SOURCE: "Some Observations on King Herla and the Herlething" in Medieval Literature and Folklore Studies: Essays in Honor of Francis Lee Utley, edited by Jerome Mandel and Bruce A. Rosenberg, Rutgers University Press, 1970, pp. 105-10.

In the following essay, Newstead demonstrates how Map combined traditional folk legends to satirize the English court of Henry II, of which he was a member.

Among the many marvels recounted by Walter Map in the miscellany known as De Nugis Curialium, the story of King Herla has attracted the attention of diverse scholars largely because of the assumed connection of his name with the traditions of Harlequin and the Wild Hunt.¹ The interest in this element of the story, however, has overshadowed other features in Walter Map's treatment that are equally significant and worthy of study.

First of all, as James Hinton pointed out many years ago,² Walter Map relates the story...