ROMANCES. 365 



to have boon composed in Romance to celebrate the victory of Clotaire II. 

 over the Saxons. Finally, he mentions a very beautiful Teutonic song about 

 the battle which Louis III., son of Louis the Stammerer, fought against the 

 Normans at Saucourt in 881. But M. Gautier is obliged to confess that these 

 Teutonic cantilenae, which were believed to be the germ of the chnmom de geste 

 of the twelfth century, are no longer in existence, confining himself to the 

 supposition that they did at one time exist, because Eginhard relates in his 

 Chronicles that Charlemagne gave strict orders that the old songs (antiquissima 

 i-iirmina), in which were celebrated the mighty deeds and wars of ancient 

 times, should be collected and transcribed. 



The existence of these old popular songs is beyond all question, but those 

 which Charlemagne had collected were only preserved in the memory of the 

 inhabitants of Gaul by being translated into the rustic or Romance tongue. 

 Thus the Anglo-Norman poet, Robert Wace, in his " Roman du Rou," recalls 

 in the following lines the primitive chansons de geste which were sung, pre- 

 viously to the battle of Hastings, in the presence of the army of William the 

 Conqueror : 



" Taillefer qui mult Men cantoit 

 Sur un cheval qui tost aloit 

 Devant eus s'en alloit cantant 

 De Callemaine et de Reliant 

 Et d'Olivier et des vassaux 

 Qui morurent k Rainschevaux." 



Here was the veritable origin of the " Chanson de Roland," which is rightly 

 regarded as the oldest of the chamom de geste which were composed into 

 Romance. That it is formed of an aggregation of various popular songs which 

 had already been romanced that is to say, written in the vulgar or Romance 

 tongue is very probable ; but it is impossible to believe that the chansons de 

 r/cstc relating to the reign of Charlemagne and his successors, excepting, 

 perhaps, the famous "Garin le Loherain," were composed by French jugglers 

 after Teutonic cantilena;. It was undoubtedly the popular songs in the 

 Romance language which were the preludes of the chansons de geste and the 

 great romances cf chivalry. But, as M. Paulin Paris has proved to demonstra- 

 tion, these popular songs had first given birth to histories and chronicles 

 written in Latin, which were the principal source of the rhymed romances. 



It may be affirmed, for instance, that the Latin Chronicle of Nennius, the 



