THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 195 



Caesar von Heisterbach has the same tale in 

 his collection, but repeats it with some variations. 

 In his pages the pleasant land of Avalon, with its 

 peaceful palace, becomes a dark abode of fire, 

 answering more nearly to the actual phenomena 

 of the mountain. Arthur hence issues a dread 

 summons to the owner of the palfrey, who in this 

 tale is a Canon of Palermo, bidding him appear in 

 that infernal region within a fortnight. The church- 

 man obeys by dying at the time appointed. 1 The 

 terror which enters into this form of the story is 

 even heightened by Stephen of Bourbon when he 

 comes to repeat it. 2 On the other hand the easy, 

 pleasant, semi-pagan tone observed in Gervase of 

 Tilbury lives again in the French romance of 

 Florian and Floret e. 5 Here we see the kingdom 

 within Etna before Arthur came thither, and find 

 it a land of faery, where the King's sister Morgana 

 holds her flowery court. The Fata Morgana, as 

 she is called, is still remembered on these southern 

 coasts. When the mirage appears in the Straits of 

 Messina, and houses and castles are seen hanging 

 in thin air, the people call them by the name of that 

 mysterious princess. They think that the sides of 

 Etna have become transparent, and that what they 



1 Illustrium Miraculorum, xii. 12. The next tale, in chap, xiii., 

 relates how some men, wandering by chance on Etna, heard a voice 

 cry from under the hill * Prepare the fires.' This was heard by them a 

 second time, and then the cry was ' Prepare a great fire,' upon which 

 other voices asked for whom this should be done, and the answer came 

 back that it was for the Duke of Thuringia, a friend and trusty servant 

 of these lower powers. This the hearers made faith of in a writing 

 given to the Emperor Frederick, and it presently appeared that Bertolph 

 of Thuringia, a noted tyrant, heretic and persecutor of the Church, had 

 died at the very day and hour when these voices were heard on Etna. 



2 See Anecdotes Historiques, by Lecoy de la Marche, Paris, 1877, 

 p. 32. 



3 This romance was published by the Eoxburghe Club, London, 

 1873. 



