introduced, because none were acquainted with the Truth. Taliessin, who lived about the Middle of the Sixth Age, under that King Arthur so famous in Romances; and Melkin, who was somewhat younger, writ the History of England, his Country, of King Arthur, and the Round Table. Balæus, who has put them in his Catalogue, speaks of them, as of Authors filled with Fables. The same may be said of Hunibaldus Francus, who (as some relate) was Contemporary with Clovis, and whose History is no other but a Mass of Lies grossly conceived. [p.101] The present age—the late 17th century—has learned to live with a differentiation between fiction and fact. The Middle Ages were marked by a completely different frame of mind. Huet reaches the stories written about king Arthur and Merlin: [...] those which contained the Atchievements of King Arthur, and the Life of Merlin.|<104> These Diverting Histories pleased the Readers, who were more ignorant than those who composed them. They did not, in those Days, trouble themselves with Researches into Antiquity, and after being informed of the Truth of what they wrote. They had the Stuff in their own Head, and went no farther than their own Invention. Thus Historians degenerated into True Romancers. In this Age of Ignorance, the Latin Tongue, as well as Truth, was neglected and despised. The Versifiers, Composers, Inventers of tales, Jesters, and in short, all of this Country who studied what they called the Gay Science, began about the Time of Hugh|<105> Capet, to set upon Romancing with great Fury; and soon over-ran France, by dispersing them. These Fables were composed in the Roman Tongue [...] The term romance was now invented—to denote the Spanish and French Language these texts were written in: The Spaniards use the Word Romance in the same Signification with us, and call their ordinary Language by that Name. The Romain being then most universally understood, those of Provence who apply'd themselves to Fictions, made use of it in their Writings, which from thence were called Romances. [p.106] The idea of a tradition coming via Spain to Europe is thus balanced by a second option: [p. 108-09] Taliessin and Melkin were English heroes, Huet notes. The romances touching them must have been composed originally around 550. Where Traditions Met: Europe and Another Theory of the Anthropology of Fiction The development into the 17th century gives the Amadis of Gaul