spanish ballads
Preserved but no longer current.
Calainos the Moor asked a damsel to wife; she consented, on condition that he should bring her the heads of the three paladins of Charlemagne — Rinaldo, Roland, and Oliver. Calainos went to Pans and challenged the paladins. First Sir Baldwin, the youngest knight, accepted the challenge and was overthrown; then his uncle Roland went against the Moor and smote him.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “spanish ballads” mean?
Calainos the Moor asked a damsel to wife; she consented, on condition that he should bring her the heads of the three paladins of Charlemagne — Rinaldo, Roland, and Oliver. Calainos went to Pans and challenged the paladins. First Sir Baldwin, the youngest knight, accepted the challenge and was overthrown; then his uncle Roland went against the Moor and smote him.
Is “spanish ballads” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.