Produced by Al Haines
Author of "The Story of Siegfried," "The Story of Roland," "A Story ofthe Golden Age," "Baldwin's Readers," etc.
1914
In the world's literature there are certain stories which, told agesago, can never be forgotten. They have within them that which givespleasure to all intelligent men, women and children. They appeal tothe sympathies, the desires, and the admiration of all sorts andconditions of mankind. These are the stories that are said to beimmortal. They have been repeated and re-repeated in many forms and toall kinds of audiences. They have been recited and sung in royalpalaces, in the halls of mediaeval castles, and by the camp fires ofwarring heroes. Parents have taught them to their children, andgeneration after generation has preserved their memory. They have beenwritten on parchment and printed in books, translated into manylanguages, abridged, extended, edited, and "adapted." But through allthese changes and the vicissitudes of time, they still preserve thequalities that have made them so universally popular.
Chief among these masterpieces of imagination are the tales of gods andheroes that have come down to us from the golden age of Greece, andparticularly the tales of Troy that cluster around the narratives ofold Homer in his "Iliad" and "Odyssey." Three thousand years or morehave passed since they were first recited, and yet they have lost noneof their original charm. Few persons of intelligence are unacquaintedwith these tales, for our literature abounds in allusions to them; andno one who pretends to the possession of culture or learning can affordto be ignorant of them.
Second only in interest, especially to us of Anglo-Saxon descent, arethe hero tales of the ancient North and the stirring legends connectedwith the "Nibelungen Lied." Of much later origin than the Greekstories, and somewhat inferior to them in refinement of thought anddelicacy of imagery, these tales partake of the rugged, forcefulcharacter of the people among whom they were composed. Yet, with alltheir austerity and sternness, they are replete with vivid action, andthey charm us by their very strength and the lessons which they teachof heroic endurance and the triumph of eternal justice.
Scarcely inferior to these latter, but not so well known toEnglish-speaking people, are the tales of knighthood and chivalry thatcommemorate the romantic deeds of Charlemagne and his paladins.Written in various languages, and at periods widely separated, thesetales present a curious mixture of fact and fiction, of the real andthe marvellous, of the beautiful and the grotesque, of pagansuperstition and Christian devotion. Although there were, in truth, noknights in the time of Charlemagne, and the institution of chivalry didnot exist until many years later, yet these legends are of value asportraying life and manners in that period of history which we call theDark Ages; and their pictures of knightly courage and generosity,faithfulness, and loyalty, appeal to our nobler feelings and stir ourhearts with admiration.
To know something of these three great cycles, or groups, of classicand romantic stories—the hero ta