Tottenham Court Road
Medieval Romance
Octavian
13th century, Old French: 14th century Middle English versions at Cambridge University Library, Lincoln Cathedral Library, British Library
The lioness cared for the baby as though it was one of her own cubs.
So in that herbere down scho laye till it was lyghte on the tother day, that fowlles herde scho than synge and yelle
– Morning arrived and the birds started to sing their dawn chorus. Then an ape came into the clearing in which the empress lay and carried off one of her children. As she lay paralysed with fear and distress, a lioness came running into the clearing, caught up her other child in her jaws and ran off to feed it to her cubs.
Both her children have been taken!
A bird appeared from out of the sky, a griffin, says the book, soaring over the forest. It was so large that it could easily have carried off a knight in full armour. It snatched up the lioness and carried her across the sea to an isle. The child slept in the lioness’s mouth and knew nothing of the journey, through the grace of God.
When the lioness was dropped upon the land, she reared up ferociously as the wild beast that she was, and through God’s grace, she killed the griffin and ate it, then lay down beside the child. The childe sowkyde the lyones , als it Goddes will was, when it the pappes felide
– the infant sucked the lioness, as God willed, when it felt its milky teats near to its face. The lioness cared for the baby as though it was one of her own cubs, and was very protective of the infant. She made a den with her paws, placed the child in it and looked after it day and night.