Jessalynn Bird wrote
>... confusion of the ten lost tribes of Israel with Gog and magog,
>who were supposed to be shut up behind the mountains by Alexander
>the Great until a set time. .. these lost tribes sometimes being
>called Red Jews
This fits the reference I was trying to find, from the opening lines
of the Middle English verse translation of "Sidrac", introducing the
story of a conflict between two oriental kings, Boctus and Garaab:
There was a kynge that Boctus hyght
And was a man of moche myght
His londe lay be grete Inde
Bectorye hight hit as we fynde
After the tyme of Noee even
Viijte hundred yeere fourty and seven
The kynge Boctus hym bethought
That he wolde haue a citee wrought
The rede Iewes fro hym [to] spere ['enclose', 'shut out']
And for to mayntene his were
Ayenst a kyng that was his foo
And hathe moste of Inde longyng hym too
His name was Garaab the kyng.
(Vars: BATP "rede", L "rude").
Although Sidrac is classified as a verse romance, the narrative is
just a framework for an encyclopedic work, a sort of medieval 1001
questions on Life, the Universe and Everything. Having enlisted the
help of the sage Sidrac in constructing his city, the king asks
questions on everything from the orders of angels to why snails leave
silver trails, could you walk all around the earth and come back to
the same point, is it better to be rich or poor, what is the worst
sin, etc., to which the sage duly replies (eventually helping the
king to build his city and in the process converting him to a belief
in the Trinity).
The ME translation is based on an Old French original, copies of
which are supposed often to form part of medieval French
collections. Has anyone come across any MSS (in French libraries, or
elsewhere)?
Frank Schaer
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