have an interesting significance, as, for instance, the beginning 
of a Jersey version recorded, on Chaleur bay: “Good news, 0 my 
King Louis: Your wife has given birth to a son.” Renaud had 
thus changed to Louis, to suit other times, already remote. 
Scholars discovered this song in Europe a decade or two 
before 1 850. De la Villemarque published a Breton fragment 
in his Barzaz Breiz in 1839. Gerard de Nerval twice inserted it 
in his books. Since then it has been the object of numerous 
studies; Ampere, Rolland, Blade, and other French traditionists 
collected many versions, and swelled its bibliography. Writers 
meanwhile studied its roots in Scandinavia, and followed its 
development through France, Spain, and Italy. 
Doncieux recently compiled those scattered data for an 
impressive monograph in his Romancero (VII, 84-124). He 
derives his final text from fifty-nine versions from France and 
eight from Piemont (Italy); and he mentions that it was sung in 
Paris when Henry IV entered it, in 1594; also in Brittany, in 
the second third of the sixteenth century. 
The number of French versions has since grown by at least 
thirty. Millien has published five main variants for Nivernais 
(France), and he quotes other sub-variants; Rossat has brought 
out three versions for Switzerland (Suisse romande); and our 
Canadian collection includes twenty-two versions. In all, there 
are about ninety French records. 
This is only a fraction of the grand European total, since 
the Latin countries alone contain five songs closely related to 
Renaud: an Armorican gwerz, a Basque song, a Venetian canzone, 
a Catalan song, and a Spanish romance familiar in all the 
peninsula. This group alone, exclusive of France proper, is 
represented by sixty-seven songs. 
The song is still more important in the Scandinavian 
countries, where it found its birth: the Vise of the Knight Olaf, 
which is one of the finest and best known in the north. Gruntvig 
compiled sixty-nine versions for Denmark, Sweden, Norway, 
Iceland, and Faroe island. The oldest written record, from 
Denmark, dates back to 1 550. 
The total list of versions is large: 90 French versions; 67 
from the other Latin countries; 69 Scandinavian records. In all, 
226. And there may be still more. 
