Of the novels produced by other authors between 1870 and 1880, we may mention A hol az ember kezdodik (Where the Man Begins), by Edward Kavassy (1871), in which he severely lashes the idling Magyar nobility; Az en ismeroseim (My Acquaintances), bi Lewis Tolnai (1871); and Anatol, by Stephen Toldy (1872); the versified romances Deli babok hOse (Hero of the Fata Morgana), generally ascribed to Ladislaus Arany, but anonymously published, A szerelem hOse (Hero of Love), by John Vajda (1873), and Talalkozdsok (Rencounters) by the same (1877), and A Tiinderov (The Fairy Zone), by John Bulla (1876), all four interesting as specimens of narrative poetry; Kalozdy Bela (1875), a tale of Hungarian provincial life, by Zoltan Beothy, a pleasing writer who possesses a fund of humour, and appears to follow the best English models; Edith tortenete (History of Edith), by Joseph Prem (1876); Nyomorusag iskoldja (School of Misery), by the prolific author Arnold Vertesi (1878); Tilkolt szerelem (Secret Love), by Cornelius Abranyi (1879), a social-political romance of some merit; and Uj idOk, avult emberek (Modern Times, Men of the Past), by L.
The evidence is quite conclusive; yet the fire has been imputed to the Syrians, and a tale was invented about ballistas which hurled against the House of God enormous stones and vessels full of bitumen.
Among them are the sagas of Thorgils and Haflidi (I118-1121), the feud and peacemaking of two great chiefs, contemporaries of Ari; of Sturla (1150-1183), the founder of the great Sturlung family, down to the settlement of his great lawsuit by Jon Loptsson, who thereupon took his son Snorri the historian to fosterage, - a humorous story but with traces of the decadence about it, and glimpses of the evil days that were to come; of the Onundar-brennusaga (1185-1200), a tale of feud and fire-raising in the north of the island, the hero of which, Gudmund Dyri, goes at last into a cloister; of Hrafn Sveinbiornsson (1190-1213), the noblest Icelander of his day, warrior, leech, seaman, craftsman, poet and chief, whose life at home, travels and pilgrimages abroad (Hrafn was one of the first to visit Becket's shrine), and death at the hands of a foe whom he had twice spared, are recounted by a loving friend in pious memory of his virtues, c. 1220; of Aron Hiorleifsson (1200-1255), a man whose strength, courage and adventures befit rather a henchman of Olaf Tryggvason than one of King Haakon's thanes (the beginning of the feuds that rise round Bishop Gudmund are told here), of the Svinefell-men (1248-1252), a pitiful story of a family feud in the far east of Iceland.
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A singer who had pleased his hearers with a tale of adventure would be called on to tell them of earlier or later events in the career of the hero; and so the story would grow, until it included all that the poet knew from tradition, or could invent in harmony with it.
Lancelot, already popular hero of a tale in which an adventure parallel to that of the Charrette figured prominently, was pressed into the service, Modred, Guenevere's earlier lover, being too unsympathetic a character; moreover, Modred was required for the final role of traitor.
After more than a century of enforced repose in the land and of prosperity in the towns, all Wales was suddenly convulsed by a wide-spread revolt against the English crown, which reads more like a tale of romance than a piece of sane history.
The year 1854 was marked by his presence in Rome at the definition of the dogma of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin (8th December), and by the publication of his historical romance, Fabiola, a tale of the Church of the Catacombs, which had a very wide circulation and was translated into ten languages.
It includes three divisions - the Djiung ling, which describes the invasion of part of Tibet by the Djiung or Moso; the Hor ling, which recounts the conquest of the Hor (Turk tribes) by the Tibetans, and conveys much historical information in a tale of magic and marvel; and the Djia ling (Chinese division), which narrates a contest of unknown date between the Tibetans and the Chinese.
Though exceedingly popular as a lecturer, his literary reputation rests upon three historical romances: The Fair God (1873), a story of the conquest of Mexico; Ben Hur (1880), a tale of the coming of Christ, which was translated into several languages and dramatized; and The Prince of India (1893), dealing with the Wandering Jew and the Byzantine empire.
It is a tale that history repeats with surprising consistency.