[468] See Northern Antiquities, or a Description of the Manners, Customs, &c., of the ancient Danes and other Northern Nations, translated from the Fr. of M. Mallet, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo. (vol. i. p. 49, &c.)
[469] Vid. infra, pp. 341, 342, &c.
[470] Viz. Astræa, Cassandra, Clelia, &c.
[471] Mallet, vid. Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 318, &c.; vol. ii. p. 234, &c.
[472] Letters concerning Chivalry, 8vo. 1763.
[473] Mallet.
[474] Mallet.
[475] The seeds of chivalry sprung up so naturally out of the original manners and opinions of the northern nations, that it is not credible they arose so late as after the establishment of the Feudal System, much less the Crusades. Nor, again, that the romances of chivalry were transmitted to other nations, through the Spaniards, from the Moors and Arabians. Had this been the case the first French romances of chivalry would have been on Moorish, or at least Spanish subjects: whereas the most ancient stories of this kind, whether in prose or verse, whether in Italian, French, English, &c., are chiefly on the subjects of Charlemagne and the Paladins, or of our British Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, &c., being evidently borrowed from the fabulous chronicles of the supposed Archbishop Turpin and of Jeffery of Monmouth. Not but some of the oldest and most popular French romances are also on Norman subjects, as Richard Sans-peur, Robert le Diable, &c., whereas I do not recollect so much as one in which the scene is laid in Spain, much less among the Moors, or descriptive of Mahometan manners. Even in Amadis de Gaul, said to have been the first romance printed in Spain, the scene is laid in Gaul and Britain; and the manners are French: which plainly shews from what school this species of fabling was learnt and transmitted to the southern nations of Europe.
[476] Mallet. North. Antiquities, vol. i. p. 36; vol. ii. passim.
[477] Olaus Verelius, Herv. Saga, pp. 44, 45. Hickes's Thesaur. vol. ii. p. 311. Northern Antiquities, vol. ii. passim.