Note 504 — Chapter IV · THE SOURCES FOR THE PERIOD 1100–1250 A. D.

Meyer, loc. cit., has worked out the probable authorship and derivation of the various parts of the poem. He divides the work as a whole into four consecutive sections or “branches.” Of these the oldest is the third in order and is by Lambert li Tors; this branch contains those parts of the Romance which are concerned with Alexander’s adventures in the heart of Asia and in India; in fact those parts of the work which contain the majority of the elements of geographic interest. To this third branch, the first, second, and fourth were added at a later date. These were the work of Alexandre de Bernai and Pierre de St. Cloud. There are also a number of interpolations into the body of the poem which may not be attributed to any of the three writers named.