Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail Part 9

8. Adventure with the damsel of the 6. Blanchefleur, Gonemant's besieged castle who offers niece.

herself to hero.

9. Second meeting with the lady of 9.

the tent.

10. First encounter with the sorceresses of Gloucester, who are forced to desist from a.s.sailing hero's hostess.

11. Adventure of the drops of blood 10.

in the snow.

20. Reproaching of Peredur before 11.

the Court by the loathly damsel.

21. Gwalchmai's adventure with the 14.

lady whose father he had slain.

22. Peredur's meeting the knight on 15. Hermit, hero's uncle.

Good Friday, and confession to priest.

_Gautier._ 24. Arrival at the Castle of Wonders Inc. 7, 8, and partly 13 and 18.

(Chessboard Castle); stag hunt; loss of dog; fight with the black man of the cromlech.

25. Second arrival at the (Grail) 22. In so far as Gautier ends his castle; achievement of the Quest part of the story here with by destruction of sorceresses of the hero's second arrival at Gloucester. "Thus it is related the Grail Castle, but no concerning the Castle of similarity in the incidents.

Wonders."

The sequence is thus exactly the same in the Mabinogi and in Chrestien, with the single exception of the Blanchefleur incident, which, in the French poem precedes, in the Welsh tale follows, the first visit to the Grail Castle. The similarity of order is sufficient of itself to warrant the surmise of a relation such as that of copy to original. If the Mabinogi be examined closely, much will be found to strengthen this surmise. Thus, Birch-Hirschfeld has pointed out that when Peredur first sees the knights, and on asking his mother what they may be, receives the answer, "Angels, my son"; this can only be a distorted reminiscence of Perceval's own exclamation,

... Ha! sire Dex, Merchi!

Ce sont angle que je voi ci! (1,349-50).

as the hero's mother would be the last person to describe thus the knights whom she has done her best to guard her son from knowledge of. Again, Simrock has criticised, and with reason, the incident of Peredur's being acclaimed by the dwarf on his arrival at Arthur's court as the chief of warriors and flower of knighthood. In the corresponding incident in Chrestien, the hero is told laughingly by a damsel that he should become the best knight in the world, and she had not laughed for ten years, as a fool had been wont to declare. This is an earlier form than that of the Mabinogi, and closer to the folk-tale account. Thus, to take one instance only, in Mr. Kennedy's Giolla na Chroicean Gobhar (Fellow with the Goat-skin) [Fictions of the Irish Celts, p. 23], the hero comes to the King of Dublin, as Peredur to Arthur, clad in skins and armed with a club.

"Now, the King's daughter was so melancholy that she didn't laugh for seven years, but when she saw Tom of the Goat-skin knock over all her father's best champions, then she let a great sweet laugh out of her," and of course Tom marries her, but not until he has been through all sorts of trials, aye, even to h.e.l.l itself and back. In Chrestien, the primitive form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, has alone subsisted. Birch-Hirschfeld takes exception likewise to the way in which Peredur's two uncles are brought upon the scene, the first one, corresponding to Gonemans in Chrestien, being found fis.h.i.+ng instead of the real Fisher King, the lord of the Castle of the Magic Talismans, whilst at the latter's, Peredur has to undergo trials of his strength belonging properly to his stay at the first uncle's. Evidently, says Birch-Hirschfeld, there has been a confusion of the two personages. Again, when Peredur leaves his second uncle on the morrow of seeing the bleeding head and spear, it is said, "he rode forth with his uncle's permission."

Can these words be a reminiscence of Chrestien's?

Et trueve le pont abaiscie, Con li avoit ensi laissie Por ce que rien nel detenist, De quele eure qu'il venist Que il ne pa.s.sat sans arriest (4,565-69).

We shall see later on that in the most primitive form of the unsuccessful visit to the Castle of the Talismans the hero finds himself on the morrow on the bare earth, the castle itself having vanished utterly. The idea of permission being given to leave is diametrically opposed to this earliest conception, and its presence in the Mabinogi seems only capable of explanation by some misunderstanding of the story-teller's model.

The Blanchefleur incident shows some verbal parallels, "The maiden welcomed Peredur and put her arms around his neck."

Et la damosele le prent Par le main debonnairement (3,025-26) Et voit celi ajenouillie Devant son lit qui le tenoit Par le col embraciet estroit (3,166-68).

Can, too, the "two nuns," who bring in bread and wine, be due to the "Il Abeies," which Perceval sees on entering Blanchefleur's town? It may be noticed that in this scene the Welsh story-teller is not only more chaste, but shows much greater delicacy of feeling than the French poet. Peredur's conduct is that of a gentleman according to nineteenth century standards.

Chrestien, however, is probably nearer the historical reality, and the conduct of his pair--

S'il l'a sor le covertoir mise

Ensi giurent tote la nuit.

is so singularly like that of a Welsh _bundling_ couple, that it seems admissible to refer the colouring given to this incident to Welsh sources.

Another scene presenting marked similarities in the two works is that in which the hero is upbraided before the court by the loathly damsel. In the Mabinogi she enters riding upon a _yellow_ mule with _jagged thongs_: in Chrestien--

Sor une _fauve mule_ et tint En sa main destre une escorgie (5,991-2).

"Blacker were her face and her two hands than the blackest iron covered with pitch."

Ains ne veistes si noir fer Come ele ot les mains et le cor (5,998-99).

"And she greeted Arthur and all his household except Peredur."

Le roi et ses barons salue Tout ensamble comunalment Fors ke Perceval seulement (6,020-3).

In the Mabinogi, Peredur is reproached for not having asked about the streaming spear; in Chrestien "la lance qui saine" is mentioned first although the Grail is added. Had Peredur asked the meaning and cause of the wonders, the "King would have been restored to health, and his dominions to peace."

Li rices rois qui moult s'esmaie Fust or tos garis de sa plaie Et si tenist sa tiere en pais (6,049-51).

Whereas now "his knights will perish, and wives will be widowed, and maidens will be left portionless"--

Dames en perdront lor maris, Tieres en seront essilies, Et pucieles desconsellies; Orfenes, veves en remanront Et maint chevalier en morront (6,056, etc.).

In the "Stately Castle" where dwells the loathly damsel, are five hundred and sixty-six knights, and "the lady whom he loves best with each," in "Castle Orguellos" five hundred and seventy, and not one "qui n'ait s'amie avoeques lui." "And whoever would acquire fame in arms and encounters and conflicts, he will gain it there if he desire it."

Que la ne faut nus ki i alle, Qui la ne truist joste u batalle; Qui viout faire chevalerie, Si la le quiert, n'i faura mie (6,075, etc.).

"And whoso would reach the summit of fame and honour, I know where he may find it. There is a castle on a lofty mountain, and there is a maiden therein, and she is detained a prisoner there, and whoever shall set her free will attain the summit of the fame of the world."

Mais ki vorroit le pris avoir De tout le mont, je quie savoir Le liu et la piece de terre U on le porroit mius conquerre;

A une damoisiele a.s.sise; Moult grant honor aroit conquise, Qui le siege en poroit oster Et la puciele delivrer (6,080, etc.).

In this last case certainly, in the other cases probably, a direct influence, to the extent at least of the pa.s.sages quoted, must be admitted. But before concluding hastily that the Welsh story-teller is the copyist, some facts must be mentioned on the other side. Thus the incident of the blood drops in the snow, which Birch-Hirschfeld sets down as one of those taken over by the Mabinogi, with the remark that the Welsh story contains no trace of a pa.s.sion as strong as Perceval's for Blanchefleur, has been dealt with by Professor H. Zimmer in his "Keltische Studien,"

vol. ii, pp. 200. He refers to the awakening of Deirdre's love to Noisi by similar means, as found in the Irish saga of the Sons of Usnech (oldest MS. authority, Book of Leinster, copied before 1164 from older MSS.) as evidence of the early importance of this _motif_ in Celtic tradition. The pa.s.sage runs thus in English: "As her foster-father was busy in winter time skinning a calf out in the snow, she beheld a raven which drank up the blood in the snow; and she exclaimed, 'Such a man could I love, and him only, having the three colours, his hair like the raven, his cheeks like the blood, his body like the snow.'"

Now the Mabinogi says, almost in the same words--the blackness of the raven and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood he compared to the hair and the skin and the two red spots upon the cheek of the lady that best he loved. In Chrestien there is no raven, and the whole stress is laid upon the _three_ drops of blood on the snow, which put the hero in mind of the red and white of his lady's face. As Zimmer justly points out, the version of the Mabinogi is decidedly the more primitive of the two; and that, moreover, as the incident does not figure at all in what Birch-Hirschfeld presumes to be Chrestien's source, the Didot-Perceval, the following development of this incident must, _ex hypothesi_, have taken place. In the Didot-Perceval the hero is once upon a time lost in thought. To explain this, Chrestien invents the incident of the three drops of blood in the snow; the Mabinogi, copying Chrestien, presents the incident in almost as primitive a form as the oldest known one! Here, then, the Mabinogi has preserved an older form than Chrestien, alleged to have been its source in all those parts common to both. Nor is it certain that the fact of Peredur's undergoing the sword-test in the Talisman Castle _does_ show, as Birch-Hirschfeld maintains, that the Welsh story-teller confused the two personages whom he took over from Chrestien, Gonemans and the Fisher King. The sword incident will be examined later on; suffice here to say that no explanation is given in the Conte du Graal of the broken weapon; whereas the Mabinogi does give a simple and natural one. But these two instances cannot weaken the force of the parallels adduced above. In determining, however, whether these may not be due to Chrestien's being the borrower, the differences between the two versions are of even more importance than the similarities.

What are these? The French romances belonging to the Perceval type of the Grail quest give two versions of the search for the magic talismans, that of the Conte du Graal and that of the Didot-Perceval. The latter pre-supposes an early history which, as already shown, cannot be looked upon as the starting point of the legend without postulating such a development of the latter as is inadmissible on _a priori_ grounds, and as runs counter to many well-ascertained facts. The former is not consistent with itself, Manessier's finish contradicting Chrestien's opening on such an essential point as the cause of the maimed king's suffering. Still the following outline of a story, much overlaid by apparently disconnected adventures, may be gathered from it. A hero has to seek for magic talismans wherewith to heal an uncle wounded by his brother, and at the same time to avenge him on that brother. What, on the other hand, is the story as told in the Mabinogi? A hero is minded by talismans to avenge the death of a cousin (and the harming of an uncle); it is not stated that the talismans pa.s.s into his possession. It is difficult to admit that either of these forms can have served as direct model to the other. If the Mabinogi be a simple copy of the Conte du Graal, whence the altered significance of the talismans? whence also the machinery by means of which the hero is at last brought to his goal, and which is, briefly, as follows? The woe which has befallen Peredur's kindred is caused by supernatural beings, the sorceresses of Gloucester; his ultimate achievement of the task is brought about by his cousin, who, to urge him on, a.s.sumes the form (1) of the black and loathly damsel; (2) of the damsel of the chessboard, who incites him to the Ysbydinongyl adventure, reproves him for not slaying the black man at once, and then urges him into the stag hunt; (3) of the lady who carries off the hound and sends him to fight against the black man of the cromlech; "and the cousin it was who came in the hall with the b.l.o.o.d.y head in the salver and the lance dripping blood." The whole of the incidents connected with the Castle of the Chessboard, which appear at such length in both the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, but without being in any way connected with the main thread of the story, thus form in the Mabinogi an integral portion of that main thread. Would the authors of the Conte du Graal have neglected the straight-forward version of the Welsh tale had they known it, or could, on the other hand, the author of the Mabinogi have worked up the disconnected incidents of his alleged model into an organic whole? Neither hypothesis is likely. Moreover the Conte du Graal and the Didot-Perceval, if examined with care, show distinct traces of a machinery similar to that of the Welsh story. Thus in Chrestien, Perceval, on arriving at the Fisher King's, sees a squire bringing into the room a sword of such good steel that it might break in but one peril, and this the King's niece (_i.e._, Perceval's cousin) had sent her uncle to bestow it as he pleased; and the King gives it to the hero for--

... biaus frere ceste espee Vous fu jugie et destinee (4,345-6).

After Perceval's first adventure at the Grail Castle it is his "germaine cousine" (4,776) who a.s.sails him with her reproaches; she knows all about the sword (4,835-38) and tells him, how, if it be broken he may have it mended (4,847-59). So far Chrestien, who furthermore, be it noted, makes Blanchefleur Perceval's lady-love, likewise his cousin, she being niece to Gonemans (3,805-95). A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. In the former, these adventures caused by Peredur's cousin serve apparently as tests of the hero's strength and courage. The loss of the chessboard is the starting-point of the task, and the cousin reappears as the black maiden. Nothing of the sort is found in Gautier. True, the damsel who reproaches Perceval is in so far supernatural, as she is a kind of water-nix, but it is love for her which induces the hero to perform the task; she it is, too, who lends him the dog, and she is not identified with the "pucelle de malaire" who carries it off (22,604, etc.). But later on Perceval meets a knight who tells him that a daughter of the Fisher King's (thus also a cousin of Perceval) had related to him how a knight had carried off a stag's head and hound to anger another good knight who had been at her father's court, and had not asked as he should concerning the Grail, for which reason she had taken his hound and had refused him help to follow the robber knight (23,163, etc.). This makes the "pucelle de malaire" to be Perceval's cousin, and she plays the same _role_ as in the Mabinogi. True, when later on (Incident 13) Perceval finds the damsel, nothing is said as to her being the Fisher King's daughter; on the contrary, as will be seen by the summary, a long story is told about the Knight of the Tomb, brother to her knight, Garalas, and how he lived ten years with a fay. She is here quite distinct from the lady of the chessboard to whom Perceval returns later.

The version found in the Didot-Perceval agrees with the Mabinogi as against Gautier in so far that the hero is in love with the mistress of the castle, and not with the damsel who reproaches him for throwing away the chessmen. This reproaching damsel is not in any way identified with the lady who carries off the hound, who is described as "une vieille," and of whom it is afterwards told "elle estoit quand elle voloit une des plus belles damoiselles du monde. Et est cele meismes que mon frere (the brother of the Knight of the Tomb, who here, as in Gautier, is the lover of a fay) amena a la forest," _i.e._, she is the fay herself, sister to the lady of the Chessboard Castle, who hated her and wished to diminish her and her knight's pride (p. 469). Here, again, a connection can be pieced out between the various personages of the adventure; and it appears that the hero is driven to his fight against the Knight of the Tomb by a fair damsel transformed into a mysterious hag.[72] The Mabinogi thus gives one consistently worked-out conception--transformed hag = Peredur's cousin--which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she wills one of the fairest maids of the world. Now we have seen that the stag hunt is just one of those portions of the story in which are found the closest verbal similarities between Gautier de Doulens and the Didot-Perceval. It is, therefore, perplexing to find that there is not more likeness in the details of the incident. But the similarities pointed out concern chiefly the first part of the incident, and are less prominent in the latter part (the hero's encounter with the Knight of the Tomb).

This, taken together with the difference in the details of the incident just pointed out, strengthens the opinion expressed above, that the Didot-Perceval and Gautier are not connected directly but through the medium of a common source, the influence of which can be seen distinctly in certain portions of either story, and that when this source fails they go widely asunder in their accounts. That such an hypothesis is not unreasonable is shown by the fact that Gautier has two contradictory forms of this very story, one of which, that which makes the hound-stealing damsel a daughter of the Fisher King, is on all fours with the Mabinogi, whilst the other is more akin to, though differing in important respects from, that of the Didot-Perceval. In this case, at least, Gautier must have had two sources, and if two why not more?

It may be urged in explanation of the similarities between Gautier and the Mabinogi, that the author of the latter used Gautier in the same free way that he did Chrestien, but that getting tired towards the close of his work he abridged in a much more summary fas.h.i.+on than at first. If the comparison of the versions of the stag hunt found in either work be not sufficient to refute this theory, the following consideration may be advanced against it: if the Mabinogi derives entirely from the Conte du Graal, how can the different form given to the Grail episode be accounted for?--if it only knew Chrestien, where did it get the chessboard adventure from, and if it knew Gautier as well as Chrestien why did it not finish the Grail adventure upon the same lines as it began, _i.e._, partly in conformity with its alleged model?

Is Manessier any nearer than Gautier to the Mabinogi in the later portion of the tale? The chief points of the story told by him may be recapitulated thus:--The Grail damsel is daughter of the Fisher King, the damsel of the salver, daughter of King Goon Desert, his brother (_i.e._, both are cousins to Perceval); Goon Desert, besieged by Espinogre, defeats him, but is treacherously slain by his nephew Partinal, the latter's sword breaking in the blow. Goon's body is brought to the Fisher King's castle, whither the broken sword is likewise brought by Goon's daughter to be kept until a knight should come, join together the pieces, and avenge Goon's death. In receiving the sword the Fisher King wounds himself through the thighs, and may not be healed until he be avenged on Partinal. Perceval asks how he may find the murderer, the blood vengeance (faide = O.H.G.