6. PAGE 35.—Sir Agloval, he is my father. This should be compared with the account of Gamuret's wooing and desertion of the Moorish queen, Belakane, in Book I. of the Parzival; also with the meeting of the unknown brothers in Book XV. of the same poem. It is perhaps worth noticing as indicative of the source of the tradition that Wolfram distinctly states that his Moor speaks in French.
7. PAGE 67,—The slain and the slayer. The belief that the blood of a corpse would flow afresh, did the murderer approach it, was very prevalent in the middle ages. In Chretien de Troyes' Chevalier au lion (ll. 1177 et seq.) we find a similar situation, complicated by the fact that Yvain (the slayer) protected by a magic ring is invisible to the bystanders. The best known instance, however, is probably that of the Nibelungenlied where Kriemhild's suspicions that Hagen is Siegfred's murderer are in this manner verified.
8. PAGE 91.—I have no call to flee, nor to fear death. This is evidently the hermit whom Lancelot in the Queste finds dead under circumstances agreeing with those here hinted at. The story will be found in Malory Book XV.
9. PAGE 102.—That cometh altogether from his sin against his mother. The reason here alleged for Perceval's failure to find the Grail is that given by Chrétien and Wolfram, and is another indication of the writer's familiarity with the early Perceval story.
10. PAGE 116.—Sir Agloval's explanation, (a) The Lancelot quest. The special quest here referred to is that undertaken in search of Lancelot when he fled from court in a frenzy, induced by Guinevere's jealousy of King Pelles' daughter. During this quest Agloval visits his mother, sees Perceval, and brings him to court (cf. Legend of Sir Lancelot pp. 161-2).
(b) The lost heritage. The fact that Perceval regains possession of the heritage of which he has, before his birth, been deprived is recorded in certain of the Perceval romances; the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the prose Perceval li Gallois, and the English Sir Percyvelle of Galles, but it is not found in Chrétien. It is clear, to a close observer, that the compiler of the Dutch Lancelot knew the early Perceval tradition in a form closer to the version of the German, than that of the French poet. Later on, in the Queste section, he introduces a reference to this inheritance, where none exists in the French versions I have examined (cf. Legend of Sir Lancelot p. 174).
11. PAGE 127.—Lancelot's adventure with the beast. This is a condensed account of the well known story of The Fahe Claimant. Two versions of this story have already been given in this series, the dragon adventure in Tristan (No. II) and that of the stag in Tyolet (No. III.); this is inferior to either, but appears to combine characteristics of both. I have discussed it fully in Chapter III. of the Lancelot studies, before referred to, and have there compared it with the similar adventure also attributed to that knight in the Dutch compilation.
12. PAGE 128.—Had it not been for a ring which Lancelot wore. This is evidently the ring given him by the Lady of the Lake, and referred to in The Charrette (ll. 2348 et seq). It had the power of detecting enchantments.
13. PAGE 142.—King Arthur—held captive the king, who had erst made him a prisoner. There seems to be a confusion here; from Gariet's account it was the King of the Saxons who captured Arthur; here he has disappeared and everything is attributed to the King of Ireland. Probably they were allies; but it is also possible that confusion may have arisen from the fact that the King of Dublin was at one time, as in the Tristan legend, a Viking, and the poet has not distinguished clearly between the nationalities of these sea-robbers. If so, it would seem to indicate an early date for this particular story.