, p. 63) identified the two names. Bishop Percy thought Sudene was Sweden (Reliques, ed. Schroer, Berlin, 1893, I, 877). Jacob Grimm translated it Siidland (Museumf. altd. Lit. u. Kunst., Ii, 1811, p. 284), but afterwards remarked: "Will man unter Sudenne etwa Bretagne, unter Estnesse England, unter Westnesse Irland verstehen,
so habe ich nichts dagegen, obwohl z. B. in Yorkshire allein schon wieder zwei Gegenden Namens Estnesse und Westnesse liegen .... jene landernamen machen keine Schwierigkeit, dasz das gedicht nicht z. B. an lombardischer kiiste gespielt haben k6nnte " (pp. 311-12).
10. Adding: "da das Land Deutschland nicht fern zu denken ist" (Gesch.
der franz. Litt., 1900, p. 111), this argument being based on a consideration
of the proper names of persons in ER, which, however, ought not to have
any weight in deciding the matter; see below, Section II.
11. AltenglischeS prachprobenB, erlin, 1867, p. 208.
12.  Grundriss d. Gesch. d. engl. Litt., Miinster, 1893, p. 98.
13. Geech. d. engl. Litt., 1896, p. 97.
14. Foerster-Festgabe, pp. 318-19. 
15. Studien, p. 131.
16. Index of edition, p. 454. The identification was accepted by Paulin Paris (Hist. Litt., xxII, 566).
17. Catalogue of Romances, I (1883), 450 ff.
18. Romania, xvI, 591-92.
19. Cf. Mather, King Pontus and the Fair Sidone (Pubs. Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer., xii), p. xvii.
20.  Edition, E. E. T. S, p. xix. 
21. Edition, p. lvi.
22. Guide to the Middle Eng. Met. Roms. (Yale Studies in English, Ix), New
York, 1901, p. 4: " The localities of the poem cannot be identified."
23. See particularly Brugger, Ueber die Bedeutung von Bretagne, Breton in
mittelalterlichenT exten (Zs. f. franz. Sp. u. Litt., xx, 1898, pp. 79-162); cf.
F. Lot, Romania, xxvIII, 1 if.
24. Ed. Earle and Plummer, Oxford, 1892, r, 3; cf. Britannia beet igland, in
the Alfredian version of Orosius (ed. Bosworth, 1859).
25. Roman de Brut, ed. Le Roux de Lincy, 11. 1207 if.
26. Lestorie des Engles, ed. Duffus-Hardy and Martin, Rolls Series, 1888-89, 11. 31 ff.; cf. Langtoft's Chronicle, ed. Wright, Rolls Series, 1866, I, 2.
27. Ed. Madden, Sir Gawayne, 11. 16 ff.; cf. Percy Folio Ms., III, 277.
28.  Ed. Madden, pp. 224 if., st. 1; Percy Folio Ms., ii, 58.