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It is difficult to summarize the legend, it varies so considerably in the versions. Marcolf in the best-known forms, which are certainly older than Zabara, is "right rude and great of body, of visage greatly misshapen and foul." Sometimes he is a dwarf, sometimes a giant; he is never normal.
The Contradictio Solomonis, which Pope Gelasius excluded from the sacred canon, has been identified with some version of the Marcolf story. The account of Hebron, given in this volume, must be read for what it was designed to be, an impressionist sketch. The history of the site, in so far as it has been written, must be sought in more technical books.
F. Vogt, in his essay entitled Die deutschen Dichtungen won Salomon und Markolf, which appeared in Halle, in 1880, also thinks Marcolf an Eastern. Tardel is skeptical as to the Eastern provenance of the legend. It has been thought that a form of this legend is referred to in the fifth century.
So, in another version, Marcolf is at once supernaturally cunning, and extremely skeptical as to the morality and constancy of woman. But it is unnecessary to enter into the problem more closely. Zabara handles the legend with rare originality, and even ventures to cast himself for the title role in place of the wisest of kings.
He departs, however, in good humor, desiring Marcolf to come to court the next day and bring a pail of fresh milk and curds from the cow. Marcolf fails, and the king condemns him to sit up all night in his company, threatening him with death in the morning, should he fall asleep. This, of course, Marcolf does immediately, and he snores aloud. Solomon asks, "Sleepest thou?"
Solomon steps into the milk, splashes himself, and nearly falls. "Son of perdition! what does this mean?" roars the monarch. "May it please Your Majesty," says Marcolf, "merely to show you that milk is not whiter than daylight."
Again, Marcolf in the French version of Mauclerc is much more completely the reviler of woman. But, on the other hand, Mauclerc has no story, and his Marcolf is a punning clown rather than a cunning sage. Marcolf, who is Solomon's brother in a German version, has no trust in a woman even when dead.
Crimm had argued for a Hebrew souice, thinking Marcolf a name of scorn in Hebrew. In the Latin version, however, Marcolf is distinctly represented as coming from the East. Here, too, as in the Latin version, Marcolf is a man from the Orient. Besides these books, two German works deserve special mention.
The literature on the Solomon and Marcolf legend is extensive. The following references may suffice. "Of all the forms of the story yet preserved," says Mr. Kemble, "the Anglo-Saxon are undoubtedly the oldest." He talks vaguely of the intermixture of Oriental elements, but assigns a northern origin to one portion of the story.
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