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The Fisher King in The Grail Romances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Wm. A. Nitze
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Extract

The nearer the knights of Arthur's Court approach the Grail, the more illusive and intangible the holy vessel appears. In Sir Percivale's own words:

      “Lo, if I find the Holy Grail itself
      And touch it, it will crumble into dust.“

Thus one might say the Grail symbolizes in its evasiveness the problem of its own origin. For if its source is still to be sought, this is largely because the problem involved so easily eludes one's grasp. The difficulty is to fix the eye on the main issue, to the exclusion of secondary considerations. The Grail stories have been classed as Perceval and Galaad forms, as those in which a quest is the burden of the tale, as those in which it is the history of the sacred vessel itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , 1909 , pp. 365 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1909

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References

page 366 note 1 Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, London, 1888, pp. 207–211; cf. G. Paris, Rom., xviii, 588–590; H. Zimmer, Gött. Gelehr. Anzeige, 1890, pp. 488–528; and Nutt, Les derniers travaux allemands sur la légende du Saint Graal, Rev. Geltiq., xii, 181–228; cf. G. Paris, Rom., xx, 504.

page 366 note 2 Ueber die französischen Gralromane, Vienna, 1892, pp. 100–183; cf. H. Suchier, Zeit. f. rom. Phil., xvi, 269–274; E. Freymond, Jahresbericht der rom. Philologie, iii, Heft 2, 178–184.

page 366 note 3 See also the interesting treatise by A. N. Wesselofsky: Zur Frage ueber die Heimath der Legende vom heiligen Gral in Archiv f. slav. Philologie, xxiii (1901), 321–385. Its conclusions, however, are purely tentative, inasmuch as W. considers the question from the Orientalist point of view, and the emphasis is constantly on the Joseph and the Grand St. Graal.

For general bibliography see Ed. Wechssler, Sage vom heiligen Gral, Halle, 1898; W. Hertz, Parzival, neu bearbeitet, Stuttgart, 1898; E. Freymond, Jahresbericht, viii, Heft 2, 263–282.

page 366 note 4 Op. cit., 208–210.

page 367 note 1 Text by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique, v; discussion by Nutt, Folk-Lore Record, iv. Cf. also Campbell, West Highland Tales, vol. iii, no. lviii (‘Rider of Grianaig‘), where allusion is made to the “black fisherman working at his tricks,” p. 15.

page 367 note 2 Gwion and Fionn are parallel Brythonic and Goidelic forms. On Gwion, son of Nudd, see especially J. Loth, Les Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, i, p. 252, n.: “rien ne montre mieux l'évolution des personnages mythologiques.” Nudd is the Welsh for the Nodenti deo, found in the inscriptions of Brittany. Gwion plays the same rôle among the Welsh as Nuada and the Tuatha Dé Danann in Ireland. The legend of St. Collen, cf. Llangollen in Denbigshire and Lan-golen near Quimper in Brittany, shows Christianity in contact with this powerful Celtic deity. See also Rhys, Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom, London, 1888, pp. 179–182, and Arthurian Legend, Oxford, 1891, pp. 155 ff.

page 367 note 3 Holder, Alt- Celtischer Sprachschatz, i, 993: “dieselbe wurzel wie latein. cornu, ‘der gehörnte’ = Dis pater bei Caes. B. G. 6, 18, dem Juppiter Cernenus der Römer entsprechend.”

page 367 note 4 Rhys, Hib. Lec., 84; also below, p. 379.

page 368 note 1 Gött. Gel. Anzeige, 1890, 429 ff.; Zeit. f. deut. Alterthum, xxxv, 155. See, however, Revue Celtique, xii, 189, xiii, 183.

page 368 note 2 Heinzel, Gralromane, 96 ff.; Hertz, Parzival, 426–429.

page 368 note 3 H. Achelis: Das Symbol des Fisches und die Fischdenkmäler der römischen Katakomben, Marburg, 1887; Wesselofsky, op. cit., 337.

Further, see below, p. 391. A Syrian elaboration of the story of Tobias and his fish from the Book of Tobit is given by Wesseiofsky, op. cit., 338–340.

page 369 note 1 Heinzel, Gralromane, 100, 183.

page 369 note 2 Vita Petri et Pauli, Acta Sanctorum, Junius, v, 146; also Lipsius, Die Apocry. Apostelgesch., Brunswick, 1887, ii, 2, 148. Other material can be found in Krüger, History of Early Christian Literature, trans. by Gillett, New York, 1897, pp. 88–90.

page 371 note 1 Heinzel, op. cit., 179 and Martin, Parzival u. Titurel, 2nd part, Halle, 1903, L ff.

page 371 note 2 Modern Philology, i, 257 ff., The first redaction of Perlesvaus was, I believe, composed in the interest of Glastonbury Abbey. It can be shown, too, that Glastonbury stood in intimate relationship with Fécamp, with which Miss Weston connected the Wauchier section of the Conte del Graal (Legend of Sir Perceval, i, 1906, pp. 156 ff.). I shall return to this question later.

page 372 note 1 I do not wish to imply that the Eucharist and the Grail ceremony may not go back to similar primitive rites; see Eisler, Origins of the Eucharist, cited below.

page 372 note 2 Wechssler, Sage, 148 ff. The Conte del Graal is dedicated to Philip of Flanders. Inasmuch as Philip was a patron of letters (cf. Brakelmann, Les plus anciens chansonniers français, 1891, p. 13), Crestien's praise of him requires no special explanation. Thus we can agree with Gaston Paris (Journal des Savants, 1902, p. 305), that the poem was written about 1175.

page 372 note 3 Martin, Parzival, p. xiii.

page 372 note 4 Paul Meyer, Rom., xxxii, 583. For the best synopsis see Jessie L. Weston, Legend of Sir Perceval, London, 1906, ch. ii. Wauchier also translated a series of Saints Lives for Philip, Marquis de Namur. I do not here distinguish between Wauchier and Pseudo-Wauchier (see Heinzel, op. cit.), as I am not yet prepared to take sides on the question; see Jeanroy, Revue des lang. rom. (1907), L, 541–544.

page 372 note 5 Also author of the Conte de la Violette; see Kraus, Ueber Gerb. de Montreuil, 1897; Wilmotte, Gerb. de M. et les écrits qui lui sont attribués, Brussels, 1900, and Gröber's Grundriss, ii, 509.

page 372 note 6 Martin, op. cit., p. li.

page 372 note 7 Cf. above; the abbreviation (R.) will be used only for the Metrical Joseph.

page 373 note 1 J. H. F. Scholl, Litt. Verein, cxvi, Stuttgart, 1873.

page 373 note 2 J. Loth, Les Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, vol. ii.

page 373 note 3 See, however, v. 7791, Et del rice Pesceour croi.

page 373 note 4 Perl, seems to follow C.: li rois Peschierres (Pot. i, 2), au riche roi Peschéor (Pot. i, 15).

page 373 note 5 Also in Rochat's Perceval, Zurieh, 1855.

page 374 note 1 Compare the blow struck by Balan in Malory's Paraphrase of the Huth-Merlin; G. Paris and J. Ulrich, op. cit., ii, 28.

page 374 note 2 When cured he is revenus en sa juvence; cf. W.

page 374 note 3 Likewise in the Prose Tristan (ed. Löseth, Bibl. Ec. des haut, étud., 82), Paris, 1890.

page 374 note 4 In the Huth-Merlin Pellehan is wounded by the lance of Longinus. The lance was regarded in the north as the immediate cause of Jesus's death: Evangelium Nicodemi, ed. Tischendorf, ch. vii; Bugge-Schofield, Some of the Eddic Poems, London, 1899, Introd. 43 ff.; Heinzel, op. cit., 9.

page 374 note 5 Rhys identifies Evalach with Welsh Avallac, Avallon; Arth. Legend, 324. Rightly, I believe.

page 374 note 6 In Q. even Joseph of Arimathea has been wounded through the thighs.

page 374 note 7 In Q. and GS. he is Lambar, the father of the Lame King, Pellean. 8 C., v. 6039, Quel rice home on en servoit; Heinzel, op. cit., 5.

page 375 note 1 In M. the Fisher King has a brother, Goon Desert; in Perl. also the Rois du Chastel Mortel. Rhys, Arth. Leg., 118 ff., identifies the two, since Partinal in M. is apparently based on Perceval, Parzival. In other words, M. and Perl. contain the motif of the King of the Waste City, who is naturally opposed to the Fisher- (or Life-, see below) King. As to the ‘double,’ there seems to be a confusion in M., for Goon appears also to be the equivalent of Gonemans in C. In Perl., on the other hand, the ‘double’ is certainly the knight in the tonnel on the monks' island (Pot, i, 328), and his name may possibly be Evalach, i. e., Welsh Avallac, Avallon. Cf. note 5, p. 374.

page 375 note 2 In Perl. (Pot., i, 128) the damsel in the boat with the Fisher carries a truncated human head. For the complex relationships in Q. and GS., see Heinzel, op. cit., 143 and passim.

page 375 note 3 Pot., i, 249.

page 375 note 4 On the ‘helpful animal’ as distinguished from the ‘grateful animal,‘ see O. M. Johnston, Zeit. franz. Spr. u. Lit., xxxi, 158 ff.

page 375 note 5 The bridge is of glass or ice, or it is a sword. On the last idea, cf. Kulhwch and Olwen, Loth, Mabinogion, i, where a dagger serves as a crossing for the armies of Britain; also G. Paris, Rom., xii, 508 ff.; E. J. Becker, Mediæval Visions of Heaven and Hell, Baltimore, 1899, pp. 17, 44, 76, 85; Lucy A. Paton, Fairy Mythol. of Arth. Romance, Boston, 1903, p. 85, note.

page 375 note 6 Second Grail Visit.

page 376 note 1 Second Grail Visit.

page 376 note 2 See A. C. L. Brown, Iwain, 1903 (Harvard Studies, viii), p. 42. The trait is characteristic of Manannán Mac Lir, but others possess it as well, cf. Rhys, Celtic Folk-Lore, Oxford, 1901, ii, ch. xi, and below.

page 376 note 3 In the Chev, as deus espees (ed. Foerster, 1877), v. 12121, Amangons is ruler of the “land whence no one returns”; so also Baudemagus in Crestien's Charrete, v. 201.

page 376 note 4 Nutt, op. cit., 8.

page 376 note 5 Ibid., 32; Hucher i, 484.

page 377 note 1 Old French Grail Romance Perlesvaus, Baltimore, 1902, pp. 44 ff.

page 377 note 2 See summary of Heinzel's Gralromane.

page 377 note 3 E., Wa., M. and D. alone mention Longinus (Longis).

page 377 note 4 But not in C; there it is due to a gaverlot, v. 4690. See above.

page 377 note 5 Heinzel, op. cit., 10, mentions an “ursprüngliche Selbständigkeit der Lanze.”

page 377 note 6 In E. the Grail Damsel mourns; see Nutt, op. cit., 9, also W.

page 378 note 1 Specifically in the R. group.

page 378 note 2 Cf. the Chastiax de Joie in Perl., Pot. i, 91.

page 379 note 1 See below, pp. 380 ff.; also Nutt, Studies, ch. vii.

page 379 note 5 This trait seems to me to be fundamental. Consult Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of Kingship, 89 ff. The motif of the ‘Lame King’ pertains to the same idea. His name is Pellean, which possibly represents a confusion of Pelles and Alain (R.), for in the Vulgate Quest he is also the father of Perceval; cf. below, p. 398, n. 5, on the in the Mediterranean cults. In the Domanda and the Huth-Merlin Perceval's father is Pellinor; in the latter romance (i, 258) it is he who pursues the diverse beste, as Arthur does the porcus troit in Nennius (Dottin, Religion des Celtes, Paris, 1904, p. 28), an animal generally known as the beste glatissant. On this animal, see Rhys, Arth. Leg., 154 and Wesselofsky, op. cit., 378–381; to all appearances it is a totem-animal, dating from the ‘zoömorphic’ period among the Celts; see Salomon Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, Paris, 1906, vol. ii, pp. 83–122: “La Mort d'Orphée.”

Pellean's wound is inflicted by Balaain, according to Rhys, Arth. Leg., 297, n. < Celtic Belīnos; cf. Holder, Alt- Celtischer Sprachschatz, , Old Irish gval = brennen, compared by the Romans to ‘Apollo.’ Balaain wields the lanche vencheresse, Huth-Merlin, ii, 7, 27, which had belonged to Longinus (cf. below, p. 404), and which he finds on a golden table beside a marvelous bed on which lies Joseph of Arimathea. See Heinzel, Gralromane, 174, 66–67, note. Pelles, with Rhys, Arth. Leg., 283, I have previously equated with Welsh Pwyll, a name which also occurs in Brittany; see Loth, Les Mabinogion, Paris, 1889, i, 27. My argument can be found in Modern, Philology, i, 252–254. Cf. Holder, Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz, s. v. , Ir. Cíall = Verstand, W. Pwyll; so Pelles might mean the ‘wise one.’

page 379 note 3 In Q., as I pointed out, p. 375, the double is Pellean (roi méhaignié). Perhaps Q. thus retains a primitive trait; or is the double himself a secondary personage? See Heinzel's argument, Gralromane, 12, and below, p. 398, on what is said concerning the Greek .

page 380 note 1 Riche in Old French of course connotes ‘power.‘

page 380 note 2 K. Simrock, Parcival und Titurel, uebersetzt u. erläutert, Stuttgart, 1842–76. The Herodias tale merits a separate study in this connection. In Perl. Gawain's sword is that whereby John the Baptist was beheaded; W. brings Prester John into his work, even if he leaves out the Baptist; Kundry, according to Wagner, is Herodias. Cf. Nutt, op. cit., 100.

page 380 note 3 Zur Oralsage (Quellen u. Forschungen, xlii), Strassburg, 1880; also Zeit. deutsch. Alterthumskunde, 1878, 84 ff.

page 380 note 4 Gralromane, see summary; also 70–72.

page 380 note 5 Folk-Lore, xviii (1907), 283–305.

page 380 note 6 Ursprung der Grallegende, Tübingen, 1903. See the interesting review of Staerk's study by Konrad Burdach in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung, xxiv (1903), 3050–3058. Of particular value, for the literary development of the legend, are his remarks on the introïtus in the Greek church (“fraglos antiken Mysterienprozessionen nachgebildete Pompa des Introïtus”) and on the presence of the lance in eastern ecclesiastical rites—on this point see Heinzel, op. cit., 9. Burdach promises to consider the origin of the literary form of the Grail story (“doch wohl in der Provenceoder deren Nachbarschaft”) in his “demnächst erscheinenden Buche.” This line of investigation seems to me especially promising with respect to W; in fact, to all of the later works with oriental coloring. But I do not see its bearing on C., Wa., E., Perl., or indeed R. itself.

page 381 note 1 Meissner, Babylonische Bestandteile in mod. Sagen u. Gebräuchen in Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft, v, 219.

page 381 note 2 See F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments relatifs au culte de Mithra, Brussels, 1899, i, 349. And Professor F. M. Warren gives me the following references: Ademar de Chabannes, Chronique, iii, chapters 49 and 59; Raoul Glaber, Historiae (in the Collection pour servir à l'étude, etc.), ed. Prou, 1886, ii, ch. 11; iii, ch. 8.

page 382 note 1 Op. cit., 89.

page 382 note 2 Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, vol. iii, Oxford, 1907, p. 143: “Mystery-cults may be regarded as an ancient heritage of Mediterranean religion.”

page 382 note 3 On the distribution of Oriental cults, especially in the West, see F. Cumont, Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme romain, Paris, 1907, and C. H. Moore, in Publ. Amer. Phil. Assoc., xxviii (1908), 109 ff.

page 382 note 4 I have sought to secure the authenticity of my evidence by taking it from authorities recognized as such in a field which I am myself unable to control. And I have endeavored further to ascertain the validity of their results by reference to O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie u. Religionswissenschaft, Munich, 1906, and his Jahresbericht for 1898–1905, vol. 137, Leipzig, 1908. The former work is part of I. von Müller's Handbuch der klass. Alterthumswissenschaft and will be cited by the abbreviation Hdb. W. H. Koscher's Lexikon der griech. u. röm. Mythologie and Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Eneyclopädie der class. Wissenschaften were freely consulted.

Besides these authorities, the following works were used on Eleusis in particular: P. Foucart, Recherches sur l'origine et la nature des mystères d'Éleusis in Acad. d. inscr. et belles lettres, xxxv (1896) and xxxvi (1900); idem, Le Culte de Dionysos en Attique in ibid., xxxvii (1906); G. Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss auf das Christenthum, Göttingen, 1894, and finally vol. iii of L. E. Farneil's Cults of the Greek States, Oxford, 1907.

page 383 note 1 On Osiris and Adonis see especially: J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, London, 1906; Maspero, Études de Mythologie, 4 vols., Paris, 1893 ff.; Erwan, Die Aegyptische Religion, Berlin, 1904; C. Vellay, Le Culte et les Fêtes d'Adonis, Paris, 1904 (this last with caution).

page 383 note 2 On Attis, besides Frazer's work: H. Hepding, Attis, seine Mythen u. sein Kult, Giessen, 1903; Showermann, The Great Mother of the Gods (Bulletin 43 of Univ. of Wisconsin), Madison, 1901.

page 383 note 3 On Mithra, the monumental work of F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, 2 vols., Brussels, 1894–1900; Roeses, Ueber Mithradienst, Stralsund, 1905; Salomon Reinach, La morale du Mithraïsme in Cultes, mythes et religions, ii, 1905, pp. 220 ff. An important work is also that of Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, Leipzig, 1903, though D.'s conclusions have not proved wholly acceptable; see especially Reitzenstein, Neue Jahrb. f. das class. Altherthum, 1904, p. 192; also Gruppe's Jahresbericht.

page 383 note 4 On Orpheus, especially Koscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, and several articles by S. Reinach in vol. ii of his Cultes, mythes et religions.

The background of Orphism seems to have been the murder and resurrection of Zagreus, the ‘horned serpent.’ We should note especially the kinship which Reinach points out, p. 58 ff., of this myth with that depicted in Gaul upon the altar of Mavilly and on other monuments presumably of Celtic origin, including the famous vase of Gundestrup (Revue Archéol., 1891, pp. 1–6; ibid., 1897, pp. 313–326; idem, Bronzes figurés, 195). In this connection, Nutt's identification of our Fisher King with the Gallic deity Cernunnos (Gr. ) ‘the horned one,’ attains fresh interest; see above, p. 367.

Finally, mention must be made of Robert Eisler's researches in connection with the Eucharist, and the etymology he proposes for Orpheus < meaning “fish,” Orpheus being a “regular derivation from this old noun and meaning the ‘fisher.‘” A short article from his pen, The Origins of the Eucharist, was published under section viii of the International Congress of Religions held in Oxford last September (1908), and more is to follow, I understand, from the press of Beck and Co., Munich.

The standard work on Orphism seems to be Ernst Maas, Orpheus, Untersuchungen zur griech. römisch. altchrist. Jenseitsdichtung u. Religion, Munich, 1895; cf. E. Rohde, Psyche, 2nd ed., 1898, ii, 107 ff.

page 384 note 1 Farnell, iii, 192 and passim.

page 384 note 2 Hdb., 48–58; here a special bibliography will be found.

page 384 note 3 “Eine andere Form für Eileithgia … im Altherthum wahrscheinlich also Löserin gedeutet.”

page 385 note 1 Hdb., § 68: “Kataibatos, eines in der Tiefe hausenden Gottes, dessen Hilfe man anrief, um Regen u. Gewitter heraufzubeschwören, weshalb man ihm auch dem Zeus Keraunios gleichsetzte”—thus another vegetation god.

page 385 note 2 Op. cit., 134.

page 385 note 3 Farnell, op. cit., p. 173; Foucart, Recherches, passim.

page 385 note 4 See especially Farnell, vol. iv, 36—where the belief is expressed that the cult-title is the ancestral patronymic of the clan; see, however, below, in the discussion of Attis, who has the same title.

page 386 note 1 Farnell, iii, 156; also Rohde, Psyche, 2nd ed., i, 282 ff.

page 386 note 2 Farnell, iii, 166.

page 386 note 3 Op. cit., i, 300.

page 386 note 4 Farnell, iii, 168.

page 387 note 1 Idem, 167; Foucart, Recherches, 33.

page 387 note 2 Farnell, iii, 156.

page 387 note 3 Foucart, Recherches, 63; Gruppe, l. c.

page 387 note 4 Op. cit., 186 and discussion in Hdb.

page 388 note 1 The probably contained a fetish dangerous to look upon; for this and the —another ritualistic vessel—see Hdb., 1171, note.

page 388 note 2 Hdb., 729.

page 388 note 3 Foucart, Recherches, 36–38; also Bull. de corresp. hellénique, 1877, p. 410.

page 389 note 1 See, especially, Foucart, Le Culte de Dionysos, passim; Hdb., 1420–21; Roscher, Lexikon, iii, col. 1171.

page 389 note 2 Farneil, iii, 153.

page 389 note 3 Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 162 ff.

page 390 note 1 Frazer, op. cit., 6 ff.

Also Dieterich, Eine. Mithrasliturgie, Leipzig, 1903, p. 135: “Helios, der Erstling der Geweihten, auch ein .”

page 390 note 2 Frazer, ibid., p. 14.

page 391 note 1 Koscher, Lexikon, iii, col. 1171: “Der Mythos von Orpheus' Tod und von seinem schwimmenden, nicht verwesenden Haupt ist daher eine sehr alte Nachbildung des byblischen Adonis-Osirismythos. Derselbe Mythos wurde auch auf Dionysos übertragen: auch der Gott wird zerrissen—wahrscheinlich in 14 Teile, wie Osiris—auch das Haupt des Dionysos ist auf Lesbos angeschwommen.

page 391 note 2 See above.

page 391 note 3 Op. cit., p. 3.

page 392 note 1 Cf. St. John, vi, 11–13, and xxi, 1–15, where Christ appears to the disciples by the sea-shore: “And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.”

See, in the same gospel, the colloquy of Jesus and Nicodemus, ch. iii, 5—“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ”Cf. Dieterich, op. cit., 175 ff.

page 392 note 2 A. Nutt and K. Meyer: Voyage of Bran, ii (Celtie Doctrine of the Rebirth), London, 1897; E. S. Hartland, Legend of Perseus, London, 1894, vol. i, esp. ch. ii. To the stories there mentioned of the ‘King of the Fishes type,‘ should be added the episode of Raphael and the fish in the Book of Tobit; see Rosenmann, Studien zum Buche Tobias, 1894.

page 392 note 3 Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, London, 1898, pp. 208–209. The Welsh gorsedd must be held “face to face with the sun and the eye of light, as there is no power to hold a gorsedd under cover or at night, but only where and as long as the sun is visible in the heavens.” See, also, Lewis F. Mott, Bound Table in M. L. Publ., xx (1905), 231 ff.

page 392 note 4 Hepding, op. cit., ch. vi; Frazer, Adonis, bk. 3, ch. vii.

page 392 note 5 Hepding, l. c.

page 393 note 1 Cumont, Textes et Monuments, 225, n. 1.

page 393 note 2 Frazer, Adonis, bk. 1, ch. i; Foucart, Culte de Dionysos, 143 ff.; Gruppe, Hdb., 1530.

page 393 note 3 Frazer, Adonis, bk. 3, ch. iv.

page 393 note 4 De Iside, 52; Frazer, Adonis, 261.

page 393 note 5 Hepding, Attis, 220, and passim for influence on Christianity.

page 394 note 1 See Mott, op. cit., for the “round table” as an agricultural rite; also W. Hertz, op. cit., 461, on the festival known as a ‘graal.‘ As Mott says, p. 256, Arthur's refraining from eating until he has heard of some adventure, “is possibly connected with primitive rites.”

page 395 note 1 Miss Weston has kindly called my attention to the description of the Grail found in the Prose Lancelot: “for ‘twas not of wood, nor of any manner of metal, nor was it in any wise of stone, nor of horn, nor of bone” (Arth. romances not in Malory, vi, London, 1903). In Syr Gawayne and the Grene Knyghte Gawain carries the invincible sign, the pentangle; and the Espee as estranges renges in Q. bears the inscription, memoire de sens, which in the Dutch version reads: Gedankennisse van Sinne. This all points to a mystical, almost theosophic, interpretation, which might lead to Cornelius Agrippa's (fifteenth century) idea of the three planes of existence with their respective colors, For modern parallels, see L’ Initiation, Revue philosophique, vol. 73, 1903. Cf. also Andrew Lang's essay in Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of 1691, republished by D. Nutt, London, 1893. The question of the influence of the mediæval ‘magic’ might be profitably investigated, if cautiously approached; for no boundary can be set to allegorizing. At the same time we must assume that the Grail-cult was primarily a blood-ritual which had a very definite and rather palpable meaning, and therefore it seems reasonable that the inscription memoire de sens was a summons to remember the blood and not to fall asleep as Gawain does in the Perlesvaus (Pot., i, 89). This particular question is, I believe, to be treated in Miss Weston's forthcoming volume, to which I refer the reader.

page 395 note 2 In his recent (1908) Habilitationschrift at Zurich, Pestalozzi considers the Lohengrin-legend from a similar point of view. From a compte-rendu of it I gather that he deems Lohengrin a kind of water-spirit to whom the swan is sacred.

page 395 note 3 Heinzel, Gralromane, 71, has observed the effect, in Wauchier, of the Grail visit on the streams and rivers (v. 20340 ff.):

Onques teus ne fu esgardée
Tière ki si bien fust garnie
D'aigue, de bos, de praerie:
C'estoit li roiaumes destruis.
N'estoit pas plus que mienuis,
Le soir devant, que Dex avoit
Rendu issi com il devoit
As aiges lor cors el païs;
Et tout li bos, ce m'est avis
Refurent en verdor trové.

Cf. ‘Elucidation’ also.

page 396 note 1 On shape-shifting in Wales and Ireland, see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Oxford, 1901, vol. ii, ch. xi. Another son of Lir (‘ler’ = sea) is Bran, concerning whom see below, p. 404. Rhys, op. cit., 549, says: “it is to be borne in mind that the Lir-Llyr group [in the Mabinogion] is strikingly elemental in its patronymic Lir, Llyr. The nominative … was ler, ‘sea,‘ and so Cormac renders Mac Lir by films maris.” See also Loth, op. cit., i, 97, and Rhys, Arth. Leg., 216.

page 396 Nicholson, Keltic Researches, London, 1904, pp. 12 ff., connects the name Manannán with “Menapii” = ‘Watermen’; cf. Holder, Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz, ii, 165. The Yellow Book of Lecan says of Mac Lir: “a celebrated merchant … between Erin, and Alban, and Manann, and a Druid … and … the best navigator that was frequenting Erin … Et ideo Scoti et Britones eum dominum maris vocaverunt et inde filium maris” — cf. above.

Manannán's son Mongan (K. Meyer and A. Nutt, Voyage of Bran, i, 42–90) also is known for his power of shifting his shape as well as that of others. The sea-king Mangon in Diu Crône may be a “distortion” of Mongan, cf. Lucy A. Paton, Fairy Myth. of Arth. Romance, 113; the romancers, she thinks, confused his name with that of Morgain the fée.

page 397 note 1 From the Lebor Na H-Uidre, Windisch, Irische Texte, i, 119–227.

page 397 note 2 A. C. L. Brown, Iwain, 34 ff.; Rhys, Arth. Leg., 218.

page 397 note 3 My Glastonbury and the Holy Grail in Mod. Phil., i, 254.

page 397 note 4 Rhys, Arth. Leg., 300 ff., 259, where he classifies together Pwyll, Bran, Urien, Uther Ben (the Urban of D.), Pellam, etc.

page 397 note 5 A summary can be found in A. C. L. Brown, Iwain, 42, note; also O'Curry, On the manners, etc., ii, 198.

page 397 note 6 See Loth, Mabinogion, i, 101 ff.

page 397 note 7 Ibid., i, 244, note.

page 397 note 8 Arth. Leg., 316.

page 398 note 1 Rhys, Celtic Folklore, 387.

page 398 note 2 Loth, op. cit., i, 244.

page 398 note 3 Above, note 2, p. 367. In Perl, there is a roi de la gaie.

page 398 note 4 See Nutt, Studies, ch. vii.

page 398 note 5 The blood relationship is not clear. The Grail Knight probably originally descends in the female line; see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, 682—the son of the sister among the Picts. The idea of sonship may have arisen, too, from the fact that the Fisher King was probably like Poseidon, Attis, Helios, etc., a , though not in a physical sense; cf. A. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, Leipzig, 1903, p. 135. Thus finally the Grail Knight becomes the Fisher King's lineal grandson, as for instance, Galaad.

page 398 note 6 Martin, Parzival, Introd., p. Iviii, states that “ueberzeugend hat ihn Rhys, Arth. Leg., 367, wiedergefunden” in the Cronus legend related by Plutarch as current among the Britons. Martin refers to the Fisher King, though the similarity is rather with the father or ‘double’ in the room, island, or sumptuous palace. Cronus is, of course, the Gr. , not only in name, see Plutarch, but also in attribute, cf. Roscher, Lexikon, col. 1481 ff., and O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, pp. 392, 395. Roscher maintains that the story is “zum grössten Teile alles andere als keltisch u. gehört durchaus in die klassische Mythologie” but is compelled to admit Northern elements in it. The idea of the “slumbering god” is wide-spread; cf. Merlin, Barbarossa, Endymion, Arthur (even in Sicily), Ogier, etc. But the version of Plutarch cannot be explained on that basis alone; making all due allowance for syncretism with Greek concepts, it must have had a basis in local Celtic beliefs: people who reach the island where Cronus is imprisoned and watched over by Briareus must serve him for 13 years; the island is so fine a place that then they prefer to remain; Cronus himself lies in a cave between crags, buried in slumber, and waited on by deities, formerly his companions, now his servants. According to Pliny, Nat. His., 4; 94, 104, the Arctic Ocean was called , perhaps after the planet Saturn. Cf. Rhys, Hib. Lect., passim.

On the idea of the “double,” cf. A. Lang, op. cit., p. xxv.

page 399 note 1 ii, 27: here he is Joseph of Arimathea, possibly too in Perl., as Heinzel suggests, though there he may be Evalach (Avalloc), since no name is given. Cf. above.

page 399 note 2 Conte del Graal, vv. 7796–7800:

D'une sole oiste li sains hom
Quant en ce Gréal li aporte,
Sa vie sostieni et conforte,
Tant sainte cose est li Graaus.

page 400 note 1 In ms. B. N. f. 12, 576 (the best Gerbert ms. according to Jessie L. Weston, Arth. Rom. Unrepres. in Malory, vi, 1903, p. 76).

page 400 note 2 Heinzel, Gralromane, 178–179.

page 400 note 3 Jessie L. Weston, Legend of Sir Perceval, i, London, 1906, pp. 157 ff. Another account not cited by Miss Weston is found in Gallia Christiana, xi, 204: “Eo in sanctuario asservant religiosissime et venerantur monachi preliosum, ut aiunt, sanguinem, id est ex majorum traditione aliquantum terrae aut pulveris, ipso Jesu Christi sanguine pateretur respersi. Terra illa plumbeos tubos duos essarcit in argentis duobus aliis tubis inclusos, quos complectitur pixis ex auro inaurata, et ipsa in pulcherrima, seu turri seu conflata ex eodem metallo pyramide comprehensa. Quo tempore, quave ratione, tanto pignore locupletati sint Fiscannenses non produnt monumenta. Docent tarnen diu absconditum fuisse; dum vero quo loci depositum esset ignoraretur ab omnibus, repertum esse feliciter xiv Calend. Augusti anno 1170 in muro, seu potius in columna quadam, quam muros undique circumvestiebat. Non desunt qui religiosum pretiosi hujus sanguinis cultum elevare conati sunt; sed sacrae theologorum Parisiensium facultatis decreto satis confutati sunt v. Cal. Junii anno 1448, in hunc modum: Non repugnat, inquiunt illi, pietati fiddium credere, quod aliquid de sanguine Christi effuso tempore Passionis, remanserit in terris, ut refert Argentraeus Collect. Judicior. de novis errorib. tom. i, p. 250.” This passage was known to Heinzel, Gralromane, 40.

page 401 note 1 Leroux de Linsey: Essai sur l'abbaye de Fescamp, Rouen, 1840; Gourdon de Genouillac, Histoire de l'abbaye de Fécamp, 1875.

page 402 note 1 Adonis, 276; Plumptre, Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in France, London, 180, iii, 187, mentions a Breton tale in which Merlin's mistress encloses him in a tree (see Rhys, Hib. Lect., 157–8).

page 402 note 2 Frazer, Adonis, 214.

page 402 note 3 Adonis, 167; Hepding, Attis, 158 ff.

page 403 note 1 Frazer, Kingship, 270.

page 403 note 2 See C. P. LaGrange: Etudes sur les religions sémitiques, Paris, 1903, pp. 130, 374.

page 403 note 3 Op. cit., 2; Frazer, Adonis, 13.

page 403 note 4 Heinzel, Gralromane, 45, with list of references on the episode; for text, see Jessie L. Weston, Sir Perceval, i, 162. Cf. E. von Dobschütz, Christusbilder, Leipzig, 1899, and Foerster, Sainte Vou de Luques in the “Mélanges Chabaneau,” on which see Schultz-Gora: Zeit. rom. Phil., xxxii, (1908), 458–59.

page 404 note 1 Potvin, Perceval li Gallois, i, 1866, p. 86. The Oxford text (Hatton, 82) has substantially the same reading.

page 404 note 2 Cf. Mussafia: Ueber die Legende v. d. heil. Kreuz, in Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad., lxiii, 182, 189.

page 404 note 3 On the lance of Longinus see Heinzel, Gralromane, 9; also Bugge-Schofield, Home of the Eddie Poems, London, 1899, xxxviii; and Burdach, Deutsche Literaturzeitung, xxiv, 352.

page 404 note 4 Hucher, iii, 217. With the lance should also be compared the venomed spear of Pezar, king of Persia, whose name is ‘Slaughterer’; cf. “The Fate of the Children of Turenn” in Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 59.

page 404 note 5 J. Loth, op. cit., i, 117 ff. On the structure of the Mabinogion see the interesting articles of E. Anwyl: The Four Branches of the Mabinogion, beginning in vol. i of Zeit. für Celt. Phil. Math, according to Loth, 117, again occurs in the names Mathonwy, Matholwch, as a Plutonic character; cf. Rhys, Lectures on Welsh Phonology, 2nd ed., 413, 414.

page 404 note 6 Bran = “raven” (cf. Holder, brăno-s). See the material in Loth, op. cit., i, 65–66, 83 and 94, and in Rhys, Celtic Folklore, ii, 552–553, where he is compared to Cernunnos, mainly because of his size. Also Nutt and Kuno Meyer: Voyage of Bran, son of Febal, London, 1895; Zimmer, Brendan's Meerfahrt in Zeit. deut. Alterth., xxxiii (1889).

page 405 note 1 Rees, Welsh Saints, 77; Iolo mss., 100, 8, 40; Zeit. Celt. Phil, i, 287. See also Whitley Stokes, Zeit. Celt. Phil., i, 63:

“Brénainn (of Clonfert) loved intense devotion, according to synod and assembly. Seven years on the back of the whale, the arrangement of devotion was a hardship.” See Zimmer, op. cit., 181, 303, ff; also A. Schulze, Zur Brendanlegende in Zeit. rom. Phil., xxx, 276 ff. Brendan's association with the whale is, I believe, more direct than Schulze admits.

page 405 note 2 Anwyl, Zeit. Celt. Phil., iii, 132.

page 405 note 3 A. C. L. Brown, Revue Celtique, xxii, 339–344.

page 405 note 4 Anwyl, Zeit. Celt. Phil., i, 287.

page 405 note 5 Potvin, i. In Mod. Phil, i, 250, I sided with Heinzel, Gralromane, 94, wrongly, I now believe.

page 405 note 6 W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie, Leipzig, 1895, p. 179.

page 405 note 7 The Black Fisherman in Campbell, see above, p. 367, n. 1.

page 406 note 1 In G(erbert) the country folk rejoice because Perceval has asked after the lance, thus restoring the fruitfulness of the land; see Weston, 'Sir Perceval, pp. 140 ff.

page 406 note 2 Loth, ii, 60.

page 406 note 3 Arthur and Gorlagon in Harv. Studies and Notes, viii, Boston, 1903, pp. 213 ff. On marvelous swords in Celtic material, see also Lucy A. Paton, Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, Boston, 1903, pp. 199 ff., notes.

page 406 note 4 William Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances, London, 1893, p. 15.

page 406 note 5 Jeremiah Curtin, Hero Tales of Ireland, London, 1894, p. 325. In the tale of Coldfeet and the Queen of the Lonesome Island, ibid., 246, “the sword of light that never fails, the loaf of bread that is never eaten, and the bottle of water that is never drained” are the property of the Queen of the Lonesome Island.

page 407 note 1 Parzival, 434, 25 has the following verses, which evidently represent a condensation:

Sîn swert, daz im Anfortas
gap dô er bîme graie was,
brast sît dô er bestanden wart:
dô machtez ganz des brunnen art
bî Karnant, der dâ heizet Lac
das swert gehalf im prîss bejac.

page 407 note 2 Parz., 240, 6.

page 407 note 3 Crestien, vv. 4314–21, 4332–35, 4345–46, 4836 ff.; for variant readings, see Miss Weston, Sir Perceval, 134; Manessier, vv. 41495–41582 (here the smith is called Tribuet); Gerbert in ms. B. N. f. 12,576 fo. 54vo or Potvin, Perceval li Gallois, vi, 168–169; cf. Miss Weston, ibid., 140 ff. The passages in Wolfram are Parzival, 239, 19 ff.; 240, 6; 253, 24 ff.; 434, 25 ff. On Miss Weston's arguments, see E. Brugger in Zeit. franz. Spr. u. Lit., xxxi, review section, 122–162; I do not, however, agree that Garlon “dürfte mit Wieland identisch sein;” see below. Further material on the Grail Sword I hope to publish elsewhere.

page 407 note 4 See Weston, op. cit., 150, where the name is connected with trebucier ‘to stumble’ or rather ‘to fall’, with a view to linking it with the lameness of Wayland. Miss Weston, however, herself adds: “this is only thrown out as a suggestion.”

page 408 note 1 Cf. J. Loth, op. cit., i (Rhonabwy's Dream), 301; “c‘était si saisissant qu'il était difficile à qui que ce fût de regarder l‘épée.”

page 408 note 2 W. Golther, Germ. Myth., 362.

page 408 note 3 Potvin, i, 75 ff.; here the sword is as clère comme une esmeraude el autresint vert; in the hilt is a scintime pierre put there by Enax, emperor of Rome. Cf. the Lapidary, publ, by Paul Meyer, Romania, xxxviii (1909), 57, 66 and 68.

page 408 note 4 Triads, i, 37, iii, 45, 46; Rhys, Arth. Leg., 73, 121.

page 408 note 5 Kittredge, op. cit., 205 ff. Brugger, op. cit., 132 says: “An der Richtigkeit von W.'s (Weston's) Hypothese, dass das Schwertmotiv (wenigstens theilweise) nordischen (normannischen) Ursprungs ist … kann man kaum zweifeln.” That I accept, if the theilweise means by means of later identification with Germanic myth in French form (cf. Maurus, Die Wielandsage in der Literatur, Leipzig, 1902). But because Garlon is a magician and is concerned in a tale about a sword that breaks at one blow, this cannot be regarded as showing, as Brugger affirms, that he is originally the same personage as Galaan (< Vallandus). On the contrary, his name and his traits show him to be a “dark divinity” like our Fisher King, opposed in the story to Balaain or Balyn, Geoffrey's Belinus, the Apollo Belenus of the inscriptions. But he may later have been confused with Galaan, to whose forging Gawain's sword is attributed in the M. E. Golagros and Gawayne. For the inscription on Gawain's sword, see Paul Meyer, Rom. xxxiv, 98.

page 408 note 6 Grail Romance Perlesvaus, 55.

page 409 note 1 Histoire littéraire, xxx (Gaston Paris), 29 ff.; Le Chevalier à l'épée, ed. Armstrong, Baltimore, 1900; Jessie L. Weston, The Legend of Sir Gawain, London, 1897. In Pierre Berçuire, Reductorium Morale, bk. xiv, prologue, Gawain finds by chance a Palace under the Water, where there is a seat prepared for him and a table set with food; but as he starts to eat he sees a dead man's head in the platter, and a giant lying on a bier near the fire rises up and strikes his brow against the roof; the head speaks and forbids him to eat. In connection with this, it should be noted that on the journey to the kingdom of Gorre in Crestien's Lancelot, Gawain chooses the first of the felons passages, namely, Li Ponz Evages (Charrete, v. 660). Obviously Gawain has a marked relationship with an under-the-sea kingdom, all of which is in accord with the theory advocated in this paper. Compare the Perseus-like adventure related of him in Perl., 252 ff., and especially in the De Ortu Waluuani, ed. Bruce, Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xv, 326 ff. Peredur's adventure at the Court of the King of Suffering (Loth, op. cit., ii, 85) is also deserving of note on this question; the Avanc which he slays with the aid of the invisible-making stone, is evidently a water-spirit; see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, 430. Cf. E. S. Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, London, 1894, vol. i, ch. 1.

page 409 note 2 Hist. litt., xxx, 35.

page 409 note 3 Weston, Sir Perceval, 225.

page 409 note 4 Hist. litt., xxx, 83: met de vreemde ringen.

page 409 note 5 Ed. Furnivall, London, 1861–63, 182 ff.

page 409 note 6 Ed. Hucher, ii, 446–452; Lonelich, Seynt Graal, London, 1861–63, ch. xxviii, v. 202.

page 410 note 1 Bugge-Schofield, op. cit., pp. 326–327.

page 410 note 2 Hucher, ii, 447.

page 410 note 3 Cf. note, p. 395. In P. the hero's training is mainly in the use of the sword, though his epithet is Paladyr Hir; that is, “of the long lance.” See Loth, op. cit., ii, 71.

page 411 note 1 G. H. Pond, Dakota Superstitions, St. Paul, 1867, pp. 35, 37–40; Frazer, Golden Bough 2, iii, 432.

page 411 note 2 By G. D. Hadzsits in an article on Aphrodite and the Dione Myth, in Amer. Jour. Phil., xxx, 53.

page 411 note 3 Modern Philology, iii, 267 ff.; vii, no. 3., where I have considerably amplified my former argument, with certain modifications.

page 411 note 4 Voyage of Bran, ii: The Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth, ii, 113.

page 412 note 1 Rhys, Hib. Lec., 196 ff.

page 412 note 2 Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia, ed. Parthey, iii, ch. 6.

page 412 note 3 Wörterbuch, 1887, p. 602.

page 412 note 4 Op. cit., 374.

page 412 note 5 Ibid., 379–80.

page 413 note 1 Brugger, op. cit., 136 ff; Jeanroy, Revue des lang. rom., L, 541–544.

page 413 note 2 Modern Philology, i, 247–57.

page 413 note 3 Romania, xxxiv, 333–43; Legend of Sir Perceval, 288; Lot's “Bledericus de Cornwall” in Romania, xxviii, 336. Concerning Bleheris, it is to be noted:

  1. (1)

    (1) The name is of common occurrence in Cymric territory.

  2. (2)

    (2) The ms. reads,

    si com le conte Bleheris
    qui fu nés e engenüis
    en Gales dont je cont le conte
    e qui si le contoit au conte
    de Poitiers qui amoit l'estoire
    e le tenoit en grant memoire
    plus que nul autre ne faisoit.—Fo. 241vo

    That is, the story was presumably oral, and Bleheris may have been simply a narrator.

  3. (3)

    (3) The ‘Elucidation’ states that Gawain overcame Blihos-Bliheris, whom no man at Arthur's court knew, but he si très bons contes savoit

    Que nus ne se peüst lasser
    De ses paroles escouter.
    —Potvin, ii, vv. 170–2.

    He tells of the court of the Fisher King, etc. Hence again a narrator.

  4. (4)

    (4) The same text further on in one group of mss. (B. N. f. 12577 fo. 133) contains a reference to a grand conte of which this is only a part, ending thus:

    Cil de Loudon racontera
    Que ce riche romans dira.

    Miss Weston remarks, Rom., xxxiv, 335, that cil de Loudon was not Wauchier nor the reputed author of the story, but a jongleur. Exactly. But that does not prevent us from regarding him as in the Comte de Poitiers's immediate entourage, since Loudon is near Poitiers.

  5. (5)

    (5) Bleheris is thus most likely, as Heinzel already suggested, the famosus ille fabulator Bledhericus of Giraldus Cambrensis, and one must agree with Gaston Paris (and Brugger, op. cit.) that he antedates Giraldus but by a little. Miss Weston informs me that Mr. Owen identifies him with a Bledhericus known in the Brut y Tywgsogion and charters as Latinarius or ‘interpreter,‘ whose dates are 1091–1147; cf. the Gwentian Brut, Rolls Series, London, 1860, p. 106.

page 415 note 1 Potvin, ii, 308, v. 67.

page 415 note 2 Parzival, § 827, 6.

page 416 note 1 Gralromane, 92, 95. Cf. also Hulme, The Middle-English Harrowing of Hell, E. E. T. S., 1907, pp. lxxvii ff.

page 416 note 2 Studies, 66, 218.

page 416 note 3 Gralromane, 92.

page 416 note 4 Rhys, Hib. Lect., 666, where Bran is said to be a Chthonian deity; cf. also, Celtic Folklore, 552. Of great interest is the Amaethon, son of Don, mentioned in the Kulhwch and Olwen (Loth i, 240); his agrarian nature has long been recognized (see Rhys, Arth. Leg., 42, 157, 245-246), but Rhys's identification of him with the Amangons of the ‘Elucidation’ (v. 63) seems open to question. Amangons suggests Mangon; cf. above, p. 397. For further details see Miss Weston, Sir Perceval, i, 276–282.

page 417 note 1 Arth. Leg., 233, 37.