Assassinus

Critical Literature

No critical literature available

The inset story appears in the following manuscripts

Manuscript	Language	Siglum (Version)	Language Group within Version
Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 573		M ('Male Marastre')	French

The inset story appears in the following versions and secondary versions

Version	Original Language	Branch of Tradition	Adapted from
M ('Male Marastre')	Old French	West	A (Seven Sages)

The Assassins (or, 'Li examples des Hakesin qui l'omme ocist')

This story recounts the fable of the garden of the assassins, or the Hakesins. Set in an unidentified Islamic country, the story tells of children who are raised entirely in dark, underground or lightless enclosures, such as cisterns or cellars. They know no joy or pleasure of any kind, and are kept in darkness until they are old enough to speak; then, they are shown a beautiful pleasure-garden, full of fruit trees, flowers, and happy knights and ladies laughing and playing in the sunlight. When the children ask who these happy people are, they are told that these are those who have killed Christians. The children are inspired to become assassins, and when they have trained and grown, they are sent to Jerusalem to kill Christians in the hopes of one day being admitted to the garden-paradise.