The oldest literary texts in Basque are song fragments about tragic events that happened in the 14th and 15th centuries, such as 6 verses from “Beotibar’s song”, relating a 1321 battle between Guipuscoa and Navarra; they were recorded by 16th- and 17th-century historians.

These fragments of irregular verse epic (apparently a popular genre, going by the abundant remains that have reached us) were edited by 19th-century men of letters such as Augustin Chaho, Carl Mahn and Francisque Michel; at the same time, apocryphal songs or poems were also being published in these Romantic decades. Some of these forgeries had great literary and cultural influence and inspired later cultural activities. Among these apocrypha, the following stand out:

• “Lelo’s song”; part of a 16th-century Ibarguen-Cachopin Chronicle, it was well known among Basque scholars; Wilhelm von Humboldt published a version, communicated to him by Juan Antonio Moguel, in 1817, and ensured its Europe-wide fame. Chaho recycled it in the Revue d’Aquitaine (1857), Mahn in his Denkmäler der baskischen Sprache (1857) and Vicente Arana in his Los últimos iberos: Leyendas de Euskaria (1892). The short text has a problematic relationship between its Basque verse and the Spanish marginal glossing, and fancifully uses archaizing language in order to bolster the claim that Cantabria (identified with the Basques), was never conquered by the Romans. False etymologizing abounds: the word lelo is a meaningless catchphrase repeated at the beginning of songs or refrains; Lekobide, condensed from the pronominal expression lekot bidi, is here used as the first name of the lord of Biscay.
• “Altabizkar’s song”; originally composed in French in 1828 by Garay de Monglave, translated into Basque by Louis Duhalde, it was published in the Journal de l’Institut historique de Paris (1835) as an analogue to the Chanson de Roland. It was re-published by the Chanson de Roland’s editor, Francisque Michel (Le pays basque, 1857) and by Mahn (1857). Monglave presents it as a very old song, kept and transmitted orally since the Battle of Roncesvalles. The forgery deceived Michel, and José Manterola tended to think of it as authentic. D’Abbadie, Vinson and Wentworth Webster denounced its falsity.
• “Hannibal’s song” was published by Chaho in the Revue d’Aquitaine (1857), and Chaho is probably its true author. The characters of the poem are Hannibal’s reportedly Basque soldiers who helped him through the Alps in the campaign against Rome.
• “Abarka’s song” was published by Francisque Michel in the 1858 Gentleman’s magazine. While Michel considered it as authentic, D’Abbadie disabused him: the poem, by a still-living author, had been entered in the poetry contest of 1858. This suggests that the author was Jean Martin Hiribarren (Ascain, Pyrénées Atlantiques, 1810 – Bayonne 1866), the author of the narrative poem Eskaldunak (“The Basque people”, Bayonne 1853). He had also written a historical drama on the same theme, “The Basque war of 891”, of which there is another manuscript version, entitled Abarka.
• “Beotibar’s song”; an apocryphal poem (not to be confused with the above-mentioned authentic version documented by older historians) of 7 stanzas, published by Claudio Otaegi (1882) and probably created by him. Ramos Azkarate reworked the theme in his history-play “Remembering the fight of Beotibar” (1886).
• “Alos’s song”: published as a transcription, probably spuriously, by J. Venancio Araquistain in his Tradiciones vasco-cántabras (1866).

Similarly, of the numerous Basque legends that were published, many were contrived. The most famous is the legend of Aitor. Originally published in French (Aitor, légende cantabre, 1843) by the ubiquitously important Romantic Augustin Chaho, and later translated into Spanish by Arturo Campión, it became widely popular. According to the author, Chaho, Aitor is the patriarch of the Basque people and represents their universal nobility. He derived the name from Aita oro (“universal Father”); actually, it derives from the expression aitonen seme , which means “nobleman”, literally “ancestor’s son”.

Literary text editions in the proper sense peaked in the first two decades of the 19th century: these included re-editions of texts published in the preceding centuries by some of the most important authors of the time (Etxepare, Leizarraga, Axular) or reprints of ancient proverbs. There were also fresh editions of previously unpublished works by 17th- and early-18th-century authors like Etxeberri of Sara, Haraneder, Pierre d’Urte and Barrutia. Belated publication can still be noted in the case of the Basque-language novel Peru Abarca by Juan Antonio Moguel (1745–1804). Dating from 1802, it remained unpublished until 1881 (a bilingual Basque/Spanish version following in 1899).