Huon of Bordeaux

Huon of Bordeaux, one of the Charlemagne cycle of romances. In its present form it is a prose version, dating from 1454, of a poem current about the end of the 12th century, and sometimes ascribed, without grounds, to the trouvère Huon de Ville-neuve. In the story, Huon, Duke of Guienne, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, in self-defence kills Charlot, son of Charlemagne, and is in consequence condemned to die, but his life is granted on the hard condition that he brings back from Bagdad some of the Saracen emir's teeth and beard after having kissed his daughter before his face. The dwarf Oberon gives him a magical cup and horn, one blast of which in the hour of peril brings him and 100,000 warriors to Huon's aid. Moreover, the princess Esclarmonde, like Medea, lightens his labours by falling in love with him, so that at last he is completely successful, and returns with her as his wife to clear himself before Charlemagne. The prose romance was printed at Paris in 1516; and Lord Berner's English translation, by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1534 (ed. by S. L. Lee for E. Eng. Text Soc., 1882-87; simplified by Steele, 1896).