8/14/2019 Entwistle (William J.)_The Liberation of Castile
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The Liberation of CastileAuthor(s): William J. EntwistleSource:
The Modern Language Review, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1924), pp.
471-472Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714763.
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8/14/2019 Entwistle (William J.)_The Liberation of Castile
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Miscellaneous NotesTHE LIBERATIONOF CASTILE.
Commentators on the Poenmade Ferndn Gonzalezand its congenersdo
not appear to have cited, in connexion with the curious episode
otthe Liberation of Castile (Poema de Fernan Gonzdlez,coplas
569-74), aremarkable passage in Jordanes, Getica, cap. v, which
reads:nec eorum abulasalicubirepperimuscriptas,qui eos (sc.
(Gothos,f. Mommsen'sIntroduction,. xxxviii)dicuntin Brittania el in
unaqualibetnsularumn servi-tute redactos t inuniuscaballipraetio
quodam reptos.antcerte i quiseo.s litcrdixeritin nostrourbc,quaiil
qlod nos dixinmlus,uisseexortos,nobisaliquidol-strepebit:nos
enimpotius ectionicredimus ualn fabulisanilibusconsentimus.(Ed.
Momrnsen,Mon. Cter.Hist., Auct. Ant., torl. v.)Tlhis passage comes
to us, according to Mommsen's analysis, atfourth-h;lnd. Jordanes is
responsible for the phrasing, which leaves
soIle (loubt whether eos means Gothosor Hunuguros. Cassiodorus
con-tributes the preference for written sources for history.
Ablavius reportsthe fact, and he in turn depends on an allusion,
perhaps a cross refer-ence in some such saga as that which relates
the adventures of Filimerin Oium, the subject of the previous
paragraphs. This particular sagaappears to have been outside his
resources, which were those of theOstrogothic Court of Theodoric
the Great: it might conceivably havebeen Visigothic.The Castilian
story has more developed features. The King of Leonpurchased a
horse and a hawk from his vassal, Count Fernan Gonzalezof Castile,
for the sum of one thousand marks, but with the additionalcondition
that, if the money were not paid on a fixed date, the value ofthe
purchase should be (loubled for each day. Three years'
procrasti-nation advanced the price of the animals higher than the
King of Leon(or the King of France or the whole world ) could pay,
so that he pre-ferred to renounce his sovereignty over Castile. The
differences betweenthis story and that recorded in Jordanes lessen
on further inspection.Professor C. C. Marden remarks, in his note
on the passage, that thePoelmade Fernin Gonz(lez, the
Cro,nzicaGeneral, the Crcnica de 1344,the Cronica Rimt(da and the
Estoria del Conde Ferndn Gonzcalez(Toledo, 1511) use the pronouns
ello, lo and le in the singular, as signi-fying the single idea
caballo y azor. ' Parecen necesarias las correccionesellos y los.'
Difficilior lectio potior: the hawk may have been begottenby the
demand for a second helmistich ('un mudado azor, e un azor enla
mano,' etc.). Nor is this particular setting necessary to explain
theworking of geometrical progression or compound interest at
36,500 percent., which can be done as well with the apologue of a
mouse andgrains of corn in a granary. On the other hand, the
tribute of a horse
471
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8/14/2019 Entwistle (William J.)_The Liberation of Castile
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Miscellaneous Notesiscellaneous Notesin admission of suzerainty,
which is otherwise paralleled,affordsa feasiblebasis for the
fiction of a horse as redemption-value.
This suggestion has been made by Sr. Menendez Pidal
(L'EpopeeCastillane, 1910, p. 54), whom I take the liberty of
quoting:A ce propos il convient de rechercher ce qui a pu donner
lieu ia l'dtrange episodede la vente du cheval et de l'autour.
Peut-etre a-t-il une origiae historique. AuMoyen-Age, le
beneficiaire d'une donation reniettait au donateur un objet de
mincevaleur, pour imprimer a la donation l'indispensable caractbre
d'un echange, et c'estla ce que l'on nommait corroboration.
Nombreux etaient les objets usuels employ.sdans cet acte: une paire
de gants, un manteau, une certaine quantit6 de vin ou deble, une
mule, un cheval, un autour. Le cheval et l'autour reunis servent de
gages decorroboration dans divers documents des Xe et XIe siecles,
et nous pouvons supposerqu'ils servirent de menmedans uine
donation, reelle ou apocryphe, par laquelle le r,i
de Leon aurait cede a Fernand Gonzalez divers droits sur le
comte: d'oi l'oinput direque le roi avait cede le conmtten dchange
d'un cheval et d'un autour.This hypothesis and the one I now
suggest are independent of each other,but they are not exclusive.
On the contrary, nothing could be moreprobable than that it was a
legal or historical circumstance which aidedan inveterate tradition
to connect itself with some particular name.In suggesting a
connexion between Gothic fables of the sixth centuryand Castilian
of the tenth or twelfth, we find support in (1) the certaintythat
the Christian remnant of Spain was largely of the lineage of
theGoths, and in (2) the possibility, as Sr. Menendez Pidal has
argued, thatthe cantares de gesta are a continuation of the
tradition of the Gothiccantiones, for in both invaluable and
primitive information is preservNedin priscis eorum carminibuspene
storicu X'itu(Jordanes, Get.cap. iv).There is, of course, not
evidence enough to exclude other hypothesesor to raise this above
mere possibility, but it is at any rate profitable tobring together
what appear to be the only two uses of this particularsaga-motif.
WILLIAM J. ENTWISTLE.
MANCHESTER.
A MISSING NAME IN GOETHE'SDIARY.In Goethe's Tagebiicher,under
date Jan. 30, 1828, is the record of avisit in which the nanmeof
the visitor is left blank:' Herr von......
Diplomat, von Wien iiber Dresden kommnend,von neuerer
deutscherLiteratur sehr wohl unterrichtet.' In the 'Lesarten' of
the WVeimaredition the suggestion is made that this visitor might
have been Petervon Piquot, at that time Minister-Resident in
Vienna. Except thatPiquot was known to Goethe there seems to be no
ground for this con-jecture, and a much more likely name would
appear to be that of
in admission of suzerainty, which is otherwise
paralleled,affordsa feasiblebasis for the fiction of a horse as
redemption-value.This suggestion has been made by Sr. Menendez
Pidal (L'EpopeeCastillane, 1910, p. 54), whom I take the liberty of
quoting:
A ce propos il convient de rechercher ce qui a pu donner lieu ia
l'dtrange episodede la vente du cheval et de l'autour. Peut-etre
a-t-il une origiae historique. AuMoyen-Age, le beneficiaire d'une
donation reniettait au donateur un objet de mincevaleur, pour
imprimer a la donation l'indispensable caractbre d'un echange, et
c'estla ce que l'on nommait corroboration. Nombreux etaient les
objets usuels employ.sdans cet acte: une paire de gants, un
manteau, une certaine quantit6 de vin ou deble, une mule, un
cheval, un autour. Le cheval et l'autour reunis servent de gages
decorroboration dans divers documents des Xe et XIe siecles, et
nous pouvons supposerqu'ils servirent de menmedans uine donation,
reelle ou apocryphe, par laquelle le r,ide Leon aurait cede a
Fernand Gonzalez divers droits sur le comte: d'oi l'oinput direque
le roi avait cede le conmtten dchange d'un cheval et d'un
autour.This hypothesis and the one I now suggest are independent of
each other,but they are not exclusive. On the contrary, nothing
could be moreprobable than that it was a legal or historical
circumstance which aidedan inveterate tradition to connect itself
with some particular name.In suggesting a connexion between Gothic
fables of the sixth centuryand Castilian of the tenth or twelfth,
we find support in (1) the certaintythat the Christian remnant of
Spain was largely of the lineage of theGoths, and in (2) the
possibility, as Sr. Menendez Pidal has argued, thatthe cantares de
gesta are a continuation of the tradition of the Gothiccantiones,
for in both invaluable and primitive information is preservNedin
priscis eorum carminibuspene storicu X'itu(Jordanes, Get.cap.
iv).There is, of course, not evidence enough to exclude other
hypothesesor to raise this above mere possibility, but it is at any
rate profitable tobring together what appear to be the only two
uses of this particularsaga-motif. WILLIAM J. ENTWISTLE.
MANCHESTER.
A MISSING NAME IN GOETHE'SDIARY.In Goethe's Tagebiicher,under
date Jan. 30, 1828, is the record of avisit in which the nanmeof
the visitor is left blank:' Herr von......
Diplomat, von Wien iiber Dresden kommnend,von neuerer
deutscherLiteratur sehr wohl unterrichtet.' In the 'Lesarten' of
the WVeimaredition the suggestion is made that this visitor might
have been Petervon Piquot, at that time Minister-Resident in
Vienna. Except thatPiquot was known to Goethe there seems to be no
ground for this con-jecture, and a much more likely name would
appear to be that of
47272
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