Note 17 — Chapter III · Tales with the Simple Theme and Miscellaneous Combinations.

In all six of these stories we have a knight, who sets out to win a tourney in which the victor’s prize is to be the hand of a princess. In all of them save Old Swedish he is represented as being impoverished by previous extravagance, in Richars, Lion de Bourges, and Rittertriuwe it being expressly stated that he had wasted his fortune by over-indulgence in his passion for jousting. On his way to the place appointed for the contest the hero pays for the burial17 of a man whose corpse is held for debt.18 He goes on and is approached either before (Richars, Lion de Bourges, Dianese, Old Swedish, and Sir Amadas) or after (Rittertriuwe) he reaches the lists by a man, who provides him with a horse, by the aid of which he wins the tourney and the princess. In Dianese the hero is a merchant, in Old Swedish his estate is not mentioned, but in the other four variants he appears as a knight (a white knight in Richars, Lion de Bourges, and Sir Amadas). In Dianese the hero is also provided with armour; in Richars and Lion de Bourges he is assisted in his jousting by the White Knight; and in Sir Amadas he finds a wreck on the coast from which he obtains all things needful. In Richars we find the somewhat inept conclusion that the hero asks his friendly helper whether he will take the princess or the property19 as his share. The latter responds that he wishes only his horse, explains who he is, and vanishes. In all the other variants, however, the condition is made that the hero divide whatever he shall gain.20