THE ANGLO-NORMAN POETS AND CHRONICLERS.--Norman literature had already
made itself a name before William conquered England. Short jingling tales
in verse, in ballad style, were popular under the name of _fabliaux_, and
fuller epics, tender, fanciful, and spirited, called Romans, or Romaunts,
were sung to the lute, in courts and camps. Of these latter, Alexander the
Great, Charlemagne, and Roland were the principal heroes.

Strange as it may seem, this _langue d'oil_, in which they were composed,
made more rapid progress in its poetical literature, in the period
immediately after the conquest, in England than at home: it flourished by
the transplantation. Its advent was with an act of heroism. Taillefer, the
standard-bearer of William at Seulac, marched in advance of the army,
struck the first blow, and met his death while chanting the song of
Roland:

Of Charlemagne and Roland,
Of Oliver and his vassals,
Who died at Roncesvalles.

De Karlemaine e de Reliant,
Et d'Olivier et des vassals,
Ki moururent en Renchevals.

Each stanza ended with the war-shout _Aoi_! and was responded to by the
cry of the Normans, _Diex aide, God to aid_. And this battle-song was the
bold manifesto of Norman poetry invading England. It found an echo
wherever William triumphed on English soil, and played an important part
in the formation of the English language and English literature. New
scenes and new victories created new inspiration in the poets; monarchs
like Henry I., called from his scholarship _Beauclerc_, practised and