The story of 'Horn,' of which this ballad gives little more than the catastrophe, is related at full in (i) 'King Horn,' a gest in about 1550 short verses, preserved in three manuscripts: the oldest regarded as of the second half of the 13th century, or older; the others put at 1300 and a little later, (ii) 'Horn et Rymenhild,' a romance in about 5250 heroic verses, preserved likewise in three manuscripts; the best in the Public Library of the University of Cambridge, and of the 14th century. (iii) 'Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild,' from a manuscript of the 14th century, in not quite 100 twelve-line stanzas. The relations of these versions to each other and to the ballad are not entirely clear. For the whole matter, see Schofield, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, xviii, 1 ff, where full references will be found.
Certain points in the story of Horn — the long absence, the sudden return, the appearance under disguise at the wedding feast, and the dropping of the ring into a cup of wine obtained from the bride — repeat themselves in a great number of romantic tales. More commonly it is a husband who leaves his wife for seven years, is miraculously informed on the last day that she is to be remarried on the morrow, and is restored to his home in the nick of time, also by superhuman means. Examples of such stories are the sixteenth-century chapbook of Henry the Lion; the Middle High German Reinfrid von Braunschweig; Der edle Moringer; Torello, in Boccaccio's Decameron, x, 9.
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