Fierabras

Fierabras (from French: fier à bras, "brave/formidable arm") or Ferumbras is a fictional Saracen knight (sometimes of gigantic stature) appearing in several chansons de geste and other material relating to the Matter of France.

The story is as follows: the Saracen king Balan and his 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) son Fierabras return to Spain after sacking the church of Saint Peter's in Rome and taking the relics of the passion.

Charlemagne invades Spain to recover the relics and sends his knight Olivier de Vienne, Roland's companion, to battle Fierabras.

After a series of adventures, Charlemagne kills king Balan, divides Spain between Fierabras and Gui de Bourgogne (who marries Floripas), and returns to Saint Denis with the holy relics.

The story echoes the historical Arab raid against Rome in 846 in which Guy I of Spoleto (proposed as a source for "Gui de Bourgogne") participated,[6] and critics have suggested that the existing "chanson" was based on a now lost poem describing the Sack of the Roman Basilicas extra muros.

[citation needed] This is the tale that Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, is said by Barbour to have related to his men after they fled their enemies across Loch Lomond in 1307.