Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 19_Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin

Birch-Hirschfeld, 4, 5, 6, 38, 52, 64_d_, 84,

full analysis of his work, 108-121,

Martin's criticism, 121-23, 124,

objections to his hypothesis, 125-126, 128, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138,

145, 151, 168, 171, 174, 207, 217, 220, 250,

Wolfram and Chrestien, 261-62.

Blaise, 113.

Blanchefleur, 92, 114, 115, 133,

comparison of Chrestien and Mabinogi, 135, 140, 147, 204, 238,

example of sex-relations of the time, 241.

Blood-drops in the snow, 137-38.

Books of Rights and Geasa, 213.

Borron, Robert de, author of the Joseph d'Arimathie, bibliographical

details, 2,

MS. statements respecting, 4-6, 19,

passage of Grail to England, 79-80, 94, 95, 96,

Hucher's views, 105-6,

relation to other versions according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-115,

116, 118-20,

Martin's views, 121-124, 125, 131, 171,

secret words, 186, 188,

Fisher King in, 207-9, 220, 221, 222,

his conception, 239,

chastity ideal in, 245, 247, 251, 252.

Bors, 66,

exemplification of spirit of Queste, 239.

Bötticher, Wolfram and Chrestien, 261.

Bran (the Blessed), 108,

and Cernunnos, 211,

connection with conversion of Britain, 218-20, 226,

connection with Brandan legend, 265.

Bran the Son of Febal, 192, 194, 232, 265.

Brandan legend, 264-65.

Branwen (Mabinogi of), 76, 97, 108, 167, 168,

cauldron, 186, 211, 219, 260.

Britain, evangelisation of, 80, 91, 95, 105-106, 107, 124, 218,

connection with the Brons and Joseph legends, 219-24.

Brons, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77,

special form of Early History, 78-79, 80, 81,

two accounts respecting, 82-83, 84, 85, 86, 88,

in the Didot-Perceval, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 109, 112, 113, 123,

124, 125, 182,

as Fisher King, 208-11,

as Apostle of Britain, 218-26, 235.

Bruillans, 84.

Brunhild, 232.

Bundling, 135.

Caesarius of Heisterbach, 122.

Campbell, J. F., 102-03, 152, 159-60,

cup of healing, 187, 210.

Campbell,

No. 1 Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, 187;

No. 10 The Three Soldiers, 195-96;

No. 41 The Widow and her Daughters, 187;

No. 47 Mac Iain Direach, 187, 212;

No. 51 The Fair Gruagach, 213;

No. 52 The Knight of the Red Shield, 156-57,

the resuscitating carlin, 166-67;

No. 58 The Rider of Grianaig, 157, 209;

No. 76 Conall Gulban, 167, 187;

No. 82 How the Een was set up, 158, 189;

No. 84 Manus, 189-90;

No. 86 The Daughter of King Under the Waves, 194-95, 246.

Campbell, J. G., Muilearteach, 167.

Catheloys, 84.

Celidoine, 83, 84.

Celtic tradition, origin of or elements in Grail legend, 7,

how affected by placing of versions, 68-69,

opinions of previous investigators, 97-107,

Birch-Hirschfeld, 111-113-14-15-17-20,

Martin, 121-24,

Hertz, 125,

Grail apparently foreign to, 151, 164-65,

Carlin in, 167-69, 170-71, 181, 183-84,

Vessel in, 184-88,

Sword in, 188-90, 191, 195, 197, 199, 208,

origin of legend, 215-18, 223-27,

relation to mediæval romance, 230,

individualism in, 231,

woman in, 231-33,

the supernatural in, 234, 235,

chastity ideal, 247, 248, 251,

transformation of, 255, 265.

Ceridwen, 186, 210-11.

Cernunnos, 211.

Cét mac Magach, 231.

Chanson de Roland, 248.

Charlemagne, Carolingian Saga, 197, 229, 230, 231.

Chastity ideal in the Queste, 243-44,

in later versions, 245-46,

in popular and Celtic tradition, 246-47.

Chessboard Castle, 127-30, 139-41.

Chrestien, bibliographical description, 1, 2,

statements of MSS. respecting, 4, 5, 8, 66, 69, 70, 74, 76, 80, 81,

85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95,

views of previous investigators, 98-108,

Birch-Hirschfeld, 108-121, 122, 124, 125, 126,

relation to Didot-Perceval, 127-131,

to Mabinogi, 132-145,

nature of model, 145-46,

relation to Sir Perceval, 147-51,

relation to Great Fool, 155-56-58-59, 164, 168,

visit to Grail Castle in, 171-74, 175,

represents mainly feud quest, 180-82, 199, 207, 208, 211, 218,

his ideal, 237-38, 245, 249, 250,

relation to Wolfram, 261-63.

Christian origin of or elements in Grail legend, Christian tradition,

legend, etc.;

as affected by placing of versions, 68, 80, 123, 143, 146, 165,

170-73, 179, 181, 186, 209,

as affected by my hypothesis, 215-18, 220, 224, 226-27,

relation to the talismans, 238-39, 251-52,

influence on the legend as a whole, 255.

Chronological arrangement of versions, 6,

Author's, 95-96,

Zarncke's, 107,

Birch-Hirschfelds', 120-21.

Conall Cearnach, 231.

Conan's delusions, 200.

Conchobor, 192, 231, 233.

Conduiramur, 204,

and Parzival, 249-51.

Connla, 188, 194, 196, 232.

Constituent elements in the romances, 215-16.

Corbenic, 83, 84.

Cormac's visit to the otherworld, 193-94, 234.

Counsels, the, in the romances, 150.

Crestiens, p. 83 = Nasciens, p. 84.

Cuchulainn, 153, 185, 188, 189,

conception of, 192,

_gess_ of, 214,

parallel of legend to mediæval romances, 231-34.

Cumhall, father of Fionn, 158-59.

Curoi mac Daire, 231.

Cynewulf, 221.

Dagda, the, and the cauldron, 184-85, 192.

Deirdre, 137,

and the Sons of Usnech, 233.

Diarmaid, 202,

_gess_ of, 214.

Didot-Perceval, prose sequel to Borron's poem, numbered as C 2, 65, 66,

68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82,

the Quest in, 89-91, 92, 93, 94, 96,

Zarncke's opinion of, 107,

Authorship of according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112-15, 117, 120, 121,

125, 126,

relationship to Conte du Graal, 127-30,

origin of, 131, 138, 139,

stag hunt in, 141-42, 145-46, 172-73, 179, 182, 191, 198-99, 208, 245.

Dietrich Saga, 230.

Domanig, Parzival-Studien, 250.

Duvau, 192.

Dwarves incident in Chrestien and Mabinogi, 134.

Elton, 219.

Emer, wooing of, 232-33.

Encyclopædia Britannica, 126.

England, arrival of Grail in 76-80,

Birch-Hirschfeld 116,

Joseph legend in 221-22.

Enygeus (Brons' wife), 81, 82.

Evangelium Nicodemi, 221-22.

Espinogre, 142.

Expulsion and Return Formula (Aryan), 144, 153-54, 156, 159, 163-64,

190, 210, 225, 256.

Fand, 232.

Faust, 253.

Fenian saga or cycle, sword in, 188-90, 230.

Feud-Quest in the romances and in Celtic tradition, 181-90.

Finn-eges, 209-11, 220.

Fionn (Finn), Fionn-saga, 153-54, 157,

connection with Great Fool and boyhood of Peredur, 158-59, 163-64,

Fionn's enchantment, 186-87,

and sword, 189-90, 195,

in the otherworld, 200-03,

and salmon, 209-11, 214, 220, 224, 231, 234, 256.

Fish, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, 112,

Martin, 123-24, 224.

See also Parzival and Peredur.

Perceval's aunt, 79.

Perceval's sister, 83-84, 163.

Perceval's uncle, 78.

Perceval le Gallois, numbered G 3, authorship, 6, 65-66, 69, 104, 121,

126, 246.

Peredur (hero of Mabinogi = Perceval), Peredur-saga, 106,

mother of, 115, 132-36,

parallel to Tom of the Goat-skin, 134,

the sword test, 138,

hero of the stag hunt, 139-42, 143,

original form of saga, 144-45, 153-54, 157, 162, 163, 164, 168-69,

and Fionn, 187 and 203, 220,

fish absent from, 224,

genesis and growth of, 225-227, 228,

Blanchefleur incident in, 241.

See Perceval.

Peronnik l'idiot, 125, 158.

Perseus, 256.

Petrus, 77, 82, 88-90, 106, 109, 112,

connection with Geoffrey conversion legend, 219.

Pfaffe Amis, 265.

Pilate, 65, 70.

Potter Thompson and Arthur, 198, 262.

Potvin, 1, 2, 6,

his views, 104, 174, 177.

Prester John, 100.

Procopius, 191.

Promised or Good Knight, and Grail Keeper, 80-86,

Galahad as, 85-86

work of, 86-91,

qualifications of, 92-93, 107, 109.

Prophecy incident in Grail romances, 156.

Pseudo-Chrestien, 8, 209.

Pseudo-Gautier, numbered AII_a_, 2, 15-16, 70, 72, 74, 77, 79, 81, 95.

Pseudo-Manessier, numbered AIII_a_, 2, 19, 72-73.

Queste del St. Graal, numbered D 2-3, varying redactions distinguished

typographically, 38, 65-67, 72, 75-76, 79,

three drafts of, 83-86, 90-91,

glorification of virginity in, 93, 95, 103, 107,

relation to Grand St. Graal, 108-09,

to Conte du Graal, 110-11, 112, 113,

authorship of, 117-20, 121, 126, 131, 146,

visit to Grail Castle in, 172-73, 180, 183, 186, 207, 218, 220, 222,

224, 226, 236,

ideal of, 238-40 and 243-44,

ideal criticised, 243-44,

merits of, 244-45, 246,

inferiority to Wolfram, 250, 251.

Question, Birch-Hirschfeld's opinion, 171, 180,

belongs to Unspelling Quest, 181-82, 191, 196, 203,

Wolfram's presentment, 249-50.

Red Knight, 147-49, 155-56, 162, 189.

Renan on Celtic poetry, 234-35.

Rhys, 198, 209, 211,

Bran legend, 219-20, 265.

Rich Fisher or King. See Fisher King.

Riseut, 141.

Robert de Borron. See Borron.

Rochat, 19,

his views, 101-02.

Roland, 229, 232.

Roménie, 118.

Rosette, 130, 141.

See Loathly Damsel.

Salmon of Wisdom, 209-10.

San Marte, views, 99-100, 101-02,

and Wolfram, 250-5.

Sarras, 72, 77, 79.

Schröder, Brandan legend, 264-65.

Seat, empty or Perillous, 81-82, 88-90.

Secret words, 73, 89, 179.

Seraphe, 108.

Sex-relations in Middle Ages, 240-42.

Siegfried, 157, 162, 203, 210, 232-33.

Simei, 90.

Simrock, views, 100-101, 103, 132, 134, 164, 251, 261-62.

Skeat, 104.

Skene, 219-20.

Sleep and the Magic Castle myth, 202-03.

Sleeping Beauty, parallel with Heinrich's version, 203,

ethical import of, 258.

Solomon's sword, 84.

See Sword.

Sons of Usnech, 137, 233.

Sorceresses of Gloucester, 101, 139, 156.

Spontaneity of folk tradition, 254, 257-58.

Stag Hunt in Conte du Graal and Mabinogi, 139-40,

in Didot-Perceval, 141,

parallel with Lay of Great Fool, 162.

Steinbach on Sir Perceval, 147-50.

Stephens, 219-20.

Stokes, 188, 200, 233.

Suetonius, 116.

Sword, 113, 142,

belongs more to Feud Quest, 180-82,

found also in Unspelling Quest, 183,

of Lug, 184,

in Celtic myth, 187-90, 198-99.

Taboo and Geasa, 214.

Taliesin, 97, 186,

and Oisin, 210-11.

Templars, 100.

Tennyson, 236, 244.

Tethra, 188.

Thor, Irish parallels to, 200-01.

Thornton MS. Sir Perceval (often simply Sir Perceval), numbered I 4, 66,

68-69, 101-02, 125, 126,

Steinbach's theory of, 147-50,

criticised, 149,

absence of Grail from, 151,

connection with Great Fool tale, 154-58, 162, 164-65,

witch incident, 169, 190, 225.

Tír-na n-Og, 191, 195, 223, 248, 264.

Titurel, 66.

Titus, 107.

Trinity, symbolizing of, 88.

Tuatha de Danann, treasures of, 184-85, 189-92, 223, 230.

Two Brothers tale, 157, 162-63.

Ultonian cycle, 185.

Unspelling Quest, 181,

Celtic parallels to, 190-206, 208.

Urban (Urlain), 83, 84, 183.

Van Santen, 252.

Vanishing of Bespelled Castle, 202-03.

Veronica (Verrine), 79, 116,

Ward's theory, 222.

Vespasian, 107, 116.

Vessel in Celtic myth, 184,

in Ultonian cycle, 185,

in Welsh myth, 186,

in Celtic folk-tales, 187.

See Grail.

Villemarqué, views 97-98, 101, 131, 148.

Virginity, 247.

Wagner, 252-54.

Ward, 220, 222.

Wartburg Krieg and Brandan legend, 264.

William of Malmesbury, 105,

Zarncke's opinion of, 107, 115,

Ward's opinion of, 220.

Windisch, 188, 219.

Witch who brings the dead to life, 165-69.

Wolfram von Eschenbach, numbered F 3, sources, 6, 25-26, 65-67, 69,

and Gerbert, 92, 99-102, 104, 107, 121-25, 150, 157,

brother incident in, 164, 172-73,

branch in, 193,

magician lord, 199,

account of mediæval morality, 240-41, 246,

ideal of, 248-52, 254, 255, 256,

pattern for future growth of legend, 261,

relation to Chrestien, 261-63.

Woman in Celtic tradition, 231-33.

Wülcker, Evangelium Nicodemi, 220-21.

Zarncke, views, 106-07, 115, 132, 220.

HARRISON AND SONS,

PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,

ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Fully described by Potvin, VI, lxix, etc.

[2] Potvin, VI, lxxv, etc.

[3] Birch-Hirschfeld: Die Sage vom Gral, 8vo., Leipzig, 1877, p. 81.

[4] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 89.

[5] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 110.

[6] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 232, quoting the colophon of a Paris MS., after

Paulin Paris, Cat. des MSS. français, vol. ii, pp. 361, etc.

[7] Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 143.

[8] This prologue is certainly not Chrestien's work; but there is no

reason to doubt that it embodies a genuine tradition, and affords valuable

hints for a reconstruction of the original form of the story. _Cf._ Otto

Küpp in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. xvii., No. 1.

[9] Potvin's text, from the Mons MS., is taken as basis.

[10] Several MSS. here intercalate the history of Joseph of Arimathea:

Joseph of Barimacie had the dish made; with it he caught the blood running

from the Saviour's body as it hung on the Cross, he afterwards begged the

body of Pilate; for the devotion showed the Grail he was denounced to the

Jews, thrown into prison, delivered thence by the Lord, exiled together

with the sister of Nicodemus, who had an image of the Lord. Joseph and his

companions came to the promised land, the White Isle, a part of England.

There they warred against them of the land. When Joseph was short of food

he prayed to the Creator to send him the Grail wherein he had gathered the

holy blood, after which to them that sat at table the Grail brought bread

and wine and meat in plenty. At his death, Joseph begged the Grail might

remain with his seed, and thus it was that no one, of however high

condition, might see it save he was of Joseph's blood. The Rich Fisher was

of that kin, and so was Greloguevaus, from whom came Perceval.

It is hardly necessary to point out that this must be an interpolation, as

if Gauvain had really learnt all there was to be told concerning the

Grail, there would have been no point in the reproaches addressed him by

the countryfolk. The gist of the episode is that he falls asleep before

the tale is all told.

[11] The existence of this fragment shows the necessity of collating all

the MSS. of the Conte du Graal and the impossibility of arriving at

definite conclusions respecting the growth of the work before this is

done. The writer of this version evidently knew nothing of Queste or Grand

St. Graal, whilst he had knowledge of Borron's poem, a fact the more

remarkable since none of the other poets engaged upon the Conte du Graal

knew of Borron, so far, at least, as can be gathered from printed sources.

It is hopeless in the present state of knowledge to do more than map out

approximately the leading sections of the work.

[12] It is by no means clear to me that Gerbert's portion of the Conte du

Graal is an interpolation. I am rather inclined to look upon it as an

independent finish. As will be shown later on, it has several features in

common with both Mabinogi and Wolfram, features pointing to a common

prototype.

[13] In the solitary MS. which gives this version, it follows, as has

already been stated, prose versions of Robert de Borron's undoubted poems,

"Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin."

[14] Birch-Hirschfeld, in his Summary (p. 37, l. 22) or his MS. authority,

B.M., xix, E. iii., has transposed the relationships.

[15] And buried it, adds B. H. in his Summary, whether on MS. authority or

not I cannot say, but the Welsh translation has--"there was a period of

240 years" (an obvious mistake on the part of the translator) "after the

passion of J. C. when Jos. of A. came; he who buried J. C. and drew him

down from the cross."

[16] Thus was Evelach called as a Christian, adds B. H. Here W. agrees

with Furnivall.

[17] Here Birch-Hirschfeld's Summary agrees with W.

[18] B. H. agrees with W.

[19] According to B. H., the recluse tells him he has fought with his

friends, whereupon, ashamed, he hurries off.

[20] B. H. here agrees with W.

[21] B. H. has _five_ candles.

[22] B. H.: "When will the Holy Vessel come to still the pain I feel?

Never suffered man as I."

[23] B. H. agrees with W.

[24] B. H. agrees with Furnivall.

[25] B. H., the _ninth_.

[26] B. H., the vision is that of a crowned old man, who with two knights

worships the cross.

[27] B. H., Nasciens.

[28] B. H. has all this passage, save that the references to the vision at

the cross-ways seem omitted.

[29] B. H., the latter.

[30] B. H., in Chaldee.

[31] B. H., Labran slays Urban.

[32] The 1488 text has Urban.

[33] B. H., Thus was the King wounded, and he was Galahad's grandfather.

[34] It does not appear from B. H.'s Summary whether his text agrees with

F. or W.

[35] B. H., seven knights.

[36] B. H., that was the Castle of Corbenic where the Holy Grail was kept.

[37] B. H., the Castle of the Maimed King.

[38] B. H., ten. Obviously a mistake on the part of his text, as the nine

with the three Grail questers make up twelve, the number of Christ's

disciples.

[39] B. H., three.

[40] B. H. agrees with F.

[41] One cannot see from B. H. whether his text agrees with F. or W.

[42] B. H. agrees with F.

[43] It will be advisable to give here the well-known passage from the

chronicle of Helinandus, which has been held by most investigators to be

of first-rate importance in determining the date of the Grand St. Graal.

The chronicle ends in the year 1204, and must therefore have been finished

in that or the following year, and as the passage in question occurs in

the earlier portion of the work it may be dated about two years earlier

(Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 33). "Hoc tempore (717-719) in Britannia cuidam

heremitae demonstrata fuit mirabilis quaedam visio per angelum de Joseph

decurione nobili, qui corpus domini deposuit de cruce et de catino illo

vel paropside, in quo dominus caenavit cum discipulis suis, de quo ab

eodem heremita descripta est historia quae dicitur gradale. Gradalis autem

vel gradale gallice dicitur scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua

preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post

alium in diversis ordinibus. Dicitur et vulgari nomine greal, quia grata

et acceptabilis est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte

argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i.

ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam

invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem

proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest."

The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which

Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not

have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its

introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal"

(_infra_, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but

fully developed elsewhere, _e.g._, in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's

poem.

Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found

dealt with in Appendix B.

[44] The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is

represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from the

sides and feet in the basin.

[45] MS. reading.

[46] I have not thought it necessary to give a summary of the prose

romance Perceval le Gallois. One will be found in Birch-Hirschfeld, pp.

123-134. The version, though offering many interesting features, is too

late and unoriginal to be of use in the present investigation.

[47] _Cf._ p. 78 as to this passage.

[48] It is forty-two years, according to D. Queste (p. 119), after the

Passion that Joseph comes to Sarras.

[49] It is plain that B I is abridged in the passage dealt with, from the

following fact: Joseph (v. 2,448, etc.) praying to Christ for help,

reminds Him of His command, that when he (Joseph) wanted help he should

come "devant ce veissel precieus Où est votre sans glorieus." Now Christ's

words to Joseph in the prison say nothing whatever about any such

recommendation; but E, Grand St. Graal, does contain a scene between our

Lord and Joseph, in which the latter is bidden, "Et quant tu vauras à moi

parler si ouuerras l'arche en quel lieu que tu soies" (I, 38-39) from

which the conclusion may be drawn that B I represents an abridged and

garbled form of the prototype of E.

[50] In the Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, the warriors cast

into the cauldron of renovation come forth on the morrow fighting men as

good as they were before, except that they are not able to speak (Mab., p.

381).

[51] The version summarised by Birch-Hirschfeld.

[52] Curiously enough this very text here prints Urban as the name of the

Maimed King; Urban is the antagonist of Lambar, the father of the Maimed

King in the original draft of the Queste, and his mention in this place in

the 1488 text seems due to a misprint. In the episode there is a direct

conflict of testimony between the first and second drafts, Lambar slaving

Urlain in the former, Urlain Lambar in the latter.

[53] This account agrees with that of the second draft of the Queste, in

which Urlain slays Lambar.

[54] Only _one_ beholder of the Quest is alluded to, although in the

Queste, from which the Grand St. Graal drew its account, _three_ behold

the wonders of the Grail.

[55] This, of course, belongs to the second of the two accounts we have

found in the poem respecting the Promised Knight, the one which makes him

the grandson and not the son merely of Brons.

[56] The object of the Quest according to Heinrich von dem Türlin will be

found dealt with in Chapter VII.

[57] This is one of a remarkable series of points of contact between

Gerbert and Wolfram von Eschenbach.

[58] It almost looks as if the author of C were following here a version

in which the hero only has to go once to the Grail Castle; nothing is said

about Perceval's first unsuccessful visit, and Merlin addresses Perceval

as if he were telling him for the first time about matters concerning

which he must be already fully instructed.

[59] It is remarkable, considering the scanty material at his disposal,

how accurate Schulz' analysis is, and how correct much of his

argumentation.

[60] Wagner has admirably utilised this hint of Simrock's in his Parsifal,

when his Kundry (the loathly damsel of Chrestien and the Mabinogi) is

Herodias. _Cf._ _infra_, Ch. X.

[61] Excepting, of course, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century

Paris imprints, which represented as a rule, however, the latest and most

interpolated forms, and Mons. Fr. Michel's edition of Borron's poem.

[62] Hucher's argument from v. 2817 (_supra_ p. 106) that the poem knew of

the Grand St. Graal is, however, not met.

[63] _Vide_ p. 200, for Birch-Hirschfeld's summary comparison of the two

works, and _cf._ _infra_ p. 127.

[64] _Cf._ _infra_ p. 128, for a criticism of this statement.

[65] Opera V. 410: Unde et vir ille eloquio clarus W. Mapus, Oxoniensis

archidiaconus (cujus animae propitietur Deus) solita verborum facetia et

urbanitate praecipua dicere pluris et nos in hunc modum convenire solebat:

"Multa, Magister Geralde, scripsistis et multum adhue scribitis, et nos

multa diximus. Vos scripta dedistis et nos verba."

[66] Printed in full, Hucher, I. 156, etc.

[67] Printed by Hucher, I. p. 35, etc.

[68] The remainder of Birch-Hirschfeld's work is devoted to proving that

Chrestien was the only source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the latter's Kiot

being imagined by him to justify his departure from Chrestien's version;

departures occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the French poet's

treatment of the subject on its moral and spiritual side. This element in

the Grail problem will be found briefly dealt with, Appendix A.

[69] I have not thought it necessary, or even advisable, to notice what

the "Encyclopædia Britannica" (Part XLI, pp. 34, 35) and some other

English "authorities" say about the Grail legends.

[70] They are brought together by Hucher, vol. i, p. 383, etc.

[71] In the preface to the second volume of his edition of Chrestien's

works (Halle, 1887), W. Förster distinguishes Peredur from the Lady of the

Fountain and from Geraint, which he looks upon as simple copies of

Chrestien's poems dealing with the same subjects. Peredur has, he thinks,

some Welsh features.

[72] It is perhaps only a coincidence that in Gautier the "pucelle de

malaire" is named Riseut la Bloie, and that Rosette la Blonde is the name

of the loathly damsel whom Perceval meets in company of the Beau Mauvais,

and whom Birch-Hirschfeld supposes to have suggested to Chrestien _his_

loathly damsel, the Grail messenger. But from the three versions one gets

the following:--Riseut (Gautier), loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval), Grail

messenger (Chrestien), = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the

loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt.

[73] I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis

that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing

statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it.

[74] THE COUNSELS. _Chrestien_ (v. 1,725, etc.): aid dames and damsels,

for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise;

displease them not in aught; one has much from kissing a maid if she will

to lie with you, but if she forbid, leave it alone; if she have ring, or

wristband, and for love or at your prayer give it, 'tis well you take it.

Never have comradeship with one for long without seeking his name; speak

ever to worthy men and go with them; ever pray in churches and monasteries

(then follows a dissertation on churches and places of worship generally).

_Mabinogi_ (p. 83): wherever a church, repeat there thy Paternoster; if

thou see meat and drink, and none offer, take; if thou hear an outcry,

especially of a woman, go towards it; if thou see a jewel, take and give

to another to obtain praise thereby; pay thy court to a fair woman,

_whether she will or no_, thus shalt thou render thyself a better man than

before. (In the italicised passage the Mabinogi gives the direct opposite

of Chrestien, whom he has evidently misunderstood.) _Sir Perceval_ (p.

16): "Luke thou be of mesure Bothe in haulle and boure, And fonde to be

fre." "There thou meteste with a knyghte, Do thi hode off, I highte, and

haylse hym in hy" (He interprets the counsel to be of measure by only

taking half the food and drink he finds at the board of the lady of the

tent. The kissing of the lady of the tent which follows is in no way

connected with his mother's counsel.) _Wolfram_: "Follow not untrodden

paths; bear thyself ever becomingly; deny no man thy greeting; accept the

teaching of a greybeard; if ring and greeting of a fair woman are to be

won strive thereafter, kiss her and embrace her dear body, for that gives

luck and courage, if so she be chaste and worthy." Beside the mother's

counsels Perceval is admonished by Gonemans or the personage corresponding

to him. In _Chrestien_ (2,838, _et seq._) he is to deny mercy to no knight

pleading for it; to take heed he be not over-talkful; to aid and counsel

dames and damsels and all others needing his counsel; to go often to

church; not to quote his mother's advice, rather to refer to him

(Gonemans). In the _Mabinogi_ he is to leave the habits and discourse of

his mother; if he see aught to cause him wonder not to ask its meaning. In

_Wolfram_ he is not to have his mother always on his lips; to keep a

modest bearing; to help all in need, but to give wisely, not heedlessly;

and in especial not to ask too much; to deny no man asking mercy; when he

has laid by his arms to let no traces thereof be seen, but to wash hands

and face from stain of rust, thereby shall ladies be pleased; to hold

women in love and honour; never to seek to deceive them (as he might do

many), for false love is fleeting and men and women are one as are sun and

daylight.--There seems to me an evident progression in the ethical

character of these counsels. Originally they were doubtless purely

practical and somewhat primitive of their nature. As it is, Chrestien's

words sound very strange to modern ears.

[75] In the notes to my two articles in the "Folk-Lore Record" will be

found a number of references establishing this fact.

[76] The hero renews his strength after his various combats by rubbing

himself with the contents of a vessel of balsam. He has moreover to enter

a house the door of which closes to of itself (like the Grail Castle

Portcullis in Wolfram), and which kills him. He is brought to life by the

friendly raven. The mysterious carlin also appears, "there was a turn of

her nails about her elbows, and a twist of her hoary hair about her toes,

and she was not joyous to look upon." She turns the hero's companions into

stone, and to unspell them he must seek a bottle of living water and rub

it upon them, when they will come out alive. This is like the final

incident in many stories of the Two Brothers class. _Cf._ note, p. 162.

[77] O'Daly's version consists of 158 quatrains; Campbell's of 63. The

correspondence between them, generally very close (frequently verbal), is

shown by the following table:--

O'D., 1, 2. C., 1, 2.

-- C., 3.

O'D., 3. C., 4.

O'D., 4-15. --

O'D., 16. C., 4.

O'D., 17-24. C., 5-12.

O'D., 25. --

-- C., 13-15.

O'D., 26-47. C., 16-36.

O'D., 48-56. --

O'D., 57-61. C., 37-40.

O'D., 62. --

O'D., 63-65. C., 41-43.

O'D., 66. C., 45.

O'D., 67. C., 44.

O'D., 68, 69. C., 46, 47.

O'D., 70. C., 49.

O'D., 71. C., 48.

-- C., 50.

O'D., 72. C., 52.

O'D., 73. --

O'D., 74. C., 53.

O'D., 75. C., 54.

O'D., 76-80. C., 55-59.

O'D., 81-134. --

O'D., 135, 136. C., 60, 61.

-- C., 62.

O'D., 137. --

O'D., 138. C., 63.

O'D., 139-158. --

[78] Of this widely spread group, Grimm's No. 60, Die zwei Brüder, may be

taken as a type. The brethren eat heart and liver of the gold bird and

thereby get infinite riches, are schemed against by a goldsmith, who would

have kept the gold bird for himself, seek their fortunes throughout the

world accompanied by helping beasts, part at crossways, leaving a life

token to tell each one how the other fares; the one delivers a princess

from a dragon, is cheated of the fruit of the exploit by the Red Knight,

whom after a year he confounds, wins the princess, and, after a while,

hunting a magic hind, falls victim to a witch. His brother, learning his

fate through the life token, comes to the same town, is taken for the

young king even by the princess, but keeps faith to his brother by laying

a bare sword twixt them twain at night. He then delivers from the witch's

spells his brother, who, learning the error caused by the likeness, and

thinking advantage had been taken of it, in a fit of passion slays him,

but afterwards, hearing the truth, brings him back to life again. Grimm

has pointed out in his notes the likeness between this story and that of

Siegfried (adventures with Mimir, Fafnir, Brunhilde, and Gunnar). In India

the tale figures in Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (Brockhaus' translation,

ii., 142, _et seq._). The one brother is transformed into a demon through

accidental sprinkling from a body burning on a bier. He is in the end

released from this condition by his brother's performing certain exploits,

but there is no similarity of detail. Other variants are _Zingerle_ (p.

131) where the incident occurs of the hero's winning the king's favour by

making his bear dance before him; this I am inclined to look upon as a

weakened recollection of the incident of a hero's making a princess

_laugh_, either by playing antics himself or making an animal of his play

them (_see_ _supra_, p. 134, Kennedy's Irish Tale). Grimm also quotes

_Meier_ 29 and 58, but these are only variants of the dragon-killing

incident. In the variant of 29, given p. 306, the hero makes the king

laugh, and in both stories occurs the familiar incident of the hero coming

unknown into a tournament and overcoming all enemies, as in Peredur (Inc.

9). _Wolf._, p. 369, is closer, and here the hero is counselled by a grey

mannikin whom he will unspell if he succeeds. _Stier_, No. I. (not p. 67,

as Grimm erroneously indicates) follows almost precisely the same course

as Grimm's 60, save that there are three brothers. _Graal_, p. 195, has

the magic gold bird opening, but none of the subsequent adventures tally.

_Schott_, No. 11, is also cited by Grimm, but mistakenly; it belongs to

the faithful-servant group. Very close variants come from Sweden

(Cavallius-Oberleitner, V_a_, V_b_) and Italy (Pentamerone, I. 7 and I.

9). The Swedish tales have the miraculous conception opening, which is a

prominent feature in tales belonging to the Expulsion and Return group

(_e.g._, Perseus, Cu-Chulaind, and Taliesin), but present otherwise very

nearly the same incidents as Grimm. The second of the Italian versions has

the miraculous conception opening so characteristic of this group of

folk-tales, and of the allied formula group, the attainment of riches

consequent upon eating the heart of a sea dragon, the tournament incident

(though without the disguise of the hero), the stag hunt, wherein the

stag, an inimical wizard haunting the wood, is a cannibal and keeps the

captured hero for eating. In the story of the delivery by the second

brother, the separating sword incident occurs. The first version opens

with what is apparently a distorted and weakened form of the hero's

clearing a haunted house of its diabolical inmates (_see_ _infra_ Ch.

VII., Gawain) and then follows very closely Grimm's Two Brothers, save

that the alluring witch is young and fair, the whole tale being made to

point the moral, "more luck than wit." Straparola, _a_ 3, is a variant of

the dragon fight incident alone. It is impossible not to be struck by the

fact that in this widely spread group of tales are to be found some of the

most characteristic incidents of the Perceval and allied Great Fool group.

The only version, however, which brings the two groups into formal contact

is O'Daly's form of the Great Fool.

[79] The brother feature appears likewise in Wolfram von Eschenbach, where

Parzival's final and hardest struggle is against the unknown brother, as

the Great Fool's is against the Gruagach. This may be added to other

indications that Wolfram _did_ have some other version before him besides

Chrestien's.

[80] I cannot but think that these words have connection with the incident

in the English Sir Perceval of the hero's throwing into the flames and

thus destroying his witch enemy.

[81] I must refer to my Mabinogion Studies, I. Branwen for a discussion of

the relation of this tale with Branwen and with the Teutonic Heldensage.

[82] Another parallel is afforded by the tale of Conall Gulban (Campbell,

III., 274). Conall, stretched wounded on the field, sees "when night grew

dark a great Turkish carlin, and she had a white glaive of light with

which she could see seven miles behind her and seven miles before her; and

she had a flask of balsam carrying it." The dead men are brought to life

by having three drops of balsam put into their mouths. The hero wins both

flask and glaive.

[83] _Cf._ my Branwen for remarks on the mythological aspect of the

ballad. It should be noted that most of the ballads traditionally current

in the Highlands are of semi-literary origin, _i.e._, would seem to go

back to the compositions of mediæval Irish bards, who often sprinkled over

the native tradition a profusion of classical and historical names. I do

not think the foreign influence went farther than the "names" of some

personages, and such as it is is more at work in the ballads than in the

tales.

[84] This may seem to conflict with the statement made above (p. 145),

that the Mabinogi probably took over the maimed uncle from Chrestien. But

there were in all probability several forms of the story; that hinted at

in Chrestien and found in Manessier had its probable counterpart in Celtic

tradition as well as that found in Gerbert. It is hardly possible to

determine what was the form found in the proto-Mabinogi, the possibility

of its having been exactly the same as that of Gerbert is in no way

affected by the fact that the Mabinogi, as we now have it, has in this

respect been influenced by Chrestien. Meanwhile Birch-Hirschfeld's

hypothesis that Gerbert's section of the Conte du Graal is an

interpolation between Gautier and Manessier is laid open to grave doubt.

It is far more likely that Gerbert's work was an independent and original

attempt to provide an ending for Chrestien's unfinished poem, and that he

had before him a different version of the original from that used by

Gautier and Manessier.

[85] It occurs also in Peredur (Inc. 16), where the hero comes to the

Castle of the Youths, who, fighting every day against the Addanc of the

Cave, are each day slain, and each day brought to life by being anointed

in a vessel of warm water and with precious balsam.

[86] For the second time, if Gerbert's continuation be really intended for

our present text of Gautier, and if Potvin's summary of Gerbert is to be

relied upon; Birch-Hirschfeld seemingly differs from him here, and makes

the King at once mention the flaw.

[87] It may be worth notice that v. 35,473 is the same as Chrestien, v.

4,533.

[88] It is evident that, although in the MS. in which this version is

found it is followed by Manessier's section, the poem was intended by

Gerbert to end here.

[89] Told at other times, and notably by Gautier himself (Inc. 21), of

Perceval, where the feature of a dead knight lying on the altar is added.

[90] According to the Montpellier MS., which here agrees substantially

with Potvin's text (the Mons MS.), this is Gauvain's second visit to the

Grail Castle. At his first visit he had been subjected to the sword test

and had slept. The mystic procession is made up as follows:--Squire with

lance; maidens with plate; two squires with candlesticks; fair maiden

weeping, in her hands a "graal;" four squires with the bier, on which lies

the knight and the broken sword. Gauvain would fain learn about these

things, but is bidden first to make the sword whole. On his failure he is

told

Vous n'avez par encore tant fet

D'armes, que vous doiez savoir, etc.,

and then goes to sleep. His awakening finds him in a marsh.

[91] It may be conjectured that the magic vessel which preserves to this

enchanted folk the semblance of life passes into the hero's possession

when he asks about it, and that deprived of it their existence comes to an

end, as would that of the Anses without the Apples of Iduna. I put this

into a note, as I have no evidence in support of the theory. But read in

the light of this conjecture some hitherto unnoticed legend may supply the

necessary link of testimony.

[92] Nearly all the objections to the view suggested in the text may be

put aside as due to insufficient recognition of the extent to which the

two formulas have been mingled, but there is one which seems to me of real

moment. The wasting of the land which I have looked upon as belonging to

the unspelling formula, is traced by the Queste to the blow struck by King

Lambar against King Urlain, a story which, as we have seen, is very

similar to that which forms the groundwork of one at least of the models

followed by the Conte du Graal in its version of the feud quest. It does

not seem likely that the Queste story is a mere echo of that found in the

Conte du Graal, nor that the fusion existed so far back as in a model

common to both. But the second alternative is possible.

[93] I do not follow M. Hucher upon the (as it seems to me) very insecure

ground of Gaulish numismatic art. The object which he finds figured in

pre-Christian coins may be a cauldron--and it may not--and even if it is a

cauldron it may have no such significance as he ascribes to it.

[94] _Cf._ as to Lug D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique

Irlandais; Paris, 1884, p. 178. He was revered by all Celtic races, and

has left his trace in the name of several towns, chief among them

Lug-dunum = Lyons. In so far as the Celts had departmental gods, he was

the god of handicraft and trade; but _cf._ as to this Rhys, Hibb. Lect.,

p. 427-28.

[95] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 269-290. The Dagda--the

good god--seems to have been head of the Irish Olympus. A legend anterior

to the eleventh century, and belonging probably to the oldest stratum of

Celtic myth, ascribes to him power over the earth: without his aid the

sons of Miledh could get neither corn nor milk. It is, therefore, no

wonder to find him possessor of the magic cauldron, which may be looked

upon as a symbol of fertility, and, as such, akin to similar symbols in

the mythology of nearly every people.

[96] _Cf._ as to the mythic character of the Tuatha de Danann, D'Arbois de

Jubainville, _op. cit._, and my review of his work, Folk-Lore Journal,

June, 1884.

[97] I at one time thought that the prohibition to reveal the "secret

words," which is such an important element in Robert de Borron's version,

might be referred to the same myth-root as the instances in the text.

There is little or no evidence to sustain such a hazardous hypothesis.

Nevertheless it is worth while drawing attention in this place to that

prohibition, for which I can offer no adequate explanation.

[98] Powers of darkness and death. Tethra their king reigns in an island

home. It is from thence that the maiden comes to lure away Connla of the

Golden Hair, as is told in the Leabhar na-h-Uidhre, even as the Grail

messenger comes to seek Perceval--"'tis a land in which is neither death

nor old age--a plain of never ending pleasure," the counterpart, in fact,

of that Avalon to which Arthur is carried off across the lake by the fay

maiden, that Avalon which, as we see in Robert de Borron, was the earliest

home of the Grail-host.

[99] _Cf._ D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._ p. 188.

[100] When Cuchulainn was opposing the warriors of Ireland in their

invasion of Ulster one of his feats is to make smooth chariot-poles out of

rough branches of trees by passing them through his clenched hand, so that

however bent and knotted they were they came from his hands even,

straight, and smooth. _Tain bo Cualgne_, quoted by Windisch, Rev. Celt.,

Vol. V.

[101] This epithet recalls Lug, of whom it is the stock designation. Now

Lug was _par excellence_ the craftsman's god; he, too, at the battle of

Mag Tured acted as a sort of armourer-general to the Tuatha de Danann. A

dim reminiscence of this may be traced in the words which the folk-tale

applies to Ullamh l.f., "he was the one special man for taking their

arms."

[102] _Cf._ my Aryan Expulsion and Return formula, pp. 8, 13, for variants

of these incidents in other stories belonging to this cycle and in the

allied folk-tales.

[103] This incident is only found in the living Fionn-_sage_, being absent

from all the older versions, and yet, as the comparison with the allied

Perceval sage shows, it is an original and essential feature. How do the

advocates of the theory that the Ossianic cycle is a recent mass of

legend, growing out of the lives and circumstances of historical men,

account for this development along the lines of a formula with which, _ex

hypothesi_, the legend has nothing to do? The Fionn-_sage_, it is said,

has been doctored in imitation of the Cuchulainn-_sage_, but the assertion

(which though boldly made has next to no real foundation) cannot be made

in the case of the Conte du Graal. Mediæval Irish bards and unlettered

Highland peasants did not conspire together to make Fionn's adventures

agree with those of Perceval.

[104] In the Gawain form of the feud quest found in Gautier, the knight

whose death he sets forth to avenge is slain by the cast of a dart. Can

this be brought into connection with the fact that Perceval slays with a

cast of his dart the Red Knight, who, according to the Thornton romance,

is his father's slayer.

[105] This prose tale precedes an oral version of one of the commonest

Fenian poems, which in its present shape obviously goes back to the days

when the Irish were fighting against Norse invaders. The poem, which still

lives in Ireland as well as in the Highlands, belongs to that later stage

of development of the Fenian cycle, in which Fionn and his men are

depicted as warring against the Norsemen. It is totally dissimilar from

the prose story summarised above, and I am inclined to look upon the prose

as belonging to a far earlier stage in the growth of the cycle, a stage in

which the heroes were purely mythical and their exploits those of mythical

heroes generally.

[106] The prohibition seems to be an echo of the widely-spread one which

forbids the visitor to the otherworld tasting the food of the dead, which,

if he break, he is forfeit to the shades. The most famous instance of this

myth is that of Persephone.

[107] _Cf._ Procopius quoted by Elton, Origins of English History, p. 84.

[108] Prof. Rhys, Hibbert Lectures for 1886, looks upon him as a Celtic

Zeus. He dispossessed his father of the Brug by fraud, as Zeus

dispossessed Kronos by force.

[109] D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 275. Rhys, _op. cit._, p.

149.

[110] M. Duvau, Revue Celtique, Vol. IX., No. 1, has translated the

varying versions of the story.

[111] Like many of the older Irish tales the present form is confused and

obscure, but it is easy to arrive at the original.

[112] The part in brackets is found in one version only of the story. Of

the two versions each has retained certain archaic features not to be

found in the other.

[113] Summarised by D'Arbois de Jubainville, _op. cit._, p. 323.

[114] D'Arbois de Jubainville, p. 326.

[115] Otto Küpp, Z.f.D. Phil. xvii, i, 68, examining Wolfram's version

sees in the branch guarded by Gramoflanz and broken by Parzival a trace of

the original myth underlying the story. Gramoflanz is connected with the

Magic Castle (one of the inmates of which is his sister), or with the

otherworld. Küpp's conjecture derives much force from the importance given

to the branch in the Irish tales as part of the gear of the otherworld.

[116] This recalls the fact that Oengus of the Brug fell in love with a

swanmaid. See text and translation Revue Celtique, Vol. III., pp. 341,

_et. seq._ The story is alluded to in the catalogue of epic tales (dating

from the tenth century) found in the Book of Leinster.

[117] In a variant from Kashmir (Knowles' Folk-tales of Kashmir, London,

1888, p. 75, _et. seq._), Saiyid and Said, this tale is found embedded in

a twin-brethren one.

[118] Frederick (I.) Barbarossa is a mistake, as old as the seventeenth

century (_cf._ Koch, Sage vom Kaiser Friedrich in Kyffhäuser, Leipzig,

1886), for Frederick II., the first German Emperor of whom the legend was

told. The mistake was caused by the fact that Frederick took the place of

a German red-bearded god, probably Thor, hence the later identification

with the _red-bearded_ Frederick, instead of with that great opponent of

the Papacy whose death away in Italy the German party refused for many

years to credit.

[119] Unless the passage relating to Carl the Great quoted by Grimm (D.M.,

III., 286) from Mon. Germ. Hist., Vol. VIII., 215, "inde fabulosum illud

confictum de Carolo Magno, quasi de mortuis in id ipsum resuscitato, et

alio nescio quo nihilominus redivivo," be older.

[120] Liebrecht's edition of the Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, p. 12,

and note p. 55.

[121] Martin Zur Gralsage, p. 31, arguing from the historical connection

of Frederick II. with Sicily, thinks that the localisation of this

Arthurian legend in that isle was the reason of its being associated with

the Hohenstauffen; in other words, the famous German legend would be an

indirect offshot of the Arthurian cycle. I cannot follow Martin here. I

see no reason for doubting the genuineness of the traditions collected by

Kuhn and Schwartz, or for disbelieving that Teutons had this myth as well

as Celts. It is no part of my thesis to exalt Celtic tradition at the

expense of German; almost all the parallels I have adduced between the

romances and Celtic mythology and folk-lore could be matched from those of

Germany. But the romances are historically associated with Celtic

tradition, and the parallels found in the latter are closer and more

numerous than those which could be recovered from German tradition. It is,

therefore, the most simple course to refer the romances to the former

instead of to the latter.

[122] See Grimm, D.M., Ch. XXXII.; Fitzgerald, Rev. Celt., IV., 198; and

the references in Liebrecht, _op. cit._

[123] Personally communicated by the Rev. Mr. Sorby, of Sheffield.

[124] In Chrestien the part of the Magician Lord is little insisted upon.

But in Wolfram he is a very important personage. It may here be noted that

the effects which are to follow in Chrestien the doing away with the

enchantments of this Castle, answer far more accurately to the description

given by the loathly Grail-Maiden of the benefits which would have accrued

had Perceval put the question at the Court of the Fisher King than to

anything actually described as the effect of that question being put,

either by Gautier, Manessier, or Gerbert. This castle seems, too, to be

the one in which lodge the Knights, each having his lady love with him,

which the loathly maiden announces to be her home.

[125] Kennedy follows in the main Oss. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 118, _et. seq._,

an eighteenth century version translated by Mr. O'Kearney. This particular

episode is found, pp. 147, _et. seq._ I follow the Oss. Soc. version in

preference to Kennedy's where they differ.

[126] The story as found in Heinrich may be compared with the folk-tale of

the Sleeping Beauty. She is a maiden sunk in a death-in-life sleep

together with all her belongings until she be awakened by the kiss of the

destined prince. May we not conjecture that in an older form of the story

than any we now possess, the court of the princess vanished when the

releasing kiss restored her to real life and left her alone with the

prince? The comparison has this further interest, that the folk-tale is a

variant of an old myth which figures prominently in the hero-tales of the

Teutonic race (Lay of Skirni, Lay of Swipday and Menglad, Saga of Sigurd

and Brunhild), and that in its most famous form Siegfried, answering in

Teutonic myth to Fionn, is its hero. But Peredur is a Cymric Fionn, so

that the parallel between the two heroes, Celtic and Teutonic, is closer

than at first appears when Siegfried is compared only to his Gaelic

counterpart.

[127] I have not examined Gawain's visit to the Magic Castle in detail, in

the first place because it only bears indirectly upon the Grail-Quest, and

then because I hope before very long to study the personality of Gawain in

the romances, and to throw light upon it from Celtic mythic tradition in

the same way that I have tried in the foregoing pages to do in the case of

Perceval.

[128] Kennedy, Legendary Fictions, p. 154, _et. seq._

[129] Grimm, Vol. III., p. 9 (note to Märchen von einem der auszog das

Fürchten zu lernen), gives a number of variants. It should be noted that

in this story there is the same mixture of incidents of the Magic Castle

and Haunted Castle forms as in the romances. Moreover, one of the trials

to which the hero's courage is subjected is the bringing into the room of

a coffin in which lies a dead man, just as in Gawain's visit to the Grail

Castle. Again, as Grimm notes, but mistakenly refers to Perceval instead

of to Gawain, the hero has to undergo the adventures of the magic bed,

which, when he lays himself down in it, dashes violently about through the

castle and finally turns topsy turvy. In connection with this story, and

with the whole series of mythical conceptions noted in the Grail romances,

Chapter XXXII. of the Deutsche Mythologie deserves careful study. Grimm

compares Conduiramur's (Blanchefleur's) nightly visit to Percival's

chamber to the appearance at the bedside of the delivering hero of that

white maiden, who is so frequently figured as the inmate of the Haunted

Castle. As niece of the Lord of the Grail Castle, Blanchefleur is also a

denizen of the otherworld, but I hardly think that the episode of

Perceval's delivering her from her enemies can be looked upon as a version

of the removal of the spells of the Haunted Castle. In a recent number of

the Revue des Traditions Populaires (III., p. 103), there is a good Breton

version of the Bespelled Castle sunk under the waves. A fair princess is

therein held captive; once a year the waves part and permit access, and he

who is bold enough to seize the right moment wins princess and castle,

which are restored to earth.

[130] Whether it be the Castle of the Fisher King, _i.e._, the Castle of

the Perceval Quest; or the Magic Castle, _i.e._, the Castle of the Gawain

Quest.

[131] For fuller information about this mysterious fish, see Rhys, Hibbert

Lectures, pp. 553-54.

[132] In an already quoted tale of Campbell's (LVIII., the Rider of

Grianaig) allusion is made to the "black fisherman working at his tricks."

Campbell remarks that a similar character appears in other tales. Can this

wizard fisher be brought into contact with the Rich Fisher of

Pseudo-Chrestien (_supra_, p. 8), who knew much of black art, and could

change his semblance a hundred times?

[133] Complete text, edited by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celt., Vol. V. Major

portion of text with English translation by Dr. J. O'Donovan, Oss. Soc.,

Vol. IV. The tract as a whole is only known to us from a fifteenth century

MS.; but the earlier portion of it appears in the L.n.H., in a strongly

euhemerised form, only such incidents being admitted as could be presented

historically, and these being divested of all supernatural character. See

my paper, "Folk-Lore Record," Vol. IV., for a discussion of the genuine

and early character of the tract.

[134] A reason for this concealment may be found in the idea, so

frequently met with in a certain stage of human development, that the name

is an essential portion of the personality, and must not be mentioned,

especially to possible enemies or to beings possessed of magical powers,

lest they should make hurtful use of it.

[135] _Cf._ the whole of the Book of Rights for an exemplification of the

way in which the pre-Christian Irishman was hedged and bound and fettered

by this amazingly complicated system of what he might and what he might

not do.

[136] They offer him dog's-flesh cooked on rowan spits, and, it has been

conjectured that the _gess_ has a totemistic basis, Culann's Hound

(Cuchulainn) being forbidden to partake of the flesh of his totem.

[137] It is only within the last 100 years that our knowledge of savage

and semi-savage races has furnished us with a parallel to the "geasa" in

the "taboo" of the Polynesian. I am not advancing too much in the

statement that this institution, although traces of it exist among all

Aryan races, had not the same importance among any as among the Irish

Gael. It is another proof of the primitive character of Irish social life,

a character which may, perhaps, be ascribed to the assimilation by the

invading Celts of the beliefs and practices of much ruder races.

[138] Mr. Elton (Origins, pp. 291, 292) looks upon Bran and Caradoc as

original war gods. Caradoc, he thinks, was confounded with Caractacus,

Bran with Brennus, and hence the two personages were sent to Rome in

imitation of the presumed historical prototypes.

[139] Kynddelw's triad does not really refer to the "blessed" families at

all, but to the "faithful" or "loyal" families. Stephen's mistake arose

from the fact of the name Madawc occurring in two sets of triads, one

relating to the "lordly" families of Britain in which the family of Llyr

Llediath also figures, and one to the faithful families. In both triads

the name is probably a mistake for Mabon. (Note communicated by Professor

Rhys.)

I let the statement in the text stand, to exhort myself and others to that

fear of trusting authorities which in scholarship is the beginning of

wisdom.

[140] Professor Rhys tells me this passage can only mean "Blessed Bran's

head."

[141] Mr. Ward endorses Zarncke's contention. According to him there is no

trace of any connection between Joseph and the evangelisation of Britain

which can be said to be older than the romances. The statements of the "De

ant. eccl. Glast." are, he thinks, no guide to the knowledge or opinions

of William of Malmesbury.

[142] I may here notice a theory to which my attention has only just been

called. It is found cited in a work of great research, _Die Fronica_, by

Professor Karl Pearson, Strassburg, 1887. The author quotes an opinion of

Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, that the head in the platter of the

Mabinogi may be derived from a Veronica portrait. Professor Pearson

expresses doubt, because such a procession of the Veronica portrait and

the Passion Instruments as the scene in the Mabinogi would, _ex

hypothesi_, imply is not known to him before the fourteenth century,

whereas the Mabinogi must be attributed, at latest, to the middle of the

thirteenth century. Mr. H. L. D. Ward informs me that the suggestion was

his. Noting the connection of the Veronica and Grail legends, testified to

by Borron, it occurred to him that the whole scene at the Wounded King's

might be derived from the former legends. The Wounded King, healed by the

Grail, would thus be a counterpart of the leprous Vespasian healed by the

Veronica portrait, which some wandering "jongleur" turned boldly into an

actual head. But it must be noted that in Borron, our authority for the

connection of the two legends, there is no Wounded King at all; in the

Conte du Graal the Maimed King is not healed by any special talisman, but

by the death of his enemy, the visible sign of which is that enemy's head,

whilst in the "procession" (which Mr. Ward thinks to have been intended as

a vision), the Grail is certainly a vessel, and has no connection whatever

with any head or portrait. The theory thus requires that the version which

gives the oldest form of the hypothetical remodelled Veronica legend

omitted the very feature which was its sole _raison d'être_.

[143] Mr. Ward thinks the localisation a late one, and that practically

there is no authority for it of an older date than the romances. He points

out in especial that Geoffrey's Vita Merlini, which has so much to say

about the "insula pomorum" in no way connects it with Glastonbury. There

is considerable doubt as the etymology of Glastonbury, but there is

substantial unanimity of opinion among Celtic scholars of the present day

in referring it to a Celtic rather than to a Saxon source. Be this as it

may, the fact remains that at sometime in the course of the twelfth

century the old Christian site of Glastonbury took, as it were, the place

of the Celtic paradise, and it seems far more likely that the

transformation was effected in virtue of some local tradition than wholly

through the medium of foreign romances.

[144] The pre-Christian Irish annals, which are for the most part

euhemerised mythology, contain also a certain amount of race history; thus

the struggle between the powers of light and darkness typified by the

antagonism between Tuatha de Danann and Fomori, is doubled by that between

the fair invading Celts and the short dark aborigines. But the latter has

only left the barest trace of its existence in the national sagas. Not

until we come to that secondary stage of the Fenian saga, which must have

been shaped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which represents

the Fenians as warring against the harrying Northmen, does the foreign

element reappear in Irish tradition.

[145] The Tochmarc Emer, or the Wooing of Emer by Cuchullain, has been

translated by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Archæological Review, Nos. 1-4

(London, 1888). The original text is found partly in the Leabhar na

h-Uidhre, partly in later MSS.

[146] The fate of the Sons of Usnech is known to us in two main

redactions, one found in the Book of Leinster (compiled in the middle of

the twelfth century from older MS.) printed by Windisch, Irische Texte

(first series) pp. 67-82, and translated by M. Poinsignon, Revue des

Traditions Populaires, III, pp. 201-207. A text printed and translated by

J. O'Flanagan (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, pp.

146-177), agrees substantially with this. The second redaction has only

been found in later MSS. Mr. Whitley Stokes has given text and translation

from a fifteenth century MS. (Irische Texte, II. 2, pp. 109-178), and

O'Flanagan has edited a very similar version (_loc. cit._ pp. 16-135).

This second version is fuller and more romantic; in it alone is to be

found Deirdre's lament on leaving Scotland, one of the earliest instances

in post-classic literature of personal sympathy with Nature.

But the earlier version, though it bear like so much else in the oldest

Irish MS. obvious traces of abridgment and euhemerism, is also full of the

most delicate romantic touches. Part of Deirdre's lament over the slain

Noisi may be paraphrased thus:--"Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty;

beloved, upright and strong; beloved, noble and modest warrior. When we

wandered through the woods of Ireland, sweet with thee was the night's

sleep! Fair one, blue-eyed, beloved of thy wife, lovely to me at the

trysting place came thy clear voice through the woods. I cannot sleep;

half the night my spirit wanders far among throngs of men. I cannot eat or

smile. Break not to-day my heart; soon enough shall I lie within my grave.

Strong are the waves of the sea, but stronger is sorrow, Conchobor."

[147] M. Renan's article "De la Poésie des Races Celtiques" (Revue des

Deux Mondes, 1854, pp. 473-506) only came into my hands after the bulk of

this chapter was printed, or I should hardly have dared to state in my own

words those conclusions in which we agree. It may be useful to indicate

those points in which I think this suggestive essay no longer represents

the present state of knowledge. When M. Renan wrote, the nature of popular

tradition had been little investigated in France--hence a tendency to

attribute solely to the Celtic genius what is common to all popular

tradition. Little or nothing was then known in France of early Irish

history or literature--hence the wild, primitive character of Celtic

civilization is ignored. The "bardic" literature of Wales was still

assigned wholesale to the age of its alleged authors--hence a false

estimate of the relations between the profane and ecclesiastical writings

of the Welsh. Finally the three Mabinogion (The Lady of the Fountain,

Geraint, Peredur), which correspond to poems of Chrestien's, are

unhesitatingly accepted as their originals. The influence of Welsh fiction

in determining the courtly and refined nature of mediæval romance is, in

consequence, greatly exaggerated. It is much to be wished that M. Renan

would give us another review of Celtic literature based on the work of the

last thirty years. His lucid and sympathetic criticism would be most

welcome in a department of study which has been rather too exclusively

left to the specialist.

[148] Malory is a wonderful example of the power of style. He is a most

unintelligent compiler. He frequently chooses out of the many versions of

the legend, the longest, most wearisome, and least beautiful; his own

contributions to the story are beneath contempt as a rule. But his

language is exactly what it ought to be, and his has remained in

consequence the classic English version of the Arthur story.

[149] See p. 112 for a brief summary of Borron's conception; Sin the cause

of want among the people; the separation of the pure from the impure by

means of the fish (symbol of Christ); punishment of the self-willed false

disciple; reward of Brons by charge of the Grail; symbolising of the

Trinity by the three tables and three Grail Keepers.

[150] The greater delicacy of the Welsh tale has already been noted. "To

make him such a offer before I am wooed by him, that, truly, can I not

do," says the counterpart of Blanchefleur in the Mabinogi. "Go my sister

and sleep," answers Peredur, "nor will I depart from thee until I do that

which thou requirest." I cannot help looking upon the prominence which the

Welsh story-teller has given to this scene as his protest against the

strange and to him repulsive ways of knightly love. The older, mythic

nature of Peredur's beloved, who might woo without forfeiting womanly

modesty, in virtue of her goddesshood, had died away in the narrator's

mind, the new ideal of courtly passion had not won acceptance from him.

[151] The perplexities which beset the modern reader of the Queste are

reflected in the Laureate's retelling of the legend. Nowhere else in the

Idylls has he departed so widely from his model. Much of the incident is

due to him, and replaces with advantage the nauseous disquisitions upon

chastity which occupy so large a space in the Queste. The artist's

instinct, rather than the scholar's respect for the oldest form of the

story, led him to practically restore Perceval to his rightful place as

hero of the quest. _His_ fortunes we can follow with an interest that

passing shadow, Galahad, wholly fails to evoke. Nor, as may easily be

seen, is the fundamental conception of the twelfth century romance to the

Laureate's taste. Arthur is his ideal of manhood, and Arthur's energies

are practical and human in aim and in execution. What the "blameless king"

speaks when he first learns of the quest represents, we may guess, the

author's real attitude towards the whole fantastic business.

It is much to be regretted by all lovers of English poetry that Hawker's

Quest of the Sangraal was never completed. The first and only chant is a

magnificent fragment; with the exception of the Laureate's Sir Galahad,

the finest piece of pure literature in the cycle. Hawker, alone, perhaps

of moderns, could have kept the mediæval tone and spirit, and yet brought

the Quest into contact with the needs and ideas of to-day.

[152] _Cf._ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 811, and his references.

[153] The ideas held by many peoples in a primitive stage of culture

respecting virginity are worthy careful study. Some physiological basis

may be found for them in the phenomena of hysteria, which must necessarily

have appeared to such peoples evidences of divine or demoniac possession,

and at that stage are hardly likely to have been met with save among

unmarried women. In the French witch trials these phenomena are often

presented by nuns, in whose case they were probably the outcome of a life

at once celibate and inactive. On the other hand the persons accused of

witchcraft were as a rule of the most abandoned character, and it is a,

morally speaking, degraded class which has furnished Professor Charcot and

his pupils with the subjects in whom they have identified all the

phenomena that confront the student of witch trials.

[154] Domanig, Parzival-Studien, I, II, 1878-80.

[155] San-Marte, Parzival-Studien, I-III, 1861-63.

[156] Some readers may be anxious to read Wolfram's work to whom

twelfth-century German would offer great difficulties. A few words on the

translation into modern German may, therefore, not be out of place.

San-Marte's original translation (1839-41) is full of gross blunders and

mistranslations, and, what is worse, of passages foisted into the text to

support the translator's own interpretation of the poem as a whole.

Simrock's, which followed, is extremely close, but difficult and

unpleasing. San Marte's second edition, corrected from Simrock, is a great

advance upon the first; but even here the translator has too often allowed

his own gloss to replace Wolfram's statement. A thoroughly faithful yet

pleasing rendering is a desideratum.

[157] J. Van Santen, Zur Beurtheilung Wolfram von Eschenbach, Wesel, 1882,

has attacked Wolfram for his acceptance of the morality of the day, and

has, on that ground, denied him any ethical or philosophic merit. The

pamphlet is useful for its references, but otherwise worthless. The fact

that Wolfram does accept _Minnedienst_ only gives greater value to his

picture of a nobler and purer ideal of love, whilst to refuse recognition

of his other qualities on this account is much as who should deny Dante's

claim to be regarded as a teacher and thinker because of his acceptance of

the hideous mediæval hell.

[158] In the Geheimnisse Goethe shows some slight trace of the Parzival

legend, and the words in which the teaching of the poem are summed up:

"Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet, Befreit _der_ Mensch sich der sich

überwindet," may be looked upon as an eighteenth century rendering of

Wolfram's conception.

[159] We may here note an admirable example of the inevitable, spontaneous

character of the growth of certain conceptions, especially of such as have

been partly shaped by the folk-mind. There is nothing in Wolfram or in the

French romances to show that the fortunes of the loathly damsel (Wagner's

Kundry) are in any way bound up with the success of the Quest. But we have

seen that the Celtic folk-tales represent the loathly damsel as the real

protagonist of the story. She cannot be freed unless the hero do his task.

Precisely the same situation as in Wagner, who was thus led back to the

primitive _donnée_, although he can only have known intermediary stages in

which its signification had been quite lost.

[160] _Cf._ the reproaches addressed to Potter Thompson (_supra_, p. 198).

That the visitor to the Bespelled Castle should be reproached, at once,

for his failure to do as he ought, seems to be a feature of the earliest

forms of the story. _Cf._ Campbell's Three Soldiers (_supra_, p. 196). If

Wolfram had another source than Chrestien it was one which partook more of

the unspelling than of the feud quest formula. Hence the presence of the

feature here.

[161] In Wolfram's work there is a much closer connection between the

Gawain quest and the remainder of the poem than in Chrestien.

Orgueilleuse, to win whose love Gawain accomplishes his feats, is a former

love of Amfortas, the Grail King, who won for her a rich treasure and was

wounded in her service. Klinschor, too, the lord of the Magic Castle, is

brought into contact with Orgueilleuse, whom he helps against Gramoflanz.

It is difficult to say whether this testifies to an earlier or later stage

of growth of the legend. The winning of Orgueilleuse as the consequence of

accomplishing the feat of the Ford Perillous and plucking the branch is

strongly insisted upon by Wolfram and not mentioned by Chrestien, though

it is possible he might have intended to wed the two had he finished his

poem. In this respect, however, and taking these two works as they stand,

Wolfram's account seems decidedly the earlier. In another point, too, he

seems to have preserved the older form. Besides his Kundrie la Sorcière

(the loathly damsel) he has a Kundrie la Belle, whom I take to be the

loathly damsel released from the transforming spell.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.

Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin · 第 15 / 15 章

Bespelled Castle in Celtic tradition, 190-206.