104 THE DESCENT OF BALLADS

Count Dirlos, a derivative of the Noble Moringer theme, and Count
Claros of Montalban. The latter employs the motif of the lover
who brags of his real or imagined successes, a motif that appears
separately in Florencios and Count Velez bragged, and also in the
Russian Youth and Prudent Woman; it goes on to describe lovers
separated by imprisonment, whether of the young man (corre-
sponding to the French Pernette) or the princess (La Fille du Roi
Loys). The elaborate Carolingian setting of Count Dirlos resembles
the equally elaborate Kiev atmosphere of Dobrynja and Aljosa.
The maker of the Gaiferos ballads was also careful to collect
Carolingian heroes to form an entourage for his escaping lovers,
though there is no such background in the Provensal Escriveta.

The French romanesque influence is only second to the epical.
Among the Arthurian legends, those of the Holy Grail proved to
be too mystical to attract the ballad-monger's attention. There is
a Castilian ballad, certified ancient by Nebrija in 1492, on one of
Lancelot's adventures, which is akin to the Lai de Tyolet and an
episode of the Dutch Lanceloet. Another ballad on this hero seems
rather to be a free imitation of the romance in its general tenor. A
ballad of the death of Tristan, also of ancient date, is composed of
a few pregnant phrases taken from the last three chapters of the
novel of Tristan de Leonis. There is an effaced relic of the same
matter in Germany (Liebestod), and in Iceland and the Faeroes
there are popular ballads (Tristrams kvasdi, Tistrams tdttur) based
on the alternative conclusion of the romance. It is in England that
the Arthurian cycle is most developed in pieces largely independent
of the great romances: The Boy and the Mantle, King Arthur and
King Cornwall, The Marriage of Sir Gawain. They are 'ballads of
minstrelsy*; that is, the evidence of personal composition is so
strong that one may doubt whether these pieces are truly tradi-
tional. Flaire and Blancheflor gives rise to German and English
ballads, Amis andAmiles to one in Spanish, and the romance of the
Castellan de Coucy is the source of the German and Dutch Brem-
berger. Similarly, the English Hind Horn is based on a romance
which has been preserved in three shapes; the Count of Rome is
founded on Alexander von Metz, and has spread from Germany to
Scandinavia; and Herzog Ernst, though included in the standard
German collections, is rather ballad-like than a ballad.

Before leaving the French area we must notice the effect of con-
ventions laid down by literature. They have been mentioned at