In the French chant-fable Aucassin et Nicolette originally performed by an early thirteenth-century minstrel of northeastern France, two lovers are kept apart. Yet even while enduring extreme hardships, their romantic bond cannot be broken, and they eventually reunite. And, in the eleventh-century Tibetan epic saga of Gesar, the mischievous and magical king of Ling and his wife, the beautiful Brougmo, embark on a long life of adventures challenging...