[18] Lanzelet von Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, ed. Hahn: Frankfurt, 1845. Out of print and difficult to procure.
[19] This account, and the mention of England, l. 7054, seem to render it possible that the original poem may have been written in this island.
[20] This is entirely in accordance with Tristan's character as represented in the poems. He is in the highest degree rusé and resourceful.
[21] Is it not possible that this Malduz the magician may be the original of Mauduiz li Sages whom Chrétien ranks as eighth of Arthur's knights? Cf. Erec, 1699. Hartmann's version gives Malduiz; Diu Krône, 1379, Malduz der Weise. The identification seems clear.
[22] I am quite at a loss to account for the mistake into which such authorities as M. Gaston Paris and Professor Foerster have apparently fallen. In M. Paris's study the idea that Lanzelet is the rescuer is perhaps rather implied than stated, but when I wrote the Charrette chapter (viii.) in my Studies on the Legend of Sir Gawain, in which I followed the article in Romania, I was certainly under the impression that the latter was the case. In the introduction to the Karrenritter, p. xliv., Professor Foerster distinctly says that Lanzelet frees the queen. I have read and re-read the text carefully and made my final summary direct from it, and there is no doubt that Lanzelet has nothing to do with the matter. The passage in question is contained in ll. 6975-7445. How too did Professor Foerster come to ignore the real character of Guinevere's imprisonment? Cf. Charrette, lxxi.
[23] Karrenritter, Introduction, p. xliv.
[24] I think it is worthy of note that though Lanzelet is the hero of the tale here and not Guinglain, Gawain's son, as elsewhere, yet in this poem Lanzelet is Arthur's nephew, and of Gawain's kin, which he is not in any other version. The Fier Baiser is thus still restricted to the family of Gawain.
[25] Cf. my Legends of the Wagner Drama, Siegfried.
[26] I say especially 'as told by Geoffrey and Wace,' for these writers give us clearly to understand that the queen was a consenting party, and no victim to Mordred's treachery. It is quite a different version from that of the prose Lancelot.
[27] I shall have occasion to refer very frequently to Professor Foerster's introduction. It is a full and powerful statement of views which so far as they affect the origin and evolution of the Arthurian legend I believe to be radically unsound. It is most useful to have at hand a summary so clear and concise.