Aucassin, son of the Count of Beaucaire, refuses to fight for his father unless he may have Nicolete, a captive maiden bought from the Saracens. Shut up in a tower, she lets herself down into the moat and flees into the forest, and the lovers go through pirates, wars and a topsy-turvy kingdom. The tale alternates prose and sung verse, a form found nowhere else.
A small medieval masterpiece of wit and tenderness, beautifully rendered by Andrew Lang. Download the free EPUB.