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There is, indeed, an old Norman-French poem, that declares it was for the love of a noble Saxon lady, named Alftrude, that Hereward ceased to struggle with the victors. According to this story, Alftrude, an heiress of great wealth, was so charmed by the report of Hereward's fame, that she offered him her hand, and persuaded him to make peace with William.
It was adapted from lower Brittany by Robert Wace. A Saxon Trouvère continued this to his own time, imbuing his work with thorough hatred of the Normans. Walter Map, Archdeacon of Oxford under Henry II., wrote many Arthurian tales, while Chrétien de Troyes wrote the greater part of "Sir Perceval de Galles" in Norman-French.
Norman-French was beaten back, English was taught in the schools, and preserved in the speech of that day. It was a tale that was told his children and his children's children. It was a tradition that grew into their blood the story of perseverance, the story of a fight against oppression and injustice.
When these Norman-French people appeared in Anglo-Saxon England they brought with them three noteworthy things: a lively Celtic disposition, a vigorous and progressive Latin civilization, and a Romance language. THE CONQUEST. At the battle of Hastings the power of Harold, last of the Saxon kings, was broken, and William, duke of Normandy, became master of England.
Such is the poetic picture of the town of Ross in the thirteenth century; the poem itself is written in Norman-French, though evidently intended for popular use, and the author is called "Friar Michael of Kildare."
The Gaelic or Celtic, and Kymriac languages, were spoken in the middle and north-west of France; but these, except in Brittany, have been superseded by the modern French language, which is founded mainly on Latin, German, and Celtic, but mostly on Latin. The English language consists mostly of Saxon, Norse, and Norman-French with a mixture of Welsh or Ancient British.
Oyez!" the old Norman-French summons to all whose business it is to attend a solemn inquiry into the death sudden, unexplained, terrible of a fellow-being. The jury there were fourteen of them all stood up again. They raised their hands and solemnly chanted together the curious words of their oath. Then came a quick, informal exchange of sentences 'twixt the coroner and his officer.
If he will insist on walking behind me through woodland ways, pointing out with his walking-stick likely avenues and attractive short-cuts, I shall turn on him with passion, saying: "Sir, I pay you to know one particular puzzle in Latin and Norman-French, which they call the law of England; and you do know the law of England. I have never had any earthly reason to suppose that you know England.
The man, however, was disliked by his fellow-laborers. They called him a foreigner, and accused him of being a sneak and a spy. All these charges he denied stoutly; nevertheless they were true. The man was of Norman-French birth. He had drifted over to England when a lad. His parents had been respectable farmers in Normandy.
In the tenth century the Normans invaded France, and infused another element in the language, which gradually became Norman-French; and from the twelfth century the two dialects were known as Provencal and French.
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