The Northern MIDDLE ENGLISH verse ROMANCE
Horn Childe is a poem of 1,136 lines written in
TAIL–RHYME stanzas sometime between about 1290
and 1340. The story of Horn Childe is essentially
the same as that of the better-known romance King
Horn, though most readers consider King Horn the
more successful work. Horn Childe, however, is notable because it is a poem that was probably
known, and parodied, by Geoffrey CHAUCER.
The protagonist of the poem is a prince named
Horn, son of King Hatheolf, who rules northern
England. Hatheolf is killed by invading Irish marauders led by Malkan, but Horn is able to escape
through the help of his faithful mentor Arlaund.
Arlaund manages to bring Horn to southern England and places him in the care of the king,
Houlac. But when Houlac’s daughter, Rimnild,
falls in love with him, Horn is denounced before
the king by his envious companions, Wikard and
Wikel. The king, angered at the seduction of his
daughter, beats the princess, but Rimnild convinces Horn to flee for his life to Wales, giving him
a magic ring as a token of her love and vowing to
wait seven years for his return.
In Wales, Horn adopts the name “Godebounde,” and enters the service of the Welsh king,
Snowdon. From Wales he crosses the sea to Ireland
and serves Finlak of Youghal, the Irish king. In the
service of Finlak, Horn does battle with his father’s
murderer, Malkan, who is also Finlak’s enemy.
Horn is able to kill Malkan and thereby avenge his
father’s death. But he leaves Ireland after Finlak’s
daughter falls in love with him. Horn returns to
Houlac’s kingdom, where Rimnild is about to be
given in marriage to Moging. Horn, wearing a beggar’s disguise, attends the wedding banquet. He
makes himself known to Rimnild by placing her
ring in a cup she serves him. The poem ends as
Horn defeats the groom Moging in a wedding
tournament. He then kills the traitor Wikard and
blinds Wikel. He finally marries Rimnild and returns to the north to claim his own kingdom.
In his TALE OF SIR THOPAS, Chaucer composes a
rollicking parody of tail-rhyme romances, and
specifically compares Sir Thopas to great heroes
like King Horn. It seems likely that Chaucer was
thinking of Horn Childe, a romance that uses the
tail-rhyme stanza itself, when he made the allusion. The famous Auchinleck manuscript, which
contains Horn Childe, was produced in London in
the 1330s and has been thought by some scholars
to have been known by Chaucer himself.
Bibliography
Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild. Edited from the
Auchinleck MS, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.2.1 by Maldwyn Mills. Heidelberg,
Germany: C. Winter Universitätsverlag, 1988.