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Its treatment insistently resembles that of Renaud. Their 
inception must be related in some way. One perhaps was known 
to the composer of the other, and Germine presumably was 
the first. 
Both themes are epic: their birth goes back to ancient legends 
and traditions. In Renaud, a knight comes back home with a 
wound, to die on the threshold before his wife has seen him; in 
Germine, he is recognized at last and the years of waiting and 
trial are over. There ends the resemblance of the story. But 
the treatment is the same. The poet dramatizes his story, 
unfolds it in a few strokes and swiftly proceeds to the end, one 
fatal, the other blissful. Here we find in brief form and in 
simple though transcendant melodies, two of the finest creations 
of the French genius, now weather-beaten and broken with age, 
but still magnificent in their decay. They resemble cathedrals 
gnawed by the winds and the rains; in the shadow of these 
ancient temples they were born in the years long since forgotten. 
The ‘Return of the Crusader” became a literary theme at 
the time of the Crusades, the last of which took place in the 
thirteenth century. Very early it was sundered into two folk- 
songs which have come down to us: La Porcheronne (The 
Swineherd) and Germine. 
Their story is fundamentally the same, but the form is 
different. “The Swineherd” originated in southern France, 
whereas Germine is from north of the Loire. In their long inde- 
pendent careers they travelled widely, sometimes side by side, 
often sojourning under the same roof. 
Germine seems better known in French Canada than in 
France, whereas in France “The Swineherd” is more familiar. 
Seventeen versions of Germine were recently recorded along the 
St. Lawrence and in Acadia. “The Swineherd” has hardly 
survived in Canada, where the writer recovered only two 
fragments, one in Temiscouata and the other in Gaspe. The 
Crusader, in Canada, bears the name of “The Arabian” 
( I’Arabe ), which comes from his peregrinations in Moslem 
countries. 
The contrast between the two is marked. In Germine, the 
young wife awaits her long-absent husband in her castle. Sur- 
rounded by her maids, she refuses to open the door, even to 
