^ CORNELC / UNIVERSITY- LIBRARY'' ..CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 072 606 621 DATE : DUE ll(ll-lf,lililfff ^^^«Vt ^fl^**^ "■Wlb' llflBB^W" H ^ ■-- ' wmmm^-mm [^ro^ jjU^ *iBw ^ SS6S*. QDH'^ -j^^jjjgj^icg S2r* .m STUDIES IN THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF ARTHURIAN ROMANCE BY LUCY ALLEN PATON, Ph.D. (Radcliffe) BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS Wdt Slt|)en»ttin ]|)ws«i 1903 p< '^3 Radcliffk College, Cambridge, Mass. 31 May, igoo. We, the undersigned, having examined a thesis entitled " Morgain la ¥6e., a Study in the Fairy Mythology of the Middle Ages," pre- sented by Lucy Allen Paton, A.M., Radcliffe, 1894, hereby pronounce it to be of such merit as would ensure its acceptance if it had been presented by a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Harvard University. ^ g_ Sheldon. P. B. Marcou. W. H. SCHOFIELD. The material mentioned in the above note has been extended and rearranged for publication in the present form. L. A. P. Copyright, 1903 By radcliffe COLLEGE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ^3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One of the many pleasures connected with the preparation of this monograph is that of expressing my gratitude to those instructors at Radcliffe College who have guided me. To Professor Sheldon and Professor Kittredge my indebtedness is very great for the advice that they have allowed me to feel might in times of perplexity invariably be had for the asking, and for the share that they have assumed in the drudgery of proof-reading. Thanks are also due to Professor Robinson for occasional criticisms and sundry references to Celtic sources. From the beginning of my study of fairy mythology I have been under obligations to Professor Schofield, and in both the fundamentals and the details of the following pages I have so often been influenced by his suggestions that the acknowledg- ment of his ample help must necessarily remain incomplete. I would also express my grateful appreciation of the arrange- ments by which Radcliffe College is able to offer her students the privileges of the Harvard College Library ; by unhampered access to its resources, given with the utmost courtesy, it has been possible for me to collect the material for these studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts, December, igo2. AN ADMONITION TO THE GENTLE READER Right well I wote ... That all this famous antique history Of some th' aboundance of an ydle braine Will iudged be, and painted forgery, Rather than matter of iust memory ; Sith none that breatheth living aire does know Where is that happy land of Fairy, Which I so much doe vaunt, yet no where show ; But vouch antiquities, which no body can know. But let that man with better sence advize That of the world least part to us is red ; And daily how through hardy enterprize Many great regions are discovered. Which to late age were never mentioned. Yet all these were, when no man did them know, Yet have from wisest ages hidden beene ; And later times thinges more unknowne shall show. Why then should witlesse man so much misweene. That nothing is, but that which he hath scene? What, if within the moones fayre shining spheare. What, if in every other starre unseene Of other worldes he happily should heare ? He wonder would much more ; yet such to some appeare. Of Faery lond yet if he more inquyre. By certein signes, here sett in sondrie place. He may it fynd. Spenser, Faerie Queene, II, 1-4. WORKS CITED BY SHORT TITLES Acad, des Inscr. et Belles Lettres. Acadimie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Comptes Rendus, Paris, 1 858-. Ann. de Bretagne. Annates de Bretagne, Rennes, 1886-. Arch. Camb. Archceologia Cambrensis, London, 1846-. Arch. Rev. The Archaological Review, London, 1888-1890. Arthour and Merlin, ed. E. Kolbing, Leipzig, 1890 (Altenglische Bibliothelc, IV). Arthurian Legend. J. Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian Legend, Oxford, 1 891. Auberon, ed. A. Graf, I Complementi delta Chanson d'Huon de Bordeaux, I, HaUe, 1878. Bataille Loquifer. Le Roux de Lincy, Le Livre des Legendes, Paris, 1836, pp. 246-257 (Extract published under the title Guillaume au Court Nez). Cf. Paris, MSS. franc. III, 163 fl. Beaudous. Robert von Blois, Beaudous, ed. J. Ulrich, Berlin, 1889. Bel Inconnu. Renaud de Beaujeu, Le Bel Inconnu, ed. C. Hippeau, Paris, i860. Bran. See below, Meyer and Nutt, I, 2-41. Brun de la Montaigne, ed. P. Meyer, Paris, 1875 (Soci^t^ des anciens Textes frangais). Brunet, Manuel. J. C. Brunet, Manuel du Libraire. 6 vols. Paris, 1860-1865. Campbell, J. F., Popular Tales of the West Highlands. 4 vols. Paisley and London, 1890-1893. Carduino. I Cantari di Carduino, ed. Pio Rajna, Bologna, 1873 (Scelta di Curiositk letterarie inedite o rare dal Secolo XIII al XVII ; No. 135). Child, Ballads. F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. 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Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4 vols. London, 1865-1899 (Early English Text Society). Ep. Celt. D'Arbois de JubainvUle, L' Epopee celtique en Irlande, I (Cours de Littdrature celtique, V), Paris, 1892. Ep. Fr. 'L. GdiM'&eT, Les Epopies fran(;aises. 4 vols. Paris, 1 878-1882. Erec. Chretien de Troies, Erec und Enide, ed. W. Foerster, Halle, 1890. EscLARMONDE. Chanson d'Esclarmonde, ed. M. Schweigel, in Stengel, Ausgaben u. Abhandlungen, LXXXIII, Marburg, 1889. Floriant et Florete, ed. F. Michel, Edinburgh, 1873. GalIens LI Restores, ed. E. Stengel, Ausgaben u. Abhandlungen, LXXXIV, Marburg, 1890. Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Leibnitz. G. G. Leibnitz, Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium. 3 vols. Hannover, 1707-1711, I, 881 ff. Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht. Otia Imperialia, ed- F. Lieb- recht, Hannover, 1856. Gesta Regum Britanniae, ed. F. Michel, Cambrian Archaeological Association, 1862. GlORN. Stor. Giornale storico delta Letteratura italiana, Txirin, Florence, Rome, 1883-. GoTT. Gel. Anz. Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, Gottingen, 1858-. Grimm, D. M. J . Grimm, Deutsche Mythologte. 4th ed. 3 vols. Berlin, 1875-1878. GuiNGAMOR, ed. G. Paris (Lais in/diis), Romania, VIII (i?79), 51 ff. Hartmann von Aue, Erec, ed. M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1871. Hartmann von Aue, Iwein, ed. E. Henrici. 2 vols. Halle, 1891-1893. Hibbert Lectures. J. Rhys, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Lfeathendom, London and Edinburgh, 1888. Hist. Litt. Histoire litteraire de la France, ouvrage commence par les Religieux B&^dictins de la Congregation de Saint^Maure et continue par des Membres de I'lnstitut. 32 vols. Paris, 1 733-1 830. Hist. Reg. Brit. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, ed. San Marte, Halle, 1854. Holy Grail. A. Nutt, Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, London 1888. HuoN DE Bordeaux, ed. F. Guessard and C. Grandmaison, Paris, i860. HuTH Merlin. Merlin, ed. G. Paris and J. Ulrich. 2 vols. Paris 1886. Jus Adan. Adam de la Halle, Li Jus Adan, ed. L. J. N. Monmerqu^ and F. Michel, Thiatre franqais au Moyen Age, Paris, 1842, pp. 55 ff. Works Cited by Short Titles vii Lancelot. Roman van Lancelot, ed. W. J. A. Jonckbloet. 2 vols. The Hague, 1 846-1 849. Lancelot du Lak, ed. J. Stevenson (Printed for the Maitland Club), 1839. Lanzelet. Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, Lanzelet, ed. K. A. Hahn, Frankfurt a. M., 1845. Lays of Graelent, etc. W. H. Schofield, The Lays of Graelent and Lanvat, in Pttbl. of the Modern Language Association of America, XV (1900), 121-180. LA3AMON, Brut, ed. F. Madden. 3 vols. London, 1847. Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux ou Contes. 5 vols. Paris, 1829. (JLe Vallon des faux Amants, I, 156 ff. Le Mantel mal taille, I, i26£f.) LiVRE d'Artus, p. Summarized by E. Freymond, Zs. f. fr. Sp., XVII (1895), 1-128. Loseth, E., Le Roman en Prose de Tristan, Paris, 1 891 (Bibliothfeque de I'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 82). Mabinogion. Translated from the Welsh by Lady Charlotte Guest. 3 vols. London, 1849. MacDougall, J., Folk and Hero Tales (Watfs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argyllshire Series, III), London, 1891. MacInnes and Nutt. D. Maclnnes and A. Nutt, Folk and Hero Tales {Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argyllshire Series, II), Lon- don, 1890. Malory. Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. H. O. Sommer. 3 vols. London, 1 889-1 891. Marie de France. Die Lais de Marie de France, ed. K. Warnke. 2d ed. Halle, 1900 (Bibliotheca Norraannica, 3). Maury, L. F. A., Les Fees du Moyen Age, Paris, 1843. Mead, English Merlin. W. E. Mead, Outlines of the History of the Legend of Merlin, in English Merlin (q. v.), IV. Mem. della R. A. delle Sc. di Torino. Memorie delta reale Acca- demia delle Scienze di Torino, Serie Seconda, Turin, 1839-. Merlin, 1528. 2 vols. Paris (Philippe Lenoir), 1528.. Meyer and Nutt. K. Meyer and A. Nutt, The Voyage of Bran. 2 vols. ■ London, 1895-1897 (Grimm Library, 4, 6). MiGNE, J. P., Patrologiae Cursus Completus. 221 vols. Paris, 1844- 1864. MoN. Germ. Hist. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 130 vols. Han- nover, Berlin, 1872-1896. Paris, MSS. franc. P. Paris, Les Manuscrits frangois de la Biblio- thlque du Roi. 7 vols. Paris, 1836-1848. Paris, R. T. -R. P. Paris, Les Romans de la Table Ronde. 5 vols. Paris, 1868-1877. Parlement of THE THRE Ages, ed. I. GoUancz, London, 1897. Partonopeus. Partonopeus de Blois, ed. G. A. Crapelet. 2 vols. Paris, 1834- viii Works Cited by Short Titles Paul u. Braune, Beitrage. H. Paul and W. Braune, Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache u. Literatur, Halle, 1874-. Perceval. Perceval li Gallois ou Le Conte du Graal, ed. Ch. Potvin, 6 vols. Mons, 1866-1871. Prophecies. Z^s Prophecies de Merlin, Paris (Philippe Lenoir), 1526. See Brunet, Manuel, III, 1655, for the statement that this edition should be dated 1528, as the third volume of Merlin, 1328. Prose Erec. Chrdtien de Troies, Erec u. Enide, ed. Foerster, Halle, 1890, pp. 253-294; cf. 334-336. Pulbella Gaia, ed. Pio Rajna, Florence, 1893. Rajna, Fonti. Pio Rajna, Le Fonti delP Orlando Furioso, 2d ed. Florence, 1900. Renart le Nouvel. Roman de Renart, ed. D. M. Mdon, Paris, 1826, IV, 125 ff. Rev. Arch. Revue Archeologique, Paris, 1844-. R. I. A., Irish MSS. Series. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Irish MSS. Series, Dublin, 1870-. RiTSON, Anc. Eng. Metr. Rom. J. Ritson, Ancient English Metrical Romances, ed. E. Goldsmid. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1884-1885. Rom. Romania, recueil trimestriel consacr^ k I'dtude des langues'"romanes. Paris, 1872-. Roman de Thebes, ed. L. Constans. 2 vols. Paris, 1890. Roman de Troie. Benoit de Sainte-More et le Roman de Troie, A. Joly. 2 vols. Paris, 1870-1871. Sagen von Merlin. San Marte, Die Sagen von Merlin, Halle, 1853. Script. Hist. Aug. Scriptores Historiae Augustae, ed. H. Peter. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1865. S^BXLLOT, CONTES POP. DE LA H. Bretagne. P. S^biUot, Contes popu- laires de la Haute Bretagne, Paris, 1880. Sebillot, Petite L^gende Dor^e. P. S^billot, Petite L^gende Doric de la Haute Bretagne, Nantes, 1897 (Petite Bibliothfeque bretonne, 284). Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne. P. Sdbillot, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne. 2 vols. Paris, 1882 (Les Littdratures populaires de toutes les Nations, 9, 10). SiLVA Gadelica, a Collection of Tales in Irish, edited and translated by S. H. O'Grady. 2 vols. London and Edinburgh, 1892. Sir Ga WAYNE and the Green Knight, ed. R. Morris, London, 1864 (Early English Text Society). Skene, Four Anc. Books. W. F. Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1868. Stokes and Windisch. W. Stokes and E. Windisch, Irische Texte. Series II, i, ii ; III, i, ii ; IV, i. Leipzig, 1884-1900. Studies and Notes. [Harvardl^ Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, Boston, 1892-. Tavola Ritonda, ed. F. L. Polidori. 2 vols. Bologna, 1 864-1 865. Works Cited by Short Titles ix Trans. Oss. Soc. Transactions of the Ossianic Society, Dublin, IV, 1859; VI, 1861. Tristano. // Tristano riccardiano, ed. E. G. Parodi, Bologna, 1896. Tyolet, ed. G. Paris {Lais inedits), Romania, VIII (1879), 40 ff. Vita Merlini. Galfridi de Monemuta Vita Merlini, ed. F. Michel and T. Wright, Paris, 1837. Vulgate Merlin. Le Roman de Merlin, ed. H. O. Sommer, London, 1894. Wace, Brut. Le Roman de Brut, ed. Le Roux de Lincy. 2 vols. Rouen, 1836-1838. Ward. H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. 2 vols. London, 1883- 1893. YvAiN. Chrftien de Troies, Der Lowenritter (Vvain), ed. W. Foerster, Halle, 1887. Zs. F. D. Alt. Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Alterthum, Leipzig, 1841-. Zs. F. FR. Sp. Zeitschrift fiir franzosische SprCCche und Literatur, Oppeln and Leipzig, 1879-. Zs. F. ROM. Phil. Zeitschrift fUr romanische Philologie, Halle, 1877-. Zs. F. VERGL. Sprachf. Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachforschung, Berlin, 1852-. CONTENTS Pack Works Cited by Short Titles v Chapter I. The Fairy Queen ... i ■?* II. Morgain's Hostility to Arthur 13 Section I, The Fairy Induction 15 Section II, The Fight between Arthur and Accalon . . 19 Section III, Morgain's Shape-Shifting . 23 III. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon . . .... 25 IV. Morgain's Retention of Renoart, Lancelot, and Alisander l'Orphelin . 49 Section I, Renoart . . 49 Section II, Lancelot ... . . . .... 51 Section III, Alisander l'Orphelin . . .... 55 V. MoRGAiN and Guiomar . ,-. .... 60 VI. Morgain and Ogier le Danois . . 74 VII. The Val sanz Retor 81 VIII. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests . . . . 104 IX. Morgain and Auberon 124 X. Morgain, the Sister of Arthur . . 1 36 XI. Morgain la Fee . . 145 XII. La Dame du Lac 167 Section I,, The Nature of the Dame du Lac .... 167 Section II, The Fairy Guardian of Lancelot 170 Section III, Morgain and the Dame du Lac 195 Section IV, Confusions in the Tradition of the Dame du Lac . 201 XIII. Niniane and Merlin . . . 204 XIV. La Damoisele Cacheresse .... 228 XV. The Three Important Fays of Arthurian Romance . 248 Excursus I. Morgain in French Sources of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 250 II. A List of the Sources for the Traditions of Mor- gain LA FiE, THE Dame du Lac, and Niniane . . 255 III. Morgan Tud 259 IV. The Diana Myth and Fairy Tradition 275 Index I. Sources from which Passages are Summarized or Dis- cussed 281 II. Proper Names and Important Fairy Themes .... 284 xi STUDIES IN THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF ARTHURIAN ROMANCE CHAPTER I THE FAIRY QUEEN The fairy mythology of the middle ages is represented in its most important literary form by the lays and romances embody- ing the " matter of Britain " which were written in France dur- ing the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A Breton lay or an Arthurian romance consists essentially in the glorification of a single hero, and its incidents are strung,' one after the other, upon the thread of his individual prowess. As a crowning tribute to his excellence, often as the prize that rewards his most difficult achievement, the love of a fay is bestowed upon him by the narrator of his exploits. For the purposes of romance the fay exists that she may set a seal upon the hero's valor and beauty by granting him her favor, or that she may afford an opportunity for him to display his courage by demand- ing of him an appai-ently impossible adventure. Hence, although the fay's place in the narrative is really secondary to the hero's, she is a highly important element in the structure of Arthurian romance, and we may scarcely wonder that it is in truth " fulfild of fayerye," nor that in it we have a treasure-house of fairy lore. The romances, however, are by no means a final source for information in regard to the other world and its inhabitants. To discover the fay in her true nature we must follow her to her home in Ireland and Wales, where among the earlier traditions of the Celtic people she stands nearer simple myth than in many of the twelfth-century lays and romances of France. There is no lack of Celtic sources to furnish us with a clear conception of the Celtic fairy queen. In Irish literature the earliest extant narrative in which we meet her is the Imram 2 Tile Fairy Queen Brain maic Febail {The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febat), which there is reason to believe embodies oral tradition first written down in the seventh century, although our manuscripts are probably derived from an original that does not antedate the tenth century.^ One day when Bran chanced to be alone near his stronghold, he heard sweet music behind him, and however often he looked back, the music was ever behind him ; at last, such was its sweetness that he fell asleep. WTien he awoke he saw close by him a branch of silver covered with white blos- soms, which he carried with him to his dwelling. As he sat there with his hosts, a woman in strange raiment appeared before them, and began to sing to Bran of Emain, a distant island peopled by women, rich in flowers and birds, joy, music, and feasting, a land that knew nothing rough nor harsh, neither death nor decay. " ' Not to all of yon is my speech, Though its great marvel has been made known : Let Bran hear from the crowd of the world What of wisdom has been told to him. Begin a voyage across the clear sea, If perchance thou mayst reach the land of women.' " Thereupon the woman went frmn them, while they knew not whither she went. And she took her branch with her. The branch sprang from Bran's hand into the hand of the woman, nor was there strength in Bran's hand to hold the branch." (§§29-31.) The next day Bran obeyed the woman's summons and with a band of comrades began his mysterious voyage. As they neared the Land of Women, they saw the leader of the women at the port, and heard her voice calling them to shore and bidding them welcome. " The woman throws a ball of thread to Bran straight over his face. Bran put his hand on the ball, which clave to his palm. The thread of the ball was in the woman's hand, and she pulled the coracle towards the port. Thereupon they went into a large house .... The food that was put on every dish vanished not from them. It seemed a year to them that they were there, — it chanced to be many years. No savour was wanting to them. " Homesickness seized one of them, even Nechtan the son of Collbran. His kindred kept praying Bran that he should go to Ireland with him. The woman said to them their going would make them rue. However, they went, and the woman said that none of them should touch the land. . . . Then they went until they arrived at a gathering at Srub Brain. The men asked of them who it was came over the sea. Said Bran : ' I am Bran the son of Febal,' saith he. However, the other saith: ' We do not know such a one, though the Voyage of Bran is in our ancient stories.' 1 Ed. Meyer and Nutt, I, 2-41. See also xvi, 133-142. The Fairy Queen 3 " The man leaps from them out of the coracle. As soon as he touched the earth of Ireland, forthwith he was a heap of ashes, as though he had been in the earth for many hundred years." (§§ 62-65.) Another early story belonging to the same class of narrative as that of Bran is the Echtra Condla (The Adventures of Connld)} a narrative that is found in the Lebor na h-Uidre (The Book of the Dun Cow), an Irish manuscript the compiler of which is said to have died in 1106, and which contains tradition much older than the eleventh century.^ One day as Connla of the Ruddy Hair was standing on Uisnech with his father, Cond the Hundred-Fighter, he saw a beautiful maiden, clad in unfamiliar garb, drawing near. She was visible only to Connla, and for him alone had she come to tell him that she loved him and to summon him to her dwelling in the lands of the living, where neither death nor sin were known, and where Connla's youth would never wither, a land that was justly called the Plain of Delight. Cond in grave anxiety at hearing such enticing words addressed to his son, bade his druid cast a spell upon the stranger who was trying to take Connla from him. But the maiden, as she turned to leave, gave an apple to Connla. For a month he refused food and drink, and tasted nothing but his apple, which however often he partook of it never grew smaller, but always remained a perfect fruit. More and more he longed for the maiden's presence. At the end of the month he saw her coming toward him, and once more he heard her singing to him, bidding him sail with her in her boat of glass over the seas to the Plain of Delight, where none but women dwell. Connla instantly leaped into the boat with the maiden, and sailed away from his kindred. Never more did they have tidings from him, A being of the same type as the maidens from Emain and the Plain of Delight makes her appearance in Welsh literature in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyved^ one of the genuine Mabinogion, which in its material probably antedates the twelfth century.* Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, was a lord of prowess and renown. One day as he sat with some of his followers on a certain enchanted mound, he saw an 1 Ed. Windlsch, Irische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1879, pp. 118 ff. Translated into English by MacSwiney, Gaelic Journal, II, 307 ; into German by Zimmer, Zs. f. d. Alt, XXXIII (1889), 262 ff.; into French by D'Arbois de Jubainville, Ep. Celt., I, 385 ff. For a summary see Meyer and Nutt, I, 145 ff. 2 See Zimmer, Zs. f. vergl. Sfrachf., XXVIII (1887), 417 ; Silva Gadelica, II, ix ; Meyer and Nutt, I, 144, 147-149. ' Mabinogion, III, 46 ff. * See Meyer and Nutt, II, 18 ; Nutt, Folk Lore Record, V (1882), 1. 4 The Fairy Queen unknown lady wearing a garment of shining gold come riding toward him. She was mounted on a large snow-white horse, and rode at a slow and even pace. Pwyll sent one of his followers to meet her, but she passed by, and although the page rode the fleetest horse in Pwyll's stables, "the more he urged his horse, the further was she from him. Yet she held the same pace as at first. ... ' Of a truth,' said Pwyll, ' there must be some illusion here.' " On the next day the same experience was repeated. On the third day, Pwyll once again went to the mound, and when the lady came pacing by, he himself rode after her, and urged his horse on to its greatest speed, yet he found that it availed nothing to follow her. Then Pwyll entreated her for the sake of him whom she best loved to stay for him. " ' I will stay gladly,' said she, ' and it were better for thy horse, hadst thou asked it long since.' " She was journeying on her own errand, she told him in answer to his questions, and her chief quest was to seek him. She was Rhiannon, she said, the daughter of Heveydd Hen, who wished to give her to a husband against her will ; but such was her love for Pwyll that him alone would she have for a husband. As she spoke, Pwyll, gazing upon her, thought that she was more beautiful than any lady whom he had ever seen, and he gladly promised to meet her a year from that day at the palace of Heveydd. In a year's time, attended by a retinue of knights, he fulfilled his word, and was received with joy and gladness in the palace, where he was treated as lord. The rest of the narrative does not concern us here, nor the future fate of Rhiannon. Her summons of Pwyll is enough to place her beside the queen of the Land of Women and Connla's love, even if we heard nothing of Harlech where the magic song of her birds over the sea makes time pass with the same mysterious swiftness as in Emain.^ From these three stories we can form a distinct conception of the Celtic fairy queen, which we shall do well to keep before us in studying the fay of mediaeval romance, whose likeness in attribute and deed to the maidens beloved by Bran, Connla, and Pwyll stamps her clearly as their lineal descendant. So we must lay aside, for the time being, our cherished pictures of Queen Titania and Faery Mab,^ and remember that the fay of Arthurian'romance is essentially a supernatural woman, always more beautiful than the imagination can possibly fancy her, untouched by time, unhampered by lack of resources for the ^ See p. 2H, note 5. 2 For a popular discussion of the relation between the Celtic fay and the fairy of Shakespeare see Nutt, The Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare, London, 1900. The Fairy Queen 5 accomplishment of her pleasure, superior to human blemish, contingency, or necessity, in short, altogether unlimited in her power. Insistent love is a fundamental part of her nature, but she holds aloof from ordinary mortals and gives her favor only to the best and most valorous of knights.^ She has complete foreknowledge, and often, as we shall see later, has guarded from infancy the mortal whom she finally takes to the other world as her beloved. However unexpectedly to the hero she appears before him, she comes always in quest of him,- and for the purpose of carrying out a long-formed design of claiming his love. Her power at first is manifested by some mysterious agency. Like the musical bough to which Bran listened this may benumb the senses, or like Connla's magic apple it may increase a longing for her, or again like Rhiannon's snow-white horse, that none but Pwyll can stay, it may be the direct means of bringing the chosen hero to. the fay's side. The effect of these agencies is merely the sign that the mortal is feeling the bewildering fairy influence, and unconsciously, but perforce, yielding to it. When the inevitable result ensues, and he obeys her summons to the other world, his bewilderment becomes complete oblivion, and he dwells in utter forgetfulness of all things mortal, conscious only of the delights that the fay offers him. He may grow restless at his retention in fairyland, but he cannot escape the fay'-s control. Her power follows him back to earth as that of the queen of Emain followed Nechtan, in the form of a command, disregard of which will bring certain punishment. We shall meet with numerous examples of the penalty that surely is paid by a mortal if he violates the injunction laid upon him by his fairy mistress; and yet we shall see her again and again showing her forgive- ness of her delinquent lover, by coming to him just as the dire consequences of his disobedience overtake him, and bearing him off once more to the other world. In the fairy mythology of romance the law is invariable, that for the mortal who once has experienced the fairy control there is no true release, and that the fay is never to be thwarted in her plans to win the hero whose loye she seeks. Hence, although she often appears in the pages of romance as a capricious mistress who with 1 Cf. Philipot, Rom., XXV (1896), 279. 6 The Fairy Queen astonishing fertility of resource provides adventures for mortals, she really moves in accordance with a definite law of her nature, the law of absolute supremacy whenever she pleases to exercise her control, and this control is primarily effective for the wel- fare of the knight whom she loves. ^ In the Arthurian romances there are three powerful fays who are more important than all others, Morgain la f6e, the Dame du Lac, and Niniane. Of the two latter neither finds a place outside of strictly Arthurian material. Each is prominent because of her association with a single hero, the Dame du Lac with Lancelot, Niniane with Merlin. Each is distinguished by one leading characteristic : the Dame du Lac is the protectress of a young knight, Niniane the beguiler of her lover. Morgain, on the other hand, is a much more pervasive influ- ence than either of the others, and has made her way even outside of the Arthurian material into the Roman de Troie and Huon de Bordeaux. This fact, however, should not be interpreted as pointing to a tradition of Morgain that was independent of the "matter of Britain "; for Benoit de Sainte- More, the author of the Roman de Troie, though he was pri- marily intent upon legend developed from Dares and Dictys, was unquestionably as familiar as Wace with "Breton" tales,^ and in his reference to Morgain 3 we can detect him simply adopting a convention that he had learned from Arthurian stories. In the career of Huon de Bordeaux, as is well known, we are following a hero who treads the dividing line between the chanson de gesie and the romance, and whose world is peopled quite as fully with the typical figures of Breton story as with those of the Carolingian epic. These passages, then, from the Roman de Troie and the Huon, considered apart from the special phase of tradition embodied in each, are to be regarded merely as evidence of Morgain's prominence in Arthurian fairy lore. 1 On the nature of the fay see Nutt, Holy Grail, t,. 232 . id., The Fairv Mythology of Shakespeare, pp. 17, 18 ; Schofield, Studies end Notes, V, 237 ■ Lays of Graelent, etc., pp. 131, 132 ; Brown, Studies and Motes, VIII, 19-22 2 See Nyrop-Gorra, Storia dell' Epopea, Francese, Turin, 1888, pp. 243, 244 ' See pp. 21, 161, note 3. The Fairy Queen 7 I \ Another distinction which separates Morgain from the Dame ^du Lac and Niniane is that, although as Arthur's sister she is ii^nected more conspicuously with him than with any other r. '\ tal, she has both amorous and hostile relations with many k; l^hts. Furthermore, it cannot be said that in her character an)lr,one trait is so far emphasized as to cast the others into the shaa V lAs we survey the entire Morgain saga, we find her manifesting her power in a wide range of capacities, as the i mistres^ of the healing art, the seductive amie, the revengeful \ schemeri the guardian of a young knightj^ If we glance over •' the earliest extant passages relating to Morgain, which extend approximart^ly from 1148 to the end of the century,^ we shall 1 A list of thi^^e passages is appended, with approximate dates and references to the pages below, ^here they are treated separately : 1. Vita Merit, z, vv. 908-940; usually attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth and dated ca. 1148. 1 For a discussion of the authorship and date see Vita Merlini, pp. xcv ff. ; V>Vard, I, 278-288 ; Mead, English Merlin, p. xciii ; F. Lot, Ann. de Bretagne, XV ^'^899-1900), 332-336. (See Sagen von Merlin, p. 89, for a rather fanciful identifica lion of Morgain with the puella ex urbe Canuti, Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. VII, ch. iv, whi -,h, if accepted, would give us an earlier reference to Morgain than the passage in the Vita Merlini^ See pp. 38 ff. 2. Chretien de Troies, R, ec, v. 1957 ; dated by Foerster (Cligis, pp. xi-xiii, xxxvii, xxxviii) probably ca. 1 1 50 ;■ by Grober (Grundriss der rom. Phil., Strassburg, i888-*i90i, II, i, 498) before 1164 ; by F. Lot {Rom., XXVIII, 1899, 323) ca. 1160 ; by Paris {Journal des Savants, 1902, ^03) ca. 1168. See pp. 61, 64, 72. 3. Id., J*., vv. 4219-4228. Seep. 64, Excursus III. 4. Id., Y'sain, vv. 2951-2955 ; dat 3d by Foerster ( Yvain, Halle, 1891, pp. v, vi) between 1 164 and 1 173 ; by Paris {Jo vernal des Savants, 1902, 304) ca. 1 173. See pp. 64, 267, note 2, 272. 5. Benolt de Sainte-More, Rome n de Troie, vv. 7989-7996; dated probably ca. 1165 b^ Grober {Grundriss, II, i, 583; cf. Erec, p. viii) ; near 1160 by Paris {Journal des Savants, 1902, 303). Si ;e pp. 21, 161, note 3. For a reference to Morgain m a 1 6. Hartmann von Aut, Ere(, vv von Eschenbach, Pariival, ed. BaAscl ext of the Roman de Thibes see p. 132. 1 929-1 933; written in 11 go (see Wolfram , , h, Leipzig, 1875, I, xviii). See p. 258, note 2. 7. Id., »■*., vv. 5152-5242. Seep.145, note 1. 8. Id., Iwein, vv. 3422-3424 ; writtfen shortly after 1200 (see Bartsch, Parzival, I.C.). See p. 258, note 2. \ 9. Jendeus de Brie, Batdiile Loquifey ; written about 1170 (see Paris, La Litt. franc, au Moyen Age, P' is, 1S9D, §40).'. See below, pp. 49-51- 10. Huon de Bordeaux, vv. i6, 3493A 10,381 ; written during the last third of the twelfth century, according to Guessajrd and Grandmaison, Huon, p. viii ; and Paris, Litt. franc., p. 2 Silva Gadelica, II, 269. 2 gee pp. 38 ff. 3 See Lot, Rom., XXVIII (1899), 323-326. The Fairy Queen 1 1 krmaid or a fay of the sea is one that presents itself as soon as we have all of the Morgain material before us. Except in so f?y- as she is the inhabitant of an island, Avalon, she is never connected with the sea before the romance of Floriant et Flhrete, a late source, where her association with the water is proDably due to the influence of local tradition in Sicily. ^ Moreover, although as we read the romances the Morgain saga seems to consist of utterly detached bits of tradition and fre- quently contradictory legends, when it is analyzed, it really arrange^ itself into a rather closely organized and entirely consisteiil body of material, representing a natural growth from a distinguishable germ, which, however, does not appear in any source in a form that we can be sure is original. This fact raises a presumption in favor of the view that we are not deal- ing with original Morgain material in our extant sources, and also that we must look behind them for some more distinct and important personality than that of the baptized Liban. There is in Irish mythology a figure whose attributes, legend, and name suggest the possibility that Morgain may be con- nected with her. This being is the Irish battle-goddess,' the Morrigan. There are five ancient Irish goddesses of war, Neman, Ana, Badb, Macha, and the Morrigan ; but the Morrigan occupies a position of peculiar prominence among them.^ She is the daughter of Emmas, daughter of Ettarlamh, son of Nuada Airgedlamh, king of the Tuatha d6 Danann,^ the folk of the side, or fairy hillocks. In the Tochmarc Entire (Wooing of EmerY she is said to be the wife of the war-god Neit ; but more often her husband is the Dagda, or great king, of the Tuatha dd Danann.^ The special function of the Morri- gan among the battle-goddesses is, according to Hennessy,® to incite to deeds of prowess and to plan battle. Her attributes are, of course, primafily manifested in connection with strife 1 See pp. 251 ff. * Cf. the references, especially to Golther, given below, p. 33, note i. s See Sev. Celt., I (1870-1872), 36 ; II (1873-1875), 491 ; XII (1891), loi ; Silva Gadelica, II, 225 ; Cuchullin Saga, p. 168. « See Rev. Celt., I, 36 ; XI (1890), 437 ff. ; Arch. Rev., I (1888), 231 ; Zs.f. celt. Phil., Ill (1899-1900), 2. ' See O'Curry, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, London, ■ 1873, III, 50. 6 Rev. Celt., I, 34. 12 The Fairy Queen of one kind or another, and she aids in martial ^<^'^^^^^'"^' both by direct encouragement and by her gift of prophecy, is no unimportant figure in Irish story, and, in addition to attributes as the promoter of strife, she has certain mag^ powers, notably knowledge of the future, the ability to crfia e effects of nature, and versatility in shape-shifting.^ ^ The Morrigan has a more limited personality in the ^^Itic sources than Morgain has in the French romances. Her nature as a war-goddess is clearly defined, whereas Morgain exhibits the manifold activities of a fairy queen ; but the resem- blance between them, even on a superficial examinati on, is too suggestive to be dismissed without consideration, ^h, we study the Morgain saga, we shall see whether the mor/e important individual episodes attached to Morgain's name a«id the more pronounced relations in which she appears are paralleled in episodes and relations found in the legends of the' Morrigan, and whether the attributes of the Morrigan are repeated in Morgain's nature. In short, it remains for us to discover whether we can trace sufficient identity in saga between the war-goddess and the fay to indicate that there is more than a merely casual resemblance between them, and, if so, to detect how they are related. The simplest plan will be to examine in turn the episodes of Morgain's career, noting on the way par- allels from the Morrigan legend when they occur. We may turn first to that episode which in its original form seems to lie nearest to early Morgain material and to offer the most easily recognizable parallel to a story told of the Morrigan. From this beginning we shall find that the important remaining episodes of the Morgain saga follow in a natural sequence. 1 Rev. Celt., I, 39, 40, 41, 49, 83; XII, loi ; Cuchullin Saga, pp. 157, 219. 2 See pp. 149 ff. CHAPTER n MORGAIN'S HOSTILITY TO ARTHUR The Vita Merlini contains, as I have said, the earliest men- tion of Morgain in literature and brings her into connection with Arthur as the healer of his wounds in Avalon. Her part here stands out quite distinct from that in all other important episodes of the romances in which she is associated with the king, for in every remaining instance,^ except in late sources,^ she is the perpetrator of some malign scheme against him. It may be said in general, then, that apart from those scenes in which Morgain tends the king's wounds, her hatred of him is persistent and is the ruling motive of her career wherever it touches his. The French prose romances vary too greatly in the reasons that they assign for this hostility to leave us ground for sup- posing that they are giving us the true story of its origin. In the Lancelot^ Morgain is said to hate both Arthur and the queen for the same reason, namely, that the lover of her youth had been the cousin of Guinevere,* who had separated her from him. In the prose Tristan * we learn that Arthur has banished Morgain from court because of her faithlessness. According to the Huth Merlin,^ Morgain's hostility is roused by the death of her lover, Accalon of Gaul, at Arthur's hands ; but before this has occurred she is said to cherish for Arthur the natural hostility of the evil toward the good. If we turn to a Fastnachtspiel'' of the fifteenth century, we find that Arthur and his sister, an enchantress, are said to be on 1 Here should be excepted Floriant et Florete, Bataille Loquifer, Erec, vv. 4219 ff., sources which -will be treated below. Unimportant passages occur in which Morgain and Arthur appear on friendly terms ; see Vulgate Merlin, p. 269 ; Lhire d'Arttts, P., § 26 ; Paris, R. T. R., II, 203, 204; Huth Merlin, I, 201. "^ See Auberon, vv. 1279 ff. ; Esclarmonde, below, p. 253; Ogier, below, p. 76. 8 Paris, R. T. R., IV, 292. * See p. 61. « Loseth, § 190. " II, 188. ' See Keller, Fastndcktspiele aus dem funfzehnten Jahrhundert, Nachlese, Stutt- gart, 1858, No. 127. 13 14 Morgain's Hostility to Arthur unfriendly terms, and fuel is added to the flame because she is not included among the guests invited to a feast. Plainly the hostility of Morgain for Arthur must rest on some earlier foundation than any of the reasons given in these sources, where the narrators are evidently seeking to account in some way or other for a recognized, but not fully understood situation. A clue to the real cause is given in a long story told in the Huth Merlin ^ and Malory? relating Morgain's efforts to use _ Excalibur, Arthur's sword, against him. In the course of this narrative occurs an episode the analysis of which shows more clearly, perhaps, than that of any other the original theme in which Morgain and Arthur probably were brought together. In the course of a stag-hunt, Arthur, Urien (Morgain's husband), and Accalon of Gaul, her lover, are separated from their companions. Toward nightfall they find the wounded stag on the bank of a river, an easy victim for the king's blow. Suddenly they espy a beautiful vessel, silken-hung, speeding toward them down the stream. As soon as it touches shore they go aboard, and are gladly welcomed by twelve damsels, who lead them to luxurious couches for the night. In the morning when Urien awakes he is at Camelot with Morgain.^ Accalon opens his eyes upon a meadow near a sparkling fountain not far from a great tower. Presently a dwarf sent by Morgain comes to him bringing Excalibur with the request that Accalon use it in a certain battle that she appoints for him on the following day. Arthur wakes to discover that he is imprisoned with many knights in a tower, the lord of which has a feud with his brother, which is to be settled by a contest between cham- pions. Arthur undertakes the battle, little suspecting that the entire plan has been concocted by Morgain, who, wishing to kill him, has arranged that Accalon, armed with Excalibur, shall be his opponent. In the meantime she sends to Arthur a sword made in the likeness of Excalibur, which he has previously given into her keeping.* The appointed morning dawns, and Arthur and Accalon, neither of whom recognizes the other, begin a furious combat in which Accalon gains the upper hand. The Dame du Lac, know- ing of Arthur's danger, comes to his rescue just as Accalon is about to slay him, and casts an enchantment upon Excalibur that causes it to fall to the ground. Arthur at once secures it, and proceeds to overcome Accalon, but when he learns his opponent's name and the part that Morgain has played in the affair, he pardons him. The. two combatants go to a convent to have 1 II, 174 ff., 181-212, 226, 227. 2Bk. IV, ch. 6-15. » See below, p. 142, note 6, for further references to this episode. * See below, p. 200, note i. Morgain s Hostility to Arthur 15 their wounds tended, and there Accalon dies. Arthur sends his body to Morgain, with the message that he has Excalibur in his own possession. Morgain hastens to the convent where Arthur is staying ; she makes her way to his chamber, and finds him sleeping sword in hand. She seizes the precious scabbard, however, and hurries off with it; knowing that Arthur, while he wears this, can lose no blood.' When the king wakes and discovers his loss, he unhesitatingly attributes the theft to Morgain, and sets out in pursuit of her. She flees swiftly across the open country, sees that Arthur is gaining fast upon her, and flings the scabbard far into the depths of a lake near at hand. Knowing that the Dame du Lac has come to the land for the express purpose of protecting the king, and that therefore her own magic arts have no power over him, as the only means of safety, she trans- . forms herself and her maidens into blocks of stone. Arthur recognizes her in her altered form and looks with horror on the fate that has overtaken her. When he has passed by, she breaks the spell and goes on her way.^ Later she sends him a taunting message to the effect that she is a shape- shifter and would have done something worse to him but for the protection that the Dame du Lac exercises over him. [In Malory she reminds him that so long as she can turn herself into stone, she does not fear him.J This long story falls naturally into three divisions : the fairy induction, the fight between Arthur and Accalon, and Morgain's shape-shifting. THE FAIRY INDUCTION The induction to the story resembles many another that recounts the entrance of a mortal into fairyland. In the Celtic stories cited in the last chapter, the fairy mistress in person Summons the hero whom she loves to the other world. But she is not limited to one method in accomplishing her ends, and we have a variety of inductions to our fairy episodes, recounting the means by which the fay draws the knight to her presence. A very ordinary form represents her as send- ing out a fairy messenger disguised as some tempting victim for the huntsman's dart, usually a stag, a boar, or a bird, which lures the young knight to her domain.^ Sometimes the pur- suit of the other-world messenger leads him to the bank of a 1 See p. 198. 2 For an unimportant episode with Manassas, introduced at this point in the narrative,* see Huth Merlin, II, 225, 226; Malory, Bk. IV, ch. 15. ' Numerous examples will be found below; see especially pp. 17, 29, 65, 69. 1 6 Morgains Hostility to Arthur stream, where he sees awaiting him a magic boat, marvellously beautiful and swift, pilotless and rudderless,^ sent by the fay 1 The magic boat is an extremely common means of passing from this world to the other. Connla sails with the fay to the Plain of Delight in her ship of glass {Zs. f. d. Alt, XXXIII, 264, of. 277 ; £p. Celt, I, 389), Cuchulinn with Liban to Fand in a boat of bronze (£/. Celt., I, 183; cf. Hibbert Lectures, p. 343); cf. Marie de France, Guigemar, vv. 151 ff. ; Partonopeus, vv. 702 ff. ; below, pp. 66 ff. Perceval is sent by a fay across a stream in a boat that returns to her as soon as he has left it {Perceval, vv. 30,503-30,534). At the bidding of another maiden he enters a little vessel moored on a lake shore ; the next day he finds himself in Cornwall, and the maiden has vanished (Loseth, § 315). See also Perceval, vv. 8725 ff. For other rudderless boats cf. the Nef de Joie, made by Merlin and sent by Mabon, the enchanter, to convey Tristan and Iseult from Cornwall to Logres (Loseth, §§ 323-335); Zs. f. d AH., XXXIII, 277 ; Todd, Irish MS. Series, I, i, 38 ; Hist Litt, XXX, 267 ; La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Furnivall, London, 1864, pp. 175, 180; Loseth, § 290 a ; The Soke of Duke Huon ofBurdeux, London, 1882-1887 (E. E. T. S.), pp. 439 ^- !' Raoul, Messire Gauvain ou La Vengeance de Raguidel, ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1862, pp. 5 ff., 169-171 ; Perce- val, vv. 20,892 ff., cf. 21,794 ff., 21,902 ff.; W. Miiller, Germania, I, 429, 435; Solomon's ship, Le Saint-Graal, ed. Hucher, Mans and Paris, 1875-187S, II, 444 ff. ; La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Furnivall, pp. 181 ff., 241 ; Lonelich, Seynt Graal, ed. Furnivall, London, 1861-1863, ch. xxviii; Loseth, §§ 512, 513 ; Malory, Bk. XVII, ch. 2 ff., cf. ch. 14; Tavola Ritonda, ch. cxx. See below, p. 36, note I, for ships that transport the bodies of saints to their destination. Magic ships are frequently endowed with some peculiar virtue or beauty. Some sail by land as well as by sea. Merlin by means of art and precious stones makes such a vessel ; Esglantine de Valon sails in it over sea and land to Arthur's court, and predicts that it shall carry the king to Avalon (Prophecies, pp. Ixxii, Ixxiii ; cf. below, p. 17, for the Nef de Joie which will be destroyed after the battle of Salisbury, when Arthur shall have left the kingdom of Logres ; see Loseth, § 324). This is doubtless a reflection of the ship sent by Argante to Camlan for Arthur ; see p. 26. Cf. also Campbell, I, 244, 257. With these ships cf. the other-world horses that travel by sea as well as by land, Silva Gadelica, II, 199, 295 ff. ; see also Trans. Oss. Soc, IV, 245, 249; Campbell, The Fians, London, 1891, p. 89; Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, 120; Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, London, 1879, p. 36; Ann. de Bretagne, XV (1899-1900), 125 ff. ; Child, Ballads, I, 96. Some other-world vessels have an elastic capacity ; see Preidden Annwn, a Welsh poem of the fourteenth century, translated in Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, London, 1876, pp. 169, 183 ff. ; Mabinogion, II, 258, 307, 310; Joyce, O. C. R., pp. 61-67. A magic boat is made by three strokes of an axe on a sling-stick, Silva Gadelica, II, 299 ; a magic staff becomes a boat when it touches the water, Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, Boston, 1894, p. 249 ; a magic boat will carry only those who are free from tricherie, traison, loberie, Claris et Laris, vv. 16,116-16,185; a little boat of lead will be in the morning in whatever place the owner wishes it to be, Larminie, West Irish Folk Tales, London, 1893, p. 35. Magic ships navigate the air, Silva Gadelica, II, 453 ; cf. St. Agobard, Cohtra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis, ed. Baluze, 1666, 1, 146, for a description of certain cloud- enveloped ships from Magonia, a mystical land about which we have no definite facts (see Hist. Reg: Brit., Bk. Ill, ch. i, note ; Grimm, D. M., I, 509, 531). Fairy Morgains Hostility to Arthur I'j to convey him, in obedience to her magic guidance, to the other world. A familiar example of this type of fairy induction is con- tained in the thirteenth-century romance of Partonopeus. Partonopeus is a young knight wlio, separated from his companions in a boar-hunt, wanders through the forest until he comes in sight of the sea. A boat sails up to the shore ; he goes aboard, finds it unoccupied, falls asleep, and wakes to the discovery that he is far out at sea. The boat bears him to a beautiful palace, the dwelling of the fairy princess, Melior, with whom he enters upon a secret life of delight. ?he has ere this loved him for his valor, and has sent the boar and the enchanted boat to guide him to her side. The same kind of induction also occurs in an episode in the prose Tristan} although here the sender of the enchanted ship is not a fay, but a magician. Tristan, as he follows a stag in the chase, meets a damsel who induces him to go with her to the bank of a stream, where she shows him a marvel- lous vessel, the Nef de Joie, made by Merlin, and destined to carry him with Iseult to Logres. Tristan immediately brings Iseult to the ship, and they sail gaily over the sea. They land at an enchanted island, where the vessel leaves them and vanishes from sight. When Tristan has performed two adventures successfully, the vessel appears as suddenly as it had van- ished, and the lovers once more set sail. The Nef de Joie speeds over the waters to its destination, the castle of Mabon the enchanter, who needing aid in performing a certain adventure has sent the vessel to bring Tristan to his land. In Floriant et Florete? Morgain herself employs a fairy boat to convey the young knight, Floriant, her fosterling, from her abode on Mongibel, where he has been brought up, to Arthur's court. It transports him thither without guidance, then speeds swiftly back across the sea to Mongibel. The ship is described ships have been compared with the ships of the Phaeacians (Od., VIII, vv. 557-563), which, pilotless and rudderless, sail wrapped in cloud and mist ; see Dunlop-Liebrecht, p. 175. For several of the above references I am indebted to Dr. A. C. L. Brown, in whose article " The Round Table before Wace " (Studies and Notes, VII, igg, note i) a further collection may be found; see also Id., ib., VIII, 79, note i ; MacDougall, p. 147; of. 289 ; Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, London, 1891, p. 276 ; Arthurian Legend, pp. 220, 221 ; Campbell, II, 467. 1 Loseth, §§ 323-335- 2 Vv. 791 ff., 923 ff., 2079 ff. 1 8 Morgain' s Hostility to Arthur as a beautiful vessel made of ebony/ but the special feature emphasized is the hangings : M.hs or voil dire, k mon avis Com la nef iert encortinn^e D'une cortine ; one mius ovrde Ne fu, par le mien escient. Then follows an elaborate description, seventy-six verses in length, of the hangings.^ It looks as if a common tradition might be the basis of this account and that in the Huth Merlin, where the silken hangings of the ship are the only appoint- ments that receive attention: Li rois . . . voit venir a val I'iaue une nef couverte de drap de soie aussi vermeil coume une escrelate. Et estoit la nef si couverte de toutes pars qu'il n'i paroit riens de fust fors che qu' e[rt] emprfes I'eve . . . il trueve a 1 'entree un drap de soie tout vermeil, qui laiens estoit mis pour chou que on n'i veist se on ne fust dedens . . . il la veoient si biele et si cointe et si paree de drap de soie qu'il ne virent onques si biel lieu ne si envoisid que cil lour samble.' Morgain also employs a white stag to lead Floriant in the chase far from his comrades, up a mountain to the entrance of a beautiful castle. The stag vanishes from sight, and Flori- ant sees Morgain seated before him. She greets him with an embrace, and declares to him that he shall never leave her land.* In the light of these stories, we may recognize the induction in the Huth Merlin as evidently a true fairy induction, and the stag-hunt and fairy boat as elements that may have been used with Morgain's name in an earlier source, which also perhaps influenced the author of Floriant et Florete. It should be said that the compiler of the Huth Merlin is capable of taking great liberties with his material. Like most of his class he is sadly prolix, and more than once he exercises his ingenuity by divid- ing an original adventure into sundry parts in order to make it do duty for several heroes. In the episode of la damoisele cacheresse,^ for example, one stag, one brachet, and one fay, all ^ Vv. 791 ff. 2 Vv. 846-922. 3 ffuth Merlin, II, 175, 176. With the description of this vessel cf. especially Hucher, Le Saint Graal, II, 443 ff. * Vv. 8176 ff. s See pp. 228-233. Morgain s Hostility to Arthur 19 of which properly belong together as the essentials for the adventure of a single hero, by a judicious arrangement supply three knights with difficult tasks, and the maiden herself in the end wanders off with still a different lover. So here, by means of one hunt and one fairy ship, three heroes are transported to three different places. When they awake, the magic ship has vanished, and sorry adventures await them all. Not one of them is borne by the boat, as we should naturally expect, to the love of a fay. Plainly we are dealing with material that has been distorted from its original form. II THE FIGHT BETWEEN ARTHUR AND ACCALON When we select from the episode the features that are grouped about Arthur, we find that they simply tell how he was brought by a magic hunt and boat to an imprisonment designed for him by Morgain, how by her he was made to fight in disguise with his own knight, and how at the moment when through her agency he was about to suffer death by his own sword at the knight's hands, he was rescued by the power of the Dame du Lac. With these points in mind it is of interest to turn to another episode, appearing in five sources, in which Arthur is represented as detained in the other world by a fay for purposes of her own. The French prose Tristan'^ is the earliest source for the story. A maiden arrives at Arthur's court, and on the pretext of an adventure summons him to her tower in the forest of Darnantes. ' Here she slips on his finger an enchanted ring that leads him to forget the queen and give her his love. But a damsel of the Dame du Lac comes to him, tears the ring from his finger, and advises him to behead the maiden of the tower. As Arthur is on the point of putting this advice into effect, the lady calls her brothers to her rescue, and is herself about to behead Arthur, when Tristan led by a damsel appears upon the scene and saves the king. The same story is told with variations, not important for our purpose, in the Italian Tristano? a compilation probably belong- ing to the end of the thirteenth century, in the Tavola Ritonda,^ 1 Loseth, § 74 a. " Pp. 333-346- » I, 221-226. 20 ' Morgain's Hostility to Arthur written in the end of the thirteenth or the early fourteenth century, and in Malory} The essentials are practically the same throughout the versions. Arthur is enticed by a fay to her dwelling, where he lives for a time in forgetfulness of his home and the queen ; when at length he remembers the queen and no longer desires the fay's love, she seeks to destroy him. He is obliged to fight with her knights or with his own who are in disguise. He is about to be slain [in Malory, with, his own sword] in the contest when, through the agency of the Dame du Lac, he is rescued.^ It will be noticed that, if we exclude the king's sojourn with the enchantress, the main features of this story agree with those of the episode in the Huth Merlin. In this latter source the true fairy induction, which, as a rule, leads a hero to the love of a fay, is attached to a story in its scene barely suggest- ing fairyland, while in its conclusion it is identical with the account of Arthur's stay in the other world with the enchantress. Of this latter episode the central part tells the story of a fay's revenge for rejected love. The question that naturally suggests itself is whether the enchantress of the story was originally Morgain, or whether in the Huth Merlin a theme told else- where of another personage is applied to Morgain, with the part of the enchantress omitted. We may be sure that if this role were originally Morgain's, by the time when the prose romances in which she is always Arthur's sister were being compiled, necessarily the story as a whole would be applied to some one else or the love theme would be omitted. This is exactly the condition in which we find the episode ; the Huth Merlin exhibits the latter stage, the other versions the former. There are minor indications that Morgain, in the early story, was the fay who summoned Arthur to the other world to win his love. In the first place, with the exception of the Tavola 1 Bk. IV, ch. 1 6. 2 For this episode see also Prophecies, p. xx : a maiden who dwells with Queen Morgain will so enchant Arthur that he shall forget his court. She will make him joust with her men ; he shall be rescued by one of the good knights of the world. Besides the above versions, there is an echo of the same episode in other sources. See, especially, Paris, R. T. R., IV, 48, 55-58, 80-83 ! <=*• below, pp. 97, 98. See Perceval, I, 242 ff. : Arthur is imprisoned by the Lady of the Waste Manor, who sends for her knights to joust with him. He is saved by Lancelot. Morgain's Hostility to Arthur 2i Ritondq, which is a late romance and evidently is engrafting another story upon that of the enchantress, the only source in which the fay is given a nam 'ofy ; here she is called Annowre, a name which w may possibly have become confused with Morgaiii. ^)hecies the enchant- ress is one of Morgain's damsels. . a fact adding to the probability that Morgain was the original enchantress is that the Dame du Lac invariably destroys the maiden's power and rescues the king. Moi:gain_and_the Dame du Lac frequently; apj)ear as opposinjj[nfluences,2_and~wheiOh^ employs her powerjo befriend Arthur it is usually for the purpo se of thw arting some scheme of Morgain's. More suggestive, however, than either of these considerations is Benoit de Sainte-More's account of Hector's experiences with Morgain. Hector monta sor Galatde Que li tramist Morgan la f^e Qui moult I'ama et le tint chier, ^ M&s lie la volt o sei colchier, Et por la honte qu'ele en ot Si Ten hai tant com plus pot. Qo fu li tr&s plus biax chevax Qu'ainz chevalchast nus horn mortax.* This reference to Morgain's love for Hector is altogether unique, but it affords definite proof that the story of the flouted fay whose love turned to hatred was told of her at a comparatively early period. Beside this passage, which contains one of the earliest refer- ences to Morgain that we have,* and beside the account of the rejected love of the enchantress and her consequent desire to kill Arthur, there should be placed a scene in the Morrigan's career, which is described in the Lebor na h-Uidre in an early twelfth-century recension of the Tain Bo Cuailgne^ ^ See pp. 139 £f. This maiden's name appears in Geoffrey, Wace, and Lajamon as that of a daughter of Ebraucus, the founder of the Castle of Maidens (Edinburgh). In Geoffrey (Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. II, ch. viii) the form is Anaor ; in Wace {Srut, vv. 1605, 1606), Anor ; \a'La.^3.mon'(Brut,-v.-2Ti<)),Annore. ^ See Chap. Xri,iii. 2 Soman de Troie, vv. 7989-7996. For a possible echo of Morgain's hatred of Hector, see Loseth, § 627. * Cf. p. 7, note i. 5 Translated into German by Zimmer, Zs. f. vergl. Sprachf., XXVIII (1887), 456 ff. The quotations below are from Cuchullin Saga, pp. 164 ff. See above, p. 3, for the date. 22 Morgain's Hostility to Arthur " CuchuUin saw draw near him a young woman of surprising form, wrapped also in a mantle of many colours. ' Who art thou ? ' he asked. She made answer : ' Daughter of Buan the king. I am come to thee. For the record of thy deeds I have loved thee, and all my valuables and my cattle I bring with me.' 'Surely,' he said, 'the season is not opportune in which thou hast come to us ; my bloom is wasted with hardship nor, so long as in this strife I shall be engaged, is it easy for me to hold inter- course with a woman.' ' But in thy labor thou shalt have mine aid.' He answered her : ' Go to, not as putting my trust in a woman's aid was it that I took this job in hand.' 'It shall go hard with thee,' she said, ' what time thou settest-to with men and I come to take part against thee.' " She makes the same threats and Cuchulinn the same replies that they exchange in the conversation referred to below in the Tain Bo Regamna} Then she goes away from him. Later Cuchulinn meets in conflict the great warrior Loch. Then the Morrigan comes out of, the sidhe to destroy Cuchulinn. She carries out her threats of shape-shifting and tries to hamper him in his fight. He fractures one. of her eyes, and she does not succeed in preventing his final victory. There is then, as of the enchantress, so also of the Morrigan, a story telling how she vainly offered her love to a hero, how her resentment followed him, and how he visited her with forcible punishment ; and Morgain's hatred of Hector is par- alleled by the Morrigan's of Cuchulinn. It is not possible to regard any of the points noticed above as more than considerations increasing the probability of an original story to the effect that the fairy queen offered her love to Arthur, that he dwelt with her for a time, rejected her love, and thus incurred her displeasure, leading her to attempt to work him harm. She may have been represented as enticing him to her by a fairy stag and boat. A parallel to one possible stage that the story may have assumed before it passed into the Huth Merlin is afforded by the account given in Malory"^ of a fairy adventure of King Meliodas of Liones. " [The wyf of Melyodas] was a ful meke lady | and wel she loved her lord I & he her ageyne | . . . Thenne ther was a lady in that countrey that had loued kynge Melyodas longe | And by no meane she neuer coude gete his loue therfore she lete ordeyne vpon a day as kynge Melyodas rode on huntynge | for he was a grete chacer | and there by an enchauntement she made hym chace an herte by hym self alone | til that he came to an old Castel I and there anone he was taken prysoner by the lady that hym loved." Merlin releases him. ^ P. 24. a Bk. VIII, ch. I. Cf. Loseth, § 20, p. 490; below, p. 201. Morgain's Hostility to Arthur 23 Of the many extant episodes in which Morgain and Arthur are concerned there is only one other that has value in enabling us to determine Morgain's relation to the story of the enchant- ress, and to discover if the episode of the Morrigan from the Tain Bo Cuailgne is repeated in Morgain's life and connected with Arthur. This is the important story of the sojourn of Arthur in Avalon, which will be discussed in the next chapter. Ill MORGAIN'S SHAPE-SHIFTING Before turning to Arthur's sojourn in Avalon we have one more feature of the narrative in the Huth Merlin to examine, namely, the,strange account of Morgain's shape-shifting. In the picture of her flight and sudden transformation of herself into stone there is far more of the wild mystery that pertains to Celtic legend than in any other episode related of her ; and even with no further support than this characteristic, it is scarcely unsafe to affirm that we are here fairly close to early material. Yet Gaston Paris says : " L'enchantement dont Arthur est I'objet de la part de sa soeur Morgue, son com- bat contre Accalon, ... la fuite et les prestiges de Morgue, paraissent ne se rattacher a aucun r6cit subsequent et 6tre sortis uniquement de I'invention de I'auteur." ^ It is indeed an isolated case in the Morgain saga, and appar- ently in the French romances.^ The Tain Bo Regamtia, how- ever, one of the introductory tales to the Tain Bo Cuailgne,^ 1 ffutk Merlin, I, xliv. 2 See p. 216 for examples of the transformation of living beings into stone by the magic stroke of a sorceress. Petrifaction as a. punishment for disregard of some magic injunction or divine law is almost too common in folk-stories to demand example; see, e.g., Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, London, 1896, III, 96 ff., 129 ; Maury, p. 48; Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland; London, 1895, pp. 303, 304. For trolls petrified at dawn, see Bugge-Schofield, The Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1899, pp. 236-240, 254. For magic means used to avoid capture in pursuit, see Mabinogion, III, 358, 359 ; Campbell, I, 32-34. None of these references, however, offers a parallel to the Morgain episode. s Edited and translated from the fourteenth-century manuscript, The Yellow Book of Lecan and from Egerton 1782, in Stokes and Windisch, II, ii, 239-254. Translated in Cuchullin Saga, pp. 103 ff. The quotations given below are from the latter translation. 24 Morgain's Hostility to Arthur describes a meeting between the Morrigan and Cuchulinn that should be noted in connection with this story of Morgain's shape-shifting. The Morrigan is driving away from the Sidh of Cruachan a cow that she has taken for purposes of her own. Cuchulinn is roused from sleep by a terrible cry, and as he hastens out to follow the sound, he meets a chariot harnessed with a one-legged chestnut horse, through whose body the pole of the chariot passed. " Within the chariot sat a woman, her eye-brows red, and a crimson mantle round her. ... A big man went along beside the chariot . . . while he drove a cow before him." Cuchulinn remonstrates with her for driving away the cow, insisting that ail the cattle of Ulster belong to him ; but she meets his reproof defiantly. He is about to spring into the chariot so as to threaten her with his spear, " but horse, woman, chariot, man and cow all had disappeared. Then he perceived that she had been transformed into a blackbird on a branch close by him. 'A dangerous enchanted woman you are,' said Cuchullin. ... ' If I had only known that it was you, we should not have parted thus ! ' ' Whatever you have done,' said she, ' will bring you ill-luck ! ' " She threatens further that when he is engaged in combat with a man as strong as himself she will become in turn an eel, a gray wolf, and a white, red-eared cow, and in each shape will hinder him from victory. He vows that he will hurt her in every guise, and never give her help if she does not leave him. Thereupon the Morrigan departs into the Sidh of Cruachan, and Cuchulinn goes to his own dwelling. If we analyze this episode we find tha-t structurally it bears a resemblance to the story of Morgain's traiisformation. The Morrigan is carrying away property that Cuchulinn claims as his ; Morgain is stealing Arthur's scabbard. Both Cuchulinn and Arthur rise from their sleep to hasten, out in pursuit. Cuchulinn is about to attack the Morrigan when she and the cow vanish from sight, and she reappears in a changed form ; Arthur is on the point of overtaking Morgain, when she flings the scabbard out of sight into the lake and shifts her shape. The Morrigan reminds Cuchulinn that she can transform herself at her pleasure, and threatens him with destruction ; Morgain reminds Arthur that while she can transform herself into stone she dpes not dread him. The differences in detail are too great for much importance to be attached to the parallel, which, however, when added to other resemblances that exist between the sagas of Morgain and the Morrigan demands a certain degree of consideration. CHAPTER III THE SOJOURN OF ARTHUR IN AVALON It is rare to find so excellent an illustration of the pliability of romantic material for narrators' purposes as that which is offered in the literary treatment of Arthur's connection with Morgain in the other world. The theme is handled by chroni- clers in prose and verse, in Latin as well as in the vulgar tongues, by learned poets, by a compiler of popular stories, by the compilers xxf French prose romances, and by the author of a late poetical romance. ^ Furthermore, we know something of the methods of a few of those who have reported the story, and can interpret their silence or elaborations by means of our acquaintance with their habits. For example, Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, in his avowed role of historian, dips only far enough into romance to give the bare outer form of the tradition : Sed et inclytus ille Arturus rex letaliter vulneratus est, qui illinc ad sananda vulnera in insulam Avallonis advectus, etc.^ Wace connects the " Breton hope " with Avalon, but he treats it with a characteristic caution, and adds to Geoffrey's mention only the expectation of Arthur's people that the king will return to them. En Avalon se fit porter Por ses plaies mddiciner. Encor i est, Breton I'atandent, Si com il dient et entandent ; De Ik vandra, encor puet vivre.' Not before Lajamon do we find a narrator telling the story with- out reserve, and previous to his account* there is no existing 1 See pp. 26, 27, 34-39, 250. 2 Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. XI, ch. ii. ^ Brut, vv. 13,683 ff. * Lajamon's Brut is placed by Madden tentatively at the beginning of the thirteenth century (I, xx). It is usually dated ca. 1205; see Mead, English Merlin, p. Iv. 25 26 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon trace in literature after the Vita Merlini to indicate the devel- opment of the fay's part in the tradition recorded there. According to Lajamon's version,^ Arthur, mortally wounded at Camelford, summons to him Constantine, the son of Cador, Earl of Cornwall, and bids him farewell. And ich wnlle uaren to Aualu : to uaireft aire maidene. to Argante Jiere quene: aluen fwKe fceone. & heo flal mine wunden: makien alia ifunde. al hal me makien: mid halewei3e drechen. And f eoSe ich cumen wulle : to mine kineriche. and wunien mid Brutten : mid muchelere wunne. .(Efne >an worden : jjer com of fe wenden. )>at wes an fceort bat li'Sen : fceouen mid vSen. and twa wimme J>er inne: wunderliche idihte. and heo nomen Ar^ur ana: and aneoufte hine uereden. and fofte hine adunleiden: & foriS gunnen hine lifSen. }>a wef hit iwurSen : >at Merlin feide whilen. >at weore unimete care : of ArSuref for« — fare. Bruttef ileue«3ete: ))at he bon on Hue. and wunnien in Aualun: mid faireft aire aluen. and lokietS euere Buttef ^ete: whan ArtSur cume liSe. Nif nauer ))e mon ibore: of nauer nane burde icoren. J>e cunne of )ian f olSe : of Ar^ure fugen mare. Bute while wef an witeje : Maerlin ihate. he bodede mid worde : hif quitSef weoren folSe. ))at an Ar^ur fculde jete : cum Anglen to fulfte.^ In our sources for the legend that is incorporated here, the Argante of Lajamon is an isolated case.^ The supernatural woman who heals Arthur's wounds, according to all sources except one,* where she is unnamed, is Morgain. The Vita Merlini, earlier than Lajamon's Brut by half a century, gives evidence that before his time tradition had made Morgain the healing lady of Avalon ; ^ and, although there is reason to believe that the story recorded by La^amon survived in sundry developments and was rationalized,^ it is to Morgain that these developments and rationalizations are all attached. Argante is apparently the feminine of Argant (brilliant), a masculine name which we find in its simple form as early as 869 in the 1 Brut, vv. 28,610 ff. 4 See p. 46. 2 Cf. vv. 23,061-23,080. 6 See p. 38. ' See Madden, Brut, III, 385, note on v. 23,070. >> See pp. 37, 38. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 27 Cartulaire de. Redan} and which appears frequently before the twelfth century in both masculine and feminine Breton com- pound names ; ^ a similar form also occurs in Welsh compound names for which there is twelftb-century authority.^ Hence we have excellent reason to assume that Argantevia.s a Celtic proper name, well known in Lajamon's time. He may have adopted it into his story by mistake or deliberate intention, perhaps simply through the almost unconscious process by which nar- rators at all times have been prone to substitute for an unfa- miliar name one that is familiar, resembling the original in sound. This is exactly what Lajamon is doing when for Mar- gan, the name of a British leader that he found in his source,* he uses Morgan^ which was an exceedingly common mascu- line name in his day.^ All the more readily then, since Mor- gan, Morgant,"' Morgain were all current spellings of the fay's ^ See Courson, Cartulaire de I'Abbaye de Redon, Paris, 1863, p. 83. Cf. J. Loth, Chrestomathie Bretonne, Paris, 1890, p. 188, Cartulaire de Quimperle (Finistfere), p. 35, a cartulary redacted in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; see Loth, p. 107. '^ See the feminine names Argantan, Courson, pp. Ii5 (ann. 829 or 830), 118 (ann. 867) ; Loth, p. 107. Arganthael, Courson, p. 136 (ann. circiter 836) ; Loth, pp. 107, 134. Argan{t)ken, Courson, p. 395 (ca. 1130-1140); Loth, pp. 107, 116. Argantlon, Courson, pp.99 (ann. 821), 362 (ann. 846), cf. p. 146; Loth, p. 107. See also the masculine names Argantlouuen, Courson, p. 103 (ann. 842) ; Loth, p. 147. Argantmonec, Courson, p. 205 (ann. 826).; Loth, p. 152. Argantphitur, Loth, pp. 107, 156. Cf. for further examples Loth, pp. 37, 107, 188. ^ In the Book of Llan Ddv (ed. Evans and Rh^s, Oxford, 1893), redacted in the twelfth century and containing historic material of a much earlier date, there occurs Arganhell, as a feminine name, I, 82-83, ^s a masculine, I, 75, 173, 372. See furthermore the name of the Irish hero Nuada Argetlamh, below, p. i6o. I am indebted to Professor G. L. Kittredge for pointing out to me the above Breton and Welsh names. * Wace, Brut, vv. 2108 ii.,pass.; cf. Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. II, ch. xv [Marganus]. ' Lajamon, Brut,\y. 3760-3867, pass. Margane occurs v. 3847, MS. Cott. Calig. A. IX. ' See p. 267. Lajamon retains the original nam.e of the town called after ° ' Wef l;et lond (lurh Morgan : Margan ihsete. (vv. 3866, 3S67.) Cf. Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. II, ch. xv : \_pagus'\ qui post interfectionem Margani eius nomine videlicet Margan . . .-appellatus est ; Wace, Brut, v. 2147, De Margan ot Marge, cest nom. ' Lajamon's contemporary, Gervasius of Tilbury {Otia Imperialia, ed. Leibnitz, I, 937 ; written in the year 1212; see Ten Brink, Gesch. der Eng. Lit., ed. Brandl, Strassburg, 1899, I, 216), uses the form Morganda, which is evidently latinized from a form with final /. 28 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon name at his time,^ would he turn from any one of these forms with its baffling masculine appearance to a familiar Argante. It is scarcely necessary to say that the story in the Vita Merlini of the mistress of the Insula Pomorum cannot have been Lajamon's source. There is abundant evidence that he was not averse to elaborating Wace's record by the introduction of current Celtic folk tales,^ and substantially the same story that he tells in one passage is given in a brief and condensed statement by two of his contemporaries, Gervasius of Tilbury and Giraldus Cambrensis,^ both of whom, by the terms in which they refer to it as the idle concoction of Breton story- tellers, show that they have not derived it from a literary source. Lajamon's account of Arthur's departure from earth contains one of the commonest themes of fairy lore, — the fay's sum- mons of the hero to fairyland. This theme has a place compar- atively early in the Morgain material, where it is represented by the Bataille Loquifer, and it is repeated of Morgain more often perhaps than any other. But in La^amon there is present an element somewhat foreign to the usual situation. The love- motive is always the prominent and inevitable feature when the fay takes the knight to her abode, and it is not to the wounded hero that she is attracted. When she comes upon the scene as a healer she is usually engaged in a beneficent rather than an amatory errand.* She protects the hero whom she already loves from receiving wounds,^ but her love is not first drawn to a knight in the hour of his weakness. The only source in which the love-motive is defined is the late Gesta Regum Britanniae^ where the result of the king's healing is nothing more or less than a fairy imprisonment 1 See pp. 152, note i, 258, note 2. 2 See Wiilcker in Paul u. Braune, Beitriige, III, S43-548; Lajamon, Brut, I, xvi; A. C. L. Brown, Studies and Notes, VII, 188-190, 202. ^ See p. 35, notes 1, i. * See Lancelot, II, Ixxvii ; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 65 ff. ; Hist. Litt., XXX, 92, cf. 94 ; Livre d'Artus, P., § 143. ' See p. i6i ; cf. Silva Gadelica, II, 252. « This Latin poem, commonly known as the work of the Pseudo-Gildas, is dated by its editor, Francisque Michel, and by F. Lot (Rotri., XXVIII, 1899, 330) shortly after 1234. Lot argues, though not conclusively, that its author is Guillaume de Rennes, a Dominican monk of the first half of the thirteenth century ; cf. Ward, I, 274 ff. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 29 exercised by the queen of the other-world island, whither he has gone : — sanati membra reservat ipsa sibi ; vivuntque siraul si credere fas est. It is almost a commonplace in romantic tradition that with the name of a great hero there should be connected the story of a fairy retention. Cuchulinn, Oisin, Merlin and Ogier, all came under the sway of a fairy mistress, and the idea that there was an original theme which we know only through a transformed version, allotting to Arthur's share an amorous sojourn in fairyland, receives a limited support by analogy with the experiences of other heroes.^ We are, however, by no means reduced to such vague associations as these in detecting the original that lies behind La3amon's account. Celtic literature supplies a tradition which is peculiarly instructive when compared with Lajamon's narrative, and which proves to be highly important in explaining the account of Arthur's stay with Morgain in Avalon, as well as Morgain's relations to both Arthur and Guinevere. This is the story of the summons of Cuchulinn to the other world by Fand, told in the Serglige Conchulaind (Cuchulinn s Sick Bed)^ which is pre- served in the Leber na h-Uidre^ and therefore represents material very much older than the earliest extant versions of the story of Arthur in Avalon. Two beautiful birds alight one day on a lake near which the Ultonians are assembled, and sing a low melody that lulls the hearers to sleep. Cuchulinn makes an attempt to slay them, but his efforts are in vain, and he goes apart from his comrades, melancholy and aware that drowsiness is ^ Some such lingering tradition Spenser may have had before him. He describes Arthur (Fairy Queen, I, ix, 13-15) after a day spent in "ranging the forest wide on courser free," alighting from his horse and being overcome with sleep as he stretches himself out wearily on the grass at the foot of a tree. Whether he dreamed or whether it were true he could not tell, but it seemed to him that a beautiful maiden appeared to him and bade him love her, remained at his side, and "at her parting said she Queen of Fairies hight." Ever after Arthur sought her eagerly. ' Published, with notes and introduction, by Windisch, Irische Texte, Leipzig, 1880, pp. 197 ff-i translated into English by O' Curry, Atlantis, I, 363 ff. ; into German by Zimraer, Zs, f. vergl. Sprachf., XXVIII (1887), 595 ft. ; into French by D'Arbois de Jubainville, £p. Celt., I, 174-216; summarized Meyer and Nutt, I, 153-158- ' See Ep. Celt., 1, 173. I74- 30 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon stealing upon him. Two strange women draw near him smiling, and in turn they stroke him with switches that they carry. When his strength fails, they leave him, and he lies in a long trance, after awaking from which he remains for a year without uttering a word. Then a stranger comes to him, and sings of two women who can give him back his strength ; they are Liban, the wife of Labraid, who dwells in the Plain of Delight, and her sister, Fand, who is filled with love for Cuchulinn. His message given, the stranger departs. He is soon followed by another messenger from Fand, her sister Liban, one of the two women who had given Cuchulinn the strokes with the switches. If Cuchulinn will come with her to the Plain of Delight, and fight against the enemies of Labraid, his reward shall be nothing less than Fand's love. The weakness which he pleads as an excuse need be no obstacle in his way, for he shall be healed of his disease and shall regain the strength that he has lost. This promise induces Cuchulinn to send his charioteer with Liban in her little bronze boat to Fand's island; and when the charioteer returns, at his description of the marvellous charms of the land and of its mistress Cuchuliim feels refreshed and strengthened. Again Liban comes for him, and this time he sails with her to the Plain of Delight. Here he overcomes Labraid's ene- mies, and passes a month of happiness in the love of Fand. When he must perforce leave her for Ireland, they arrange a tryst at Ibar-Cind-Trachta. Emer, Cuchulinn's wife, hears of the proposed meeting, and hastens to the appointed place, armed and attended by fifty women, with the intention of killing Fand. Cuchulinn protects Fand from Emer's violence, but his wife's chidings and grief stir his pity, and he avows his loyalty to her. Fand acknowledges Emer's prior claims, and realizes that she must relinquish Cuchulinn ; but she declares that by his desertion of her, he loses her love. Cuchulinn is seized with madness, as he sees Fand turn to leave him, and it is only by means of a druidical draught of forgetfulness that he and Emer are brought back to their former happy estate. Manannan mac Lir, Fand's hus- band, shakes his cloak between the lovers that they may never meet again. The essential elements of this long story, it will be noticed, represent also those of both the Arthur-Avalon episode and the story of Arthur and the enchantress. In the former, just as two women summon Cuchulinn to the other world, whither, induced by Fand's promise of healing, he sails in a boat guided by a fairy messenger, so two fays come for Arthur, and in a magic boat convey him to the other world for the healing of his wound; there he, like Cuchulinn, dwells with a beautiful fairy queen. In the enchantress story also, Arthur passes a period in the oblivion of the other world with a fay who has summoned him to her. When, like Fand, she sees that the force of her spell wanes, and that with revived memories of The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 31 the queen the hero no longer submits to her power, her love ceases. If, then, we presuppose that a story similar to that of Cuchulinn and Fand was attached to Arthur and a fairy queen, we may understand the two developments seen in the accounts of Arthur's experiences in Avalon with Morgain, .and in the tower with the enchantress. The latter episode, it is evident, reveals a somewhat less contaminated phase of the early material, since it includes the king's forgetfulness of the queen while he is enjoying the love of the fay, and also the remem- brance of her as the motive force in inducing him to leave the fairy mistress, elements neither of which has a place in the Avalon episode. The course may be traced, however, by which the original material was worked over into the form in which we find it in the latter. There is one essential difference between Fand's summons of Cuchulinn and Argante's summons of Arthur as La^amon records it. Both heroes, it is true, go to the other world for healing, but Cuchulinn's so-called disease, like the magic sleep caused by the song of the enchanted birds, is simply the evi- dence that he is within the fairy power. He himself sends word to Emer during his debility that fays have injured him. Just as the maiden from the Plain of Delight exerts her power over Connla through the magic apple that fills him with long- ing for her in her absence, so the destruction of Cuchulinn's strength is the means used by the fay to induce him to come to her land. Arthur, on the contrary, is not under the influ- ence of a druidic trance, but his wounds have been received on a well-fought field, where he has performed many deeds of valor. What significance shall we attach to this difference in the situations .'' Two considerations are important in an analysis of the Arthur-Avalon episode, the conception of the hero him- self and that of the being who allures him. The legend that represents Arthur in Avalon enjoying the healing touch of a fay embodies only one of the phases assumed by the belief of the Britons that Arthur had fallen at Camlan. The antici- pation of the king's return to this world as a deliverer of his oppressed countrymen had taken remarkably deep root in the national imagination certainly by the early part of the twelfth 32 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon century.i In the early records the tradition does not show itself crystallized into any one form. Arthur is the exalted hero whom his people refuse to believe dead, and whose return from a vague resting-place they fondly anticipate ; and by far the larger part of the allusions to this belief in the literature of the second half of the twelfth century partake of- the same indeterminate char- acter.2 In consideration of the indefinite form in which the tenacious tradition persisted, it is not surprising and is in fact an illustration of no unfamiliar principle in the growth of myth, to find it differentiated into four varieties.^ Thus, according to one form of the tradition, Arthur has gone to Avalon for healing. Again he sleeps in an enchanted cave, waiting for the spell that holds him to be broken.* He is the leader of the wiithendes Heer.^ He lives transformed into a raven.® Of these four traditions the first is the earliest to make its appearance in literature and is the most persistent in literary sources ; for traces of the story that Arthur rests at Avalon are to be detected in the later chroniclers' accounts of his burial at Glastonbury, with which Avalon was identified.^ In this form of the tradition, the fay is by no means always in evidence, although the excuse for Arthur's presence in Avalon is always the healing of his wound.* We should not fail to ^ See Hist. Reg. Brit., p. 420 ; Hermannus Monachus, De miraculis S. Mariae Laudunensis, ed. Migne, CLVI, col. 983 (cf. Zimmer, Zs. f.fr. Sp., XIII, 1891, 106 ff.) ; Prophetia Anglicana, Frankfurt, 1603, pp. 19, 20 (written 1170-80; see Ward, I, 209) ; Meyer, Rom., VI (1877), 123. 2 See Black Book of Caermarthen, a manuscript belonging to the twelfth cen- tury, ed. Skene, Four Ancient Books, II, 3 ff., 181, 182; cf. 316; Joseph of Exeter, who lived during the reign of Henry II, cited Hist. Reg. Brit., p. 417 ; Lanzelet, v. 6909; Hartmann von Aue, Iwein, v. 14; Petrus Blesensis, Ep. 57, cited Hist. Reg. Brit., I.e. ; Arrighetto da Settimello, De Diversitate Fortunae, ed. Manni, under title Arrighetto crvvero trattato contro alP awersiti della Fortuna, Florence, 1730, p. 7; cf. Graf, Giorn. Stor., V (1885), 102; see also Arthurian Legend, pp. 18 ff. * See Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen, Bonn, 1899, P- ^l- * See below, p. 215. 5 See Didot-Perceval, I, 502; Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, pp. 12, 13, 200 ; Grimm, D.M., II, 786 ; Mogk, in Paul, Grundriss der germ. Phil., Strass- burg, 1897-98, III, 255 ff. ; S^billot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne, I, 219. 6 Cervantes, Don Quixote, XIII, 49 ; see below, p. 34, note 2. ' See p. 40, note 2. 8 See the passages cited above on pp. 25, 26, from Geoffrey, Wace, Lajaraon, and the Vita Merlini ; cf. Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle, ed. Wright, London, The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 33 bear in mind that the hero of the story is Arthur, of whom there was the historic record that he had died fighting in battle, and concerning whom the all-absorbing thought to Xhefabulosi Britones was that he still lived and would come back to them. So common in popular story was the theme of a mortal's return to this world after a long period of oblivion in fairyland that almost inevitably Arthur's resting-place had to be made Avalon, and his stay in the other world, which undoubtedly had a place in tradition, came to be identified with his life after death. In fact it is difficult to see how the three traditions, that Arthur was mortally wounded in battle, that he would return to this world after death, and that he was beloved by a fairy mistress, could escape the fate that moulded them into the Arthur- Avalon episode. Thus by the mingling of historic and romantic tradition with myth, the important element in the story became not the love of the fay, but the cure of the wounds that Arthur, the British king, had received in his final battle. Hence the fay's dispelling of the magic weakness that she has herself caused becomes the healing in Avalon of the king's wounds, and the battlefield is the spot where she seeks him to take him under her peculiar care. Although neither Lajamon nor Gervasius states expressly that the fay herself came to Camlan for Arthur, all the other versions represent Morgain as visiting in person the field of battle. Her ofiSce here calls to mind that of the Scandinavian battle-maidens, who choose for Odin the warriors wounded on the battlefield and bear them to Valhalla.^ Here, too, an echo of the Morrigan tradition is to be detected. 1866, I, 224 ; John Fordun, Scotorum Historia, afud Gale, Historiae Britannicae, Saxonicae, Anglo-Danicae Scriptores XV, Oxford, 1691, I, 637; Boccaccio, De Cas. Vir. III., VIII, xcix. In the so-called Draco Normannicus, without mention of either Morgain or Avalon, there is a record of the king's healing after Camlan : — ibiqtie vulneratus sit, sed herbis fatalibus permixtis, adhuc vivit (Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibl. du Roi, VIII, 306; cf. 298); and the Italian Lanci- lotto, a romantic poem belonging to the second half of the fourteenth century, gives simply the story of a magic ship that bore Arthur away to an unknown land after Salisbury; the Britons look for his return, although it is said that he was found dead in a church dopo sua finita. {Li chantari di Lancellotto, ed. Birch, London, 1874, pp. 76, 77; tancilotto Poema Cavalleresco, ed. Giannini, Fermo, 1871, VI, 51, 52. The poem is also known as La Struiione della Tavola Ritonda.) 1 See Grimm, D. M., I, 349. In the Bataille Loquifer (p. 249), Avalon is represented as the gathering place of heroes who have passed from this life. For 34 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon In the Aided Cuchullin ^ or The Death of Cuchulinn, the last advance of Cuchulinn's foes against him is described. "And on the night before the Morrigan had broken the chariot, for she liked nofCuchuIlin's going to the battle, for she knew that he would not come again to Emain Macha." During the final battle, though powerless to aid Cuchulinn, in distress she hovers above him in the form of a crow, and after he has received his death-wound, she perches on a stone near him. When his enemies advance and slay him, the Morrigan, seeing that her mission is ended flies away from the scene.^ the resemblances between the Valkyries and the Irish war-goddesses, cf. Lottner, Rev. Celt, I (1870-71), 55 ff. ; Bugge-Schofield, The Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1899, pp. 62, 86, 188; Golther, Der Valkyrjenmythus in Studien zur ger- m-anischen Sagengeschiehte, Munich, 1888, pp. 5 ff. 1 Abridged from the Book of Leinster, 77 a, by Whitley Stokes, Rev. Celt., Ill (1876-78), 17s flE. ; see Cuchullin Saga, pp. 254-263; Rev. Celt, I, 50. 2 The Morrigan very frequently assumes the form of a crow; see Arch. Rev., I (1888), 231 ; Rev. Celt., I, 39 ff. ; cf. below, p. 149. For the common association of the Irish war-goddesses with the crow, see Pictet, Rev. Arch., July, 1868, pp. 4 ff. ; Rev. Celt, I (1870-72), 34 ; Bugge- Schofield, The Home of the Eddie Poems, p. 62. Cf. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Rev. Arch., 3141"= s^rie, XXXVI (1900), 70, for a description of two Gallo-Roman reliefs in which he identifies the figures of three birds with the Morrigan, Badb and Macha. Cervantes (Don Quixote, I, xiii) preserves the Breton hope in a unique form. El rey Artus, de quien es tradicion antigua y comun en todo aquel reino' de la Gran Bretana, que este rey no muri6, sino que por arte de encantamento se convertid en cuervo, y que andando los tiempos ha de volver i. reinar y i cobrar su reino y cetro. See also ib., xlix. Cf. Persiles, I, i8 : — [Error] deve de ser lo que las fabulas cuentan de la conversion en cuervo del Rey Artus de Inglaterra, tan creyda de aquella discreta nacion que se abstiene de matar Cuervos en toda la isla. — No s^, . . . de ddnde tom6 principio essa fibula, tan creyda como mal imaginada. Among the statutes of Hoel the Good, who died in 993, there are two pro- hibitory of the slaughter of crows, hawks, falcons, eagles and cranes. (See Don Quixote, ed. John Bowles, London, 1781, I, xiii; III, 48.) This law, which arose from a desire to preserve useful birds, gave foundation according to Ticknor (Don Quixote, New York, 1897, p. 55, note 2) for the popular belief that Arthur was transformed into a crow. If a connection between Morgain and the Morrigan be established some light may perhaps be thrown upon this strange tradition. The Morrigan as a crow hovers over Cuchulinn until his death, when she takes her flight from the field ; Morgain comes to the battlefield and bears Arthur away to Avalon. At this point of our investigation, we may recognize a possible treatment of these two traditions that resulted in the belief which we know through Cervantes. A modern Breton tale is cited by Bellamy (La ForH de Brlchlliant, Rennes, 1896, I, 129) : — Morgain became enamoured of Arthur, transported him in a cloud to Avalon, made him forget Guinevere and finally allowed him to leave the island only in the form of a crow. He will regain his human form and return to earth to reign once more. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 35 II In the later versions the important features of the early story remain prominent. They are emphasized outside of the romances by Gervasius of Tilbury,^ who stands chronologically next to Lajamon among the authors who mention the fay in connection with Arthur's disappearance from earth, and also by Giraldus Cambrensis,^ who in an effort to separate fiction from what he believes to be truth, in reality throws light upon certain features in the later tradition. He, in common with the majority of the chroniclers even so late as the fourteenth century,^ regards as the idle story of fanciful Britons the tra- dition that Arthur would come again ; and he is quite ready to believe that the king was buried in the island of Avalon, which as early as William of Malmesbury's time had been identified with Glastonbury,* where in the latter part of the twelfth cen- tury ^ the monks announced that they had discovered Arthur's tomb. Hence the story of the king's sojourn in Avalon for the healing of his wounds is merged into that of his burial 1 OHa Imperialia, ed. Leibnitz, I, 937 (see above, p. 27, note 7, for the date) : — Arcturus vulnetatur, omnibus hostibus ab Ipso peremptis. Unde secundum vulgarem Brittonum traditionem in insulam Davalim ipsum dicunt translatum ut vulnera quotannis recrudescentia subinterpolata sanatione curarentur a Morganda fatata: quem fabulose Britones post data tempora credunt rediturum in regnum. 2 Speculum EccUsiae, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. Brewer, London, i86i-gi, IV, 48,49 : — Itaque Arthuro ibi (i.e. Camlan) mortaliter vulnerato, corpus eiusdem in insulam Avaloniam, quae nunc Glastonia dicitur, a nobili matrona quadam eiusque cognata et Morgani vocata, est delatum, quod postea defunctum in dicto coemeterio sacro, eadem procurante, sepultum fuit. Propter hoc enim fabulosi Britones et eorum cantores fingere solebant, quod dea quaedam phantastica, sciUcet et Morganis dicta, corpus Arthur! in insulam detulit Avalloniam ad eius vuhiera sanandum. Quae cum sanata f uerint, redibit rex fortis et potens, ad Britones regendum, ut dicunt, sicut solet ; propter quod, ipsum expectant adhuc venturum sicut ludaei Messiam suum, maiorl etiam fatuitate et infehcitate simul ac infidelitate decepti. De Prindpis Instructione, Dist. I (ed. Brewer, VIII, 128) : — Quae nunc autem Glastonia dicitur, antiquitus insula Avallonia dicebatur Unde et Morganis, nobiUs matrona et partium iUarum dominatrix atque patrona, necnon et Arthuro regi sanguine propinqua, post bellum de Kemelen Arthurum ad sanandum eiusdem vulnera in insulam quae nunc Glastonia dicitur deportavit. ' See Hist. Reg. Brit, note, pp. 417 «• * See p. 40, note 2. 6 See Arthurian Legend, p. 331 ; cf. below, p. 40, note 2. 36 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon at Glastonbury.^ At this stage of rationalization the part of the maiden who tended Arthur in Avalon is naturally trans- ferred to a dignified kinswoman, who performed the last offices for the king. Even before the time of Giraldus and as early as that of Chretien, Morgain had been made a sister of Arthur,^ and this fact doubtless had its influence upon the sophisticated version that Giraldus records. The results of the transference of the story to this world are to be traced in at least four of the later versions, (i) La Mart Artus? (2) Malory,^ (3) Le Morte Arthur,^ (4) La Tavola Ritonda.^ ^ It is not beyond possibility, although we have no direct evidence on the subject, that the tradition of Arthur's voyage in a fairy boat to Avalon united the more readily with the report of his burial in Glastonbury through the influence of legends that told of the mysterious rudderless ships, which without a pilot transported the bodies of saints to their place of burial, and thus revealed the divine preference of a certain spot for this honor. Cf. for the possible monastic influence upon the tradition of Arttmr, Stephens, Literature of the JCymry, London, 1876, p. 414. See Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen, Bonn, 1899, p. 137 ; Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, p. 1 59. "^ See p. 64. 3 Paris, R. T. R., V, 350 ft. * Malory, Bk. XXI, ch. 5, 6. ' Ed. Furnivall, London and Cambridge, 1864, vv. 3500 ft. * Ch. cxliv. In all of these sources the situation in the beginning is practically identical. Arthur has -been mortally wounded in the battle of Salisbury ; he orders Giflet in I, Sir Bedivere in 2 and 3, a squire in 4, to leave him on the edge of a stream. The remainder of the account I quote below from the separate versions. (i) Giflet s'floigne lentement, non sans regarder derri^re lui : il voit bient6t aborder une nef de laquelle descendent plusieurs belles dames vStues de blanc, Ji leur tete Morgain la soeur d'Artus. EUes entourent le roi dont la faiblesse feit extrSme, et le transportent dans leur nacelle: puis au signal de la ffe I'esquif s'^loigne rapidement et Giflet les perd de vue. II regagna tristement la Noire Abbaye, oil il acheva ses jours, aprfes avoir vu les f&s venir y d£poser les tombes de Lucan et du roi Artus. (2) " And whan they were at the water syde euyn fast by the banke houed a lytyl barge wyth many fayr ladyes in hit | & emonge hem al was a queue | and al they had blacke hoodes I and al they wepte and ^hryked when they sawe Kyng Arthur | Now put me in to the barge sayd the kyng and so he dyd softelye | And there receyued hym thre quenes wyth grete mornyng and soo they sette him doun | and in one of their lappes kyng Arthur layed hys heed | and than that quene sayd a dere broder why haue ye taryed so longe from me | Alas this wounde on your heed hath caught ouermoche colde | And soo than they rowed from the londe | and syr Bedwere behelde all tho ladyes goo from hym." Bedivere cries in lamen- tation after the king, but Arthur bids him take comfort. " For I wyl in to the vale of auylyon to hele me of my greuous wounde. And yf thou here neuer more of me praye for my soule | but euer the quenes and ladyes wepte and shryched that hit was pyte to here." Sir Bedivere makes his way to a hermitage not far distant; he sees a new made grave in which the hermit tells him that a body is interred that was brought thither by some ladies the The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 37 In these sources 1 the two lines of tradition that Giraldus kept distinct are blended. Throughout Morgain is so far a fay that she comes in her magic ship to bear the hero away to a night before. "Alas, sayd syr bedwere, that was my lord kyng Arthur that here lyeth buryed in thys chapel .... Thus of Arthur I f ynde neuer more wryton in bookes that ben auctorysed nor more of the veray certente of his deth herde I neuer redde | but thus was he ledde aweye in a shyppe wherein were thre quenes | that one was kyng Arthurs syster quene Morgan le fay | the other was the quene of North galys | the thyrd was the quene of the waste londes | Also there was Nynyue the chyef lady of the lake. . . . More of the deth of kyng Arthur coude 1 neuer fynde but that ladyes brought hym to his buryellys | & suche one was buryed there that the hermyte bare wytnesse that somtyme was bysshop of caunterburye | but yet the heremyte knewe not in certayn that he was verayly the body of kyng Arthur." (3) A rychfe shyppe \iyih maste And ore, Fulltf of ladyes there they fonde. The ladyes, that were feyre and Free, Curteysly the kynge gan they fonge, And one, that bryghtest was of blee, Wepyd sore, and handys wrange, " Broder," she sayd, " wo ys me ; Fro lechyng hastow be to longe, I wote that gretely greuyth me. For thy payn&s Ar fulk stronge." Arthur speaks to Bedivere : — " I wylle wende A lytelle stownde In to the vale of Avelovne, A whyle to hele me of my wounde." Whan the shyppe from the land was broght, Syr bedwere saw of hem no more. He goes on the following day to a chapel, where he finds a new tomb in which he learns that ladies have buried a body on the preceding night. He is convinced that it is Arthur's tomb. (Cf. King Arthur's Death, Bp. Percy's Folio MS., ed. Hales and Fumivall, London, 1867, I, 506-507 : — But he saw a barge from the land goe, And hearde Ladyes houle and cry certainlye, but whether the king was there or noe he knew not certainlye. Cf. Parlement of the thre Ages, vv. 510, 511. After Arthur's final battle he bids farewell to Gawain, who saw a boat There-Inn was sir Arthure and othire of his ferys And also Morgn la faye that myche couthe of sleghte.) (4) K stando per un poco, ed ecco per lo mare venire una navicella, tutta coperta di bianco ; e quando lo re la vidde, si disse alio scudiere : — Ora h venuta mia fine. — E la nave s'accostb alio re, e alquante braccia uscirono della nave che presono lo re Arth e visibile mente il misono nella nave, e portirollo via per mare. E lo scudiere, molto isbigottito, stette tanto quivi, quanto potfe vedere la nave ; eppoi si parti, e va contando la maraviglia. E tale conveniente, si ctede che la fata Morgana venisse per arte in quella navicella, e por- tbllo via in una isoletta di mare ; e quivi mori di sue ferite, e la fata il sopelli in quella isoletta. ^ The relations of the versions numbered above i, 2, 3 have been discussed by Sommer, Malory, III, 11, 265, 269. 38 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon land over seas ; but the reaction of the sophisticated version upon the fairy theme brings incongruous features into the story. Hence, fays inter Arthur in the Noire Abbaye according to the Mart Artus ^ ; hence the statement in Malory that " ladyes brought hym to his buryellys," and hence, too, the story of the Italian version that the king died of his wounds and that Mor- gain buried him on an island.^ Hence perhaps also in Malory comes the feature of the black-hooded queens who " wepte and shryked when they sawe Kyng Arthur." ^ III Having traced La^amon's story back to the type which is its possible source, and forward in its later development,* we are in a position to examine the account of Morgain and Arthur in Avalon, contained in the Vita Merlini^ The words are put into the mouth of the bard Telgesinus. Insula pomorum quae Fortunata vocatur, Ex re nomen habet, quia per se singula profert : Non opus est illi sulcantibus arva colonis, Omnis abest cultus nisi quern natura ministrat : Ultro foecundas segetes producit et uvas, Nataque poma suis praetonso germine silvis ; Omnia gignit humus vice graminis ultro redundans. Annis centenis aut ultra vivitur illic, lUic iura novem geniali lege sorores Dant his qui veniunt nostris ex partibus ad se : Quarum quae prior est fit doctior arte medendi ; Exceditque suas forma praestante sorores ; Morgen ei nomen, didicitque quid utilitatis Gramina cuncta f erant, ut languida corpora curet ; Ars quoque nota sibi qua scit mutare figuram, Et resecare novis quasi Daedalus aera pennis ; 1 See Paris, R. T. /?., V, 351, note i. 2 The Italian version introduces the mysterious arms undoubtedly under the influence of the immediately preceding incident telling of the arm that grasps Excalibur and draws it into the lake. 2 For another suggestion, see Cuchullin Saga, p. xxix. * There are three sources, beside those mentioned above, that treat of Arthur's stay with Morgain in Avalon, but add nothing materially to the Morgain tradi- tion : —Didot-Perceval, I, 502 ; Floriant et Florete, vv. 8238-8245 ; Garci-Ordonez de Montalvo, Las Sergas de Esplandian, cap. 99. 5 Vv. 908-940. For the date and authorship of the poem, see above, p. 7, note i. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 39 Cum vult est Bristi, Carnoti, sive Papiae, Cum vult in nostris ex aere labitur horis. Hancque mathematicam dicunt didicisse sorores, Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten, cithara notissima Thiten. Illuc, post bellum Camblani, vulnere laesum Duximus Arcturum, nos conducente Barintho, Aequora cui fuerant at coeli sidera nota. Hoc rectore ratis, cum principe venimus illuc, Et nos quo decuit Morgen suscepit honore, Inque suis thalamis posuit super aurea regem Stulta,^ manuque sibi detexit vulnus honesta, Inspexitque diu ; tandemque redire salutem Posse sibi dixit, si secum tempore longo Esset, et ipsius vellet medicamine fungi. Gaudentes igitur regem commisimus illi, Et dedimus ventis redeundo vela secundis. In spite of the fact that this source antedates those that we have been examining, the story in La3amon's Brut is clearly- less removed from the original fairy theme. Different details and a different side of the situation are given here. The description of Morgain's home scarcely allows it to be classed with such an island as the Plain of Delight, and if it were not for an interpretation of the name insula Avalloniae as insula pomorum, recorded in the first quarter of the twelfth century by William of Malmesbury,^ we might suppose that the author was vaguely placing Morgain in one of the i>.aKdpav vfja-oi that are as old as Hesiod.^ For the island is surprisingly barren of many features characteristic of the Celtic other world. It is true that like fairyland, which is free from death, the insula pomorum is a place where life lasts for a delightfully indefinite 1 Michel and Wright suggest strata. ^ As cited below, p. 40, note 2. ^ Cf. Sagen von Merlin, p. 329 ; Meyer and Nutt, I, 236 ff. Lot (Rom., XXVII, 1898, 560, note 5 ; cf. XXIV, 1895, 33° 5 <^raf, Miti, Leggende e Super- siizioni del Medio Evo, Turin, 1892-93, I, 141, note 3) suggests a connection between the love-charm of throwing the apple, familiar in folk-lore, and the inter- pretation of Avalon as insula pomorum. That the apple, symbolizes love or fruit- fulness is a very ancient and tenacious superstition. (See B. O. Foster, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, X, Boston, 1899, 39-55). A natural conjecture is that the apple in Celtic story may have been known first as a love gift from the fay to entice the hero to her domain, and thence have come to be regarded as a common type of other-world fruit possessing magic qualities. The apple is particu- larly prominent in Celtic other-world stories, as is attested by many familiar examples. 40 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon period and where the inhabitants are women whose sway is complete.^ In fairyland, however, the pleasures are sensu- ous in their quality : — splendid dwellings, gay colors, feasts where the viands gratify each hero's peculiar taste, the best of wine, sweet music, a marvellously beautiful woman.^ The delights of the island where Morgain lives are those that are scattered by nature. For seven verses the author harps on one string — the amazing fertility of the unfilled soil. 1 See Vita Merlini, vv. 916, 917. 2 In the course of the present study we shall meet many names applied to faerie — the He Celie, Terre Lointaine, Forlt sam Retor, Val sanz Retor, He d'Or, Chastel as Puciiles ; but none of these terms is used in a generic sense. The other world par excellence in the " matter of Britain " is Avalon, — un isle qui mult est beats (Marie de France, Lanval, v. 661). It is the only pure and simple, other-world abode that Morgain is represented as having in the French romances. The longest descriptions of Avalon that we have are those from the Vita Merlini, the Gesta Regum Britanniae (see p. 45) and the Bataille Loquifer, which has doubtless influenced the description of Avalon in the Ogier material. (See PP- 79. 133-135) Avalon has received peculiar fame by being brought into connection with Arthur. For although the name is used in the broad sense of faerie, without special or individual associations (see Le Couronnement de Louis, ed. Langlois, Paris, 1888, vv. 1796, 1827, cf. MS. C, v. 1598; Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. IX, ch. iv; Wace, Brut, v. 9516 ; Lajamon, Brut, v. 21,139; Marie de France, Lanval, v. 659 ; Erec, V. 1955 ; Perceval, v. 27,401 ; Didot-Perceval, I, 462 ; Couldrette, Mellusine, ed. Michel, Niort, 1854, vv. 4897, 4922,4999; Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristanu. Isolt, ed. Massmann, Leipzig, 1843, *. 15,802; Diu CrSne, v. 18,725; Malory, Bk. VII, ch. 26; cf. Huth Merlin, I, 213 ff., 223; Malory, Bk. II, ch. i, 2; below, pp. 52, note 2, 1 51, note 2, 226, note, for mention of a fay, the Dame d'Avalon, who is simply a powerful enchantress, but not Morgain), the number of pas- sages is comparatively small that do not mention it particularly as the place where Arthur sought healing for his wound received at Camlan (see above, pp. 25, 26, 35 ff.). Other passages occur in the romances that mention Avalon as a place of burial for Arthur and Guinevere. (See above, pp. 35 ff. ; Perceval, I, 262, 270. 348 ; Hist. Litt., XXX, 220.) These are probably to be explained as an out- come of the identification of Glastonbury and Avalon, which dates back certainly to the time when William of Malmesbury wrote his De Antiquitatibus Glastoniensis Ecclesiae (ca. 1135). See Migne, CLXXIX, col. 1687; cf. MorU Arthure, ed. Brock, London, 1865; also ed. Perry, London, 1865 (E. E. T. S.), vv. 4309, 4310; Arthur, ed. Furnivall, London, 1864 (E.. E. T. S.), vv. 612-614; The Life of Joseph of Armathia (Joseph of Arimathie, ed. Skeat, London, 1871, E. E. T. S., pp. 35 ff.), vv. 198, 199; Paris, R. T. R., I, 88, 93, 98, 103. This identification, as Zimmer (Zs. f. fr. Sp., XII, 1890, 245 ff.) and Lot (Rom., XXIV, 1895, 329, 503; XXVII, 1898, 552, 553) have shown, may rest on false etymology, which led to the interpretation of the name as insula vitrea. He de voirre, and hence to its association with the other world. (On the tie de voirre as a name for the other world, see Zimmer and Lot as above ; Paris, Rom., X, 1881, 490 ; Loth, Les Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, II, 277, 278; Lamelet, vv. 209-212 ; The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 41 Far more than it resembles fairyland this island resembles the Fortunate Isles. In fact the description of the Fortunate Isles given by Rabanus Maurus ^ so closely parallels that of the Vita Merlini that the first eight verses of our passage read almost like a versification of the account of Rabanus : — Fortunatae insulae vocabulo suo significant omnia ferre bona, quasi felices et beatae fructuum ubertate. Sua'pte enim natura pretiosarum poma silvarum parturiunt fortuitis vitibus iuga collium vestiuntur, ad herbarum vicem messis et olus vulgo est. Unde gentilium error et saecu- larium carmina poetarum propter soli fecunditatem, easdem esse paradisum putaverunt. It is not at all improbable that the poet's terms may have been influenced either directly or indirectly by Rabanus' words. ^ At all events it is clear that they are moulded by other than Gervaslus of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, pp. 151-153; Grimm, D. M., II, 685, note i, cf. 698 ; Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, London, 1866, p. 56 ; [Chaucer], The Dream, ed. Morris, London, 1891, Aldine edition, V, vv. 70 ff. ; cf . Neilson, Studies and Notes, VI, 1 56, 157; Skeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces, Oxford, 1897, pp. xiv, xv.) This identification probably occasioned the reputed discovery of Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury, mentioned above. The origin of the name Avalon offers an obscure problem, a satisfactory solu- tion of which has been unsuccessfully sought by Celticists during the past dozen years. For discussions of the subject the following articles should be consulted: Zimmer, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XII (1890), 238 ff. ; F. Lot, Rom., XXIV (1895), 329, 330, 501-505; XXVII (1898), 529-573; Brugger, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XX (1898), 94-102. Cf. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Rev. Celt., VIII (1887), 139; ^utz, Zs. f. fr. Sp., XIV (1892), 169-170 ; San Marte, Sagen von Merlin, pp. 8g ft. ; Arthurian Legend, p. 332 ; Joseph of Arimathie, ed. cit., pp. xxiii ff. Furthur attempts to etymologize Avalon are found in Didot-Perceval, I, 450 : — {^Avalon"] oil lisoleil avaloit ; Hucher, Le Saint Graal, Paris, 1875, 1, 330 : — Comme li monde . . . va en avalant covient il que toute ceste gent se retraie en Occident (see Arthurian Legend, p. 308 ; Holy Grail, p. 78 ; Birch-Hirschfeld, Die Sage vom Gral, Leipzig, 1877, p. 193). Cf. Le Morte Arthur, ed. Furnivall, London and Cambridge, 1864, v. 3512 : — the vale of Aveloone ; Roman du Saint-Graal (Lonelich, The History of the Holy Grail, ed. Furnivall, London, 1861-63, I' App.), vv. 3123, 3221 : — vaus d' Avaron (cf. Freymond, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XVII, 1895, 17, note 4) ; Malory, Bk. XXI, ch.- 5 : — the vale of Avylyon ; Ranulph Higden (Polychronicon, V, apad Gale, I, 225) : — [Arturus"] est in valle Avaloniae iuxta Glastoniam sepultus. Freymond (I.e.) sug- gests that the association of Avalon with a valley is due to popular etymology. See Michel, Floriant et Florete, p. Ixv, note 67 : — " Avalon, on which much was said, without noticing that the name of it was derived from French aval (below), as to mean that the fairy city was in the subterranean world." ^ Migne, CXI, De Universo, xii, 5. 2 For the influence of Rabanus cf. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1880, II, 120 ft. 42 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon Celtic models,^ from whatever source the tradition that he is embodying may be derived. Furthermore it is to be noted that the insula pomorum is one in a list of islands of the sea treated individually by Telgesinus in a discourse on the wonders of nature,^ and that this section of the Vita Merlini containing as it does a description of island after island ^ is similar in its general scheme to the imrama literature, especially, as Ferdinand Lot has observed,* to such an account as the Navigatio Sancti Brendani. In the terra repromissionis to which the voyage of St. Brandan led him, and with which the insula Fortunatorum was identified,^ there pre- vailed the same luxuriant vegetation that is the chief character- istic of the insula pomorum quae fortunata vocatur? The Latin account of St. Brandan's voyage, which is placed by Zimmer not before the middle of the eleventh century,'^ had, as is well known, an abiding influence on mediaeval thought,^ and we need feel no hesitation in believing that it was familiar to a man of the training and associations that the author of the Vita Merlini had doubtless enjoyed. According to Zimmer, Irish secular tradition had influenced the conception of the terra 1 The Vita Merlini also echoes some of the accounts of the Terrestrial Para- dise which are common in the Latin literature of the middle ages. For a col- lection of such descriptions see Graf, Miti, Leggende e Superstizioni, I, 197 ft. According to a tradition recorded in the fourteenth-century romance of Ogier le Danois, Avalon and the Terrestrial Paradise are neighboring lands (cited by Graf, p. 121, from the manuscript of the Arsenal of Paris 2985, p. 632 ; see p. 74). 2 Vv. 737 ff. ; cf. Sagen von Merlin, pp. 328, 329. a Vv. 855 ff. * Ann. de Bretagne, XV (1899-1900), 534. 6 See Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, pp. 10, 11, with notes; cf. Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercuri, VI, v. 702. s See C. Schroder, Sanct Brandan, Erlangen, 1871, pp. 4, 35; ci. Holy Grail, p. 264. ' Zs.f. d. Alt., XXXIII (1889), 306 ; Ward (II, 519) places it in its present form not much before the year 1000. 8 Cf. Roman de Renart, ed. Meon, Paris, 1826, II, vv. 12,149 ^■ Je fot savoir bon lai Breton de saint Brandan. Gautier de Metz, V Image du Monde, cited by Graf, Miti, Leggende e Super- stizioni, I, p. 108. L'llle Perdue. Celle ille trouva sains Brandains, Qui mainte merveille vit ains. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 43 reprontissionis as it is portrayed in the Navigatio;^ and it is not strange if the obverse of the situation is true, and the fea- tures of another mysterious island are in the Vita Merlini attributed to Avalon. A learned poet would naturally turn to the conceptions already expressed in Latin prose or verse, when he was describing the distant island to which Arthur was taken for healing, rather than to those usually stirred by the thought of Avalon as the abode of fays. If the author knew the story of the fairy messengers and boat that took Arthur to Avalon, he chose to disregard them and to make the king's guide to the distant island, Barinthus.^ Also, whereas the other versions which are giving an account of Arthur's final battle do not carry the narrative to Avalon, in this case where the interest to the author centres in the island that he is describing, the scene of importance naturally lies there. Moreover, just as extraneous influences are evidently at work in the description of the island, so Morgain herself is not strictly speaking a pure other-world fay. She is beautiful, has the power of shape-shifting, and understands the healing art, all of which attributes belong directly to her fairy kind ; but of the true other-world fay it could not be said that she had learned mathematics, i.e., astrology.* There are early accounts of islands off the coast of Gaul, which offer in many respects a parallel to the Celtic Isle of Women.* The most apposite here is that given by Pomponius Mela in his De Situ Orbis ^ : — Sena in Britannicomari, Osismicis adversalitoribus, Gallic! numinis oraculo insignis est : cuius antistites, perpetua virginitate sanctae, numero novem esse traduntur : Gallicenas vocant, putantque ingeniis singularibus praedi- tas, maria ac ventos concitare carminibus, seque in quae velint animalia 1 Zs.f, d. Alt., XXXIII, 144 ff. ; see also Schroder, p. xi. 2 See Brown, Rev. Celt, XXII (1901), 339 ff., for material showing that Barinthus or Barri (cf. Zimmer, Zs. f. vergl. Sprachf., XXXII, 160), who acts in both the Navigatio Sancti Brendani and the Vita Merlini as a guide to the other world, was originally a Celtic sea-deity, serving properly as an other-world mes- senger. Thus his part in the original Arthur-Avalon episode would equate with that of Fand's messengers to Cuchulinn in the Serglige Conchulaind. ' See p. 165, note i. * Strabo (p. 198) gives Posidonius' report of such an island near the mouth of the Loire, inhabited by women, whom he calls the Namnites, priestesses of Diony- sus : ovK iTTi^alvav hk avSpa t?s v^aov, tAs Si yvvaticas avrks ffXeoviros Koivwveiv tois avSpdai xal tcCKiv iiraviivai,. 8 Bk. Ill, ch. 6. 44 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon vertere, sanare, quae apud alios insanabilia sunt, scire ventura et praedicare : sed non nisi deditas navigantibus, et in id tantum, ut se consulerent pro- fectis.^ Whatever source Mela was using, we may trace through his words the existence of a long-standing tradition that may have influenced Geoffrey when he wrote the Vita Merlini? What would be a more natural process than for an author, when his mind was turning toward distant islands of the sea, to attribute to the fay of Avalon certain characteristics of the supernatural women who he may have heard were also the inhabitants of 1 Cf. Vopisftis (apud Peter, Script. Hist. Aug., Leipzig, 1884), Aurelianus, 44 : — Dicebat enim quodam tempore Aurelianum Gallicanas consuluisse Dryadas scisci- tantem utruTn apud eius posteros imperiutn perTnaneret. Salomon'Rema.ch {Acad, des /nscr. et de Bel/es Lettres, Jan. 1897, 33; Rev. Celt., XVIII, 1897, I ff.) maintains that Mela's account has no historic weight, and that it is due to an identification of Sena (i.e. Ouessant or the Isle de Sein) with Circe's island during the Roman period, when the opposite coast was believed to be the spot where Ulysses had addressed the shades. See Rev. Celt., IX (1888), 279; X (1889), 352 ; Elton, Origins of English History, London, 1890, pp. 24 ff.; Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, 331, note i. 2 Cf. Maury, p. 44 ; Rhys, Celt. Folklore, 330, 331 ; and Meyer and Nutt, II, 147-149. According to Mela there were nine priestesses of Sena, and though nine is a number too sacred to superstition (cf. Stokes and Windisch, IV, i, 342, Index of Things, s.v. nine; Silva Gadelica, II, 202, 214, 239, 257; Mabinogion, I, 323; Bran, §§ 32, 62 ; Bugge-Schofield, Home of the Eddie Poems, p. 266) for us to build upon this feature which is common to the two accounts, it is noteworthy, in con- sideration of the other resemblances, that Morgain is never made one of nine sisters except in.the Vita Merlini. The necessity of naming her eight sisters is apparently embarrassing to the poet ; he economizes by ringing three changes on one name, — Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, and his ingenuity deserts him completely before he reaches the eighth. Where he found their names has never been determined (see Lot, Ann. de Bretagne, XV, 533, note 3), though two of them are suggestive of possible originals. Thiten is suspiciously close to Thetis ; and we know that even so late as the composition of Der jilngere Titurel the silver- footed goddess of the sea survived as a, lady of magic power, who serves as a gauge for the accomplishments in necromantic art of Accedille, Uterpendragon's sister. Weder tetis noch sibllle waren niht so richer kunst in wane. (Albrecht von Schaifenberg, Der jUngere Titurel, ed. Hahn, Quedlinburg and Leipzig, 1842, St. 2433.) With Thetis as a possible basis for this name we can scarcely refrain from the conjecture that Gliten may be the distortion of the name of another sea-maiden, the unhappy nymph Clytie, the daughter of Oceanus, whose history our learned poet must have known through his Ovid (Met. IV, vv. 256 if.). If these guesses do hit the truth, the nominative in en may be attributed to the influence of the form Morgen. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 45 islands about which he had no definite information ? We may readily see, therefore, even though we have no direct source for the tradition in the Vita Merlini, how such a version as it contains might under recognizable influences have been evolved from the earlier fairy conception.^ Beside the passage from the Vita Merlini there should be placed some verses from the Gesta Regum Britanniae? Cingitur oceano memorabilis insula, nullis Desolata bonis : non fur, non predo nee hostis Insidiatur ibi ; nee nix, non bruma nee estas ^ Hartmann von Aue in his Erec (vv. 5132-5241), instead of following Chretien by simply mentioning Morgain's antret that healed Erec (see pp. 259, 260), describes at length a fairy plaster that the queen binds upon Erec's wounds, which she had received from Famurgin, the king's sister ; and he follows this description with as long an account of Morgain as has come down to us (vv. 51 56-5241), not excepting that contained in the Vulgate Merlin (see p. 151). Hartmann is cer- tainly relying on some material extraneous to his main source (see Bartsch in PfeiflEer's Germania, VII, 1862, 165; Gruhn, Zs. f. d. Alt., XLIII, 1899, 298, 299; Erec, pp. xvii, xviii). His information about Morgain, although it presents simi- larities to the description in the Vita Merlini, sets forth the accomplishments of a true mediaeval sorceress, such as those, for example, described in the thirteenth- century romance of Amadas et Ydoine (ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1863, vv. 2007 f£. ; cf. Cligis, vv. 3002 ff.). With Hartmann's comparison of Morgain to those beings who can restore the dead to life, cf. the sorceresses who practice the same art by means of a touch or a balsam, Mabinogion, I, 342; Perceval, VI, 185; Malory, Bk. VII, ch. 22, 23; Campbell, II, 463-465; III, 289; Campbell, The Fians, London, 1891, p. 247. We may easily believe that a tradition started by the Vita Merlini survived and reached Hartmann in a form to which there had been already added, or to which there was added by him, an unattached account of a sorceress. Some three quar- ters of a century later in the Prophecies (p. xcvi) we come across another tradition of Morgain in which she appears in a part that recalls Hartmann's words. Here she is summoned to a contest of skill in magic b^ the Dame d'Avalon. She calls a legion of devils to her, changes half of them to dragons and half to birds, and commands them to carry the Dame d'Avalon through the air to a certain tower. Reading in her book of enchantment (cf. Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Lie- brecht, p. 50, with note p. 160; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 83; Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne, I, 300-304), she herself advances toward the castle of her intended victim, by whom, she is regarded as a formidable rival (cf. p. 52, note 2). This is the only episode of just this kind connected with Morgain that is pre- served to us. She is referred to by Malory as a " sorceresse and Vfytche " (Bk. VIII, ch. 3), and a tradition, which looks like a survival of the early concep- tion of Morgain as a sorceress, is repeated by Reiffenberg : — " Dans certains villages, la plupart des vieilles mendiantes passent pour de vulgaires descendantes des Canidies et des Morgan" (Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1846, I, Ixxxix). 2 For the date and authorship of the poem see above, p. 28, note 6. 46 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon Immoderata furit ; pax et concordia perpes, Ver tepet eternum. Nee flos nee lilia desunt, Nee rosa nee viole ; floras et poma sub una Fronde gerit pomus ; habitant sine labe pudoris Semper ibi iuvenis cum virgine. Nulla senectus NuUaque vis morbi, nullus dolor ; omnia plena Leticie ; proprium niehil hie, communia queque. Regia virgo locis et rebus presidet istis, Virginibus stipata suis pulcherrima pulchris Ninipha, decens vultu, generosis patribus orta, Consilio pollens, medicine nobilis arte. Que, simul Arturus regni diadema reliquit Substituitque sibi regem, se transtulit illic Anno quingeno quadragenoque secundo Post incarnatum sine patris semine Verbum. Immodice lesus Arturus tendit ad aulam Regis Avallonis, ubi virgo regia vulnus Illius tractans, sanati membra reservat Ipsa sibi ; vivuntque simul, si credere fas est. The resemblance of this kingdom of Avallo ^ to the Celtic other world has been pointed out by Lot ^ and by Nutt,^ though what has been said above about the description of Morgain's island in the Vita Merlini is also true here, and it is evident that the learned author has probably been influenced by cer- tain Latin models that dealt with other-world abodes of a non- Celtic origin, such for example as Lactantius pictured the home of the Phoenix to be : — * non hue exsangues morbi, non aegra senectus, nee mors crudelis, nee metus asper adit, nee seelus infandum, nee opum vesana cupido, aut Mars, aut ardens eaedis amore furor : luetus acerbus abest, et egestas obsita pannis, et curae insomnes, et violenta fames, non ibi tempestas, nee vis furit horrida venti. nee gelido terram rore pruina tegit hie genus arboreum proeero stipite surgens non lapsura solo mitia poma gerit. 1 On Avallo cf. Rom., XXIV (1895), 330, 504; XXVII (1898), 553 ff. = Rom., XXVII, SS7 ff. ' Meyer and Nutt, I, 237. * Lactantius, De Phoenice, in Poetae Latini Minores,&A. Lemaire, Paris, 1824-26, II, 349 ff-. vv. 15-22, 29, 30. The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon 47 The Gesta Regum Britanniae is the only source except the Vita Merlini that places the scene in Avalon, and dwells on Arthur's experiences there rather than on his summons to the other world. In spite, however, of the resemblances between the Vita Merlini and the Gesta Regum Britanniae, there is suf- ficient difference in the form of the story to exclude the idea that the author of the latter is borrowing directly from the former. The regia virgo possesses no qualities that do not belong to the true other-world fay, and she is more nearly allied to the beguiling fairy mistress of Celtic stories, who retains with her the hero whom she has favored with her help, than to the Morgain of the insula pomorum. Clearly the thirteenth-cen- tury poem stands nearer to original conceptions than does the Vita Merlini, and the relation of the two versions is appar- ently that of two accounts using a common tradition, which in the Vita Merlini is more contaminated than in the later poem. IV For the sake of clearness, then, we may gather together the results of the preceding discussion : — 1 . In the story of Cuchulinn and Fand there is found a pro- totype which, if it became attached to Arthur's name, accounts for the two developments that appear in romance describing his stay in the other world. 2. One development of this story — the Avalon episode — is uniformly attached to Morgain's name. In this episode a characteristic of the Morrigan as the guardian of her hero is seen in Morgain. 3. The other development of this story which was discussed in the last chapter — the enchantress type — is not attached to Morgain's name. Here there is a distinct reminder of the part played by the Morrigan in the story of her love rejected by Cuchulinn and her ensuing efforts to destroy him. 4. In another episode attached to Morgain's name, that of the fight with -Accalon, which also was examined in the last chapter, Arthur is taken to her domains by the same means as in the Avalon story. The conclusion of this episode is iden- tical with that of the enchantress type. 48 The Sojourn of Arthur in Avalon These facts are explainable by the view that Morgain was the fairy queen of the original story from which there sprang two developments, in both of which traces of the Morrigan are to be detected. Thus Morgain' s two-fold attitude toward Arthur is explained, and the ground for her feud with him as it appears in the romances made clear.^ It is also evident that there are points of contact between the traditions of the Morrigan and important parts of the Morgain saga. ^ The remaining episodes of importance in which Morgain is connected with Arthur are simply variations on the theme of her rancor against him, and are more appropriately treated below. CHAPTER IV MORGAIN'S RETENTION OF RENOART, LANCELOT, AND ALISANDER L'ORPHELIN RENOART The conclusions drawn in the last chapter receive indirect support from other episodes. The story that we may believe was told of Morgain and Arthur in Avalon is told of Morgain and three other mortals. In none of the versions is there uncontaminated early material, and in fact none of them in and for itself is particularly valuable. They afford an excel- lent illustration of the transformations that rationalism effected even when employed on material so remote from real life in its setting as that which is contained in the early Celtic fairy-mistress tales. In probably the latest version, that of Alisander V Orphelin, the theme is plainly not derived from any of the extant sources, but in many of its features it stands nearer than they to our hypothetical original. In the Bataille Loquifer, the earliest chronologically, Morgain herself is more clearly pure fay than in any of the other developments. Here she is the love of Renoart, a warrior who figures in the epic cycle of Guillaume d' Orange; but in this case the epic mate- rial comes justly by its Breton coloring. The author of the Bataille Loquifer, Jendeus de Brie, there is good reason to believe lived in Sicily where, as Zimmer and Graf^ have shown, there is a probability that Norman influences had by the early part of the twelfth century diffused Breton story. The hero Renoart has lost his son Maillefer. Exhausted with weeping, he sleeps by the sea. There come flying toward him three fays, who con- gratulate themselves on finding so hardy a warrior, and plan to carry him off to Avalon, where he shall dwell in happiness all his days with Arthur 1 Zimmer, Goit. gel. Anz., 1890, p. 830, note 2; Graf, Giorn. Star., V (1885), 81 ff.; cf. Paris, Rom., V (1876), no. 49 JO Morgaifis Retention of Renoart, and other heroes. One fay declares that because of Renoart's prowess she intends to preempt him for her amij one of her companions, piqued, resolves to do him harm. They lift the sleeping Renoart, ask God's bless- ing, change his club and his hauberk into birds, his helmet into a harper, and his sword into a lad ; then they bear Renoart himself away to Avalon par grant enchantoison. Here we learn that the three fays are Morgain, her sister Marrion,i and an attendant. Fays come forth from Avalon in a procession to meet the hero, and sing with marvellous sweetness. When Renoart hears the noise, he wakes from his sleep, seizes his club, calls upon the Virgin, and succeeds in alarming the fays. Arthur greets him, and points out to him first the heroes who have come from this world to Avalon : — Et cele bele au vis enlumin^ Icele est Morgue ou tant a de biaut6.2 Her beauty at once arouses Renoart's passion, and he craves her love," but after a few days of delight with her, he is eager to go in search of Maillefer. Instantly Morgain's anger is stirred by this slight put upon her love. In revenge she induces Kapalu, a youth in whose convoy Renoart leaves Ava- lon, to sink the vessel in which Renoart sails ; but the hero is rescued from a watery grave by sirens who lull him to sleep and carry him ashore. When he awakes he remembers his wife Aalis, and repents of his escapades in Avalon. Morgain here is purely an other-world fay, gifted with a primi- tive magic power, amorous, supreme, brooking no rival. She loves the hero for his valor. She transports him in a sleep by enchantment to Avalon. He yields at once to her beauty and forgets home and its ties while he is under her spell. When he wishes to leave her, her anger is roused and she resolves on his destruction. When Renoart gives up all thought of her, he remembers his wife. Finally, this is clearly an episode in which there are combined many essentials of the Cuchulinn and Fand story, and also the rancorous nature of the Morrigan, all attached to Morgain's name. In one other early source, namely in Aliscans, Renoart winds up a jingling list of his brethren with Morgans lifads : — > I find no trace of this fay elsewhere, unless she is to be connected with Mor- gain's sister Moronoe in the Vita Merlini; see p. 44, note 2. 2 Michel (La chanson de Roland, Paris, 1837, p. 209) cites the above passage after another manuscript, the date of which he does not give, which speaks of Morgain as Arthur's sister. 8 Morgain afterward bears a child to Renoart, Corbon, un vif diable, qui ne fist se mat non. With this feature of the story cf. pp. 61, 77. Lancelot, and Alisander I' Orphelin 51 Et s'est mes freres I embus et Persauguds Et Clariaus, et Quarriaus, et Outr^s, Et Malatrous, et Malars, et Maurds, Et Miraidiaus, et Morgans li fa&, Ki plus est noirs ke aremens triblds.^ We have not sufficient ground for asserting what is the real significance of the passage ; it may be simply the result of a confusion of names that turns a fairy love of Renoart into a man, his brother.^ So far as we know, there is no inherent cause for the connection between Renoart and Morgain. The most palpable reason for it is that a narrator, desiring to extend Renoart' s history by making it include a sojourn in Avalon where Arthur and other famous heroes dwell, applied to him the love theme already connected with Morgain, the mistress of Avalon.. It is only fair to the mediaeval story-tellers to remember that, though they had but little originality, they doubtless had preferences even as we, and that if a narrator wished to expand his material he probably would turn first to some story that struck his fancy as a pretty or a thrilling bit to fasten to his hero. Probably the attaching of this episode to Renoart's name is due mainly to the individual taste of some combiner. II LANCELOT If we turn now to a later source, the prose Lancelot, we find the same theme related of the hero there.^ Lancelot lies sleeping beneath an apple-tre&i The queen of Sorestan, Morgain la f^e, and Sebile f enchanteresse come riding past in state. Mor- gain, though she is not attended with so much pomp as the queen of Sorestan, is apparently the leading spirit of the trio. Their eyes are keen enough to espy the sleeping knight, and when they detect his beauty, each desires him for her love, and disputes her chalnces with the others. At Morgain's suggestion they cast him into an enchanted sleep, and have him 1 Aliscans, ed. Guessard, Paris, 1870, vv. 4392-4396. See p. xvi for the date (ca. 1180) ; see also Gautier, £p. Fr., IV, 468, note i. 2 It seems more probable, however, that by some confusion Renoart's " cousin," Margot de Bocident, is really referred to here. See the variants for Margot cited in Rolin's Aliscans (Leipzig, 1894), v. 4716, Morgans, Morgans. ' Lancelot, ed. 1513, summarized by Sommer, Malory, III, 179 ; Paris, R. T. R., V, 303 ; Lancelot, vv. 13,635 ff. ; Malory, Bk. VI, ch. 3, 4. 5 2 Morgain's Retention of Renoart, carried on a litter to the Chateau de la Charrette which belongs to the queen of Sorestan (in Malory, to Morgain). There they confine him in a strong and beautiful chamber, where he wakes from the spell. In the morning they bid him choose one of them for his love, or remain a prisoner. Lancelot without embarrassment or gallantry declines to obey. In a rage they leave him. He makes his escape through the agency of a damsel of the castle. It requires but little analysis to show that this incident and that of the Bataille Loquifer are developments of a common theme. Renoart and Lancelot both sleep,^ spent with grief and toil. The fays come flying toward Renoart, riding past Lancelot. They are three in number, except in Malory, where four are mentioned, Morgain, the queen of Northgalys, the queen of Eastland, and the queen of Oute Isles.^ The fays 1 There is danger from fays in sleeping under certain trees, among them, natu- rally, the apple-tree. See Child, Ballads, I, 340, 350; IV, 456; Paris, ^. T. R., Ill, 326; Kittredge, Amer. Journ. of Phil., VII (1886), 190. - Two of Morgain's companions in this adventure deserve a passing notice. The French sources for the episode say that Morgain, Sebile, and the queen of Sorestan are the three women, who, with the exception of the Dame du Lac, knew more about enchantment than all others in the world, and therefore they loved each other and rode all day in company. As a matter pf fact, a more distinguished trio in the romances is formed by Morgain, Sebile I'enchanteresse, and the Reine de Norgalles. The most elaborate episode in which all three play a part is in Prophecies, p. xcv. The Dame d'Avalon has been presented with three enchanted rings, and tests their virtue upon Sebile I'enchanteresse and the Reine de Nor- galles. Despite their best endeavors, they are outdone by the rings, and the Dame d'Avalon affably says that if she can enchant these ladies, she certainly can enchant Morgain. When Morgain arrives she proves herself a more troublesome subject than the others, but eventually succumbs to the power of the rings. A joyful meeting takes place between the four choice spirits, and if the Dame du Lac had been present, the narrator adds, all the subtlety of the world would have been represented there. The gifted ladies start off in search of Merlin. The interest of the incident lies in its differentiating Morgain and the Dame d'Avalon, and in its showing Morgain as superior to the other fays. A Reine de Norgalles, perhaps not the fay, is mentioned in the romances; see e.g. Lbseth, pp. 189, 269, § 631 a, pp. 483, 491 ; Malory, Bk. XXI, ch. 6 ; for the fay see pp. 36, note 6, 58, 99. We have not enough information about her to guess at her origin, but may note that Annowre is a sorceress of Norgalles (see p. 21). Sebile has no individual history in the romances that we can trace. She is named among the fays qui tienent grant contrei at the cradle of Brunehaut, the daughter of Judas Macabe in Auberon, v. 405; but as a rule she is merely a shadow of Morgain. See Loseth, pp. 189, 217, 483, 490, 491 ; Esdarmonde, v. 3209; below, pp. 58, 226, note, 253. There is little question that she is descended from the Sibyl. Antoine de la Sale in La Salade (Bk. IV, ed. Soderhjelm, Antoine de la Sale et la Legende de Tannhduser, in Mhn. de la Soc. nio-phil. d. Helsingfors, II) repeats a popular legend that he had learned in a visit to the Mont de la Lancelot, and Alisander V Orphelin 53 love Renoart for his valor, Lancelot for his beauty. Morgain claims Renoart's love, and thus piques iier sister ; the fays contend for Lancelot's love. Both mortals are taken in an enchanted sleep to the fay's dwelling. The refusal of her love in both cases arouses her rage. In the prose romance the other-world situation has become thoroughly sophisticated. The fays are queens of great estate ; a silken canopy carried by four knights protects the queen of Sorestan from the sun ; Lancelot is transported in a magic Sibylle, one of the peaks of the Apennines near Norcia. In this mountain there is a cave, in which he who entered had to encounter a mighty blast of wind, cross a bridge one foot wide that spanned a brawling torrent and was guarded at one end by two dragons, and also psiss through two metal doors that swung back and forth unceasingly, before he came to a large crystal door which led into a beautiful castle. Here the queen Sibylle dwelt, presiding over a true fairyland of per- petual youth, riches, and pleasure, where food to each man's taste was provided for him, and where heat, cold, and the flight of time were unknown. A knight from Germany was admitted within the crystal door, and entered upon a life of other-world delight. But he discovered that every Friday at midnight the queen and her maidens were transformed into serpents, and after nearly a year, coming to the conclusion that he was in the power of the devil, he departed for Rome to seek pardpn from the Pope. The Holy Father, to make an example of him, drove him from his presence, but resolved to grant him absolution later. In despair the penitent went back to la reine Sibylle, and has never been heard of again. The legend is of course familiar from the story of Tannhauser, but stands in La Salade a little nearer the true Celtic form, in that the knight returns to fairy- land forever. Thus, although the Holy Father's reputation is saved by his inten- tion to pardon the repentant sinner, the story itself adheres to the original type. The connection between the Sibyl and the queen Sibylle is shown more clearly by Andrea da Barbeiino, who in Guerino il Meschino (see ed. of Venice, l8l6, IV, cap. 134; V) tells substantially the same story, evidently derived from a common source with the legend reported by Antoine de la Sale. In Guerino the fay is Alcina la Incantatrice, but she is identified in conception and description with the Cumean Sibyl (see IV, cap. 134; V, cap. 149), and Guerino seeks her, even dwells with her, solely for the purpose of gaining hidden knowledge, and of discovering from her the story of his own parentage. She refuses to give him the coveted infor- mation, and after a year he leaves her. The Pope grants him pardon for his sin. The two sources supplement each other, Antoine's representing purer Celtic material, Andrea's preserving more distinctly the Sibylline character of the fay, which would never suggest itself to us from Antoine's account, were it not for the queen's name. Both sources show tendencies that are often displayed in mediaeval fairy lore ■ — the scanty precision of legend when it deals with supernatural beings, and the merging of Celtic and classical tradition in popular story (cf. pp. 235 ft., 275 ff.). For discussions of the legend of the Mont de la Sibylle, see Paris, Revue de Paris, VI (1897), 763 ff. ; Reumont, Del Monte di Venere {Discorso letto alia Sac. Colombaria fiorentina il di 2^ maggio iSyi) ; Neilson, Studies and Notes, VI, 133-135- 54 Morgains Retention of Renoart, sleep, it is true, but by prosaic means, to his prison. The dwelling is not even said to be across a stream,^ and Avalon has become a simple castle of this world. The fays do not know who the hero is, and Morgain fails to recognize him — farewell to romance — por ce qu'il ot est^ touz^s (tondu) novel- ment? The fairy retention has become a serious imprison- ment behind iron bars; the hero's escape can no longer be accomplished by the permission of the fay coupled with an injunction, but the figure of the releasing maiden common in the epic who rescues the hero from Saracen captors is intro- duced into the poem as a deus ex machina. A working out of the same theme with a still greater corrup- tion of the early features appears in that part of the prose Lancelot which is called the Livre d ' Agravain? Morgain sends out twelve maidens in search of Lancelot, one of whom by the promise of an adventure entices him to Morgain's castle. Here a magic potion puts him to sleep, a magic powder which Morgain blows into his nostrils keeps him in ignOrance of his whereabouts. Morgain loves him for his beauty, and keeps him prisoner, hoping to win his love {yeintre le cuidoit par ennui). But he refuses all her entreaties, and in the spring by the sight of a rose is filled with such longing for the queen that he breaks the bars of his prison and escapes,* leaving for his would-be love the message that Lancelot du Lac greets the most disloyal woman in the world. It was doubtless late when the theme that we are examining here was attached to Lancelot. There is no trace in early material of Morgain's love for him, and never the slightest indication that he was sensible to her charms ; usually her schemes against him are the outcome of her already deeply •rooted hostility toward the queen. For this there was in the early story the same cause that existed for the contest between Fand and Emer, and when we study the episode of Morgain and Guiomar, we shall see what excellent reason there is to believe that it has a place in comparatively early Morgain material. As soon as it became impossible by tradition for Morgain to entice the queen's husband from her, she naturally would be represented as endeavoring to entice the queen's devoted lover from her. In other words, the elements of the 1 Cf. p. i6. 2 Paris, R. T. R., V, 304. « Paris, R. T. R., V, 315. * Cf. Cante de la Charrette, vv. 4615-4656 ; Loseth, § 190. Lancelot, and Alisander V Orphelin 55 early story are kept, though disguised, and the hero is changed. Properly Morgain's relations to Guinevere have produced this essentially late development which reverts to the original story. Ill ALISANDER l' ORPHELIN We learn the history of Alisander 1' Orphelin through four sources : — a manuscript of the prose Tristan} the Suite de PalamMe,"^ the Prophecies de Merlin,^ and Malory^ Alisander is a fearless young hero of Cornwall, who " hadde neuer grace ne fortune to come to Kynge Arthurs court." ^ Morgain plays an important part in his career, which in general outline belongs to the same type as that of Tyolet, Meriadeuc, Bel Inconnu, and Perceval.® The versions are substantially alike in the parts recounting his experiences with her : — It chances that a maiden tells Morgain of Alisander's valor and beauty, and assures her that if she can win control over him, she may count herself 1 Loseth, §§ 282 b, 360, note 2. ' Id., pp. 481-483. ' MS. Addington 25434 and Harleian MS. 1629, published by Sommer, Malory, III, 294 £f. * Bk. X, ch. 32-40. See also Prophecies, p. xlvi. ' Malory, Bk. X, ch. 40. ' The following summary gives the outline of Alisander's career : — King Mark of Cornwall, actuated by jealousy, secretly murders his brother. The widow, Anglediz, taking her infant son, Alisander, whom Mark believes dead, flees from the Cornish court to a castle held for her by a faithful chaste- lain. Here she brings up the boy in retirement and in complete ignorance of the circumstances of his father's death. On the day when the lad is knighted, she shows him his father's blood-stained garments, and tells him the history of the murder. Alisander at once sets out for Logres to put himself under the tutelage of Lancelot, and thus prepare for taking vengeance upon King Mark. He passes through a variety of typical adventures, the most important of which is that with Morgain (see the summary given below). While he is defending the site of Bele Garde, Aylies la Belle Pelerine hears of the adventure that he offers, and vows to give her hand to his conqueror. Since Alisander is invincible and she is beautiful, the matter ends by their marrying each other. After the required term for his defence of the site of Bele Garde is completed, according to Loseth's summary, Alisander is about to prosecute his plans against King Mark, when he is killed by Helyas le Roux ; according to Malory, he is treacherously murdered by Mark, and his death is avenged by his son, Bellengere le Bense. Variations in the sources, and vague references in the Palamide to adventures comme vous orrez cy aprez suggest that the history of Alisander formed a rather S6 Morgain s Retention of Renoart, happy. Mark, who is Alisander's enemy, in the meanwhile hears of his prowess, and resolves that he must die. He asks Morgain's aid against him, but although she promises the king her assistance, she determines to get Alisander into her own power. She wastes no time, and sets forth at once to a castle not far distant where she has heard that he has been victor at a tourney. The maiden of the castle is detaining him with her, that he may take the field against Malagrin (in Malory, Malgrin) le felon, an unwelcome suitor, and the reward of his victory is to be her hand. Morgain resolves to prevent the marriage. She reaches the castle in time to watch a fearful battle between Alisander and Malagrin, which ends for Malagrin with the loss of his head and for Alisander with sixteen great wounds. Morgain sees her chance, and offers to heal Alisander's wounds. When she bandages them she applies an irri- tating salve, which causes him a night of such torture that in the morning, chastened by suffering, he gladly promises to do all her will provided she will heal him. Instantly she applies a healing ointment that puts him out of pain. In the course of his recovery she forbids him to wed the maiden, and Alisander accordingly bestows her in marriage upon another knight. During the wedding festivities Morgain leads Alisander apart and bids him come to a pavilion of hers, where he will be free from the noise and mirth lengthy Independent narrative, and was sufficiently popular to be embodied in a variety of versions. Indications abound that Alisander's history is modelled on the Perceval type, notably the following parallels : — (a) The death of Alisander's father, the flight of his mother, and his own upbringing. Cf. Lbseth, §§ 302, 308, 312, 313; Sir Perceval of Galles, ed. Halliwell, The Thornton Romances, London, 1844,. I, I ff., St. i-xi; Carduino, a poem influenced by the tradition that we know through Lbseth, §§302, 308, 312, 313; see also Schofield, Studies and Notes, IV, 183 ff. (b) The faithful chastelain who aids Alisander's mother. Cf. Per- ceval, vv. 70 ff. (c) The name mon orfelin, man petit orfelin, by which Alisan- der's mother speaks of him. Cf. Bel fil. Beau Valet, the names by which the heroes of the Perceval type of story are called ; cf. also the name Riche Orfelin given to Lancelot in the abode of the Dame du Lac (Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 27 ; see below, p. 186). (d) Alisander's appearance before Palamedes, who when he hears of the young hero's valor summons him to his dwelling. Cf. the debut of the unknown youth before Arthur in the earlier versions ; see especially Bel Inconnu, vv. 96-100; Li Chevaliers as deus Espees, ed. Foerster, Halle, 1877, vv. 1506 ff.; Perceval, v. 2169. Note especially Alisander's refusal to reveal his name, his betrayal of his life of seclusion by an admission that he has never seen Tristan, his peculiarities of bearing for which his Cornish origin is said to account. Cf. the inability of the heroes in the above sources to tell their names, also their lack of the conventional graces, for which their forest rearing is usually held responsible, (e) Lbseth, §§314, 629. Cf. id., p. 482. (f) Id., § 313. Cf. Perceval, vv. 5588-5909. (g) Alisander's refusal to marry the lady whom he respues. Cf. Li Chevaliers as deus Espees, ed. cit., vv. 5878 ff. ; Bel Inconnu, vv. 3374 ff. Note the name of the maiden's unwelcome suitor, Malagrin (Malgrin) le felon. Ci. Bel Inconnu, v. 2171. With Malory's description of the scene in which Alisander learns of his father's murder (Bk. X, ch. 34), which is not paralleled in the Perceval type, cf. Marie de France, Yonec, vv. 531-546. Lancelot, and Alisander V Orphelin 57 of the castle. She takes him to a litter before the door, gives him a draught of drugged wine, and within three days brings him safely to Bele Garde (in Malory, 'L2l Beale Regard), a former castle of her mother's. Here she completes his cure, but he grumbles at his confinement. One of Morgain's maidens promises for his love to betray the castle by night to her uncle who will destroy it by fire; thus Alisander shall be freed. Alisander vows that if she will carry out her purpose he will defend the site for two years. The maiden is as good as her word ; Alisander is released, and proceeds with his defence of the site of Bele Garde. The maiden sends word to Morgain of the destruction of the castle, and Morgain disappears from the story enraged at the tidings of her loss. The story of Alisander is instructive here not because of its inherent interest, but because of three points that it serves to illustrate. In the first place, it points to that stage in the Morgain saga, of which we have seen indications in Chapter III ; in the second place, it shows distinctly the perversions of an early theme in late hands ; and in the third place, it is an aid in explaining the variations of Morgain's character in the romances. Let us see what her part in Alisander's life is. Her desire to bring the young knight to her castle is stirred by hearing of his beauty and valor. She sends out her messengers in search of him, and to "make assurance double sure," she herself mounts her palfrey and rides out in his path. She exerts her power over Alisander by her promises of healing and rest. She interferes with his love for the mortal maiden who should rightfully have been his bride. She keeps him in her castle in a confinement which^he finds irksome and desires to leave for his accustomed life. In other words, Morgain's part here on analysis shows the same features that we have seen doubtless appeared originally in the Arthur-Avalon episode. Once again the medicamen that we first met in the Vita Merlini in the insula pomorum is found in Morgain's hands.. This is still another repetition of the story of Fand and Cuchulinn. Here, however, we have to do with sadly rationalized mate- rial. Morgain's promises of healing concern literal cuts and gashes. She does not send a fairy debility upon the knight that leads him to realize her power, but she irritates his wounds with a baneful salve, and then holds out promises of relief.^ There is no benumbing of his senses by the intangible ' For a similar situation cf. Child, Ballads, I, 372, 387 ff. ; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 327. 58 Morgaifis Retention of Renoart, influences of the other world, but a draught of drugged wine puts Alisander to sleep. Morgain conveys him to her castle, not by a fairy boat, but an ordinary litter. She herself is an enchant- ress with much of her other-world brilliancy obscured by the appliances of this world. When her maiden tells her of the gallant young Cornish knight, she excuses herself to the Queen of Norgales and Sebile I'enchanteresse, who are waiting to talk with her, leaves her castle and all her possessions at their dis- posal for a month, and rides off in search of Alisander. She receives a letter from King Mark asking her to help him in his plot against Alisander, and at once sends a polite message to the king assuring him that she will aid and abet him. She rests in her pavilion by the way, entertains passing knights at supper, and extracts from them the information about Alisander that she desires. Her part has been subjected to prosaic influ- ences ; but her rdle here confirms the probability that the Cuchulinn-Fand story was at one time told of her, and that her name was connected with it before it was developed into the two types discussed above in Chapters II and III. But why is this story, which is a true Morgain episode, attached to the name of Alisander .' Properly, after defeating Malagrin the young knight should wed the lady and live as her defender. Alisander, however, does not maintain a " custom " at her castle, but appoints himself the voluntary defender of the site of Bele Garde for two years after it has been destroyed. This extraordinary proceeding on his part is evidently a work- ing out of the theme which has been interrupted by the episode with Morgain. The situation in the story offered by her advent is similar to that in Rigomer} Gawain after having destroyed the enchantment of the castle Rigomer, and released its mistress, Dionise, is called upon to wed her. His fairy love, Lorie, appears with a stupendous suite, and throws a wet blanket on the hopes of Dionise by claiming Gawain as her own prop- erty. He appeases Dionise by promising to find her a worthy husband in the course of a year. The story of Alisander is based in the main on a line of incidents unconnected with the Morgain saga. The narrator undoubtedly introduced the epi- sode with Morgain into his history not merely because it would 1 Hist. Liit., XXX, 91. Lancelot, and Alis under V Orphelin 59 redound to Alisander's glory to be beloved by the greatest of fays, but because when he had made his hero receive sixteen dire wounds in battle, the famous story of Morgain's fairy healing supplied him admirably with additional material. The Alisander story throws light upon apparent variations in Morgain's character. Rh^s ^ makes a distinction which can- not be proved to exist. The romances, he says, "spoke of a lake lady Morgain, Morgan, or Morgue. The character varied : Morgain le Fay was a designing and wicked person ; but Mor- gan was also the name of a well-disposed lady of the same fairy kind, who took Arthur away to be healed at her home in the Isle of Avallon." The fay who takes Arthur away to be healed in Avalon is the same fay who forms designs against Alisander. The story that we are examining in both cases, when told of Fand, does not show those attributes in the fay's nature that are prominent in Morgain. The Morrigan's character is to be detected in Morgain in the early material which lies behind the episode of Arthur in Avalon as we know it, and the same is true of those elements in Morgain in the later sources that allow us to characterize her as cruel and designing; for the nature of the war-goddess was slow to die even when its repre- sentative had been by tradition most nearly merged into the proud, unscrupulous lady of a mediaeval castle. 1 Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, p. 374. CHAPTER V MORGAIN AND GUIOMARi With the original situation outlined in the preceding chapters before us, Morgain's relations to Guinevere acquire a special significance. If Emer's interference with Fand's love is repro- duced in the history of Guinevere and Morgain, it will be so much the more evident that there was a story told of Arthur in faerie which was parallel to that of Cuchulinn's experiences in Mag Mell. It is certainly true that if Morgain is hostile to Arthur, still more so, if possible, is she to the queen. La roine . . . ne I'amoit mie moult, pour chou que elle n'avoit onques veut bien en li.^ Celui que ele deust plus amer que tout le monde fist ele plus grant anui et si grant blasrae dont on parla puis tous les jours de sa vie. che fu de la gentiex genieure si comme li contes le vous deuisera cha auant comment et por quoi.' There is no episode in the romances in which Morgain appears on friendly terms with the queen, except that discussed in this chapter, at the beginning of which she is represented as a lady in waiting on Guinevere. The stories in which her hos- tility is most in evidence are those of her love for Guiomar, of the Cor enchants and the Manteau mal tailU, and of her designs upon Lancelot. Her hatred is attributed to the queen's inter- ference with her early love for Guiomar, to her jealousy of Lancelot's love for the queen, and to the affront that she received from the queen, who omitted her from the guests invited to a feast at court. She manifests her hatred according 1 This is the form of the name used by Paris throughout R. T. R., II. Frey- mond gives it as occurring once in the Livre d'Artus, P., where in all other instances the form is Guionmar(z); ^ee Freymond, Livre d'Artus, P., 13, note i. Guiamor(s) is the form appearing in the Lancelot. 2 Huth Merlin, II, 219. ' Vulgate Merlin, p. 361. Cf. English Merlin, p. 508 ; Loseth, § 41 ; Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, v. 2460. 60 Morgain and Guiomar 6i to the Livre d'Artus, P. by creating the Val sanz Retor ; according to other sources by employing various devices to shake Lancelot's love for the queen, and by making untiring efforts to betray it to the king.i Among the episodes that bring Morgain into connection with the queen, there is one that follows in natural sequence those that we have just been studying. This is the tale of Morgain 's love for the gallant young knight, Guiomar. There came to Erec's wedding feast, Chretien tells us, together with many other noble counts and lords, Guigomar,^ De risle d'Avalon fu sire. De cestui avons o'l dire Qu'il fu amis Morgain la fee, Et ce fu veritez provee.^ But we do not meet an episode bringing Morgain and Guiomar together before the Lancelot,'^ and here we have a full account of the course of love between them. Morgain is Arthur's half-sister, lady in waiting upon Guinevere. She cherishes a secret passion for Guiamor de Camelide, a fair and valiant knight, the nephew of Arthur. One day they have a quarrel, and thus attract the queen's attention. She succeeds in surprising them together, and wishing to turn Morgain from folly, and to avert shame from the lovers and from Arthur, she warns Guiamor that his life is in danger, if Arthur learns of his love for Morgain. He readily renounces the maiden, but she, seeing that he has deserted her for love of the queen, is greatly distressed. Knowing that Merlin can aid her, she goes in search of him, and since he loves her, he teaches her many enchantments. By Guiamor Morgain has a son who becomes a knight of great prowess. Thus begins Morgain's hatred of the queen. Paris in his summary omits two details, — the name of the lover who is simply said to be a cousin of the queen, and the mention of Morgain's child. 1 The individual cases are discussed below ; see also Paris, R. T. R., V, 339 ; Loseth, §§ 265, 611. 2 This is the spelling adopted by Foerster in his edition of 1896; for variants see his edition of 1890. 8 Erec, vv. 1955-1958. * II, Ixxi ; R. T. R; IV, 292, 293. See also ii., 293, note, for a probable confusion that entered into the story. 62 Morgain and Guiomar A different version is found in four other sources, the Vul- gate Merlin} the English Merlin^ the summary of Le Roi Artus by Paris,^ and the Livre d' Artus, P.^ A brilliant assembly is being held at Arthur's court. The guests separate and go to rest, but Guiomar, the queen's nephew, lingers behind the others with Morgain, Arthur's beautiful sister, who is sitting at her embroidery. Guiomar talks with the maiden on many themes as he winds her thread of gold ; soon he sues for her love, and easily induces her to smile upon him, and in the end to grant him aU his will. For a long time their relations are undiscovered, but at length the queen learns the true state of afEairs, and separates them. Morgain, therefore, hates her, and works her harm. In the Livre d' Artus, P., this part of the story is given in a condensed form, but a continuation is added : Morgain has recourse in her trouble to Merlin, who loves her and teaches her his art completely. With the skill derived from him she founds the Val sanz Retor as a means of revenge upon the queen, and for the sake of having Guiomar in her power. After her departure from court Arthur seeks her everywhere. Guinevere extracts from Guiomar an oath that he knows nothing of her whereabouts. He, however, is eager for further tidings of her. A comparison of the versions shows three noteworthy differ- ences among them : — 1 . In the Lancelot there are three significant variations from the other sources : — (a) Morgain is not beautiful. {b) It is implied that Guiomar loves the queen, although this is not the reason given for her separation of the lovers. {c) Morgain and Guiomar have a son. 2. The Vulgate Merlin and the Roi Artus differ from the Lancelot in three important particulars : — (fl) They contain an introduction, i.e., the embroidery scene. {b) They contain a lengthy description of Morgain's per- sonal characteristics. (c) They do not contain the sequel, Morgain's flight to Merlin. 3. The Livre d' Artus, P. differs from the other versions in the mention of Morgain's founding of the Val sanz Retor as the result of her anger and love. ^ Pp. 361, 362. = R. T. R., II, 269-271. 2 Pp. 507-509. 4 Pp. 13, 14 ; §§ 47, 100-105. Morgain and Guiomar 63 The differences between the Lancelot and the versions repre- sented by the Vulgate Merlin, and also their agreement in the outline of the story, point to the use of common material coming perhaps through more than one intermediary, rather than to interdependence. The same relation of the Lancelot to the versions of the other class is indicated here that will be seen more clearly below in the episode of Merlin and Niniane.^ There an introduction containing a long account of an exhibi- tion of magic power given by Merlin before Niniane is an evident addition to the main story, which the author obviously was deriving in large part from the same source as that of the Lancelot. So here in the Lancelot, Morgain is said to be laide, also chaude et luxurieuse ; the Vulgate Merlin reads : moult estoit brune di vis . . . chaude et luxurieuse ; but her beauties and accomplishments receive an amplification a page long.^ We have no direct source for this passage, which contains the most complete description of Morgain that has come down to us. The author of a mediaeval romance was lavish in detail when he seriously set out to describe his heroine's charms,^ and although this description mentions traditional traits of Morgain and is not so purely conventional that it has no value in the Morgain material, its presence here may be attributed to the writer's personal bent and not to his source. The embroidery scene also may be regarded as a narrative flourish on his part, for which we need not insist that he necessarily resorted to a definite written or narrated source. Leaving then, for the present, the features which are evi- dently not integral parts of the theme, we see that in its essentials, particularly as they are given in the Lancelot, the story is that of the secret love between the fay and a young knight, with which the queen interferes. The knight deserts the fay through the queen's influence, towards whom in conse- quence the fay cherishes an abiding hatred. 1 See pp. 213 ff. 2 For this description see below, p. 151, note i. 8 Cf . Erec, vv. 402-441 ; Cligis, vv. 785-845; Bel Inconnu, vv. 1511-1537; 2196-2236 ; Wirnt von Gravenberg, Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, Dicktungen des deutschen Mittelalters,'Vl,'Levpzig, 1847, vv. 723-948; Diu Crdne, vv. 81 28-831 7; Gibert de Montreuil, Roman de la Violette, ed. Michel, Paris, 1834, pp. 4S-S°- 64 Morgain and Guiomar Shall we regard this story of Morgain's first love as a work- ing-over of some early other-world adventure in which Gui- gomar, sire d'Avalon} whom the Erec mentions, figured as Morgain's amif Before examining other sources, we may recall certain features of the early story of Arthur in fairyland that were developed in the last chapter. In the Cuchulinn- Fand episode, which we saw was transferred to Arthur and a fay who in all probability was Morgain, there are contained the same elements that reappear in the account of Guiomar and Morgain. The fay loves the knight, the queen breaks in upon an assignation of the lovers, she demands their separation and her entreaties move the hero to compliance, the fay in indig- nation leaves them. In other words, essentially the same story was attached, not only to Arthur and Morgain, but also to Gui- omar and Morgain, of whom it was told at some time anterior to 1 168, about which date Chretien probably wrote his Erec? There is scarcely room for doubt that Morgain la fee, the love of Guigomar, was identified in Chretien's mind with Morgue, the sister of Arthur, whom he mentions in another passage in the Erec? Ferdinand Lot questions such an iden- tification on Chretien's part. " C'est ce qu'on ne peut aifirmer et il parait impossible d'6tablir avec certitude a quelle source il a puisd." * Chretien knows Morgue as the concocter of all- potent balms, and speaks of her as Morgue, the sister of Arthur, and also as Morgue la sage. [Li rois] fet aporter un antret Que Morgue sa suer avoit fet.' Car d'un oignement me sovient Que me dona Morgue la sage.^ He certainly is referring to the same being in these two pas- sages, and inasmuch as in the Huon de Bordeaux'' and the/«j Adan * unquestionably the fay, and nobody else, is designated as Morgue la sage, there is ground for believing that Chretien means one and the same personage, when he speaks of Morgain 1 On the identity of the names Guihomar and Guigomar, see Zimmer, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XIII (1891), 7 f£- ^ 6 Erec, vv. 4218, 4219. 2 See p. 7, note i, no. 2. 6 Yvain, vv. 2952-2955. 8 Vv. 4218 ff. 7 See below, p. 124. * Rom., XXVIII (1899), 328. 8 p. 77. Morgain and Guiomar 65 la f^e, Morgue la sage and Morgue, the sister of Arthur. His words, then, show that before 1168 approximately Morgain was known as Arthur's sister, and that the original love adventure therefore could no longer be related of them. If the story was to be told of Morgain, the hero had to be changed. As soon as it is clear that the episode of Morgain and Guiomar is simply the original episode of Morgain and Arthur with a new hero, we understand why the sources say that it relates the beginning of the fay's hostility toward the queen. The hint in the Lancelot, which otherwise seems strange, that Guiomar left Morgain for love of the queen, is also explained, as well as Guiomar's future ignorance of Mor- gain' s fate. Further evidence that this substitution may have taken place is afforded in the lay of Guigemar by Marie de France,^ in which the name of the hero resembles Guiomar sufficiently ^ to leave us no ground for surprise that the same story should be attached to each. The lay is a composite production, which, in spite of the seemingly incongruous elements that it contains, throws a more abiding glamor about the hero than the story of the prose romances bestows on Guiomar. Guigemar, son of Oridial, lord of Liun, is in the service of King Hoilas of Bretagne. He shows himself valiant in war, knightly in temper, and wins universal affection. He is beloved by women, but to the distress of his friends cares for none of them. One day in the course of a stag-hunt, as he chances to linger behind the rest of the company, he espies a doe with her fawn in a thicket near by and draws his bow against her. The dart wounds her, but instantly rebounds and wounds him in turn. The doe cries out that he has killed her. E tu, vassal, ki m'as nafree, tels seit la tue destinee : ja mais n'aies tu medecine I Ne par herbe ne par racine, ' Marie de France, pp. 5-40. ^ For the view that Guigemar and Guigomar (Guyomar) are the same name see Zimmer, Zs.f.fr.Sp., XIII (1891), 9, 11 : — " Diesem bretonischen Guihomar Aes XII Jahrhunderts entspricht oftenbar das franzbsiche Guigomar (woraus Guiga- mor, Guingamor), Guigemar . . . Urspriingliche Form des Namens war ohne Zweifel Guigomar, Guigemar ; es ist heutiges Guyomar" Guiomar's name sur- vives to-day among the saints of Brittany, and a parish of Morbihan is named after him. Saint Guyomard. For his story see Sebillot, Petite Legende Dorle, p. 188. 66 Morgain and Guiomar ne par mire ne par poisun n'avras tu ja mes guarisun de la plaie qu'as en la quisse, des i que cele te guarisse, ki sufferra pur tue amur si grant peine e si grant dolur, qu'unkes femme tant ne sufEri ; e tu referas tant pur li.i Guigemar determines without delay to seek the land where he shall find healing. He rides through the forest till he comes in sight of the sea, where he espies a beautiful ship anchored in a harbor. He goes aboard and discovers that he has no companions on the vessel. The ship, without a pilot, leaves the shore and bears Guigemar swiftly out on the high sea to the port where his wound is destined to be healed. The lord of the city is an old man who is jealous of his young wife's beauty, and has confined her in a tower surrounded by a high wall except on the side toward the sea. To her tower Guigemar's ship carries him. When the lady hears his story she offers him her hospitality until he shall be healed, and at once proceeds to tend his bleeding wound. Love grows apace between them, and the result is that for a year and a half Guigemar dwells in secrecy with her. One unhappy day her husband surprises them together, and forthwith orders Guigemar to put out to sea in the magic vessel. The ship takes him safely to his native land, and afterwards when at last the fair lady is able to escape from her tower, she finds the same magic vessel waiting in the har- bor to bear her to Bretagne. Here she and her lover by means of other adventures are reunited. These adventures are quite irrelevant to our purpose here ; it is with the induction and Guigemar's stay with his love that we are concerned. The former belongs to the same class as those of which we have already had . examples, in which the fay by means of a fairy messenger and boat transfers the hero to the place where she desires his presence. The resemblance between this induction and certain features of the Partonopeus has been pointed out,^ but a comparison of the lay and the romance shows one important difference between the situation in Guigemar and in the typical episode of its class.^ The ^ Vv. 107-118. 2 See Hertz, Uebersetzung der Lais de Marie de France, Stuttgart, 1862, p. 250; Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, p. 354; Kolbing, Germanistische Studien, HI, 109 ; Marie de France, pp. Ixxviii ff. ^ For an Italian representative of the material that we have in the induction of Guigemar, see Poliziano, La Giostra (ed. Carducci, Le Stanze, V Orfeo, e le Rime di Poliziano, Florence, 1863), I, st. 8-65 ; cf. Flamini, Rassegna Bibliografica, IX (1901), 16. Morgain and Guiovtar 67 prophetic doe and the magic bark are attributed to no definite source, and the lady, who like Melior should be the motive force for all the later incidents, is as ignorant of their meaning and is taken as completely unawares by their occurrence as the hero himself. By analogy with a familiar class of tales in which a maiden, bespelled into the form of an animal by a jealous husband or relative, wanders in the woods waiting until the destined hero effects her release,^ the wounded doe should be the fay herself transformed, released from spells by the hero whom she eventually rewards with her love.^ The variation on the original episode, allowing the dart that proves fatal to the fay to wound the hero as well, is undoubtedly due to the senti- mental psychology of Marie's time, and afforded an acceptable opportunity to the poetess, familiar with the ways of the Anglo- Norman court, to dwell on the serious effect of the shaft of love. Mes amurs I'ot feru al vif ; ja ert sis quers en grant estrif, kar la dame I'a si nafr^, "^ tut a sun pais ubli^. De sa plaie nul mal ne sent ; mult suspire anguissusement.' The purely mortal denouement is evidently also the result of the rationalizing tendency by which fairy incidents are fre- quently transformed, and which led the author of Marie's original* to add to his other-world material a common theme, according to which a young wife imprisoned in a tower by a jealous husband was visited by a gallant lover, from whom she was rudely separated by her husband.^ 1 See Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, ch. I, II, III, IX, for examples and discussion of this theme. For an Italian representative of it see La Fabula del Pistello de I' Agitata, ed. Arlia, Bologna, 1878. 2 See Hertz, Marie de France, p. 250 ; Roquefort, Pohies de Marie de France, Paris, 1820, I, 73 ; cf. Doncieux, Mllusine, VII (1894-1895), 97-104. 8 Vv. 379-384 ; cf. vv. 483, 484, 503, 504. * For Marie's slender claim to originality in combination see Bedier, Revue des deux Mondes, 1891, p. 857 ; Lays of Graelent, etc., pp. 174, 175. 5 See Marie's lay, Yonec. In this incident Guigemar is related to the eighth story of Herbert's Dolopathos (ed. Brunet and Montaiglon, Paris, 1856, vv. 10,324-11,218). Here the hero is a Roman senator's son, who learned in philosophy, handsome, and rich despises the love of women. Tormented by entreaties of friends who beg him to marry, he orders stone-carvers to make for 68 Morgain and Guiomar The induction brings us back once more to the story of Cuchulinn and Fand, for it contains the essentials of the earlier Celtic induction — the effort of the hero to wound a druidic animal, the other-world messenger and her promise that he shall find healing with his love, the fairy boat, — elements which we have seen were doubtless repeated in a story that was told of Morgain and Arthur. These features do not appear in the story of Morgain and Guiomar, but they belong, as I have just said, to a Celtic tale of the same type, and have a place in the narrative that is told of Guigemar. Thus the histories of Guiomar and Guigemar are complementary to each other, and give us reason to assume that they have as a common antecedent a story similar to that of Cuchulinn and Fand, and of Arthur and Morgain, in which Guiomar was later substituted for Arthur. If this be true, it is evident that the him the stone image of a beautiful woman, and vows that only she who is the liv- ing counterpart of the statue shall be his bride. Some friends tell him of a beautiful lady in Greece who meets the conditions, and who is imprisoned by her jealous husband in a tower by the sea. The reluctant and sceptical wooer sails to the lady's tower, finds that she is the most, beautiful creature in the world, and after d. brief conversation avows his passion for her. For a long time he visits her secretly, and at length succeeds in carrying her off with him to Rome. This story is not contained in the Latin work of Johannes de Alta Silva (ed. H. Oesterley, Strassburg and London, 1873), °f which Herbert's Dolopathos is a translation with amplifications. The harmony, however, between Herbert's style here and in those parts of the poem where he is undoubtedly translating from Johannes de Alta Silva has led Paris {Rom., \\ (1873), 499 ff.) to the conclusion that he was working from a later text of the latter than that which has come down to us, and that in this text the incident was embodied. The date of the Dolopathos is placed not long after that of Johannes de Alta Silva's own work {1184-1212 ; see Dolopathos, pp. xii, xix), and we may therefore feel assured that from whatever source Herbert directly derived his eighth story, there was told in France in the latter part of the twelfth century a tale that we evidently know through both Marie and Herbert, recounting how a noble youth, who despised love, after sailing across the sea found imprisoned in a tower by her jealous husband a fair lady, whose love he secretly won and long enjoyed. Certain resemblances in phraseology, idea, and structure occur in Guigemar and kindred parts of the Dolopathos, which, it is true, are not so far from common- place that their significance is to be insisted upon ; but which are easily explain- able as the outgrowth of an ultimate common source. See the following : — Guigemar, vv. 43, 44 Dolopathos, vv. 10,325-26 vv. 57, 58 " vv. 10,330-31 vv. 211, 212 " vv. 10,408-9 vv. 306-315 " vv. 10,532-42 vv. 337-352 " vv. 10,505-28. Morgain and Guiomar 69 adventure of the induction to the lay is that which properly belongs with Guigemar's name, and is responsible for the fact that the remaining themes of the lay are connected with him. Why, if Arthur's part in the early story is to be transferred to another hero, should the lot fall upon Guiomar ? The prose romances supply us with no explanation; they contain apart from our story only scattered allusions to Guiomar, all of which represent him as among the favored and gallant knights of Arthur.^ To answer our question we must in the first place recall the experiences of the hero, Guingamor, celebrated in Breton lays. His name Zimmer^ regards as a development of Guigomar. The change of the termination -omar to -amor, -amuer, Zimmer explains as the result of a confusion between -omar and the common Breton termination -mor, -mer, -muer, which means great ; and the Guin- for Gui- in the first mem- ber as developed by analogy with the many Breton names, in which Guin-, Guen- forms the first syllable.^ This merely indi- cates that the forms Guingamor, Guingamuer are transparent, and even if not connected phonologically with Guigomar might by popular usage easily arise from it. Let us see if in the stories connected with Guingamor we find an identity with the history of Guiomar and Morgain. The lay that bears the name of Guingamor tells how this valiant young knight of Bretagne, who cared naught for love, in the course of a perilous boar-hunt met a beguiling fay, who took him away to her beautiful castle and banished from his mind all thought of time and the world. After three hundred brief years, she let him return to earth on condition that he taste no food while there. But his mortal cravings tempted him beyond his strength, he disobeyed his fairy mistress, and immediately became a feeble, shrivelled old man. She forgave him, however, and sent her messengers to bring him back across the water to fairyland. 1 See Paris, R. T. R., II, 187, 190, 243, 250 ; Lime d'Artus, P., p. 13, §§39, 47, 171-175; Vulgate Merlin, p. 252 ; cf. Arthour and Merlin, vv. 9670, 9713. 2 Zs. f. fr. Sp., XIII, 7 £E. Zimmer derives the name Guigomar from an old Breton name Wiuhomarch, He cites the Annales of Eginhard for mention of a Wihomarchus Britonum dux, -who in 822/25 was at war with Louis, the Pious, and also gives documentary evidence that this name existed in Redon as early as 854/60. 8 For names with the double forms Gui-, Guin- cf. Guigamor, Guingamor ; Guiganmuer, Guinganmuer ; Guigambresil, Guingambresil. 70 Morgain and Guiomar From Gaucher de Dourdan's continuation of the Perceval we learn of another and slightly different version of the story .^ Here we are told of the death of a certain Brangemuer, king of the isles of the sea. Guinganmer I'engenra En une f^e qu'il trova. Bien avds oi aconter Coment il ca9a le sangler Et com ma dame le retint ; Bien av& oi qu'il devint ; C'est la roine Brangepart." We see from these passages that the story of Guingamor and his fairy mistress was a familiar theme at the time of Gaucher, and formed undoubtedly the subject of more than one independ- ent narrative^; at least two versions of the story must have existed, that of the lay of Guingamor and that of the source that Gaucher has in mind. Moreover, Sir Gringamore* also appears as an other-world character in the seventh book of Malory, where as in Erec he is said to dwell in the Isle of Avilion,^ and is provided with two fairy sisters, Linet and Dame Liones. Thus there is certain indication that by the time when the material of the prose romances was put into shape, there was a connection established in story between the name Guingamor and fairyland. This fact in itself offers the solution of which we are in search. Zimmer,^ who leaves out of consideration the Guiomar of the prose romances, as well as Sir Gringa- inore, says that the same theme is associated with Guingamor and Guigemar ; Freymond ^ advances the view that the Guio- mar of the prose romances is identical with the Guingamor of the lays, and that the prose versions recounting his experiences 1 Vv. 21,859 ff- See Schofield, Studies and Notes, IV, 242. 2 Vv. 21,859-21,865. ^ See Schofield, 1. u., 241. * For the forms Guingamor, Gringamore, and other examples of proper names in which a similar r appears, see Lays of Graelent, etc., p. 143, note 2. 6 Ch. 23; 6 Zs.f.fr. Sp., XIII (1891), 8, 10. ' Zs.f.fr. Sp., XIII, 19. For an excellent risume of the material treating of Guingamor, see Hertz, Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, pp. 382-384; cf. Marie de France, pp. Ixxvii ff. Morgain and Guiomar "ji with Morgain contain a saga known from several " Breton " lays, Guigemar, Guingamor, Graelent, and Lanval. But analysis appears to show that although the stories of Guiomar and Guigemar may represent two developments of one original, and although the heroes may bear the same name, they can be classed only in their broad outlines with the story of Guinga- mor, and really contain elements that place them in a different category among themes dealing with a fairy mistress. The names Guingamor and Guigomar {Guiomar), whether they be the same in origin or not, are sufficiently alike to be easily confused ; and when the part of Arthur in the early theme had to be attached to another name, the lot could fall to few more suitably than to Gui{g)omar, which closely resembled Guingamor, the name of the well-known hero of an other-world adventure. Furthermore, elements that are found in stories of the Guingamor type would naturally in the course of time creep into the story of Guiomar and Morgain, — a condition that would not arise if the reverse of the course that I have suggested were the case, and the hero of the lay of Guingamor were named from Morgain's lover. As a matter of fact, most of the features in the tale of Morgain and Guiomar that are foreign to our supposed original are explained when we see that they may have entered the story from the influence of the Guingamor type. In the Lancelot Guiamor is the nephew of Arthur ; Guinga- mor is the nephew of the king of Bretagne. In the Lancelot also the story runs that Morgain becomes the mother of a child by Guiamor ; Guingamor and the fay Brangepart have a son. Guingamor is denominated by Chretien sire de Visle Avalon, even as Sir Gringamore is said by Malory to dwell at the Isle of Avilion. Gaucher says of Brangemuer, the child gf Brangepart and Guinganmer, Rois f u des illes de la mer ; En une des illes estoit U nus autres hom n'abitoit, De cele contrde estoit rois.^ The isles over which Brangemuer was king were doubtless the possessions of the fairy princess, his mother.^ Hither 1 Perceval, vv. 21,876-21,879. " See Zimmer, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XIII, 8. 72 ■ Morgain and Guiomar Guingamor had returned from earth, and the natural inference is that he, before his son, was thought of as lord of the other- world island where his loved one dwelt. Hence Guigomar is fittingly made lord of Morgain's home, Avalon. Ferdinand Lot in commenting on the similarity of the adventures recounted in the lays of Graelent and Guingamor concludes :■ — " Le lai de Gugemer (par Marie) ne pr^sente aucun rapport avec le pr^cddent \Graelenf\. II n'en est pas de meme de celui de Guingamor. ... Ici encore^ la ' pucelle ' qui entratne le h^ros dans un autre monde n'est pas nomm^e, non plus que dans le lai analogue de Lanval, ovl apparalt cependant Avalon. . . . N'est-ce pas singulier, cet anonymat constant de la f^e, et ne peut-on pas soup^onner Chre- tien de I'avoir denommde de sa propre autoritd?"^ "Remar- quons, a I'appui de notre opinion, que dans la suite du Perceval, par Gaucher de Dourdan, v. 21,873, 1^ nom de I'amie de Guin- gamor n'est pas Morgain mais 'la rofne Brangepart.' "^ But if we have not gone astray in analyzing the material, we can understand why Guigemar should have no distinct connection in story with the cycle t® which Guingamor belongs, and also that there is no reason to suspect Chretien of having named the love of Guigomar on his own authority. Back of his passing allusion to Guigomar there must have lain a more elaborate story that had already passed through more than one stage in its growth. The course of development that the story doubtless had may be briefly traced. A fairy-mistress theme was attached by a narrator to the name Guingamor and won popularity. When the time was ripe to transfer to another hero Arthur's part in the account of his stay with Morgain in fairyland, a name similar to Guingamor, if not the same name, was that chosen for the knight. The induction to this episode was fittingly attached to a mortal theme by the author of a lay, and the hero named Guigemar. Elements of the Guingamor type of narrative entered with the similar name, and explain Chretien's reference, the allusions in Malory, and certain features in the French prose romances. The story was rationalized and 1 Graelent's fairy love is nameless. 2 Horn., XXVIII (1899), 327. 8 lb., 328, note. Morgain and Guiomar 73 changed in scene to Arthur's court, and in this way assumed the form that we know in the prose romances in the episode of Morgain and Guiomar. Thus Morgain's part remains the same throughout, Arthur's name is dropped from the story, Guiomar, owing to the traditions already associated with a name similar 'to his, is substituted for it, and therefore his name or one resembling it appears in romance regularly in connection with fairyland and an other-world love, but . with two distinct branches of the fairy-mistress theme attached to it.i The story of Guiomar, accordingly, is an admirable example of the methods in which romantic material was treated by nar- rators. Just as the same acanthus whose tendrils adorn the rim of a cup is to be traced also in the design of a Corinthian capital, so in popular tradition a > single theme may assume manifold forms and be varied according to its environment. 1 So excellent an illustration of the situation in general is furnished by the devel- opment of the Lycurgus legend in Greece that it is perhaps pardonable to cite here material that is so foreign to our own. In Laconia there is evidence that a temple was dedicated to Athena Opthalmitis by Lycurgus, who had lost his eye at the hands of a certain person shown to be of chthonic origin. In Arcadia we find a Lycurgus, the brother of a priestess of Athena Alea who is allied to Athena Opthalmitis. In Thrace the legend tells of a Lycurgus who lost his eye as a punishment from Zeus or Dionysus in a contest with the latter, in Thrace a chthonic divinity. In Delphi, Dionysus, a chthonic god, is at strife with Apollo, in whose cult the wolf (Xi^kos) appears; the summit of Parnassus is known as Lykoreia, and the Delphic Apollo himself is designated as Avxapgis, Avxiipeios. In Argos there is connected with the cult of Apollo Lykios the legend of a contest between a wolf and a bull, in which the wolf is victorious — a legend in which there is evidence that the wolf represents Apollo Lykios, and the bull, Dionysus. Not to cite further instances, these already given show that the Lycurgus legend was diffused throughout Greece in various forms connected almost invariably with a strife between a chthonic power and another hero or god with whom Lycurgus is associated, sometimes only through an appellation connected with the same name. (For these facts see Sam Wide, Bemerkungen zu der spartanischen Lykur- goslegende, Upsala, 1891.) In other words similar legends are associated with the same or similar names. CHAPTER VI MORGAIN AND OGIER LE DANOIS Morgue Vamie Ogier {Srun de la Montaigne, v. 3399) The unknown author of the fourteenth-century romance, Brun de la Montaigne, mentions Arthur's cousin c'on dit Morgue la f^e Qui d'Ogier le Danois fu moult lone temps privde.^ Fate has decreed that his words should prove tantalizing to his readers of to-day, for the material that was evidently familiar to him eludes us altogether, and it is only in sources later than that which he had before him that we find the account of Morgain's love for Ogier le Danois. Neither the twelfth- century poem of Raimbert de Paris, La Chevalerie Ogier^ nor the redaction of its first canto, known as Les Enfances Ogier-? made about 1270 by Adenet le Roi, gives even a hint that the hero penetrated the mysteries of Avalon.* To the fourteenth century we owe a rifacimento in alexandrines of Raimbert's Chevalerie, which by a judicious use of some eighteen thousand additional verses extended the round of the hero's experiences, and allowed them to include a visit to Avalon.^ This poem is preserved in three manuscripts, one of the fourteenth century in Paris, in the Bibliotheque de I'Arsenal,® one of the fif- teenth century in the British Museum,^ and another of the 1 Vv. 3252, 3253. 2 Ed. Barrois, Paris, 1842. » Ed. Scheler, Brussels, 1874. See Hist. Litt., XXII, 643-659; Ward, I, 610 ff. * See Nyrop-Gorra, Storia dell' Epopea Francese, Turin, 1888, p. 165; P. Paris, Recherches sur le Personnage d'Ogier le Danois, Paris, 1842, p. 6. 5 See Grober, Grundriss, II, i, 799 ft. « 2g8s, ant. igo-igi. See H. Martin, Catalogue des MSS. de la Bibl. de V Arsenal, III, Paris, 1887, pp. 180 £E. "> Royal IS, E. VI, fol. 82-207. See Ward, I, 129-130. Brun de la Montaigne, pp. xi,'xii. 74 Morgain and Ogier le Danois 75 fifteenth century in the Nazionale of Turin.^ None of these has been edited in complete form ; merely a few fragments have been published, and of these only meagre portions that concern Ogier's relations to Morgain.^ In the fifteenth cen- tury a prose romance was composed and published, which is said to follow the poem closely.^ In the sixteenth century another poem was produced recounting the adventures of Ogier in fairyland, Le premier livre des visions d'Ogier le Dannoys au royaulme de Fairie,^ an extremely rare book, con- tained in the Biblioth^que Nationale at Paris,^ and inaccessible for this study of Morgain and Ogier.^ Such are our French sources for the episodes that connect Morgain and Ogier, — a scanty amount of first-hand French material available in this country, but many summaries of varying degrees of usefulness 7 We have a Danish version of the prose romance by Christiern Pedersen,* from which, so far as we can tell, the French sources show no important variations in those parts that concern Morgain. In fact the summaries indicate that, although the story was told fre- quently, each version follows the preceding closely, and that 1 L. IV, 2, ant. G. I. 38. See Pasini, MSS. taurin., II, 467, cited by Renier, lifem. della R. A. delle Sc. di Torino, Serie 2, XLI, 431. 2 For these fragments see Brun de la Montaigne, pp. xi, xii; Renier, pp. 431, 432,439; Ward, I, 608; La Ckevalerie Ogier, ed. Barrois, p. Ixiii; Rothe, Om Holger Danske, Copenhagen, 1847, pp. 19-21. ' See Ward, I, 609 ; cf. Renier, p. 433. * Published at Paris, 1542. See Bninet, Manuel, IV, 172 ; Grasse, Die grossen Sagenkreise des Mittelalters, Dresden and Leipzig, 1842, p. 343 ; Gautier, Biblio- graphie des Chansons de Geste, Paris, 1897, p. 151. 5 See Renier, Mem. della R. A. delle Sc. di Torino, Serie 2, XLI, 434; Child, Ballads, I, 319, note; V, 290. * For a description of the versions mentioned above, see Rothe, Om Holger Danske, pp. 1-28. T Of the fourteenth-century poem summaries are given in Ward, I, 604 ff. ; Child, Ballads, I, 319; Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, London, 1891, p. 204; Rothe, Om Holger Danske, pp. 22 ff. Of the fifteenth-century prose romance Renier gives a summary with the didascalia of the edition of Antonio Verard, Paris, ca. 1498; cf. Brunet, .Mz»Krf,IV, 171. Summaries maybe found also in Dunlop-Liebrecht, pp. 140-142, 535, No. 20 ; Keightley, Fairy Mythology, London, 1850, pp. 46 ff. Cf., tod, William Morris, The Earthly Paradise, Ogier the Dane. 8 Kong Olger Danskes Kronicke, ed. Brandt {Christiern Pedersen's Danske Skrifter, V), Copenhagen, 1856, pp. 291 ff., 300, 308, 310 ft. See Rothe, pp. 28, 29 ; Grasse, Grossen Sagenkreise, p. 343. •j6 Morgain and Ogier le Danois the outline of Ogier's doings in Avalon is practically inva- riable in the sources. In this part of the narrative there is sufficient material to fill many pages of a romance, yet the story is simple and familiar in its structure. For a brief outline we may ask nothing better than that given by Professor Child ^ : — " Six fairies made gifts to Ogier at his birth. By the favor of five he was to be the strongest, the bravest, the most successful, the handsomest, the most susceptible, of knights : Morgan's gift was that, after a long and fatiguing career of glory, he should live with her at her castle of Avalon, in the enjoyment of a still longer youth and never wearying pleasures. When Ogier had passed his one hundredth year, Morgan took measures to carry out her promise. She had him wrecked, while he was on a voyage to France, on a loadstone rock conveniently near to Avalon, which Avalon is a little way this side of the terrestrial Paradise. In due course he comes to an orchard, and there he eats an apple which affects him so peculiarly that he looks for nothing but death. He turns to the east, and sees a beau- tiful lady, magnificently attired. He takes her for the Virgin ; she corrects his error, and announces herself as Morgan the Fay. She puts a ring on his finger which restores his youth, and then places a crown on his head which makes him forget all the past. For two hundred years Ogier lived in such delights as no worldly being can imagine, and the two hundred years seemed to him but twenty ; Christendom was then in danger, and even Morgan thought his presence was required in this world. The crown being taken from his head, the memory of the past revived and with it the desire to return to France. He was sent back by the fairy, properly pro- vided, vanquished the foes of Christianity in a short space, and after a time was brought back by Morgan the Fay to Avalon." Leaving for the time being Ogier's welcome into this world by fays, we may turn to his experiences in Avalon and their sequel. Renier has pointed out ^ their similarity to those of Partonopeus, who is sent by the fay Melior from her magic castle to France to fight for his native land.^ It is probable, too, that the author also knew the Bataille Loquifer.^ Ogier, like Renoart, as he enters Avalon is met by fays who pay him great honor. He, too, finds Arthur in Avalon and is greeted lovingly by him. In the Bataille Loquifer Renoart has to do combat on his arrival in Avalon with a certain monster Kapalu ; Ogier meets in battle in Arthur's stead a King ^ Ballads, I, 319. 2 Mem. della R. A. delle Sc. di Torino, Serie 2, XLI, 450 ff. ' See above, p. 17. * See Renier, pp. 450 ff. ; Ward, I, 607. Morgain and Ogier le Danois jj Kapalus, who defies him shortly after he has entered Avalon. Moreover Morgain in both poems shipwrecks her beloved ; in the Bataille Loquifer, it is true, for the sake of vengeance, in Ogier to bring him to her own abode. But Morgain is not depicted in the Bataille Loquifer as she is in the Ogier. In the former she is passionate and rancorous ; in the Ogier, even though not in our eyes resembling the Virgin Mary.i she is gentle and queenly. Ogier certainly enjoys no great distinction in being the sub- ject of a fairy retention at Morgain's hands ; but his story does not belong with those discussed above in connection with Arthur and Guiomar. None of these contains the fay's pro- hibition, the hero's violation thereof, and the fay's ultimate forgiveness and reunion with the hero, all of which are ele- ments in \.h& Ogier story. We must look a little more closely at some of the details of the narrative if we would attempt to classify it correctly. It was while Ogier was suffering from the deadly sickness caused by the apple of Avalon that Morgain appeared to him, and telling him that she had loved him since his birth, summoned him to dwell with her as her true love in Avalon ; and Ogier gave the old response sent by Cuchulinn to Fand: — " Dear lady, it is not meet that I should hold converse with you nor your fair maidens, for I am wholly sick and sore." But Morgain answered, " Be content, I shall make you all sound again " ; and by a touch from her hand he was restored to perfect health.^ Then she led him to Avalon, where he was greeted with maidens' mirth, songs and lays and glad cheer, and two centuries of enjoyment had begun for him. A son, Meurvin, was born to him and Morgain, who, we may note in passing, duly became the hero of a long romance.' When the time came for Ogier to think of home and to return to France, Morgain told him how long he had been with her ; but he did not believe her words, and preferred to test their truth for himself. She bade him never forget her, and never speak in this world of the wonders of Avalon. As a parting gift, she gave him a fire- brand, telling him that when it should be consumed by fire, he would die. Equipped with his ring that gave him a youthful appearance, Ogier was 1 For examples of fays who are taken for the Virgin see Hist. Litt., XXX, 93 ; Child, Ballads, I, 319, note; III, 504; S^billot, Contes pop. de la H. Bretagne, 11, 31- 2 See Kong Olger Danskes Kronicke, p. 294. 3 L'Histoire du preux Meurvin fils de Oger le Dannoys, lequel par sa prouesse conquist Hierusalem, Babilone et plusieurs autres royaulmes sur les Infidiles, Paris, 1540. See Grasse, Grossen Sagenkreise, p. 344 ; Gautier, Bibl. des Chansons de Geste, Paris, 1897, p. 151. 78 Morgain and Ogier le Danois transported by a cloud to this world. He found matters changed by the flight of two hundred years, but was able to fit into his place as a doughty warrior of France. For safe-keeping he left his firebrand with the Abbot of St. Faro, before he entered upon a series of valiant deeds. At the death of King Philip of France, his widow sought Ogier in marriage. According-to the poem, however, Ogier was weary of this vale of tears, and at once took measures to leave it. He rode to the Abbey of St. Faro, demanded the firebrand, and flung it into the flames, took his ring from his finger, and instantly became an old man three hundred years of age. Et ainsi beaux seigneurs que le tison ardoit Et par cause de feu illec ainerrissoit Ainsi le corps Ogier ille se declinoit Et ainsi que le bars en ce peril estoit Y vint morgue la fee qui le danois amoit Et osta le tison qui ens ou feu flamboit Dedens un riche char qui tout de feu sembloit Fist eslever Ogier et si le ravissoit Et ne seut quil devint labbe qui la estoit Ensement fu ravis en faerie droit. '■ In the extant Morgain material there is no other case where this theme occurs. It begins as the story does that we cannot but believe early became a part of the Morgain saga, and with which we have become familiar in connection with Arthur and Alisander. Morgain lures the hero to Avalon by promises of healing the sickness that she has caused. After this the story of Ogier diverges from the others, and follows the Guingamor type. In addition to the details from the lay of Guingamor that have already been given, we may recall to mind here that when Guingamor is led by his mistress to her beautiful castle, he is met by a gay company of knights and their a^nies; within he finds the knights whom he had thought departed from earth. When he has passed, as he supposes, three days with his love and she tells him that they have been together three hundred years, he refuses to believe her and must needs depart to earth to prove her words. He finds himself an unknown stranger in familiar scenes peopled with new faces. 1 See Renier, Mem. delta R. A. delle Sc. di Torino, Serie 2, XLI, 431, 432. In the prose romance the torch is of minor importance, and the ring is the more prominent gift. Here also Ogier suffers a rather different taking off. As he is about to go to the altar to be wedded to the Queen of France, a beautiful maiden clad in white and shining garments appears to him, embraces him, and carries him off in a great cloud to Avalon. See Renier, as above, 446, 447 ; Kong Olger Danskes Kronicke, p. 311. Morgain and Ogier le Danois 79 He has the mien of a gallant young knight, but by his disregard of his fairy love's parting injunction he loses the other-world gift of eternal youth. An identification of the two stories makes Ogier's connec- tion with Morgain easy to explain. His, like Arthur's, is a name to which heroic and romantic deeds were probably attached even so early as the twelfth century .1 Literary con- vention in mediaeval France insisted that any hero of renown should be blessed with the love of a supernatural maiden. The situation was demanded. So it is far from strange that at a time when " Breton " themes were used as a veneer for decadent epic material, as in the Bataille Loquifer and Huon de Bor- deaux, Ogier should be regarded as the beloved of Morgain la fde, and like Arthur should be summoned to Avalon for healing. More than one parallel is to be drawn between episodes told of these two great heroes, for example, in the gifts that fairies give them in infancy, in their anticipated return to earth from the other world. How then does it happen that the story of Morgain and Ogier resembles so much more closely that of Guingamor than it does that of Morgain and Arthur .■' Doubtless because many features from the tale of Guingamor and the supernatural maiden whom he loved had been transferred to the story of Morgain and her lover whose name was easily associated with his. In the saga of Ogier we find additional reason to trust the indications held out by the Guiomar material that this was the case. Ward^ says that with the exception of the firebrand the "fairy machinery seems to be chiefly imitated from that of the Chanson of the Bataille Loquifer"; but although a version of the Bataille Loquifer was doubtless before our author, he possibly was also familiar with a version 1 See Barrois, La Chevalerie Ogier, pp. xlv ff. ; Renier, Mem. delta R. A. delte Sc. di Torino, Serie 2, XLI, 457; Voretzsch {jjber die Sage von Ogier dem Ddnen, Halle, 1891, p. 30) cites a passage from the Pseudo-Turpin as evidence that songs dealing with Ogier were known as early as the middle of the twelfth century ; of. also Voretzsch, pp. 31-33. 2 I, 607. The firebrand Ward attributes to the story of Meleager. A reason for its being found in Morgain's possession may perhaps be derived from the Huth Mertin, where Merlin is said to create similar torches, and thus to arouse Morgain's desire to learn his art that she may do what he does. See p. 226, note. 8o Morgain and Ogier le Danois of Morgain's amour with Guiomar that had been very per- ceptibly colored by the kind of incidents known to us through the lay of Guingamor. Probably to this story, too, there remained clinging the early episode of the promised fairy healing. If we attempt to assert just why this theme should have been transferred to Ogier, we shall be wise above what is written. A plausible reason, however, is that a famous fairy theme was naturally that chosen to be repeated of an important person, such as Ogier. Moreover, because Arthur was known to be in Avalon with Morgain — even though not as her lover, — a theme already attached to Morgain's name would naturally be selected as that to be told of Ogier, who thus would follow not only Arthur but many another distinguished hero to a resting place in Avalon, Morgain's island. Granted this development, the Bataille Loquifer might well be drawn upon for some of Ogier's adventures after he reached Avalon. Morgain herself is in the Ogier story very little more than a type of a beguiling supernatural woman, devoid of the per- sonality that characterizes her in the earlier material. There are other episodes which will be discussed later, that represent the same stage in the Morgain tradition, where she appears to be simply a typical fairy queen. CHAPTER VII THE VAL SANZ RETOR E ancora vi venne chavalier ben cento che lancelotto avie diliberati gik per adrieto pello inchantamento ove morghana gli avien prigionati in una valle chon grande arghomento in questo locho ov' erano impacciati ^ i' chavalieri ch' io chonto tutti quanti era la valle de fallaci amanti.^ There is an episode connected with Morgain's name, which in one of the sources is represented as a sequel to her love for Guiomar, and which it will be of interest to look at now before turning to the remaining stories that show Morgain's hostility toward Guinevere. The scene of this episode is a famous valley, known as the Val sanz Retor, because, no knight has ever returned therefrom, and also as the Val des faux antants? because no knight who has ever been false to his lady even in thought can leave the valley when once he has entered it. The story of the valley is told in the prose Lancelot? the Livre d'Artus, /".,* and a conte, Le Vallon des Faux Amants} (i) The Creation of the Valley. According to all the sources except the Livre d''Artus, P., Morgain believed herself beloved by a certain knight upon whom she had for a long time set her affection, but who had really given his love to another maiden more beautiful than she. One day the lovers met in a smiling valley, and here they were surprised by Morgain. In her rage and grief she cast a spell upon the valley, so that no knight who once entered there, if he had been false to his love in any respect, could leave. By her magic also she made her rival fancy herself enclosed in ice from her feet to her girdle, and wrapped in flame from her girdle to her hair. [In Le Vallon des Faux Atnants, Morgain tantalizingly fastens the two lovers within 1 Li Chantari di Lancillotto, ed. Birch, London, 1874, p. 38. ^ Vallon pirilleux, in Le Vallon des Faux Atnants, p. 159. 3 Lancelot, II, Ixix ; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 235-245, 283-293. * § 102. 5 Legrand d'Aussy, I, 156 ff. 81 82 The Val sanz Retot sight of each other.] The enchantment shall last until the coming of a knight who has never been false to his love in deed or thought. In the Li-vre d^Artus, P., the story runs that Morgain, after her separa- tion by the queen from Guiomar, in order to have him again under her control, and to anger the queen and the Round Table, as well as to be able to take from the queen any knight whom she loves, creates the Val sanz Retor by the art that she has learned from Merlin. (2) The Features of the Valley. The valley is long and wide, fair and verdant, watered by a sparkling fountain. It is spread at the foot of lofty hills, and is completely sur- rounded by a wall of mist through which alone lies entrance and egress, and which appears to follow closely him who passes through it. At the entrance Morgain builds the so-called Chapelle Morgain, which affords the inhabitants of the valley an opportunity to enjoy the comforts of religion.^ A single road leads through the valley, adorned with beautiful dwellings. Although the knights confined there remain unwillingly, the life is glad and gay, constant amies may abide with their lovers, and all beguile the time with feasting, music, dancing, chess, and draughts. At one point the road leads through a low, narrow passage, guarded by two fire-breathing dragons. It passes on over a boiling torrent that can be crossed only by means of a narrow plank defended by knights on the opposite shore. Further on a wall of flames obstructs the way, and still more adventures ^ must be encountered by him who travels along this path, which leads to the palace of Morgain. (3) The Dispelling of the Enchantment. {^Lancelot J Paris, R. T. R.: — Galeschin, duke of Clarence, attempts the adventures of the valley. He makes his way as far as the bridge, but is overcome by its defenders and taken into a garden where he finds many former comrades. Yvain and Lancelot, on their way to another adventure, pass through the valley. Yvain enters first, and is luckless enough to meet the same fate as Galeschin. Lancelot is not to be deterred from following his comrade.] He dashes boldly into the mist, kills both dragons, crosses the bridge without a tremor, and routs five defenders on the opposite shore. He chances to bethink him of a ring that the Dame du Lac has given him, which has virtue to overcome all enchantments. As soon as he exposes it to view, the water and plank vanish. He passes through the wall of flame, and pushes boldly forward until he reaches a stairway defended by three knights. Two of these he vanquishes, the third leads him a long chase through hall and apartments and garden into a beautiful pavilion, where Morgain lies slumbering peacefully on a luxurious couch. The knight conceives the idea of taking refuge under the couch, but Lancelot overturns it, regardless of its fair occupant and her screams at such a rude 1 Paris {R. T. R., IV, 239, note i) gives details as to the structure of the chapel from the Livre d'Artus, P. that do not appear elsewhere. 2 These adventures are not further described in the versions cited. The Val sanz Retor 83 awakening, dashes after the fleeing knight, and succeeds in beheading him in a distant apartment. Then, the knight's head in his hand, he returns to Morgain, drops on his knees before her, and tenders her the head with a humble apology for having upset her couch. The captive knights, Mor- gain's first lover among them, come thronging in and hail Lancelot as their deliverer. Morgain tries to conceal her rage at the destruction of her valley. She bids Lancelot pass the night in her castle, and before dawn she casts him into an enchanted sleep, and conveys him to one of her favorite forest dwellings. The next morning the rescued knights find themselves with their horses in the midst of a plain, but the castle, water, garden, and walls of air have vanished.^ Nobody can read this long and elaborate episode without immediately recognizing that whatever the germ of the story is, in the form that reaches us here it suspiciously resembles a late concoction. With the exception of those episodes in which Morgain is represented distinctly as living in Avalon (e.g., the Vita Merlini, Bataille Loquifer, Gesta Regum Britan- niae), her abode here is more purely an other-world abode than in any other incident told of her. For in the Val sanz Retor we are dealing distinctly with an other-world adventure. Merely the name of the valley is enough to indicate this,^ and its impor- tant features may all be paralleled from other-world scenes. It belongs, as Philipot has pointed out,^ to the same class of region as the garden of Lajoie de la Cour^ and the enchanted garden of the Queen of Denmark,^ to the castle of mist where the Noir Chevalier is confined, and to Merlin's air-bounded prison.^ The scene of the adventure known as La Joie de la Cour is laid in the garden of Brandigain, the island castle of king Evrain. This garden, where magic fruit and perennial flowers grow and where birds sing with 1 The analysis of the undated conte, Le Vallon des Faux Amants, gives noth- ing beyond Lancelot's entrance to the valley. It is evidently based on the Lance- lot version. Cf. Conte de la Charrette, ed. Jonckbloet, The Hague, 1850, p. Ivi; Legrand d'Aussy, I, 71. 2 Conte de la Charrette, vv. 641-647 ; Erec, vv. S435-5437 i Raoul, Messire Gauvain ou La Vengeance de Raguidel, ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1862, v. 593; Le Chevalier h I'Mpde, ed. Armstrong, Baltimore, 1900, v. 180 ; Guingamor, vv. 174- 182; Livre d'Artus, P., pp. 9-16; below, p. 124, note 5; Campbell, I, 83; Hartland, Legend of Perseus, London, 1896, III, 98, 104 ; Conte de la Charrette, pp. Ixix ff. ; Paris, Rom., XII (1883), 508. 8 Rom., XXVII (1898), 259. * Erec, vv. 5367-6410 ; cf. Mabinogion, II, 136 ff. 6 Livre d'Artus, P., §§ 147, 211, 230, 235-242. 8 These last two episodes are discussed below, pp. 208 ff. 84 The Val sanz Retor ravishing sweetness, is enclosed by a high wall of air, so fashioned that only by flying is it possible for any creature to enter it. There is, however, une estroite entrie, through which a crowd of people succeed in going into the garden. Here the knight, Mabonagrain, is kept in confinement by a maiden whom he had long loved, and who had bidden him in fulfillment of a promise that he would always do her will remain in the garden until a knight should enter who could conquer him. Erec is the victorious knight who dispels the enchantment by forcing Mabonagrain to declare himself recreant. The joy of the people of the castle knows no bounds, and they hail Erec as the restorer of gladness to the court of Evrain. The fay is sad at the loss of her knight, but yields to consolation derived from Enid.^ The mist-enclosed garden of the Queen of Denmark was established for purposes of revenge. She fears for the safety of her son Oriel of whom Gawain is in pursuit, and wishing to decoy knights from the path that Oriel will take, she establishes the adventure of the garden ; especially, with the intention of giving Logres to Oriel, she hopes to imprison Arthur here in revenge for the ill that he has done her in war. The wall of air that surrounds the garden has a single opening for entrance and for egress, but he who has once tasted of the magic apples that grow within can never leave it. If a knight refuse to eat the fruit, he must fight with two bands of ten knights each and with three giants. Those who eat the fruit lose all desire to leave the garden, and dwell there happily in complete forget- fulness of their interrupted quests. Saigremor, Arthur, and Gawain enter, overcome the champions, and dispel the enchantment, to the wrath of the Queen of Denmark.^ These episodes explain the type of place to which the Val sanz Retor belongs. The walls of air from which there is no exit, like the druidic mist common in Celtic stories, indicate the bewildering effect of the fairy power.^ In the Val sanz Retor and the version of La Joie de la Cour in Geraint, the hedge of mist is unbroken and there is no question of entering the other world except by dashing through the barrier. This is the primitive condition ; the druidic mist completely envelops 1 For a, discussion of this episode see Paris, Rom., XX (1891), 148-166; Phili- pot, Rom., XXVII, 259 ff. ''■ For brief discussions of this episode see Philipot, Rom., XXVII, 259; Frey- mond, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XVII (1895), 15 ff.; cf. Schofield, Studies and Notes, V, 224. 8 For the druidic mist of., e.g., Meyer and Nutt, I, 78; Mabinogion, III, 173; Academy, XLI (1892), 399; Silva Gadelica, II, 228, 290; Trans. Oss. Soc, VI, 25; Campbell, II, 109, 212; III, 204, note; Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, London, 1879, p. 331 ; MacDougall, pp. 151, 152, 153, 219 ; Rhjfs, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1900, p. 33; O'Curry, Lectures on the MS. Materials of Anc. Irish His- tory, Dublin, 1873, p. 620; Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, PP- 153-156- The V'al sanz Re tor 85 the hero, and there is properly no escape from the fay's power. Thus Galeschin, unable as he is to overcome the spell of his surroundings, is pursued by the mist after he thinks that he has passed through it. Once within the wall of air we find ourselves clearly in the other world. Beautiful dwellings, feasting, music, and chess are accepted commonplaces of fairyland.^ The adventures, too, are quite as distinctively other-world as the delights of the valley. According to Chretien's story, Lancelot on his way to the land don nus estranges ne retome is told that one of the dangers of his road is the passage des pierres, well defended and so narrow that only one knight can pass through it at a time.^ Moreover, of the two magic bridges by which the Land without Return can be entered, that selected by Lancelot for his approach is the so-called pant de I'^p^e? This remarkable 1 Cf. Meyer and Nutt, I, 58, 169, 176; Bran, §§ 8, 9, 13, 18, 21 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 199, 200; Trans.Oss. Soc, IV, 243, 245; VI, 81, 83. '^ Conte de la Charrette, vv. 2175 ff. ^ Id., vv. 672-677, 3021-3147; see p. Ixxii; Zs. f. rom. Phil., XIV (1890), 159-160; XVII (1893), 74' "°te. Cf. Paris, R. T. R., V, 27, 28, 5^-54 ; Livre d'Artus, P., § 113. The origin of such a. bridge as the jtont de I'ipie is perhaps explained by a passage in Kulhwck and Olwen, which mentions the magic dagger of Berwyn. " When Arthur and his hosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a narrow place where they might pass the water, and would lay the sheathed dagger across the torrent, and it would form a bridge sufficient for the armies of the Islands of Britain, and of the three Islands adjacent with their spoil " (Mabinogion, II, 264). Cf . the bridge high as a tower and sharp as a razor which is said to span a. boiling torrent at the entrance to the Terrestrial Paradise in the English Owain Miles (Edinburgh, 1837, p. 35); on this cf. Brown, Studies and Notes, VIII, p. 123. For examples of dangerous bridges see Meyer and Nutt, 1, 77 : — Mongan's bridge, which falls beneath those who are crossing it, when they reach the middle; Zs.f. d. Alt., XXXIII (1889), l6o: — the bridge on the seventeenth island in the Voyage of Maelduin, on which he who steps falls backward ; Cuchullin Saga, p. 75 ; Arch. Rev., I (1888), 299 : — the Bridge of the Cliff, which " had two low ends and the middle space high, and whenever anybody leaped on one end of it, the other head would lift itself up and throw him on his back " ; Perceval, vv. 28,41 1-28,482 : — the bridge built for Carmadit by his fairy mistress, left unfinished because of his death, lybich extends half-way across a rushing stream ; when stepped on by Perceval, it utters a noise, unfastens itself from one bank, turns and attaches itself to the opposite bank ; Hut/i Merlin, II, 59 : — Merlin constructs an iron bridge, half a foot wide, that only a valorous knight can cross ; cf. Comparetti, Virgilio nel medio Evo, Florence, 1896, II, 195 ; see also Tavola Ritonda, I, 290 ; Campbell, I, 261 ; II, 74 ; Tundale, ed. Wagner, Halle, 1893, vv. 407 ff., 561 ff. I cf. Becker, The Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell, Bal- timore, 1899, p. 85, where on pp. 17, 44, 76 other examples are given. On the Perilous Passage as a Celtic other-world feature, see Studies and Notes, VIII, 75 ff. 86 The Val sanz Retor bridge is as narrow as a sword-blade, and spans a boiling tor- rent. Lancelot sees two horrible lions guarding the opposite shore, but he crosses the bridge in spite of wounds and slashes, healed and supported, adds the courtly Chretien, by love. When he has crossed, he finds that the hons have vanished completely. II met sa main devant sa face, S'esgarde son anel et prueve, Quant nul des deus lions n'i trueve Qu'il i cuidoit avoir veuz, Qu' anchantez fu et deceuz ; Car il n'i avoit rien qui vive.^ Rigomer ^ recounts the adventures of Lancelot when he tried to free Dionise, the mistress of the castle Rigomer, from the Spell east upon her dwelling by a fay. " Dans la lande qui entoure le chateau, on peut j outer et mener belle vie, pourvu que Ton consente a n'y entrer que d6sarme ; mais, si Ton veut passer le pont qui traverse le fosse, il faut com- battre un serpent monstrueux, et quand meme on arriverait a le vaincre, on n'en serait pas moins siirement ou tue ou des- honor6." Although Lancelot overcomes the serpent, he is enticed by a maiden into the castle, given a lance that deprives him of courage and a ring that deprives him of memory, and remains a prisoner until he is at last freed by Gawain. When Ogier enters Avalon an angel comes to him and bids him meet undaunted whatever adventure may befall him. The path leads him to a beautiful palace, but as he enters its portal two ravening lions spring upon him. Of course he fells one of them to the ground and smites off the head of the other. Renoart,^ Carduino,* and Bel Gherardino ^ all encounter at their entrance to fairyland monsters or ani- mals that are really human beings enchanted into the shape from which the deed of the hero releases them. So also in the Voyage of Maelduiri we have an example in a somewhat different form of the other test of Lancelot that our versions 1 Conte de la Charrette, vv. 3138-3143. 2 Hist. Litt, XXX, 88-90. 8 Bataille Loquifer, pp. 251-255. * Carduino, II, st. 42 ft. ' Lo Bel Gherardino, ed. Zambrini, Bologna, 1867, I, st. 12 £f. The Val sanz Re tor 87 mention, namely the wall of fire : — " lis apergurent ensuite une petite lie ; un mur de feu I'entourait, ce mur 6tait mobile et tournait tout autour." ^ Finally, after the adventures of the valley have all been accomplished and the enchantment dis- pelled, the entire scene vanishes, as fairyland ever has vanished from the eyes of the mortal who has overcome the other-world power or been abandoned by it.^ It is not necessary to resort to any of the attempts at popu- lar etymologizing of Avalon into elements that connected it with a valley^ in order to account for the location of Morgain's dwelling in this episode. Celtic stories tell of magic glens that are the abode of horrors, essentially places of danger where the hero's valor is to be tested. By the enchantment of DornoUa, a loathly maiden whose love Cuchulinn has spurned, he is separated from his companions in a journey across Alba to the dwelling of Scathach ; he loses his way and is forced to take a road that leads him through the Perilous Glen, across which there lies a single narrow path beset with monsters sent by an enemy to destroy him.* One of Peredur's adventures takes place in the Round Valley, a circular valley surrounded by rocky, wooded sides. Deep in the wood there are large black houses, rudely built. Within the wood Peredur comes upon a rocky ledge, on which a lion lies asleep. Peredur strikes him from his ^ £p. Celt., I, 493; Zs.f.d.Alt., XXXIII (1889), 171. Cf. Larminie, West Irish Folk Tales and Romances, London, 1893, p. 14: — Three miles of fire are passed over by a hero on an other-world quest. Campbell, II, 456 ff. : — A magic island has a hoop of fire about it, across which only a valorous knight can leap. 2 See Zs.f. d. Alt., XXXIII, 162 ; Mp. Celt., I, 475, 477 ; Stokes and Windisch, II, ii, 215; Trans. Oss. Sac., VI, 71; Perceval, vv. 20,302ff., 26,971 ft.; Bel Inconnu, vv. 5303 ff. Cf. Holy Grail, p. 202. La Chapelle Morgain is a highly incongruous adjunct to this scene from fairy- land. We can hardly refrain from suspecting that we have in it a transferred bir of local tradition that attributed to fairy agency the rocky entrance of some valley where the mists settle. Megalithic formations are very commonly associated in name with fays in Brittany (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne, I, 5 ff., 106 ; II, 203 ; Maury, p. 46 ; cf . for similar traditions in Ireland, Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland, London, 1895, p. 270). Morgain's name still lingers in Pleherel in Brittany in the so-called Tertre de la fee Morgant, a spot to which according to the popular belief fays used to come (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup., I, 97). Tra- dition to-day in the C6tes du-Nord classes several unfinished chapels with the work of fays, who from one cause or another left their task incomplete (see Sebillot, Petite Ligende Dorle, No. XLIX). 3 See p. 42. * See Cuchullin Saga, p. 74; K. Meyer, Arch. Rev., I (i888), 234, 298 ff.; Rev. Celt., XI (1890), 447. 88 The Val sanz Retor resting place into the pit beneath, and leads his horse across the ledge down into the valley. Here a certain great gray man owns a fair castle, where Peredur is entertained for the night, but where he learns that on the morrow he must fight with giants who inhabit the black houses in the woods. The next day he engages in the inevitable encounter, slays a third of the gray man's giants, and spares the rest on condition that the gray man do homage to Arthur.^ To turn now to a somewhat different type of adventure, the scene of which is laid in an other-world valley : — In the Lay of the Great Fool {Amadan Mor) ^ a " solitary valley '' is described, a place ft Of purest streams, woods, and soil, And the roar of the waves on rocky cliffs. It is full of witchcraft and enchantment, and leads to Dun-an-Oir {Fort of the Gold), the marvellously beautiful dwelling of the Gruagach or enchanter, who is the lord of the valley; here the loyalty of the guest to his host undergoes a severe test through magic agencies. By enduring the test manfully Amadan Mor unspells the Gruagach, who has been disguised through sorcery, and he stands revealed as Amadan Mor's own brother, who has long sought him. Near by in the valley is another mansion, the dwelling of five terrific giants, whom it takes a deadly contest to overcome.' The adventures in the other Celtic glens about which we have been reading concern simply the well-being of the indi- vidual hero ; they are the necessities of his path. The adven- ture performed by Amadan Mor has to do with the unspelling of the lord of the magic castle, and herein it resembles that of the Val sanz Retor. The latter belongs to that class of other- world episode which Alfred Nutt denominates the " unspelling quest,"* when, as in the story of the Grail Castle, the mortal visitor to the other world goes not to enjoy the smiles of a fairy mistress, but to free captives of the other-world power. The magic castle of Ygerne,^ the Chastel as Pucifeles, has been laid by a necromancer's art under a spell that turns every knight who enters into a 1 Mabinogion, I, 330-335. 2 Ed. Trans. Oss. Soc, VI, 161 ff. On the early character of the material that appears in this lay, see Holy Grail, pp. 152, 162; Studies and Notes, IV, 171 ff. " Examples of similar glens in modern Celtic tales are to be found in Campbell, III, 78, 315; MacDougall, pp. 19-22, 264. * Holy Grail, p. 199 ; cf. p. 191. 5 Perceval, vv. 8830 ff. The Val sanz Re tor 89 coward. Here are gathered young men and old from all lands, widows wrongfully deprived of their possessions, and orphan damsels, all waiting until a knight comes so accomplished in knightly virtues that he can with- stand the enchantment and perform certain adventures that await liim in the castle. Then the disinherited ladies shall be reinstated in their posses- sions, the damsels shall marry, the young men shall become knights. Gawain passes victoriously through the adventures, and is hailed as saviour by the inmates of the castle. Yvain finds in the Chastel de Pesme Avanture ' a band of unhappy maidens, ill-fed and ill-attired, who are kept ever weaving silk in a meadow by two demi-devils, the lords of the castle, until a valiant knight shall come who can defeat them in contest. Yvain performs the adventure, and is loaded with blessings by the released maidens. It is probably the same kind of place that is the scene of an adventure of Gaheriet described in the Perceval? Gaheriet enters a magic castle and passes through a garden into a pavilion where he finds a knight and a lady. The knight bursts into a tempest of rage because Gaheriet has dared enter the premises unbidden, and tells him that he must fight in the garden of the castle with a dwarf.' Gaheriet is defeated and then learns from the dwarf that every knight con- quered in the garden must return at the end of a year, when he may either begin weaving silk in the castle, or engage again in contest with the dwarf ; if he is victorious he may go free, if he refuse these conditions he must at once be beheaded. Gaheriet agrees to return in a year. As he makes his way out of the castle, he sees in a chamber many ladies fashioning girdles, who taunt him with defeat; gay companies of ladies and knights playing /^&/i?j, chess, and draughts jeer at him ; a crowd of knights and sergeants gathered in the hall mock at him as he passes ; people in the streets throw bits of fish and meat after him and revile him.* At the end of a year Gaheriet returns and kills the dwarf as well as the lord of the castle ; but with this part of the story there is entangled another adventure, so that we hear nothing about the unspelling of the inmates of the castle, which we are fain to believe formed part of the original story and gave it a motive. * It is plain, then, that the Val sanz Retor is an other-world region whither a knight goes on an unspelling quest. But this is not the end of the story, and another important char- acteristic of the scene demands our attention. The valley itself does not serve merely as an enchanted prison ; it has an additional quality which we shall see is found in countless 1 Yvain, vv. 5107-5811. ^ Vv. 21,135-21,724. ' See p. 126. ' Cf. Bel Inconnu, vv. 2511-2522 ff. 90 The Val sanz Retor enchanted objects, — it serves as a fidelity test. Only the loyal lover can overcome its difficulties. There are two other incidents told of Lancelot that are excellent commentaries on the structure of our episode. In the first of these we must accompany the magician, Guinebaut, " a goode clerke and a wise " according to the English Merlin} as he is faring through the Forest Perilleuse, later known as the Forest sanz Retor. Guinebaut comes in sight of a fair meadow where a carole is being danced by knights and ladies before an aged knight and a beautiful maiden, whose charms the clerk is not slow to regard with an appreciative eye. He succeeds in winning her love by promising to make the carole continue as long as she desires ; all men and women who come hither must join the dance whether they will or no, until that knight arrives who has never been false in love and is the best knight of his time. The maiden, delighted with this specimen of her lover's skill, begs for something better yet, and entreats him to make another magic game which shall never fail, that all the world may speak thereof after his death. Then Guinebaut makes a chessboard of gold and ivory, the pieces of which are self-moving, ever-mating, until the best knight who has never been false in love shall play against them. Lancelot du Lac is the faithful lover destined to put an end to the carole and to win the chessboard. Guinebaut abides thereafter ever with his love, and teaches her many other secrets of enchantment. He [in Le Roi Artus, she] created the carole that Meraugis found in the Citd sans nom. In the Roman d'' Agravain we read that Lancelot enters the Forest Perdue, whence no knight has ever returned. He comes to a tower before which knights and ladies under an enchantment are dancing a carole, but his arrival breaks the spell, and he learns from the dancers that the destruc- tion of the enchantment has been reserved for him. He takes his place at the chessboard and mates the opposing chessmen. The spectators hail him as victor. He sends the board to the queen, who is at once mated by the magic chessmen. Arthur accordingly keeps the board as a priceless gift. Naturally we turn at once to the romance of Meraugis de Portlesguez"^ to learn of the hero's experiences at the Chateau des Caroles. He finds a band of maidens dancing a carole led by a solitary knight about a green pine in the court of the ^ Pp- 35°. 361-363; cf. Vulgate Merlin, pp. 261 ff.; Merlin (1528), I, clxviii, clxix; Paris, S. T. R., II, 196 ff.; of. V, 309-312; Livre d' Artus, P., §24; Lancelot, vv. 16,168-16,261, 18,136 ff. 2 Raoul de Houdenc, Miraugis de Portlesguez, ed. Michelant, Paris, 1869, pp. 155 ff., 184; ed. Friedwagner, Halle, 1897, vv. 3662, 4329 ff. The Val sanz Retor 9 1 castle. No sooner is Meraugis himself within the court than he feels an irresistible desire to join in the song and dance ; but when he begins to take part, the other knight withdraws, and Meraugis is obliged to remain dancing the carole for ten weeks, until the arrival of still a different knight breaks the spell and enables him to leave the castle. For a similar scene we may look back a good deal earlier than the time of Raoul de Houdenc. In the Voyage of Bran^ and in the thirty-first adventure of the Voyage of Maelduin^ 2 Zs.f. d. Alt., XXXIII (1889), 171. Nutt has pointed out that section 6i of the Voyage of Bran is evidently a "mere excrescence" (Meyer and Nntt, I, 171), but that this special adventure of the Voyage of Maelduin is so clearly an integral part of the tale that it undoubtedly appeared in the original form of the story. This gives a date as early as the ninth century, according to F. Lot (Rom., XXIV, 1893, 326) or perhaps the end of the eighth, according to Zimmer and Nutt (see Meyer and Nutt, I, 163), for the story of the irresistible merry-making, and also shows us that the dance is plainly a Celtic other-world feature. Survivals of the same adventure are found in modern Celtic tales, which rep- resent honest country folk, sometimes enticed by sweet music, coming suddenly upon a band of fairy people dancing round and round upon the green. The mortal is drawn into the circle, and remains there dancing, oblivious of time. At length, after varying intervals, he is rescued by a friend who is obliged to use main force to draw him from the dance. In. some variants the mortal moulders to dust immediately on leaving the fairy circle. See, e.g., the tales collected in Wales and Scotland given by Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, London, 1891, pp. 161 ff. Cf. also for fairy dances, Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, p. 117 ; Sir Orfeo, ed. Zielke, Breslau, i88o, vv. 295 ff. ; ChUd, Ballads, I, 330 ff. ; Croker| Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, ed. Wright, London, s. a., pp. 288 ff. ; Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, Berlin, 18 16, No. 51 ; Pluquet, Contes Populaires, Rouen, 1834, p. 3; 'H.ertz, Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, pp. 61, 62; Grimm, Irische Elfenmdrchen, Leipzig, 1826, pp. Ixxxi ff. ; below, p. 1 17, note 3. The widely diffused story of the Dancers of Kolbigk appears to show, as Professor Schofield has suggested to me, the influence of the Celtic fairy dance. (For the story see William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, London, 1887, II, § 174; Robert Mannyng of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, ed. Fur- nivall, London, 1862, vv. 6890-6940; William of Wadington, Le Manuel des Pechiez, publ. in Handlyng Synne, ed. cit., vv. 6890-6940. See also for a full collection and discussion of these and other sources Schroder, Zs.f. Kirchen- geschichte, XVII, 1896-1897, 96 ff. ; G. Paris, fournal des Savants, December, 1899, 733 f[.) A company of young men and maidens in the Saxon town of Colebize (Kolbigk) one Christmas eve were tempted by the devil to indulge in a gay dance in the cemetery by the church of Saint Magnus. The priest commanded them to cease from such sacrilege, but they paid no heed to him and went on with their dance. Although his own daughter was among the number, the priest at once called down an imprecation upon them : Utinam potentia Dei et merito sancti Magni martiris sic inquieti annum cantando ducatis. His son seized his sister by 92 The Val sanz Retor the story is recorded of a gay multitude dwelling on an other- world island in whose continual laughter and games a mortal visitor must perforce join, and which he never can leave. This island has already been connected by Ferdinand Lot with the Carole of Meraugis, though he does not pursue the analogy to that of Guinebaut.^ The three sources, however, the Celtic stories, Meraugis, and the Guinebaut episode, really mark three distinct stages in the treatment of the theme. In the Celtic stories it appears in its simple form, in the Meraugis the influence of the "custom" is perceptible, in the episode of Guinebaut still a further step is taken. In this source the name of the land in which the carole is established, the Forest sanz Retor, — the amusements created the arm, attempting to draw her out from the band by force, but the arm came off in his hand, yet not a drop of blood flowed. For a year the dance continued. The dancers felt no storm, knew neither cold nor heat, hunger nor thirst, their garments did not wear out, their hair did not grow long. At the end of the year the curse was removed ; the company were released from the dance, and a deep sleep fell upon them, in which they continued for three days and three nights. Then three of the number died, the rest remained throughout their lives the vic- tims of a twitching of the limbs (tremor membrorum) as a memorial of their sin. The elements of this dance, if we eliminate the churchly influence, are identical with those of the dance in the Forest sanz Retor, the Chiteau des Caroles, and the Celtic islands, and lead naturally to the supposition that this is an instance where Celtic material has been made use of in a tale that served to explain some physi- cal infirmity, such as St. Vitus' dance (see Schroder, p. 104; Paris, pp. 734, 744), and also to point the moral which we find emphasized by William of Wadington and Robert of Brunne that dancing on holy days is sacrilegious. (Cf . for the pos- sible interlacing of Celtic tradition and the legends of the church pp. 53, rgi, note I ; also, although here the parallel is less close, with the blooming gardens made in January by enchantment, mentioned p. 207, note, cf. Jacopo da Voiagine, Legenda Aurea, ed. Grasse, Leipzig, 1850, p. 911.) For remarks suggestive of the possible Breton provenience of the material see Paris, p. 734; cf. Schroder, pp. 105, 106. Cf. also the Breton folk tales which tell of an innocent company of dancers whom the devil joins, usually in the form of a gay gallant, who is an admirable dancer, and who compels the mortals to con- tinue the dance unceasingly whether they will or no ; a priest comes upon the scene, drives the devil away, and releases the dancers from the spell (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la Haute Bretagne, I, 192 ff. ; Littlrature Orale de la Haute Bretagne, Paris, 1881, p. 172). 1 Rom., XXIV (189s), 325. It is doubtless a reminiscence of the unvalorous release of one participant in the carole of Meraugis simply by the advent of a new- comer, that occasions the discrepancy in the story of Le Roi Artus ; here it is said that the dancers of to-day in Guinebaut's carole must take the place of the dancers of yesterday, although the entire point of the narrative consists in the fact that none can leave the dance or the forest until Lancelot dispels the enchantment. The Val sans Re tor 93 by the enchanter, caroles and chess, the name of the lady, corrupted though it seems in the forms that we have, la Dame de la Terre Estrange Soustenue.i Terre Lointaine,^ Londe Susteyn,^ Honorable la dame de la Terre Soutaine,* — all indicate that it is essentially the other world to which the Carole belongs. But here it is made use of by an enchanter as a means to stir a lady's admiration ; hence it receives a new introduction, and is no longer an isolated feature in the story. It also receives a conclusion, — the condition that the spell can be broken only by the coming of the faithful lover, Lancelot. Very much the same is true of the magic chessboard, which we shall find elsewhere in the romances used to test a knight in one way or another, but not to prove whether he be a perfect lover. The first part of the Guinebaut story, as we shall see when we come to examine the legend of Merlin and Niniane, very probably existed as an ordinary theme in inde- pendent narratives, and the conclusion, which gives a reason for the magic creations by letting them exhibit Lancelot's flaw- less love for the queen, places the incident among the many that in the romances are attached to the name of Lancelot to enhance what had become his most prominent characteristic, namely, his devotion to the queen. The compiler is using a typical other-world situation and object in the service of Lancelot and of his romance.^ 1 Vulgate Merlin. ''■ Le Roi Artus. ' English Merlin. * Livre d'Artus, P. ^ A parallel treatment of other-world material, Professor Schofield reminds me, appears in the Lai du Trot (ed. Monmerque and Michel in Renaut, Lai d'Ignauris, Paris, 1832, pp. 71-83), where a fairy cavalcade is made the basis for a Court of Love allegory. As a certain knight of Bretagne, Lorois by name, rode out to the woods one April morning, he saw come from the forest two gay com- panies of beautiful ladies, who wore fine raiment and were crowned with garlands of flowers ; they were mounted on snow-white palfreys, whose pace was marvel- lously swift, yet almost imperceptible to the rider. Each maiden was attended by a handsome, gallant lover. L& ot moult delitouse vie. Ere long Lorois heard a sound of wailing, and saw another band of maidens emerge from the forest, mounted on horses that were lean and spare, in broken harness. Each damsel went her way alone, without a lover, in tattered clothes, and riding at a violent pace. The maidens were followed by a band of youths in the same wretched plight. One of the company explained to Lorois that the happy ladies and their lovers were they who in life had been loyal servants of Love ; whereas the for- lorn and dolorous band was composed of those who had been disdainful of his claims. Never should they have rest summer nor winter, and they who refused to love could not escape joining the cavalcade. 94 The Val sanz Retor That this is exactly the principle upon which the episode of the Val sanz Retor is constructed is obvious from the incidents cited above, that furnish parallels to individual features. It is all the more clear when we read the story in Claris et Laris of a wonderful valley over which Morgain presides.^ This company that Lorois met bears a close resemblance to a pure fairy caval- cade. Such a train rode forth from the other world in quest of Heurodas, the wife of Sir Orfeo (see Sir Orfeo, ed. Zielke, Breslau, 1880, vv. 55-328). As Heu- rodas lay sleeping one day under a tree, there came to her the fairy king attended by a train of fairy riders Al on snowewhite stedes, As white as milke were her wedes. The king made Heurodas ride beside him on a snow-white palfrey to the other world. When Orfeo was deprived of his bride, he dwelt in solitude in the forest. Often he saw the King of Fairy with his route come hunting through the woods ; often he watched a great host of knights gallop by, and mysteriously vanish. A band of ladies, too, came riding past him, "gentle and jolif," and not a man amongst them. With them he espied Heurodas, who also saw him, and wept. \A ojjer levedis J>is ysei^e And maked hir oway to ride ; Sche most wij> him no lenger abide. The ballad of Tarn Lin relates a similar experience of Tam Lin who, carried to fairyland by the Queen o' Fairies, must needs ride in her train, "just at the mirk and midnight hour " of Hallowe'en (see Child, Ballads, I, 340 ff. For the fairy cavalcade cf. Kittredge, Am. Journ. of Phil., VII (1886), 189; Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, pp. 121 ff. ; Silva Gadelica, II, 187). The essential difference between the fairy cavalcade in the Lai du Trot and the others to which I have referred is one of motive. In the former there is no return from the fairy company when the mortal has once joined it, and it is just as difficult for the rider to leave the snow-white fairy horse as for one of the dancers in the Chastel des Caroles to leave his place, or for one of the unhappy maidens in the Chastel de Pesme Avanture to cease from her silk-weaving until the necessary conditions for release shall be fulfilled. But the members of the fairy cavalcade in the Lai du Trot are depicted as if they were the figures in a Court of Love allegory, the faithful servants of Love rewarded by his pleasures, or his disdainful scoffers who cannot leave the ceaseless motion that the angry god has imposed upon them (see Neilson, Rom., XXIX, 1900, 85 ff.). Jn other words the customs of fairyland are blended with those of the God of Love, whose court played so important a part in the social conceptions of mediaeval life (cf. Id., Studies and Notes, VI, 156 ff., for a discussion of the mingling of fairy lore and Court of Love allegory in the Isle of Ladies or Chaucer's Dreavi. With the pace of the horses in the Lai du Trot cf. that of Rhiannon's horse, above, pp. 3, 4; cf. also that of the Elf-queen's in Thomas Rhymer, Child, Ballads, I, 325). In a similar way the other-world valley is adapted to the pur- pose of some special narrator, and given a reason for existence by being repre- sented as the place where loyal lovers may be tested. 1 Claris et Laris, vv. 3548-4142. The Val sanz Retor 95 The two gallant knights, Claris and Lans, journeying through Broceli- ande, hear toward nightfall sounds of music from all manner of unseen instruments. A maiden comes toward them and bids them, if they wish shelter for the night, come with her. She leads them to a lovely valley, long and broad, adorned with fine dwellings, from which music as sweet as that of Paradise is heard. Claris and Laris are taken to a wonderfully beautiful palace where they are greeted by twelve fair ladies. One of them in reply to a question from Laris tells him that she is a fay, Morgain, the sister of Arthur, and that her companions are fays, qui la gent par le mont feoient. The knights shall be treated with honor and shall have every wish gratified, but they can never leave the valley. Claris is loud in his expressions of indignation, but Morgain assures him that, when she and her sisters created the enchantment, they did not know that he and Laris were coming. The knights remain sad at heart. Laris, however, succeeds in ingratiating himself with Madoine, one of the fays, from whom he learns that there is a certain small stone made by necromancy that closes the entrance to the valley ; he who turns this stone may find his way out. Laris and his companion avail themselves of this information and secretly depart.^ This is substantially the same valley as the Val sanz Retor. It is true that in Broceliande Morgain does not surround her abode with a mist nor offer thrilling adventures to the stranger. It is no place for testing a hero's qualities ; it is simply an other- world valley, the attractions of which, as they are set forth in the verses that I have cited above, are closely parallel to those of Morgain's more famous valley in the prose romances. Claris et Laris is a late romance,^ quite late enough for the author to have derived his material from the Lancelot; but if he were working from the Lancelot he was stripping his original of its most prominent features, and retaining the name of the mistress, as well as elements characteristic of other-world habitations, whether they are islands, castles, or valleys. In view of the sort of treatment that the carole and chessboard received, it is more reasonable to see here the account of an other-world valley associated with Morgain, which was made by some narrator into a fidelity test for Lancelot's benefit, and was used by the author of Claris et Laris as a suitable feature to work into the scenes that he was placing in Broceliande, which Wace even in his day knew was the haunt of fays.^ 1 Cf. vv. 28,968-29,355; 29,386-29,443. 2 ffist, Litt., XXX, 124. ' Le Roman de Ron, ed. Andresen, Heilbronn, 1877-79, II, vv. 6409, 6410. Cf. Claris et Laris, vv. 3290 flE. ; 3317-3319 ; Yvain, v. 189, note ; Brun de la Montaigne, vv. 496 ff. 96 The Val sanz Retor There is another valley mentioned in the prose romances that is of the same general character as the Val sanz Retor. This is the Val des Faux Soulas which is described in the Roman de Palamedes?- The Val des Faux Soulas is a valley of surpassing loveliness, the home of singing birds, green and fresh even in mid-winter : ^ il 7ie avoit en tout le val naif ne gelee, et sembloit que May fust venuz en celuy lieu . . . czlz est lieu de paradis au semblant. The valley is the site of two towers situated on opposite banks of a stream, one inhabited by knights, the other by ladies, between whom there has been unfortunately a long-standing feud, which has been suppressed by Galehout le Brun, who in behalf of the ladies by force of arms compelled the knights to agree never to cross the river in the lifetime of their fair ene- mies, and to fight in equal numbers the knights who should come to defend them. The knight Danain for love of one of the ladies undertakes to act as their defender, but he is an unsuc- cessful champion, and being defeated is forced by the knights to fight against the ladies' future champions. When this state of affairs has lasted for ten years Danain is rescued. Then it is evident that the scene has been the result of enchantment : — si devint la valine aussi seche et aussi froide comme l^ autre pays. Although the episode is unmistakably late, it shows the kind of story that formed one of. the elements in the tradition of the Val sanz Retor.^ For that the episode of the Val sanz 1 See Loseth, pp. 463, 465, § 639 a ; Rajna, Fonti, p. 166. Cf. the other-world valley described in Lanzelet, vv. 397 1 ff.- 2 For the birds of the other world see Bran, §§ 7, 20 ; £p. Celt., I, 200 ; Mabinogion, III, 126; Silva Gadelica, II, 253, 390; Erec, vv. 5755 ff. ; Yvain, vv. 459 ff. ; Perceval, vv. 15,442 ff. For other-world flowers and gardens see Bran, §§ 6, 39, 43 ; Erec, vv. 5739 ff. ; Bel Inconnu, vv. 4205-4246. Cf. Brown, Studies and Notes, VIII, ch. iv, section vi. ^ In the Lai de la Rose a la Dame Leal (ed. Paris, Rom., XXIII, 1894, 117 ff.), which is contained in the fourteenth-century romance of Perceforest (cf. for MSS., editions, and dates, Paris, Rom., XXIII, 78-85), there are reminders of the same class of stories that we have been examining, although the Lai de Id Rose is essen- tially connected with a wide-spread theme of a different nature (see Paris, Rom., XXIII, 102 ff. ; Yji\Ae.x, Jahrb. f. rom. u. engl. Lit., VIII, 1867, 44-65). A certain duke of Great Britain was lord of the Val aus Vrais Amans. Nus ne maint la qui son penser n'estraigne Centre tous maus que vraie amours n'adaigne. (w. 4, 5-) The Val sans Retor 97 Retor is a concoction and does not represent simple or early material is obvious. It seems improbable, however, that we owe its composition to the author of the Lancelot, because in an earlier part of his romance ^ he introduces an episode that is plainly similar to that of the Val sanz Retor ; and the natural conclusion is that he had one model before him for both accounts. During Arthur's war with Hardogabran, King of the Saxons, he falls a victim to the wiles of the beautiful Camille,'' the sister of Hardogabran, who by her blandishments succeeds in winning his passionate love, and getting him altogether under her control. With promises of her love she decoys him to her tower, the Roche aus Saisnes, and then imprisons him in her dungeon. Her next step is to send a maiden to court with word that Arthur is in danger. Gawain, Lancelot, Hector and Galehaut follow the damsel to CamiUe's tower, and as a result they also are taken prisoners. Camille throws an enchantment upon the door that fastens it securely. Captivity and separation from Guinevere reduce Lancelot to such a state of frenzy that Camille sets him free ; the Dame du Lac restores him to his reason, and he forthwith sets out to rescue Arthur. By using the ring given him by the Dame du Lac, whith has the power of overcoming all enchantment, he enters Camille's tower, routs her knights who oppose his course as he passes through room after room, until he reaches the chamber where Camille sits with her ami Gadresclain. To make a long story short, Lancelot kills him, and frees Arthur and the imprisoned knights. In a subterranean vault they find a maiden beloved by Gadresclain, whom Camille in furious jealousy has kept in confinement bound to a pillar. His fair daughter, Lisane, marries a young knight, Margon, who is compelled by sundry misfortunes to leave his bride and enter the service of king Perceforest. As a parting gift Lisane gives him a case in which par soutil art she has placed a marvellous rose, which will never wither so long as she remains loyal to her husband. Two knights at the court of Perceforest, who are jealous of Margon, discover the secret of his rose, and plan to steal Lisane's affection from him. They visit her in his absence, and with each in turn she makes assignation to meet in a certain tower at night. Each suitor after waiting for the lady in the tower finds that he is imprisoned there, and must pass his time in spinning and winding thread. They are kept at their disgraceful task until Margon returns home, and sets them free. The same story is also told in a shorter form in prose in the Perceforest (for a summary see Paris, Rom., XXIII, 99 fE.), but without mention of the Val aus Vrais Amans. Paris (p. loi) has indicated the probability that both versions are derived from a common source. 1 Paris, R. T. R., IV, 48, 55-57, 66, 80-83 ! Ulrich Fiirterer, Lanzelet, ed. Peter, Tiibingen, 1885, pp. 90-93. * 2 Camille is mentioned as an enchantress who is able to succor the Saxons in the Vulgate Merlin, p. 134 ; English Merlin, pp. 176, 185 ; Arthour and Merlin, vv. 4438 ff. 98 The Val sanz Retor The maiden bids her rescuers seize Camille's book and chest, if they would thwart her power. The enchantress, realizing that all is lost, takes her own life by flinging herself from the Roche aus Saisnes. This episode is a working over and fusing together of two main themes : — Arthur's stay with a dangerous enchantress, from whose power he is rescued by one of his knights,^ and Lancelot's unspelling quest. If the author had before him the same source which he may have been following in his account of the Val sanz Retor, the irrelevancies of the situation are accounted for. The presence of Gadresclain and the unhappy maiden, the object of Camille's jealousy, who are forced into the story, is explained, as well as Lancelot's madness and Camille's consent to his release. For after Lancelot has dis- pelled the enchantment of the Val sanz Retor, he falls a victim to the wil^s of Morgain,^ and escapes finally from her power 1 See pp. 19, 20. 2 The wiles that Morgain practices upon Lancelot are commonplace, and are not paralleled elsewhere in her history. We are constrained to regard them as simple padding, used by the author as an easy way to round out his narrative and give greater proportions to the theme of Lancelot's love for the queen. When Morgain has Lancelot conveyed to her dwelling in the forest after he has performed the adventure of the valley, her intention is to gratify the hatred that she has cherished for Guinevere and Arthur ever since her separation by the queen from her cousin, whom Morgain loved. She promises to release Lancelot from his captivity provided he give her a certain ring that Guinevere had given to him, which closely resembles one that Morgain herself owns. Finding that all her efforts to persuade him to give it up are vain, she allows him to go to the adventure of the Tour Douleureuse, on condition that he return to her when his task is accomplished. With him she sends one of her maidens as a guide. As they fare on their way, the maiden tries to arouse Lancelot's love, but her blan- dishments are all alike unavailing. When at last by her persistent forcing of her , seductions upon him, he is compelled to threaten her with his sword, she confesses that she has done all at the cdmmand of her mistress. Thus peace is made; Lancelot performs his adventure, and returns to Morgain. The fay renews her attack upon the ring by giving Lancelot a soporific draught, and while he sleeps exchanging her ring for the queen's (cf. Morgain's exchange of a false sword for Excalibur, above, p. 14). Then she sends one of her damsels to court with a trumped-up story that shall betray Guinevere's love for Lancelot, in proof of which the damsel is to produce the ring. The plan is a dismal failure, for the queen defends herself, and nobody believes the story. Lionel goes forth in search of Lancelot. He meets a maiden who offers to be his guide. On the way he climbs a tree to view the landscape o'er, and espies Lancelot being led by armed sergeants from a court into a fair meadow. Lionel descends to tell the news, but neither he nor his friends can ever again find the tree (cf. p. 87). Morgain, meanwhile, persists in harassing Lancelot. By means of a spiced potion she The Val sans Retor 99 only by promising her that he will absent himself from court for a year. Overcome by the nature of his promise, which cuts him off from all chance of seeing Guinevere, his reason gives way, he wanders about in madness in the forest, and but for the Dame du Lac's kindly care, he would have remained the hopeless victim of frenzy. The author is simply applying an episode twice to the same hero,^ but in the story of Camille he varies with common- place details what he probably knew first as an other-world situation. Morgain's part in the episode of the Val sanz Retor is cer- tainly not conspicuous, although she is the creator of the valley. She is simply the enchantress who has bespelled the region. Any other powerful fay would serve the purpose just as ;well as she. But in so far as the test for loyal love is applied to Lancelot by Morgain's agency, we are dealing with material that might have been attached to the Morgain saga at any time after the stories of her hostility to Guinevere and of Lancelot's love for Guinevere were established. How then are we to regard the induction to the episode .' There are two forms, as our summary has told us. The earlier of the two is doubtless that given in the prose Lancelot. In the early story of Arthur and Morgain that I have postulated, we have seen that the mortal wife interferes with the love of the hero and the fay. Quite probably this same theme is elaborated in the Lancelot into the story of the mortal damsel of whom the fay is justly jealous, and is used as a suitable intro- duction to the narrative, the conclu^(3ri~9f_ which sounds the praises of the true lover. There is an episode' that tells of a fair maiden who suffered enchantment, at the hands of Mor- gain and the Queen of Norgalles because they were jealous of causes him to dream that the queen has given her love to a certain young knight, against whom he would have drawn his sword but for the queen's interfering word. Morgain lays his sword beside him, so that when he wakes he may be fully convinced of the reality of his dream (cf. Perceval, I, 7 ; for deceptions in sleep see below, p. 208, note). In despair he wins his release by promising to shun for a year the king, as well as the knights and ladies of the court. For the sequel see below, p. ig6; see also Lbseth, § 41. 1 On the repetition of themes in the career of Lancelot see Jessie L. Weston, The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac, London, 1901, pp. loo, loi. lOO The Val sanz Re tor her beauty.^ There is no means of knowing the exact relation of these two stories to each other, but, if we accept the hypo- thetical original, we may reasonably suppose that the theme of the enchanted lady suggested here the special punishment of Morgain's unhappy rival. In the treatment of this maiden we have again a parallel to Court of Love material. Andreas Capellanus describes a pun- ishment inflicted by the God of Love upon mortals who are ^ See Malory, Bk. XI, ch. i : — When Lancelot arrives at the castle of Corbin he is hailed as the deliverer of the lady within the tower, who " ever boileth in scalding water," and whom Gawain has failed to deliver. The iron doors of the chamber where she is imprisoned unbolt for him ; " so Sir Lancelot went into the chamber that was as hot as any stew and took the lady by the hand." She had been given her punishment by enchantment of Queen Morgan le Fay and the queen of Northgalis, because she was called the fairest lady of the country, and she had been in the tower for five years. The prose Lancelot also gives the story of Lancelot's rescue of the maiden, though without mention of Morgain (see Malory, III, 191 ; cf. Lancelot, vv. 3593 ff.). The account of Gawain's effort to rescue the maiden is found in Paris, R. T. R., V, 2 56, 306 : — Gawain arrives at a fair castle, from within which he hears the piercing cries of a woman; he enters, and finds in a marble tank a damsel standing up to her waist in boiling water. She entreats him to lift her out, but his efforts to do so are in vain, and she tells him that she must suffer there till the best knight in the world comes to deliver her; her punishment for a former sin is not yet great enough. Sommer (Malory, III, 192) shows that the minor inconsistencies and discrepancies in the first two of the passages mentioned above indicate that they are derived from a common French source. This French source, or one kindred to it, is evidently responsible, directly or indirectly, for Morgain's part in Pulzella Gaia, an Italian poem belonging probably to the fourteenth century, and representing, so far as I know, the only independent treatment of Morgain material preserved to us in mediaeval Italian literature. Pulzella Gaia is Morgain's beautiful daughter (cf. Tavola Ritonda, I, 295, 300, 487), the fairy love of Gawain, who, by complying with her demand that he tell her his name, has unspelled her from serpent shape. She promises to grant his every wish provided he does not reveal their love ; but on his boasting of her at a tourney at court, she is compelled to sul-render herself to la savia Morgana, who imprisons her in a towe.r, where she must stand waist-high in water, and suffer transformation into fish-shape below the waist. Gawain sets out in quest of her, forces his way into Pela Orso, Morgain's castle where Pulzella Gaia is impris- oned, draws the maiden from the water, puts Morgain in her place, and with his love, transformed, let us hope, from her fishy estate, rides merrily off to Camelot. The lady of the prose versions, who in consequence of Morgain's wrath stands waist-high in boiling water, the victim of a magic spell that Gawain seeks in vain to break, is certainly in a similar predicament to that of Pulzella Gaia. (For con- finement in a red-hot iron chamber as a punishment, see Mabinogion, III, 112 ff.) The transformation to mermaid shape may possibly have been induced by the story of the fay Melusine, whose mother inflicts substantially the^ same penalty The Val sanz Retor loi not hij worthy si.'iev's,' which ia 'ike mat bestowed by Mc gai?' npo, den who unwisei^ returned Guiomar's love. " ■ . n i.he lomains of the God of Love, according to Andreas, there is a meadow arranged in concentric circles. In one circle, flooded with intensely cold water and beaten upon by the rays of the burning sun, those women who have loved without discrimination must abide after death. ^ Since Mor- gain's punishment has the allegorical tone characteristic of the Court of Love material, and not of Celtic tradition, it seems likely that here we have an illustration of the way in which themes of all kinds are used by the romancer, and an evidence that his work is not to be characterised as Celtic in every detail.^ "" Before leaving this part of the story, we may recall to mind that transformation by enchantment is one of the means employed by the Morrigan to avenge a personal affront. This the milkmaid Odras is said to have learned to her sorrow. She went in pursuit of a cow that the Morrigan had taken to her own domains. " Still on fared Odras, in the track of her cow, towards the elf-mound of Cruachu. Sleep fell upon her in the Oakwood of Falga, and the Morrigan awoke her and upon her (see Couldrette, Mellusine, Le Livre de Lusignan, ed. Michel, Niort, i854,"vv. 2940-3186, 3835-4228). In a. modern Breton folk-tale we find practically the story of Pulzella Gaia told of a daughter of a Margot-la-Fee. This unfortunate daughter is meta- morphosed into a snake on a certain day in the year. The Margot-la-Fee, her mother, entreats a peasant to go to a designated point on the road, at which he will find a snake which she bids him cover with a basin. To clinch matters he sits down on the basin when he has done her bidding, and remains seated all day. In the evening he raises the basin, and finds the most beautiful maiden in the world, who is willing to give him a rich reward (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne, I, 109). I have met no other tradition told of both Morgain la Fee and a Margot-la-F^e ; but, although belonging to an ordinary type of incident, this example adds a trifling weight to the probability that the Margot-la-Fees and Morgain are connected, and that a common story of Morgain's bespelled daughter whom o. knight released is at the foundation of the Italian poem and the Breton folk-tale of to-day. 1 See Andreae Capellani regis Francorum De Amore, ed. E. Trojel, Copen- hagen, 1892, pp. loi ff. 2 Cf. ib., p. 104; see Rom., XXIX (1900), 87, 88. ' An other-world plain is described in the Tochmarc Entire (see Rev. Celt., XI, l8go, 447), on one half of which men freeze fast, while on the other they are raised on the grass. But this cannot be called a parallel tradition to that of the maiden»in the valley. I02 , The Val sanz Retor sang spells over her, and made of Odras a pool of water which entered the river that flows to the west of Slieve Bawne (the Shannon)."^ The Livre d'Artus, P. connects the foundation of the valley with Morgain's love for Guiomar.^ In this respect, according to Freymond,^ it offers material that lies nearer the original than does the Lancelot, in that the theme appears of the mortal, Guiomar, retained by the fay in her domain. It is well, how- ever, to observe how the author of the Livre d'Artus, P. treats his sources. In the Lancelot, the object of the special adven- ture upon which Lancelot is engaged at the time when he went on his excursion into the Val sanz Retor is the release of Gawain from the Tour Douloureuse. The episode of the Val sanz Retor is merely incidental to this. The knight who can put an end to the enchantment of Ascalon le Tenebreus * is he who will accomplish the adventure of the Tour Douloureuse. The knight who can perform the adventure of lifting from a certain river the bodies of two guiltless lovers who have been drowned there, is he who will be able to rescue Gawain from the Tour Douloureuse.* In the Livre d'Artus, P. it is said that only he can break the spell of the Val sanz Retor who has suc- cessfully accomplished the adventure of Ascalon le Tenebreus ; and he who cannot perform the adventure of the valley will not succeed in taking from the water the bodies of the two guiltless lovers, nor in accojnplishing the adventure of the Tour Doulou- reuse. In other words, in the Livre d ' Artus, P. we have a chain formed from episodes that stand in comparatively unconnected sequence in the Lancelot. In the Lancelot also, these adven- tures are related in full ; in the Livre d' Artus, P. that of lift- ing from the water the bodies of the guiltless lovers is merely mentioned, although the other adventures are given at some 1 Rennes Dindsenchas, 113, translated by Stokes, Rev. Celt., XVI (1S95), 65 ; see also VI (1883-1885), 255. 2 With the tradition told here that Morgain created the valley by means of arts learned from Merlin, cf. the account of the beautiful valleys surrounded by an invisible, impassable wall built by Manannan mac Lir for the Tuatha de Danann, which is contained in the Legend of Eithne {Book of Fermoy, a. fifteenth- century manuscript) ; 3ee Todd, R. I. A. Irish MSS. Series, I, i, 46. 3 See ^s.ffr. Sp., XVII (1895), 16 ff. 1 See Paris, R. T. R., IV, 229-233; 278-282. 6 See R. T. /?.,"lV, 307, 308. . The Val sanz Retor 103 • length. Neither does the Livre d'Artus, P. like the Lancelot relate a tale of the attempted achievement of the adventures by Galeschin and Yvain. Evidently the author of the Livre d'Artus, P. is connecting parts disconnected in his source. He is modelling his material, we know, on both the Lancelot and the Merlin?- and in telling the story of Guiomar with the Val sanz Retor as a sequel he may be simply combining two sto- ries, and identifying the Val sahz Retor with the other world, Avalon, where Guiomar dwelt with Morgain and ruled as lord. At all events we may say with confidence that if at one stage the story told of Morgain and Guiomar represented her as tak- ing her lover back to the other world, there was not connected with it, unless as a late addition, an unspelling quest performed by a faithful lover. The fay does not properly take her lover to the other world to await the coming of a knight who shall break a spell that holds him there ; she takes him there for an unending life of delight, or as the maintainer of her " custom." In either case there is no convenient place for a mortal amie. It is owing to a combining of several elements by the author that we have the episode of the Val sanz Retor, which is valu- able in the present study not because of light that it casts upon early conditions, but because it represents Morgain distinctly as an other-world queen, vindictive and jealous, although with very little personality in the episode itself.^ 1 See Freymond, Zs. f. rom. Phil., XVI (1892), 96-98, 103; Zs. f. fr. Sp., XVII {1895), 5-6, 15, 16. 2 Other references to the Val sanz Retor are to be found in Le Conte de la Charrette, ed. Jonckbloet, The Hague, 1850, p. 16; Paris, Ji. T. R., IV, 298. CHAPTER VIII MORGAIN IN THE HORN AND MANTLE TESTS MoRGAiN had other means for testing the fidelity of mortals beside a mist-enclosed valley. Discriminating objects that detect in mortals the presence or absence of certain graces are commonplace in folk-lore.^ For the mediaeval story-teller a ring, a shield, a glove, a bridge, a girdle, a mirror, or, what you will, served almost indifferently as the residence of the same magic power. All alike may be able to discern one special virtue or failing. Among the enchanted objects that are potent as fidelity tests in romantic material, the two that appear perhaps more often than any others are the Cor enchant^ and the Manteau mautaill^, the virtue of both of which Morgain occasionally uses to effect a malicious pur- pose. Obviously it would be almost impossible to find the stories dealing with one of such similar tests uninfluenced by those told of the other, and in the great variety of ver- sions and the multiplicity of correspondences between those of either class, fruitless perplexities attend an effort to untwine one wholly from the other. An elaborate examination of the two tests and of the versions in which they are embodied has been made by Warnatsch.^ His results greatly facilitate a study of Morgain's part, to which he gives only a cursory notice; and his conclusions are in the main simply to be extended in determining the position in the Morgain saga occupied by the episodes that bring her into connection with these widely diffused themes. Two Italian texts ^ omitted by 1 For collections of such tests see Child, Ballads, I, 257 ff. ; V, 212; Grasse, Lehrhuch einer allgemeinen T,iteriirgeschichte,Y)K&Aea and Leipzig, 1837-1859, II, iii, i, 184-187 J Von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, Stuttgart-Tiibingen, 1850, III, Ixxxv-xc ; Jahrb. f. rom. u. engl. Lit., VIII, 44-65; Rajna, Fonti, p. 579. For a brief bibliography on the subject see Warnatsch, Der Mantel {Germanistische Abhandl., II), Breslau, 1883, pp. 55-60. Additional examples are given below, pp. 112, 128. 2 Der Mantel, Breslau, 1883. = Tristano and Tavola Ritonda. 104 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 105 Warnatsch should be included among those versions in which Morgain has a place. It is with the horn test that she is the more frequently associated ; in fact there is only one version of the mantle test in which she appears, whereas six repre- sent her as the owner of the dangerous horn. Of these lat- ter the two typical sources are the French prose Tristan and Malory. • Tristan?- Tt lor. Jriani, faring on their way, meet a knight under orders to Arthur's ^uurt an enchanted ivory horn, from which only a faithful wiic jan drink without splashing the wine. He refuses to tell the name of the sender, but after Lamorat has unhorsed him, he admits that it comes from Morgain, whose object in sending it is to force Guinevere into a betrayal of her love for Lancelot. Lamorat who wishes to make trouble for King Mark sends the knight with the horn to him. Iseult and the other ladies of the court are subjected to the test, and all but four spill the wine. Iseult with protestations of her innocence suggests that a knight break a lance in her defence, but Mark rejects the idea. He and his barons hush the matter up, and decide that the test is worthless. Malory? Here again. Sir Lamorat and Sir Driant meet a knight sent by Morgain to Arthur ; '" and this knyght hadde a fayre home harnest with geld." The description of the virtue of the horn and also Morgam's object in sending it to court agree with those in the other accounts. " And by force sire Lamorak made that knyghte to telle alle the cause why he bare that home I Now shalte thou bere this horn sayd Lamorak vnto kyng Marke or els chese thou tojdye for it.'' The knight bears it to Mark and tells him of its peculiar quality. "Thenne the kynge maade Quene Isoud to drynke therof I and an honderd ladyes | and there were but four ladyes of alle tho that dranke clene | Alias saide kynge Marke this is a grete despyte | and sware a grete othe | that she sholde be brente and the other ladyes | Thenne the Barons gadred them to gyder and said playnly they wold not haue tho ladyes brente for an home maade by sorcery that came from as fals a sorceresse and wytche as tho was lyuynge | Fo/ that home dyd neuer good but caused stryf and debate | and alweyes in her dayes she had ben an enemy to alle true louers | Soo there were many knyghtes made their auowe | and euer they met with Morgan le fay that they wold shewe her short curtosye." ' 1 Loseth, § 47. 2 Bk. VIII, ch. 34. 3 The same story is told with certain differences in the Italian Tristano (pp. 153 ff.), and also in the Tavola Ritonda (I, 157 ff.). These Italian versions differ from that of the French Tristan in the following particulars : — 1. Driant is not mentioned. 2. The horn is the most beautiful in the world, made of silver, harnessed with gold, according to Tristan : made of ivory chased with gold and silver, in the Tavola Ritonda. Io6 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests The episode is obviously composed of two strata, and either the introduction telling of Morgain's gift and its malign intent is prefixed to an independent story of a test of Iseult at Mark's court, or a conclusion relating the sequel to Morgain's scheme against Guinevere is attached to characters of greater promi- nence in the Tristan romances than are Guinevere and Lance- lot. *That the latter is the correct view to take of the situation is evident from a comparison with the earliest bit of literature that we possess embodying the horn theme. This, as is well known, is the Lai du Cor of Robert Biquet, which according to its editor, Wulff, should be dated probably no later than the 3. In Tavola Ritonda the bearer is named Tramondo Ughiere. 4. In Tristano there are two contests between Amoratto (Lamorat) and the bearer of the horn ; the first agrees with that in the Tristan, the second is intended to force the knight to carry the horn wherever Amoratto bids him. In Tavola Ritonda only this second contest is mentioned. 5. Isolda and [in Tristand\ three hundred and sixty-five ladies [in Tavola Ritonda six hundred and eighty-six] are subjected to the test; all but [in Tris- tano'] two [in Tavola Ritonda thirteen] are found guilty. 6. Mark commands that all the guilty be burnt at the stake. 7. Mark revokes his decision on the declaration of [in Tristano"] a baron of Cornovaglia that the adventures (sic) of Logres are not worthy of serious consid- eration, and that his own wife is innocent; [in Tavola Ritonda~\ Dinasso the seneschal, that the enchantments of Logres deserve contempt. While in Malory and Tristan two knights — Lamorat and Driant — encounter the bearer of the horn [in Tristano and Tavola Ritonda, Lamorat alone], and four ladies are found innocent [in Tristano, two, Tavola Ritonda, thirteen], it is only in these insignificant details that Malory agrees with Tristan where the latter differs from Tristano and Tavola Ritonda. In the following points Malory and Tristano agree, and differ from Tristan : — 1. The horn is of silver (Malory, fayre), harnessed with gold. In Tristan the horn is of ivory. 2. The knight takes the horn to Mark only after a second contest in Tristano. There is a threat of a second contest in Malory: " Now shalt thou bear this horn unto king Mark or else choose thou to die for it." In Tristan, the knight obeys Lamorat without a word. 3. Mark commands that the guilty ladies be burnt; a baron in Tristano, barons in Malory, interfere. In Tristan, Iseult proposes a champion ; the king and barons by mutual consent dismiss the question. It is evident that all three versions are to be traced to the same source, and that Tristano and Malory ^ere are derived from the same French source, which was not the manuscript of the Tristan that Loseth is summarizing (cf. Malory, III, 286). The version of the Tavola Ritonda is undoubtedly derived from the Tristano from which, though it differs slightly, it shows no divergences that can- not be accounted for by the characteristic freedom of its compiler in handling his material. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 107 middle of the twelfth century, and which shows clearly more primitive features than any other existing version. 1 The scene is laid at a brilliant Pentecostal feast at Arthur's court. A fair youth enters the hall bearing a magic horn of ivory, which he presents to Arthur as a friendly gift from the king of Moraine. The horn has been so enchanted by a fay that no man whose wife has been untrue to him even in thought may drink from it without splashing his breast with the wine that it contains. The king at once puts the gift to the test, calls for wine and drinks, but spills the liquor. He._seizes aknife and is about to stab the que en, bu t Gawain, Cadain^ and Iwain prevent him. The queen in dis- treis offers to prove her innocence by the ordeal of fire. Arthur, however, is determined that all shall try the horn, and when he finds that none pres- ent can drink without splashing and sees the queen's blushing amazement, he recovers his good temper and declares that the horn is a noble gift. Caradoc, a valiant knight, alone drains the cup without spilling a drop. Femme avoit molt leal. Arthur gives him Cirencestre as a reward and also the horn, which is kept there on exhibition at festivals. Thus in the early story neither Morgain nor Iseult is men- tioned, and the scene is laid at Arthur's court, the appointed destination for the horn in the Tristan and kindred versions. But in spite of the difference in its' localization, the account of the test at Mark's court bears indications that the original from which it is derived was a working over of the story that we know through Biquet's lay. The horn in this original was doubtless, like that in the lay, made of ivory harnessed with gold ; the interference of the knights with the king's move- ment to stab the queen had very likely become the advice of the barons to treat the matter lightly ; Guinevere's offer to undergo the ordeal by fire probably had a place there, and appears as Mark's command that Iseult and her companions in guilt be burned at the stake ; the king's recovery of his good humor develops into Mark's sudden decision that the enchantments of Logres are of no account. Evidence that this part of the story had reached some such stage while it was still attached to Arthur and his queen, before it was incorporated in the supposed source of our ver- sions, is supplied by a Fastnachtspiel of the fifteenth century.^ 1 Ed. F. Wulff, Lund and Paris, 1888; see p. 27. Cf. Child, Ballads, I, 262; Warnatsch, Der Mantel, p. 60. 2 Ed. Keller, Fastnachtsfiele aus dem fiinfzehnten Jahrhundert, Nachlese, Stutt- gart, 1858, No. 127. io8 Morgain m the Horn and Mantle Tests The play opens with a conjugal dialpgue between Arthur and the queen, who are making a list of the proper guests to be invited to a feast at court. They have decided to summon certain crowned heads of Europe, when the queen suddenly remembers that they have omitted the king's sister, the queen of Cyprus. Arthur, however, positively refuses to include her among his guests : — Wan sy gross wider mich han taun Darumb ichs nit wil laden laun.i The queen of Cyprus, who is well aware of all that is going on, ang^y at the insult, sends to court by one of her maidens a magic horn out of which only he whose wife is constant can drink without spilling the wine. Her own name is to be concealed from the king, and the maiden is to tell him merely that it comes von ainer werden kiinigin frey. The virtue of the horn is set forth in an inscription chased upon it. Arthur is the first to test the gift ; he splashes his breast with the wine, bursts into a passion with the queen, and threatens to strike her. Weigion (Gawain) ^ remonstrates with brevity and soothes the king's wrath. The guests drink in turn, and all find their wives guilty except the king of Spain, who is immediately presented by the king with congratulatory gifts. The maiden in the meantime returns to the queen of Cyprus, who fancies with high glee the dissension that the horn will cause at court. After the test is completed Ayax accuses Weigion of disloyalty to the king with the queen ; the two knights forthwith defy each other, break lances, and are separated by the king, who announces that the horn has occasioned evil which all had best forget in merrymaking : — Desgleich ir herren, tantzt mir nach all Und springent frolich auff mit schall.' 1 P. 191, V. 15. 2 See Wamatsch, Der Mantel, p. 67. ^ P. 227, vv. 15, 16. In the Orlando Furioso (canto xlii, st. 70-73, 97-104; canto xliii, st. 6-44), Warnatsch suggests, there may be preserved the same lost version of the story that was known to the author of the Fastnachtspiel (see Der Mantel, p. 89 ; cf. Child, Ballads, I, 265 ; Rajna, Fonti, p. 578). Here Mor- gain's goblet is given to Rinaldo in an enchanted palace by a knight, who bids him drink as a test of his wife's constancy. Only he who has a faithful wife can drink from the goblet without spilling the contents. The enchantress Melissa had pre- sented it to the knight with the words : — lo ti darb un vasello Fatto da ber, di virtJi rara e strana, Qual giJl, per fare accorto il suo fratello Del fallo di Ginevra fe' Morgana. (Canto xliii, st. 28.) This version stands nearer the original material than do the Tristan and the allied sources in that men drink to test their wives, and the women are not obliged to convict themselves ; but, although the story of the goblet and its connection with Rinaldo's host is long, the reference to Morgain is too brief to allow an exact decision as to what source, or sources, Ariosto had before him. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 109 Clearly in general outline and content the Fastnachtspiel stands nearer the original material than do the Tristan romances. The resemblances, however, between the Fastnachtspiel and the latter indicate that they represent two redactions of the same ultimate' French source,^ that reached the author of the Fastnachtspiel either directly in the French or indirectly through a German medium. In this source the men probably put the horn to the proof ; ^ the queen, like Iseult, may have craved a joust in her defence, which in the fifteenth-century text is represented by the contest that actually takes place between Ayax and Weigion ; the story probably ended with the king's careless dismissal of an unpleasant subject. Although Morgain does not appear elsewhere as the Queen of Cyprus, there can be no question that the king's malicious sister who owns the marvellous horn is none other than she. An earlier source containing the same incident is a Meisterlied by Conrad von Wurzburg.^ The Meisterlied tells the story of a feast at Arthur's court at which seven kings with their wives are the guests. They are with one exception the same monarchs that appear in the Fastnachtspiel. A maiden enters bringing an ivory horn with an inscription in golden letters telling of its magic properties, and presents it to the king from her mistress. Arthur tests it, finds that the queen is guilty, and in a fury is about to strike her when Yban prevents the blow. The guests try the horn, but the king of Spain alone is successful. Arthur gives him the horn and showers congratulatory gifts upon him. Warnatsch * shows that the Meisterlied and the Fastnachtspiel doubtless go back to a common Middle High German original, which naturally was treated by Conrad von Wiirzburg in a more condensed form than by the author of the Fastnachtspiel. But the text is unreliable at the very point where it has most interest for us, namely the verse that gives the name of the 1 See Warnatsch, Der Mantel, p. 68. 2 See below, p. 121, note. ' Ob. 1287. The Meisterlied is contained in a fifteenth-century manuscript published by Zingerle under the title Das goldene Horn in Pfeiffer's Germania, V (i860), loi ff. A somewhat different text with the title Dis ist frauw tristerat horn von Saphttien is published by Bruns, Beitrdge zur kritischen Bearbeitung alter Handschriften, Brunswick, 1802, pp. 139 ff. * Der Mantel, p. 68. no Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests sender of the horn. That of the so-called Wilten manuscript published by Zingerle is unintelligible : — Euch santz mein frauw in der aus der Syrneyer lant. The last two words Zingerle amends to Syrenen lant. The text of the Hamburg manuscript published by Bruns, which is evidently the work of a second redactor,^ reads : — Es schickt uch schon frau tristerat her uss von Saphoer lant. Frau Tristerat is an altogether obscure personage. Her home, however, Saphoer lant, brings to mind the province of Lorraine, Savoie, which we know during the eleventh century was identified with the neighboring district of Maurienne,^ an early name for which was Morienna.^ This is suggestively like Moraine, the name of the country from which the horn came according to Biquet's Lai; with this name, moreover, Morgain is indirectly associated, for it is the form used by La^amon for Moray, the territory in Scotland assigned by the early sources to Urien, Morgain's husband.* Hence, despite the danger of a conjecture resting on a conjectural basis, we are not entirely without reason for suspecting that in the source from which both Meisterlied and Fastnachtspiel are derived the horn came from Moraine and that the sender was Morgain, who possibly from a lack of familiarity with her name on the redactor's part disappears entirely in Conrad's poem, and in the Fastnachtspiel is given a new name, just as the crowned heads of Europe take the place of the early knights of Arthur's court. Why Cyprus should be selected as the land over seas of which the fay was queen is not altogether clear. Warnatsch thinks that a confusion between Morgain and Melusine may account for it : — " Die Verwandlung der Fee Morgane in eine ^ See Warnatsch, p. 68. 2 See Longnon, Atlas Historique de la France, Paris, 1885, PI. XI, XII ; Textt, p. 224, cf. 228 ; Wace, Brut, v. 3439, note. ' See Recueil des historiens de France, V, 772, cited by Longnon, Texte, p. 142 ; Mon. Germ. Hist., Berlin, 1877-1898, I, 331 (cf. p. 315), 508. * Lajamon, Brut, vv. 22,160, 22,178, MS. Cott. 0th. C. XIII reads Morayne(s). Cf. Skene, Four Anc. Books, I, 59 ; Hist. Reg. Brit., Bk. IX, ch. ix ; Wace, Brut, V. 9865. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 1 1 1 Konigin von Zypern beruht wol auf einer Verwechslung mit der (in Deutschland besonders durch das Volksbuch des Thiir- ing von Ringoltingen) bekannten Fee Melusine, deren Sage in dem frz. Hause Lusignan (in Cypern nach der Eroberung durch Richard Lbwenherz herrschend) heimisch war." ^ But Melusine and Morgain are very unlike in their histories and attributes, and the probability of such a confusion may be ques- tioned. In the Meisterlied, after Arthur receives the horn, we read according to Zingerle, Kiinig Af tus hies schenken ein den klaren zyper wein ; ^ according to Bruns, Konig Artus hiess as schencken vol Des claren Z5rppar wine.' Wine from Cyprus as a royal beverage requires no explana- tion, and who shall say that it was not this feature in the original that influenced the author of the Fastnachtspiel to make the distant home of the lady of the sea* who owned the magic drinking horn, the far-away island of Cyprus, from which the wine came "i How did Morgain come to be connected with the story } As we have seen, she does not figure in the Lai dii Cor. The bearer of the horn according to Biquet presents his wonderful gift to the king with these worSs : — : De Moraine li reis qui proz est e corteis vos enveie cest cor qu'il prist en son tresor.' Round the horn runs an inscription in letters of gold and ■ Qo vos mande Mangons * de Moraine, li blons.' The name of Saint Mungo (i.e. Kentigern) of Glasgow appears as Mangon in asseverations in Guillaume le Clerc's romance of Fergus,^\i\x^ this gives us no assistance in identifying 1 Der Mantel, p. 67, note 2. ^ p. jq^^ gj. 4, s p j^,, * See Fastnachtsp., p. 197, v. ig. ^ Vv. 123-126. ^ According to WulfE's restored text. The manuscript reads Mangounz. 1 Vv. 221-222. 8 Ed. Martin, Halle, 1872 ; see vv. 486, 823, 845 ; cf. p. xxii. 1 1 2 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests / the owner of the horn. Of Mangon, Wulff says, "ce nom . . . rappelle Morgue, Morgain (m6chante fde, soeur d' Artu)." ^ It recalls, too, and more forcibly perhaps, the name of the famous Celtic enchanter, Mongan, whose history is contained in the Lebor na h-Uidre^ and about whom stories at least as old as the eighth century exist.^ He is noted for his power of shifting his own shape as well as of transforming that of others* He possesses the resources of rich fairy knolls,* and is generously disposed in sending gifts to kings.® He is the son of Manannan mac Lir, god of the sea, who visited his mother in the absence of her husband, Fiachna Lurga, king of Ulster, and when Mongan was three nights old took him away to the Land of Promise, where he kept him under his tutelage until he was a lad sixteen years of age.^ In the Land of Promise Manannan had in his possession a magic drinking- vessel, a touchstone for truthfulness. This we know through an allusion to Manannan' s cup in the Oided mac n Uisnig {Death of the Sons of Usnach)^ and also through the Echtra Cormaic [Adventures of Corniac)^ a tale preserved in the. Book of Ballymote and the Yellow Book of Lecan, which tells of Cormac's summons to the other world by Manannan. Here, among other striking experiences, he saw that " a cup of gold was placed in the warrior's hand. Cormac was marvelling at the cup, for the number of forms upon it and the strangeness of its workmanship. 'There is somewhat in it still more strange,' says the warrior. ' Let three words of falsehood be spoken under it, and it will break into three. Then let three true declarations be , under it, and it unites again as it was before.' " When Cormac left the Land of Promise, Manannan 1 See Wulff, Lai du Cor, p. 45, note ; cf. Rom., XIV (1885), 349. 2 Ed. with translation by K. Meyer in Meyer and Niitt, I, 42-go. 8 See Meyer and Nutt, I, 139 ; II, ch. xiu ; Zs.f. celt. Phil., II (1898-1899), 319. * Meyer and Nutt, I, 24, § 53 ; cf. 77, 82. 5 id., I, 54 ff. « Id., I, 74. ' Id., I, 72-74 ; cf . Bran, § 57 : — Moninnan the son of Ler Will be his father, his tutor. 8 See Stokes and Windisch, II, ii, 163. ^Id., Ill, i, 183 ft., 203-221. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 113 gave him the marvellous cup, but at his death took it back into his own possession. ^ In the extant versions of the horn test, either the owner of the magic horn is not mentioned, as in the Livre de Caradoc preserved in the Perceval?' and also in Renard le Contrefait? or its possessor is said to be Morgain or Mangon, as in the versions cited above, or according to Diu Crdne,^ a sea- king. Heinrich von dem Tiirlin, as Warnatsch shows,^ was probably not using the Lai du Cor as a source, but a version akin to it. The horn, he tells us, was the work of a magician of Toledo, and was brought to Arthur by a dwarf covered with scales, riding on a monster of the sea. He presents his gift with the words : — Dar umbe hit mich her gesant Uz dem mer kiinec Priure.* Although Heinrich is using material extraneous to the lay, there is here a confirmation of the theory that Mangon, the owner of the horn, is only a distortion of Mongan, whose original nature as the son of the sea-god was not forgotten in Heinrich's source, which attributed the possession of the horn to a Sea-king. There is a logical fitness in the situation that our versions give us, if we regard it as the development from such an origin. Mongan, by right of his sonship to Manannan, might very properly become in story the owner of the marvellous drinking-vessel that could be used as a test of faith.^ A mediaeval horn frequently did duty as a goblet, and furthermore since by virtue of his connection with the sea, ' Id., Ill, i, 215. Cf. a later text translated by O'Grady, Trans. Oss. Soc, III, 227. J A false story told before the cup breaks it into four bits ; a true story welds them together again. Cf. also Stokes and Windisch, III, i, 209, for the crystal vessel of Badurn, made in a fairy mound, which separates into three parts if three lies are uttered under it, and reunites for three truths. 2 Vv. 15,672-15,772. 2 Ed. Tarbe, PoHes de Champagne antirieurs auS. de Francois I"', Reims, 1851, pp. 79 ff. (see p. xii for date of poem, ca. 1368); Le Roman de Renart le Con- trefait, ed. Wolf, Vienna, 1861, pp. 7-9. * * Vv. 466-3189 ; see especially vv. 1090 ff. ^ Pp. 112, 113. <■ Diu CrSne, vv. 1012, 1013. ' On the community in attribute and episode between Mongan and Manannan see Meyer and Nutt, II, 13 ff., especially 17. 114 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests Mongan, or Manannan, like old Triton, might justly be regarded as having a "wreathed horn," it would be appropriate, and not at all strange, if this goblet in some versions became a drinking horn. A confusion between the names of the shape-shifter Mon- gan 1 and the fay Morgain (Morgan) is undeniably one of the easiest conceivable blunders in either an oral or a written source. There is indirect evidence that such a confusion may have taken place at a time previous to the composition of Biquet's lay, and that this confusion is responsible for more than one story that has become attached to the fay's name. If we turn from the Irish tale of Mongan's youth and upbringing to the altogether unique account of Morgain's early days contained in the Auberon, known as the Prologue to Huon de Bordeaux and undoubtedly written later than the poem to which it contains the introductory material, we find a striking similarity in the two histories.^ Morgain, the sister of Arthur, was stolen in her infancy by a fairy king, a wise master of all enchantment, who kept her for ten years in his domains and taught her his arts. He owned a magic horn, which he gave to Mor- gain at his death, and which became a valuable part of her dower, greatly coveted for Julius Caesar by his doting parents, who represent to their son that the ownership of the horn is a special advantage attendant upon his marriage with the maiden. One of Julius Caesar's valued possessions also is a goblet that he had received from his mother, Brunehaut, a queen in fairyland, which eventually comes into the hands of Auberon, who receives the famous horn as well from his mother, Morgain. The poem in itself is so late as to be unreliable as a source for primitive tradition, but a further examination of ^ Mongan's shape-shifting was one of his most familiar characteristics. See Zs. f. celt. Phil., II (1898-1899), 318. In the so-called Fragmentary Annals (published without assignment of date, Silva Gadelica, I, 390 ff., translated II, 425), we have a euhemeristic description of the enchanter: "Certain dealers in antiquarian fables do propound Kim to have been son to Manannan, and wont to enter at his pleasure into divers shapes, yet this we may not credit : rather choosing to take Mongan for one that was but a man of surpassing knowl- edge, and gifted with an intelligence clear and subtle and keen." For Morgain's power of shape-shifting emphasized in our earliest accounts of her, cf. pp. 8, 151. * 2 See Auberon, vv. 1211-1235, 1319-1342, 1451-1498, 2147. The Auberon is contained in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Biblioieca Nazionale of Turin, and is dated by its editor Graf tentatively after 1230; see Auberon, p. iv. Cf. Huon de Bordeaux, pp. xlix ff. ; Rom., vii (1878), 333. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 1 1 5 the material at our disposal shows that this story of Morgain may not be dismissed without hesitation as simply the result of a late romancer's fancy.^ Morgain's horn in the Auberon is not a drinking-vessel. It can be heard when sounded by all the vassals of the owner wherever they may be, and with it twenty thousand armed warriors may be instantaneously summoned.^ The goblet, when it is touched by the owner, will be filled with a limitless amount of wine.^ Neither is said to have any power in discerning moral qualities. For a more primitive description we must turn to the Huon de Bor- deaux. Here we learn that Auberon, le petit roi fa^, the child of Morgain, owns a magic horn of ivory, the sound of which is potent when the horn is blown by Huon, because he- is 3. prtudkomme ;* he has a golden goblet which he can fill with wine by making a circle thrice about it and the sign of the cross over it, but which loses its magic properties when not in the hands of a preudhomme, or of a man who is absolutely truthful. 5 If we put side by side the description of the magic horn or goblet used in the versions of the horn test, the earliest of which assigns it to Mangon, and that of Auberon' s magic horn and goblet, in spite of the differences in the uses of the horns, similarities come to light that are not without significance. We have another version of the horn test which Warnatsch has shown ^ is derived from a common original with the Lai du Cor. In the Livre de Caradoc, which is inserted in the first continuation of the Perceval^ this version is added as a fitting sequel to the story of Guimer, Caradoc's devoted wife, 1 See Paris, Rom., VII (1878), 332: "M. Graf a fort bien reconnu qu'il n'y a dans Auberon aucun element traditionnel : c'est le simple d^veloppement, k I'aide d'une Imagination fort pauvrement douee, des indications sur le roi de feerie contenues dans Huon de Bordeaux" , ^Vv. 1226, 1230. ' Vv. 1330-1340. Cf. Silva Gadelica, II, III. 1 Vv. 3705 ff. For examples of magic horns the blast of which will bring instant aid to the sounder, see Charles le Chauve, Hist. Litt., XXVI, 106 ; Child, Ballads, V, 2 ; will protect the sounder from harm, see Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1846, I, vv. 2287-2290 ; CV-AA, Ballads, III, 122; will excite love, see Id., ib., I, 15, 55, 360; will bring a thousand soldiers, if the sounder blows in the small end, if in the large, none will be seen, Campbell, I, 195. See also for magic horns Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, pp. 118 ff. 6 Vv. 3667-3734. spp. 62ff. 'Vv. 15,672-15,772. 1 1 6 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests who gladly underwent physical suffering in order to rescue her husband from the serpent that was destroying his life. Hence the account is told in a more condensed form than in the lay and moves directly to its end, namely the glorification of Caradoc and his wife. Neither the sender of the horn nor its origin is mentioned. Details, however, not contained in the lay are given here, notably for our purposes, the power that the horn is said to possess of turning water into wine. Comparing then these four sources, Biquet's lay, the Livre de Caradoc, Huon de Bordeaux, and Auberon, we find verbal similarities in the description of the appearance of the horn .-^ — Lai du Cor, w. 33-36. En sa main tient un cor a quatre bendes d'or Li cors esteit d'ivoire entailliez de trifoire. Perceval, vv. 15,679-15,682. A son col ot pendu .1. cor D'ivoire k .IIII. bendes d'or, Plaines de piferes pr^siouses Moult clferes et moult vertuouses. Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3229, 3230. Et ot au col .1. cor d'ivoire cler; A bendes d'or estoit li cors bendds. (Of. w. 3359, 3369, 3705, 3714, 3831, 4039.) Auberon, vv. 1221-1225. .1. cor avoit qui doit estre chieris, D'iuoire ert fais, blans est con flours de lis, Bendes est d'or triphones et polis ; Bien uaut li cors I'auoir de .IIII. cis. Car il est tex qu'estre ne puet pieris. Auberon, vv. 13 19, 1320. Son cor ares qui est d'iuoire cler, Et de fin or trifonies et bendes. Furthermore, both the horn of Mangon and that of Auberon are the work of fays, who have given them a destinh? The 1 Some of the following resemblances between the Lai du Cor and Huon have been pointed out by Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, Halle, 1900, pp. 128, 129. 2 See Lai du Cor, vv. 46-52, 223, 224 ; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3231-3249. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 117 horn in the lay is adorned with marvellously sweet fairy bells ; ^ the sound of Auberon's horn induces the hearer to forget discomfort.^ When Mangon's messenger sounds the hocn in Arthur's court, the hearers lose their self-control, the servitors stand immovable, the seneschals totter and stumble, he who is cutting bread cuts his finger instead of the loaf. The sound of Auberon's horn also forces the hearers to act contrary to their will.^ A touch of the finger arouses the virtue of the horn in the Lai, of Auberon's horn, and of Morgain's goblet in the Auberon.^ In the Perceval water that is poured into the magic horn becomes wine of which there is enough to satisfy the thirst of all present, however many they may be ; Auberon by a magic pass and the sign of the cross can fill his goblet with wine sufficient for all the living and all the dead.^ Moreover Auberon's goblet serves the same purpose as King Mangon's horn, namely, to test the loyalty of the drinker. Auberon gives it to Huon promising that if he can drink from it, the goblet shall be his ; Huon drinks, and Auberon at once pronounces him preudkomme^ Hues, biau frere, dist Auberons li ber, Si m'ait Dix, preudhomme t'ai trovd.' Huon himself employs it to try the faith of his uncle, Oedon,* and of the Saracen, Gaudise,®and this same goblet at Auberon's instigation passes from iiand to hand at a feast at court to test the honor of the emperor and his barons.^" iFor fairy bells see Child, Ballads, I, 320; Perceval, vv. 3i>789-3i,79i ; Lanzelet, vv. 362, 363. ' Lai du Cor, vv. 61-64. Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3236-3239. Ainceis vendreit uns hom Qui le cor ot, 90U est la veritfe, une liue a peon S'il a famine, il est tous asas^s, que [n] eiist lor oie ; Et s'il a soif, il est tous abevris. qui s'ot tot s'en oblie. 3 Lai du Cor, vv. 79 ff. ; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3240-3243. Cf. vv. 3359-3395. Auberon, vv. 2396 ff. For spells cast by fairy music, see Stokes and Windisch, IV, i, 237, 265; Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, p. 117, note; Kittredge, Am.Journ. of Phil., VII (1886), 187; above, p. 91 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 142 ff., 188. *See Lai, vv. 53-55; Huon, v. 3268; Auberon, v. 1332 ; cf. Huon, v. 3654. ^ See Perceval, -vv. 15,690-15,698; Huon,vv. 3652-3666; Auberon,\\. 1330-1340. « Vv. 3644-3701. Cf. Rajna, Fonti, p. 579; Child, Ballads, I, 265, note. ' Vv. 3691, 3692. ' Vv. 6594-6610. 8 Vv. 4221-4232. 1° Vv. 10,195-10,235. 1 1 8 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests These parallels might be explained perhaps as the result of convention, whijch uses stereotyped phrases in the descrip- tion of similar objects,^ and ascribes well known resemblances in the power of enchantment to the handiwork of fays or magi- cians. But it may also be said that they show the horn and goblet attributed in one source to Morgain and her husband, and in another to their child,^ to have many common attributes with the fidelity horn. We have seen reason to suspect that at one point in story Mongan had a cup similar to Manannan's, and that this cup became in some versions a drinking horn ; ^ the next step showed that owing to an easy confusion between Mongan and Morgain a horn and a drinking^ vessel like his may have been assigned to her ; hence they are found also in the hands of her son Auberon. If tradition thus provided one personage with a 1 Cf. for example the golden goblet described in Horn et Rimenhild (ed. Michel, Paris, 1845), vv. 935 ff. II ad eel jor port6 une cupe d'or fin ; Unches n'urent meillur Cesar ne Costentin: Triffuire ert entaillie de bon or melekin. Note that the bells of the horn in the lay were made in the time of Constantine (v. 48), and that Morgain's horn comes into the possession of Caesar. 2 In the Auberon it is quite obvious that the author is making his material go 'as far as possible, and is reproducing one theme as often as his temerity allows. The story of Brunehaut, Caesar's mother, for example, is evidently a bit of patchwork, part of which is like the early life of Morgain. She owns a magic goblet and hauberk, which she presents on separate occasions to her son (vv. 1 067-1079, 1 329-1 342), and a bow, which she presents to Auberon (vv. 2395- 2405). With these scenes and that in which Morgain gives her horn to her son, we have in the Auberon four presentations of magic gifts by fays to their descend- ants. Both the bow and the hauberk resemble enchanted objects in Auberon's possession in the Huon de Bordeaux (cf. Auberon, vv. 2395-2402 with Huon, vv. 3241-3243 ; cf. Auberon, vv. 1067-1074 with p. 128 below), and it is evident that in the Auberon the author is simply distributing among several personages the belongings of one in the earlier poem ; but that he is doing this entirely on his own authority is scarcely a probable assumption, since the resemblances that we have observed indicate a stage in tradition when the goblet as well as the horn may have been assigned to Morgain. 8 The Celtic origin of the fidelity horn in the lay is emphasized by Rhys's theory that the name Bonoec, given to the horn in the Livre de Caradoc, is derived from the VSTelsh word bannog, which appears in the name of two fabulous oxen, Ychen Bannog, associated with the district about Llandewi in Cardigan. See Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, p. 695, note on pp. 579, 580. See Rom., XXVIII (1899), 229, note 2. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests \ 19 Benjamin's portion of drinking vessels, there might naturally be substituted for the horn's magic qualities in such a capacity those that it exhibited when sounded. ^ In the Lai du Cor, Mangon is king of Moraine. Mongan is associated with Ulster in Celtic material, especially with Rathmore of Moylinny.^ Morgain, however, is, as has been said above, the wife of Urien, king of Moraine. If Mangon is Mongan, in his association with a province of the same name as that with which Morgain is indirectly connected we have possible evidence that a confusion in the names had arisen before Biquet's time and that Morgain had already become related to this theme. Although both the horn and mantle may be used, as they are in the stories of Guimer and Iblis,^ for the sake of extoll- ing the worth .of one fair lady, they may quite as well be sent to court by a fay with malicious designs against some one particularly obnoxious to her. There are only two person- ages about whom the interest of such a test naturally centers, one the constant wife, the other the lady highest in rank and therefore the most conspicuous of those tested ; all others are on one plane. Hence when a story is told about the dis- cerning object, it must either have for its end primarily the fair fame of the devoted wife, or the shame of the highest lady. Let tradition once establish an animosity of Morgain toward the queen, an easy weapon for the fay to use against her would be the magic horn which by a confusion of names may have been assigned to Morgain. This brings us to a point where, since we have seen a pos- sible reason why Morgain's name came to be connected with the horn at all, we are better able to consider the value of the tradition contained in the Fastnachtspiel that the malicious sister sent the horn because of a slight that she had received. This theme sounds with an altogether new note in Morgain's history. In one other source, the Manteau mal taill/,^ a late prose ren- dering of the Conte du Mantel, contained in a sixteenth-century 1 The effect that this may have had upon the Auberon legend will be treated in the next chapter. On the interlacing of the qualities of the hom and goblet see Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, 126. * See Meyer and Nutt, I, 44, 49. 3 See Lanzelet, vv. 5746 ff. ; cf. Paris, Rom., X (1881), 477. * Ed. Legrand d'Aussy, I, 126 ff. 1 20 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests manuscript of no authority,^ Morgain sends to court a mantle that will fit only the constant wife. In doing this she is actu- ated by hatred of the queen, whose beauty she envies, and of whose love for Lancelot she is jealous, since she loves him herself, "qui fut cause la faire conspirer sur la reine et toutes ses dames, telle chose dont la feste fut despartye, et par aventure si la reine I'eust fait semondre a celle feste, I'incon- venient jamais ne fust advenu." ^ These are the only instances in the Morgain material where she is represented in the very ordinary mood of a fay who, piqued at some real or fancied slight of a trivial kind, visits the offender with dire punishment ; ^ and in both of these sources it is implied that the relations between Morgain and the court had previously been ruffled. Morgain' s hatred of the king and queen rests, we may feel assured, upon the deeper ground that we have seen existed, — nothing less than the interference with the course of her love for a mortal which had a place in early material. As soon as the love between the queen and Lancelot had become an established fact in romance,* Morgain's hatred would inevitably be repre- sented as seeking ways to wound Guinevere in this her most vulnerable point, and by no means more effectively than by the magic horn. So that while we may regard Morgain's con- nection with the horn as early, and even her use of it against the queen as possibly a story of no late date engendered by the queen's separation of her from her lover (Arthur, Guio- mar), the desire to reveal the love between Guinevere and Lancelot should be considered a later element in the material. The statement in the conte that Morgain loved Lancelot does not by any means stand alone, but is supported by the epi- sodes that have been discussed above, treating of Lancelot's retention in the other world. There is little doubt, then, that the motive of the slighted fay is not indigenous to the Mor- gain saga, and that it is to be regarded as the importation of an ordinary folk-lore theme into late material, perhaps pro- ducing an accidental agreement in two sources, or perhaps > See Wulff, Rom., XIV (1885), 349. 2 Legrand d'Aussy, I, 129. ' See pp. 130, 253, 276. * Cf. Paris, Rom., X (1881), 476, 477, 486 ff. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 1 2 1 indicating by its appearance in the Manteau mal tailU that the author of the Fastnachtspiel was not responsible for attach- ing it to the story. It is quite possible that the element of anger at omission from the feast may have entered the horn test through some version of the mantle test, in which the sender is not infrequently a fay, though never Morgain except in the late conte} Evidence that the gift to Arthur of a dangerous mantle was attributed to Morgain before this source is afforded by a story in the Huth Merlin ^ and Malory? In these versions Morgain's hatred of Arthur has been roused by his having slain her lover Accalon. In Malory it is said, and in the Huth Merlin implied, that Morgain wishing to take vengeance upon Arthur for the deed sends to him a mantle of such a nature that he who first puts it on will fall dead. Arthur has been warned of the fatal character of the gift by the Dame du Lac, and by her advice insists that Morgain's damsel shall be the first to wear it. The instant that she slips it over her shoulders she falls dead. Arthur has a pyre built and the maiden's body burned. This story shows resemblances to the Conte du Mantel,^ the Manteau mal tailU, and the version of the mantle test considered by Warnatsch as the earliest that we have, namely that contained in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet? In these sources a fay sends to court, by a varlet in the French versions, by a maiden in the Lanzelet, a costly mantle which is either too long or too short for all the ladies assembled, except for her who is the faithful wife. In the Huth Merlin the maiden draws the mantle from a silver box ; in the Manteau mal tailU from a velvet box with a silver lock. In the Huth Merlin she tells Arthur that the sender is " la plus vaillans damoisele et la plus biele que je sache orendroit el ^ On the confusion between the fwo tests cf. Child, Ballads, I, 262, note ; War- natsch, Der Mantel, pp. 55 ff. ; Rajna, Fonti, pp. 577 ff. Possibly in the debased form of the horn test that the Tristan records, according to which the women use the horn, there is to be seen the influence of the mantle which is put on by the women of the court. ^ II, 250-253. ^Bk. IV, ch. 15, 16. * Ed. Wulff, Rom., XIV (1885), 358-380. The text probably dates from the end of the twelfth century, and is evidently based upon a version derived from a common source with the Lai du Cor. See Rom., XIV, 344, 355 ; Warnatsch, Der Mantel, p. 60; Child, Ballads, I, 262, note. 6 Vv. 5746 ff. See Warnatsch, p. 69. 122 Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests monde, chou est la damoisele de I'isle face. Et por chou que elle vous a oi prisier seur tous les rois qui soient orendroit el monde vous envoie elle un garnement si chier et si riche que a painnes le porri6s vous prisier." In the Lanzelet the sender is a wise merminne ; in the Conte du Mantel, une pucele de mout lointain pats ; in the Manteau mal tailU, une trh haulte dame qui moult vous aime. In the Huth Merlin the mantle is "de drap de soie si biel et si riche par samblant que se vous le veissids, vous ne cuidissids mie qu'il euust el monde si riche et si vaillant." In Malory it is "the rychest mantel that euer was sene in that Courte | for it was sette as ful of precious stones as one myght stand by another | and there were the rychest stones that euer the kynge sawe." In the Lanzelet the mantle is iridescent, embroidered with flowers and fruits. In the Conte du Mantel it is more beautiful than any ever seen by man, or than can be described. In the Man- teau mal taill^ it is the most beautiful ever seen in England, purple and gold, embroidered with pearls, diamonds and rubies. In the Conte du Mantel the object of the story is to exalt Caradoc's wife ; in the Lanzelet the mantle is sent by the merminne who is his protectress to Iblis, his wife. It is in the termination of the story in the Huth Merlin, therefore, that we find different material from any that we meet in the sources where the enchanted mantle is used" as a constancy test. It is true that in a Gaelic version of the mantle test,^ a poem contained in the Book of the Dean of Lis- more, a compilation of the early sixteenth century, the story takes a fatal turn. Conan, whose wife dons the white seam- less robe, when he sees that it does not fit her, immediately slays her with his spear. Morann Mac Main's truth-testing collar produced more serious physical results than the tests which we have been considering, since it would close around the foot or hand of a false person until it had cut the member off.^ But these instances are scarcely to be placed with the fatal robe of Morgain. It has been compared with Deianira's 1 See Zs. f. celt. Phil., I (1897), 294 ff. ; Arch. Camb., 3rd series, IX, 39. 2 See Stokes and Windisch, III, i, 190, 208. On the Bocca della Verita at Rome, which bit off the finger of a perjurer, and on similar ordeals, cf. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, Leipzig, 1899, II, 560. Morgain in the Horn and Mantle Tests 123 and Medea's poisoned robes.i but the lack of similar details forbids our seeing in the French source more than a reminder of these classical themes. We may with probability regard the version of the Huth Merlin as fashioned after a version of the mantle test, but given a fatal ending, perhaps because it is death that Morgain i^s seeking to avenge. For our purpose the episode has importance because it supplies an indication, as I have said, that Morgain's name was connected with the mantle test before the late conte, and that she sent the robe in anger at the loss of her lover. Since we have seen reason to believe that Morgain's connection with the horn test is early and rests upon an early misunderstanding, it appears probable that her association with the mantle is a reflection of the theme that made her the sender of the horn. 1 See Cox and Jones, Popular Romances of the Middle Ages, London, 1871, p. 40. CHAPTER IX MORGAIN AND AUBEJiON — Auberon, le petit roi sauvaige, Que tout son tans conversa en boscage. Chil Auberons, que tant ot segnoraige, Sachi^s k'il fu fieus Juliien Cesare. Jules ot feme une dame moult sage, Morge ot k nom, moult ot cler le visaige ; Cele fu mere Auberon le sauvaige, Si n'ot plus d'oirs en trestot son ^aige. Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 6-18.I A PERSONAGE like Auberon, to whom tradition has awarded Julius Caesar for a father and Morgain la f6e for a mother, may be supposed to come justly by a composite nature. Auberon is not known in French literature previous to the Huon de Bordeaux?' Here he is depicted as a little king of faerie, who dwells in a wood that men consider perilous owing to his magic power. He owns a wonderful horn and goblet, both of which he gives to Huon, who has to pass through the forest on his way to adventure, and who wins the abiding love of the fairy king by his nobleness and loyalty. Auberon appears before us first in a rdle resembling that of the hdte incommode, who figures in Syre Gawene and the Carle of Carelyle^ the Chevalier d. I'Eph,^ and two Italian canzoni of the fourteenth century ^ ; he has the same power of creating illusions by 1 Cf. vv. 3492-3495 ; 10,379-10,382. 2 For the date of composition see p. 7, note i ; cf. Paris, Rev. Germ.., XVI (1861), 379 ff. ; Rom., XXIX (1900), 215-217; G. Paris, Poemes et Ligendes du Moyen-Age, Paris, s. a., pp. 29 ff. 3 See Madden, Syr Gawayne, London, 1839, pp. 187-206; cf. pp. xxxi, 256- 274, 345- * Ed. Armstrong, Baltimore, 1900; see vv. 184 ff.; cf. ^o«n., XXIX (1900), 595 ff. ^ See Zs.f. rom. Phil., I {1877), 381-387 ; Rivista di Filologia Romanza, II, ii (1875), 221-227 ; Hist. Lift., XXX, 68. Tlie guest of the h6te incommode is, in some versions, warned that if he enters a certain castle he will never return. When he becomes a guest in the castle, he 124 Morgain and Auberon 125 magic as Merlin and many another enchanter ; ^ yet although he owes not a few of his supernatural gifts as well as his dwarfish stature to the destiny given him at birth by fays,^ he ascribes his power to Jesus,^ and prefers his appointed seat in Paradise to the joys of faerie.* Thus with his other-world attributes as fairy king and enchanter there is mingled a churchly influence,^ which indicates that the mate- rial is not in its pure original form.® All that is appropriate here is to ascertain, if possible, what significance should be attached to his connection with Morgain, as perhaps the most important, certainly the most attractive, of her reputed children.^ The origin of Auberon's name has been made the subject of extensive discussion, and his relation to Alberich, the dwarf of German legend, as well as his position in the story of Hiwn de Bordeaux, carefully examined.^ Little has been said discovers that the lord has the habit of beating or killing those who do not give implicit obedience to his orders. He who renders the required obedience is rewarded by valuable gifts from the host, even the hand of his daughter. Huon, before entering the dangerous wood whence none return, is warned that if he speaks to Auberon he will never leave the dwarf's domains. In reality he learns that the risk for him lies in not obeying Auberon's orders. By refusing to heed Auberon's command to speak, his life is endangered, and only by compliance with his host's bidding that he return his greeting can Huon escape death at Auberon's hands. Obedience, on the contrary, brings a rich reward (see vv. 3456, 3479-3489). On the friendship of Huon and Auberon see Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, Halle, 1900, p. 125. For a collection of episodes dealing with the hSte incommode, and a brief discussion, see Chevalier h I'Mpie, ed. Armstrong, pp. 67-69. 1 See Schofield, Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass., XVI (1901), 419, note i ; cf. also Vul- gate Merlin, p. 253 ; Huth Merlin, II, 149 ff . ; Maury, Les Fdrets de la Caule, Paris, 1867, p. 332. 2 Vv. 3497-3562, 10,388-10,403. 8 V. 371 1. * Vv. 10,453-10,458. 6 See Hummel, Archiv f. Studien der neueren Sp., LX (1878), 307 ff . ; Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, 263. Note the sign of the cross with which Auberon blesses his goblet, Huon, vv. 3648-3659. 6 See Graf, Auberon, pp. xx, xxi ; Lindner, Ueber die Beziehungen des Ortnit zu Huon de Bordeaux, Rostock, 1872, p. 17. ' Cf. G. Paris, Aventures Merveilleuses de Huon de Bordeaux, Paris, 1898, pp. ii, iii. 8 For a bibliography on this subject see Gautier, Bibl. des Chansons de ■Geste, Paris, 1897, pp. 61, 132 ff. ; Nyrop-Gorra, Storia dell' Epopea francese, Turin, 1888, pp. 112 ff., 448. See also Paris, Rom., XXIX (1900), 209 ff. ; Becker, Zs.f. rom. Phil., XXVI (1902), 265 ff. 1 26 Morgain and Auberon about the parentage assigned to him in the poem.^ Villemarqu6^ maintained that Auberon and a Celtic fairy king, Gwyn-Araun, are one and the same. " Gwyn-Araun est sorti comme un Eclair d'un nuage (ab nudd), disent les traditions galloises, et a ^t6 nourri par Morgan, la magicienne, la reine des fdes." He gives no greater authority for this statement, which, in view of the untrustworthy character that Paris has shown ^ belongs to Villemarqud's further development of his theory of Auberon's origin, should be dismissed from consideration. Auberon, however, is not an isolated figure in the pages of romance. In the Perceval we have the description of a Petit Chevalier, the defender of an other-world garden.* Gaheriet, all unaware of the fact that he is committing a trespass, enters a certain magic castle, and learns to his regret that he must pay for his intrusion by fighting with a Petit Chevalier in the garden of the castle.^ Atant entre li chevaliers Qui petis fu, et ses diestriers Estoit petis k sa mesure ; I50U sambloit une faiture. N'estoit mie fais comme nains ; Pids et jambes et bras et mains Et teste et n^s et.elx et vis Ot bien estans, ce m'est avis ; Uns biaus petis chevaliers fere, Ne vos puis dire la mature ; Savds qu'il avoit sor I'argon Demi pid de bu et plus non ; 1 See Stimming, Zs. f. rom. Phil., II (1878), 610; Graf, Auberon, pp. xff. ; Hummel, Archiv f. Studien der neueren Sp., LX, 307, 308 ; Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, 124, 251. Paris has recently suggested a reason why Julius Caesar was elected to be Auberon's father. The ancient tower of the Chateau de Mens was called the Tour Auberon as early as 1425. " Une tradition erudite, que des his- toriens modernes ont cru pouvoir defendre, attribuait (comme le fait Guichardin) a Jules Cesar la premiere fondation de cette tour, et il est fort possible que ce soit pour cela que, dans notre po^me, Jules Cesar est donne pour p^re \ Auberon" (^Rom., XXIX, 217, note 2). 2 Quoted in Huon de Bordeaux, pp. xxii-xxv. Cf. Price, Literary Remains, Llandovery and London, 1854, I, 285-286. ^ Rev. Germ., XVI, 384; cf. Auberon, p. xviii; Voretzsch, Epische Studien, I, 251. « Vv. 21,135-21,724. ^ For the conclusion of the adventure see above, p. 89. Morgain and Auberon 127 Escu ot point et bien burni Et petite lance autresi, Et moult avoit rice auqueton Et portoit petit gonfanon.^ The analogy is even closer between Auberon and another little knight in the Perceval, the Chevalier Petit del castel de la forest grande^ one of the many magic castles with which Gaucher de Dourdan delighted to adorn his pages. Deviser vos voel sa faiture Si com le conte li escris : II fu n^s et engenuis En Gales, dont je di les contes.' The descriptions of this little knight and of Auberon, le petit roi sauvaige, le noble chevalier,^ are very similar, as we may see by. placing them side by side. Huon de Bordeaux: — Li petis hons vint par le gaut ramd, Et fu tous teus que 3 a dire m'orrds: Aussi biaus fu con solaus en estd, Et fu vestus d'un paile gironn^ A .XXX. bendes de fin or esmerd ; A fiex de sole ot lacife les cost^s. (Vv. 3217-3222.) Ainc ne vi homme de si grande biaut^ Dix! comme est biaus, qui I'a bien regard^ ! Dix ne fist homme di si grande biaut^. (Vv. 341 2-3414.) 5 Cou m'est avis, par sainte caritd Que il n'ait mie plus de .v. ans pasd. (Vv. 3421, 3422.) Auberon : — Cils Auberon, puis qu'ot vil ans passes, Ne crut en haut, ch'ai en escrit trouve. (Vv. 1430, 1431.) 1 Vv. 21,289-21,304. ' Perceval, vv. 31,674-31,677. * Perceval, vv. 32,087, 32,088. * Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 6, 26. 6 Cf. vv. 3504, 3508-3511, 10,175-10,177, 10,393, 10,397-10,400. Perceval : — Li chevaliers qui Ik venoit Ert moult petis k desmesure ; Mais onques nule creature D'oume et de fame ne fu nde Dont on fesist ains renomm^e Ne fu si bele, au mien espoir ; Moult belement ert atorn^s, Se le voir escouter voles, D'une cote vert de cendal ; Mais si petis est k cheval C'uns enfes de .vil. ans sambloit Mious c'autre chose qui jk soit. (Vv. 31,682-31,698.) 128 Morgain and Auberon The Petit Chevalier is the owner of a beautiful little ivory horn which gives a mighty blast and, like Auberon' s, compels an instant response from the hearers.^ He, too, is a forest knight, who passes his time in the defence of a silver shield that hangs on a tree not far from his castle walls. No knight has ever been able to take it from him, for none can bear it away unless he is not only himself gifted with knightly graces but also has a love who is perfectly constant to him.^ The renown of the shield is so great that Arthur with the consent of the Petit Chevalier offers it as a prize at a tourney. Gawain, whose love at that time happens to be Taurde, the sister of the Petit Chevalier, alone is able to win and defend the shield. Auberon was once the proud possessor of a shining white hauberk,^ which at the time of the story told in the Huon has been taken from him by the giant Orgileus, who has seized the castle of Dunostre where it was kept. Its qualities are almost identical with those of the little knight's shield, although since there is no question as yet of an amie for Huon, who covets the hauberk,* dramatic propriety makes it test the constancy of the wearer's mother, not of his lady. Auberon also is practically the defender of his enchanted cup and horn, and will bestow neither of them upon the hero, until he has met the required tests : — Nus n'i puet boire s'il n'est preudom par Dd, Et nes et purs et sans pecid mortel. Lues ke mauvais i veut se main Jeter, A il perdu du hanap le bontd. Si m'ait Diex, li rois de maist^, Se t 'i pues boire, il te sera donnd.' 1 Perceval, vv. 31.7 44-31.755. 31.893-31.899; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3359-3375, 4481-4498, 6627-6641. Cf. the harp of Finn's dwarf, Silva Gadelica, II, 116, 117. 2 Cf. Valentin et Orson, Troyes, 1726, p. 48, for an enchanted shield made in fairyland and given to the owner by a fay, which cannot be taken from a certain tree except by the knight who is valiant enough to conquer the owner. 2 Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 4574-4588, 5053-5072. * n., vv. 5054-5092 ; cf. Auberon, vv. 1067-1074. 5 Vv. 3668-3673. Cf. vv. 3691-3703; also vv. 3704-3708: Dist Auberons : " Encore atenderfe, Car j'ai jaiens .1. cor d'ivoire cler, Et por itant preudomme t'ai trov6 Et net et pur et sans pecii mortel, Le te donrai, si aie jou sant6." Morgain and Auberon 1 29 The little knight from Gales, then, and Auberon are both essentially defenders of fidelity tests, which require virtue on the part of the wearer, and convey additional power to him who wins them.^ That the class of beings to which Auberon and his brother knights in the Perceval belong had a place in Celtic popular tradition is shown by a story that Giraldus Cambrensis reports in his Itinerarium Cambriae^ as told in his time at Swansea. A certain worthy presbyter, Eliodorus, who (despite his future dignity) as a small boy was not free from the foibles of youth, once upon a time during his school days played truant. He scampered off to a river's bank, and hid in a hollow near at hand. Here there came to him two little men {homun- culi duo staturae qtcasi pignteae) who led him away to their home in an underground land, mirky but very beautiful. The little men Giraldus describes at some length : — " Erant autem homines staturae minimae, sed pro quantitatis captu valde compositae: flavi omnes, et luxuriante capillo, muliebriter per humeros coma demissa. Equos habebant suae competentes modicitati, leporariis in quantitate conformes.^ - . . luramenta eis nulla : nihil enim adeo ut mendacia detestabantur. Quoties de superiori hemi- sphaerio revertebantur, ambitiones nostras, infidelitates et inconstantias exspuebant. Cultus eis religionis palam nuUus ; veritatis solum, ut videbatur, amatores praecipui et cultores." Having before us this testimony of Giraldus to a Celtic belief in certain beautiful other-world dwarfs, who hated false- hood and held aloof from the sins of mortals, we can under- stand why Auberon and the Petit Chevalier from Gales ( Wales) are associated with tests of truth and constancy, and why Auberon loves nothing so well as loiautd. He declares to Huon, Je vous aim tant por vo grant loiaut^ Que plus vous aim c'omme de mere nd,* and he informs the emperor. Si m'aft Dix, li rois de mai'st^, Moult aimme droit et foi et loiautd ; 1 See Lanzeltt, vv. 6197-6199, for the advantages conferred upon the wearer by the fidelity mantle. Cf. Perceval, vv. 31,805-31,829 with Lai du Cor, vv. 226-250. ^ Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. F. Dimock, London, 1861-77, VI, Itin. Camb., Bk. I, ch. 8. ' Cf. further with Giraldus's description Perceval, vv. 21,293-21,295, 31,689- 31,692, 31,750-31,753, 32,118-32,120 (see, however, vv. 32,121, 32,122) ; Auberon, vv. 1615-1620. ♦ Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3488, 3489. 130 Morgain and Auberon Pour chou aim jou Huon le baceler, Car preudon est, et bien I'ai esprov^.'^ Morgain and Auberon thus, we see, each by a separate line of tradition became endowed with a truth-testing drinking vessel. There is then perhaps a deeper reason for the legend that Morgain was Auberon's mother than the mere desire to give the dwarf a distinguished family connection. The same principle by which two heroes, Graelemor and Guingamor, were made brothers because of the similarity of their adventures,^ may be responsible for the relationship of parent and child that exists between two other-world beings each possessing the same magic object.^ Auberon in this way would justly be made a fairy king. An explanation might then be necessary for the fact that the son of the beautiful Morgain was petis nains bocer^s, and hence Auberon's tiny stature and deformity are accounted for by the presence of a malicious fay at his cradle.* It is unsatisfactory to leave the question of the relationship between Morgain and Auberon without looking once more at 1 lb., vv. 10,405-10,408 ; cf. vv. 5386-5389 ; 10,247, 10,448. Desor ta loiaute, en fine loiauti, and similar phrases are favorite expressions of Auberon's ; see vv- 3576, 3667, 3696, 3698, 3716, 3722, 10,441. 2 See Erec, vv. 1952-1954 ; Bel Inconnu, vv. 5424-5427. Zimmer, Zs.f.fr.Sf., XIII (1893), 16 ; Lays of Graelent, etc., p. 126. Cf. also the tradition in Italian sources (Tavola Ritonda, ch. vi; Pulzella Gaia, St. 95) that makes Morgana and the Dama del Lago sisters. ' Without entering here upon the vexed question of Auberon's relation to Alberich, the dwarf of Germanic legend, I would call attention to the fact that none of the special attributes in Auberon which are significant in pointing out the possible origin of his connection with Morgain appear in Alberich in the Ortnit. Cf., on the Celtic element in Auberon, Paris, Rev. Germ., XVI, 384 ; Poemes et Legendes, pp. 84 ff.; Stimming, Zs. f. rom. Phil., II (1878), 610. Esclarmonde (pp. 64, 145) and the late prose versions of Huon make Auberon's mother the Queen of the He Celee, the love of Florimont (see Paris, MSS. franc. III, 26, 27), perhaps owing to the tradition that a fairy queen was his mother; see Paris, Rev. Germ., XVI, 386 ; Huon de Bordeaux, pp. xxi ff. ; Graf, Auberon, p. xii; Hummel, Archiv f St. der neueren Sp., LX, 308; Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London, 1850, p. 41. In the fourteenth-century romance of Ogier le Danois, Auberon is said to be Morgain's brother ; see Dunlop-Liebrecht, pp. 141, 535, no. 20. * Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3500-3504, 10,389-10,393. There is not a hint of physical deformity in the little knights whom I have described. It is however unusual to find a dwarf in the romances who is not a humpback (cf. Voretrsch, Episcke Studien, I, 125), and convention appears to have introduced the blemish on Auberon's beauty as a later addition to the characteristics that belong properly to the truth-loving dwarfs. Morgain and Auberon 1 3 r the accounts of the white hauberk of Dunostre. In Huon de Bordeaux Dunostre is a tower by the sea built by Auberon's father, Julius Caesar. En .XL. ans ne fut pas manouvr^s. Onques si bele ne vit nus hom carn^s : lliw fenestres peut on laiens trover, .XXV. cambres a ou palais list^ ; Ains de plus rices n' 01 nus hom parler. At the entrance stand two men of copper each holding a flail of iron with which through summer's heat and winter's cold they deal unceasing blows. Not even the swift swallow can enter and escape death.^ Figures of metal wielding weapons at the entrance of an other-world castle occur elsewhere,^ and once such a device is described at the gate of a castle of Morgain's. The description occurs in the prose Tristan ^ in the course of a rather flavorless incident. GifHet le filz Dou comes to the Castle Ar^s, and finds that his entrance is barred by a knight of metal made par grant soutiliece. Morgain had enchanted the castle and sought refuge there, when Tristan was in quest of her.* By a comparison of two other sources we find a second point of resemblance between Dunostre and a castle of Morgain's. One of these is the romance of Fergus, written by Guillaume le Clerc, probably in the beginning of the thirteenth century.^ Fergus has lost his love, and is told by a dwarf that he can regain her only if he is sufficiently preu et sage to achieve, the adventure of the marvel- lously radiant white shield of Dunostre, which renders the wearer invulner- able. The tower of Dunostre is situated on a rock beaten on all sides by the sea; it has but one entrance and this is guarded by an old woman {la vieille niossue), who wields a flail of steel a foot and a half broad, with which she decapitates every knight who dares attempt the entrance to the tower.' Further adventures await Fergus before he attains the shield. * Vv. 4SS3-4S70; of. vv. 4715 ff. ^ See below, p. 168, for the description of the pavilion of Aalardin del Lac ; Perceval, I, 64; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 155, 196; cf. above, p. 53, note ; Brown, Studies and /fotes,\lll, yj S.. i ' Loseth, § 296 a. * Of this quest we have no definite information as Loseth (1. c.) remarks ; Mor- gain, however, is hostile to Tristan after he slays her lover Hunison. See Loseth, § 191, pp. 374, 382, 384 ; Malory, Bk. IX, ch. 42, 43 ; Tavola Ritonda, ch. Ixxi, cxxiv. 5 Ed. Martin, Halle, 1872. See pp. xii, xxiii, xxiv; cf. Paris, La Litt.fratif. au Moyen. Age, Paris, 1890, p. 250. « Vv. 3734-3739. 3819 ff- 132 Morgain and Auberon We cannot be sure whether this description of Dunostre antedates that in the Huon or not, and there is not sufificient resemblance in the versions to denote interdependence. The contest with the old crone has a wilder character than the figures of the knights of copper, and reminds us of certain Celtic stories in which a hero is enticed into a magic cave, where he has a struggle with a hag, who sometimes gives him a disastrous blow with a druidical club.^ The second source of which I have spoken is the interpolated text of the Roman de TMbes, known as MS. S."^ A tower of Morgain's has become the property of a devil named Astarot, who has assumed the form of a hideous old woman, and propounds the riddle of the Sphinx to all comers. Polinices and Tydeus visit the tower ; Tydeus knows the answer to the riddle, and thus is able to put the devil to death. La vieille sorciere is said to be completely green, to have shaggy ears that veil her form, red eyes, nails like a lion's claws, teeth like tusks. La vieille ne fu mie liee, Ainz fu molt laide et liericie[e].^ In Fergus, la vieille mossue who demands a contest with every new comer, not being really a devil, is by so much less revolting than this figure, and is described more briefly. Desus le pont en estant voit Le vielle laide et hirechie. Eta son col le fauc drecie. S'ot les grenons Ions et trecies. Entre deus eols ot bien deus pies, Les dens agus et sors et les. Bien sanble aversiers u maufes.* It is always a hazardous matter to base a theory of the relation between sources on descriptions of objects that are common- place in romance. Just as Odysseus is wily and ^neas pious, so the magic castle and the loathly lady have certain charac- teristics that are practically their inevitable, or at all events their normal accompaniments.^ But it is noteworthy that both Dunostre and a castle of Morgain's are protected by copper ^ For examples see p. 216. 2 The poem belongs to the same period as the Roman de Troie ; see above, p. 7, note 1 1 Grober, Grundriss der rom. Phil., Strassburg, 1888-1901, II, i, 582. = Vv. 2893 ft. 4 Vv. 4075-4081. ' See Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, ch. iv. Morgain and Auberon I33 knights with weapons, and that Dunostre in one version is guarded by a hideous old crone, and Morgain's castle by a simi- lar figure in another ; moreover that this castle of Morgain's, according to the description, is very like her castle Pela Orso, the scene of an adventure in Pulzella Gaia} and also Avalon as it is depicted in the Bataille Loquifer ;^ furthermore, Morgain herself appears in the form of a loathly lady in one source, the Middle English poern of Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight^ It would be interesting to know more about the history of Dunostre. In Fergus it is characterized by a wonderfully bril- liant light, which is attributed to the white shield within its walls. In this respect it bears comparison with Dun-an-Oir, s 1 St. 75 ff. Cf. above, p. loo, note i. 2 Cf . the following passages from the Roman de Thibes and Bataille Loquifer : — Roman de Thibes, MS. S., vv. 281 1 £E. Bataille Loquifer, p. 249. Avalon is far beyond the sea, which washes its shores. Un[e] tor i ot grant et l(i)ee Avalon fu mult riche et assazfe, Qe jadis fu(s)t Morgan la fee. Onques si riche a.\k ne fu fondle ; One hom(me) mais taunt haut[e] ne vit, Li mur en sont d'une grant pierre Ife, Ffor[s] sol ycfel[e] de Habit. H n'est nus hons, tant ait la char navrfe, Une pierre ot sur le portal, S'k cele pierre pooist fere adesfe Onques mais hom ne vit ital, Qu'ele ne fust tout maintenant san6e ; Qar uns enfes de quatorze anz Adis reluit com fournaise embrasfe. Le defendreit de mil jaianz ; Chescune porte est d'yvoire planfe Et desoz est le pavement La mestre tour estoit si compassfe Tout entailli6 a fin argent. N'i avoit pierre ne fust i or fondfe. D'esmals et de bericles cl&s -V-c. fenestras y cloent la vesprfe I ot enter trente pilars; C'onques de fust n'i ot une denrfe. El maistre pan, qe fu davant, H n'i ot ays saillie, ne dorfe Ot quatre pierres d'adamant; Qui de vemiz ne soit fete et ouvrfe. Sus en I'usserie d'or fin Et en chescune une pierre fondfe Sont li novascle en lor latin, Une esmeraude, .j. grant topace 16e, Et en un safre de colors Beric, jagonce, ou sadoine esmerte. Ffurent paintes toutes les flors. La couverture fu a or treget^e, Trestoz les chanz qi sont d'oiseals Sus .j. pommel fu I'aygle d'or fermfe, Poet I'en oir par les arceals. En son bee tint une pierre esprouvfe ; Hom s'il la voit ou soir ou matinee, La tour est tout[e] environe[e] Quanqu'il demande ne li soit aprest6e. Qe pas ne poet estre emane[e] Laiens converse la gent qui ert faee. D'un lac qe fu granz et parfonz. 3 Vv. 947-967, 2463. See p. 151 for passages indicating a twofold tradition in regard to Morgain's beauty. There are many examples in Celtic story of a fay's assuming a revolting form in order to test a hero (see Hist. Lift., XXVI, 105 ; for further examples cf. Maynadier, as above, ch. ii). Possibly the old crone of Dunostre originally was a fay who followed the same practice, and was ready to transform herself into a beautiful damsel at the fitting deed of the knight. 1 34 Morgain and Auberon Fort of the Gold, an enchanted golden city described in the Celtic Lay of the Great Fool {Amadan Mor), to which I have already had occasion to refer. The radiance from Dun-an-Oir shines afar : — 'T was not long till they saw in the valley A city that shone like unto gold ; There was no colour which eye had seen That was not in the mansion, and many more.^ This beautiful city is closely paralleled in French material by the He d'Or in the Bel Inconnu,"^ and by the magic castle, Chef d'Oire,^ in Partonopeus, and may fairly be taken as a typical description of that other world to which the He d'Or, Chef d'Oire and Dunostre belong, even if we can trace positively no intimate connection between the suggestively similar names of these dwellings. In all of the cases we are dealing with the same type of abode. Each is characterized by unsurpassed wealth of material and color, and one description may very easily be changed with another without altering our conception of the scenes.* At the same time the passages describing Morgain's dwelling appear to be strung on one thread ; and they allow us, if we like to indulge our fancy with the possibili- ties of romantic narrative, to build up a story in which Morgain in the guise of a hag tested a hero at the entrance to her castle, 1 Trans. Oss. Soc, VI, 173. 2 Vv. 1859 ff. See Studies and Notes, IV, 171 ff. " Vv. 786 ff. ; cf. vv. 1760 ff. The author of the Partonopeus says that the castle was named from the river Oire on the banks of which it stood : — Einsi Vai fait por fo nommer \ COire sort ci et ciet en mer (vv. 1761, 1762). The editor of the poem, Crapelet (I, lix), explains Oire as " un grand cours d'eau," and con- cludes that since Melior is the heiress of Constantinople the Oire is the Bosphorus. Melior, however, was not the first fay to be rationalized into a princess of Constanti- nople (cf. below, pp. 156-162), and the name of her dwelling may have been affected by a similar process. According to Paris (La Vie de Saint Alexis, ed. Paris and Pannier, Paris, 1872, p. 194) and Berger (Lehnworter in der franz. Sprache dltester Zeit, Leipzig, 1899, pp. 201, 202) oire, which survives in the name Montoire, is derived from the Latin aureus. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was used, Paris says (1. c), only in the combination Fortes aires, i.e., the Portae aureae of Jerusalem. The author of Partonopeus doubtless had some early form before him, and being unfamiliar with it sought an explanation. (On oire cf. also G. 'Pz.ris, Journal des Savants, 1900, p. 301, note 1.) * For similar descriptions cf. Perceval, vv. 21,135 ff' 26,448 ff. ; Sir Orfeo, ed. Zielke, Breslau, 1880, vv. 353-374- Morgain and Auberon 135 which was as beautiful an abode as Avalon, easily confused or identified with such a brilliant place as Dun-an-Oir, and named eventually Dunostre^ One step more we may take in conjecture. An incident is told of Morgain in the prose romances ^ in which she is said to be the owner of a shield that she gives to Tristan when he lodges at her castle, bidding him bear it in Arthur's presence at a tourney to which he is bound. The device of the shield is a knight resting his feet upon the head of a king and queen ; by this means Morgain intends to reveal to the king the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. This looks like a late devel- opment of the stories of the fidelity tests with which Morgain is connected. It possibly points to a tradition in which she, like the Petit Chevalier, owned a shield of the earlier type that would more directly betray the guilty lovers. If such a tra- dition did exist, it would account for the connection of Mor- gain's castle, which seems to have been named Dunostre, with the wonderful shield of Fergus, and also for its fitting asso- ciation with Auberon's hauberk after she had been made his mother. 1 DunoslK has been identified with Dunottar, a castle near Stoneham, by Martin, Fergus, p. xx. " See Loseth, §§ 190-192 ; Malory, Bk. IX, ch. 41 ; Tavola Ritonda, ch. Ixxx, Ixxxii. CHAPTER X MORGAIN, THE SISTER OF ARTHUR Where other-world themes and situations are concerned, the true nature of Morgain may be traced with a reasonable degree of probability, but when tradition seeks to bind her to human kind by family ties, a tangled skein is the result. Morgain's connection with Arthur is primarily romantic and mythical ; she should not properly be included among his kindred. To her original connection with him a large proportion of the epi- sodes related of her should be referred, and by it her attitude toward him apd toward the queen should be explained. So it is not surprising to find that the most widely emphasized human relationship of Morgain is with the king himself. Beginning with those passages which may be dated' with comparative assurance,^ we find nothing before Chretien that gives an )» trace of her mundane kinship. In Chretien's Erec^ in Hartmann von Aue's Erec^ in one manuscript of the Bataille %.oquifer,^ throughout the prose romances, in the thirteenth-century romances of Floriant et Florete '" and Claris et Laris^ as well as in the Auberon^ in the fourteenth-century romance of Ogier le Danois^ in the Arthour and Merlin^ and in Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight}^ she is represented as Arthur's sister. Here and there a confusion in the tradition arises, for Gaucher de Dourdan makes her Arthur's niece, ^^ the author of Brun de la Montaigne Arthur's cousin.i^ and Giraldus Cambrensis refers vaguely to a Morgain who is a kinswoman of Arthur.^^ The real point of perplexity upon which the records throw no light, is how and why tradition allowed the fairy queen, Arthur's love, the healer of his wounds, to occupy the unromantic position 1 The lay of Tyolet is of uncertain date ; hence the reference in v. 630 to Evain le filz Morgain is excluded here. 2 V. 4218. ^ Vv. 808, 998, 2379. ' See Dunlop-Liebrecht, p. 535, no. 20. 11 Perceval, v. 30,326. 136 "'V.515S- * See p. 50, note 2. 6 V. 3663. ■f V. 1211. » V. 4445. i» Vv. 2464-2466. 12 V. 3252. 13 See p. 35, note 2. Morgain, the Sister of Arthur 137 of his sister. Giraldus Cambrensis, it is true, gives us the result of one rationalization of the Avalon theme in his account of Arthur's burial by a dignified kinswoman, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that this same tendency went a step farther and converted the kinswoman into a sister. Such a story might have grown up at any time after the identification of Avalon with Glastonbury, but it is altogether questionable whether it would have been sufficiently wide-reaching to account i,ox the strength of the tradition that made Morgain Arthur's .sister. Again, though Arthur is not always the vic- tim of propriety, we might perhaps allow ourselves to fancy that he is in this case, and that some scrupulous narrator has transformed his stay with the beautiful fay in Avalon into his sojourn with a sister who tended his wounds. Or we might permit ourselves the conjecture that the broader significance of the old French suer (sister) frequently used by a lover to his lady, or a husband to his wife, lies at the foundation of the tradition.^ Not much can be said in support of any of these ideas, none of which accounts satisfactorily for so persistent a feature in the legend. A confusion that we find actually occurring in early sources supplies a different explanation which appears more tenable. To form a just idea of the situation we must summon Arthur's sisters before us. According to Geoffrey,^ Wacq ^ and Lajamon,* he had but one, Anna ; she is given in marriage to Lot of Londonesia or Leoneis, and becomes the mother of Gawain. By the time of the prose romances the royal damsels have multiplied in number, created probably by tradition as a convenient means of bringing certain kings into a closer rela- tion with Arthur by marriage. Here besides Morgain, Arthur has a sister, Hermisant, who marries Urien of Garlot,^ another, 1 See Aucassin et Nicolete, ed. Suchier, Paderborn, 1889, 23, v. 18; 25, v. 15; Aliscans, ed. Guessard, Paris, 1870, v. 1936; Erec, v. 5834; Auberon, v. 1236; Lai de la Rose, ed. Paris, Rom., XXIII (1894), 117 ff., v. 40. 2 Hist. Brit., Bk. VIII, ch. 20, 21. 2 Brut, vv. 9053, 9872, 10,051. * Brut, vv. 19,270 £f. ; cf. Gervasius of Tilbury (Otia Imperialid), ed. Leibnitz, I, 935, 936 ; John Fordun, Scotorum Historia, ap. Gale, Historia Britannica, Saxonies, Anglo-Danicce Scriptores XV, Oxford, 1691, I, 635. 6 Paris, R. T. R. {Le Roi Artus), II, 138 ; Livre d'Artus, P., p. 38, note I; Artkour and Merlin, v. 7627. 138 Morgain, the Sister of Arthur Blasine (Basyne), who is given in marriage to Neutre of Sorhaut,^ and still another, Elaine, who according to Malory'^ was bestowed on Nentre of Garlot ; a fourth and nameless sister marries Karadan,* or Briadas,* and dies. Anna disappears com- pletely from the romances, and although in the various accounts of the giving in marriage of the king's sisters, Lot is said to receive one of them, she is not mentioned by name until the Arthour and Merlin,^ where it is said that Lot married Belisant ; but her name is coupled with Blasine and Hermisant, and from its very collocation looks suspiciously as if it had been coined for the occasion. In Diu Cr-dne Igerne lives in her magic castle with her daughter Orcades (Morchades),^ the mother of Gawain — a tradition that by transferring to the wife of Lot the name of his territory, Orcades, Orcanie (the Orkneys), repre- sents one of the easiest possible devices for naming her.'^ In Malory the mother of Gawain is Morgause (Margawse).^ In this confusion a few facts can be recognized. The authority of the earliest records assures us that the wife of Lot and mother of Gawain is Arthur's only sister, Anna. Blasine, Hermisant, Belisart, Elaine, Emine, Orcades, and Morgause are assuredly mere names attached to an otherwise completely impersonal figure. Anna in the chronicles, Morgain in the romances, are the two important sisters of the king mentioned by name and appearing with an individual career, 1 Paris, R. T. R., II, 132, 309 ; cf. Vulgate Merlin, pp. 102, 134; Livre d'Artus, P., p. 38, note I ; English Merlin, pp. 177, 242; Arthour and Merlin, v. 4559. 2 Bk. I, ch. 2. 8 Vulgate Merlin, p. I02. * English Merlin, p. 121. 6 Vv. 4572, 7638. Cf. Madden, Sir Gawayne, London, 1839, p. xii, note. Alain Bouchard (Les Grandes Croniques de Bretaigne, Nantes, 1886, fo. 48) says that Igema had three children ; the eldest, Anna or Emine married Budic, king of Armoric Britain, the second was Arthur, the third was the wife of Lot. Cf. Ger- vasius of Tilbury (Otia Imperialia), ed. Leibnitz, I, 936. «Vv. 21,034, 21,727, 21,771, 22,321, 23,722; cf. Perceval, vv. 10,280 fi., for another version of the same episode, in which the mother of Gawain is not named. Cf. also Perceval, v. 20,967 : — there sat beside King Lot at a festival Queen Mar- cades {Morgadis, MS. Mpl.). Morchades (Marcadis) is perhaps merely a mis- take for Orcades. Markady (Marchadis) was an authentic mascuUne name ; see Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle, ed. Wright, London, 1866-1868, II, 120. ' Cf. Dame Liones, Malory, Bk. VII, ch. 13 ff.; Lady Lisle of Avelyon, Id., Bk.IL ch. I, 4 (see glossary, s.v. ; cf. Morte Darthur, ed. Wright, London, 1866, p. 59, note I) ; Davalon lifters, Diu CrSne, v. 2334, probably a misunderstanding of the phrase sire dAvalon in Erec, v. 1955. 8 Bk. I, ch. 2. See also below, pp. 141 ff. Morgain, the Sister of Arthur 139 and in the case of Anna even this is practically non-episodic. Of these two sisters Morgain never appears in the chronicles, Anna never in the French romances.^ Whence Anna came and whither she went are alike uncertain. Her name has a scriptural rather than a Celtic appearance, and whatever infor- mation regarding her may have been contained in Geoffrey's source, the former associations seem to have clung about the name at all events in La3amon's mind when he wrote, jEfter Arthur was iboren : J)eo aedie burde heo wes ihaten ^ne $ aedien maiden.^ There are three passages to which it is useful to call atten- tion here. The first is from the Lebor Gebhala or Book of Occupation which is preserved in the Book of Leinster. Here the Irish war-goddess Ana or Anann, known as Mater deorum Hibernensium? is mentioned with Badb and Macha as the daughter of Emmas, but in a versified form of the same poem Ana has disappeared, and the lines run according to Hennessy's translation: Badb and Macha, rich the store, Morrigan who dispenses confusion. This is not at all a common identification, and in the account of the battle of Magh-Tuiredh,* all four goddesses are men- tioned ; but the passage supplies an instance of the substitu- tion of Morrigan {Morgan) for Ana {Anna). The second passage to which I refer is Malory's version of the episode of Arthur and the enchantress Annowre.^ We have already seen that one form of this incident was probably attached to Morgain. In other words a name resembling Anna, and the name Morgain are associated with the same series of events. 1 Cf. however the Latin romance, probably of the thirteenth century, De Ortu Waluuanii, ed. Bruce, Trans. Mod. Lang. Ass., XIII (1898), 390 ff. ^ Brut, vv. 19,270-19,273. For an evident confusion between Ana the Irisli war-goddess, and Anna, the cousin of the Virgin, cf . the Welsh pedigrees in Jesus College MS. 20, which is said to belong to the thirteenth century, cited by Rh^s and Jones, The Welsh People, London, 1900, p. 42. 3 See Rev. Celt., I (1870-1872), 37; XII (1891), 128; Rhys and Jones, The Welsh People, pp. 42, 132 ; Stokes and Windisch, III, ii (C6ir Anmann), 289. « Rev. Celt., I, 40. ^ See pp. 19-21. 140 Morgaiii, tin- Sister of Arthur The third passage that I have _ in mind has a purely con- jectural value. In the Welsli Piir(hii\} Gwalchmei, and in Knllnvcli and Olwcii^ Gwalchmei and Gwalhavet, arc mentioned as the sons of Gwyar. Of this name Rh^s says : " Gwyar is a word used by Welsh poets in the sense of shed blood ; so that as a proper name it seems to refer to Gwalchmei's mother as a war-fury. . . , The interest of the name Gwyar, then, consists in its placing the bearer of it on the level of the Irish M6rrfgu, as a war-fury." " But, if it belongs to Gwalchmei's mother at all,* when put beside (leoffrey's words it places its bearer on a nearer level with the war-goddess Ana. We find Ana, a war-goddess, in Irish tradition ; Anna, the mother of Gawain, in early sources in ICngland and P'nince ; a term applicable, according to Rh^s's interpretation, to Ana the war-goddess, given to one of Gwalchmei's parents in Welsh material. This is an analogous situation to that which we shall meet in the case of the Morrigan : in a certain epi.sode in a French source she retains her Irish name in a French form ; in Welsh material in the same episode a term synonymous with hei; name is used." The evidence thus far indicates that tradition made Anna the mother of Gawain in her origin essen- tially the same sort of being that Morgain was in her origin, and that a consequent confusion in name between Anna and Morgain accounts for Anna's disappearance from the romances and Morgain's appearance there as Arthur's sister." To Anna as the mother of Gawain, Arthur's nephew,'^ this position belonged by the time when Geoffrey wrote his Ilistoria, whatever her origin may have been ; but there is excellent reason to believe that it had not been Morgain's from the time when tradition first associated her with Arthur. 1 Mabinoffion, I, 299. ^ Mabinogion, II, 267. ' Arlhuri(xn Legends p. 169) cf, pp. 228, 235. ' Sec, however, San Marlt-, Hist. Reg. Brit., p. 380, note, where ho treats Gwyar as the name (if Gwalchmei's father, " See pp. r 56 Tf. " Kh^B {Arthurian r.i\i;eml, p. 22) has Implied that this la conceivable, but with- out giving the reason for his suggestion:- " C eoffroy calls Loth's wife Anna, but she is probably Id be identified with Arthur's sister called Morgan le Kay in the romances." ' Gawain was Arthur's nephew sis early an 1125) see Hist. Litt., XXX, 29. Morgain, the Sister of Arthur 141 Both statement and incident here and there tend to confirm the existence of such a tradition and confusion. In the first place there are some significant words addressed to Gawain in the romance, L'Atrc Pcrillous} which belongs probably in the second half of the thirteenth century.^ Une autre cose vous en di, Si savds bien, si est ensl : Vostre mere si fu moult sage, Auques vous dist de son corage, Je sai bien qu'ele fu fade, Si vous dist vostre destinde, Et vous acointa sans mentir, Quanques vous devoit avenir." In the second place we have from an unexpected quarter an example of the actual substitution of Morgain for Anna in tradition. In the fragment of a Greek poem of uncertain date, contained in a manuscript of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, a certain king addressing Gawain, says : OfioKoylo Tai ;^/atTat, firjT^pi, (tov MopyaCvg.* We also have a case that shows the possible reaction of the fay's name upon that of the queen of Orcanie. This instance we owe to Malory, according to whom King Lot's wife is called Morgause!' Although Malory gives Morgause a passing men- tion elsewhere,' the only scenes in which she is an active figure are in the seventh book, which recounts the adventures of her son Sir Gareth, Beaumains. He comes, a fair and unknown youth, to Arthur's court, is dubbed Beaumains by Sir Kay, in derision of his fair hands, and is kept in service as a kitchen knave until he takes upon himself an other-world adventure rejected by the knights of the court, and departs to win glory in its accomplishment. All that is said of Morgause is that > Herrig, Archmf. das Stud, der neueren S/>., XLII (1868), 148 ff. " See ii., 211. • Vv. 1575-1582 ; cf. vv. 2449 ff. ♦ TVistan, ed. Michel, London, 1835, II, 269 ff., v. 39 ; ct. I, xviii ; see also Von der Hagen, Mathtmatische AbhandluHg d. kSnigl. Akad. der Wmtnschaften zu Berlin, 1848, pp. 243 ff. 'This is the spelling always used in Malory (see Bk. II, ch. 11; Bk. VII, ch. 13; Bk. IX, ch. 14) except in one instance (Bk. I, ch. 2) where Margawse is the form given. " Bk. II, ch. 2 ; Bk. I, ch. 11. 142 Morgain, the Sister of Arthur while he is absent on his quest, his mother, Morgause, comes to court, reveals his true name and chides Arthur for his treat- ment of her son.i When the young knight returns from his adventure, dame Morgause at sight of him falls down in a swoon.2 Thus the only source which relates the career of Beaumains is the only source for the two incidents in which Morgause is concerned.^ Morgain has a son whose name is practically synonymous with Beaumains, Sir Ewaine le Blanchemains * Yvain (Ewaine), the hero of Chretien's poem, like Beaumains, went on a diffi- cult quest to the other world, and there passed through adven- tures similar to his. Whatever may have been the origin of the names of these two youths,^ Beaumains and Ewaine le Blanchemains, or whichever was iirst made by tradition the son of Arthur's sister, the parallel between them in story and in name offers a plausible explanation for the influence of the name of Morgain, Sir Ewaine le Blanchemains' mother and Arthur's sister, upon that of Beaumains' (Gareth's) mother, who was also a sister of Arthur.^ To turn now to the other family ties attributed to Morgain. Having been made Arthur's sister, she had to be brought into connection with his kindred. By the time that the prose romances were compiled, her position as a member of the royal family was established, but established on a rather uncertain footing ; her relations to the king are here invariable, but the 1 Ch. 25. = Ch. 33. ' In the Tristan (Loseth, p. 58 | cf. § 47 ; p. 489) a commonplace incident tells of the unnamed queen of Orcanie, Gaheriet's mother, whose lover Lamorat jousts with other knights in defence of his boast that she is the fairest queen alive. In Malory's version of the same episode (Bk. IX, ch. 13, 14) he naturally names her Morgause, having already known her by that name through his source for Book VII. * See Malory, Bk. I, ch. ^. ^ Beaumains is identiiied with le Beau Mauvais by Paris (Rom., XXVI, 1897, 280, note i), who explains Beaumains as the result of Malory's failure to under- stand a French source. ^ Perhaps it is not without significance that the only other episode beside those that I have mentioned in which Gareth is brought into special connection with his mother is somewhat similar to the only episode in which Yvain and Morgain are associated. Cf. Loseth, §256; Huth Merlin, II, 212 ff. ; Malory, Bk. IV, ch. 13. See also Nennius (ed. Mommsen, Mon. Germ. Hist., XIII, 1894), ch. 63 ; Skene, Four Anc. Books, II, 439 ; Mabinogion, I, 89 ; Lot, Ann. de Bretagne, XV (1900), 528, 529. Morgain, the Sister of Arthur 143 same cannot be said of her ties to the other members of the princely circle. She is the daughter of Ygerne and the Duke of Tintagel, a bastard daughter of Ygerne, a bastard daughter of the Duke of Tintagel, a daughter of Uterpendragon.i It was also a difficult matter to anchor Morgain to one mortal husband. In the romances there are three kings regularly allied by marriage with Arthur, — Lot, Uentre, and Urien.* According to the Huth Merlin Morgain is given in marriage to Urien of Garlot;^ according to Malory to Urien of Gore;* according to the English Merlin to Uentre of Garlot ; ^ according to the Huth Merlin Morgan, a bastard daughter of Ygerne, is given to Neutre of Sorhaut.® The fact that Morgain was the only name thoroughly in vogue in the thirteenth century as that of Arthur's sister explains the confusion into which the author of the Huth Merlin falls in making both a Morgue and a Morgan Arthur's sister. Neutre and Urien trench upon each other's domains in other respects also. Urien is king of Garlot in the Huth Merlin, and of Gore in Malory, but Sorhaut is a city within his borders.'^ As a result Morgain cannot be said to be persistently the queen of any one terri- tory ; but she is more persistently the wife of Urien than of any other prince. In the romances from early times Yvaln is regularly the son of Urien.® We should be glad to know whether tradition dealt with a Sir Ewaine le Blanchemains,® the child of Morgain, who was a distinct person from Yvain, the son of Urien ; but in the silence of our sources, we can see only that such a tradition would offer the best possible explanation of Morgain's marriage to Urien, for she would naturally be made the wife of that king whose son had the same name as her 1 Lancelot, II, Ixxi; Vulgate Merlin, p. 77, cf. p. 102; Huth Merlin, I, 1 20; English Merlin, p. 121 ; Malory, Bk. I, ch. 2 ; English Merlin, p. 86 ; cf. Arthour and Merlin, v. 4445 ; Paris, R. T. R., II, 84, cf. 103 ; Loseth, § 190. 2 Vulgate Merlin, pp. loi, 102 ; English Merlin, pp. 121, 122 ; Huth Merlin, I, 120. 8 I, 201, 262; II, 168, 189, 212. 6 p. 86. 4 Bk. I, ch. 2 ; Bk. II, ch. 11 ; Bk. IV, ch. 4. « I, 120. ' Bk. I, ch. 16 ; see Arthurian Legend, p. 324. 8 See, e.g., Wace, Brut, vv. 10,521, 13,597 ; Vulgate Merlin, pp. 102, 176, 213; Huth Merlin, I, 202, 266; Livre d'Artus, P., p. 25; Loseth, p. 310; Claris et Laris, v. 16,632 ; Mabinogion, I, 88. ' Cf. Loseth, p. 441, note 3 : — Ivain aux blanches mains is the son of Dayre. 144 Morgain, the Sister of Arthur own. Hence the Ewaine of whom she is represented as the mother is not always distinguished as Ewaine le Blanchemains.i but it is quite evident that her connection with Ewaine is more fully recognized than that with Urien, and that although she is in one source said to have married Uentre she is never made the mother of his son Galescin. There is no means, then, of telling surely whether a stage of tradition before or after Morgain' s marriage with Urien is represented by the lines in Tyolet : — Gauvain le baise et Unain, Keu et Evain, le filz Morgain.^ But they look a little as if there might have been the independ- ent tradition which I have suggested above, that made Morgain the mother of Ewaine le Blanchemains. We cannot share Ferdinand Lot's doubt as to whether the Morgain mentioned is really the fay,^ but we may feel reasonably sure that Tyolet, which Paris would date no earlier than the twelfth century,* may not be said to contain early material for the Morgain saga. We may leave the subject of Morgain's.family ties, regarding the conjecture as plausible that Morgain, originally altogether disassociated from mortal kind, came to be considered Arthur's sister because of a confusion between her name and Anna's, which may be paralleled as early as the days when the Morrigan and Ana were war-goddesses on Celtic soil. To her sisterhood to Arthur are due the other human relationships that belong to her ; hence Morgain' s most important mundane connections may all conjecturally be traced back in direct line to an associ- ation between her saga and that of the Morrigan. 1 See Huth Merlin, I, 202, 266; II, 168, 213 ; cf. English Merlin, p. 238, where the description of Yvain's mother is not applicable to the Morgain of the prose romances ; see also Arthour and Merlin, vv. 7635 ff. ^ Vv. 629, 630. 3 See Rom., XXVIII (1899), TflZ^ "°t^ 2. * See p. 7, note i. CHAPTER XI MORGAIN LA Fk^ We have followed Morgain now through the principal epi- sodes ^ of her varied life, and have examined all the important features of her history. As we review them one after the other, two facts are probably obvious to us all : — first and most important, that a story parallel to that of Cuchulinn and Fand forms the nucleus of the entire Morgain saga as we know it ; and secondly, that in the incidents which are attached least firmly to this centre the conception of \E^Jorgain as a great fairy queen accounts for her doings, her possessions, and her relationships. \ We have learned to be cautious in tam- pering with the doings of Time, who ruthlessly destroys even Breton lays and French romances, and to acknowledge that when we would restore what he has obliterated, we can lay claim to few results that are not tentative. Still, we have seen that Arthur's stay with the enchantress and his experiences with Accalon, as well as his sojourn in Avalon, may be regarded as branches of our early fairy-mistress theme, and that a com- parison of the existing versions of all these episodes points to a strong probability that Morgain was the original fairy mis- tress. Our material, we have found, shows three noteworthy variations from the postulated original. I. The original hero and the original fay never appear together in their original relations ; one of them is changed, or their relations to each other are changed. Arthur is lured to the other world by an enchantress, who loves him and has come to seek him. Morgain transports Renoart, Lancelot and Alisander to her own domains, and there claims their love. She entices Arthur by other-world agencies to a tower, intending 1 The episodes not treated previously are discussed in this chapter and below, pp. igo, 195 ff., 226, note, and Excursus I. 145 146 Morgain la Fh to destroy him, or she guides him to Avalon that she may heal his wounds. 2. The fierce hostility of the enchantress toward Arthur after he has left her, and of Morgain toward him in the fight with Accalon appears as a much less pronounced element in our typical fairy-mistress story, where Fand simply declares that since Cuchulinn has given her up for Emer, she has ceased to love him. 3. Morgain is usually represented as Arthur's sister. This last alteration in the material produced, as we have seen, the first of the three variations just mentioned ; for as soon as Morgain was said to be Arthur's sister, she could no longer be the mistress and he the lover of the stojry. The second variation, we have noticed, contains a parallel to the Morrigan tradition in that it reproduces the battle-maiden's offers of love to Cuchulinn, and her anger at his repulse, which led her to attempt his death in combat. The third variation we accounted for most readily by an evident con- fusion between Morgain and Anna, Arthur's sister, which is paralleled in Celtic myth by a confusion between the war- goddesses, Morrigan and Ana, and which in both the French and Celtic material was assisted by the fact that the two beings confused belonged to the same class in their origin. Two, then, out of the three variations on the early theme are paralleled in the Morrigan material, and the third is the result of one of them. To the postulated fairy-mistress story we have traced the experiences of Renoart, Lancelot, and Alisander with Morgain. We saw that the tradition of Morgain's hatred toward Guine- vere was a probable outgrowth of the same early story, modi- fied by the variation that attributed to the fay a bitterly rancorous nature. This tradition, it is likely, influenced th'e story of Morgain's love for Guiomar, in which we detected elements that belong to the original fairy-mistress theme, and that we found might have become attached to Guiomar's name as a consequence of Morgain's sisterhood to Arthur. We learned also that her connection with Guiomar might account for the special form of tradition that tells of her love for Ogier, which parallels the fairy-mistress theme attached to Morgain la Fie 147 Guingamor, a knight whose name so resembles Guiomar's that an association in story between the two heroes might easily arise, and a transference of the Guingamor type to a new ami of Morgain result. The same early motive we detected once more in the induction to the episode of the Val sanz Retor, but here we perceived Morgain's character as fairy queen entering clearly into the saga. We saw also that to her position and traits as fairy queen, which made it easy to con- fuse her name with that of the well-known enchanter, Mon- gan, was probably due her connection with two other famous fidelity tests, the horn and the mantle; and that even these were used as a means for ringing changes upon the theme of her hostility to Arthur and Guinevere. Furthermore, her own- ership of these fidelity tests showed us a plausible reason ^r her appearance as the mother of the truth-loving and loyal Auberon, who cherished similar magic belongings. Very few of the themes that are attached to Morgain's name are in themselves unicfue, nor are her activities dis- tinctive of her alone. All fays love gallant young knights ; all, if they choose, shift their shapes, build enchanted dwell- ings, fashion magic objects, and take dire revenge upon mor- tals who offend them. The student of the French romances early learns that when a personage from one cause or another came to be regarded as the type for some one class, or as the typical representative of a special quality, there began to be attracted to him a variety of stories repeating the particular deed for which he was celebrated, or exemplifying the trait for which he was distinguished. Plenty of illustrations will occur to all of us ; the histories of Gawain, Lancelot, Merlin, Caradoc at once come to our minds. Hence it may seem quite possible that Morgain's close association with Arthur as the healer of his wounds led to her being accounted a powerful fay, and that then numerous typical and popular fairy stories were attached to her name at the dictates of each narrator's fancy. It is, however, highly questionable whether this pro- cess would result in so closely connected a whole, in which the parts adhere firmly to a centre, as the Morgain saga presents. The essential elements forming its true kernel resolve themselves into the early fairy-mistress theme, the 148 Morgain la Fie anger of the fay against her lover, and the rdle of Morgain as the fairy queen. These are the three factors, then, with which we have to reckon in determining Morgain's origin. II Does a derivation of Morgain from the Morrigan account for the essential elements of the Morgain saga.' Clearly it does not explain the details of the fairy-mistress story that was probably at one time told of Arthur and Morgain. The fairy messengers from Avalon, Arthur's enchanted voyage thither, the promises of healing for his wound, and his sojourn in the other world lead our thoughts to Fand and Mag Mell, but not to the Morrigan. It does, ho^^ever, explain those devel- opments of the early story in which the fay's rancor follows the rejection of her love, namely, the story of Arthur in the tower of the enchantress, and that of Hector, Renoart, Lance- lot, and the fickle lover who met'his fate in the Val sanz Retor, and it gives a reason also for Morgain's hatred of Arthur. It throws light, too, upon Morgain's sisterhood to Arthur, even if it does not wholly account for it. Moreover, if Morgain be derived from the Morrigan, there is an easy explanation for her otherwise puzzling twofold atti- tude toward Arthur, who is the object of her care and of her vengeance. The Morrigan stands in specially intimate rela- tions to Cuchulinn. In one of his youthful exploits she acts as his protectress by spurring him on to valor just as he is about to be worsted in conflict.^ Despite the hostility ascribed to her after Cuchulinn's refusal of her love, she gives him her aid, as we have seen, and in his final battle until his last moment she does not cease her efforts to protect him.^ Minor incidents, too, here and there in Morgain's life faintly reproduce episodes told of the Morrigan. Such is the story of the punishment by transformation into a river visited by the Morrigan upon the offending Odras, and Morgain's spell cast upon her rival in the Val sanz Retor.^ An episode of the same character, though here the parallelism is rather more striking, is that of the Morrigan's shape-shifting to escape 1 See Hibbert Lectures, p. 452. 2 See p. 34. s See pp. 99-102. Morgain la F^e 149 from Cuchulinn's grasp, and Morgain's shape-shifting as she flees across the moors from Arthur's pursuit with the scab- bard of Excalibur in her hand.i When we turn from incident to attribute we see a closer parallelism, especially >in the manifestation of supernatural power. In the Cath Maige Turedh (Second Battle of Moy- tura),2 the Morrigan with Badb and Macha^ is represented as protecting the Tuatha d^ Danann from their enemies by magic clouds of darkness and mist, and showers of fire and blood.* Another of her gifts is that of prophecy, which she uses in behalf of the Dagda, telling him where his enemies will land their forces and how she will destroy the son of their king ;^ and she gives a timely warning to ." that extraordinary precious thing the Brown Bull of Cuailgne " when the men of Erin are planning to carry him away from his home.^ Shape-shifting is one of the Morrigan's most ordinary habits, and she commonly appears to mortal sight in some disguise. Her favorite form is that of a bird, especially a crow or a raven.'^ She becomes in turn an eel, a gray wolf (or hound), ^ and a white red-eared cow in a contest with Cuchulinn.® We have seen her come to him also as a beautiful maiden,^" as a woman with red eyebrows,'-' 1 See Chapter II, section iii. ' Edited and translated in an abridged form from a fifteenth-century manu- script in the British Museum (Harl. 5286) by Whitley Stokes in Rev. Celt., XII (1891), 52 ff. The version in its present form is dated by Stokes no earlier than the tenth or eleventh century. See also Rev. Celt, I, 40 ; O'Curry, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, London, 1873, ^^> '^7' ' The Morrigan is more closely associated with her two sisters, Badb and Macha, than with any of the other Irish war-goddesses, and when she does not appear alone, she usually moves in their company (see Rev. Celt., I, 1870-1872, 35 fi. pass.; Cuchullin Saga, p. I02 ; cf. above, pp. 34, 139). Morgain frequently appears in the society of two fays (see pp. 50, 51, summaries in Excursus I). But three is a number so commonly connected with fays that no stress should be laid on this resemblance (see e.g. Perceval, vv. 26,699, 34>I43> Ploriant et Florete, w. 552 ff., 8258 ; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 1 19 ; Malory, Bk. IV, ch. 18 ; Maury, p. 32 ; Grimm, D. M., I, 341 ; III, 341). * For a comparison between the mist of the Morrigan and the troll mist cf. Bugge-Schofield, Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1899, p- 351- 5 See Rev. Celt., XII, 85. * See Cuchullin Saga, p. 157. ' See pp. 24, 34. Zimmer, Zs.f. vergl. Sprachf, XXVIII (1887), 450; cf. 476, 477; Rev.^ Celt., I, 45. ^ See Rev. Celt., I, 46. » See Zs.f. vergl. Sprachf, XXVIII, 457 ff. ; Cuchullin Saga, pp. 164 ff. ; above, p. 24. i" See p. 22. ^' See p. 24. 150 Morgain la F^e and still again we read that after she was wounded by him in battle, since he alone could heal her, she sought him in the guise of an old crone driving a cow, and by giving him a drink of milk won his blessing, which at once made her whole.i According to the Coir Anmann ^ the Morrigan dwells in one of the sidh; Hennessy gives us to understand that she had a fairy palace beside the Suir.^ In the Tochmarc Emire we read of the Morrigan's Garden* and the "Wood of the Badb, i.e., of the Morrigan ";5 in the Fled Bncrend there is a mere men- tion of the Morrigan's ford,^ and certain Irish localities accord- ing to Hennessy are designated as the Morrigan's Field, the Mound of the Morrigan, the Fulacht of the Morrigan.'^ We cannot have followed in Morgain's path thus far without finding ourselves on familiar ground as we read of these attri- butes and associations of the Morrigan. Morgain's name is not wholly unrepresented in the topography of Armorica ; she has, it goes without saying, a fairy dwelling ; she can foretell the future, she can cast a magic mist where she will. Like the Morrigan, also, Morgain is a fomenter of strife: — "Deboi- naire estoit ele sor toute rien tant com ele estoit en sen boin sens. Mais quant ele se courechoit enuers aucun homme noiant estoit del acorder." ^ "Whan she were wroth with eny man, she was euell for to acorde." ® Morgain, too, can change 1 See Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 354, 355, C6ir Anmann (Fitness of Names), 1 49 (composed hardly earlier than the twelfth century ; see Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 286); Cuchullin Saga, pp. 168, 169. 2 Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 119. ^ Rev. Celt., I, 50. * Arch. Rev., I (1888), 72, 153 ; Cuchullin Saga, p. 64. 6 Arch. Rev., I, 231. ^ ^p_ Celt., I, io6. ' Rev. Celt., I, 55; cf. XV (1894), 293. ^ Vulgate Merlin, p. 362. ' English Merlin, p. 508. Cf. Lbseth, p. 192 ; Sommer, Malory, III, 309 : — Morgain la desloial ; Huth Merlin, I, 262 : — EUe estoit moult malicieuf e dure- ment et moult savoit de tintin et de male pensee ; cf. ib., II, 188 ;' Loseth, p. 482 ; Malory, Bk. VIII, ch. 34 ; Prophecies, p. xxi ; above, e.g., pp. 13, 21, 50. In the Cath Maige Turedh (see Rev. Celt., XII, 1891, 85) we read that the Dagda met by assignation a woman in Glenn Etin, as she was bathing in the Unius of Corann. " Nine loosened tresses were on her head. The Dagdae conversed with her and they made a union. . . . The woman that is here mentioned is the Morrigan (Lamia)." Cf. Zs. f. vergl. Sprachf., XXXIII (1893-1894), 105, for the gloss on Morrigan, monstru(m) in femine figura. With these glosses cf. the traditions attributing a passionate, sensual nature to Morgain. See Vulgate Merlin, p. 361 ; — Ele estoit la plus chaude feme de toute la grant bertaigne & la plus luxurieuse. Cf. English Merlin, p. 507 ; above, p. 61. Morgain la F^e 1 5 1 her shape at pleasure, and the difference of opinion in regard to her beauty that evidently existed among the narrators who described her appearance looks as if there had been some story that is lost to us, which represented her as assuming the form of a loathly lady. In general she is favored with the tradi- tional beauty of a fay,^ but in some of our sources she is said to be laide? In the Huth Merlin ^ the two conflicting tradi- tions are brought together, and the author or his source endeavors to reconcile them: — "Et sans faille elle fu bele damoisiele jusques a celui terme que elle commencha aprendre des enchantemens et des charroies ; mais puis que li anemis fu dedans li mis, et elle fu aspiree et de luxure et de dyable, elle pierdi si otreement sa biautd que trop devint laide, ne puis ne fu nus qui a bele la tenist, s'il ne fu enchantes." * The parallels that we have examined assuredly indicate a connection in tradition between Morgain and the Morrigan. The forms of the two names also point in the same direction ; but conclusions that are based on the possible relation of the 1 See Vulgate Merlin, 361 : — Icele morgain iert iouene damoisele & gaie dure- ment et moult enuoisie. mais moult estoit brune de vis et dune roonde charneure ne trop maigre ne trop erase, mais moult estoit aparte & auenans de cors & de membres si estoit droite & plisans a merueilles & bien chantans. ... & ouuriere fu ele des mains la milloure que on seust en nule terre. & si auoit ele le plus bel cief quil conuenist a feme auoir. & les plus beles mains. & espaules trop bien faites adeuise & aperte estoit ele sor toute rien. & sa char estoit plus soef que millart. & encore auoit ele vne autre teche en lui qui ne fait mie a trespasser. Car ele auoit vne loquense douche & souef. & parlant bien & a trait & debonaire estoit ele sor toute rien tant com ele estoit en sen boin sens. Cf. English Merlin, 507, 508; Paris, R. T. R., II, 269; Vita Merlini, v. 919; Bataille Loquifer, p. 256; Bel Inconnu, v. 4263; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 16, 3493, 10,381; Auberon, v. 1280; Beaudous, v. 2237. Cf. further Lanzelet, v. 7185. Morgain's beauty and skill, like Helen's or Thisbe's, serve as a norm with the Italian poets of the thirteenth century; see e.g. DiAncona e Comparetti, Antiche Rime Volgari, Bologna, 1875- 1888, II, 2; HI, 115, 166; Lorenzo de' Medici, iV«««a da Barberino, cited by Gaspary, GeschichtederitalienischenLiteratur, Strassburg, 1885, II, 246. 2 Lancelot, Ixxi : — Morgain resembles her father, the Duke of Tintagel, car moult estoit laide. Prophecies, p. xcvi : — The Dame d'A valon, by means of a ring that has the power to overcome enchantment, discovers that magic cosmetics deserve the credit for Morgain's youthful appearance, and that she is in reality old and wrinkled. Cf. Sommer, Malory, III, 310; above, p. 133. 3 I, 166. ^ Cf. Perceval, vv. 25,380-25,744, for the story of Le Biaus Mauvais and his hideous love, Rosette li Blois, whom he fancies fair and full of grace, and who appears so beautiful later that her fame spreads throughout the land ; je ne sais s'ele fufaie, adds Gautier. I c 2 Morgain la F^e French and Celtic names must be highly uncertain, for there is always present the possibility that the word Morrigan did not. enter France from Ireland directly, but through Wales, where the form that it assumed has perished with the literature in which it may have been embodied. Also we may as well acknowledge the fact that no fay nor mortal was ever more elusive or erratic in career than is a proper name in mediaeval literature, and that with the multitudinous opportunities for a misunderstanding in an oral or a misspelling in a written source, theories as to its domestication on foreign soil accord- ing to strict phonological conventions "gang aft agley." The relation of the forms of Morgain's name to each other and to Morrigan is a matter into which the element of uncertainty enters too strongly ^ for it to have much weight in establishing the connection between the two mythological figures. We are treading on surer ground in dealing with the sagas. The community between the Irish battle-goddess and the Breton fay may be said to be in the main one of attribute rather than of incident ; and many of their characteristics are too universal with supernatural beings to be important in fixing 1 The spelling of Morgain's name is a variable quantity (see Excursus II for a classified collection of the passages in which the name is found). In French our earliest forms are Morgue, Morgain, in Chretien, and Morgan in the Roman de Troie. The difference in the forms Morgan, Morgain simply represents, it should be said, an exceedingly common variation in spelling of which we have many instances (cf. Garadagain, Caradigan ; Houdain, Houdan ; Agrevain, Agra- fan. Chretien inflects the name with a nominative Morgue (Erec, vv. 4220, 4222 ; Yvain, v. 2953), an accusative Morgain (Erec, v. 1957), following the regular inflection that is seen in such names as Eve, Evain; Berte, Bertain; Aide, Aldain (see Schwan-Behrens, Grammatik des A Itfranzbsischen, Leipzig, 1899, § 288, 3). He is the only author who is consistent in his inflection. In other sources, neither Morgue nor Morgain is reserved exclusively for one case, except in the Auberon, where Morgue is sometimes used in the accusative, Morgain in only the accusative. In Gaucher de Dourdan's continuation of the Perceval there occur the earliest sure examples of Morghe as an accusative (vv. 30,240, 30,308). This obtrusion of each case ^upon the other may be due not only to the general ten- dency of the language to drop inflection, but an accusative Morgaiti may also have come to be regarded as a nominative by analogy with such well-known names as Yvain, Gauvain, Agravain. Morgain itself is given the nominative termination s in some sources (see below, pp. 256, 257. In Floriant et Florete, V. 2083, the form Morgains as an accusative is doubtless influenced by mains, the last word of the succeeding verse). In the Roman de Troie (v. 7990) Morgan appears as a nominative. From the fact that in such early material Morgan is a nominative it seems rather more likely that an analogical nominative, Morgain la F^e 1 5 3 an identity. But the aggregate of the resemblances, and the parallelism appearing both in that incident of the Morgain saga which forms the kernel of the whole, and also in Morgain's relations to Arthur, the mortal with whom she is most closely associated, make it likely that the situation is not the result of a chance accumulation of stories. Ill How intimate a connection may we believe exists between Morgain and the Morrigan .' Doubtless we have all noticed as we have reviewed the parallels in the Morrigan and Mor- gain traditions, that although their framework is the same, the effect of the tVo structures is unlike. A remoteness from the Celtic which is perceptible in the French material is scarcely easy to reconcile with the view that the latter is directly repeating the former. In the French sources we are listening merely to an echo, at times clear and distinct. Shall we believe, then, that the tradition of the Morrigan came to Morgue, was formed from Morgan {aitt), than that the reverse process took place, namely that Morgain is an analogical accusative, which in the Roman de Troie is already obtruding upon the nominative, as it certainly did in the thirteenth cen- tury. It is possible to explain the form Morgdn (or Morgain) as derived directly from Morrigan. The name of the war-goddess is written Mdrrigan, Mor Rigan, MSrrighan, Mor{r)ig(h)ain, Morrign, Mi>rrigu (see Hennessy, Rev. Celt., I, 53, for the declension ; Stokes, Rev. Celt., XII, 128, 308). The original accent of the word is uncertain ; but the etymology generally accepted by scholars (see below, p. 1 59), which explains the name as a compound consisting of mor, great, and rigan, queen, makes it probable that the word had an accented penult. Of this Celtic penult there is no trace in any of the French forms of Morgain's name, doubtless owing to the fact that the distinct vowel a of the last syllable of Morrigan had drawn the accent, and thus occasioned the loss of the i. Welsh material, if it existed, might supply us with a convenient intermediate form. The earliest instance of the name, that in the Vita Merlini (vv. 920, 933), gives us no assistance, inasmuch as we do not know on what language Geoffrey's latinization is based, whether French or Welsh, and to reconstruct his original from his Latin form of a name is a delicate task. Not to mention the many examples that his Historia affords, in, the Vita Merlini we find that his Latin for Taliesin is Telgesinus, for Rydderch, Rodarchus. It should be added, however, that if the connection between Morgain and the Morri- gan be established, we may eliminate from consideration Lot's theory that the Morgen of the Vita Merlini is derived from the Irish Muirgen, the name of the mermaid whose history is told in the Death of Eochaid referred to above (pp. 9, 10; see Lot, Rom., XXVIII, 1899, 323 ff, ; Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1 901, p. 373), and with whom we have seen that Morgain has no connection in tradition. 154 Morgain la F^e France direct from Ireland, or that it passed through Wales before it reached the continent ? Either course would be possible, but there are two factors that have some weight in turning the scale in favor of a Welsh intermediary. One has just been mentioned — the Morgain tradition is not a perfectly transparent medium for that of the Morrigan. The other is an incident fortunately preserved in our scanty portion of Welsh literature. Zimmer and Foerster in their arguments in favor of an Armoric source for the Arthurian material lay special stress upon the fact that our Welsh texts never men- tion Morgain la f 6e : — " Die in den franzosischen Texten mit Arthur und Avalon aufs engste verkniipfte Fee Morgan ist der welschen Sage iiberhaupt, nicht bios der Arthursage, eben- falls absolut unbekannt." ^ " Die kymrische Sage kennt eine Fee Morgan gar nicht, so dass der kymrische und kymrisie- rende Bearbeiter Ivains und Erecs mit ihr nichts anzufangen wusste. .' . . Diese Figur ist nicht etwa nur der Artussage, nein, sie ist der inselkeltischen Saga iiberhaupt fremd." ^ Yet it is in the Mabinogion, in Peredur^ that the incident is found which suggests the solution of our problem. As Peredur is on his way to attack the Addanc, a dreadful monster who lives in a cave and slays men, he sees the fairest lady whom he has ever beheld seated on a mound. " ' I know thy quest,' said she, ' thou art going to encounter the Addanc. ... And if thou wouldst pledge me thy faith, to love me above all women, I would give thee a stone, by which thou shouldst see him when thou goest in, and he should not see thee.' ' I will, by my troth,' said Peredur, 'for when first I beheld thee, I loved thee ; and where shall I seek thee ? ' ' When thou seekest me, seek towards India.' And the maiden vanished, after placing the stone in Peredur's hand." Thus equipped, Peredur enters the cave of the Addanc and slays him. After sundry adventures Peredur rides into a valley where many gaily colored tents are spread in preparation for a tourney to be given by the Empress of Cristinobyl the Great; "and she will have no one, but the man who is most valiant ; for riches does she not require." At the win- dow of one of the tents Peredur espies the fairest maiden that he has ever beheld, and forthwith he loves her greatly. The next day he enters the lists, and wins the tourney. At the bidding of the Empress, he visits her. " And the Empress said to him, ' Goodly Peredur, remember the faith that 1 Zimmer, Zs.f.fr. Sp., XII (1890), 239. 2 Foerster, Der Karrenritter, p. cxix (d). 8 Mabinogion, I, 343-345, 349-353- Morgain la F^e 155 thou didst pledge me when I gave thee the stone, and thou didst V\\\ the Addanc' ' Lady,' answered he, ' thou sayest truth, I do remember it' And Peredur was entertained by tlie Empress fourteen years, as the story relates." The Empress is plainly no ordinary mortal Empress of Con- stantinople ; she is essentially a fay, endowed with pure fairy attributes. She knows Peredur's quest of the Addanc with the true fay's foreknowledge of her chosen knight's career, and comes to the hero who is strongest and best for the express purpose of winning his love. Her magic stone is one of the many pledges, potent to supply a pressing need, that a fay gives the mortal whom she loves. ^ She can change her appear- ance at her will, and like Dame Liones, Sir Gareth's fairy mistress, now in one guise and now in another even more beautiful, she affords the same hero the sensation of falling in love with her twice. Very probably also the Empress created the tournament with the design of winning her chosen knight for herself. Rhys^ draws a parallel between the Empress and the Mor- rigan. The proffered aid of the Empress to Peredur he com- pares with the Morrigan's offers of love and assistance in ^ See, e.g., Desire, ed. Michel, Lais Inidits, Paris, 1836, p. 29; Chestre, Launfal, ed. Erling, Kempten, 1883, vv. 313-336; Florimont, see Vans, MSS. franc. Til, 26; Malory, Bk. VII, ch. 27 ; Pulzella Gaia, I, St. 19 ; Bel Gherardino, ed. Zam- brini, Bologna, 1867, I, St. 35. With the stone of the Empress that makes the wearer invisible cf. Mabinogion, II, 271 ; Von der Hagen's Germania, VII (1846), I02 ; Yvain, v. 1026; Prophecies, pp. xcv, xcvi. Some wonderful stones cause a remembrance of sights that the wearer has seen, Mabinogion, II, 400; if held in one hand fill the other with as much gold as the owner desires, Mabino- gion, I, 340 ; can be touched only by him who is without sin, Wirnt von Graven- berg, Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1847, vv. 1478 ff. ; give the owner any kind of food or drink, Bataille Loquifer, p. 247 ; compel the wearer to love the giver, Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 376 ; restore the sick to health, Staufenberger, ed. Janicke in Altdeutsche Siudien Jiinicke, Steinmeyer, Wilmanns, Berlin, 1871, vv. 236-243; enable the owner to understand all languages, Ortnit, ed. Amelung and Janicke, Berlin, 1871-1873 {Deutsche! Heldenbuch, III, IV), III, 245; the stones in the wall in Meideland have such power that he who dwells within never knows regret and lives in perpetual happiness, Lanzelet, vv. 234 ff. ; a certain stone enables the wearer to ride an enchanted mule, Perceval, vv. 28,306 ff. Cf. also the marvellous stones in the magic sword on Solomon's ship, see p. 16, note i ; see also Stengel, Ausgaben u. Abkandlungen, LXXXIII (1889), 50, 51 ; for fur- ther references to magic stones see Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, p. no; Stokes and Windisch, III, i, 214 ; MacDougall, pp. 223 ff. ; Child, Ballads, I, 269; II, 502. " Arthurian Legend, pp. in, 112, 236. 1 56 Morgain la Fee coming danger to Cuchulinn in the Tain Bo Cuailgne} As Cuchulinn despises the Morrigan's favors, so, he says, Peredur leaves the Empress and forgets his life with her. The com- parison is scarcely to be pressed. The scene in which the Empress proffers her aid to Peredur lacks one of the most important details of that in the Tain Bo Cuailgne, namely Cuchulinn's scornful rejection of the Morrigan's advances ; the absence of this element leaves the episode one that may be paralleled again and again in the romances. The fay's delight is to await by the fountain or in the forest the coming of her chosen hero, with the sole object of giving him what- ever he wishes and of gaining his love. Guingamor, Lanval, Graelent, Gawain, Florimont and many other heroes experi- enced this seductive trait of the other-world damsel. Nor is Peredur's voluntary separation from the Empress after a sojourn with her near enough to Cuchulinn's contemptuous treatment of the Morrigan to be significant. Nothing is com- moner than this situation in fairy stories, and ever since the days of Bran the supernatural mistress has permitted the mor- tal to leave her after a period passed with her in her domains. There is one other incident in the Peredur^ with which the Empress is connected. Peredur comes to a lake in the middle of which stands the Castle of Wonders. He enters the open door, and sees in the hall a chessboard on which the chessmen are playing against each other. " And the side that he favored lost the game, and thereupon the others set up a shout, as though they had been living men. And Peredur was wroth, and took the chessmen in his lap, and cast the chessboard into the lake. And when he had done thus, behold the black maiden came in, and she said to him, 'The welcome of Heaven be not unto thee. . . . Thou hast occasioned unto the Empress the loss of her chessboard, which she would not have lost for all her empire.' " The only way in which Peredur can recover the chessboard, she continues, is to slay a certain Black Man, who is ravaging the dominions of the Empress ; but when Peredur returns from the adventure, she refuses to admit him to the presence of her lady until he shall have killed a destructive stag of the forest to which he shaU be guided by the little dog of the Empress. Another version of this same episode is contained in Gau- cher's continuation of the Perceval. ^ 1 See p. 22. ^ Mabinoffion, I, 6s tl. See below, p. 23 1 . 8 Vv. 22,392-22,887, 27,006-27,668, 29,901-30,554. Morgain la F^e i57 Perceval enters a wonderfully beautiful castle on the bank of a stream. In one of the apartments he espies a golden chessboard with golden chess- men, self-moving, ever-mating. They checlcmate him when he begins to play with them, and in an ill-humor he takes them from the board, intend- ing to fling them out of the window. But his plans are thwarted by the advent of a beautiful maiden, who rises from the river flowing past the castle, and, telling him that the chessmen are in her keeping, commands him to restore them to their place. Not until he has obeyed her, does she consent to enter the castle and listen to his words of love. Even then she will not grant his desire until he has undertaken the quest of the white stag in the forest, in which her fairy brachet is his guide.^ After arduous adven- tures he returns to her with the quest accomplished ; then sitting before the chessboard she tells him its history. Once upon a time Morgain chanced to be playing chess with a knight in a meadow, when a certain necromantic maiden joined them, and begged Morgain to accept from her an enchanted chessboard. Shortly afterward Perceval's love had entered Morgain's service as a lady in waiting, and when at last she had asked permission to go away, Morgain had given her the magic chessboard as a parting gift. The maiden had left Morgain's dwell- ing and had wandered to the river, where she had built her beautiful castle. For ten years the chessboard had been in her keeping. This same adventure is related of Perceval in the Didot-Per- ceval? but here Morgain has no place. The mistress of the castle is the hero's love, and imposes the adventure upon him; the chessboard is in the keeping of one of her attendants, who holds a laughing parley writh Perceval, enjoining him to restore the chessmen to their places before she will grant him the privi- lege of seeing her mistress. Morgain's part in the incident of the Chessboard Castle is rather puzzling ; in fact the story connecting her with the chess- board appears like an altogether needless device of Gaucher's for filling up the hours of conversation between the reunited Perceval and his amie. The interchange of courtesies between Morgain and the maiden skilled in necromancy, and Morgain's subsequent gift to her suivante suspiciously resemble padding, the manufacturing of which would require no great amount of ingenuity .3 But even if the lion's share in the details belongs 1 Cf. below, p. 230. .^ Pp- 438-445- 467-471- 8 An evident emanation from Gaucher's story is contained in Les Quatres Frires Chevaliers de la Table Ronde, a late romance summarized in no better source than the Bibliothiqtie Universelle des Romans, ed. Paulmy, July, 1777, I, 106-122. For other-world chessboards and^games of chess, see above, p. 90; 158 Morgain la F^e to Gaucher, it is natural to suppose that he had some reason for attaching them to Morgain's name and for forcing her into this special tale. In Peredur the Empress as an active participant in the story is scarcely more important than Morgain is in the Perceval.- The Black Maiden lives and moves and has her being for the express purpose of imposing adventures upon Peredur as tests in consequence of his failure at the Grail Castle, and although it is in the name of the Empress that Peredur kills the Black Man and pursues the stag, the entire point of the story is that the Black Maiden really demands the adventures from the hero. In Perceval, though the lady who guards the board is the hero's love, it is she who imposes the adventure. In neither is Mor- gain nor the Empress much more than a mere figure behind the scene, although the Empress, of course, forms an integral part of the story in a way that Morgain does not. Thus Gaucher's lady of the Chessboard Castle takes the role which in the Mabinogi is divided between the Black Maiden and the Empress, in the Didot-Perceval between the damsel and the mistress.^ In all three sources, no one of which is probably dependent wholly on the others, a fay guards the chessboard which is or has been the prized possession of a fay greater than herself. In the Peredur this more powerful fay is a fairy queen, the Empress ; in the Perceval she is the fairy queen, Morgain. Plainly Gaucher and the author of the Peredur are indebted, though perhaps not directly, for the outline that they follow, to a common source, according to which a fairy queen entrusts to a maiden's care a magic chessboard. In the Welsh source this fairy queen is called the Empress {amkerodres) of Cristinobyl, in the French, Morgain. What was the fairy queen called in the ultimate source from which the Welshman and Gaucher drew .? The original significance of the Morrigan's name is not cer- tain. Two derivations have been suggested. There is no Perceval, I, 85, 89 ; Hist. Litt., XXX, 83 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 258 ; MaHnogion, I> Z^Z ; ^''^- Celt, XII (1891), 79 ; Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, London, 1866, p. 137 ; cf. Cuchullin Saga, pp. 37, note, 59; 135. 1 For a discussion of the exact relations of the sources in this complicated incident, see Holy Grail, pp. 139-145. Morgain's connection with thV.-»tory is all that is important here. Morgain la Fie . 159 question that Rigan means " queen," and it is only in regard to the signification of the first member that authorities differ. The name is sometimes found with 6 (Morrigav), a spelling that justifies the interpretation of the first syllable as mor, "great." For this meaning there is authority in the Acallamh na Seno- rach, where there are mentioned among the Tuatha d^ Danann the children of the mdrrighan or "great queen," daughter of Ernmas, with her six and twenty female warriors.^ Whitley Stokes makes a different suggestion.^ " The mor seems iden- tical with O.H.G. and A.S. mara, Eng. mare in night-mare. Germ, mar (gl. lamia), Grimm, Worterb. s.v. Mahr, Pol. mora. The mark of length sometimes found over the o of Mor is due to popular etymology : so borama for boroma." ^ Whatever the accent of the word originally was, it affords too excellent an opportunity for popular etymologizing to escape receiving the interpretation " great queen." In addition to the above pas- sage from the Acallamh na Senorach there is evidence that it came to be so understood * in the fact that Morrigan is almost as much a title as it is a proper name. A gloss in the Lebor Buidhe Lecain explains Macha, the name of one of the Irish war-goddesses, as the third Morrigan or great queen ; ^ we hear also of a Macha Moingruadh who founded Armagh, and of Mongfind, a queen of the third century, to both of whom the name Morrigan is applied.^ There is no reason to suppose that if the name Morrigan reached France, its Celtic meaning would be felt there. In the French interpretation of the Welsh Caradoc breich bras we have an example of the way in which a Celtic name might be treated in France. Breich bras in Welsh signifies great arms, breich meaning "arms," and bras, "great." This by the mistake of some Frenchman who understood bras as his native word for "arm " has been turned in French into brief, or briis, 1 See Stokes and Windisch, IV, i, 140 ; c£. ib., 131 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 225, 217 ; cf. Rev. Celt., I, 35 ; O'Curry, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, London, 1893, III, 187. ^ Rev. Celt., XII (1891), 128. * Cf. Rh^s, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, 286; Borlase, The Dolmens of Ireland, London, 1877, II, 348, 567. * See also Bodley Dinnshenchas, ed. and trans, by Stokes, Folk Lore, III (1892), i^-^ ff.; Meyer and Nutt, I, 213, cf. 196. 5 Rev. Celt., I, 36. " lb; 54- i6o Morgain la Fde braz, "short arm."i If the tradition of the Morrigan reached Welsh districts, however, the meaning of the name would probably still be felt. The name of the Irish hero Nuadha Argetlamh or Nuada of the Silver Hand ^ is represented in twelfth-century Welsh in the Black Book of Caermarthen by Lluda Llaw Ereint or Lludd of the Silver Hand, where Rhys suggests that the Lludd is an early corruption for Nudd? In other words, the Irish epithet is represented by a synonymous epithet in Wales, a fact indicating either that in Wales the Irish term was understood, or that a common tradition existed in the two countries. Hence it would not be at all surprising if we found the Morrigan's name interpreted in Wales as "great queen," and rendered amherodres, the Empress. But the Empress of the Peredur is, as we have seen, a pure fay, and not distinctively a battle-maiden at all. The story of the Mabinogi in fact would have no bearing upon the ques- tion before us, if it were not that classes of supernatural beings insist upon poaching on each other's preserves,* and that certain common attributes attract members of one order into the territory of a similar order without regard to the antecedents of either. I have spoken above of the indications that the Irish war-goddess Ana was made into a fay in popular tradition.* In the Irish story Noinden Ulad (The Debility of the Ultonian Warriors)^ which there is reason to believe con- tains very early material,^ the name of the Irish battle-maiden, Macha, appears as that of a true fay, who comes, a mysterious stranger from an unknown land, to love and help a mortal, 1 See Loth, Les Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, I, 298, note i ; Paris, Rom., XXVIII (1899), 223. 2 See Hibbert Lectures, p. 120 ; Rev. Celt., XII, 128. Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 327, 357. 8 See Rhjs, Academy, Jan. 7, 1882, i ; Nutt, Foik-Lore Record, V (1882), 13. * Cf. Kittredge, Publ. of Mod. Language Ass. of America, XV (1900), 430. 5 On the transformation of the Celtic god Mider into a fairy king, see Kittredge, Am. Joiirn. of Phil., VII (1886), 196. " Published and translated by Windisch, Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der Konigl. Sdchs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Classe, 1884, pp. 336 S. Translated £p. Celt., I, 320 ff. ; Cuchullin Saga, pp. 96 £E. Cf. also ArcA. Rev., I (1888), 151. ' The material is much earlier than our earliest extant version, which is contained in the Booi of Leinster, a late twelfth-century manuscript. See Lays of Graelent, etc., pp. 169 ff. Morgain la F^e i6i whom she suffers to leave her only on condition that he never reveal their love, and whom despite his disregard of her com- mand she saves in a moment of peril. Macha is said in the story to be the daughter of Saimreth mac Imbraith, that is Saimreth the son of Ocean, and hence we may infer that she came from the Celtic fairyland which is often situated under the waves.^ Moreover, it is reasonable to suppose that Cuchulinn's marvellous horse, Liath Macha (the Gray of Macha), which rises from a lake for the hero's capturing hand and returns to the lake after his master's final battle,^ is an other-world gift from the fay Macha, whose name he bore.^ Furthermore, the attributes of a war-goddess as the protectress of a warrior in battle would be peculiarly ready to coalesce with those of a fay, who protects her favorite hero in an hour of danger. Hild,* Sigrun, Svafa^ in Norse mythology are very like fays in their relations to the heroes whom they love and guard. The Empress herself by means of her fairy stone protects Peredur on his quest of the Addanc. Saxo Grammaticus ® tells a story of Hother, who one day when he was hunting lost his way in a mist, and came upon a company of maidens : — Illae siiis ductibus auspiciisque maxime belloru-m fortunam gubernari testantiir. Saepe enim se nemini conspicuas proeliis interesse, clandestinisque subsidiis optatos amicis praebere successus. Quippe conciliare prospera, adversa infligere posse pro libitu memorabant. Hother listens to words of counsel from them ; the scene vanishes from his sight, and he finds that he is alone in the open country. Peter der Diemringer von Stauffenberg, the hero of a Middle High German poem,''' has a fairy mistress 1 See £p. Celt., I, 325, note ; Lays of GraeUnt, etc., p. 171, note i. See below, p. 168. 2 See £p. Celt., I, 103, 343, 345. ' With this wonderful horse who bears the name of a maiden descended from a sea king cf. Galatee, the beautiful steed given to Hector by Morgain (Roman de Troie, vv. 7989 if.); the name looks as if the horse were called after Galatea, the daughter of Nereus. » See Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, ed. Mtiller, Copenhagen, 1839, I, 238, 239 ; see note on 242, line 4. * See Helgakvi&a Hundingsbana, I, 1 5 ff., II, 5 ff. ; Helgakvi&a Hj^rvar&ssonar, II ; Bugge-Schofield, Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1899, pp. 186, 189 ff., 216, 217, 234, 330, 336 ff. ; Gtimm, D. M., I, 348 ; II, 391. * Ed. cit., I, 112. ' Ca. 1300. Der Hitter von Stauffenberg, ed. Janicke, Altdeutsche Studien von O. fdnicke, Steinmeyer, Wilmanns, Berlin, 1871 ; cf. Child, Ballads, I, 371, 372. 1 62 Morgain ta FSe whom he met by the wayside. In response to his words of love she confides to him that she was waiting for him, for she has loved him ever since he could first mount a horse, and she has often protected him in tourney and in battle, though invisible to him. The subject of the poem is an exceedingly wide-spread fairy theme, and there can be no question that the beautiful lady who has protected Peter is a fay. From these examples it is clear that the attitude of the Morrigan toward Cuchulinn, whom she protects in his youthful exploits, although she spurs him on to fresh trials of his strength, whom she seeks in the hope of winning his love, and whom she tries to save from death on the battlefield, is in itself such as easily to lead the popular imagination to confuse her with a fay. Accordingly we should not be at all surprised to see the Morrigan becoming in popular superstition a true fay, nor to find either her own name, or a Welsh synonym, applied to any fairy queen in Wales, where its significance may have been felt. But in France the name would certainly not be so transparent nor its significance so sure to be understood ; in Graelemor and Guingamor, for instance, the -mor (great) has completely lost in French its value as an epithet, and has become a part of the name. Hence in France Morrigan would more readily be regarded strictly as a proper name by which the queen of the fairies was appropriately called. From very early times proper names have shared such a fate as this on foreign lips. The Phoenician term kabirim, which meant " the great," and which was applied by the Phoenicians to the great gods of Samothrace, the Greeks turned into a proper name and desig- nated the Samothracian deities as Kd^eipot. The Phoenician name Melicertes, which means " king of the city," was given by Tyrian traders to the chief local divinity of any Greek town, and as a result, the Greek god Palaimon, who is associated with Corinth, becomes Melicertes.^ IV In the light of tradition gathered from many sources, no one of which alone is illuminating, the history of Morgain may be traced with a reasonable degree of clearness. We will suppose ^ See Usener, Sintjluthsagen, Bonn, 1899, pp. 151, 152. Morgain la Fie 163 that the Irish battle-goddess, the Morrigan, became in the conception of the Celtic' people more and more a fay ; when traditions about her reached Wales, where the meaning of her name was felt and her traits recognized as in a large measure those of a fay, she was regarded as the great fairy queen. When tradition was in this stage, we may conceive it to have entered France, where the Morrigan' s name was felt essentially as a proper name, though her power was that of a great fairy queen rather than that of a war-goddess. We have no right to assert positively whether the tradition came directly from Ireland or through Wales, but from the remoteness of the associations between the Morrigan and Morgain, from elements in the chessboard episode, as well as from the first story of Morgain that we can postulate, it appears more probable that before the tradition reached Armorica, it passed in Wales through an intermediate stage in which the Morrigan's name had become associated plainly with the conception of a fairy queen. In this fay, whom we know in France as Morgain, the traits are naturally most prominent that were most pronounced in the Irish war-goddess, and incidents told of the war-goddess are repeated of her. Hence since the Morrigan stood in peculiarly close relations to one hero, Cuchulinn, we need not be surprised to find that, as story after story told of other heroes became attached to Arthur, the theme of the Morrigan's love and hatred for Cuchulinn was repeated of Arthur and Morgain. Whether a story parallel to that of Fand and Cuchulinn had already been connected with Arthur's name or not, it would be very easy for the two episodes that recounted the offers of love made to Cuchulinn by two supernatural women to become confused — particularly if both incidents were told on foreign soil ^ — and to give us the form of early love story that we have conjectured was told of Morgain and Arthur. Naturally the original traits of the Morrigan appear in the character, then, of Arthur's fairy mistress, although in our early story her rdle reminds us of Fand's. But such a development of Morgain from the Morrigan would not lead us to expect that Morgain's attributes and activities 1 Cf. Cuchulinn's rejection of the Morrigan's aid, and Laeg's of Liban's, Zs. f. vergl. Sprachf., XXVIII (1887), 597. 164 Morgain la F^e would be limited to those of the battle-goddess ; they would embrace all the arts of a powerful fay, and would doubtless appear in just such a variety of forms as those predicated of Morgain in our early sources. When she was once estab- lished in France as a great fay, certain developments in the saga arose. In the first place she was subjected to rationaliza- tion, in which her sisterhood to Arthur very probably had no small influence. Although this tendency is perceptible in the Vita Merlini the first marked trace of it is evident in Hartmann von Aue's long and composite description of Morgain in the Erec} Hartmann represents Fdmurgin as the king's sister, who died like any mortal woman, and he feels that an attempt at explanation for her attainments in the magic art is necessary : — ich enweiz wer siz Mrte. In fact this pas- sage from Hartmann throws some light upon the situa- tion in the prose romances, where Morgain' s title la fee,^ 1 See p. 45, note 1. ' Morgain is so frequently designated la fie, that the term becomes almost an integral part of her name. See Roman de Troie, v. 7989; Roman de Thibes, II, Appendix I, v. 2812; Erec, v. 1957 ; Prose Erec, p. 264; Perceval, v. 30,240; Bel Inconnu, v. 4263; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3493, 30,381 ; Floriajit et Florete, V. 5145 ; Ogier le Danois, Renart le Nouvel, see below, p. 256; Jus Adan, p. 76 ; Vulgate Merlin, pp. 77,361; Huth Merlin,!, 120; Prophecies, pp. xliiii, xlv, xcv ; Loseth, §§ 265, 624 ; Livre d'Artus, P., p. 13 ; English Merlin, pp. 86, 374, 375, 508; Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, v. 2446 ; Malory, Bk. I, ch. 2, 20; II, 11; IV, 4, 6-15; VI, 3; VIII, 24, 28; IX, 13, 25, 26, 41-43 iX, I, 17,20,35- 38 ; XI, I ; XXI, 6. See the German forms below on p. 258, note 2, in which fi has become engrafted upon the name ; cf. the common Italian Fata Morgana ; seep. 251. This designation may be a remnant of an early stage of Morgain's history, an echo of the popular interpretation of Morrigan. She is the great queen, the fay ; hence Morgain la fie. Or it may have been used simply to stamp Morgain as a feminine being, because of the masculine form of her proper name. Margot-la-FSe in a number of the districts of the C6tes-du-Nord is a generic term for fays who dwell in rocks and caves (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup. de la H. Bretagne, I, 74, 106). There is not suflficient material to establish a direct connection between Morgain la fee and the Margot-la-fees. These latter, be it said, resemble the fays of the sea to whom the Morganes of Ouessant show simi- larities (see Sebillot, Trad, et Sup., I, 106 ; below, p. 251, note 2). Probably the name of the great fairy queen has been changed in popular tradition to the familiar name that was nearest it in sound, just as Sancta Marina in the Latin calendar appears as Hagia Maria in the Greek, though since the same tradition is told of her as of Sancta Pelagia, Marina is assuredly the correct name (see Usenet, Legenden der Pelagia, Bonn, 1879, p. xvii. Cf. the suggestion of Rhys, Trans. Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 1892-1893, p. 16, that in a poem which he cites from the Black Book of Caermarthen, Meredid (= Margarita) is a popular substitution Morgain la i% 165 and her acquisition of necromancy are explained in various ways.i In the second place, Morgain came to be regarded as a type of fairy queen, and in some of the later sources her Morrigan nature is altogether overshadowed by the more general concep- tion. This is true, as we have seen, in the Ogier story and in the Auberon ; it is also evident in Floriant et Florete, the Jus Adan, the Chanson d' Esclarmonde, and Brun de la Montaigne^ all of which illustrate the fact that to Morgain's name there were in time attached common and typical fairy situations, when her place had come to be indisputably that of the fairy queen of romance. Few points in the above course of tradition can be said to be proved ; but where there is ground for each conjecture of a series, we should probably be led at every turn into deeper pit- falls and snares than we have been encountering, if we were treading on purely debatable land. Hardly would the facts suggested by our material dovetail so nicely if we were not for an original Morgen). The change of a specific to a generic name is not unusual in the speech of children ; we can all recall examples of it. In fact the very name Margot-la-Fee, whatever its origin, is an illustration of such a. developm^t (cf. p: 100, note 1. For an example of the easy confusion between Margot and Morgan, cf. the variants of Margos in Aliscans, v. 4714, given in Rolin's edi- tion, Leipzig, 1894, — Morgans, Morgans, Margot ; see note on v. 4716; cf. Hertz, Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, p. 348). ' In the Lancelot (II, Ixix) it is said that because of Morgain's interest in enchantment, she left human society and passed day and night in the forests by the fountains, so that people foolishly said that she was not a woman, but they called her Morgain la d^esse (in Paris, R. T. R., IV, 238, lafSe. For the use of diesse as synonymous withy&, see Hertz, Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, p. 351 ; Grimm, D. M., I, 140 ; cf. Gawayne and the Grene Knight, v. 2452 ; Hartmann von Aue, Erec, v. 5160). Another account preserved in the Huth Merlin (1,1 20) and Vulgate Merlin (p. 77) says that in her girlhood Morgain was sent to a convent where she learned the arts, astronomy a.ni. Jisique : — Et par cele fisique et par le sens quele ot lapeloit on Morgain la fie. The English Merlin (p. 86) tells the same story, but also reports that Morgain learned so much necromancy from Merlin that the peple cleped hir afterward Morgain le fee, the suster of kynge Arthur (p. 508). In the Livre d'Artus, P. (§ 135) still a different reason for the title is given. Morgain instructs in her magic art certain ladies of the land so that throughout the country-side she is called Morgain la fie. One of the most ordi- nary results of rationalization is the explanation of a fay's power as art learned from an enchanter, or as due to an acquaintance with astrology ; cf. above, pp. 43, 114, below, p. 205 ; Partonopeus, vv. 4575 ff. ; Bel Inconnu, vv. 4838 ff. 2 See below, pp. 250 ff. 1 66 Morgain la Fee reconstructing with an approximate degree of accuracy the original of which they form the component parts. The Irish Morrigan, developed by tradition into a fay, but retaining her pronounced original attributes, transferred through Wales to Armorica, and on French soil attracting to herself a romantic saga of which the Morrigan myth forms the kernel, and which manifests itself in consistent developments, — this is the being that we have reason for conceiving Morgain la fee to be. Her character is not so complex as it looks at first sight, for she is tenacious of her Celtic prototype, and as a rule marshals her attributes closely about those of the Irish battle- goddess. CHAPTER XII LA DAME DU LAC I THE NATURE OF THE DAME DU LAC Although in the romances there are very many fays endowed like Morgain and Niniane with a proper name, a large number who are important as the amies of valorous knights are nameless. The fay's lack of a proper name is noticeable also in the early Celtic sources. The maiden who enticed Bran to Emain is simply the woman from Emain, the queen with whom Maelduin sojourned is only the Queen of the Amorous Isle, Connla's love is the Maiden from the Plain of Delight. They are types, scarcely having an individual per- sonality ; each exists for the narrator, not because she already has an independent history, but merely because the love of an other-world damsel will add to the brilliancy of some special hero. Hence, doubtless, the vague terms in which the Celtic fays are named. In the romances also there is a vast num- ber of fairy-mistress stories that are practically unattached, in which the fay is called simply la pucikle, la dame, or la damoi- sele, and is characterized by some epithet appropriate to her kind.^ In the case of the Dame du Lac her title at once betrays her fairy nature ; for the Celtic imagination placed the other world not only beyond the sea, but also beneath the sea {Tir na^ n-Og, Tir fa Thuinti)? From such a land, 1 E.g., la fuciiU, Perceval, w. 8022-8825, pass.\ 20,469fE., pass.; la puciile esgarie, lb., v. 20,393; la pucelle envoysie, lb.. Ill, 11, MS. 1530; la puciile de malaire, lb., vv. 22,604 ff.; la sore puciile, lb., vv. 39,128 ff.; la sage pucelle de Galles, Loseth, p. \66;'la puciile as blances mains, see below, p. 173; the damsel Savage (Linet), Malory, Bk. VII, ch. 33 ; la puciile del pavilion, \ ains de li n'oi autre nam, Perceval, vv. 13,421-22 ; la franche puciile, Le Chevalier du Papegau, ed. Heuckenkamp, Halle, 1896, p. 51 ; la sage demoiselle, Loseth, § 52 ; la sage dame de la forest sans retour, Vulgate Merlin, p. 157 ; see above, p. 93. 2 See Bran, § 42 ; Zs.f. d. Alt, XXXIII (1889), 164 (cf. with this the descrip- tion of the lake where the Dame du Lac dwells, below, p. 186 ; cf. also Huth 167 i68 La Dame du Lac apparently, the fay Macha came to this world.^ To the same other world belonged the \ivs\d\y puciHes des puis, of whom we read in the Perceval^ who when a wayfaring knight rested by a spring were wont to arise from the water bearing golden gob- lets and dishes, in which they served him the food and drink that he craved. A familiar example of the kind of being who dwelt beneath the waves is given also in the lay of Tydorel? The beautiful queen of Bretagne is visited one day in her garden by a tall and handsome knight, who gives her greeting, and confesses that he has come in quest of her. When the queen begs him to tell her who he is, for reply he lifts her into his saddle and rides off with her to a lake, across which he who swims shall have all that his heart desires. The mysterious lover seats the queen on the shore of the lake, then, mounted as he is, plunges into the waves and disappears from sight. De I'autre part est fors issuz. Si est a la dame venuz; " Dame," fat il, " desoz cest bois Par ceste vole vien et vols : Ne me demandez noient plus." * He takes the queen back to the garden, but continues to visit her secretly until their love is discovered. A son, Tydorel, is bom to them, who, after he has grown to the age for knighthood, hears the story of his birth ; instantly he mounts his horse, spurs off to the lake, plunges into its depths, and never returns. Another hero of the same nature as this knight of the lake is Aalardin del Lac, who figures in the first continuation of Chretien's Perceval^ Aalardin del Lac is a knight from a distant land, who dwells m a beau- tiful pavilion spread on the banks of a stream that flows near a grove where birds sing with marvellous sweetness. Within the pavilion maidens and their amis sing caroles and make merry. At the door are two figures of gold and silver, wrought by enchantment," one of which holds a harp, the other a dart. If he who is base attempts to enter, the dart is thrown at him and the harp sounds discordantly; when a wounded knight who is Merlin, I, 201) ; Silva Gadelica, II, 290, 292-311 ; Rh^s, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, p. 121 ; The Lad of the Ferule, ed. Hyde (Irish Texts Soc), London, 1899, pp. 33 ft.; Pierre Berfuire, Reductorium Morale, Bk. xiv, Prologue, cited by Madden, Sir Gawayne, London, 1839, p. xxxii; Hartland, Science -of Fairy Tales, London, 1891, p. 128; Lot, Rom., XXVIII {1899), 325, note 3; Brown, Studies and Notes, VIII, 76 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 95. 1 See pp. 160, 161. 2 Vv. 29-62. 8 Ed. G. Paris (Lais InSdits), Rom., VIII (1879), 66-72. « Vv. 105 ff. 6 Vv. 13,011-13,480, 15.426-15,639. La Dame du Lac 169 worthy is brought to the tent, the sound of the harp banishes the sense of pain, and he awakes as from a grievous dream. One day the knight Caradoc, separated from his companions in a stag- hunt, is overtaken by a storm. As he stands under the sheltering branches of a tree, he sees a marvellous light moving toward him through the forest, and hears birds singing as gaily as in summer. In the midst of the bright- ness there rides a great knight, whom Caradoc salutes as he passes ; but he answers never a word, and goes on his way surrounded by the blaze of light and accompanied by the birds. Caradoc follows, but can with diffi- culty keep him in sight, and rides on in swift pursuit to a beautiful hall where many knights are seated playing chess and draughts. Here the knight dismounts, comes laughing toward Caradoc, greets him by name, and admits that he has purposely led him a chase, in order to entiCe him to his abode. His name, he adds, is Aalardin del Lac. There is scarcely a detail of importance in this description of Aalardin del Lac that cannot be paralleled from pure fairy material. The beautiful pavilion, the marvellous birds, the enchanted figures that test the merits of the comers to Aalar- din's tent, the magic harp, the gay company, the stag-hunt, the storm and druidic light ^ by which Aalardin leads his desired guest to his dwelling,^ — these are all familiar characteristics of fairyland, and we may well believe that Aalardin's appella- tion del Lac is no empty title, but that in an earlier source, he, quite as truly as the splendid father of Tydorel, was a knight from the other world under the waves.^ 1 Cf. the fairy light preceded hy a thunderstorm and druidic mist in Mana- wyddan, Mabinogion, III, 165; see also Perceval, vv. 20,880 ft.; Partonopeus, vv. 4625, 4626 ; Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, London, 1866, p. 233; Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, pp. 138-142. 2 With the pursuit of Aalardin cf. Pwyll's pursuit of Rhiannon, above, pp. 3, 4. ' Furthermore Aalardin has a sister, la puciile del pavilion (see p. 167, note i), who is skilled in the healing art. For other-world beings who dwelt beneath the waves cf. the story of Liban, summarized above, pp. 9 ff., with Silva Gadelica, II, 184, where Liban appears as a fay walking on the water, coming in quest of a mortal hero whom she aids ; Bodleian Dinnshenchas, ed. with translation by Stokes, Folk Lore, III (1892), 485 :— LenLinnfiaclach, the craftsman of Sid Buidb (Bodb's Fairy Mound), builds under the lake the bright vessel of Fann, the Long-haired, daughter of Flidaes ; Prophecies, p. xv : — Certain women dwell beneath the water near an island in the sea ; one of them will be taken by a fisherman in his net and brought to shore, where she will marry a mortal. She will refuse to utter a word, and owing to a restriction laid upon her by her fairy mother, when she finds that she will be compelled to speak, she will cast herself into the sea and return whence she came. Cf. Campbell, III, 411, note, for a similar story. See further, Le Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1846, I, Ixi ff. I/O La Dame du Lac Thus we find abundant evidence that the name of the Dame du Lac indicates her fairy origin, and is as appropriate to a fay as la damoisele de Vile fa^e, la pucikle de Vile d' Or, or la sage dame de la foret sans retor. II THE FAIRY GUARDIAN OF LANCELOT No fay is connected in tradition with Morgain so intimately as the Dame du Lac. The romantic material dealing with her does not exhibit so large a variety -of typical fairy episodes as that which we have been reviewing ip our study of Morgain, and it forms by no means so thoroughly developed a tradition. It is limited to three chief groups : — those stories in which the Dame du Lac is represented as the guardian of Lancelot, those in which she appears as an opponent of Morgain, or is brought into contrast with her, and those in which she is called the love of Merlin. The first class is by far the most important, and since each of the others may be explained as the result of late influences working upon a narrative already developed, to discover the underlying conceptions in the story of the Dame du Lac, we must examine first those episodes showing her rela- tions to Lancelot. No one of these has reached us in a truly primitive form. The' tradition had advanced several degrees beyond its original stage when it was embodied in our earliest extant version. We shall approach this more intelligently, if we leave it for the present, and examine first the parallel sources which contain earlier forms of the same theme. Of these there are several ; for although the very title of the Dame du Lac predisposes us not to seek a definite antecedent for her as for Morgain, she belongs to a type of being, who, to quote from Alfred Nutt, " appears ... in every form and at all periods of Celtic mythic literature, and forms one of the most distinctive and characteristic personages of that literature," i namely the supernatural woman who instructs a young hero in the manly exploits — skill in arms or the chase — that fit him for some special purpose. In the stories through which we know the fairy guardian, we find her occupying one of three relations' to 1 Folk Lore Record, IV (1881), 32. La Dame du Lac 171 the hero. She is his mistress, his mother, or simply his instructress. One of the early examples of s.uch a personage is contained in a version of the Tochmarc Entire, which Kuno Meyer assigns to possibly the eighth century : ^ — Cuchulinn is induced by his enemy Forgall the Wily, to go by a perilous road to the dwelling of Scathach, where he may learn soldierly feats. He is welcomed to the dun by Scathach's daughter, who at once becomes enamoured of the young chieftain's beauty, but relinquishes him to her mother for the night. As the maiden serves Cuchulinn at meat, he stirs up a fray in the dun by taking hold of her and breaking her finger. A cham- pion of Scathach's attacks him, and in the ensuing combat meets his death. " Sorrowful was the woman Scathach at this ; so that he [Cuchulinn] said to her he would take (upon himself) the service of the man that had fallen."" As Scathach's champion, Cuchulinn abides in her dwelling and learns skill at arms of her. He gives his love to her daughter, yet Scathach also occu- pies toward. him the position of a mistress. Many are the marvellous feats that he learns under her tutelage, before he takes leave of her and goes to his own land. " And she told him what befel him after he came to Erin, and Scathach said this : ' Great peril awaits thee.' " ° Wild and mysterious though Scathach is, she may be defined as an other-world being,* who is Cuchulinn' s instructress in martial skill ; as the defender of her dwelling he puts in prac- tice the arts learned of her ; she apparently treats him as her lover, and moreover she knows his future career. If we turn now to much later sources, to the lay of Tyolet and to Renaud de Beaujeu's Bel Inconnu,^ we find what is undoubtedly a very early conception of the fay's attitude to the young hero whom she fits for the task that awaits him. Tyolet lives alone in the forest with his mother, a widow (Javevedame). and he is skilled in the chase, the possessor of a valuable gift, taught him by a fay, a magic art in whistling. Une fee ce li era, Et a sifler li enseigna : Dex one nule beste ne fist Qu'il a son sifler ne preist.^ 1 The following summary is based upon the translation made by Kuno Meyer, Rev. Celt, IV (1890), 437 ff. For a later version belonging to the twelfth century, see Meyer, Arch. Rev., I (1881), 68, 234, 298. = P. 449- ° P- 453- * In the later version of the Tochmarc Emire the other-world character of Scathach's dwelling is more pronounced. Beside being reached, as in the earlier version, by a path that leads through other-world perils, it is situated on an island connected with the mamland by the Bridge of the Cliff ; see above, p. 85, note 3. 6 For dates see above, p. 7, note i. ^ Vv. 45-48. 1 72 La Dame du Lac One day in the woods the lad gives chase to a stag, which, instead of respond- ing to his whistle, turns away from him, leads him in pursuit to a stream, across which it swims, and then is transformed before Tyolet's astonished eyes into a knight fully armed, and mounted on a beautiful horse. The knight by his words fills the boy's heart with longing for knighthood, and bids him tell his n^other that he would fain become a knight. In answer to Tyolet's wish, his mother gives him all the armor that she has in her keeping, and sadly sends him forth to Arthur's court. His first adventure after his arrival is a quest proposed to the knights of Arthur by the daughter of the King of Logres. This maiden demands that a knight cut off the white foot of the stag with hair that shines like gold, guarded by seven lions ; her white brachet shall lead him to the stag's haunt, and the reward shall be her own hand. Guided by the brachet, Tyolet, by means of his magic whistling, charms the stag, and compels it to come to him and stand motionless while he cuts off the foot. The lions he slays by his own prowess. He returns to court, and is rewarded by the love of the maiden, who takes him to live in her land, where he is king and she is queen. Although in Tyolet's secluded boyhood, the prominent figure is his mother, it is entirely by fairy agencies that he is brought to the point where he can perform the adventure leading to the fay's love. The many stories cited above of the messengers used by a fay to win a young knight to herself teach us to rec- ognize here at once that the magic whistle ^ and the druidic stag that shifts its shape to that of the mounted knight^ are the means employed by the fay to prepare him for his final quest, and to compel him to the series of adventures that will give him to her for her lord. There can be no doubt that the other-world influence which guided Tyolet's life emanated originally from the fairy princess of Logres. We see that this was the case all the more clearly when we compare her with the fay of the He d'Or, the love of Gawain's son, Guinglain, in Bel Inconnu. Bel Inconnu arrives at Arthur's court, an unknown youth, unacquainted with his own name and parentage : — biel fil m'apieloit ma mfere ; Ne je ne sai se je oi pfere.' As his first adventure he undertakes to rescue from enchantment the lady Blonde Esmerde, and on his way to the place of her captivity he 1 Cf. the magic signal with the hand taught Auberon at his birth by a fay, by which he can summon to himself bird or beast, however wild they be ; see HuoA. de Bordeaux, vv. 3551-3556. 2 For a discussion of the shape-shifter employed by the fay to direct the' hero to her land, see Brown, Studies and Notes, VIII, 98 ff. ' Vv. 117 ff. La Dame du Lac 173 passes the He d'Or, the abode of la pucele as blances mains. Here he overcomes a knight, who in a pavilion before his lady's abode defends it against all comers. Thus Bel Inconnu wins the right to the fay's love. He does not linger long to enjoy it, but soon leaves the He d'Or to accom- plish the adventure on which he is bent. After he has released Blonde Esmer^e from the spell of which she is the victim, he hears a mysterious voice telling him that his name is Guinglain, and that he is the child of Gawain and the fay Blanchemal. He wearies of his separation from the maiden of the He d'Or, and at length wins her forgiveness for his desertion of her ; then he learns that she has been the moving cause of all the incidents of his life, and has had foreknowledge of his every deed. Her words are highly significant in fairy tradition. Et sacies que moult a lone tens Qu'amer vos commen5ai premiers, Ains que vos fuissies chevaliers, Vos amai je, car bien le soi, Qu'en le maisnie Artur le roi N'en avoit i millor vasal Fors vostre pare 1^ loial. For ce vos amai je forment, Cies vostre mere moult sovent, Aloie je por vos veir ; Mais nus ne m'en fesist issir.i She had known all his destiny ; she had incited the messenger from Blonde Esmerde to seek in Arthur's court a knight to rescue her mistress, knowing that Guinglain was he who would undertake the deed. Hers had been the mysterious voice that he had heard tell him his name and parent- age, after he had released Blonde Esmerde from enchantment. With all her power she had aided him through his career, because of the great love that she bore him, and her sole object had been to win him for her ami. Sacies moult me .sui entremise En tot sanblans, en tot servise, Comment avoir je vos peusse Ne comment vostre amie fusse Or vos ai je, Dius en ait los ! Dfes or mais serrons a repos, Entre moi et vos, sans grant plait ; Et sacies bien tot entresait. Que tant que croire me vaures Ne vaures rien que vos n'ai^s. Et quant mon consel ne croir^s Ce sacies bien, lors me perdr^s I ^ Unquestionably in the life of Tyolet and Guinglain the fay plays the same part. She fixes her love upon the hero while he is a mere lad dwelling with his mother, and destines him to 1 Vv. 4870-4880. 2 Vv. 4913-4924. 174 La Dame du Lac accomplish the adventure appointed by her as that which shall give a knight the right to her love. The smiting off of the stag's white foot is quite as much a means of testing the hero's valor before he is admitted to the fay's favor ^ as is the encounter of Bel Inconnu with Malgier le Gris at the entrance to the He d'Or. Renaud, when he represents the maiden of the He d'Or as desiring Guinglain for her knight and also as impelling him to the rescue of Blonde Esmer^e, an adventure which will eventually take him away from her to marry the rescued damsel, is undoubtedly modifying his source to suit his own design. We may be very sure that the true fay does not lead the hero to the rescue of some mortal damsel whom he is to wed. She trains him for purposes that directly concern herself, and have to do with the accomplishment of her own desires.^ 1 For the part of the stag and brachet cf. below, pp. 228-232. Cf. also the druidical fawn with a golden lustre upon it, described in CHr Anmann, Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 319 : Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, pp. 25 ff. 2 A story throwing a side-light upon the theme that we have been examining, IS the account of Peredur's visit to the sorceresses of Gloucester, contained in the Welsh Peredur (Mabinogion, I, 322 ff., 369, 370). Peredur is brought up by his mother in the wilderness, and grows strong and agile, able to hunt and slay the deer, gaining in boldness and strength. After he has set out to seek adven- ture, he passes the night at the dwelling of the nine sorceresses of Gloucester, who are devastating the country. In the morning he sees a sorceress at her evil work, and attacks her so fiercely that she cries him mercy, calling him by name. " ' How knowest thou, hag, that I am Peredur ? ' 'By destiny, and the foreknowl- edge that I should suffer harm from thee. And thou shalt take a horse and armour of me; and with me thou shalt go to learn chivalry and the use of thy arms.' " Peredur takes surety of the hag that she will not injure the land further, and goes with her to the palace pf the sorceresses. " And there he remained for three weeks, and then he made choice of a horse and arms and went his way." Later we learn that the sorceresses have been destined to be slain by Peredur. Arthur and his household, Peredur among them, attack them, and slay them every one. The story is confused, and just why Peredur should have gone to learn chivalry to the abode of creatures so evil as the mysterious sorceresses, or why they should have trained him from whom they knew that they were destined to suffer harm, is not at once clear. The hiodern Celtic folk tale, The Sea Maiden, which Campbell (I, No. iv) reports, helps explain the situation : — An old fisherman, who is childless, is out fishing one day when a sea-maiden rises by the side of his boat, and in return for his promise that he will give her his first son, not only sends him plenty of fish but gives him three magic grains for his aged wife, who if she eats them will have three sons ; when his son is three years old, the fisherman must remember the sea-maiden. The child is born, but his father fails to take him to the sea-maiden La Dame du Lac 175 We do not know Renaud's direct source for the fay as the protectress of Guinglain's career. He probably used a version of Guinglain's boyhood such as appears in the English on the appointed day, and although he promises to bring him to her at the end of four years, he once more breaks his word, and this time is bidden by the sea- maiden come again at the end of seven years bringing the child with him. At the end of seven years the lad hears of his father's promise, and determines to go out into the world to try his fortune. He passes through manifold unimportant experiences, but his chief adventure is with a terrific monster who makes a vast amount of trouble by coming out of the loch where she lives and carrying off human beings to her abode. She seizes upon the hero, and takes him to her dwelling, but releases him for the sake of some jewels promised her by a princess whom he has married. Next she takes possession of the princess, but the hero succeeds at last in killing the monster and regaining his wife. Through a variant of the story (Campbell, I, 100 f£.) we learn who the frightful beast actually is ; for in the variant the mermaid herself rises from the loch, and carries the hero away to her dwelling ; but she returns him to his wife for the sake of some gaudy dresses that the lady spreads on the shore to attract her notice. In the former of these versions the two parts of the story are ill-connected. The sea-maiden is represented as having some mysterious and special interest in the lad's career ; she not only occasions his birth by her magic, but wishes to have him in her keeping in his childhood, and awaits his growth to manly strength. Yet her connection with him is apparently severed from the moment when he sets forth from his father's house, and the listener is left to wonder what happens when one forgets to regard the will of a sea-maiden. But the fay is never thwarted in her purpose, and the variant, which shows us that it was the maiden herself who transported the youth to her dwelling, gives us good reason to feel sure that the monster is the fay bespelled into a hideous shape, from which she can be freed only by the hero whom she has herself destined for this purpose. This, as we have already often seen, is a common type of story, and some such theme as this renders the form assumed in the Peredur by the account of the sorceresses of Gloucester intelligible. In this original the supernatural women who trained the young hero may quite possibly, like the sea-maiden of the modern tale, have been bespelled, and instead of being really destroyed by the prowess of their pupil at arms, were only freed from enchantment. The fay, however, is supreme in power ; hence originally she could not have been represented as bespelled, for there is no magic greater than that of. which she is mistress. But since she herself could shift her shape, and since she had minions who were shape-shifters at her control, from the fact that she often tested the hero's courage by demanding that he pur- sue or vanquish a transformed fairy being, there would very naturally arise the story that she herself had been transformed, and was waiting for the coming of the hero to be released. An interesting parallel to this class of story occurs in the VSlsungasaga, in the account of the birth of V^lsung, where a supernatural maiden performs a similar part to that of the sea-maiden in Campbell's versions. The parents of V9lsung have long been childless. Hlj6th, the daughter of Hrimnir, the giant, in bird form brings to Vglsung's father an apple, which he takes to his wife, who eats of it, and in consequence bears Vcjlsung. When the hero grows to manhood, he marries Hljoth, whom Hrimnir sends to him. See VUsungasaga, cap. i, ii; 176 La Dame du Lac Libeaus Desconus,^ according to which Guinglain is the son of Gawain and a maiden whom he met "be a forest syde";^ the child's boyhood, like that of Perceval, is passed with his mother in the solitude of the woods, which he leaves at a suitable age to seek knighthood at Arthur's court. He is never represented here as the object of a fay's protecting care from his earliest years. Renaud's original for this ele- ment in his narrative was evidently early in character, for although the pucele as blances mains is rationalized, her part is near to primitive conceptions.^ She is a true Celtic fay, all- powerful, intolerant of the slightest infringement of her will, and having as the single aim of her existence to lure to her- self her chosen mortal favorite. In type the story that Renaud knew belonged to the same class as Tyolet. We might easily suppose that for narrative and personal reasons he was simply attaching to Guinglain's name an unattached bit of current fairy tradition, if it were not that we have other sources of information concerning the fairy protectress of Guinglain's youth. In these sources she is his mother, or simply his instructress. Thus, the Guinglain material shows the guardian fay occupying toward him each one of her three typical rela- tions to the hero, mentioned above ; for according to Renaud and some other sources Guinglain is said to be the child of Gawain and a fay, — Fldrie in Wigalois, a maiden " met be a forest syde " and therefore doubtless a fay, in Libeaus Desconus, the fay Blanchemal in Bel Inconnu} In all of these romances the hero is brought up in seclusion by his mother, and at a fitting age is sent by her, properly equipped, to Arthur's court to seek knighthood. According to Wigalois, Gawain marries an other-world princess, F16rie, whom he leaves after a six months' sojourn to return to court. In the 1 Ed. Kaluza, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 8, 9. ^ See Schofield, Studies and Azotes, IV, 106 ff. ; cf. 59, 154, 157. 8 See ib., 108, 109, 197. ' Some confusion in tradition is indicated by the reading adopted by Hippeau (Bel Inconnu, v. 3208), Blanchemains, for the name of Guinglain's mother as well as of his fairy guardian ; Foerster, however, gives Blancemal as the manuscript reading (see Hist. Litt., XXX, 176, note 2); cf. also Perceval, VI, 187, where Blancemal appears as the name of a true fay. Dame Ragnell is merely mentioned as the mother of Guinglain in the Weddynge of Syr Gawayne. See Madden, Syr Gawayne, London, 1839, vv. 800 ff. La Dame du Lac 177 fulness of time, F16rie gives birth to a son, whom she brings up with the greatest care ; she and her maidens train him in valor and in knightly accomplishments until he has grown into a brave and handsome lad. He hears of his father, and entreats his mother to let him go forth in search of Gawain. She reluctantly allows him to go to Arthur's court. When he arrives he is given into Gawain's care for instruction in knighthood. Later, from the soul of a dead king, whose daughter Wigalois frees from an enchanter's power, he learns that his father is the same Gawain under whose tutelage he has been living.^ This story brings us into touch with an old and wide-spread narrative formula, according to which a child born illegitimately or posthumously is brought up in seclusion by his mother, or if, as not infrequently occurs, he is separated from her in infancy, by a childless couple, a nurse, or a supernatural agent. He is kept in ignorance of his father's name and of his inherited rights, until circumstances stimulate his curiosity, he learns something of his history, and goes forth to find his father, or to regain his ancestral possessions,^ Frequently, through misunderstanding or ignorance, he meets his unknown father in combat, and recognition by means of a token, or in some other way, ensues. In some variants, as in Wigalois, the union between the boy's parents has taken place in the other world, and the mother is a fay. The lay of Doon^ furnishes another example of this latter situation. Doon, a knight of Brittany, rides to a castle, which although said to be in Daneborc (Edinburgh), is evidently a magic dwelling, and here he meets certain apparently impossible conditions imposed by the fairy mis- tress of the castle upon her wooers, who all alike have been unsuccessful. Doon remains with her but three nights, then returns to his home, bidding her give their son a certain ring when he has grown to a suitable age, and send him in search of his father. The child is born, his mother lavishes the most careful training upon him, and when the fitting time comes, sends him to France ; ' here he meets Doon in a tourney, and the father and son discover their relationship. Social conditions in days when a passing knight easily wooed, won, and deserted a maiden, leaving her to rear their unchristened 1 Wimt von Gravenberg, Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1847, vv. 950-1710, 4793 ff- 2 See Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, 12 ff. ; Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, London, 1902, pp. II, 106 ; for a collection of examples see ib., Chap. ii. " Ed. Paris, Rom., VIII (1879), 61 ff. The lay belongs probably to the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. * See vv. 179 ff. 178 La Dame du Lac child.i doubtless gave rise to such a story as this,^ which is extremely common, and is told far more often of the son of a mortal than of a fairy mother. The picture of the fay as a mother rearing her child does not rest upon a primitive con- ception of her nature.^ For example, in the early version of the To c kmarc Emire, tha.t I have cited above, Cuchulinn passes one night with an other-world princess, Aiffe. " She also said that it was a son she would bear, and that the boy would come to Erin|that day seven year. And he left a name for him."* Later versions relate the more fully developed story of this son, that when he came to Erin,| he met his unknown father in a conflict and fell by his hand.® Many and many a valorous hero, like Cuchulinn, left a son destined to become a centre of tradition ; and the child of such an evanescent fairy union, born sometimes after his mortal father had left the other world and returned to earth, was fittingly made the hero of a narrative telling of the youth's quest for a father whom he did not know. Leaving for the time being this form of the story as Wirnt tells it, we will look at our other source in which Guinglain's fairy guardian appears. This is the account of the boyhood of Gawain's son, given in the first continuation of Chretien's Perceval. Although here the youth is nameless, resemblances between the Perceval and the cycle of poems that relate the career of Guinglain, Li Biaus Desconeus, indi- cate that he and the hero of the Perceval story are one and the same.8 As a preface it should be said that this latter 1 See Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthumer, Leipzig, 1899, I, 627 ff. 2 See Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, pp. 107 ff., also Chap. iv. 3 In the Lai del Disiri (ed. Michel, Lais Inidits du XII et XIII Siicles, Paris, 1836, pp. 5 ff. ; see especially pp. 34-36), for instance, the story is told of Desire and his fairy love, which is essentially the same as that of Graelent and Lanval, yet in Disiri an obviously later feature is introduced in that a son and daughter are born to the hero and his fairy mistress. Long after Desire has left her and returned to court, the fay appears there, accompanied by her son and daughter, whom she presents to the king with the request that he knight the lad and con- seiller the maiden. The king accordingly bestows knighthood on the son, and marries the daughter. D^sir^ and his love are married in church, before the fay takes him back with her to her own land, whence he never wishes to return * Rev. Celt, XI, 451. 6 For a collection of these later versions, see Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, pp. 22 ff. ' See Hist. Lift., XXX, 192-194 : Schofield, Studies and Motes, IV, igi, 192. G La Dame du Lac 1 79 narrative is confused ; the author evidently knows more than one version of the story that he is telling, and reduces as well as combines sources. He gives contradictory accounts of the bringing up of the child, and two versions of the meeting between Gawain and the boy's mother, which, however, although they differ in detail, are alike in the main outline. The parts of the story that concern us here are easily elimi- nated from the rest.^ The hero of the narrative is the son of Gawain and Gloriete," a maiden whom Gawain finds in a beautiful pavilion on the bank of a stream, and with whom he passes but a few hours of dalUance on his way to adventure. She is the sister of the knight Brandelis, who cherishes a feud against Gawain for the wrong that he has done her. Later Gawain inadvertently comes to the castle of Brandelis, a conflict takes place between them, in which just as Gawain is about to slay his opponent, Gloriete springs for- ward, holding up between their drawn swords her child, who is five years old. A complete reconciliation of the knights is the result, and Gawain remains for some time at the castle of Lis with his amie and her son. One day the child is stolen while at play. His two uncles go out to search for him ; Gawain, meanwhile, accompanied by Gloriete, rides off to Arthur's court, which he soon leaves in quest of adventure. At this point in his narrative the poet pauses to tantalize us by hinting at what he might have said, if he had chosen to tell all that he knew. Ne m'or^s ja parler, par foi, Ne de monsigneur Brandelis Qui de son neveu fu maris ; Et, sacies bien en vdrit^s, Onques par aus ne fu troves. Par 90U qu'il me covient entendre A le grant mature porprendre. Si ne m'ores ji parler chi Ne de la puciJle esgaree. Qui le d^tint en sa contr^e Quant ele le vit el cemin. No voel ore dire la fin, Ne des soties qu'il disoit Ne des bontes que il faisoit.' One day the lad and the pucille esgarde, or la damoisiile * as she is usually, called, are riding on their way together, when they espy a young 1 Perceval, vv. 11,987-12,393, 16,917-18,232, 19,457-19,632, 20,367-20,752. 3 Perceval, v. 19,632 ; variants, Gtiiolete, Guinalorete. 8 Vv. 20,380 ff. * Also la pucelle envoy sie ; see p. 167, note i. i8o La Dame du Lac knight drawing near them. The maiden sends the lad to him, with orders to bid him tell his name and errand, and even to strike him if he does not obey. " Coment f fait-il, mostrh-le moi." Whereupon the maiden teaches him how to deal a blow, to wield his lance and bear his shield ; the boy advances to the knight, and on his refusal to tell his name, stretches him with one blow lifeless on the ground. The lad in per- plexity goes back to the maiden who on discovering that his shield has been dented in the fray promises him another that will be far better. A little later the boy has an encounter with another knight, who fells him to the earth. The maiden hastens to him, lifts him up, puts him on his horse, and instructs him further in the proper method of holding his shield ; moreover, she gives him a shield wonderfully wrought in ivory and gold, that only he of great valor can win. They ride forward to a beautiful pavilion in a garden, and here they take up their abode. The lad defends the pavilion against all passing knights, and achieves many splen- did victories. One day Gawain himself comes in sight, and the youth meets his unknown father in deadly combat. Gawain admiring his young opponent's powers bids him tell his name. But the boy replies that he does not know it ; in the court where he was brought up, la riche sale du lis, he was called le neveu son oncle, for his mother did not dare mention the name of his father in the castle, because of the great wrong that he had done her family. Gawain at once feels sure that the lad is his son, and declares himself the prisoner of the puciile du pavilion. When he is led to the maiden, she bids him tell his name, and thus the relationship between him and the boy is revealed. Very similar to the Perceval story in its elements, although not in its conclusion, is that of Finn mac Cumhaill. The old- est account that we have of his birth is found in the Fotha Catha Cnucha (Cause of the Battle of Cnucha) contained in the Lebor na h-Uidre} and hence written down in the beginning of the twelfth century. Cumall, son of Tremor, king of Ireland, woos Murni Muncaim (Mumi of the Fair Neck), daughter of the druid Tadg, and when her grandfather denies his suit, he carries her away by force. Cond, in whose service he is engaged, . bids him restore the maiden, and upon his refusal Cond sends forces against him, who slay him and his men. Murni expects to give birth to a child, and spurned by her father, who wishes her to be burned for her offence, she takes refuge at Cond's suggestion in the house of Cumall's sister. Here a son is born to her, and Demni is the name given him. " The boy is nursed by them, after that, until he was capable of committing plunder on every one who was an enemy to him. He then proclaims battle or single combat against Tadg, or else the full eric I See Hennessy, Rev. Celt., II (1873-187 5), 86 ff. La Dame du Lac i8i of his father to be given to him. Tadg said that he would give him judg- ment therein." Tadg leaves his stronghold, Almu, and cedes it to Finn. It is quite plain that this is an incomplete narrative, and that although the narrator is giving a full account of the love of Cumhall and Murni and the birth of their child, he is omit- ting some part of the story that he had before him. We are told that the boy is called Demni, and the next time that he is mentioned by name in the narrative he is spoken of as Find.^ yet no statements are made that explain this change of name. The child's mother and aunt are represented as giving him the training that fits him for the great object of his existence, — revenge upon his father's enemies.^ In the so-called Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac Cumhail^ a. fragment of the Psalter of Ccishel, a fifteenth-century manu- script in the Bodleian library, an account is given of the early days of Finn, which, although it is not nearly so full as the Leborna k-Uidre version in the part dealing with the hero's birth, is evidently based upon a narrative that contained details lacking in the earlier source.* This version supplies an explana- tion for the change of the boy's name, as well as a definite account of his rearing, neither of which appears in the Lebor na h-Uidre. Cumhall and Uirgreun are said to have fought the battle of Cnucha as rivals for the chieftainship of the Finns. Cumhall was slain in the strife. After his death his wife Muirenn g^ve birth to a son whom she named Deimne. -' Fiacail the son of Cuchuin, and Bodhmall the Druidess and Liath Luachra came to Muirenn and carried away the son, for his mother durst not keep him with her. Bodhmall and Liath taking the boy with them went to the forests of Sliabh Bladma where the boy was nursed secretly." Enemies were eager to kill the child, and therefore the two women kept him long in retirement. After six years his mpther came to visit her son and asked the heroines to take charge of him until he should be of heroic age ; accordingly he was afterwards nursed by them till he was of fit age to go hunting. He went out on sundry expeditions, but returned from them to the two heroines. One day he joined some youths who were playing hurly, and won against them all ; when they were describing him they called him finn (fair). On another occasion when they were swim- ming, they challenged him, and in return he drowned nine of them. Men 1 See Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, 27 ff. 2 gee Rev. Celt., II (1888), 91. ' Ed. O'Donovan, Trans. Oss. Soc, IV, 288 ff. * See Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, 18, 19. i82 Ea Dame du Lac asked who drowned the youths, and the answer was that Finn {the Fair) drowned them. Ever after the name clung to the boy.* From the confused account of Gawain's son in the Per- ceval^ with its obvious discrepancies, we can establish certain ' It is significant that in folk tales still preserved in Ireland Finn is represented as an illegitimate child, brought up by a supernatural woman. According to one version (see Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, London, 1866, The Fight of Castle K710C, p. 216) Cumhail and Conn are at strife, and in a battle between them Cumhail is defeated by the magic of the druid Tadg, whose hatred he has incurred because he has outraged Muirrean, the daughter of Tadg. On the eve of the battle, Cumhail summons Boghmin, his female runner, and tells her that when a son is born to Muirrean, she must carry him away to a spot where he shall be safe from the wrath of Tadg. Boghmin obeys, and with the help of " the sage woman Fiecal " brings the child up in secret in a cave of Slieve Bloom. She calls him Deimne. When he has grown older, he takes part in certain games at Tara. Conn asks the name of this Paustha Fion (fine youth). Boghmin replies that Fion shall be his name. A by-stander explains that he is Cumhall's son, whereupon Boghmin seizes the child in her arms, and speeds away from her enemies so fleetly that none can overtake her. In another version, given by Campbell (ffow the Een was set up. III, 348), Cumhail is put to death by the jealousy of certain enemies, among them the king of Lochlann, whose sister is Cumhall's mistress, and who commands that if a boy be born to Cumhail and the maiden, he shall be slain. On the night of Finn Mac Chumhail's birth, his nurse flees with him to a desert place, and keeps him there until he has grown into a strong lad. She is disturbed by the fact that he is nameless, and goes to the town to try to find him a name. She sees some boys swimming, and bids the lad swim out into the loch and drown them. The bishop who is looking on asks who the " fair son " (Fionn) is who is drowning the boys. " ' May he steal his name,' said his nurse, ' Fionn, son of Cumhail, son of Finn, son of every eloquence, son of Art, son of Eirinn's high king,' and it is my part to take myself away.' " The instant that he comes to shore, she puts him on her back, and hastens away with him. As their pursuers are about to overtake them, he leaps from his nurse's back, and puts her about his neck holding her by the ankles. He dashes into a wood, and when he comes out has only the two shanks left. He throws them into a loch that he is passing, which is called thereafter Loch nan Lurgan, the Lake of the Shanks. Two great monsters grow from the shanks. Other versions of the story still survive and have been collected by J. G. Campbell (The Fians, London, 1891, pp. i6 ff.) : — Finn is the illegitimate child of Cumhail and the daughter of an Ulster smith. Cumhail is slain in battle, and since his enemies, who have heard a report that his son will avenge his death, plan to kill the child on his birth, Cumhall's sister, Los Lurgann (Speedy Foot), takes the boy to the Ulster wood as soon as he is bom. She has her brother, a joiner, build her a house m one of the trees with such skill that nobody can detect it. Then, to insure secrecy, she kills the joiner, and takes up her abode in the house with the child. When he has grown to be a lad, she teaches him feats in swimmmg, leaping, running. The rest of the story agrees with the preceding ver- sions. (See also The Fians, pp. 24 ff. Cf. Silva Gadelica, II, loi ff.) 2 On this story cf. Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, pp. 48, 50, 194. La Dame du Lac 183 parallelisms with the story of Finn. An illegitimate child was born to Gawain and Gloriete, as to Cumhall and Murni of the Fair Neck. In both cases the mother's' kindred sought vengeance on the lover. Murni was disowned by her father, who even desired her to be burnt. In the Middle English poem, The Jeaste of Syr Gawayne^ there is given a version of the meeting and love between Gawain and the sister of Syr Brandies, which varies somewhat in details from that of the Perceval. Here we read that Syr Brandies, after having parted from Gawain, beats his sister with many stripes. Then the lady gate her a-waye, They sawe her never after that daye, She went wandrynge to and fro.^ From the story of Murni we may conjecture that the fate of this fair lady was originally similar to hers, and that the ver- sion adopted in the Perceval, which allows Gawain's love to remain with her kindred and meet her lover again, even dwell with him in the castle of her brother, and finally ride off with him to Arthur's court, is the result of the sophisticating tend- ency of which we have had examples. The story of Gawain's son, then, in its introduction, is modelled upon essentially the same series of incidents found in that story of Finn which ante- dates the French romances ; and it also contains an account of the lad's supernatural training, which parallels features in the later Boyish Exploits.^ It would appear probable, therefore, that the training of the child by the other-world maiden formed a part of an early narrative, to the type of which the stories of both Finn and Gawain's son conform. The relation of the three accounts of the boyhood of Guin- glain — the Desconus poems, Wigalois, ■o.ViA. the Perceval— \% extremely puzzling. We may presuppose that before the time of Renaud, there was told of Guinglain a story similar to that of Tyolet, in which the lad is brought up in seclusion by his mother, and watched over by a fay whose ami he is destined to be. Whether here the boy's mother was a fay or a mortal 1 Ed. Madden, Syr Gawayne, London, 1839, p. 222. " Vv. 524 ft. 3 The differences in the induction of the Boyish Exploits and of the Enfances of Gawain's son exclude the supposition that the Boyish Exploits was influenced by the latter. 184 La Dame du Lac maiden, we do not know. A misunderstanding might easily have represented the hero .who was protected by a fay in his childhood, as the son of a fay. On the other hand, we may remember that in studying the fairy lore of the romances scarcely any element has more constantly to be taken into account than rationalization ; and an early story of Guinglain, in which he, the child of a mortal and a fay, was said to go forth in search of his unknown father, might easily have been rationalized into a type conforming with that of the Finn story, and known to us through the Perceval and the Jeaste of Syr Gawayne. It is in any case obvious that although neither the version of the Perceval nor that of the Bel Inconnu is based upon the other as its source, la pucele as blances mains and la puciHe esgar^e are substantially one and the same person, who represents the supernatural guardianship that watched over the life of the hero. The puciHe e'sgarde takes the child to her land, trains him herself to deeds of arms, just as Scathach instructs Cuchulinn, and keeps him with her defending her abode, as Scathach keeps Cuchulinn. Thus she fits him for a special adventure, the fight with Gawain, by means of which he learns the story of his birth. Unlike the fay of the He d'Or, however, she has no motive for her conduct, and the ele- ment of love does not enter into the account at all. The Per- ceval tells us nothing further of la puciHe : she disappears from its pages when her mission is ended, that is, when the young hero whom she has fitted for his task in knighthood knows whose son he is. In this version, however, it should be observed, the machinery belongs to an old and common type, the fight between father and son ending in their recognition,^ and from its very nature gives a more coherent story than does that adventure in the Bel Inconnu which leads to the knight's knowledge of his true name. But, as we have seein, in the narrative of a hero, who was born as the son of Gawain was born, living without a name, called like Finn, the Fair One, like heroes of the French romances. Beau Fils, Bel Inconnu, Beau Valet, Beaudous, the interest of the story centres upon his meeting with his father,^ 1 See on this subject, e.g., Kohler, in Marie de France, pp. xcvi £f. ; Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, 29-31 . 2 See Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, pp. 107 ff., Chap. IV. La Dame du Lac 185 or learning his descent, and a fay, already introduced as his mistress, instead of fitting him only for the tests that shall prove his right to her love, gives him the training by which he shall learn his true history, or by which, as in the case of Finn, he shall regain what is his right by birth. With these examples of the rdle of the guardian fay in romance before us, we may turn perhaps with greater interest to the versions of the up-bringing of Lancelot by the Dame du Lac. The earliest source in which the Dame du Lac is men- tioned by name is the French prose Lancelot. But in the Middle High German romance Lanzelet,^ by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, the same personage apparently is designated as a merfeine or merminne : here, accordingly, we find the most primitive extant representation of the Dame du Lac. In Ulrich's poem^ King Pant of Genewis, whose territories are besieged by his enemies, is reduced to hopeless straits, and is compelled to leave the town, taking with him his wife and his son but one year old. Before they reach a place of refuge, the king dies from a mortal wound. While the queen seeks the shelter of a tree near at hand, a fay from the sea approaches, surrounded by a magical vapor («'«« tnerfeine . . . mit eime dunst als ein winf)^; she lifts the child up in her arms and bears him away to her own land. ez hat ein vrouwe genomen, ein wisiu merminne, diu was ein kiiniginne * baz dan alle die nu sint.* She rules over Meideland, a country where ten thousand maidens dwell, and where flowers and trees are in perpetual bloom. Her beautiful castle is built on a crystal mountain ; the sea surrounds the land, which is pro- tected by an insurmountable wall ; within neither jealousy nor anger is known, the maidens who dwell there are always blithe and merry, he who abides in the land a single day is happy so long as life lasts. Here the boy is carefully brought up by the lady, and trained in gentle bearing. When he is fifteen years old, he begs her to let him go where he may see tourneys and jousts, and entreats her to tell him who he is, for he has lived in com- plete ignorance of his name and history. This latter request she assures him that she cannot grant, until he has overcome the redoubtable knight, Iweret von dem Schoenen Walde. The boy is filled with a desire to go out into the world and mdet Iweret. The lady equips him with a beautiful horse and fitting accoutrements, sails with him across the sea, and gives him many parting instructions as to his conduct, before he mounts his 1 See p. 8, note, for the date. ' Vv. 179-181. 2 Vv. 149 ff., 3540 ff., 4674 ft. ^ Vv. 192 ff. 1 86 La Dame du Lac horse and spurs away from her to adventure. In the fulness of time he makes his way to the Schatel le mart, the dwelling of Mabuz, the son of the merfeine, who, since it was predicted to her before his birth that he would always be a coward, has enchanted the castle so that every one who enters without the host's permission must lose his valor. Iweret is a for- midable neighbor, who can easily despoil Mabuz of his possessions, and therefore the lady of the sea has destined her fosterling to slay him and free Mabuz. As the youth fares on his way after the battle in which he has defeated Iweret, he is met by a maiden, who comes from the queen of Meidelahd. Her mistress has sent her to tell him that his name is Lanzelet, and to acquaint him with the story of his origin. In Ulrich's version, removed though it is in some respects from primitive conditions, we have a more consistently constructed, and certainly an earlier story than that given in our other source for Lancelot's youth, the French prose Lancelot:'^ — King Ban of Benoic is besieged in Trebes by Claudas de la Deserte. By permission of Claudas he sets out from Trebes to seek aid from Arthur, taking with him his wife and his young son Lancelot, but on the way he dies. His wife, leaving Lancelot lying on the grass, hastens to the dying king, and when presently she returns, to her amazement she sees a maiden on the borders of the lake, caressing the child. To the queen's entreaties ■that she give her back her son, the maiden does not reply a word, but springs into the lake with the boy in her arms and disappears beneath the waves. The Dame du Lac bears Lancelot off to her own dwelling, a gay abode filled with knights and ladies. It is in a forest ; for the lake into which she plunged is only an illusion, which veils from the eyes of mortals the beauti- ful dweUings and winding streams that adorn the worfds. Here she gives the child into the care of one of her maidens, and when he is fifteen years of age he is placed under the tutelage of a master, who teaches him to hunt, to ride, to play chess and draughts. He grows into great beauty and strength, and is called Beau trov^, Riche orphelin, but by the Dame du Lac always Fils du Roi, although she carefully keeps his origin secret from him. When he is eighteen years old, she realizes that she should send him from her side to win knighthood. He returns from the chase one day to find her in tears. She bids him leave her, and convinced that he has offended her, he is mounting his horse, when she seizes his bridle, and forces him to admit that he was about to ride to Arthur's court, where he might obtain knighthood. The lady at once tests his earnestness by telling him of the hard duties of knighthood, and proceeds to deliver him a long discourse on chivalry, explaining the qualities that a knight should have, the arms that he should bear, their symbolic meaning, and the knight's obligations. Lance- lot's desire for knighthood remains unabated, and the lady consents to set 1 Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 1 5, 19, 26 ff., 37 ff., 89, 93 ff., 1 1 1 ff., 1 22 ff. Cf. Prophecies, pp. xxvi, xliv, xlv; below, pp. 239, 240; Lancelot du Lak, vv. 214 ff. La Dame du Lac 187 out with him to court. Attended by a brilliant retinue the Dame du Lac comes before the king, and begs as a boon from him that he knight the youth, but stipulates that she be allowed to give him his arms. She bestows many parting injunctions upon her fosterling, and bids him say, if asked his name, that the lady who brought him up kept him in ignorance of it. She slij)s on his finger a ring that has power to break all enchantments, foretells his achievement of marvellous adventures, and committing him to God, leaves him. Briefly, then, Lancelot is a king's son, deprived of his inherit- ance and separated from his parents by the fortunes of war, brought up in' seclusion and in ignorance of his name and position by a supernatural power, whom he leaves to learn his descent and finally to regain his ancestral possessions. Thus he comes among the heroes whose history follows the so-called Aryan Expulsion-and-Return Formula.^ The persistent part of Lancelot's story in romance, however, is that which deals with his relations to the supernatural lady who guards his career. We have already had to do with sufficient early fairy lore to make it needless to point out here the many indications that the French prose Lancelot''' is affected by later influences than the Middle High German poem. There is, however, one important element in the German source that has no place in the French romance. The queen of Meideland cherishes Lancelot with a special design, — she wishes her son to be unspelled; for this achievement she trains her fosterling, and only upon the doing of this deed shall he win the longed- for knowledge of his own name, obviously not a primitive rende'ring, since the true fay who is supreme over enchantment does not require a knight for such a service as this. In the prose Lancelot the Dame du Lac has no personal object in caring for the boy, no ends of her own to gain, and no 1 Cf. Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, formula facing p. 42. 2 Such, for example, is the difference in the descriptions of the fay's dwelling ; in the Lancelot, where it is said to be in a forest veiled by a magic lake, the narra- tor evidently does not understand the Celtic Underwaves Land, and carefully explains that the lake into which the lady plunges is only an illusion (cf. Huth Merlin, II, 150) ; while Ulrich represents Meideland as an other-world abode, which, since its queen is a merminne, was in his source doubtless placed beneath the waves. Such also are the details of the Dame du Lac's manifestations of sorrow at the thought of her fosterling's departure, and her discourse on the manifold obligations of knighthood. V 1 88 La Dame du Lac designated quest for which to prepare him. After he has per- formed in part a subsequent adventure, the dispelling of the enchantment at the Douloureuse Garde,^ in which he is assisted" by the agency of the Dame du Lac, he learns his name ; but his acquisition of the knowledge is not attributed to her power.2 As in the case of Gawain's son the story demands that the hero prove his valor in some way, before his father's name shall be revealed to him ; but the special adventure performed by Lancelot is irrelevant in that it has no obvious point in being the means by which he shall learn his origin. In short the story of the Dame du Lac has reached us at about the same stage of development as that of the puciile esgarde. Each fay steals the child from his mother, and keeps him with her in her own land, giving him the training which will enable him to attain the coveted knowledge of his origin. Even as there is no hint of love between the pucikle and Gawain's son, so Lancelot occuptes to the Dame du Lac purely the relation of a foster- ling. But for Renaud de Beaujeu we should be wholly ignorant of the love between Guinglain and his fairy protectress, and the mere fact that a relentless fate has not preserved to us a 1 See Paris, R. T. S., Ill, 154 ff. Lancelot, no long time after his knighting by Arthur, arrives before the impregnable castle known as La Douloureuse Garde, where mortals are kept imprisoned under enchantment. As he is trying to enter the first gate of the castle, a veiled maiden comes to him who dissuades him from the adventure, and when she finds that he will not listen to her, appears to leave him. At the end of a day of hard combat, Lancelot again finds the veiled maiden beside him ; she bids him rest for the night, and takes him to a chamber where she unarms him. Here she reveals herself as a messenger from the Dame du Lac, shows him three magic shields which the Dame du Lac has sent him, and assures him of the aid of her mistress in completing the adventure. During the bloody conflicts of the succeeding day, at every crisis when his strength is failing him, the maiden of the Dame du Lac appears beside him, slips one of the magic shields around his neck, and in spite of his remonstrances that thus she is detract- ing from the glory of his victory, insists upon replacing his helmet when it is broken with one that is better, and giving him a brighter sword than his own. Thus he wins the day and enters the Douloureuse Garde in triumph. When he has been welcomed by the inhabitants of the castle, he is conducted by them to a cemetery, in the middle of "which he sees a great metal slab, bearing an inscription saying that only he who has performed the adventure of the castle can lift the metal slab, and that within he will find his name. Lancelot lifts it, and reads beneath it his own name, Ci refosera Lancelot du Lac, U fits au rot Ban de Benoic. The maiden is at his side, and jiromises to reveal the name to no one. 2 See ib., 166. La Dame du Lac 1 89 correspondingly early story for Lancelot does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that a more primitive type of fairy- guardian theme was never attached to his name. There are only two indications, however, that such may have been the case, and that originally the Dame du Lac may have been Lancelot's amie. In Diu Crone, when the fidelity glove is brought to court, Lancelot fails in the test, and Kai is ready to declare with a taunt that thus it is revealed daz ir die gotinne, verkurt an ir minne, diu iu 26ch in dem s6.^ Our information is too scanty to base conclusions upon such a reference as this. Again, the main adventure related of Tyolet is told of Lancelot in a somewhat later form in the Dutch Lanzelet? The quest of the white stag is proposed at Arthur's court by a messenger from a distant princess : Lancelot is the successful knight, but declines the love of the fay for whom he has performed the adventure, because of his love for Guinevere. If we suppose that an early story akin to Tyolet was told of Lancelot, and that in it the Dame du Lac fitted the young knight for the adventure of the white stag, and was ready to reward him with her love, we can readily understand by a comparison with the Guinglain story that when Lancelot was brought into the number of those heroes who went out in quest of an unknown father, the element of love might be obscured, and the fairy training have for its object solely his ability to gain his desired end. In any case, almost inevitably the story of a fairy love would die out of the Lancelot material, after it became thoroughly permeated with his devotion to the queen, which we have repeatedly seen has the power to change the conclusions of episodes from their original form. A story parallel to the Lancelot and suggestive as to the relations of the hero to the fay is that of Floriant, contained in the thirteenth-century romance, Floriant et Florete? 1 Vv. 24,517-24^520. 2 Vv. 22,271-23,126. See Jessie L. Weston, Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac, London, 1901 , Chap. iii. 8 Vv. 30-579^734-932. 2412-2694, 5215-6282, 8177-8270. IQO La Dame du Lac Elyadus, king of Sicily, is treacherously killed by his steward, Maragoz, who at once lays claim to the queen's hand. She flees to the castle of a faithful retainer, and on the way gives birth to a son. While she and her attendants sleep, Morgain, with two other fays, returning at midnight from pastime on the sea, finds the child. Morgain predicts that he will be a val- iant knight, and decides to bear him away to her home on Mongibel. They take the infant to a sanctuary and have him christened Floriant. In Mor- gain's dwelling he grows into a fair lad, and is taught by a master all that a nobleman's son should know. When he reaches the age of fifteen years he comes to Morgain and begs her to tell him who his father is. Morgain recognizes this question as a sign that she cannot keep him longer with her. She tells him that his father is a king and his mother a king's daughter, and on the next day she knights him and by a magic ship sends him with a rich equipment to the court of her brother Arthur. On his way thither Floriant stops at many points to achieve marvellous adventures, and arrives at court in time to win renown by brilliant victories in a toiu-ney. After he has delivered his message from Morgain to Arthur, a maiden comes to him bearing a letter from Morgain, which reveals to him the story of his birth and tells him that his mother is besieged by Maragoz in the castle of her retainer. Aided by Arthur, Floriant sets forth to rescue her. Adventures and successes crowd upon him, and he not only raises the siege and frees his mother, but is made king of Palermo and en passant falls in love with Florete, the daughter of the Emperor of Con- stantinople, and marries hei". He lives prosperously in Palermo until one day in a hunt he pursues a white stag which leads him far away to a beautiful castle, through the door of which it dashes. Floriant follows, the stag disappears from view, and Floriant sees Morgain sitting on a couch. She tells him that he must die if she lets him remain longer on earth ; therefore she has sent the white stag for him, and he never shall leave her. To make him happy she sends three fays to. bring Florete also to dwell in Mongibel forevermore. Step by step the story of Floriant agrees with that of Lan- celot. In the circumstances of their birth, of their discovery by the fay, of their remaining in her land, of their knighting by Arthur, and of their final restoration to their ancestral thrones, the twro heroes are alike. The differences are too great for us to regard Floriant as a mere redaction of the Lan- celot story, and it may rather be accepted as another working- over of a narrative of the same type, and as evidence of the way in which an original tale containing the return of the hero to the fairy mistress who has guarded him from infancy, is adapted to the ■ additional themes related of thfe same hero. The romance plainly gives us an instance where a common La Dame du Lac 191 story has made its way into the Morgain saga, and Morgain, as I have said above, is here only a type.' It is unwise to dogmatize in regard to the exact stage of development at which an account of boyish exploits in fairyland was attached to Lancelot's name. His name itself, Lancelot du Lac, which appears as early as Ulrich's poem, is evidence of the importance in the Lancelot legend of his training by the Dame du Lac, which made it appropriate that the title of the protecting lady should be extended to the young knight who 1 A similar story is that of Maugis and the fay Oriande, told in the epic of Maugis d'Aigremont, which belongs probably in the end of the thirteenth century (see Nyrop-Gorra, Storia dell' Epopea francese, Turin, 1888, p. 177 ; cf. Hist. Litt., XXII, 704), and in which we should therefore expect to find romantic as well as epic material. The poem is accessible only through summaries. See Hist. Litt, XXII, 700 ff. ; Keightley, Tales and Popular Fictions, London, 1834, pp. 343 ff. Tristan de Nanteuil (summarized Hist. Litt., XXVI, 234 ff.; Dunlop-Liebrecht, p. 143, a), one of the early fourteenth-century epics, contains further indications of the popularity of the enfances feeriques : —; Tristan de Nanteuil, the infant son of Gui de Nanteuil and Eglantine, owing to various casualties attendant upon a storm that he and his parents experience at sea, is left alone in the boat which floats out over the waters. A siren follows it and rescues the child ; a fisherman brings both the siren and Tristan to shore, and takes the siren captive. Tristan once more is left alone. He is found by a doe, who* cares for him and brings him up in the woods. When he is sixteen years old he leaves the woods and wanders forth on adventure. The same theme has a place in the ballad of the Birth of St. George (Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Wheatley, London, 1877, III, 218 ff.), which is considered as in the main modem (see ib. Z17 ; cf. Nutt, Folk Lore Record, IV, 32). The vrife of Lord Albert of Coventry has a dream, the interpretation of which Lord Albert seeks with the weird lady of the woods, who tells him that his wife shall die at the birth of a son, who will be as dreadful to his foes as a dragon. Lord Albert returns to his castle to find his lady dead, and to learn the sad fate that has befallen the new-bom child : — in the past night thunder had rolled, lightning flashed, the castle had shaken, and the child was gone. Lord Albert in sorrow wandered far and wide. At length, all wearied, down in death He laid his reverend head. Meantime amid the lonely wilds His little son was bred. There the welr^ lady of the woods Had borne him far away. And traind him up in feates of arms, And every martial play. Cf. also, for a late version of the theme, the thirteenth-century German romance, WtgamAr (ed. Hagen and Biisching, Deutsche Gedichte des Mittelalters, Berlin, 180S, I, pp. 1 ff- of the poem ; cf. pp. 41-44). Here Lespia, ain wildes weyb (v. 112), steals Wigamflr from his parents, and carries him to her home in the sea. 192 La Dame du Lac was brought up in fairyland.* Throughout the career of Lance- lot the Dame du Lac occupies the position of his protectress. Lancelot more than once when in peril has recourse to her ring for aid.2 Twice she heals his madness ; ^ she sends a fidelity mantle to court that brings honor to Iblis, his love ; * she com- forts the queen in her hours of separation from him ; ^ by a messenger she even saves him from self-destruction in a moment of despair.* Thus she is the guardian spirit of the hero's life, guiding him at every point, protecting him in danger, present at every time of need.' In reconstructing a primitive type of fairy story it should ^ A similar case is that of GaJien, who was named after Galienne, the fay who tended him at birth (see p. 194, note). Aiol, also, the son of Count Elife, who had been exiled by the king of France, was born and brought up in the forest of Bordeaux, and is said to have been named Aiol from the grant aiant, who with other savage creatures surrounded him at his birth (see Aiol, ed. Normand and Raynaud, Paris, 1877, vv. 64-68, 451, 452; p. v, note i; Aiol et Mirabel, ed. Foerster, Heilbronn, 1876-1882, p. 424, note 63). 2 See above, pp. 82, 86, 97 ; Conte de la Charette, vv. 2342-2350 ; Huth Mer- lin, I, liv; II, 57 ; cf. Jessie L. Weston, The Romance of Morien, London, 1901, p. 128 and note. 2 See pp. 97, 196. ' ' See p. 119. 6 gee p. igg, note 3. " Paris, R. T. R., V, 178-181 ; cf. Ill, 173, 189 ; Loseth, p. 432 (cf. § 291, a) ; Malory, Bk. XIX, ch. 11. ' A few episodes (see Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 56-68, 83-94, 281 ; IV, 136 ft.; V, 202) represent the Dame du Lac as giving her care and protection to Lancelot's cousins, Lionel and Bohor, the sons of Bohor de Gannes. These stories are doubt- less concocted simply for the purpose of extendmg the length of an already long romance. They have no important bearing on the nature of the Dame du Lac. The Dame du Lac learns that the sons of Bohor, the brother of Ban, are deprived of their inheritance and kept in confinement by Claudas de la Deserte. She determines to rescue them, and sends one of her maidens, Sarayde by name, to the court of Claudas with full instructions as to how the rescue shall be achieved. Sarayde, leading two hounds, enters the hall where Claudas sits at meat, and induces him to summon the lads to his presence. When they stand before the king she covers them with chaplets of flowers, and passes about their necks chains of gold and precious stones, the magic power of which instantly drives them to a frenzy, and in the general melee that follows she shifts their shapes and those of the hounds, and leaving the supposed youths to the mercy of Claudas, makes her escape with the real youths in hound shape. She conducts them to the dwelling of the Dame du Lac, where they are brought up under her tender care with the young Lancelot. She resolves to keep them under her protection even after they leave her domain (Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 56-68, 83-94). Later («*., 281) we read that she sends Lionel to Galehaut for training in knightly accomplishments, and still later {ib., IV, 136 ff.; V, 202) we find an account of the protection afforded Bohor in combat by Sarayde, who comes as a messenger from the Dame du Lac. La Dame du Lac 193 be remembered that the fay is never a disinterested actor. Her influence on the hero's life is for the gratification of her own love for him. With this principle in mind, although the sources discussed in this chapter present many unsolved prob- lems, they serve to establish at least a few facts in regard to the fairy guardian of romance. It is consistent with our knowledge of the Celtic fay to believe that originally when she exercises protection over a child, it is because she has destined him for her loved one when he shall have attained heroic years.^ and 1 Although the part of the fay as the instructress of the young hero whom she has guarded in his infancy rests upon a true Celtic foundation, her rdle offers a point of contact with that of the Parcae and the Norns, who preside over the birth of a child and weave his destiny for him ; this may perhaps account for the frequent occurrence in romance of stories in which fays play directly the part played by the Parcae in other sources. The resemblance between the Parcae and Norns on the one hand, and the fays of French romance on the other has been frequently noted. See e.g., Grimm, D. M., I, 332 ff. ; Maury, pp. 26, 29, 66 £f. Cf. especially for the influence of the conception of the Parcae on that of the Norns, Bugge- Schofield, Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1898, pp. 79 ff., 97 ff., 105, 106. Cf. also Guillaume au Court Nez, in Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Ligendes, Paris, 1836, p. 257; Perceval, vv. 34,143-34,165; Lajamon, .5>-«/, vv. 34,143 ff. ; Huon de Bordeaux, vv. 3499-3534, 3S51-3S62 ; Auberon, vv. 402-450 ; Stengel, Ausgaben u. Abhandl., LXXXIII (1889), 38 ; Ysaye le Triste, an unpublished romance, sum- marized by Zeidler, Zs.f. rom. Phil., XXV (1901), 175 ft., 472 ff., 641 if.; Grimm, D.M., I, 341 ; Maury, p. 31 ; "Hertz, Spielmannsbuch, Stuttgart, 1900, pp. 350, 351. In the romance of Amadas et Ydoine (ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1863, vv. 1979 ff., 2043- 2304), in fact, fays are clearly identified with the Parcae. The fair Ydoine, who has been parted from her lover Amadas, in great distress on the eve of her com- pulsory marriage to the Count of Nevers consults three sorceresses as to what means she shall adopt to remain faithful to her true lover. They assume the beles figures defies and as Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos cast a spell upon the Count so that he does not know whether he is asleep or awake. They proceed to pre- pare a repast by his bedside, and as they sit and dine, in order to deter him from the wedding they talk over together the unhappy destiny that they have given Ydoine at birth. A few late French sources show more distinctly the union in the fay of the Parcae who give the child his destiny at birth, and the Celtic fairy mistress who destines for her own love the young knight whom she rears. For an illustration see Brun de la Montaigne, p. xi, note 2 : — In the night that Ogier was bom, when his mother died, six fays came to the bed where he was lying and with caresses each gave him qualities worthy of a hero's desire ; Morgain was the last of the number to speak, and she decreed that Ogier should never meet death by the hand of man, and that he should see all her joys in faerie where he should dwell as her lord and her beloved (cf. also the Enfances Garin de Montglane, in which Morgain appears with two other fays at the birth of Garin and gives him gifts. See Gautier, £p. Fr., IV, iii). In Brun de la Montaigne (vv. 430-1357, 1 859-2021, 2744-2874), an obviously late representation of the fay as the protectress of children is given. Butor de la 194 La Dame du Lac that she therefore prepares him especially for an adventure that will lead him to her. As a development from her original characteristic, when the circumstances of the hero's life empha- sized by narrative demand an alteration of her part, she trains him for any great adventure which she knows awaits him ; thus she loses her character as fairy mistress. An extremely com- mon and early narrative theme, not founded upon the conven- tions of fairyland, but upon human social conditions, represents the child of a maiden and a hero who has met her when away from his home, and has left her after a brief sojourn, as brought up in retirement by his mother and in ignorance of his father, of whom he later goes in quest. This story is naturally made the history of a youth who is the offspring of a mortal and his fairy love, whom he had met in her distant land and had left to return to earth. Thus the mother who brings up the child in seclu- sion is a fay. Probably the two types of narrative, that in which the fay is the lad's protecting fairy mistress, and that Montaigne exposes his newborn son in the forest of Bersillant, that he may receive a destiny from the fays. Three fays come singing to the fountain beside which the child is lying, and two in turn endow him with gifts, the third with misfortune in love. One of the others at once promises him comfort in his misfortunes. Very soon the same fay comes to the castle of Butoi" and offers herself as a nurse for Brun. For many years she takes care of him, coming and going unseen by mortal eye between the castle and Bersillant. When Brun is fifteen years old she tells him that he will soon become a lover, that she must leave him for ten years, during which time he will be engrossed with his first love ; when, however, this love, which will be unhappy, shall be over, she will come to him and he shall love the most beautiful maiden in the world. The story is incomplete, but in the light of the other stories that we have examined it is fair to suppose that the fay herself sought Brun's love. The romance of Galien li Restoris (st. xv-xxx) furnishes a particularly good example for comparison with the stories of Finn and Guinglain. It is evidently modelled upon the same type as they, but the part of the fay who tends the hero has become attenuated into the part of the fay who simply gives a destiny to the child. Galien is the illegitimate child of Jacqueline, the daughter of the emperor Hugo, and Olivier. After Olivier leaves Jacqueline to return to France, her father drives her from his home before the birth of her child, and she takes refuge with a kindly cottager. Back of the cottager's house by a fountain her child is born. The fays, Galienne and Esglantine, come to guard the mother and to bless the child. Both give it good gifts, and Galienne declares that it shall be called by her name. Galien is brought up at the castle of his great-uncle ; when he is old enough he goes to his grandfather's court, where his beauty and prowess win him applause, and his grandfather gladly learns that the lad is his own grandson. When Galien hears from his mother that his father is Olivier, he sets forth in quest of him. La Dame du Lac 195 in which she is his mother, influenced each other, and pro- duced confusion in narrative, even as the stories of the Per- ceval type in which a hero is brought up by a mortal mother in the forest, and those in which he is the fosterling of a fay know no sacred line of demarcation. Narratives such as those of Perceval, Fergus, Alisander I'Orphelin, Sir Gowther, and many others all show the immense popularity of the so-called enfances humaines, and the prosaic influences by which they became modified. We have seen, too, the great popularity of the enfances fhriques, and again, as in the youth of Tyolet, Guinglain, and Finn, we have found the two types blended. Despite the interlacing of the themes we may be reasonably sure that the fairy guardian and fairy mother are both derived from the original Celtic fairy mistress. Ill MORGAIN AND THE DAME DU LAC In the Prophecies'^ a comparison between Morgain and the Dame du Lac is instituted by Merlin, who having felt the attrac- tions of both fays might presumably speak with authority. The Dame du Lac, he says, possesses greater natural gifts and a more subtle art than any woman in the world. Morgain is the child of passion and fire ; the fair Dame du Lac was born near to Paradise. Morgain seeks to work evil, the Dame du Lac good. Morgain to kill knights, the Dame du Lac to help them. Morgain is the enemy of orphans; the Dame du Lac has nurtured Lancelot and his two orphan cousins. This con- trast between his two loves observed by Merlin is manifested throughout the romances, where in their relations to Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur, Morgain and the Dame du Lac are fre- quently represented as opposing forces. In the case of Lancelot the situation is to be expected. Mor- gain's hostility to him, we have seen, was a secondary devel- opment in tradition, the outcome of her hatred of Guinevere, and after she once had taken her place in fomance as the fay who constantly sought to harm him, the Dame du Lac, ' p. Ixxi. igQ La Dame du Lac Lancelot's guardian, naturally was represented as ready to foil her designs. Owing to a promise that Morgain has extracted from him, Lancelot loses his reason, and in his madness wanders through the land. The Dame du Lac seeks him far and wide, and when at last she finds him in the forest of Tintagel, she takes him to her dwelling, and cares for him until his reason is restored, then equips him with a horse and armor, and sends him to Camelot, with the prediction that he shall rescue the queen from the land whence none has ever returned.^ In the Prophecies the Dame du Lac is said to dread Morgain's evil designs against her fosterlings, and is in fact warned against Morgain by a certain widow of the forest. The difference between the attitude of the two fays toward Guinevere is also to be explained from the early stories connected with each. We have followed the process by which the wrath of Morgain towards the queen became an established element in the Morgain saga. In the Lanzelet, in which Lance- lot is not represented as the queen's lover, the Dame du Lac accords her favor to Iblis, his wife.^ Even so in the later versions, where the element of a fairy-mistress love does not appear, her affection for Guinevere, the lady beloved by Lancelot, is a necessary consequence of her devotion to him. Hence the Dame du Lac and Morgain are ever working at cross purposes in their contact with Guinevere, Morgain constantly endeav- oring to thwart her love, the Dame du Lac to encourage it.^ ^ See Lancelot, II, Ixxvii ; Paris, R. T. R., V, 3-5. In consideration of the parallel that we have already seen exists between Camille and Morgain (see pp. 97 ff.), it should be noticed that after Lancelot is released by Camille from imprisonment, he wanders about in a state of madness, until he makes his way to the quarters of the king. The queen takes him under her care, and discovers that she can calm his frenzy by hanging about his neck the shield given her by the Dame du Lac (see below, note 3) j when it is removed, his madness returns. One day a fair lady, silken clad, attended by knights and maidens, arrives in the hall. She is taken by the queen to Lancelot's chamber ; she calms him by greeting him as Beau trovi, and tells him that she has come from afar to heal him. She anoints him with a soporific salve, directs the queen to prepare a bath for him, from which he will emerge completely restored, and commands him always to wear her shield. Then she hastens away to her own ami. See Paris, R. T. R., IV, 65 ff. ; cf. below, p. 201. Cf. also the healing of Yvain by Morgain's oint- ment, below, pp. 267, note 2, 272. 2 ggg p jjg " For instances of the friendly relations between the Dame du Lac and Guine- vere, see Lancelot, II, cxxiv, cxli ; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 78; Loseth, p. 198- Tavola Ritonda, ch. cv-cvii. Both Morgain and the Dame du Lac are said to La Dame du Lac 197 The relations of Morgain and the Dame du Lac to Guinevere and Lancelot rest upon a fundamental part of the tradition of each fay. This is not the case in the attitude of the Dame du Lac to Arthur. There is a curious inconsistency in the traditions in which they are brought together, for although she is in reality always opposed to him when she is aiding and abetting the love of Lancelot for the queen, she appears frequently a? a power who prevents Morgain's hostile designs against the king. She rescues him, as we know, from Mor- gain's machinations in the fight with Accalon, in the story of the enchantress, which is probably in its origin a Morgain episode, and also in the. scene with the messenger of the damoisele de Vile f ah} in which she tells Arthur that she came to the land simply to protect him, and asks no further reward than that he cherish knighthood as he has ever cherished it.^ When Morgain flings the scabbard of Excalibur into the lake to pre- vent Arthur from regaining it, she tells her damsels that she can work no harm to the king, so surrounded is he by the enchant- ment of a maiden who has come to the land to protect him.^ " The damoysel of the lake," says Malory, "... euer she dyd grete goodenes vnto kynge Arthur | and to alle his knytes thurgh her sorcery and enchauntementes." ^ Morgain, on the contrary, as we know, hates her brother and the knights of the Round Table. " Kynge Arthur and she have ben at debate and stryfe ... I And euer as she myght she made werre on kynge Arthur | And alle daungerous knyghtes she withholdeth with her for to destroye alle these knyghtes that Kynge Arthur loueth." ^ A plausible reason for the situation is that the Dame du Lac attained prominence as a guardian fay in the Lancelot story, and has become so far a type of fairy protectress that her care is made to include Arthur also ; and that just as Morgain is make use of a symbolic shield, Morgain with evil purpose against Lancelot and Guinevere, the Dame du Lac for their benefit; see Loseth, §§ 190, 191 ; Malory, Bk. IX, ch. 41-44 ; Bk. X, ch. i ; Lancelot, II, lii ; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 343 ; IV, 58 ; cf. Tavola Ritonda, ch. xxviii, xxix ; Tristano, ch. liii. 1 See pp. 14, 15, 19-21, 121, 122. ' See p. 15. 2 Huth Merlin, II, 252, 253. * Bk. XVIII, ch. 8 ; cf. Bk. XXI, ch. 6. 5 Malory, Bk. X, ch. 17. For late instances of Morgain's hostility to Lancelot, Tristan, and other knights of Arthur, see «^., Bk. IX, ch. 25 ff.; Bk. X, ch. 17 ft., 23. Loseth, §§ 107, 238-240, 293a, 115, 116, 624. For her love for Breus, the enemy of good knights, see Loseth, §§ 118, 291 a, 292 a, 6ii ; Zs. f. roin. Phil., XVI, 126. 198 La Dante du Lac regularly associated with malign influences, so the Dame du Lac came to be regarded as her foil in incident as well as in nature. A possible explanation, too, is afforded by the story of Excalibur, the famous sword supplied to Arthur according to the Huth Merlin ^ and Malory ^ from the depths of a lake, and coveted by Morgain, who makes every effort to win it from him : — Arthur feels the need of a trusty sword. Merlin leads him to a lake that is the abode of fays, and tells him that beneath its waters lies a sword destined for him. Even as they speak, Arthur sees in the middle of the lake an arm clothed in white samite, lifting up a sword in its hand. A maiden rides up to them at that moment, and tells Arthur that he shall have the sword if he will promise her a boon which she will ask when she wishes. Arthur gladly makes the promise, and she speeds over the water with dry feet, takes the sword from the hand, which immediately disappears, and gives it to the king. [In Malory, the damsel is seen by Arthur " going upon the lake " ; she bids him row out to the hand and take the sword and scabbard.] The sword pleases Arthur as he gazes at it, but Merlin tells him that the scabbard is worth more than the sword, for while he has the scabbard on him he shall lose no drop of blood. We have nowhere any direct evidence that Arthur's sword came from the Dame du Lac herself. Excalibur is always an other-world gift, whether Arthur draws it from an anvil of iron set in a stone, or whether he takes it from the land beneath the waves. His final casting of it into the lake before his death, however, is a persistent tradition, that is thoroughly in keeping with the story of its origin in the land under waves. For example, Cuchulinn's marvellous other-world horses, Liath Macha (the Gray of Mocha) and Dubhsaighlenn {Black Sain- glend), rise before him from the waters of a lake, and after a brief struggle are mastered by his powerful hand. At Cuchulinn's death the Black dashes from the battle-field back to the lake from which he came, and plunges into its depths, making the surface seethe and boil ; the Gray, wounded earlier in the fight, bids his master farewell, and returns to the waters from which he had risen.^ The tradition that ascribes a lake 1 r, 195-200 (cf. 219) ; 26s ff. 2 Bk. I, ch. 25 ; II, ch. 3, II. s £p. Celt., I, 109, 343, 345; cf. above, p. 161. After Morgain has flung the scabbard into the lake, it is of no further use to any man except to Gawain. The beautiful fay Marsique gave it to him when he was about to do battle for her against the enchanter Naborn ; but when the battle was over, Gawain had the scabbard no longer and he knew not what became of it. Huth Merlin, II, 222. La Dame du Lac 199 origin to Excalibur, even though it appears only in late sources, then, may very well have been told early enough for the damsel of the lake who gave Arthur the sword to become identified, by the time of the prose romances, with the Dame du Lac, the most famous of the fays in romantic material whose home was said to be beneath the waves.^ If the Dame 1 The Dame du Lac herself presents Lancelot with a fairy sword before he meets Iweret in contest. diu vTowe gab im ouch ein swert, daz hete guldtniu mSl und sneit wol Isen unde st41, swenn ez mit n!de wart gestagen. {Lanzelet, w. 366 fE.) Cf. Paris, S. T. R., Ill, 146. Cf. also the sword which renders the hero invincible given to Florimont by the fay of the He Celee ; Paris, MSS. franc, III, 26. We read of other marvellous swords in Celtic material that came from the fairy realm under the sea. Manannan, the son of Ocean, according to the Oided mac n Uisnig or The Death of the Sons of Usnech, a tale of the tenth century, fashioned a wonderful sword, the stroke of which never failed and which could cut off the heads of three heroes with one blow (see £p. Celt., I, 217). Arthur's sword belongs to the same class of weapon as the Sword of Light, which is a common object in modem Celtic tales. Excalibur is distinguished for extraordinary bril- liancy : — " The picture of two snakes was on the sword in gold. And when the sword was drawn out of its sheath, it looked as if two flames of fire broke out of the jaws of the snakes " (see Mabinogion, II, 405 ; cf. Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, London, 1876, p. 184; English Merlin, pp. 118, 339, 476; Malory, III, 36; cf. also the magic sword of Socht which shone at night like a candle, Stokes and Windisch, III, i, 199, 218; the magic sword on Solomon's ship, Hucher, Le Saint Graal, II, 446-452 ; Lonelich, Seynt Graal, London, 1861-1863, ch. xxviii, V. 202 ; La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Fumivall, London, 1864, pp. 182 ft.). The Sword of Light in modem Celtic stories is a favorite object of an other- world quest, and in the tale of Art and Balor Beimenach it must be sought in Under Wave Land (see Curtin, ILero Tales of Ireland, Boston, 1894, pp. 325 ff.; cf. below, p. 201, note; Larmenie, West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances, London, 1893, pp. 10 ff. ; Mac Innes and Nutt, p. 123. I owe the above references to Dr. A. C. L. Brown). For magic weapons destined to perform a certain deed see Ep. Celt, 1, 338-343; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 316; Livre d'Artus, P., § 104. For a list of wonderful swords see Le Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1846, I, ciiff.; fot famous Scandinavian swords made by supernatural agents, see Poestion, Das Tyrfingschweri, Leipzig, 1883, pp. xviff., 88, 89; with the Celtic swords that speak cf. especially the description of Skofnung, ib., p. xvii ; see also p. xvi A strange sequel" to the story of Arthur's finding of Excalibur is given in the ffuth Merlin (I, 213 ff.) and Malory (Bk. II, ch. i, 2; II, 3): — A lady that is called the Lady of the Lake comes to Arthur's court, and demands the head of a certain damsel and also the head of the knight Balin, as the boon that Arthur had promised her when she gave him the sword. Balin smites off, her head in the presence of the king, and explains that by her enchantment she has been 200 La Dame du Lac du Lac came to be regarded in story as the giver of Arthur's marvellous sword, she might naturally be depicted as bestowing her protecting care upon him, and therefore as standing in opposition to Morgain in her relations to him. Such a situa- tion would make it easy to understand why Morgain specially covets Excalibur, and why when there was attached to Arthur the common folk-lore theme, which we meet, to cite two familiar examples, in Hermes' theft of Apollo's cattle and in Thor's loss of his hammer at the hands of the giant Thrym, the other-world being who stole his most precious possession should be Morgain.^ the enemy of many good knights. Arthur banishes Balin from the court, buries the Lady of the Lake richly, and makes great dole. This damsel of the Lake is plainly not the Dame du Lac who reared Lancelot. The episode is merely a part of a story the interest of which centres in Balin's successful ungirding of a magic sword from a damsel's girdle ; doubtless the feature of the sword has induced the author of the Huth Merlin, or his source, to make the particular fay, whose part in the story is to furnish a reason why Balin must leave the court and proceed to other adventures, the fay who was supposed to have given Arthur his wonder- ful sword. The story affords a hint of the ease with which the Lady of the Lake and any lady of the lake might become identified. Cf. Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 162 ff., passim, 172 : the attendant of the Dame du Lac is called la demoisele du lac. 1 See Huth Merlin, I, 199, 267 ff. : — Arthur, before he has lost confidence in Morgain, gives into her keeping the sword and scabbard, explaining to her the magic power of the scabbard, and charging her to guard it well. Tempted, how- ever, by the wish of a lover of hers at court she decides to keep the enchanted scabbard for him and has a duplicate made to give Arthur. By an awkward mis- take the scabbards are exchanged ; the lover receives the duplicate, and finding it worthless, under the conviction that Morgain has deceived him, he tells the king that he is protected by a magic scabbard, which Morgain has given him bidding him slay the king. Arthur resolves to punish Morgain; whereupon she leaves the court, enjoining Merlin to tell Arthur that the sword and scabbard have been stolen from her, and that she has fled in fear of her brother's wrath. When Arthur hears her message he kills her treacherous lover, and restores the scabbard to her keeping.^ Morgain next makes use of Excalibur in the fight between Accalon and Arthur. (Cf. the story that Morgain causes Tristan's death by the same lance with which he has killed her lover Huneson, Loseth, pp. 137, 374, 382, 384). Malory (Bk. II, ch. ii) connects the account of the scabbard directly with the story of Accalon : — " Soo after for grete trust Arthur betoke the scauberd to Morgan le fay his syster | and she loued another knyght better than her husband kynge Vryens or kynge Arthur. And she wold haue had Arthur her broder slayne | And ther for she lete make another scauberd lyke it by enchauntement and gaf the scauberd Excali- bur to her loue | and the knyghtes name was called Accolon that after had nere slayne kyng Arthur." The two stories contained in the Huth Merlin are simply variants of the same theme. At the end of the first story it is necessary that the weapon be restored La Dame du Lac 201 IV CONFUSIONS IN THE TRADITION OF THE DAME DU LAC There remain to be mentioned a few other stories in which the Dame du Lac is conspicuous. In several sources she is identified with Niniane, the love of Merlin. This is a concep- tion of her part that apparently diverges widely from the original type. It cannot be understood until a study of Niniane herself has been made, and therefore a discussion of it must, be reserved for a later chapter.^ We find the Dame du Lac in two situations that cannot be connected in any way with her rdle in the youthful exploits of Lancelot. In the Prophecies'^ she is represented as the amie of Meliadus, whom she reluctantly conducts to the cave in which she has entombed Merlin, where he hears Merlin's condemnation of her and in fact of all women because of her deed. We have seen elsewhere ^ that Meliadus was said to be beloved by a fay who lured him to her by a druidic stag ; and it is quite possible that after the Dame du Lac became conspicuous in story as an important fay her title was bestowed to Morgain's keeping, since she is to use it again in the second episode. Here the author simply grafts the sword episode upon the conclusion of the enchantress story. The confusion in the parts played by the sword and scabbard in the two variants is doubtless due to the accepted and persistent tradition of Arthur's final casting of Excalibur into the lake before his death (see the sources mentioned above, p. 36, note i), which made it necessary that the sword itself should be left at the end of the story in his possession ; consequently it is only the scabbard that he can lose at Morgain's hands. In one of the modem Celtic tales (see Curtin, Hero Tales of Ireland, Boston, 1894, pp. 254 ff.) recounting a quest for the Sword of Light, the hero Coldfeet is returning from the Lonesome Island, the proud possessor of the Sword of Light, in search of which he has gone thither. He finds welcome for a night in a certain house, but while he sleeps the woman of the house exchanges the Sword of Light for an old, worthless weapon. Coldfeet eventually regains the magic sword. It is evidently such a theme as is represented in this story, which the author of the HutK Merlin gives us worked into his long narrative. The other-world weapon that the hero has sought is stolen from him by one whom he has trusted, and a worthless substitute put in its place. A somewhat similar device on the part of Morgain has been already mentioned in the story of her exchange of the queen's ring for her own on the sleeping Lancelot's finger, while he is her prisoner (see p. 98, note 2). 1 See pp. 221, 222, 234, 239, 240. 2 Pp. xxi, xxii; cf. p. ci; Paris, R. T. R., IV, 68. » P. 22. 202 La Dame du Lac upon the love of Meliadus. There may have been connected with Meliadus a fairy-guardian story of the type that we have been examining in this chapter, which the author of the Prophecies knew : — Meliadus is the illegitimate child of the Queen of Scotland and King Meliadus. His mother to escape discovery has the child put on board a vessel and sent out to sea. When the boat drifts ashore, the mother of the Dame du Lac takes the infant under her care, and brings him up as her own son. Merlin tells Meliadus the story of his birth, and bids him, if he would confirm the truth of it, go to a certain chapel where he will find a stone bearing an inscription that repeats the same tale.^ The source is too late and too untrustworthy for us to attach much importance to it. The other episode to which I have referred is the story of Pelleas and Ettard, which, so far as I am aware, is known only through Malory,^ and which is foreign to the legend of the Dame du Lac and also, as we shall see below, to that of Niniane. It apparently became attached to either or both of these personages in consequence of some confusion, after they had become prominent fays in romance. We may unhesitatingly classify the Dame du Lac as a true Celtic fay from Tir na n-Og, belonging to the same family of other-world beings as the father of Tydorel,^ as Aalardin del Lac, and the puciHes des puis. In her function in story she is to be placed beside Scathach, Bodhmall, and Speedy Foot, the puciHe esgar^e, the pucele as blances mains, and the daughter of the king of Logres. But the Dame du Lac differs from all of these fays in one respect. A vague personality at first, merely the lady who nurtured Lancelot and dwelt in the fairy- land beneath the waves, undoubtedly because her fosterling 1 Prophecies, pp. xlv ff . 2 Bk. IV, ch. 22, 23 : — Sir Pelleas loves the proud lady, Ettard, who scornfully spurns his love. Gawain undertakes to win Ettard for Pelleas, but in reality gains her love for himself. Pelleas surprises the lovers together, and learns that he has lost his lady and that his friend is faithless. The damsel of the lake, Nimue, when she hears the story of his sufferings, by her enchantment makes the lady Ettard mad with love for Pelleas, while she causes Pelleas to hate Ettard and to love herself. He goes with her where she bids him. " So the lady Ettard died for sorrow, and the damsel of the lake rejoiced Sir Pelleas, and loved together during their life days." On this episode cf. Arthurian Legend, pp. 284 ff. ; below, pp. 241, 242, > Cf. G. Paris, Rom., VIII (1879), 66. La Dame du Lac 203 attained popularity as a hero, she came to be regarded as the type of a divine protectress, and as a preeminently gentle and beneficent being. It is quite plain that she and Lancelot are fundamentally united in story, and that when she is associated in tradition with other personages, as with Guinevere and Arthur, the connection is due to a development from her original relation to Lancelot, and to the fact that she had become prominent, in Malory's words, as " the chief lady of the lake." CHAPTER XIII. NINIANE AND MERLIN Our study of Morgain and the Dame du Lac has shown us that there is attached to each of them a variety of episodes which are either developments from an early story, or contain themes that are perfectly consistent with the early conception of each being. In the material that deals with Niniane, or Vivien as she is more familiarly called, we find on the contrary only one important story, the "tale of Merlin and the lovely fay," made so familiar to us all by Tennyson and Matthew Arnold that we scarcely need pause here to recall its outline. It tells how Merlin met and loved the forest maiden of Brittany, how he taught her all his art as an enchanter, and how by the charms learned from him she bespelled him into an endless sleep. This same story forms the principal episode related of Niniane even in our earliest sources. There her romantic connection with Merlin is the subject of the only prominent incident in her life, and her real activity in the French romances is limited to the scene of Merlin's enchantment. Nevertheless she has become the victim of a confusion in legend, which is at first perplexing to the student of her nature. In minor episodes and occa- sionally in those that contain the account of Merlin's love, she is, as I have said in the preceding chapter, identified with the Dame du Lac ; except in the story of Pelleas and Ettard, how- ever, in all those which are not connected with Merlin's love the fay plays a part that is consistent with the essential nature of the Dame du Lac, though not with the traits of Niniane as we shall find them emphasized in the principal story told of her. It seems probable, therefore, that these episodes repre- sent a stage of tradition when two fays, originally distinct, had become identified, and Niniane's name attached to the Dame du Lac, to whom the stories properly belong. Evidently, then, in studying Niniane, we are seeking to discover the fundamental traits of a fay who has practically no independent existence in 204 Niniane and Merlin 205 romantic material outside of her relations to Merlin. That the story of Merlin's love for her was highly popular is attested by its appearance in ten sources ; these it will be convenient to study here grouped in three classes according to their resemblances. I The first class (Class A) is formed by the Merlin romances (exclusive of the Huth Merlin and the Prophecies), Le Roi Artus, and Livre d'Artus, P} All follow the same general out- line, but the Merlin romances give the complete story of Merlin's meeting with Niniane, his instruction of her in magic arts, and his eventual confinement by her power. The scene is laid by a fountain in the forest of Briosque, a favorite haunt of Niniane, the beautiful daughter of Dionas, a vavasour of high lineage. Hither one day Merlin, assuming the guise of a fair young squire, takes his way, wins a gentle greeting from the maiden, and explains to her that he is the pupil of a wise master who has given him instruction in the magic art. He himself, he assures her, knows how to build a castle in the air, how to walk on the water without wetting the soles of his feet, how to make a river flow over a dry plain, and how to perform even greater won- ders. Niniane, dazzled by such genius, exclaims that if Merlin will show her some of these marvels she wUl become his love sauve toute vilenie, and receives Merlin's ready promise for so rich a reward to teach her all that she wishes to learn.^ Forth from the forest he summons by enchantment a merry band of knights and ladies ; he spreads before the delighted maiden's eyes a smiling garden ; jongleurs sing caroles about a magic circle that he draws, young knights tilt and dance gaily off with fair maidens under the spreading trees. At sunset the illusions vanish,' and Niniane is ready to declare that Merlin can ask nothing too great for her to grant him, after he shall have taught her all of his art that she wishes to know. He at once gives her a lesson in magic, and leaves her, promising to return on the eve of St. John and teach her more. At the appointed time Niniane keeps tryst with him by the fountain, and leads him secretly to her chamber. Fearing the excess of his love, by many blandishments she induces him to 1 Vulgate Merlin, pp. 222-226, 299, 402, 432, 452, 483, 484, 493, 494 ; English Merlin, pp. 307-312, 378, 565, 607, 634, 679-681, 692-694 ; Merlin (152S), I, cxlv, cxlvi ; II, cxxvi, cxxvii ; Paris, R. T. R., II, 174-181, 334 ; Livre d'Artus, P., §§ 17, 30, 67, 85, 87, 89 ff., loi, 130, 136. 2 Livre li'^ftus, P. : — ■ Merlin merely tells Niniane that he is skilled in necromancy, and will display his art to her on condition that she grant him her love. ' These details are omitted in Livre d'Artus, P. 2o6 Ninianc and Merlin show her how to keep a man asleep at her pleasure. She protects herself further against him by inscribing on her flesh magic words that deprive him of the power to draw near her except in accordance with her will ; she deludes him by laying an enchanted pillow in his arms, that casts him into a deep sleep.'' 1 Merlin's visits to Niniane are frequent.^ He becomes " the victim of a slowly enfeebling infatuation," and gradually imparts to her more and more of his magic art," teaching her all that she asks to know. Then she plans to withstand him forever. She would keep him with her always, and by flattery and beguihng pictures of the beautiful spot that she will fashion where they alone shall dwell in happiness, she induces him to show her how to confine a man sans tour & sans mur & sajis fer par enchantement. One day as they sit beneath a white-thorn bush in Broceliande, Niniane luUs Merlin to sleep. With her girdle she makes a magic circle nine times about tlie sleeper ; when he wakes he is in the fairest tower in the world, which only Niniane can destroy. She dwells with him, but goes in and out at her own will. Later Sir Gawain riding through Broceliande hears a voice, but sees only a thick mist before him. The voice is Merlin's address- ing him from the walls of air, saying that by her to whom he had taught much he has been enclosed here never to come forth. % The story falls naturally into three divisions, of which the first and third are characteristic of Class A alone : — The exhibition of magic given by Merlin before Niniane to stir her love ; Niniane's subsequent acquisition of necromancy ; Nini- ane's imprisonment of Merlin in the castle of air. It was no unusual occurrence in story for an enchanter to give a voluntary exhibition of his power to arouse admira- tion or faith on the part of the beholder ; and more than one instance affords reason to believe that this feature of the Merlin and Niniane story belongs with the body of floating tales which are found attached now to one magician and now to another.* An excellent illustration of this is offered by the story 1 In the Livre d'Arius, P., Niniane learns from Merlin how to produce a sleep that shall last at her pleasure, and how to summon him to her when she wishes. She tries to protect herself by casting him into a sleep. 2 Vulgate Merlin, pp. 299, 402, 452; English Merlin, pp. 565, 634; Livre d'Artus, P., §§30, 67, 85, 87, lOI, 136. ' At this point the accounts end in Le Roi Artus and Livre d'Artits, P. * See p. 125, note i, for examples of similar illusions produced by magic ; cf. Lot, Rom., XXX (1901), 15, note 2 ; S^billot, Trad, et Sup. de la If. Bretagne, I, 81, 82. For the ability to walk on water without wetting the soles of the feet, see Tain Bo Cuailgne, in Cuchidlin Saga, p. 151 : — Cuchulinn boasts that he can plunge into a river, cross it, and not wet even his ankles ; Acallamh na Senorach, in Silva Gadelica, II, 199: — An 6gleach who rides through the sea is submerged Niniane and Merlin 207 of Guinebaut,! which Paulin Paris regarded as a simple variant of the story of Niniane and Merlin.^ It is clear from our pre- vious examination of the Guinebaut theme that it stands nearer the early Celtic material, from which the Merlin episode could not be a direct development. In this latter there is no question of the carole serving as a means to keep mortals in a land without return, for its purpose with that of the other illu- sions is accomplished when they have excited Niniane's love. It is simply an other-world feature reproduced by magic art, and represents the application of a common theme to two different stories, as well as to two different enchanters. The second visit of Merlin to Niniane, in which he instructs her in the magic art, is also treated at some length in Class A. The episode consists of a series of Niniane's devices .to protect herself against Merlin's passion and to gain the knowledge that she desires, all of which, like the illusions produced by the enchanter, may be said to belong to the stock in trade of a narrator dealing with magic themes.^ It is of by nine waves, and rises on the tenth with dry chest (cf. Sebillot, Gargantua, Paris, 1838, p. 37) ; Huth Merlin, I, 198, 201 : — A fay passes over the water to fetch Excalibur to Arthur from the lake (see p. 198), and returns with dry feet, for she has crossed on an invisible bridge ; MacDougall, p. 94 : — ^ A magic path leads across a lake. For a river made to flow over a dry plain, see Vulgate Merlin, p. 226 ; Meyer and Nutt, I, 77 j PHerinage de Charlemagne, ed. Koschwitz, 1-eip- zig, 1895, vv. 554-561 ; cf. vv. 771-794. For a gardeh created by enchantment, see Gautier de Metz, V Image du Monde, in Comparetti, Virgilio nel Medio Evo, Florence, 1896, II, 196: — Virgil creates a garden enclosed in air (cf. Alex. Neckham, in Gervasius of Tilbury, ed. Liebrecht, p. 106, Anm. 34) ; Tristan, ed. Michel, London, 1835, I, 222 ; II, 103: — A fool boasts of his hall of glass built in the air; Boccaccio, // Decamerone, Giorn. X, Nov. v: — An enchanter creates a garden in January as fair as if it were in May ; cf. Manni, htoria del Decamerone, Florence, 1742, p. 555; Mead, English Merlin, p. ccxxvi; Mann- hardt, Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, p. 467; Aymeri de Narbonne, ed. Demaison, Paris, 1887, vv. 3507-3528; cf. I, clii ; Paris, Rom., IX (1880), 12. For the necromantic arts learned by fays from enchanters, see above, p. 165, note I ; also Partonopeus, vv. 4621 ff. 1 p. 90. • ^ See R. T. R., II, 199. ' As Niniane sits beside Meriin in the garden, she induces him to lay his head in her lap, and then commit to her the coveted secret of an unending slumber ( Vulgate Merlin, p. 299 ; cf . p. 484, where Merlin is said to lay his head in Niniane's lap before she lulls him to sleep under the white-thorn). A parallel situation occurs in the ballad of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight (Child, Ballads, I, 55; cf. 48) :— The Elf Knight stirs the love of the Lady Isabel and entices her to a wood, intending to kill her. She persuades him to lay his head in her lap as they 2o8 Niniane and Merlin interest in a study of the relations of the versions, for it offers a direct parallel to the main part of Class B in order of events and in phraseology. It will therefore be treated below i in connection with Class B. The third section of the story belongs to the class dealing with a fay's detention of a mortal in an air-bounded prison, of which we have already seen instances in the examination of the Val sanz Retor. An episode closely allied in type to this part of our theme is that of the Noir Chevalier contained in Gaucher de Dourdan's continuation of the Perceval?' and in a slightly different form in the Didot-Perceval? A young knight, the story runs, once upon a time set forth in quest of adventure. He chanced to enter the land of Avalon, and in the Forest del Blanc Perron he found sitting by a fountain the most beautiful maiden in the world. Quickly he won her love, and readily granted her demand that^ in return for her favor he should promise to do all her will. They wandered together through the forest until they came to a green meadow, where the maiden wished to remain, and by her assurances that she would always dwell with him, she overcame her lover's objections to so remote an abiding place. Feeling an irresistible drowsiness stealing upon him, the over- persuaded knight threw himself on the grass to sleep. When he awoke, he was with his love in a splendid castle, which the maiden had built while sit beneath a tree, and thus gains the power to charm him to sleep ; while he slumbers, she kills him. The enchanted pillow, of which Niniane makes use in Merlin's third visit to her, is found also in many other sources. See Herbert, Dolopathos, ed. Bmnet et Montaiglon, Paris, 1856, vv. 7167-7179, 7200-7208 : — A maiden skilled in necro- mancy places an enchanted feather beneath the pillow of her lover, which deprives him of the power to move and puts him to sleep as soon as his head touches the pillow; Doon, ed. Paris, Rom., VIII (1879), 61-64, vv. 51 ff. : — Every suitor of a certain lady when he comes to her castle is led to his chamber, where an inviting couch is prepared for him, on which before morning he dies ; Perceval, vv. 9630 ff. : — When Gawain lies down in the famous /// de la merveille in the magic palace of Ygerne, a maiden slips beneath his head a pillow which immediately lulls him to sleep ; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 327 : — • A fay who wishes to anoint Agiavain with a baneful salve puts under his head, as he lies sleeping, an enchanted pillow, which will prevent his waking while he rests upon it. Cf. Cligis, vv. 3197 ff.: — A magic potion is prepared by a sorceress, which is employed by a wife to decehre her hus- Ijand as Niniane's pillow deceives Merlin, and which causes him to dream dreams in accordance with his desires. Cf. Lai de VOmbre, ed. Michel, Lais Inedits, Paris, 1836, pp. 48, 49. For a simpler form of the enchantment, a spell cast by a maiden, which holds her lover immovable, see Campbell, I, 37 ; MacDougall, p. 164. A further collection of similar devices may be found in Child, Ballads, I. 391. 392 ; IH. 506; IV, 459. 1 See pp. 213 ff. 2 Vv. 22,645-22,781, 27,380-27,572. * II, 468-471. Niniane Mid Merlin 209 he slept, and had made invisible to mortal eyes. At the entrance she had fashioned a tomb that all mei), could see, on which she had placed an inscription stating that any passing knight, who cried out to the occupant of the tomb that he who put him there did a deed of folly, should be attacked forthwith by the knight of the tomb. The land is so wild that for ten years the knight has remained in his prison waiting for an opponent. His horse is his only solace, for an occasional visit is all that his love vouchsafes him. He is known as the Noir Chevalier de VArcel de la Sepouture en la lande. Perceval goes to the tomb, and utters the pre- scribed defiance. The knight comes forth, but upon receiving a wound in the contest he waits for no further blows and iiees at once back to the tomb. Of the Noir Chevalier Philipot says : ^ — " Sa 16gende nous fournit tout au long le correspondant que nous cherchions a ' Tentombement Merlin.' " The parallel is in truth very close : — the hero finds the maiden by a clear fountain, he promises to do her will in return for her love, she leads him to a fertile spot in the forest, assures him that he shall pass a life of happiness there with her, casts him into a magic sleep, and while he slumbers rears about him an invisible house, where she keeps him in a melancholy confinement waiting for the adventure that tar- ries, and supported by visits from her at her own caprice. Although the knight is practically the defender of a " custom," he passes years in a merely nominal championship of his abode, and is, like Merlin, kept in an inactive confinement. In the Didot-Perceval^ there is told the story of another knight whose life resembled that of the Noir Chevalier. Urbain, son of the queen of Naire Espine, met one day in the forest a beautiful maiden who led him to a fair castle, and promised to love him if he would agree to abide with her in the place where she chose to take him. Ever since that time he has dwelt with her in a castle invisible to all eyes except his and hers, situated beside a ford of which he is the defender. Perceval comes to the ford and defeats Urbain. Forthwith a mighty noise heralds the destruction of the magic castle. Urbain's love, when she sees that he is being defeated, transforms herself and her maidens into birds, wh6 swoop down and attack Perceval. The story of Urbain contains distinct resemblances to the episode of Lajoie de la Cour in Erec? Like Urbain, the knight Mabonagrain has defeated many an opponent in the defence of his lady's mist-enclosed garden ; he, too, dwells ever with 1 Rom., XXV (1896), 286. 2 I, 45g ff. 8 See above, pp. 83, 84 2 1 o Niniane and Merlin his amie, and is not the recipient of only her occasional favor. The sound of a horn terminates the adventure of La Joie de la Cour; a mysterious noise indicates that the fay's castle by the ford is destroyed.^ When the "custom" of the garden is abolished, according to the Welsh version in Geraint, the mist disappears ; when Urbain is overcome, the castle vanishes. The fay in Erec laments bitterly the defeat of Mabonagrain ; in Perceval the fays transformed into birds take vengeance upon the victor. In Mabonagrain, moreover, there appear united two names which frequently are found side by side,^ — Mabon, Eurain in Bel Inconnu; Mabon, Irayn in Libeaus Desconus ; Mabonagrain, Evrain in Erec ; Mabounain, Urain in Perceval. In the Didot-Perceval substantially the same story as that of Mabon is told again of a hero whose name closely resembles Eurain (Irayn, Evrain, Urain), and therefore the couple Mabon- agrain, Urbain deserves to be added to the above list, which Philipot has brought together.^ That it is a true fairyland in which Merlin, the Noir Chevalier, and Urbain are imprisoned is evident when we recall the char- acteristics of the Val sanz Retor and kindred scenes. The beauty of the castle and, in the story of the Noir Chevalier, the unfailing supplies of food promised by the fay, are details that belong to the dwellings of the other world.* In the white-thorn bush in full blossom in Broceliande, beneath which Merlin is lulled to sleep by Niniane, there may perhaps be a reminis- cence of the white musical boughs that bring drowsiness, which in Celtic tales are borne to mortals by messengers from the other world. When Bran awoke from the slumber to which he ^ Cf. Carduino, II, 65. 2 See F. Lot, Rom., XXIV (1895), 32i. 322; Schofield, Studies and Notes, IV, 125, 126. ^ Rom., XXV (1896), 275-277. Another type of Celtic fairy story bears resemblance to the theme discussed here. In the folk-tale, The Daughter of King Underwaves (Campbell, III, 421), Diarmaid releases a maiden from spells, and is rewarded with her love. One night while he sleeps she builds on a spot selected by him the fairest castle that he has ever seen, and consents to dwell there with him, provided he does not say to her thrice how he found her. He fails to observe her injunction, and at his third mention of the plight in which she had come to him, the castle disappears. Cf . Maclnnes and Nutt, pp. 2 10 ff. ; Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, London, 1901, pp. 21-24, 33, 34- * Cf., e.g., Meyer and Nutt, I, 30, 164-166, 169. Niniane and Merlin 2 1 1 had been lulled by wonderfully sweet mysterious music, he saw close by him a branch of silver with white blossoms. A strange woman appeared to him: "And she said: — A branch from the apple-tree from Emaiti I bring like those one knows ; Twigs of white silver are on it, Crystal boughs with blossoms." ' In the Echtra Cormaic^ we read that Cormac's guide to the Land of Promise is an aged knight, who visits him bearing a musical silver branch with golden apples; "very sweet music did that branch make, wounded men and folk enfeebled by sickness would be lulled to sleep by it." ^ In pursuit of the aged knight Cormac goes to the Land of Promise. Niniane's complete annihilation of Merlin's power may perhaps be par- alleled by the trance, such as Cuchulinn's, that leaves the mor- tal weak and helpless in the hands of a fay.* At the beginning of our study of fairy mythology, we saw that in the early Celtic type of fairy story, in that of Bran and Connla, for example, the fay loves the hero for his renown or beauty, and lures him to her abode by magic means, a musical bough, it may be, perhaps an enchanted apple. There in com- plete oblivion, forgetful of time, he stays a willing prisoner,^ asked to do no deed of valor and enjoying the continual pres- ence of his mistress. In the stories that we have just been considering the inherent situation is that the fay loves the 1 Meyer and Nutt, I, pp. 2, 4. ^ See above, p. 112. ' Meyer and Nutt, I, 190. * Cf . the fairy debility sent upon Oengus by a maiden from the Sid, in Aidinge Oengusso, one of the introductory tales to the Tain Bo Regamna, Rev. Celt., Ill (1876-1878), 347 ff. ; see also Trans. Oss. Soc, VI, 29 ff., 87 ; MacDougall, p. 80. 5 Cf. Meyer and Nutt, I, 30, § 62 : — It seemed to Bran and his companions that they were a year in the Land of Women ; " it chanced to be many years." Guingamor, vv. 533 ff. : — Guingamor passed three hundred years with his fairy love, which seemed to him only three days. See above, p. 76 : — Ogier lived two hundred years in Avalon with Morgain, and they seemed to him but twenty. Thomas of Erceldoune, ed. Murray, London, 1875 (E- E. T. S.), p. 17 :— Thomas of Erceldoune spent seven years and more with the Elf-queen and thought them only three days. Cf. also Mabinogion, III, 126: — Pryderi and his comrades, listening to the songs of Rhiannon's birds, sit for seven years at a repast in Har- lech ; they abide in a certain magic castle for fourscore years, and know not how long they have been there. Cf. also Rev. Celt., Ill (1876-1878), 350; Campbell, 11,412; Compi^teXix, Novelline Popolari Italiane, Rome, Turin, Florence, 1875, I, 213; below, p. 215. 212 Niniane and Merlin hardy knight, who in return for her love promises to do her will ; he goes with her to an other-world dwelling that she builds, and then as a result of his promise he is obliged to defend the abode, or in other words to maintain the fay's "custom." An important difference exists between all of these episodes and Class A. In the latter the enchanter loves the fay and seeks her love ; she promises to grant it to him on condition that he teach her his magic art. When she has built for him the other-world dwelling, the narrative is ended, and Merlin in his remaining history is represented as a melancholy victim of imprisonment, whose confinement is utterly devoid of activity. These differences in the story are undoubtedly due to the character of the hero, whose power lies in his magic art ; complete submission to the will of his mistress involves for him no knightly deed, such as the defence of her domain against an armed opponent, but simply the surrender of his skill to her control. If the fay's beloved is a knight, it is his strength, if a magician, his necromantic art, that must be at her disposal. Hence Merlin's sojourn in the other world is necessarily inactive. In the same way the fay's rdle is modi- fied by the situation. She cannot demand a deed of arms, for the hero is no knight ; but he is the prince of enchanters, and she therefore insists that he yield up his magic skill to her. Accordingly, she must appear in the story as not thoroughly versed in all enchantment, as a true other-world fay should be, but as gradually making the magician's power her own, and thus sapping his force. As the early fairy story was modified in Arthur's case by his character, so here we have doubtless another instance of a variation on an original theme occasioned by the established nature of the hero. Clearly, in Class A we are dealing with composite material. Its main part tells the common story of a mortal kept in durance in an other-world dwelling by a supernatural mistress to whom he has promised complete submission; the introduction — the tale of an enchanter who woos by magic means — and the minor episodes contain material which is recognizably popular and wide-spread, and hence readily attached to so important a magi- cian as Merlin was by the time that the prose romances were compiled, and to a fay who used her wiles upon him. Niniane and Merlin 213 II The second class (Class B) comprises the Lancelot versions.^ On the borders of Brittany there lives a beautiful maiden, named Niniane, of whom Merlin becomes enamoured. When she learns who her lover is, she promises to grant all his wishes provided he will first inipart to her some of his skill in magic. She induces him to teach her how by the power of words ' to enclose a spot from which none may pass out, and how to keep a man asleep at her pleasure. These secrets she wishes to use against her father, whose anger she fears if he discovers Merlin's visits. According to one version (^Lancelot) she inscribes on her flesh two magic words that protect her virtue ; according to the other {R. T. R.) she casts Merhn into a deep sleep with the satire purpose. At last she has learned so many arts from him that she is able to seal him asleep * in a cave in the perilous forest of Darnantes. Since that time he has never been seen, nor does any man know the way to the place of his confinement. In the account of Merlin's meeting with Niniane and his instruction of her, Class B comes into contact with Class A, but diverges from it in the story of Merlin's disappearance from the eyes of men. The Lancelot is an earlier composition than those versions comprised in Class A and Class C,^ and internal evidence shows that its rendering of the story is not based upon the material most prominent in them. In the con- cise treatment of the beginning and the end of the account it looks like a condensation of some more complete narrative. But between the more elaborated part of B and one scene in A there is, as I have said above, a marked similarity. This scene in A appears with an introduction in which Niniane meets her lover by a fountain on the feast of St. John, and leads him to her chamber ; later she cajoles him into revealing the fatal secret — a story which in its complete form we do not find elsewhere. In both classes the events in the narrative follow the same general order,* and striking verbal similarities 1 Lancelot, II, xii; Paris, R. T. R., Ill, 25, 26. " Elle lo siela tot endormi (Lanctlot). ' See Paris, ffuth Merlin, I, xxxvii, Ixiv. 4 Class A Class B 1. Niniane sees that Merlin loves i. Such is Merlin's love for Niniane her well. (His promise to do her will that he promises to do her will. has appeared earlier in the story.) 2. (See 5.) 2. She asks him to teach her how to enclose a place by magic. 214 Niniane and Merlin also occur.i for which the differences in the stories are too great to permit us to account by the supposition that the Merlin is borrowing directly from the Lancelot, the older romance ; they do, however, indicate a borrowing by the Mer- lin from the source of the Lancelot. It is noticeable that in the Merlin the dangerous promise is the central point of the first scene, and Niniane's request that Merlin show her how to 3. She asks him to teach her how to make a man sleep a magic sleep. 4. He demands her reason; she alleges a desire to keep her father, Dionas, and her mother asleep, while she and Merlin meet. Her own death will be the result of discovery. 5. She asks him to teach her how to enclose a place by magic. 6. One day in the garden by her blandishments she wins the secret from him. 7. She writes three magic words on her flesh that protect her virtue. 1 Class A Vulgate Merlin, p. 299. Et quant ele uit quil lauoit cuelli en si grant amor si li pria quil li ensegnast a faire dormir .i. homme sans esueillier tant comme ele uol- 5 droit. Et merlins . . . li demanda por coi ele uoloit chou sauoir. por chou fait ele que . . . iou endor- miroie mon pere ... & ma mere . . . car sacies quil mochiroient ,0 sil saperchusent de riens de nos asfaires. . . . & se li aprinst .iii. nons quele escrist. & toutes les fois que il uoldroit a lui gesir si estoient de si grant force ke ia tant ke ele les eust sor li ni peust nus homs habiter camelment. Et desiluec en auant atornoit ' ele tel merlin que toutes les vv. 13, 14- - . fois quil uoloit parler alui, il nauoit pooir de iesir a li . . . Et il li aprinst toutes les coses Cf B ~ ' que cuers mortex pooit pen- ser & ele le mist tout en escrit. Cf. B, vv. 15 fE. 3. She asks him to teach her how to make a man sleep a magic sleep. 4. He demands her reason ; she alleges n desire to keep her father asleep while she , and Merlin meet. Her ovrn death will be the result of discovery. S- (5ee 2.) 6. She warns him to teach her noth- ing false ; if he does, she will leave him. 7. She writes two magic words on her flesh that protect her virtue. Class B Lancelot, II, xii. " Ge voil, fait ele, que vos . . . m'en- seigneroiz comment ge porrai faire dormir \ toz jors mais cui ge voudrai, sanz esveillier.'' " Por quoi, dist Mer- lins, volez-vos ce savoir ? " " Por ce fait ele, que ses [mes] peres savoit . . . ge m'ocirroie tantost, et issi serai asseur de lui quant ge I'aurai fait endormir." ... Cil li anseigna et I'un et I'autre, et ele escrist les paroles en parchemin, car ele savoit assez de letres. Si anconreoit [en conjurot] si Mellin totes les 'hores qu'il venoit 4 li parler que maintenant s'andormoit et metoit sor ses deux aignes deux nons de con- jurement que j4 tant com il il fussient ne la poist nus . . . 4 li chessir charnel- ment. Niniane and Merlin 215 enclose a place by magic forms the nucleus of the last scene. Each of these details occupies in the Lancelot one sentence ; in the Merlin each forms almost a complete narrative by itself. The authors are quite transparent in their methods. The com- mon source is elaborated in Class A by the introduction, as we have seen, of material current in tales of enchanters and of maidens seeking to thwart the desires of unwelcome suitors ; in Class B it is evidently condensed, although its outlines are preserved. The characteristic feature of Class B lies in the conclusion : — Niniane seals Merlin asleep in a cave of the forest. In the Ossianic saga there are traces of a twofold tradition concerning Oisin's experiences with a fairy mistress. One embodied in a literary form tells of his life with the golden-haired Niamh in the Land of Youth ;i the other is current to-day among the peasants of Cork, and makes the scene of his sojourn with a fay the so-called cavern of the Grey Sheep near Mitchelstown in Cork. Oisin chanced to go into the cave, and on the other side of the stream that flows through it he met a beautiful damsel with whom he lived, as he fancied, a few days. When he asked her consent to revisit the Fenians, she told him that he had been with her for more than three hundred years, and that he might return to his countrymen provided he did not alight from a horse that she gave him. He disobeyed her, how- ever, and the steed fled away from him, leaving him a decrepit old man. There is no means of telling the age of the tradition ; a different and unmistakably late story is told of the Cavern of the Grey Sheep, accounting for its name, and the tale of Oisin may be an old tradition connected with the cave by the peasants of the district, who wished to localize in their oWn region the experience of a famous hero.^ As with Oisin and Merlin, so with Arthur and with Ogier, the story of the hero's disappearance from earth has assumed more than one form. Though Arthur dwells with Morgain in Avalon, he also sleeps bespelled in an enchanted castle or cave, awaiting with his knights a bugle call or the sound of a bell 1 See p. 243. 2 See Trans. Oss. Soc, IV, 232, note; cf. Ann. de Bretagne, XV (1899-1900), 127 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 102. 2 1 6 Niniane and Merlin that shall awake them from a magic slumber.^ Ogier not only is honored by a sojourn in Avalon with Morgain, but in a vaulted chamber near the castle of Kronberg in Denmark he and his men sit fast asleep around a table, and there he has said that he and his warriors will remain, until there are no more men in Denmark than can stand on a wine-butt. Ogier, too, haunts the forest of Ardennes, but some day he will return to the abodes of men.^ Merlin, like Arthur, rests in oblivion in a cave, and waits to be roused only by a destined signal ; but in his case the bespelling hand is that of the maiden who has enticed him, and she alone can break the enchantment. In Class B there is never an indication that Niniane loves Merlin, although in A she listens to him at first willingly and with sincere eagerness. Throughout B a strain of duplicity is perceptible in her character, as in the nature of a sorceress who entices heroes to their own undoing. Again and again in Celtic material we read of the malicious inmate of a cave who from sinister motives attracts a hero to her home. In the story of the Enchanted Cave of Keshcorran ^ three sorceresses of the Tuatha dd Danann, to entrap the Fianna, hang hasps of yarn in front of the cave of Keshcorran. The Fianna pass through the hasps, " where- upon a deathly tremor occupied them and presently they lost their strength, so that by those valiant hags they were fast bound indissolubly . . Their pith and valour likewise was abolished ... As helplessly pinioned and tightly tethered culprit prisoners the hags transported them into black mysterious holes, into dark perplexing labyrinths." A comrade rescues them. Iain, the hero of a West Highland tale,* goes with three companions to a cave. One of the companions enters, and is at once struck by a hag with a magic club which makes him a bare crag of stone. Iain's other companions meet the same fate, and all are freed from the spell only when Iain himself sprinkles upon them certain magic drops of water which restore them to life. Another Celtic story of the same type is the Tale of Young Maiius.^ A beautiful woman stands at the bedside of Young Manus and easily induces him to follow her to a cave ; here she strikes him with a magic rod which turns him into a pillar of stone. He is restored to life by the touch from a rod dipped in a certain reviving cordial.^ 1 See Folk Lore fournal, I, 193 ff. ; Holy Grail, pp. 123, 196 ; Hartland, Sci- ence of Fairy Tales, London, 1891, p. 207. " See Grimm, D. M., 803. 4 Campbell, II, 12, 13. » Silva Gadelica, II, 343 if. 5 Maclnnes and Nutt, pp. 369-373. 6 Cf. the sorceress described in the Chase of Sliabh Fuaid, Trans. Oss. Soc VI 3ff- Niniane and Merlin 217 There is in the romances an evident association between Niniane and the goddess Diana.^ In the cave versions of Niniane's retention of Merlin, it is. possible for us to see one important effect upon the legend that this connection may have had. The fate of Endymion had left an impression upon the literature of mediaeval Europe. Ausonius ^ speaks of his slum- bers as of a familiar theme, and in writing the Ephemeris considered it unnecessary to mention his name in order to recall him to the minds of his readers. Errat et ipsa, olim qualis per Latmia saxa Endymioneos solita adfectare sopores, Cum face et astrigero diaderaate Luna bicornis.' Annuam quondam iuveni quietem Noctis et lucis vicibus manentem Fabulae fingunt cui Luna somnos Continuarit.'' Nor is it a trifling indication of the diffusion of the myth to find it referred to by Martianus Capella,^ whose work had a highly important educational value in the middle ages.^ Carmen Latmiadeum Lucis diva secundae Sacris praetulit astris Antrum quippe secuta Linquens culmina caeli Pastoralibus ardens Palmam dedit cicutis.' In the versions of Niniane's imprisonment of Merlin, one class is composed of pure Celtic material, and leaves Merlin confined by Niniane in a castle with walls of mist ; in this class Niniane's connection with Diana is more remote than in the others, and Diana is said to be merely her father's godmother, or a kindly goddess who gives her a " destiny " before birth. In the other classes, Niniane's connection with the goddess is more personal ; she dwells at the Lac de Dyane, or she is 1 For a discussion of this subject see Excursus IV. ''■ a.d. 310-395. ' Ausonii Opuscula, ed. Peiper, Leipzig, 1886, Cupido Cruciatur, vv. 40-42. * Ephemeris, w. 13-16. ' Fl. ca. 410-427. 8 See Ebert, Allgemeine Gesch. der Lit. des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1889, I, 483. ' De NiipHis Philologiae et Mercurii, ix, 919. 2 1 8 Niniane and Merlin herself endowed with the attributes of Diana ; in these versions she seals her lover asleep in a cave. If Niniane were already associated with Diana whose beloved slept forever in a cave, what more natural change than the transformation of the fay's air-bounded prison where the Celtic enchanter dwelt in oblivion into the same hiding-place as that of Endymion ? The just prerogative of heroic deed is the power to draw to itself legends of different variety but similar type, and the hero's disappearance from earth is a magnet for story. We cannot assert positively which type of tradition first belonged to the Merlin saga. The enchanted sleeper in a cave has been known since the days of Endymion, and as long ago as the time of Odysseus, Circe employed her power as a sorceress to detain with her the hero whom she loved. But since the castle of mist belongs unmistakably to Celtic fairydom, and since Merlin is a Celtic enchanter and Niniane a Celtic fay, there is a strong probability that the earlier theme to become attached to Merlin's name is the story that we know through Class A. Exactly the opposite is true of Merlin to that which is true of Arthur. In the Arthur tradition as we know it, after his disappearance from this world a love-motive may be said almost never to be present ; in Merlin's story this is the prominent feature, and the promise of the hero to do the fay's will in return for her love is a fundamental part of every version. The magic oblivion of a hero in a cave is not necessarily influ- enced by this motive ; but by presupposing that such existing material as is represented in A was already attached to Merlin, and by recognizing the connection between Niniane and Diana, we may more readily explain the cave version as the outcome of the former under the influence of the latter than we may the reverse situation. Ill Of the three sources forming our third class (Class C) — the Huth Merlin} Malory? and the Prophecies,^ — only the Huth Merlin and Malory treat of the meeting between Merlin and Niniane. Their account is wholly unlike that of Class A and ^ II, 139-159, 191-198. 8 Pp. xliv, Ixiv-lxviii. 2 Bk. Ill, ch. 5, 6 ; Bk. IV, ch. i. Niniane and Merlin 219 Class B ; the induction to their Story shows us Niniane as a damoisele cacheresse and will be examined in the next chapter. I . Huth Merlin. Niniane is dwelling at Artliur's court as a guest, and since she is remarkably beautiful IVIerlin begins to love her. She refuses to heed his wooing unless he will teach her as much of his magic art as she wishes to Icnow. When she leaves the court to return to her home in Northumber- land Merlin acts as her voluntary escort. She hates him more than she hates any living being, but feigns pleasure in his society. On their way they come to the beautiful Lac de Dyane, where Merlin builds for her a princely dwelling, which by enchantment he makes invisible to mortal eyes. Here he abides with the maiden, and through his instruction she learns more about necromancy than any one in the world except Merlin himself. Nor is there anybody on earth whom she hates with so deadly a hatred, and knowing that he desires to wrong her she constantly plans to destroy him. One day Merlin tells the maiden of a plot of Morgain to kill Arthur.^ At once she is eager to go to Great Britain to save the king, and as Merlin, knowing that death awaits him there, fears to go, she prom- ises with protestations of affection to protect him from all danger, if he will attend her. All the way his love for her and her hatred of him increase, and Niniane resolves upon his death. In the forest perilleuse Merlin takes the maiden to a fair chamber fash- ioned among the rocks, which had been the refuge of a certain unhappy Anasteu and his love, and where they had been buried in a marble tomb with a marble cover of such weight that only Merlin can raise it. The maiden insists that she wishes to look upon the bodies of the lovers lying within the tomb, and Merlin lifts the cover and lays it on the ground. The maiden next professes to be so charmed with the story of the lovers that she wishes to pass the night beside their tomb. As soon as Merlin lies down upon his couch she casts a magic sleep upon him, in which he loses his memory and all his power. Then she summons her servants and shows them that Merlin is like one dead and that the great enchanter is himself enchanted, bespelled by her because he has followed her for her dishonor. She bids her attendants lift him and fling him into the tomb where the lovers rest, and upon it she lays the cover, and seals it with her magic arts so that none can move it. No eye could see Merlin thereafter until she herself came to the tomb by Tristan's request. Nor did any man hear Merlin's voice except Baudemagus, who came to the tomb four days after Merlin's enchantment, while he was still alive and able to tell Baude- magus that only she who had confined him there could open the tomb. This was the last cry that Merlin uttered in lamentation that he had been given over to death by the craft of a woman, and that a woman's wit had overcome his own.* The maiden departs from the tomb on the day after she has imprisoned Merlin. 1 See above, pp. 1 4, 1 5. ^ On the lost Conte du Brait cf . Paris, Huth Merlin, I, xxx ff. 220 Niniane and Merlin 2. Malory. It felle so that Merlyn felle in a dottage on the damoisel that kyng Pel- linore broughte to the Courte | and she was one of the damoysels of the lake that hyjte Nyneue | But Merlyn wold lete haue her no rest but alweyes he wold be with her. | And euer she maade Merlyn good chere tyl she had lerned of hym al maner thynge that she desyred and he was assoted vpon her that he myghte not be from her | Soo on a tyme he told kynge Arthur that he sholde not dure longe but for al his craftes he shold be put in the erthe quyck | . . . And within a wyhle the damoysel of the lake departed | and Merlyn wente with her euermore where some euer she wente | And oftymes merlyn wold haue had her pryuely awey by his subtyle craftes | thenne she made hym to swere that he shold neuer do none enchauntement vpon her yf he wold haue his wylle | . . And soo sone after the lady and Merlyn departed | and by the waye Merlyn shewed her many wondres I and cam in to Cornewaille | And alweyes Merlyn lay aboute the lady to haue her maydenhode | and she was euer passynge wery of hym | and fayne wold haue ben delyuerd of hym | for she was aferd of hym by cause he was a deuyls sone | and she coude not beskyfte hym by no meane | . . . And soo on a tyme it happed that Merlyn shewed to her in a roche where as was a greete wonder | and wroughte by enchauntement that wente vnder a grete stone I So by her subtyle wyrchynge she maade Merlyn to goo vnder that stone to lete her wete of the merueilles there | but she wroughte so ther for hym that he came neuer oute for alle the crafte he coude doo | And so she departed and lefte Merlyn. 3. Prophecies. The Dame du Lac summons Merlin to ask him not to reveal that one of Morgain's knights has been captured by one of her knights. He remains with her, and in order to protect herself against him, she casts him into a deep sleep at night. She hates him with a deadly hatred and longs to con- fine him in a place whence he can never escape. He teaches her all that he knows of necromancy, and vows fidelity to her, but she becomes convinced of his faithlessness, and plans how she may deceive him. In a cave in the forest of Darnantes there is a Certain tomb to which Merlin leads her one day, telling her that none but she may find the way thither. Here they dwell together for fifteen months and would have remained longer but for Morgain, who comes to the forest in search of Merlin. The Dame du Lac hears the sound of her hunters' horns and fears her, for she knows that if Merlin is on friendly terms with Morgain and her ally, Claudas de la Deserte, Lancelot and his two cousins, her fosterlings, will surely be put to death. Merlin assures the Dame du Lac that he expects never to leave the cave, and she begs him to allow her to remain with him. He tells her that he shall die before her death and entreats her to be buried in the tomb with him ; whereupon she prevails upon him to lie down in it that she may see if there will be room for her also. Instantly she closes the lid upon him Niniane and Merlin 221 and fastens it in the fashion that he has himself taught her, so that none may open it. Morgain, she tells him, has reproached her- with a boast of his that she has lost her virtue by him ; hence the vengeance that she is taking upon him. He has taught her how to cast a man into a deep sleep, and how to fasten a place so that it can never be opened ; by these arts she has secured him now. Merlin bids her "go to Maistre Antoine, the bishop of Gales, and tell him what she has done, and that her maidenhood is unharmed. In two months his flesh will moulder away, but his spirit will remain for all who come to the tomb. The Dame du Lac stays by the tomb until the two months are ended, then wends her way to Maistre Antoine. She laments her deed and would do all in her power to set Merlin free, but she has so confined him that none but Christ can release him. Merlin in revenge teaches all women how to deceive men. The versions of the Huth Merlin and Malory belong together, that of the Prophecies forms a class by itself. Malory's account is clearly based on one that was kindred to the Huth Merlin; ^ but his description of the confinement of Merlin is so vague and incomprehensible that it looks as if here he or his source were making an attempt at abridgment, in which the influence of some such story as that of the Prophecies may be at work. The date of the Prophecies is placed at 1272,^ that of the Huth Merlin, by Gaston Paris, at about 1225 or 1230.^ ,The former contains an obviously later account than that of the Huth Mer- lin, and is more remote fnom the fairy theme that we have seen in Class A ; but it is evidently influenced by the same material that we find in the Huth Merlin. The stay by the Lac de Dyane and the scene by the lovers' tomb in the forest peril- leuse are represented here by the stay in the cave in Darnantes. Just as Merlin takes la damoisele cacheresse to the Lac de Dyane and builds her an invisible house there, so the Dame du Lac, who in the Prophecies is completely identified with Niniane,* has a presumably invisible house by the Lac de Dyane, to which she has a mysterious habit of opening the path, so that others beside Merlin may find it.^ In the Huth Merlin, Mor- gain indirectly causes the departure of Niniane and Merlin from the Lac de Dyane. In the Prophecies Morgain is again the interfering cause that interrupts the sojourn of Merlin with 1 See Sommer, Malory, III, 120-130, 146. * See p. 187, note 2. 2 See Paris, MSS. franc, I, 130; Vita Merlini, p. Ixv. ^ gee p. 201. 3 Huth Merlin, I, Ixix. 222 Niniane and Merlin the Dame du Lac ; but here her slanders are a direct influence in actuating the Dame du Lac to Merlin's imprisonment.^ This is a hew feature in the saga, throughout which fear and hatred of Merlin are' Niniane's impelling motives. The tradition which makes the Dame du Lac in the Hutk Merlin and else- where the opposing principle to Morgain's schemes against Arthur is here carried further, and is probably responsible for this emphasizing of the hostility of Morgain to Niniane. Mor- gain is a friend to Claudas and to Merlin ; if among them a triple alliance is formed, Lancelot and his cousins will be injured. This shows the influence of those episodes in which Morgain and the Dame du Lac are at odds for Lancelot's sake ;^ and the Dame du Lac's dread here is connected with her true rdle as Lancelot's guardian. All of these characteristics that I have mentioned are indicative of a later stage of tradition than is seen in the Huth Merlin. Furthermore, two other features point in the same direction ; in the Prophecies, it is by sheer craft and not by magic wiles that Niniane inveigles Merlin into the place of his imprisonment, where she confines him. by his own art ; neither is it by her power that he can be set free, but by Christ's. It will be noticed that Class C and Class A have few points of contact ; both come into contact with Class B, the former group in the beginning, the latter in the end. But the simple story of the magic sleep in a cave in B is elaborated in C into a long account of the confinement in a tomb in the cave. When Merlin was once represented as lying wrapped in oblivion in a cave, the feature of the tomb is almost a necessary addition of the rationalizing tendency which so frequently influences the material of the prose romances. The enchanted sleeper is dead to the world. Whether or not this conception affected the strange story of the place where the Noir Chevalier maintained his " custom " we have no means of determining. In the story of Helimas, father of the fay Melusine, there is a resem- blance to the variety of the Merlin story contained in Class C, especially 1 Cf . p. xliv : — The Dame du Lac has confined Merlin in the tomb pour U despit de Morgain ; p. xlv : — The Dame du Lac put Merlin in a place where Morgain could not find him, since he could teach Morgain how to kill Boors and to deceive her. 2 ggg pp igjff. Niniane and Merlin 223 in the Huth Merlin.^ Helimas, king of Albania, the husband of the fay, Pressine, loses her by his disobedience to an injunction that she has laid upon him. Her three daughters resolve to punish their father. They take him to a cave in a mountain trestout plain de faerie, and there imprison him. En ce haut mont renfermerent. On ne scat quel part qu'ilz alerent Mais Helimas depuis n'issy, Lk fu-il enferme ainsy.^ In a beautiful chamber in this cave his wife has a tomb made for him at his death, and also places there an alabaster statue of herself. Then, as far Vordre de fairie, she decrees that none shall enter there who does not derive descent from Avalon. There are indications that the story of a man who was enticed into a tomb or hiding place and there entrapped or assailed was a favorite subject with narrators, and might readily have become attached to Merlin, when the episode was once in vogue that depicted him as enticed by magic into a tomb where he was confined.^ One illustration of such stories is contained in the Perceval: — * Perceval comes upon a cross and a tree and a marble tomb. In the tomb a knight is crying loudly for release, and in response to Perceval's ready proffers of help he directs him how to lift the lid from the tomb. As soon as he emerges, but while Perceval is still holding up the lid, with all his might he pushes his rescuer into the tomb. The lid falls, and the knight springs on Perceval's mule, only to find, however, that having been enchanted it refuse? to stir for any rider except Perceval. Angry and devoid of ingenuity, the unfortunate knight lifts the lid of the tomb, sum- mons Perceval forth, and settles down in his old quarters again without another word.* 1 Couldrette, Mellusine, Le Livre de Lusignan, ed. Michel, Niort, 1854, vv. 4722-4934. 2 vv. 4749-4752. ^ Cf. VAtre Perillous (Herrig, Archiv f. das Studium der neueren Sprache, XLII, 148 ff.), vv. 1190 ff. * Vv. 29,680 ff. ; 34,255-34,338. ^ Cf. Loseth, p. 460 : — A maiden arouses the pity of Brehus, wins his aid, and then leads him to fall into a cave, from which he cannot escape. See also Rusti- ciano da Pisa, Girone il Cortese, ed. Tassi, Florence, 1855, pp. 377 £f. In the Decameron (Giom. II, Nov. v) Boccaccio tells of a young man who accompanies two thieves to a cathedral to rob the archbishop's grave. He descends into the grave and brings out the booty ; the thieves send him back to search for a ring, drop the stone on the grave while he is within, and escape with their spoils. Cf. Campbell, I, 132 ff., 147 ff- In the mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, by the craft of the fay Rhiannon an unwelcome lover is entrapped into an enchanted sack, and kept there until he is reduced to submission {Mabinogion, III, 56 ff.). Caradoc, Lancelot, and Troy Muir are each represented as induced to open a 224 Niniane and Merlin IV The study of these numerous sources shows us that there are two distinct accounts of Merlin's meeting with Niniane : — one the story of the maiden of the fountain in the forest of Brittany, the other that of la damoisele cacheresse. There are also two accounts of Merlin's confinement by the maiden : — one the story of the air-bounded castle, the other that of the cave or the tomb in the cave. The story of the meeting with the maiden of the fountain is concluded by that of the castle of mist ; that of la damoisele cacheresse by the version of the tomb in the cave. One set of versions (Class B) contains features common to both accounts, and adds the imprisonment in the cave to a story resembling that to which the castle of mist forms the conclusion, but not resembling that of la damoisele cacheresse. In spite of their apparent dissimilarities, a brief comparison of the essential features of the versions shows that they have numerous resemblances, and that certain elements persist throughout. In all the classes Merlin's love is a forest maiden of Brittany ; in all they meet secretly ; in all, by the power that Niniane has derived from Merlin, she protects her- self against him ; in all he shows her how to produce a magic sleep that shall endure at her pleasure, and how to fashion a magic prison ; in all she lures him to the spot where she casts him into a magic sleep and imprisons him by the arts that he has taught her. With these persistent elements of the story there is mingled in Class A extraneous material, the employment of which is accounted for by the fact that the hero is an enchanter and not a knight, and by the elaboration of detail incumbent upon the worthy writer of a long romance. In Class C the extraneous material is largely due to the more pronounced influence of a different conception of Niniane's character,! which suggests a series of incidents remote from A. Essentially the story places Merlin among the many heroes of old who fell victims to fairy blandishments, and were closet, tomb, or pit from which a serpent unexpectedly darts forth and attacks the hero. See Perceval, vv. 15,191 ff.; Malory, Bfc. XI, ch. i; Child, .5a//a^j, V, 126; cf. Carrie A. Harper, Modern Language Notes, Nov., 1898; Paris, Rom., XXVIII (1899), 214-231 ; Lays of Graelent, etc., p. 147, note I. 1 For this conception cf. pp. 228-247. Niniane and Merlin 225 transported by other-world agencies to a land without return. Merlin's experiences when once he is in Niniane's power are just as truly other-world experiences as are those of Bran, Maelduin, and Connla. The story of his disappearance from the world was popular in the highest degree. Its repeated use in the prose romances and the variety in the forms that it assumes are sufficient indication that it was told and retold .^ ^ See the summary of the unpublished romance Ysaye le Triste, Zs. f. rem. Phil. XXV (1901), 181, § 1 1 : — The spirit of Merlin is confined beneath a beautiful tree by the command of the Dame du Lac. See also a Breton tale cited by Southey, King Arthur, London, 1817, I, xlviii, and in Hibbert Lectures, p. 159, note i : — Merlin was enclosed in a tree by the power of an enchanter greater than himself. De la Rue (Essais Historiques, Caen, 1834, I, 71) cites a tradition from Gautier de Metz, V Image du Monde : — " Cast dans cette forSt [Brecheliant] que perit I'enchanteur Merlin, victime d'un charme que les Fees bretonnes lui avaient appris, et qu'il ne croyait pas possible." See also Bellamy, La Forit de Bricheliant, Rennes, 1896, I, 196 fiF. For an account of Merlin's retirement at V Esplumeor Mellin, with which Niniane is not connected, see the Didot-Perceval, I, 505 ; cf. Raoul de Houdenc, Meraugis von Portlesguez, ed. Friedwagner, Halle, 1897, v v. 1333, 2052, 2634, 2700, 2703, 2713; Sebillot, Gargantua, Paris, 1883, p. 114. See further, Loth, Z« Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, II, 277, 278 (cf. Mead, English Merlin, p. xcviii, note 3) ; Skene, Four Anc. Books, I, 478 ; II, 234 (cf. Lot, Ann. de Bretagne, XV, 1899- 1900, 509 ff.) ; Sanesi, La Storia di Merlino, Bergamo, 1898, p. xxxvii. An evidence of the popularity of the Merlin and Niniane story is found in the echoes of its characteristic elements that we catch here and there through the romances. In the continuation of the Perceval by Gaucher de Dourdan (vv. 34,205 ff.) we read that Merlin by necromancy fashioned in a certain place a cross and a magic pillar. A maiden chanced to come to the spot and thus did foolishly, for when she thought to go away she could not leave Merlin, but had to abide with him as his love. He built for her a fair house, and there he dwelt with her. The story also appears in the Tavola Ritonda (I, 223) : — Escorducarla, Dama dell' Isola di Vallone (doubtless Avalon ; see p. 230, note 3, citations from Gottfried von Strassburg and the Tavola Ritonda ; Couronnement de Louis, ed. Langlois, Paris, 1888, cf.v. 1827 and MS. C, v. 1598), built a marvellous palace, intending to imprison Merlin there, for she loved him. He had no idea of submitting to such treatment, and himself took the lady away to the Isola di Vallone, where he keeps her a prisoner. See also Parlement of the Thre Ages, vv. 608-611. This tradition is directly the obverse of that which we have been examining. A parallel situation is found in the case of the enchanter Mabon, the pupil of Merlin, who, in a story distinctly reflecting that of Merlin and Niniane, is said to have been imprisoned by a fair lady in her castle by means of the art that he had himself taught her (Loseth, § 334); and wno, according to another source (Bel Jnconnu, vv. 314 fE.), himself imprisons a mortal maid and keeps her in the form of a serpent in his castle until she shall marry him or be rescued by a hero. There is nothing contrary to the course of tradition, therefore, in the situation by which two types of story are attached to Merlin's name, according to one of which an other-world love exercises supreme power over him, while according to the 226 Niniane and Merlin Lays and independent narratives existed dealing with Merlin,^ and inasmuch as his legend was peculiarly fitted to absorb other he gains control over a damsel and imprisons her. The magic house built by Merlin for the lady, however, looks like a reflection of the more widely diffused story of Niniane. Cf. also the invisible house built by Merlin for Niniane, and, in the Prophecies, his magic decorations of the cave whither he assures Niniane that none but she may find the way. In several minor episodes, besides that of Mabon, the story of Merlin's instruc- tion of Niniane is echoed. The Dame d'Avalon in a trial of magic skill at Avalon with the Queen of Norgalles, Sebile I'enchanteresse, and Morgain carries off the palm from the rest : — " Ouy certes font las aultres. cest art vos apprint Merlin | car il me iura une nuyt quat il emporta mon pucelage | mais iey feuz deceue | car il me dist il mapredroit ce qui scauoit " (Prophecies, p. xcvii). A certain damsel of Leonnois is wronged by Merlin, who teaches her his arts and enchantments (Prophecies, p. Ixv). See also Lbseth, p. 466. The most important reflection of the story is to be seen in the accounts of Merlin's love for Morgain and his instruction of her in the magic art. This cannot properly be regarded as an independent tradition, but is doubtless the result of rationalization, which, as we have seen, frequently explains a fay's power as due to a magician's instruction, and which, when Morgain's supernatural gifts had to be accounted for, would naturally place her under the tutelage of the greatest of enchanters, Merlin. The passages in which Morgain is represented as deriving her art from Merlin fall into two divisions, — those in which she is merely said to win her skill from Merlin who loves her (Lancelot, II, Ixxi ; Paris, R. T. R., II, 205; Lbseth, §190; Renart le Nouvel, vv. 4807 ff. ; Tavola Ritonda, I, 296; above, pp. 61, 62, 102), and those in which reminiscences of the Niniane story are more clearly defined. To this latter class belongs the account in the Livre d'Artus, P. (§§ 100-102), according to which Morgain proves herself quite as apt a pupil of Merlin as Niniane is, and in fact temporarily rather more engrossing (cf., however, §§130, 135, 136). The special magic power taught Morgain by Merlin, according to this source, is a reminder of the arts that he is said in Class A to have imparted to Niniane : — Et auint lone tens apres ce que Merlins fu perduz. que ele fist faire sales por ester les plus beles du monde en maint leus. et quant eles estoient assouies. et li ourier sen estoient ale. si gitoit son enchante- ment (p. 14). Still greater is the resemblance to the Merlin and Niniane story in the account in the liuth Merlin (I, 263-266) of Morgain's acquisition of necro- mancy : — Arthur has had erected on the top of a fortres? gold and silver images of twelve vanquished kings, in whose hands he has had lighted torches placed, which Merlin announces shall burn till the day of his own death (cf. Gautier de Metz, V Image du Monde, cited by Comparetti, Virgilio nel Medio Evo, Florence, 1896, II, 196, for a somewhat similar device of VirgU's. Cf. also the firebrand that shall burn as long as Ogier's life lasts, given him by Morgain in Avalon ; see above, pp. 77, 79). Morgain, on learning that this marvel is due to Merlin's art, decides that his acquaintance is worth cultivating, and since she wins his love by her beauty, she easUy persuades him, in return for her promise to do whatever he asks, to teach her so much necromancy that no woman on earth shall know 1 See Lambert d'^Ardres, Mon. Germ., XXIV, 707 ; cf. Paris, Huth Merlin, I, xlvi. Niniane and Merlin 227 not only Celtic fairy material, but also themes from folk-tales and bits of religious tradition as well, it is no wonder that the original fairy story is obscured by many accretions in the versions that have happened to come down to us. more. When she has learned all that she wishes, she dismisses him, seeing that he loves her foolishly. For Merlin's love for Morgain cf. also Prophecies, Berner StadMbl. Cod. no. 388, fo. 77 c, quoted by Freymond, Zs. f. rom. Phil., XVI (1892), 126; Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, vv. 2446 £f. CHAPTER XIV LA DAMOISELE CACHERESSEi One day while Arthur is sitting at meat a white stag comes dashing through the hall pressed hard by a brachet. After it in hot pursuit there rides a beautiful maiden who has just unleashed thirty couples of hounds. She is clad as a huntress in a short green robe, round her neck hangs an ivory horn, in her hand are bow and arrows. She is riding at full speed, and is making an obnoxious amount of noise. A knight who is present seizes the brachet and rides off with it ; the stag and hounds escape. The maiden flings down her bow and arrows, and clamors for immediate repara- tion from the king for the loss of her little dog and the interruption of her hunt. Merlin, in spite of reminders that the adventure will lead to death, appoints Gawain to bring back to court the stag's head and the hounds unharmed, and Tor to go forth in quest of the brachet. At this moment an armed knight rides up, swings the maiden to his saddle, and spurs off with her. She cries loudly for help, and Merlin deputes Pellinor to go to her rescue. Gawain's pursuit leads him to a ford defended by a knight [in Malory, AUardin of the Isles], whom he overcomes. He follows the stag across the stream through a forest and into a beautiful castle. The dogs rush after it and kill it in the hall. An armed knight makes his appearance forthwith, and indulges in loud lamentation because he has guarded ill his favorite stag that his lady gave into his keeping. Gawain and he engage in combat, and Gawain is about to kill him when the knight's amie throws herself between them, and Gawain by accident cuts off her head instead of her lover's. The knight, however, is vanquished and Gawain sends him as a prisoner to the queen. Left alone, he notices that the castle is apparently uninhabited. Presently a thundering blast from a horn breaks the stilhiess. Four armed champions enter the hall, attack Gawain, wound him, and take him off to a dungeon. When the lady of the castle learns who he is, she releases him provided he will promise to do her bidding, and return to court with the maiden's body bound to his saddle and her head hanging from his neck. She gives him the stag's head to take back to the king as evidence that he has accomplished the adventure. When he arrives at court Merlin in commending him says : — Et saichih que ceste aventure poh vous bien tenir a une des aventicr.es de\r\ saint graal? 1 The following story is contained in Huth Merlin, II, ^^-lyJ ; Malory, Bk. Ill, ch. 5-15, where the account is given less fully than in Ifuth Merlin and with some unimportant differences. i* Huth Merlin, II, 96. 228 La Damoisele Cacheresse 229 Tor, meanwhile, pursues the brachet. Guided by a dwarf he comes to a meadow where beautiful pavilions are spread. In one of these he discov- ers a maiden sleeping, with the brachet in her arms. Despite her entreaties and threats, Tor takes the little dog froift her and rides on his way. The next day the maiden's lover, the knight who had stolen the brachet, over- takes him and demands the dog. The result is a contest in which Tor is victor. Pellinor, after some unimportant experiences, finds the maiden and her captor, with whom a cousin of hers is fighting in her defence. When the contestants hear Pellinor's declaration that he intends to lead the maiden back to the king, they make their peace and attack their new opponent, only to be defeated by him. The maiden's cousin begs Pellinor to treat her with consideration : — Car Men sachUs que ele \esf\ fille de roi et de roine et estraite de moult haut lignage. Mais tant li plaist la cacherie des foris et tant sH delite que elle ne vaut onques avoir ne ami ne baron, ains s'en gabe quant on en parole a li^ On their way back to court the maiden's horse stumbles, and she falls, hurting her arm. They stop to rest, and overhear a plot of two passing knights to poison Arthur, at which the maiden expresses her confidence in the king's safety since Merlin is at court. They pursue their way to Camelot where la damoisele cacheresse receives at Arthur's hands her brachet, hounds, and stag's head. She tells the king and queen that her name is Niniane ; and that she is the daughter of a man of high rank in Little Brittany, but she does not say that she is the daughter of a king. Everybody who has heard the story of Robert de Boron knows that this maiden is she who was called la damoisele du lac, who brought up Lancelot du lac. Gaston Paris says of this episode i^ — "On a vu que notre romancier a fait de la ' demoiselle chasseresse ' de cette aven- ture la mdme que Ninienne. Cela n'^claircit pas I'histoire de cette demoiselle et de sa chasse, histoire qui est d'ailleurs aussi peu int^ressante que peu claire." It is, however, clear at once that we are touching fairyland, and that we have to do with an episode in which we may detect our author subjefcting his mate- rial to very much the same sort of treatment that he bestowed upon it in his version of the enchanted voyage of Arthur, Urien, and Accalon.3 In our study of fairy life we have by this time learned to suspect the vicinity of faerie when we find before our eyes a white stag and brachet, and a splendid uninhabited castle. That the quest of the white stag and brachet is prop- erly an other-world adventure may be seen by a comparison 1 Huih Merlin, II, iig. ' See above, pp. 14 ff. 2 Huth Merlin, I, xlix, note i. 230 La Damoisele Cacheresse with other incidents less complex in their structure in which the same theme is prominent, and especially with Perceval's adventure of the Chessboard Castle to which I have had occa- sion to refer before.^ The fairy mistress of the Chessboard Castle refuses to grant Perceval her love until he shall bring her the head of the white stag in the forest. To aid him in his pursuit, he may take with him her white brachet, adorned, as a true fairy dog, with a gold collar ^ and endowed with supercanine intelligence ; ^ if he does not bring the little dog back with him, he shall never have her love. As Perceval is returning with the stag's head, he is despoiled of his brachet by an ungracious maiden {puciile de malaire) who refuses to give the dog back to him until he has fought with a certain 1 Perceval, vv. 22,392 ff., 27,004 £f., 27,715 ff. ; see above, pp. 156 ff. ; cf. Tyo- let, 329-444, 538 ff. ; Hist. Litt., XXX, 113-117. ^ See vv. 22,585, 22,607. ^ See vv. 22,591, 22,920 ff. Fairy dogs are sent to this world as messengers or gifts to mortals. They serve as guides in other-world adventures, or as comfort- ers in some special misfortune. They are small, have glossy hair as fine as silk, as a rule are white, white with red or black ears, or iridescent, and wear a gold collar from which hangs a magic bell ; they are preternaturally swift, intelligent, amiable, and abstemious. See Meyer and Nutt, I, 81 ; Stokes and Windisch, III, ii, 467 ; Silva Gadelica, II, 233-237 ; Mabinogion, I, 367 ff. ; III, 38 ; Tyolet, vv. 375- 400, 430-444, 538-542 ; Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan u. Isolt, ed. Massmann, Leipzig, 1843, I, vv. 15,801 ff. ; Ulrich von Turheim, ib., vv. 1074, 1234, 1236; Heinrich von Friberg, Fortsetzung von Gottfried's Tristan, ed. Von der Hagen, Breslau, 1823, II, vv. 4116, 4453 ff., 4810, 6471 ; Pleier, Garel von dem Bliihenden Tal, ed. Walz, Freiburg, 1892, vv. 2464 ff. ; Tavola Ritonda, I, 241-243 ; Lancelot, II, cxh ; Trans. Oss. Soc, IV, 249 ; Ann. de Bretagne, XV (1899-1900), 127, 128 ; MacDougall, pp. 84 ff. ; Campbell, The Fians, London, 1891, p. 197 ; Bel Inconnu, vv. 1259 ff. ; Libeaus Desconus, ed. Kaluza, Leipzig, 1890, vv. 1069 ff. ; Wirnt von Gravenberg, Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, Dichtungen des deutschen Mittelalters, VI, Leipzig, 1847, vv. 2207-2212. There can be no question that the dog to which the last three passages refer is a fairy hound, when they are compared with the descrip- tion of a dog in the Lay of the Great Fool, a Celtic source, with which in the episode in question they show a striking agreement (see above, p. 88, note 2, for references on this subject). In the Lay (pp. 159 ff.) the dog, a red-eared white hound, is owned by an enchanter, and is given to the wife of Amadan Mor, the daughter of the King of the Golden Isle — an other-world name. The little dog serves as an other-world messenger, for Amadan Mor, the hero, after killing a deer that the dog has driven into his path through an enchanted glen, binds the dog, and thus falls into a dispute with its owner, which ends with a reconciliation and with Amadan Mor's accompanying the enchanter to his other-world dwelling. In Libeaus Des- conus (vv. 1 02 1 ff.) the little dog in the manifold gay colors of his coat resembles Petit Criu, the brachet from Avalon described by Gottfried von Strassburg in the passage cited above. In Libeaus Desconus, also, he is owned by Ser Otes de Lyle, which is possibly a corruption of Oste(s) de I'isle (Hdte de Vile), an other-world name. This suggestion I owe to Professor Schofield. La Damoiseli Cacheresse 231 knight. During the fight, Perceval loses both stag's head and brachet, for they are stolen by a passing knight, and the luckless lover thus is once more involved in a long series of adventures. One day he chances upon the ungracious maiden sitting before a beautiful tent beneath a tree on which the stag's head is hanging. Perceval appropriates the head, but is obliged to do battle for it and for the brachet with the maiden's ami. We have previously been told that she is King Pesc^or's daughter, and that she has been thwarting Perceval in his task, because of his failure to ask the fitting question at the Grail castle. Here, as in the episode of la damoisele cacheresse, the object of the quest is to bring bacl^ the head of the stag and the fay's white brachet. Perceval is warned that to perform the adven- ture completely he must bring back the brachet, just as Gawain is told by Merlin that he must return with the hounds unharmed. Perceval and Tor in the pursuit of the brachet take their prop- erty from a maiden found by Perceval sitting outside a tent, by Tor sitting within a tent, and both fight with her ami for the little dog. These similarities make it seem probable that such a story as we know through Gaucher was influencing the author of the later prose romance. In the Welsh Peredur^ a some- what different form is given to the same adventure. The Black Maiden imposes upon the hero the quest of the stag and brachet, success in which shall admit him to his loved one's presence, and she also acts the part of the ungracious maiden in his subsequent adventures. She, too, concocts all the trouble for Peredur that she can in consequence of his failure at the Grail castle. Merlin, in the Hutk Merlin, makes the somewhat surprising statement to Gawain after his return to court that his adventure is to be regarded as one of those belonging to the Grail, — an apparent irrelevancy increasing the probability that in the author's source this very test of Perceval had an influence. Though Gawain's adventures, unlike Tor's, diverge widely from Perceval's, they belong distinctly to the other world. Not only is the stream that must be crossed to reach the beautiful castle of the adventure defended, according to Malory, by Allardin of the Isles, whose name strongly resembles that of the other-world knight, Aalardin del Lac,^ but beside occupying 1 MaUnogion, I, 365 £E. For the same story told with variations unimportant here, see Didot- Perceval, I, 467 ff. ^ See p. 168. 232 La Damoisele Cackeresse the accepted situation of a magic castle, it is apparently unin- habited, a mysterious and terrific blast from a horn is heard within its walls,^ its mistress, like a fay, helps the hero in his trouble, and exacts from him the promise to do her will. The stag, also, shows its primitive characteristic as a fay's mes- senger by leading the way into the castle,^ although unlike the typical messenger it does not vanish from sight when its mis- sion is accomplished, but serves as the source of a fresh dis- turbance for Gawain in his contest with its defender appointed by the mistress of the castle.^ The proper function of the knight in our story, however, was probably to, maintain a " custom " of the castle against a knight brought thither by the fay's messenger; just as the blaze of an immense fire attracts knights to the enchanted abode of Helaes, where they discover that at the fireside they must encounter an armed champion.* The earlier stories with which I have classed the episode in the Huth Merlin always demand that the adventure appointed by the fay shall in some way lead to her love ; this is of course made impossible here by the division of the adventure between two knights, and further by the sudden rape of the lady herself. It has seemed worth while to call attention to the general character of the episode, because by such an analysis the unique part ascribed here to Niniane becomes all the more 1 For a brief discussion of the significance of the blast from a horn in a magic castle, and for instances of its use, see Philipot, Rom., XXV (1896), 261, note i ; cf. Holy Grail, p. 198. For additional examples see Livre d'Artus, P., §§151, 152; Perceval, vv. 19,055, 21,967 ff., 31,744 ff . ; MacDougall, p. 73. 2 Cf . Floriant et Florete, vv. 8176 ff.; Perceval, vv. 28,916 ff.; Partonofeus, w. 5638 ff.; Guingamor, vv. 3i2£f.; Auberon, vv. 711 ff.; Trans. Oss. Soc, VI, 77. 79- ' A parallel to Gawain's pursuit of the deer and his combat with the knight who has it in his keeping is furnished by the West Highland tale, The Fair Gni- agach (Campbell, II, 424-450), which, according to Campbell, contains very early features. The Fair Chief pursues a deer of marvellous swiftness, which leads him across a ford. The deer gives a spring, and the Fair Chief catches it by one of the hind legs. The deer roars, and " the Carlin " — who has not appeared earlier in the tale — cries : " Who seized the beast of my love ? " (Cf. the grievance of the knight in the Huth Merlin, II, 87, —