[See the chapter Gog et Magog dans le roman en alexandrins, in Paul
Meyer's Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature francaise. Paris, 1886,
II. pp. 386-389. - H. C.]:
"Gos et Margos i vienent de la tiere des Turs
Et. cccc. m. hommes amenerent u plus,
Il en jurent la mer dont sire est Neptunus
Et le porte d'infier que garde Cerberus
Que l'orguel d'Alixandre torneront a reues
Por cou les enclot puis es estres desus.
Dusc' al tans Antecrist n'en istera mais nus."
According to some chroniclers, the Emperor Heraclius had already let loose
the Shut-up Nations to aid him against the Persians, but it brought him no
good, for he was beaten in spite of their aid, and died of grief.
The theory that the Tartars were Gog and Magog led to the Rampart of
Alexander being confounded with the Wall of China (see infra, Bk. I. ch.
lix.), or being relegated to the extreme N.E. of Asia, as we find it in
the Carta Catalana.
These legends are referred to by Rabbi Benjamin, Hayton, Rubruquis,
Ricold, Matthew Paris, and many more. Josephus indeed speaks of the Pass
which Alexander fortified with gates of steel. But his saying that the
King of Hyrcania was Lord of this Pass points to the Hyrcanian Gates of
Northern Persia, or perhaps to the Wall of Gomushtapah, described by
Vambery.
