In this volume I do not follow Bulg's text too scrupulously. But I hope that in a book intended for a wide range of readers, no one will blame some omissions and euphemisms, and indeed, small additions made for the coherence, clarity and beauty of the text.

Curious sources for discussion I refer “The Silver Stallion” to the pages of “Puactesma in Songs and Legends.” And let them decide for themselves whether Bulg, in Codman's words, really showed that these legends are “forgeries of the 17th century.” Personally, I find this evidence slightly flawed, and for my purpose it is generally unimportant. These chronicles, as such, represent the only known materials about the last days of the heroes, whose youthful exploits have long been familiar to readers from Lewisham's Poactesme Folk Tales. Whether they are authentic or not, and regardless of whether such legends could have existed before 1652, they contain the only account of the changes that followed in Poictesme after the death of the Savior Manuel, and we are unlikely to ever have another.

J. B.K.