SOURCE: “Sir Orfeo and Walter Map's De Nugis,” Modern Language Notes, Vol. LI, No. 1, January, 1936, pp. 28-30.

In the following essay, Loomis advances the idea that a story included by Walter Map in his collection of court tales served as one of the elements of the French original of Sir Orfeo.

The Middle English lai of Sir Orfeo has been reprinted several times in recent years, the last edition being found in Middle English Metrical Romances, edited by W. H. French and C. B. Hale (N. Y., 1930). Allusions in French literature to a “lai d'Orfey” render certain the existence of a French original, now lost.¹ The authentic Celtic character of the lai has been rendered equally certain by the studies of Professor Kittredge, Professor Schoepperle, and Professor Laura Hibbard Loomis.² Professor Patch has also called attention to some Celtic and romance analogs for the supernatural realm under the...