Hero Tales Read online

  Produced by Al Haines

  HERO TALES

  BY

  JAMES BALDWIN

  Author of "The Story of Siegfried," "The Story of Roland," "A Story ofthe Golden Age," "Baldwin's Readers," etc.

  NEW YORK

  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  1914

  COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY

  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  TO

  CARRIE EDITH AND NELLIE MAY

  INTRODUCTION

  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 tales of Troy, those of the ancientNorth, and those of Charlemagne--is essential to the acquirement ofrefined literary tastes. For this knowledge will go far toward helpingits possessor to enjoy many things in our modern literature that wouldotherwise be puzzling or obscure. The importance, therefore, ofplacing some of the best of such tales early within the reach of schoolchildren and all young readers cannot be disputed.

  In three volumes somewhat larger than the present one--"A Story of theGolden Age," "The Story of Siegfried," and "The Story of Roland"--Ihave already endeavored to introduce young readers to the mostinteresting portions of these great cycles of romance, narrating ineach the adventures of the hero who is the central figure in the groupof legends or tales under consideration. The present volume, made upof selections from these earlier books, has been prepared in responseto repeated suggestions that certain portions of them, and especiallysome of the independent shorter stories, are well adapted to use inreading-classes at school. Of the seventeen stories herein presented,nine are from the "Golden Age," four from "Siegfried," and four from"Roland." They are, for the most part, episodes, complete inthemselves, and connected only by a slender thread with the mainnarrative. Their intrinsic value is in no way diminished by being thusseparated from their former setting, and each tale being independent ofthe others, they lend themselves more readily to the demands of theschoolroom.

  It is well to observe that in no case have I endeavored to repeat thestory in its exact original form. To have done so would have defeatedthe purpose in view; for without proper adaptation such stories areusually neither interesting nor intelligible to children. I havetherefore recast and rearranged, using my own words, and adding here atouch of color and here a fanciful idea, as the narrative has seemed topermit or as my audience of school children may demand. Nevertheless,in the end, the essential features of each tale--those which give itvalue in its original form--remain unchanged.

  CONTENTS

  How Apollo Came to Parnassus The Hunt in the Wood of Calydon The Choice of Hercules Alpheus and Arethusa The Golden Apple Paris and Oenone Hesione Paris and Helen Iphigenia The Hoard of the Elves The Forging of Balmung Idun and Her Apples The Doom of the Mischief-maker The Hunt in the Wood of Puelle Ogier the Dane and the Fairies How Charlemagne Crossed the Alps What Happened at Roncevaux