[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.