It is indeed singular to observe how the personality of Alexander has been metamorphosed in its successive passage from the literature of one nation to that of another. In general, the Alexander of Romance has become a religious hero.[1] We have seen how in the Hebrew version he readily embraces Judaism when forced by circumstances to do so, and no doubt his mild treatment of the inhabitants of the Holy City gave rise to the belief that he might worship the God of Israel. To that of Christianity there was but one step, and in the Syriac, Ethiopic, and Western versions he appears as a convert and quotes the Bible. Alberic of Besançon, Lambert le Tort and other vernacular poets have invested him with all the attributes of a mediaeval knight, and Persian writers such as Firdusi or Nizami have not hesitated to paint him as a follower of Mahomet.[2]
As a rule, it may be said that whereas the Western nations were more attracted by the stories of Alexander's bravery and liberality, what appealed most to the Eastern imagination was, in the words of Professor Wesselofsky, "the mystery of the greatness and power of the man, helpless before death." This latter conception appears once only in Western versions—in the legend we have been studying in these pages.
Although this legend enjoyed but a limited popularity compared with other branches of the Alexander-Romance, we cannot deny the wide diffusion of a belief that the Macedonian hero had undertaken a voyage to Paradise. A charming example of this belief occurs in a Russian folk-tale rescued from oblivion by Professor Wesselofsky, and buried away by him in the pages of a learned Russian review.[3] He relates it on the authority of an old gardener
- ↑ Cf. Gaster, p. 487.
- ↑ See Gaster (loc. cit. p. 488).
- ↑ Vizantiiskii Vremennik, iv. Petrograd, 1897, p. 559. It is much to be regretted that so few Western scholars are able to avail themselves of the writings of Russian historians and philologists, who are by no means so rare as is usually imagined. For a valuable study of Russian folk-mythology see
