NOTES 385

extent which strongly suggests Greek Influence, and there are other Greek
touches in ballads of a similar type. Thus the Serbian Marko Kraljmc
frees his Love opens with the summons to war and the period of nine years
during which the lady is to wait. Then the story changes: she is carried
off by three Germans, and Marko chases and recovers her. Jankovic
Stojan's Imprisonment shows Stojan as a prisoner, who is saddened by the
thought of his wife's remarriage. He has appointed a nine-year period.
Set free, he converses with his old mother in the vineyard, appears at the
wedding feast, is recognized by the bride who tells his sister, and the
affair is concluded by marrying the sister to the rejected groom. In
Pomorovac Todor we have the return of a prisoner; his wife is callous, and
all ends in blood. The Bulgarian Simon and his Sister (Miladinov 65)
opens with the summons to war and conversation with the bride. Simon
has a magic bouquet which fades on her inconstancy or peril. He returns,
converses with his father in the vineyard, and the ballad concludes in the
manner of Jankovic Stojan*s Imprisonment.

The Rhodian Greek poem appears to be of the western type. The West
European poems present the same characteristics with only minor changes,
and Dobrynja and Aljosa resembles them. The vacillations in Serbia and
Bulgaria would appear, on the face of it, to offer evidence of contamination.
We have to remember, however, that the story of Gerhardt von Holenbach,
retailed by Caesarius of Heisterbach about 1200, is connected with the
Crusades, which implied contact between the Latins and the Greeks. An
Akritic ballad enjoys, *a priori*, a reputation for antiquity, despite the
appearance of an italianism like 'kourtesia* in the extant text. It is there-
fore possible that the western legend may be a reworking of the Akritic
legend.

We have also to note that the Akritic legend fits the cycle of Gaiferos and
L'Escriveta at least as well as does the Waltharius. Gaiferos opens with a
scene of revelry; there is a hasty ride over the Pyrenees, and an instant
recognition by his bride; they ride away together. We must ignore the
Carolingian setting in either case. If derived from the Waif harms t we
have to admit that these ballads lack one leading characteristic of that epos,
namely, the fact that the hero and heroine are both hostages at the court
of a heathen king (Attila), when they agree to escape; we note also that the
ballads make little of the fight against odds* which is the great scene of the
epos. If we were to adopt the Greek alternative, these difficulties would
disappear; we should be faced by the apparent location in Aquitaine of the
Gaiferos story (Walter wras Łof Spain* or *of Aquitaine', and in French
Gautier might easily lead to Gaiffier), and with the fact that the Greek
source seems more remote than the German, which we know to have been
accessible to the Latins since the tenth century. On the other hand,,
Greek ballads travel as far west as Corsica, whence it is but a short step
to Provence, the home of UEscriveta.

Until the Akritic tests are comprehensively known it will not be
possible to determine these relationsnips, or whether they really exist.
The western cycles may be independent of the Greek. Details in the
Serbian and Bulgarian 'pesme* can hardly be deemed independent.

4615 D