Author: Henry Alfred Todd

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780366461035

Excerpt from La Naissance Du Chevalier Au Cygne, Ou Les Enfants Changés En Cygnes: French Poem of the Xiith Century, Published for the First Time, Together With an Inedited Prose Version, From the Mss. Of the National and Arsenal Libraries at Paris; With Introduction, Notes and Vocabulary Of the moral tales thus narrated, our story of the Swan children is the seventh; but since it is not one of those borrowed from the Oriental 'sintipas, ' where are we to look for the traces of its origin? In form, in contents, in general tone, it fits in admirably with the Oriental setting in which it is found imbedded, but no Eastern prototype of the tale has thus far been pointed out. On the other hand, the legend has been believed to belong peculiarly to the region of Lorraine (lohengrin being in fact, a variation of the German Lofhringen), and this view is supported by M. Gaston Paris, who, in the article already referred to, presents as a reason for his opinion the consideration that the story of the Swans is more simply and logically narrated than the other tales of the collection, a fact which would seem to show that it had not been subject to the many alterations inci dental to a series of migrations. It may also be borne in mind that the swan figures somewhat conspicuously in the mythology of the Northern peoples, the Valkyrias, who may be called the fays of the Scandinavians, appearing in the day-time in the form of swans, and one of their number bearing the name of Svanhvila, 'swan-white.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.