Sir Aldingar - Variants

Variants

The Scandavian ballad Ravengaard og Memering closely parallels this one. The heroine Gunhilda is said to have been the daughter of Canute the Great and Emma. She married in 1036 King Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry III; a century later, William of Malmesbury gave this legend as authentic history of her life, though there is no evidence for it. It was retold in the Spanish romance Olivia, the chanson de geste Doon l'Alemanz, as part of the English romance Sir Triamour, and in the legend of Genevieve of Brabant. In the Erl of Toulouse, the hero is merely a disinterested champion, a knight, but the plot is nevertheless recognizably the same as Sir Aldingar.