INDEX
Æneas, [60], [67]
Æneid, The, [67]
Agned, [15]
Airem, [13], [54]
Alanus de Insulis, [31]
Albion’s England, Warner’s, [120]
Alexander the Great, [5], [70]
Almesbury, [115]
Ambrosius Aurelianus; see Emrys
Amir, [24]
Aneirin, the Book of, [40]
Anna, [75]
Annales Cambriæ, [21], [26]
Aran, Yr (Rauran), [128]
Argante (Morgan le fay), [92], [94], [138]
Arnold, Matthew, [39], [45], [105]
Ascham, [7], [118]
Astolat, [98]
Aurelius Ambrosius, [74]
Avalon, [76], [91], [93]
Avallach (Avalon), [53]
Badbury, [20]
Badon, Mount, [16], [19], [21], [22], [26], [29], [32]
Baddesdown-hill (Mount Badon), [28]
Baldulph, [76]
Bassas, [15]
Bath, [76]
Bayeux, [82]
Bec, [33]
Bede, [28], [71], [72]
Bedwyr; see Bedivere
Bedivere, [25], [42], [55], [78], [82], [111], [114], [137]
Beornicia, [16]
Béroul, [106]
Blackmore, Sir Richard, [126]
Bledri (Bledhericus, Bleheris), [109]
Boccaccio, [6]
Bodel, Jean, [3]
Bodmin, [31]
Brân the Blessed, [53]
Branwen, daughter of Llŷr, [53]
Bricriu’s Feast, [50]
Brittany, [31], [58], seq.
Broceliande, [98]
Brooke, Stopford, [136]
Brutus, son of Æneas, [60], [67]
Brythons, the, [13], [29], [36]
Builth, [23]
Cador (Kadwr), Earl or Duke of Cornwall, [51], [76], [83]
Cadwallader, [72]
Cadwallo, [72]
Caerlleon upon Usk, [2], [3], [57], [78], [97], [121]
Caledvwlch (Excalibur), Arthur’s sword, [46]
Cambula (Camel), [27]
Camden, [85]
Camel, [57], [83], [98], [121]
Camelford, [27], [93]
Cameliard, [98]
Camelot, [6], [98]
Camlan, [26], [53]
Caradoc of Llancarvan, [87]
Carbonek, [98], [136]
Carlisle, [73], [97]
Carmarthen, The Black Book of, [2], [12], [26], [40], [74]
Carnwennan, Arthur’s dagger, [46], [50]
Cavall (Cabal), Arthur’s dog, [24], [25], [138]
Caxton, [1]-[10], [11], [37], [135]
Celidon, [15]
Ceredig, [18]
Charlemagne, [8], [70]
Chaucer, [60], [103], [116]
Cheldric, [34], [76]
Chevalier au lion, [101]
Chevalier de la Charrette, [100], [102]
Chinon, [82]
Chrétien de Troyes, [41], [90], [100], [138]
Chronicle, The Saxon, [29]
Colgrin, [76]
Comes Britanniæ, [17], [18]
Comes littoris Saxonici, [17]
Coming of Arthur, The, [134]
Constantine, [83], [94]
Conte del Graal, [101]
Cormac, [84]
Cornwall, [31], [34], [49], [56]-[58], [83], [105]
Cradock, [6]
Cunedda, [18]
Dafydd ap Gwilym, [77]
Dante, [103]
Dares the Phrygian, [60]
David, St, [81]
Dictys the Cretan, [60]
Dimilioc (Damelioc), [57], [74]
Dover Castle, [6]
Drayton, M., [86]
Dream of Rhonabwy, The, [12], [18], [26], [50]-[52], [56]
Dryden, [123], [127]
Dubglas, [15]
Dubricius, [75], [78], [81]
Dux Britanniarum, [16]
Edern, son of Nudd, [51]
Ehangwen, Arthur’s hall, [46]
Eilhart von Oberge, [106]
Elbodugus (Elfodd), [14]
Elizabeth, Queen, [118], [123], [130]
Emmeline, [125]
Emrys (Ambrosius Aurelianus), [18], [21], [23], [28], [32]
Eosa, [74]
Ercing (Archenfield), [24]
Erec, [41], [101]
Etáin, [54]
Evans, Dr Gwenogvryn, [39], [45]
Evans, Dr Sebastian, [3], [35], [65], [67]
Excalibur (Caliburn), Arthur’s sword, [26], [46], [76], [93], [114], [129]
Faerie Queene, The, [119], seq.
Finn, [84]
Flollo, [78]
Galahad, [106], [136]
Gawain, [2], [6], [32], [75], [77], [107], [110]
Gelli (or Kelli) Wic, [49], [56]
Geoffrey of Monmouth, [2], [4], [14], [19], [27], [60] seq.
Geoffrey Gaimar, [85]
Geraint, [47], [136]
Geraint, son of Erbin (Welsh romance), [2], [52], [101], [138]
Geraint, filius Erbin (Welsh poem), [41]
Germany, [16]
Gildas, [18], [21], [22], [28], [72], [88], [134]
Gildas, Life of, [88]
Giraldus Cambrensis, [5], [84], [87], [109]
Glamorgan, [65], [79]
Glastonbury, [6], [84], [89], [98]
Glewlwyd of the Mighty Grasp, [42], [45]
Godfrey of Boulogne, [8]
Goleuddydd, [17]
Gorlois, [57], [74], [122]
Gottfried von Strassburg, [106]
Grafton, [85]
Grail, The Holy, [8], [9], [98], [107], [138]
Griffin of Carmarthen, [92]
Guest, Lady Charlotte, [37], [134]
Guido de Colonna, [60]
Guinevere (Gwenhwyvar), [46], [53], [76], [82], [100], [115]
Guinnion, [15], [20]
Gwalchmei (Gawain), [110]
Gwenn, Arthur’s mantle, [51]
Gwledig, [17]
Gwynn, son of Nudd, [47], [48]
Gwythur, [2], [53]
Hawker, R. S., [140]
Heber, Morte Arthur, [140]
Hengist, [15], [33]
Henry II., [84]
Henry of Huntingdon, [19], [33], [71]
Hergest, The Red Book of, [27], [101]
Higden, [6]
Historia Brittonum, [14]
Historia Regum Britanniæ, [64], seq.
Hoel, King of Armorica, [76]
Holinshed, [85]
Huel, King of Scotland, [88]
Hughes, Thomas, [122]
Ida, [16]
Idylls of the King, The, [4], [130], seq.
Igerne, [57], [74]
Iseult (Essyllt), [54], [100], [104]
Joseph of Arimathea, [98], [109]
Joyous Gard, [98]
Juvenal, [12]
Kadwr; see Cador
Kay (Kei), [42], [52], [54], [78], [82]
King Arthur, or The British Worthy, [125]
Kulhwch and Olwen, [17], [25], [44], [45], seq.
Lady of the Fountain, The, [3], [18], [52], [101]
Lancelot, [6], [10], [100], [103], [107], [115], [136]
Lancelot and Elaine, [134]
Lang, Andrew, [133], [134]
Lanval, [58]
Laon, [31]
Layamon, [27], [67], [84], [85], [89], [91], seq.
Le Morte Arthure (poem), [139]
Legion, City of, [15], [19]
Leicester, Earl of, [127]
Leodogran, [134]
Lincoln, [97]
Linnuis (Lindisia, Lindsey), [15], [20]
Llacheu, Arthur’s son, [43]
Llamrei, Arthur’s mare, [25]
Llandaff, [64]
London, [53], [96]
Lot (of Lodonesia), [75], [77], [112]
Lucius Hiberius, [53], [81]
Lyonesse, [98], [105]
Lytton, King Arthur, [140]
Mabinogion, The, [2], [3], [12], [17], [18], [37], [39], [101], [110], [134]
Mabon, son of Mellt, [43]
Mabon, son of Modron, [42], [48]
Maccallum, M. W., [136]
Maelgwn Gwynedd (Maglocunus), [22]
Malory’s Morte Darthur, [1]-[10], [36], [113]-[115], [118], [135], [139]
Manawyddan, son of Llŷr, [42], [47]
Map, Walter, [64], [101], [103], [104]
Marie of Champagne, [100], [103]
Marie of France, [58]
Mark (March, son of Meirchion), [2], [51], [54]
Maxen Wledig, [18]
Meleager, [48]
Melwas (Meleaguant, Mellyagraunce), [89], [102]
Merlin, [69], [75], [94], [111], [128], [137]
Merlin, The Prophecies of, [69], [112]
Milton, [50], [123]
Misfortunes of Arthur, The, [122]
Modred (Medrod, Medraut), [26], [27], [34], [52], [75], [82], [112], [122]
Monmouth, [65]
Mont St Michel, [66]
Morris, William, [140]
Morte Darthur; see Malory
Morte D’Arthur (Tennyson’s), [131]
Mynneu, Mount, [52]
Natanleod, [30]
Nennius, [17], [19], [20], [22], [23], [29], [41], [71], [134]
Neustria, [78]
Nutt, Alfred, [45], [50], [107]
Octha, [15], [74]
Owen and the ravens, [50]
Palug’s Cat, [53], [54]
Parzival (Wagner’s), [4]
Pembrokeshire, [23]
Perceval (Peredur), [10], [52], [100], [101], [107]
Peredur (Welsh romance), [52], [101]
Picts, The, [16], [27]
Polydore Vergil, [85]
Polyolbion, [86], [120]
Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem, [126]
Prince Consort, The, [131], [132]
Pridwen, Arthur’s ship, [44]
Priwen, Arthur’s shield, [76]
Pryderi, [54]
Pwyll, prince of Dyved, [54]
Rhongomyant (Rhôn), Arthur’s lance, [46], [76]
Rhys, Sir John, [2], [12], [13], [17], [38], [44], [49]
Ritho, of Mount Eryri, [81]
Robert de Borron, [109], [112]
Robert, earl of Gloucester, [65], [73]
Robert of Gloucester (chronicler), [85]
Robert Fitz-Hamon, [65]
Robert of Torigni (Robert of the Mount), [33], [66]
Rome, [67]
Round Table, The, [6], [80], [91], [93]
Sackville, [86]
St Asaph, [64]
St Michael’s Mount, [80]
Sarras, [98]
Saxons, The, [11], [15], [16], [27], [28]
Scots, The, [16], [27]
Scott, Sir W., [123], [125]
Severus, [16]
Shaftesbury, [74]
Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, [91], [111], [116]
Skene, W. F., [39]
Somerset, [89]
Spenser, [56], [86], [118], [127]
Stubbs, [28]
Swinburne, [105]
Tacitus, [12]
Taliesin, [17], [37], [47]
Taliesin, The Book of, [40], [43]
Thomas de Bretagne, [106]
Thopas, Tale of Sir, [61], [116]
Tennyson, [7], [21], [26], seq.
Timon (Sir Ector), [128]
Tintagel, [57], [74], [105]
Triads, The, [26], [38], [52]-[55]
Tribruit (Tryvrwyd), [15], [43]
Tristram (Tristan, Drystan), [10], [52], [54], [100], [104], [114], [129], [139]
Tristan und Isolde (Wagner’s), [4]
Troy, [60]
Trwyth, the Boar (porcus Troit), [24], [25], [49], seq.
Uther Pendragon, [42], [57], [74], [122]
Virgil, [68]
Vita Merlini, [112]
Vivien, [112]
Vortigern, [30], [32], [69]
Vortimer, [32]
Wace, [58], [67], [85], [89]
Wales, The Four Ancient Books of, [39], seq.
Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, [68], [71], [83]
Warinus, [33], [34]
Warner, William, [86]
Westminster, abbey of, [6]
Weston, Miss J. L, [108], [109], [110]
White Mount, The (in London), [53]
Wife of Bath’s Tale, The, [117]
William of Malmesbury, [2], [28], [31], [66], [71]
William of Newburgh, [5], [28], [69], [86]
William of Orange, [127]
Winchester, [6], [97]
Wolfram von Eschenbach, [107]
Wordsworth, [20], [62], [86]
Wygar, the smith, [92]
Wynebgwrthucher, Arthur’s shield, [46]
Yspaddaden (Pen Kawr), [26], [45], [50]
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS
EDINBURGH
FOOTNOTES:
[1] ‘The Songs of the Graves,’ in the twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen. “A grave there is for March (or Mark),”—so the lines run,—“a grave for Gwythur, a grave for Gwgawn of the Ruddy Sword; a mystery is the grave of Arthur”: or, as Sir John Rhys translates, “not wise the thought—a grave for Arthur.”
[2] William of Malmesbury (Gesta Reg. Angl., Bk. III.), referring to the discovery in Wales of the grave of Gawain, Arthur’s nephew, speaks of the grave of Arthur himself as being unknown—hence, he says, ancient songs (antiquitas næniarum) prophesy his return.
[3] The opening words of the Welsh romance, ‘Gereint, Son of Erbin.’ Cf. also the first sentences of ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ as given in Lady C. Guest’s Mabinogion.
[4] See Geoffrey’s History, Bk. IX. Ch. 12, in the excellent translation by the late Dr Sebastian Evans (Temple Classics).
[5] The three great romantic “matters” are thus categorised in a well-known passage in the Chanson de Saisnes by the twelfth century writer, Jean Bodel,—
“Ne sont que trois matières à nul home attendant,
De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant.”
[6] Hist. Rerum Anglic. Proemium (Chronicles of Stephen, etc., Rolls Series, 1884-85).
[8] See a poem entitled ‘Gereint, Son of Erbin,’ in The Black Book of Carmarthen, and several passages in the Mabinogion,—especially in ‘The Dream of Rhonabwy,’—which are referred to later on.
[9] It is worth noting, by the way, that the “Saeson,” or Saxons, against whom he is presumed to have fought most of his battles, are not even mentioned in the Welsh Arthurian romances.
[10] The name Artoria occurs is Tacitus, Annals, xv. 71; Artorius in Juvenal, Sat., iii. 29. It was common enough in Rome.
[11] Rhys, Arthurian Legend, p. 48. In Chap. I. of the same work Rhys puts and answers the main question suggested in these pages as follows: “How did Arthur become famous above other (Welsh, or British) heroes, and how came he to be the subject of so much story and romance? The answer, in short, which one has to give to this hard question must be to the effect, that besides a historic Arthur there was a Brythonic divinity named Arthur, after whom the man may have been called, or with whose name his, in case it was of a different origin, may have become identical in sound owing to an accident of speech” (A. L., p. 8).
[12] The chief authorities on Nennius are Mommsen (see his edition of the Historia, and of Gildas, in Mon. Germ. Hist., Berlin, 1898), and Zimmer (Nennius Vindicatus, Berlin, 1893). See, also, Fletcher (The Arthurian Matter in the Chronicles, Boston, 1906) and M. R. James (Camb. Hist. of Eng. Lit., Vol. I. Ch. 5). Thurneysen (Zeitschr. f. Deutsche Philologie, 1897) fixes 827 as the date of the completion of the History.
[13] This date must be accepted if we are to believe Nennius’s statement that he was a disciple of Elbodugus, or Elfodd, bishop of Gwynedd.
[14] Chap. 56.
[15] ipse dux erat bellorum.
[16] This is simply the Welsh (modern, cad coed) for “the battle of Celidon Wood.”
[17] Rhys, Arthurian Legend, p. 7.
[18] Arthurian Legend, p. 7.
[19] A number of chieftains are styled gwledig in the Mabinogion (see index to edition of Welsh Red Book, text by Rhys and Evans, p. 342). Among them is one Amlawdd, or Amlodd, who in Kulhwch and Olwen is the father of Goleuddydd, the mother of Kulhwch, “a boy of gentle birth and cousin unto Arthur.” In a poem ascribed to Taliesin the deity even is called gwledig—“gwledig nef a phob tud,” “ruler of heaven and of every land.”
[20] Viz., to the tale, included in Lady C. Guest’s Mabinogion, called ‘The Dream of Maxen Wledig.’ The glorification of Maxen, or Maximus, in Welsh tradition suggests many points of analogy with the story of Arthur.
[21] Lloyd, Hist. of Wales, Vol. I. p. 100.
[22] See the opening words of ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ “Yr amherawdyr Arthur oedd yng Kaer Llion ar Wysc.” See also The Dream of Rhonabwy, passim.
[23] Arthurian Legend, p. 7. See also The Welsh People (Rhys and Jones), pp. 105 sqq.
[24] The most elaborate and ingenious expositions of this theory will be found in Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, Vol. I. Chap. 4, and Stuart-Glennie’s Arthurian Localities in ‘Merlin’ (Early Eng. Text Soc., 1869).
[25] “Mons Badonicus” is still unidentified. Guest, in his Origines Celticæ (ii. 187-189) makes a brave attempt to prove that it was Badbury in Dorset.
[26] Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. IX. Ch. 4.
[27] Ecclesiastical Sonnets, i. 10.
[28] Coming of Arthur.
[29] The translation is that of Dr H. Williams in his edition of Gildas (Cymmrodorion Record Series, London, 1901), p. 63.
[30] Such, at any rate, is Rhys’s opinion. See Preface to Dent’s Malory, p. xxxv.
[31] See p. 142 in Nutt’s reprint of Lady C. Guest’s Mabinogion.
[32] Op. cit., p. 139.
[34] Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur.
[35] Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, Vol. I. p. 311.
[36] Op. cit., p. 291.
[37] Layamon, in his Brut (l. 28,533), is the first to locate the battle definitely at this place.
[38] Preface to Rolls Edition of Roger of Hoveden’s Chronicle.
[39] For an interesting comparison between the Chronicle and Nennius in respect to the Arthurian period, see Fletcher, Arthurian Matter in the Chronicles, pp. 21-23.
[40] The account of this incident is given in Migne’s Patrologia, 156, col. 983.
[41] Prophetia Anglicana, etc. (Frankfort, 1603), Bk. I. p. 17.
[42] Hist. Reg. Angl., Bk. III.
[43] Published in Rolls Series, Chronicles of Stephen, etc., iv. p. 65.
[44] Quoted from the Epilogue to the late Dr Sebastian Evans’s translation of Geoffrey’s History (Temple Classics, 1904).
[45] Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation contains twelve tales, but one of these, the History of Taliesin, is from a late sixteenth century MS. and has no claim to rank with the rest as a genuine mediæval production.
[46] Arthurian Legend, p. 6. “The Triads give us the oldest account of Arthur, and this now and then in a form which the story-tellers and romance-writers found thoroughly untractable and best ignored.”
[47] There are, of course, more than four “ancient books” in the Welsh language—for example, the MS. of what is known as the Venedotian code of the laws of Wales, and The White Book of Rhydderch, the contents of which have recently been made accessible to Welsh readers in Dr Gwenogvryn Evans’s fine edition. But Skene’s “four books” contain all the oldest Welsh poetry that is of any account. These four, named in chronological order, are known as The Black Book of Carmarthen (twelfth century), The Book of Aneirin, The Book of Taliesin, and The Red Book of Hergest.
[48] The Study of Celtic Literature.
[49] See Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol. I. p. 295.
[50] See Gwenogvryn Ewans’s edition of The Black Book, p. 103.
[51] Skene, Four Ancient Books, I. p. 426.
[52] Skene, Four Ancient Books, I. p. 308.
[53] Rhys, Preface to Dent’s edition of Malory, p. xxv, where a full account of these three poems is given.
[54] Skene, Four Ancient Books, I. p. 266.
[55] Tryvrwyd, in the form Tribruit, is one of the twelve battles recorded by Nennius. See ante, Chap. I.
[56] All the names here cited are found also in the prose story of Kulhwch and Olwen. The connection of the poem with Kulhwch is referred to later on.
[57] See Preface to Dent’s Malory, where a translation of the whole poem is given, and its correspondences with Kulhwch and Olwen are pointed out.
[58] The Study of Celtic Literature. Rhys’s opinion that the primitive form, and substance, of this tale date from the tenth century has been already referred to. Dr Gwenogvryn Evans, in the Preface to his edition of The White Book ‘Mabinogion,’ without assigning to it so definite a date, holds that Kulhwch and Olwen “is the oldest in language, in matter, in simplicity of narrative, in primitive atmosphere,” of all the tales to which the general name ‘mabinogion’ is given. Mr Alfred Nutt, while holding that portions of Kulhwch and Olwen are of “pre-historic antiquity, far transcending in age any historic Arthur,” assigns the story in the form we have it to the twelfth century, on the strength, mainly, of its affinities to eleventh century Irish sagas.
[59] The Welsh name for “Excalibur.”
[60] Sir John Rhys does this in his Celtic Folklore (Vol. II. pp. 512 sqq.). See the whole of Chap. IX. in that work for a learned discussion of the significance of the names, both local and personal, in Kulhwch.
[61] Milton, Paradise Lost, ix. The prominence given to these descriptions in the tale is emphasised by its brief epilogue. “And this tale is called the Dream of Rhonabwy. And this is the reason that no one knows the dream without a book, neither bard nor gifted seer; because of the various colours that were upon the horses, and the many wondrous colours of the arms and of the panoply, and of the precious mantles and virtuous stones.”
[62] The Emperor (Lucius Hiberius, called in the Welsh narratives Llês) is said by Geoffrey (Hist. Reg. Brit., X. xi) to have been killed by “an unknown hand.”
[63] Rhys, Arthurian Legend, Ch. II.
[64] The most brilliant of these re-builders of “the Celtic Pantheon” is Sir John Rhys. See, especially, his Arthurian Legend and Celtic Heathendom.
[65] Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. I. Canto 9.
[66] Dickinson, King Arthur in Cornwall (Longmans), p. vi, where an interesting account is given of Arthur’s Cornish associations.
[67] Roman de Brut, 1. 9994
[68] See above, p. 31.
[69] See the final chapter, on “Great Britain and Little Britain,” in Rhys’s Arthurian Legend.
[70] Ariegal and Elidure.
[71] Hist. Reg. Brit., Chap. I. (Dr Sebastian Evans’s translation). I have used this translation for nearly all the extracts from Geoffrey given in this chapter.
[72] This hypothesis is ingeniously elaborated by the late Dr Sebastian Evans in the epilogue to his translation of Geoffrey (Temple Classics, 1903).
[73] This explanation of the name “Britain” is not, as has been pointed out (pp. 60, 61), original to Geoffrey. It is his elaboration of the Brutus legend that is significant.
[74] William of Newburgh, the severest of all Geoffrey’s critics, writing about 1190, suggests that either this, or his own “love of lying,” was the motive of the work. “It is manifest that everything which this person wrote about Arthur and his successors, and his predecessors after Vortigern, was made up partly by himself and partly by others, whether from an inordinate love of lying or for the sake of pleasing the Britons.” William also held that Geoffrey’s account of events before the time of Julius Cæsar was either invented by himself, or “adopted after it had been invented by others.”
[75] Jusserand, Lit. Hist. of the English People, Vol. I. p. 131.
[76] One MS of the History, preserved at Bern, contains a double dedication addressed to both Robert, and King Stephen. I have given some account of this MS, and of its bearing upon the date and character of the History, in a paper on Geoffrey published in the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society (London, 1899).
[77] Where, apart from “the British book,” Geoffrey derived the name and history of Uther, still remains an unsolved problem. It is worth noting, however, that “Uther Pendragon” is mentioned in a poem in The Black Book of Carmarthen noticed in the previous chapter (see p. 42).
[78] Dubricius, or Dyfrig, is a well-known early Welsh saint, but the archbishopric of the City of Legions is entirely a creation of Geoffrey’s fancy.
[79] I have italicised the words “noble Roman family” here, because this “Roman” descent of Guinevere would seem not to have been derived from a Welsh source. In the Triads we read of a Guinevere who is described as “the daughter of Ogrvan the Giant” (see ante, p. 53). She is, apparently, the one among “the three Guineveres” who is best known to Welsh tradition as the wife of Arthur. She is mentioned both in a poem by the famous Welsh poet of the fourteenth century, Dafydd ap Gwilym—referring to her adventure with Melwas—and in an old Welsh rhyme, which gives her a somewhat disreputable character (see Rhys, Arthurian Legend, Chap. III.).
[80] It is interesting to note, incidentally, that after the “solemnity” at Caerleon, Dubricius is reported to have resigned his archbishopric, and “David, the King’s uncle, was consecrated in his place, whose life was an ensample of all goodness unto them whom he had instructed in his doctrine.”
[81] This statement appears to indicate quite explicitly that Geoffrey was indebted to Walter for oral information as well as for the British book.
[82] The best-known account of the affair is given by Giraldus Cambrensis (De Principis Instructione, viii. 126-9).
[83] There are, for example, thirty-five in the British Museum and sixteen in the Bodleian.
[84] No copies of Gaimar’s version are known to exist, but his rhymed chronicle of Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings has been edited and translated by Duffus Hardy in the Rolls Series.
[85] Polyolbion, Song x.
[86] Hueil, and the cause of his quarrel with Arthur, are incidentally mentioned in Kulhwch and Olwen. Hueil, we there read, had stabbed his sister’s son Gwydre, “and hatred was between Hueil and Arthur because of the wound.”
[87] Rhys, who doubts Caradoc’s authorship of the Life of Gildas, is “certain that the story” of Melwas “is ancient, for Chrétien de Troyes in his Erec speaks of Maheloas as the Lord of the Glass Island—‘Li sire de l’isle de voirre.’” Arthurian Legend, p. 52.
[88] Layamon’s Brut, ll. 42, 43.
[89] The question of the mythological origin of the Round Table is one of the many indeterminate problems of Arthurian “criticism.” For a suggestive study of the question see Brown, The Round Table before Wace (Harvard Studies and Notes, Vol. VII., 1900), where he confidently states that “the Round Table was a very early Pan-Celtic institution.”
[90] Brut, ll. 19,254 sqq. (Madden’s edition).
[91] ll. 28,610 sqq.
[92] ll. 22,910 sqq.
[94] Camelot is, apparently, first heard of in Chrétien de Troyes’ Chevalier de la Charrette.
[95] Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien.
[97] So much has been clearly proved in the case of Peredur, for instance, in a French essay on the composition of that romance recently published from Paris by Dr Mary Williams, formerly Fellow of the University of Wales.
[98] This, of course, is an obvious variant of the story told in the Life of Gildas, already mentioned, of Guinevere’s abduction by Melwas.
[99] Nonne Prestes Tale, l. 392.
[101] Matthew Arnold, Tristram and Iseult.
[102] Swinburne, Tristram of Lyonesse.
[103] M. Bédier, in his edition of Thomas’s Tristan, maintains that the original of all the various versions of the story was a single poem composed in England. This is a disputed point among scholars, but it is generally agreed that the story is of British origin.
[104] See Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur.
[105] A. Nutt, The Legends of the Holy Grail (Popular Studies in Mythology and Folklore), p. 72.
[106] For a learned and suggestive study of the various versions of the Grail legend, see Miss J. L. Weston’s The Legend of Sir Perceval (2 vols.) in the Grimm Library (Nutt). Miss Weston there distinguishes three stages in the growth of the legend as “the Folklore, the Literary and the Mystical.” In the Mystical, an element which she holds to be “entirely foreign to the original tale,” viz., the Grail quest, “modified and finally transformed it.” The folk-tale “assumed an ecclesiastical and mystical character. The hero became a champion of Christianity and Holy Church, and as such displayed the qualities most approved by the religious views of the time: he became not merely chaste, but an ascetic celibate, and any connection with women was dropped altogether” (Vol. I. p. 117).
[107] This, of course, raises a vexed question,—two schools of critics, one German, and the other English, French and American, being at feud upon it. In connection with the alleged Welsh origin of some of these traditions, it may be mentioned that the suggestion has been recently made that the first collection of them for “romantic” purposes was due to a Welshman variously known as Bledri, Bleheris, or Bledhericus, who lived probably in the eleventh century, and is spoken of by Giraldus Cambrensis as a ‘famosus fabulator, qui tempora nostra paulo prævenit.’ See Weston, Legend of Sir Perceval, Vol. I. Ch. 12.
[108] He is made the actual achiever of the quest in the German poem Diu Krône, by Heinrich von dem Türlin.
[109] See The Legend of Sir Gawain, by Miss J. L. Weston (Grimm Library).
[110] See the Sir Gawayne romances edited by Sir F. Madden for the Bannatyne Club (London, 1839).
[111] Strachey, Introduction to Globe Edition of Le Morte Darthur.
[112] Morte Darthur, Book XVIII. Chap. 25.
[113] Book XXI. Chap. 5.
[115] Faerie Queene, Bk. III. Canto iii.
[116] Polyolbion, Song X.
[117] Polyolbion, I.
[118] Scott, Marmion, Introduction to Canto I.
[119] Paradise Lost, Book IX.
[120] Discourse on Satire.
[121] Scott’s edition of Dryden, Introduction to the play.
[122] Dryden so designates him in his Preface to the Fables.
[123] King Arthur, Book I.
[124] Introductory Letter to the Faerie Queene.
[125] The Sir Ector of Malory.
[126] Faerie Queene, Book I. ix.
[127] Faerie Queene, II. viii. 21.
[128] Faerie Queene, I. vii. 35.
[130] Dedication to his tragedy, “Locrine.”
[131] Lord Morley, Studies in Literature (“On ‘The Ring and the Book’”).
[132] Lord Tennyson, A Memoir, by his Son, Vol. II. v. 127.
[133] Andrew Lang, Tennyson (Blackwood’s “Modern English Writers”), p. 103.
[134] How closely it does follow the Welsh tale has well been pointed out by Mr A. Lang in the work just quoted, from pp. 119 sqq.
[135] M. W. Maccallum, Tennyson’s Idylls and Arthurian Story.
[136] Stopford Brooke, Tennyson, Chap. 10.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.