Here life was harder, poorer, more
barbaric; the cultured mind suffered more from its brutal surroundings
than it did in the favoured south. It was here that the great legends of
the Middle Ages, so clearly expressive of the yearning of the period,
were first collected. The early Middle Ages had produced epic poems,
treating scriptural subjects (such as the Harmony of the Gospels of the
monk Otfrit, written in the ninth century), and celebrating the exploits
of popular heroes, as, for instance, the German Song of Hildebrand, and
the French "Chansons de Geste," which contain episodes from the lives of
Charlemagne and his nephew Roland. The true epic, arising from the rich
and poetical Celtic tradition, came into existence in the eleventh
century in the North of France and immediately burst into extraordinary
luxuriance. The legends of the heroes of the dreamy Celtic race--King
Arthur and his knights, Merlin the magician, the knights of the Holy
Grail--travelling across France, became the common property of the
civilised European nations, and filled all hearts with longing and
fantastic dreams.
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