With sarzyns nold they be cawght;
Of Tristrem and of Ysoude the swete,
How they with love first gan mete;

"Stories of diuerce thynggis,
Of pryncis, prelatis, and of kynggis;
Many songgis of diuers ryme,
As english, frensh, and latyne."
_Curser Mundi_.


PREFACE.




The object of this work is to familiarize young students with the legends
which form the staple of mediaeval literature.

While they may owe more than is apparent at first sight to the classical
writings of the palmy days of Greece and Rome, these legends are very
characteristic of the people who told them, and they are the best exponents
of the customs, manners, and beliefs of the time to which they belong. They
have been repeated in poetry and prose with endless variations, and some of
our greatest modern writers have deemed them worthy of a new dress, as is
seen in Tennyson's "Idyls of the King," Goethe's "Reineke Fuchs," Tegnér's
"Frithiof Saga," Wieland's "Oberon," Morris's "Story of Sigurd," and many
shorter works by these and less noted writers.

These mediaeval legends form a sort of literary quarry, from which,