Excerpt from Popular Romances of the Middle Ages
The Genius of a great poet has in our own time shed a new lustre on the story of Arthur; but with this exception the romances which delighted Englishmen of the Middle Ages are known to their descendants, generally, little more than in name. Yet these stories must possess an interest for all who welcome any evidence which throws light on the growth of the human mind, if only from the mere fact that for generations these tales carried with them an irresistible charm; but even to this day the heroes whose names they bear still exercise over us in some faint measure the power of old associations. The wisdom of Merlin, the bravery of Bevis and Guy, have almost passed into proverbs: and to not a few, probably, the name of Olger will bring up the image of the mighty Dane, wrapped in the charmed slumber in which he lifts his mace once only in seven years. But a more potent spell is linked with the thought of Roland the brave and true, the peerless Paladin who fell on Roncesvalles.
If the rudest traditions of savage tribes have acquired a new value and a new interest as supplying materials for the history of human culture, the inference is justified that from the traditions in which our forefathers took delight we also may reap no scanty harvest of pleasure and instruction.
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