entertained.  On the morrow, while wandering across a flowery meadow, Ogier encountered Morgana the fay, who gave him a magic ring.  Although Ogier was then a hundred years old, he no sooner put it on than he became young once more.  Then, having donned the golden crown of oblivion, he forgot his home, and joined Arthur, Oberon, Tristan, and Lancelot, with whom he spent two hundred years in unchanged youth, enjoying constant jousting and fighting.

At the end of that time, his crown having accidentally dropped off, Ogier remembered the past, and returned to France, riding on Papillon.  He reached the court during the reign of one of the Capetian kings.  He was, of course, greatly amazed at the changes which had taken place, but bravely helped to defend Paris against an invasion from the Normans.

[Sidenote:  Ogier carried to Avalon.] Shortly after this, his magic ring was playfully drawn from his finger and put upon her own by the Countess of Senlis, who, seeing that it restored her vanished youth, would fain have kept it always.  She therefore sent thirty champions to wrest it from Ogier, who, however, defeated them all, and triumphantly retained his ring.  The king having died, Ogier next married the widowed queen, and would thus have become King of France had not Morgana the fay, jealous of his affections, spirited him away in the midst of the marriage ceremony and borne him off to the Isle of Avalon, whence he, like Arthur, will return only when his country needs him.

[Sidenote:  Roland and Oliver.] Another chanson de geste, a sort of continuation of “Ogier le Danois,” is called “Meurvin,” and purports to give a faithful account of the adventures of a son of Ogier and Morgana, an ancestor of Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem.  In “Guerin de Montglave,” we find that Charlemagne, having quarreled with the Duke of Genoa, proposed that each should send a champion to fight in his name.  Charlemagne selected Roland, while the Duke of Genoa chose Oliver as his defender.  The battle, if we are to believe some versions of the legend, took place on an island in the Rhone, and Durandana, Roland’s sword, struck many a spark from Altecler (Hautecler), the blade of Oliver.  The two champions were so well matched, and the blows were dealt with such equal strength and courage, that “giving a Roland for an Oliver” has become a proverbial expression.

After fighting all day, with intermissions to interchange boasts and taunts, and to indulge in sundry discussions, neither had gained any advantage.  They would probably have continued the struggle indefinitely, however, had not an angel of the Lord interfered, and bidden them embrace and become fast friends.  It was on this occasion, we are told, that Charlemagne, fearing for Roland when he saw the strength of Oliver, vowed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem should his nephew escape alive.