I'm working on a PhD thesis at the moment about an Arthurian tale which was written (I'm fairly sure) in 1225 for James I of Aragon. Probably based on orally transmitted folk tales, but made into a connected and structured story by the writer in the thirteenth century. It was written in Occitan, and the story remained popular in Spanish via chapbooks (and Don Quixote, who had a copy of the story in his library, according to Cervantes). James I of Aragon was married at the time to Leonor, a granddaughter of Alienor of Aquitaine, whose family were largely responsible for the Arthurian stories to spread across Europe. My research has involved looking at material from Wales, Brittany, France, Aragon, Castile and Italy and I've recently been looking at what is known of storytelling in Al-Andalus. Yes, Leeneia, the Cantigas de Santa Maria (which were a bit later) were wonderfully full of cultural interchange, but so were many of the European courts, where Moslem, Jewish and Christian scholars, philosophers and musicians worked together. Toledo was one major and rich meeting point, but so was the Crown of Aragon, Castile and Sicily. The only trouble for my brain is that I've also had to read articles and books in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Catalan in order to cover all the bases ...I have plenty of material now to write a number of historic novels based on the various royal families and their extended connections, ranging from Zaragoza to Byzantium. All of this, and I'm based in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University. And no, so far I haven't written any songs about it, but you never know, once the thesis is done ...