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Hugh Of Lincoln (legend)




A mediæval story of Europe an history found throughout the popular literature is the tale of Hugh of Lincoln. A boy is the hero of the legend, which calls him a saint. The story is told variously in the chronicles and ballads.

According to one version, 24 boys were playing ball. One of the boys kicked the ball through the window of a Jew , was enticed into the castle by the Jew's daughter, murdered, and thrown into a well, from which he addressed his mother miraculously and thus disclosed the crime. The story was based on the belief that Jews murdered Christian children. It received the highest artistic treatment in Chaucer's ''Prioress's Tale''.


PUBLICATIONS

  • Child, ''English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', part v (Boston, 1888)