English Versions.—In England the story first appears in a short poem preserved among the Cotton MSS. of the British Museum and entitled Chevelere assigne. This was edited by G. E. V. Utterson in 1820 for the Roxburghe Club, and again by H. H. Gibbs in 1868 for the Early English Text Society. The E.E.T.S. edition is accompanied by a set of photographs of a 14th-century ivory casket, on which the story is depicted in 36 compartments. An English prose romance, Helyas Knight of the Swan, translated by Robert Copland, and printed by W. Copland about 1550, is founded on a French romance La Génealogie ... de Godeffroy de Boulin (printed 1504) and is reprinted by W. J. Thoms in Early Prose Romances, vol. iii. It was also printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1512. A modern edition was issued in 1901 from the Grolier Club, New York.
[1] i.e. Garin le Loherin (q.v.), or Garin of Lorraine.
[2] Elster (Beiträge) says that the poem is the work of two poets: the first part by a Thuringian wandering minstrel, the second—which differs in style and dialect—by a Bavarian official.
[3] Based on material borrowed from the Sächsische Weltchronik (formerly called Repgowische Chronik from its dubious assignment to Eime von Repgow), the oldest prose chronicle of the world in German (c. 1248 or 1260).
LOIN (through O. Fr. loigne or logne, mod. longe, from Lat. lumbus), that part of the body in an animal which lies between the upper part of the hip-bone and the last of the false ribs on either side of the back-bone, hence in the plural the general term for the lower part of the human body at the junction with the legs, covered by the loin-cloth, the almost universal garment among primitive peoples. There are also figurative uses of the word, chiefly biblical, due to the loins being the supposed seat of male vigour and power of generation. Apart from these uses the word is a butcher’s term for a joint of meat cut from this part of the body. The upper part of a loin of beef is known as the “surloin” (Fr. surlonge, i.e. upper loin). This has been commonly corrupted into “sirloin,” and a legend invented, to account for the name, of a king, James I. or Charles II., knighting a prime joint of beef “Sir Loin” in pleasure at its excellence. A double surloin, undivided at the back-bone, is known as a “baron of beef,” probably from an expansion of the legend of the “Sir Loin.”
LOIRE, the longest river of France, rising in the Gerbier de Jonc in the department of Ardèche, at a height of 4500 ft. and flowing north and west to the Atlantic. After a course of 18 m. in Ardèche it enters Haute-Loire, in which it follows a picturesque channel along the foot of basaltic rocks, through narrow gorges and small plains. At Vorey, where it is joined by the Arzon, it becomes navigable for rafts. Four miles below its entrance into the department of Loire, at La Noirie, river navigation is officially reckoned to begin, and breaking through the gorges of Saint Victor, the Loire enters the wide and swampy plain of Forez, after which it again penetrates the hills and flows out into the plain of Roanne. As in Haute-Loire, it is joined by a large number of streams, the most important being the Coise on the right and the Lignon du Nord or du Forez and the Aix on the left. Below Roanne the Loire is accompanied on its left bank by a canal to Digoin (35 m.) in Saône-et-Loire, thence by the so-called “lateral canal of the Loire” to Briare in Loiret (122 m.). Owing to the extreme irregularity of the river in different seasons these canals form the only certain navigable way. At Digoin the Loire receives the Arroux, and gives off the canal du Centre (which utilizes the valley of the Bourbince) to Chalon-sur-Saône. At this point its northerly course begins to be interrupted by the mountains of Morvan, and flowing north-west it enters the department of Nièvre. Just beyond Nevers it is joined by the Allier; this river rises 30 m. S.W. of the Loire in the department of Lozère, and following an almost parallel course has at the confluence a volume equal to two-thirds of that of the main stream. Above Nevers the Loire is joined by the Aron, along which the canal du Nivernais proceeds northward, and the Nièvre, and below the confluence of the Allier gives off the canal du Berry to Bourges and the navigable part of the Cher. About this point the valley becomes more ample and at Briare (in Loiret) the river leaves the highlands and flows between the plateaus of Gatinais and the Beauce on the right and the Sologne on the left. In Loiret it gives off the canal de Briare northward to the Seine and itself bends north-west to Orléans, whence the canal d’Orléans, following the little river Cens, communicates with the Briare canal. At Orléans the river changes its north-westerly for a south-westerly course. A striking peculiarity of the affluents of the Loire in Loiret and the three subsequent departments is that they frequently flow in a parallel channel to the main stream and in the same valley. Passing Blois in Loir-et-Cher, the Loire enters Indre-et-Loire and receives on the right the Cisse, and, after passing Tours, the three important left-hand tributaries of the Cher, Indre and the Vienne. At the confluence of the Vienne the Loire enters Maine-et-Loire, in its course through which department it is frequently divided by long sandy islands fringed with osiers and willows; while upon arriving at Les Ponts-de-Cé it is split into several distinct branches. The principal tributaries are: left, the Thouet at Saumur, the Layon and the Evre; right: the Authion, and, most important tributary of all, the Maine, formed by the junction of the rivers Mayenne, Sarthe and Loir. Through Loire-Inférieure the river is studded with islands until below Nantes, where the largest of them, called Belle-Ile, is found. It receives the Erdre on the right at Nantes and on the opposite shore the Sèvre-Nantaise, and farther on the canalized Achenau on the left and the navigable Etier de Méan on the right near Saint Nazaire. Below Nantes, between which point and La Martinière (below Pellerin) the channel is embanked, the river is known as the Loire Maritime and widens out between marshy shores, passing Paimbœuf on the left and finally Saint-Nazaire, where it is 1½ m. broad. The length of the channel of the Loire is about 625 m.; its drainage area is 46,700 sq. m. A lateral canal (built in 1881-1892 at a cost of about £1,000,000) known as the Maritime Canal of the Loire between Le Carnet and La Martinière enables large ships to ascend to Nantes. It is 9½ m. long, and 19½ (capable of being increased to 24) ft. deep. At each end is a lock 405 ft. long by 59 ft. wide. The canal de Nantes à Brest connects this city with Brest.
The Loire is navigable only in a very limited sense. During the drought of summer thin and feeble streams thread their way between the sandbanks of the channel; while at other times a stupendous flood submerges wide reaches of land. In the middle part of its course the Loire traverses the western portion of the undulating Paris basin, with its Tertiary marls, sands and clays, and the alluvium carried off from these renders its lower channel inconstant; the rest of the drainage area is occupied by crystalline rocks, over the hard surface of which the water, undiminished by absorption, flows rapidly into the streams. When the flood waters of two or more tributaries arrive at the same time serious inundations result. Attempts to control the river must have begun at a very early date, and by the close of the middle ages the bed between Orléans and Angers was enclosed by dykes 10 to 13 ft. high. In 1783 a double line of dykes or turcies 23 ft. high was completed from Bec d’Allier downwards. The channel was, however, so much narrowed that the embankments are almost certain to give way as soon as the water rises 16 ft. (the average rise is about 14, and in 1846 and 1856 it was more than 22). In modern times embankments, aided by dredging operations extending over a large number of years, have ensured a depth of 18 ft. in the channel between La Martinière and Nantes. Several towns have constructed special works to defend themselves against the floods; Tours, the most exposed of all, is surrounded by a circular dyke.