Not that the historic element is to be neglected; far
from it. On the contrary, I would urge that greater
attention be bestowed on certain historic factors than
has hitherto been the case. The Arthurian romances
do not, as do the Charlemagne, reflect more or less
correctly certain facts, or periods of history, but the
circumstances and surroundings of their origin may
nevertheless have been more or less determined by
historic conditions, i.e. the influence exercised by the
court and policy of Henry II.
We are perfectly well aware that a feature of that
monarch’s domestic policy was his desire to conciliate
the Welsh by a clever use of their popular traditions.
The alleged discovery of King Arthur’s tomb at
Glastonbury was, as most historians now recognise,
merely an ingenious move in the political game. To
what extent he carried his encouragement and adoption
of Arthurian tradition we have perhaps hardly yet
realised. The fact that it was possible to publish in
1167 a correspondence purporting to be between the
King and Arthur in Avalon shows that if Henry did
not directly encourage the forgery, he at least saw no
ground for discouraging it, and was willing to play
into the hands of any one furthering this special line
of conciliation. We know, as a matter of literary
evidence, that the manuscripts of a very large section
of Arthurian prose romance attribute their composition
to the direct command of the king; but so
far we have not attempted to ascertain the precise
value to be placed on this recurring testimony.
I believe myself that a careful investigation into
the literary patronage exercised by Henry, and his
interest in Arthurian traditions, would yield results
somewhat disconcerting to the adherents of the Continental
School.
Of the value of folk-lore and folk-tale as witnesses
in the case of a group of stories based largely upon
popular tradition, and in their earlier stages of evolution
the property of popular story-tellers, we are only
slowly becoming aware. But the study of story-transmission
has in these last years made immense
strides, and may now claim to be fairly based upon
sound scientific principles. The extent to which such
a study, accurately and carefully carried on, may
reflect light upon allied subjects, such as the Arthurian
cycle, has yet to be realised. It may be hoped that
these pages will lend encouragement to the following
up of this special line of investigation.
But there is a danger in our path. Admiration for
the learning and indefatigable industry of German
scholars has, I fear, caused too many of us to erect
into a fetich the result of their labours, and to hold
ourselves thereby absolved from the toil of first-hand
investigation. This is to render no true service to the
cause of scholarship; no one man, no group of men,
may claim to be infallible. The result of recent
investigation into the value and correctness of Dr.
Sommer’s Studies on the Sources of Malory,[68] a book
which for ten years past has been unhesitatingly
accepted in scholarly circles as a reliable authority,
should be an object lesson to all of us in the necessity
of caution, and the individual responsibility which
rests upon each to ascertain independently, so far as
it be possible, the correctness and solidity of the
ground upon which we found our arguments and our
conclusions.
Careful and systematic work, with, from time to
time, the revision and comparison of results, only to
be attained by publication, will, I believe, before very
long, enable us to place the criticism of the Arthurian
cycle upon a really satisfactory basis. At present it
is vain to hope that any one of us can produce, in this
particular line of literary investigation, a magnum opus
that shall be beyond the necessity of revision, and
sealed with the stamp of permanent and enduring
value.
[1]Professor Foerster’s edition of the poems of Chrétien de Troyes are
probably the most satisfactory critical texts we at present possess, but the
value of these is greatly impaired by the controversial use made of the
prefaces attached to them.
[2]These and other details will be found in Mr. Ward’s article on
‘Ipomedon,’
Catalogue of Romances, vol. i.
[3]Ipomedon in drei englischen Bearbeitungen: Breslau 1889.
[5]The fact that, as we have pointed out, he sometimes agrees with one,
sometimes with the other version, seems to indicate that he knew the
common original of both.
[7]Lanzelet, Von Zatzikhoven, ll. 2911-15.
[8]Dutch Lancelot, vol. i. ll. 42,819
et seq.
[10]For the various epilogues and ascriptions of authorship, cf.
Die Sage
vom Gral, Birch-Hirschfeld, chap. vii.
[11]Cf. Birch-Hirschfeld,
supra.
[12]Vide De Nugis Curialium, ed. Wright, p. viii.
[14]Cf. P. Paris,
Romans de la Table Ronde, vol. iii.
[15]Cf.
D. L., vol. i. ll. 19,595
et seq.;
Legend of Sir Lancelot, p. 235.
[17]The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac, Grimm Library, vol. xii.
[18]Cf. the reference to this adventure in
Morien, quoted
supra, p. 5.
[19]For these three colours in this connection, cf. my translation of
Parzival, vol. i. p. 317.
[21]Cf.
Lanzelet, ll. 9309
et seq.
[22]Hucher,
Le Grand S. Graal, vol. i. p. 421.
[23]Professor Foerster’s remark (
Charrette, Introduction, p. xlvi), that
Hugo would, not improbably, take with him a copy of the last romance
which had created a popular
furore, is one of those gratuitous assumptions
which, to the learned professor, assume the virtue of facts, but
which cannot be admitted, by any serious critic, as a contribution to
the argument. Professor Foerster seems to imagine a twelfth century
‘Mudie’ with a ‘run’ on the latest novel! If the source of the
Lanzelet
had created in any sense a
furore, it would scarcely have disappeared so
completely. Considering the slowness of reproduction in those days, it
is at least as likely that the book was an old and valued favourite; but
as I said above, such hypotheses do not advance the question one way or
the other.
[24]Cf.
Cligés, ll. 4575-4985.
[29]I believe myself that the two works of the greatest importance for
determining the evolution of the Arthurian cycle are these lost French
sources of the
Lanzelet and of the
Parzival. It is not, I think, impossible
that fragments at least may remain entombed in some library. When their
importance is more generally recognised there may perhaps be an organised
attempt made at their discovery.
[30]I have not seen either of these German fragments. Professor
Foerster’s tendency to claim as Chrétien’s undoubted property everything
that even remotely resembles the work of the French poet makes
caution needful. I give the statement entirely upon his authority. With
regard to the passage in the
Parzival, Book
XII. l. 116,
et seq., at first
sight it seems clearly to refer to Chrétien’s poem; but, as Professor
Foerster himself admits, the work clearly consists of two sections, and it
seems quite possible that the first part, the story of Alexander and Soredamors,
may have been known independently. As the testimony of the
Perceval poems proves, there was current a love story connected with a
sister of Gawain. The weak point in this
Parzival allusion is, that the
poet is recalling the torments that Gawain and his kin have suffered
through ‘
Minne.’ Now the love story of Cligés and Phenice is far more
tragic than that of Cligés’ parents; and it is difficult to understand why,
if the writer knew the
whole poem, he should refer only to the weaker
illustration, as both are equally connected with Gawain. I suspect myself
that the allusion was in Wolfram’s source, and refers to the source of the
Cligés.
[31]Printed in Weber’s
Metrical Romances, vol. i.
[32]Cf.
Legend of Sir Lancelot, p. 81.
[36]Tiroler Kinder- und Haus-Märchen.
[37]Contes Lorrains, vol. i. No.
I.
[38]Contes Lorrains, vol. i. No.
XII.
[39]Contes Lorrains, vol. ii. p. 96.
[40]Op. cit., vol. ii. No.
LV.
[41]Grimm Library, vols. ii., iii., v.
[42]Perseus, vol. iii. p. 4.
[43]Perseus, vol. iii. p. 15.
[44]Cf.
The Cuchullin Saga, Grimm Library, vol. viii. p. 81.
[47]A reference to
Fortunio, one of the tales of our group, included in the
fifteenth century collection of Straparola.
[48]The additions in italics are mine.—J. L. W.
[49]To this our present investigation enables us to add that while M.
Cosquin’s shepherd lad unites the pastoral features with the courtly
tournament, the Greek variant retains the flying steeds and gives us the
tournament to boot.
[50]The number is of course far greater, but Mr. Campbell unfortunately
did not live to know the
Contes Lorrains or the
Perseus.
[51]Popular Tales of the West Highlands, vol. iv. pp. 277, 278.
[52]‘The Black Horse,’
More Celtic Fairy Tales, p. 226.
[53]Mr. Hartland also draws attention to the parallel between the three
disguises of the hero and the three dresses of the heroine in certain
variants of the
Cinderella story. In the
Aschenbrödel the robes are woven
of sun, moon, and stars.
[55]Harvard Studies and Notes, vol. v. pp. 94, 95.
[56]John Rous,
Life of Richard, Earl of Warwick.
[57]I should like to draw the attention of readers to the fact that these
two ‘triplets’ of colours are also to be met with elsewhere. Thus black,
white, and red are found, as we have seen, in a famous incident of the
Perceval; and that curious book,
Durandus on Symbolism, gives them as
the colours of the three veils covering the altar at Passiontide. White,
green, and red are found in the legend of the Tree of Life, and Solomon’s
Ship, preserved in the
Queste and
Grand Saint Graal. A friend, learned
in such matters, has informed me that these sets of colours represent
certain alchemical processes, and in that connection were well known in
mediæval times. It seems possible that there may have been some
hidden and mystical significance attached to their earliest use; we have
not fathomed all the secrets of folk-lore.
[59]For details of Map’s life, cf.
Dictionary of National Biography, and
the Introduction to Wright’s edition of
De Nugis Curialium.
[60]I would draw the attention of students of the
Lais of Marie de
France to the fact that Map gives several versions of the wedding of a
knight with a fairy, or Otherworld, mistress. Also a version of a visit
to the Otherworld kingdom with an ending closely corresponding with
that of the
Voyage of Bran, and
Guingamor, and in each case he locates
the story in Wales. It is perfectly clear that tales, such as we find in the
Lais, were at least as well known in these islands as on the Continent.
[61]Legend of Sir Lancelot, p. 83.
[62]Legend of Sir Lancelot, p. 11. The folk-lore allusions in the
Lanzelet
are worth following up.
[63]I am indebted to Mr. W. B. Blaikie for kindly verifying the quotation for me.
[64]Cf.
Charrette, p. lxxvii.
[65]Legend of Sir Lancelot, p. 46
et seq.
[66]The theory which I advanced in chap. vii. of the
Legend of Sir
Lancelot with regard to the temporary disappearance of the tradition of
Guinevere’s infidelity is, I think, strengthened by the evidence of the
various ‘chastity-test’
Lais, Horn, Mantle, Glove. We might reasonably
expect Guinevere to come but poorly out of such an ordeal; as a rule,
however, she escapes very easily, far more easily, indeed, than the
majority of the ladies of the court. In one case we are clearly given to
understand that her sole error, a trivial one, has been one of thought.
Now the
lais represent, as is generally admitted, an early stage of
romantic evolution, and taken into consideration with the evidence of the
earlier poems, they certainly appear to strengthen the argument tentatively
put forward in my
Lancelot,
e.g. that the tradition of the queen’s faithlessness
to her husband belonged to the
historic legend and was, as such,
preserved in the pseudo-chronicles; it had no existence in the
romantic
legend till introduced under the influence of a special social condition,
and in this its later form, it is not to be regarded as a survival of the
historic Modred story, but as a later and independent development.
[67]Cf.
Popular Studies, No. 10 (Nutt),
The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne
and his Peers, where I have pointed out the fundamental differences
between the cycles.
[68]On
this point, cf. Mr. Greg’s review of my
Lancelot
studies,
Folk-Lore, December 1901.
Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable