Breton lay · c. 1400

The Erle of Tolous

by Anonymous (Middle English)

A tail-rhyme Breton lay of about 1,220 lines: Barnard, earl of Tolous, defeats the emperor Dyaclysyon, wins a sight of the empress Beulybon through the knight Trylabas, and later, disguised as a monk, takes up her cause when two knights falsely accuse her. After the emperor's death he becomes emperor and marries her.

Contents · 3 parts

• Lines 1–417about 420 lines
• Lines 418–813about 400 lines
• Lines 814–1218about 410 lines

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