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AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 INELUENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 WELSH TRADITION 
 
 UPON 
 
 €i)t ^literature 
 
 OK 
 
 GERMANY, FRANCE, AND SCANDINAVIA; 
 
 WHICH OBTAINED THE PRIZE OF THE ABERGAVENNY 
 
 CYMREIGYDDION SOCIETY, AT THE 
 
 EISTEDDVOD OF 1840. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 
 
 ALBERT SCHULZ, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF WOLFRAN VON ESCHENBACH, &C. &C. 
 
 ^^vtuiii löntllute, 
 
 Iwein V. 12. Hartman v. Aue. 
 
 LLANDOVERY: 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM REES : SOLD ALSO BY LONGMAN 
 
 AND CO., D. WILLIAMS, AND H. HUGHES, LONDON; PARRY, 
 
 CHESTER; AND MORGAN, ABERGAVENNY. 
 
 MDCCCXLI. 
 
P/V&15 
 
 Q,, 
 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 In the List of Prizes offered by the Society of the 
 Abergavenny Cymreigyddion, for 1840, the following 
 notice appeared; 
 
 " For the best Essay on the Influence which the 
 Welsh Traditions have had on the Literature of 
 Germany, France, and Scandinavia; A PRIZE OF 
 EIGHTY GUINEAS."— "The Essay to be written 
 either in Welsh, English, German, or French." 
 
 Previous to the ensuing Eisteddvod, which was 
 held in the autumn of that year, Essays were received 
 from different parts of the Continent written princi- 
 pally in German and French. These compositions 
 were transmitted to His Excellency the Chevalier 
 Bunsen, Prussian Minister Plenipotentiary at Bern, 
 who had consented to undertake the office of Judge, 
 and whose eminent literary attainments rendered 
 him peculiarly qualified for the task. 
 
 After entering minutely into the respective merits 
 of the compositions. His Excellency concluded his re- 
 port to the Society by awarding the Prize to the 
 
 261 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 Essay by Professor Schulz, at the same time passing 
 upon it a high eulogium, and strongly recommending 
 its publication in the English language. 
 
 Encouraged by this opinion, and aided by the kind 
 assistance of friends, the translator has ventured to 
 lay the following pages before the public; in the hope 
 that to those interested in the subject, the closeness 
 of the translation may, in some degree, compensate 
 for the abruptness of the style, and the repetitions 
 ■svhich are occasionally apparent. 
 
 September 30th, 18^1. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Influence of Welsh Tradition on the Literature 
 
 OF France. Page. 
 
 First Period.— Arthur the National Hero, A.D. 600 to 1066 . . 7 
 Second Period. — Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, 
 
 A.D. 1066 to 1150 32 
 
 Third Period. — Arthur and the Sangraal, A.D. 1150 to 1500 . 47 
 Fable. — The Mabinogion 65 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Influence of Welsh Tradition on the Literature 
 OF Germany. — Page 73. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Influence of Welsh Tradition on the Literature 
 OF Scandinavia. — Page 84. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Influence of Welsh Tradition on the Literature of 
 France, with regard to Construction. 
 
 First. — Rhyme 95 
 
 Second.— Metre 103 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Fall of Chivalrous Poetry. — Page 107. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 First. — Leonine Verse Ill 
 
 Second. — German Verse 112 
 
 Third. — Ancient Romances of Arthur in various Languages . 112 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 First.— The Holy Graal 115 
 
 Second.— The Templars and the Knights of the Graal . . .121 
 Third.— The Graal and Joseph of Arimathea 126 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the intellectual life of a people, Heroic Tradition 
 forms a separate organization, to which belong its own 
 laws of developement. It has appeared to us, that in the 
 history of early Tradition, there are four points especially 
 to be considered ; and we will commence by demonstrating 
 them, in order to explain the principles by which we have 
 been guided in the researches that form the subject of 
 the following pages. 
 
 1. History is the principal basis of Tradition ; and at a 
 later period it is from History that the elements for the 
 further developement of Tradition are drawn ; but it 
 springs and grows at a period Avhen Poetry and History 
 are confounded together, and the truth of Tradition is 
 never doubted. On this account we see historical personages 
 appear in the land of Fiction, and historical facts appro- 
 priated to fabulous Heroes, often occasioning the greatest 
 anachronisms and most heteroo:eneous combinations. 
 
 2. The organic life of Tradition is seen in the tendency 
 to unite different tales which were previously entirely in- 
 dependent of each other ; and here we recognise the want 
 of that unity, which belongs to poetic fiction. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3. Tradition grows and increases, both from tlie repe- 
 tition of favorite histories in a modified form, and from 
 muhiplying and ampHfying the deeds of Heroes, so that if 
 we possess only recent compilations, it is often very difficult 
 to distinguish the oriirinal matter from that which is added 
 at a later period. This is the first indication of a depar- 
 ture from the essentially poetical principle of Tradition. 
 Every poet belongs peculiarly to the age in which he lives ; 
 and at all periods a desire exists to comprehend whatever 
 interests and adtates at the time beino;. Hence arise 
 causes that essentially influence the developement and 
 physiognomy of Tradition. 
 
 4. From the change in customs, and the principal ten- 
 dencies and political and intellectual interests of the age. 
 This explains the continual variations in the Traditions of 
 the same people at different epochs, and the still greater 
 changes in those Countries where they had been intro- 
 duced, and where, by such modifications, it tends to gain a 
 new Nationality. In following and observing it, from its 
 first origin througli all the periods of its developement down 
 to its latest form, it is indispensable that we should equally 
 direct our attention to the pohtical state and the intellec- 
 tual history of the people, and the epochs at which we see 
 it re-appear. It is in this manner we must follow up our 
 researches upon the influence of the Welsh Traditions on 
 the literature of Germany, France, and Scandinavia — an 
 influence not every where the same, but differing according 
 to the Times and Places where they were found. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION ON THE 
 LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 
 
 FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 ARTHUR THE NATIONAL HERO,— A.D. 600 TO 1066. 
 
 King Arthur is tlie centre of the ancient national Tra- 
 ditions of Wales ; he is the single root of a gigantic tree, 
 whose branches, for nearly ten centuries, spread over the 
 whole of Europe, until in modern times it withered away 
 together with the last remains of Chivalry. 
 
 The oldest accounts of the Chronicles of King Arthur 
 are short and meagre. The Anglo-Saxon Bede knows 
 nothing of the British Kings, nor of the origin of the 
 Britons, whom he derives from Eneas and Brutus. He 
 names Cassibelaunus, Androgens, St. Albanus, Vortigern; 
 he mentions the wars of the Britons and the Saxons arainst 
 the Romans ; Hengist and Horsa, St. Oswald, and his 
 miracles ; but he is entirely silent upon the subject of 
 Arthur. In concluding his History with the words, 
 "Hsec de Historia ecclesiastica Brittanorum Qi maccime gentis 
 Anglorum prout vel ex literis antiquorum, vel ex traditione 
 majorum^ vel ex mea ipsa cognitione scire potui digessi 
 Beda,'"* he leads us to suppose, that he found nothing re- 
 markable in the Traditions of the eighth century. Besides 
 Bede was an Anglo-Saxon, which, from the hostile separa- 
 tion of the two nations, is a sufficient reason for supposing 
 that tlie Welsh Traditions were unknown to him. Nen- 
 
8 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 nius, who wrote about the year 858, speaks of Arthur, and 
 at the same time gives us an interesting explanation of his 
 name in these words: — "At that time the Saxons greatly 
 increased in strength and numbers in Britain ; and after 
 the death of Hengist,'' (at the end of the fifth century,) "his 
 son Ochta passed over from the northern part of Britain to 
 the kingdom of Kent ; and from him are descended the 
 Kings of that country. Arthur together ^\'ith the Kings 
 of the Britons fought against the Saxons ; but he was the 
 commander in battle, and was victorious in every engage- 
 ment. (Arthur when translated signifies the terrible Bear^ 
 or the Iron Hammer of the teeth of Lions ^ y In the Sixty 
 Third Chapter, Nennius continues, — "Arthur went to Je- 
 rusalem, and there made a cross of the same dimensions 
 with the real cross, which was consecrated there; and for 
 three successive days he fasted and watched and prayed 
 before the holy cross, that the Lord would, by this standard, 
 give him the victory over the Pagans ; which was granted 
 to him. Pieces of this cross are still preserved at Wedale 
 Avith great veneration. Wedale (an English word, signify- 
 ing the Valley of Grief,) is a village in the Province of 
 Lothian.''^ He mentions the twelve expeditions of Ar- 
 
 i^'In illo tempore Saxones invalescebant, et crescebant non modice 
 in Britannia. jSIortuo autem Hengisto, Ochta filius ejus transivit de 
 sinistrali parte Britanniae ad Regem^ Cantuarionim, et de ipso orti 
 sunt Reges illius patriae. Artur pugnabat contra illos in illis diebus, 
 videlicet Saxones cum regibus Britonum ; sed ipse Dux erat bello-. 
 rum : et in omnibus bellis victor extitit. [Artur, Latine translatum, 
 sonat ursum horribilem, vel malleum ferreum, molae leonum.]"^ 
 
 - "Nam Artur lerosolimam perrexit, et ibi crucem ad quantitatem 
 Salutifei-ac Crucis fecit, et ibi consecrata est, et per tres continues dies 
 jejunavit, vigilavit, et oravit coram Cruce Dominica, ut ei Dominus 
 victoriam daret per hoc signum de Paganis ; quod et factum est ; 
 cujus fractfE adhuc apud Wedale in magna veneratione servatur. 
 
 ' RcRTuun. 2 •' Quo frangimter molas leonum."— Ritson. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 9 
 
 thur,i and in the last makes him slay 840 enemies with his 
 own hand. Here we preceive the intention of Nennius to 
 surround the Hero of the past with the halo of sanctity, as 
 was also done in the instance of Charlemagne. " The An- 
 nales Asseau," which extend to the year 914, pass over 
 
 [Wedale Anglice : Vallis doloris, Latine : Wedale est villa in 
 Provincia Lodonesise."]! 
 
 1 Servantur.— The passages in parentheses are evidently interpolations, and are found 
 only in particular copies, where they are in a later hand than the text. See Steven- 
 son's Edition. 
 
 ^ Though the exact rendering of the author is given here, [Feld- 
 zugen,] yet it may he proper to remark that in this, as in many 
 other works of the middle ages, the word helium is understood to 
 signify a single battle, and not an expedition ; and that such is the 
 meaning in the present passage appears evident, from the remainder 
 of the narration, in which the twelve battles are enumerated : — 
 
 " Primum helium fuit in ostium fluminis quod dicitur Glein ; 
 secundum, et tertium, et quartum, et quintum super aliud flumen 
 quod dicitur Duhglas, et est in regione Linnuis. Sextum helium 
 super flumen quod vocatur Bassas. Septimum fuit helium in silva 
 Celidonis, id est Cat Coit Celidon. Octavum fait bellum in castello 
 Guinnion, in quo Arthur portavit imaginem Sanctse Mariae perpetuae 
 Virginis super humeros suos, et pagani versi sunt in fugam in illo 
 die, et caedes magna fuit super illos per virtutem Domini nostri Jesu 
 Christi, et per virtutem Sanctse Mariae virginis genitricis ejus. Nonum . 
 bellum gestum est in Urbe Legionis. Decimum gessit bellum in 
 littore fluminis, quod vocatur Tribruit. Undecimum factum est 
 bellum in monte, qui dicitur Agned. Duodecimum fuit bellum in 
 monte Badonis, in quo corruerunt in uno die nongenti sexaginta viri 
 de uno impetu Arthur ; et nemo prostravit eos nisi ipse solus, et in 
 omnibus bellis victor extitit." — Stevenson's Nennius. 
 
 In the Vatican copy of Nennius, published by Gunn, these battles 
 are given in precisely the same order, and with but slight variations 
 in the names : — " Tunc belliger Arthur cum militibus brytanniae. 
 atque regibus contra illos pugnabat. Et licet multi ipso, nobiliores 
 essent. 'ipse tamen duodecies dux belli fuit, victorque bellorum. 
 Primum bellum contra illos iniit iuxta hostium fluminis quod dicitur 
 glein." &c. &c. — Translator. 
 
10 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Arthur in silence, and appear rather to follow the beaten 
 track of Authentic History. 
 
 Gildas, the first Welsh Chronicler, who was born in the 
 year in which the Battle of Badon Mount was fought, and 
 who died in 570, wrote a Book "De excidio Britannise." We 
 have not seen it, but Henry of Huntingdon quotes it, affirm- 
 ino" that Gildas speaks of the twelve expeditions of Arthur 
 ac^ainst the Saxons, which that king conducted in the most 
 courageous and brilliant manner. In the eighth expedi- 
 tion he carried the image of the Holy Virgin on his 
 shoulders;^ and it was through the means of this image, 
 
 ^ In the History of Wales lately published in the Welsh Language, 
 by the Rev. T. Price, the author has the following remark upon 
 this passage of Nennius : — 
 
 *'Y mae }t jTnadrodd ^ super humerous suos* — 'ar ei ysgwyddau/ ya. 
 y dam Lladin uehod, jti fy nhueddu yn favrr i d3-bied fod yr awd^vr 
 yn cyfieithu o'r Gymraeg, ac yn camgymerj^d yr ystyr. Y gair 
 Cymraeg Ysgwyd, Tarian, ac Ysgu-ydd, aelod o'r corff^ ydynt mor 
 gyfFelyb, yn enwedig mewn hen ysgrifiau, ac mai hawdd fyddai en 
 camsynied; ac yn lie cyfieithu 'Ar ei darian,' rhoddi *Ar ei ys- 
 gr^'yddau.' Ac y mae Gruffydd ap Arthur yn rhoddi yr ymadrodd 
 yn fwy eglur, ati y modd canhTiol : — ' Humeris quoque suis, cly- 
 peum Tocabulo, Priwen ; in quo imago Sanctae Marice^^ &c. — Ac ar ei 
 ysgwyddau, darian, a elwid Pridwen, ar ba un yr oedd llun y Sanct- 
 aidd Fair, &c."— Hanes Ctmru, p. 261. 
 
 The expression super humeros suos, — upon his shoulders, in the 
 above Latm sentence, inclines me to think that the author translated 
 from the Welsh, and mistook the meaning of the original. The 
 Welsh word Ysgwyd a Shield, and Tsgwydd a shoulder, are so similar, 
 especially in old writings, as easily to occasion mistakes, and to cause 
 the words to be translated on his shoulder instead of on his shield. 
 And Gruffydd ap Arthur [Geoffrey of Momnouth] gives the words 
 more explicitly, as follows : — " Humeris quoque suis, clypeum vo- 
 cabulo, Priiren, in C[uo imago Sanctae Marine, &c." — Upon his 
 shoulders his shield called Priuen, upon which was the image of the 
 Holy Virgin. 
 
 And the above author gives a quotation from the Elegy of Llyw- 
 arch Hen upon his son Gwen, in which the two words, shield and 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 11 
 
 and the assistance of God, that he was enabled to vanquish 
 the Saxons. It must, however, be confessed, that this 
 account is suspicious, since Geoffrey of Monmouth ex- 
 pressly states in his History, that neither Gildas nor Bede 
 mention anything of Arthur, or of several other celebrated 
 kings. 1 
 
 WiUiam of Malmesbury, who wrote about 1143, in 
 quoting a written History of Arthur, relates an heroic 
 action ofthat king. — "We read in the acts of the most 
 illustrious King Arthur, that when, on a certain Christ- 
 mas at Caerlleon, he had conferred military honours^ upon 
 a valiant youth named Ider^ the son of King Nuth; and 
 for the purpose of proving him, led him to the Hill of 
 Frogs, now called Brentenol, where he had learnt there 
 were three giants notorious for their crimes, in order to 
 fight with them; the youth preceding Arthur and his com- 
 panions without their knowledge, boldly attacked the giants, 
 and slew them with a surprising slaughter.''* Hurrying 
 on, Arthur finds Ider dying from exhaustion after the 
 
 shoulder, are brought into apposition in such a manner as to add con- 
 siderable weight to his opinion : — 
 
 *' Gwen wrth Lawen ydd wylwys neithwyr 
 
 A'r ysgwyd ar ei ysgwydd ; 
 
 A chan bu mab im' bu liywydd." 
 
 Gwen by the [river] Lawen kept watch last night, 
 
 With his shield on his shoulder ; 
 
 And as he was my son, he was valiant. — Tr. 
 
 VThis suspicion will appear altogether unfounded, when it is recol- 
 lected that the work of Nennius is frequently attributed toGildas. — Tr. 
 
 2 The order of knighthood seems to be implied. 
 
 3 This is the Edeyrn ap Nudd, some of whose adventures are re- 
 lated in the Mabinogi of Geraint the son of Erbin. See the Mabi- 
 nogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest. 
 
 * "Legitur in gestis illustrissimi regis Arturi, quod cum in quadam 
 festivitate natalis Domini apud Karlium, strenuissimum adolesc 
 
 •en- 
 
12 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 combat ; he leaves him to procure help, but it comes too 
 late. On his return he finds Ider is dead. He was buried 
 in the Abbey of Glastonbury, and Arthur established 
 twenty four Monks, and assigned lands and money for 
 their maintainance. Johannes Fordun (Testorum Hist. 
 Thomas Gale, p. 639.) mentions the Tradition, according 
 to which Arthur was to live for ever among his people. — 
 "Note, that in the year 542, Arthur, being mortally 
 wounded in battle, went to be healed of his wounds to the 
 Island of Avallon. We do not know how he died; but as 
 he is said to have been buried in the Abbey Church of 
 Glastonbury with an epitapth in this manner, so we believe 
 him to remain there still, whence the line 
 
 'Here lies Arthur, a King that was, and a King to be,"* 
 
 for some of the race of the Britons believe that he is to 
 come alive again, and restore them from a state of servi- 
 tude to liberty."^ Here we see clearly the political reason 
 which preserved the memory of Arthur among the Welsh 
 as a Hero, who still existed, in order that he might avenge 
 
 tem, filium scilicet Regis Nutli, dictum Ider, insigiiiis militaribus 
 decorasset, et eundem experiendi causa in montem Ranarum, nunc 
 dictum Brentenol, ubi tres gigantes malefactis famosissimos esse di- 
 dicerat, contra eosdem dimicaturum duxisset ; idem Tiro Artunim 
 et suos comites ignorantes praecedens, dictos gigantes fortiter aggres- 
 sus niii-a caede tnicidavit." 
 
 * " Nota, quod anno Domini 542 Arthurus, in hello lethaliter vul- 
 neratus, abiit ad sananda vulnera in insulam Avallonis. Evegus ; 
 non legimus, quo fine pausavit, sed quia in ecclesia monasteriali de 
 Glasmbery dicitur esse tumulatus, cum hujusmodi epitaphio, sic eum 
 ad praesens ibidem credimus, unde versus : 
 
 * Hie jacet Arthurus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus.' 
 
 credunt enim qnidam de genere Britonnm, eum futurum vivere, et de 
 Servitute ad libertatem eosque reducere.'* 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 13 
 
 on the Saxons the subjugation of his people. This Tra- 
 dition is also found in Hartman von Aue, (v. 8 to 17,) but 
 the political reason is unknown to him. 
 
 (Sv I^Ot hi Ümn jitm He has in his time 
 
 ©Cj^ckt aU0 ^Cftonc, Comported himself so well, 
 
 S)a3 cr 5cr mn frone That he the crown of honour 
 DotrUOCUntnOCl^ i'm nametrcct Did find, and (it) still bears his 
 
 S)e^ ^ahmt 5ic mvl^üt Of this know the truth [name; 
 
 ©ine hntlink : His compatriots : 
 
 ©i jel^ent, er Uhc nocl^ "^'intc They say, he lives still to this day. 
 
 (Sv ^at 5cn lop CVtVOvUn; He has earned praise ; 
 
 3^( mt 5er Up er^tOrkn, Though his body is dead, 
 
 60 Icpt 50C|^ jemcr iin name. Yet his name lives for ever. 
 
 William of Malmesbury, who cannot avoid speaking of 
 the Arthur of History, ridicules the fabulous stories re- 
 lating to him. — "This is the Arthur, of whom at this day 
 the tales of the Britons rave. One who evidently deserved 
 to be celebrated in the records of History rather than in 
 the dreams of Fables." And after referring to the valour 
 of Arthur, and his repressing the encroachments of the bar- 
 barians, that is, of the Saxons, he says, — " Lastly in the 
 attack of Badon Mount, trusting in the image of the Virgin 
 which he placed upon his arms, he alone put to flight nine 
 hundred of his enemies with incredible slaughter."^ Geoff- 
 rey of Monmouth pardons this jesting, because he could not 
 have known the British works upon the exploits of Arthur. 
 It is in Wales that the memory of this valiant king is prin- 
 
 1 " Hie est Arthurus de quo Brittonum nugae hodieque delirant, 
 dignus plane quern non fallaces somniarent fabulae, sed veraces prae- 
 
 dicarent historiae, intumescentes, [^Saxones videlicet] eximia belli- 
 
 cosi Arthur! opera pressisset. Postremo in obsidione Badonici montis 
 fretus imagine Dominicae matris, quam armis suis insuerat, nongentos 
 hostium solus adorsus incredibile caede profligavit." 
 
 c 
 
14 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 cipally cherished, and it was there that the tomb of Gawain 
 (G-walchmai) son of King Lot of Norway, was discovered in 
 
 1087. "In a Province of Wales called Rhos, the grave of 
 
 Walwen was found, who was the worthy nephew of Arthur, 
 the son of his sister. He reigned in that part of Wales 
 which is still called Walwertha; a warrior^ greatly renowned 
 for valour; but being first driven from his kingdom by the 
 brother and nephew of Hengist, of whom I have spoken in 
 the first book, he avenged his exile by much injury to 
 them; adding deservedly to his uncle's fame, inasmuch as 
 he for many years delayed the fall of his tottering country. 
 But the grave of Arthur is no where to be seen, whence 
 ancient fables feign that he is yet to come.''^ But a grate- 
 ful posterity have discovered the tomb of Arthur. The 
 Annals of Margam, which go as far as 1231, state, — "The 
 bones of the renowned Arthur, formerly king of Britain, 
 were discovered in a very ancient sarcophagus; near w^hich 
 stood two pyramids, on which were inscribed some letters ; 
 but which, on account of their barbarous and uncouth 
 form, could not be read. The occasion of their being 
 found was this. Whilst some persons were digging the 
 earth between the aforesaid pyramids, in order to bury a 
 certain monk, who had purchased permission to be buried 
 there, they found a sarcophagus, in which they observed what 
 
 ^ Probably Knight is meant. For a more detailed account of 
 Gwalchmai, see the Mabinogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest. 
 
 2 " In provincia Wallarum quae Ros vocatur, inventum est sepul- 
 chrum Walweniy qui fuit baud degener Arturis ex sorore nepos, 
 regnavitque in ea parte Brittanise quae adhuc Walwertha vocatm* ; 
 miles virtute nominatissimus, sed a fratre et nepote Hengistii, de 
 quibus in primo libro dixi, regno expulsus, prius multo eorum de- 
 trimento exüium compensans suum. Communicans merito laudi 
 avunculi, quod mentis patriae casum in plures annos distulerat. Sed 
 Arthuris sepulchrum nusquam visitur, unde antiquitas naeniarum 
 adhnc enm venfnrumfabulatur." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 15 
 
 appeared to be the bones of a woman, with the hair still 
 undecayed ; which being removed, they found another laid 
 before the first, in which were the bones of a man; and 
 having removed that also, they found a third below the 
 other two, upon which was placed a leaden cross, on which 
 was inscribed, ' Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur 
 in the Island of Avellan.' For that place, being surround- 
 ed by marshes, is called Tlie Island of Atalloyi^ that is, 
 the Island of Apples ; because an apple is called in British 
 aiial. Then opening this sarcophagus, they found the bones 
 of the aforesaid prince, very large and long, which the 
 monks placed with due honours in a marble tomb within 
 their church [of Glastonbury.] The first grave is said to 
 have been that of Queen Gwenever, the wife of the said 
 Arthur; the second that of Modred his nephew; and the 
 third that of Arthur himself."'^ This search after the 
 
 1" Inventa sunt ossa famosissimi Arthuri quondam regis majoris 
 Brittaniae, in quodam vetustissimo sarcophago recondita, circa quod 
 duae pyramides stabant erectae, in quibus literae quaedam exaratae 
 sunt, sed ob nimiam barbariem et deformitatem legi non jDoterant : 
 inventa sunt auteni liac occasione, dum inter praedictas pyramides 
 terram quidam efFoderant, ut quendam monachum sepelirent, qui ut 
 ibi sepeliretur a conventu pretio impetraverat ; reperierunt quoddam 
 sarcophagum, in quo quasi ossa muliebria cum capillitio adhuc in- 
 corrupto cernebantur ; quo amoto reperierunt et aliud priori sub- 
 stratum, in quo ossa virilia continebantur, quod etiam amoventes 
 invenerunt et tertium duobus primis subterpositum ; cui crux 
 plumbea superposita erat, in qua exaratum fuerat ' Hie jacet inclytus 
 Rex Arthurus sepultus in insula Avellana.^ Locus enim ille paludi- 
 bus inclusus insula Avallonis vocatus est, i. e. insula pomorum,, nam 
 aval Britannice pomum dicitur. Deinde idem sarcophagum aperientes 
 invenerunt praedicti principis ossa robusta nimis et longa, quod cum 
 decente honore et magno apparatu in marmoreo mausoleo intra 
 eccslesiam suam [Glaston] monaclii collocaverunt. Primum tumu- 
 lum dicunt fuisse Guenhaverce Reginas uxoris ejusdem Arthuri ; 
 secundum Modredi nepotis ejusdem ; tertium praedicti principis." 
 
16 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 relics of the great King continued even to the later 
 period of the Middle Ages. The Waverlev Annals (1283) 
 acquaint us that — "In the year 1283 also the crown of the 
 celebrated King Arthur, who was long held in the greatest 
 honour by the Welsh, was together with other precious 
 jewels presented to the King [Edward I.] and thus the 
 glory of the Welsh was, though unwillingly, transferred to 
 the Eno^hsh."'^ It is evident that this presentation of the 
 crown of Arthur to him, who had suppressed the inde- 
 pendence of the Welsh Princes, must have been a humili- 
 ation to them ; and this trait proves how deeply the above 
 tradition of Arthur was rooted in their hearts, and how 
 piously they cherished his memory. 
 
 The Monk Alberic des Trois Fontaines, w^ho wrote in 
 the middle of the thirteenth century, does not fail to re- 
 mark, under the year 1091, — "That mention is made of 
 the grave of Gauxain^ which was fourteen feet long ;" and 
 under the year 1193, "that about this year the body of the 
 great Arthur was discovered in England in the Island of 
 Avallon, where the Abbey of St. Dunstan stands, commonly 
 called St. Peter's of Glastonbury, in the Diocese of Bath. 
 And this was effected by the industry of a certain monk of 
 the same Church of the New Abbey, who caused the 
 whole cemetery of the place to be diligently searched by 
 excavating ; being animated by the w ords which formerly 
 a monk had heard from the mouth of Henry the father of 
 Richard ; and there was found a stone tomb buried deep in 
 the earth, upon which was a leaden plate inscribed with 
 certain lines, — 
 
 1 (Th. Gale, Lib. II. p. 238.)— "Anno 1283 item corona famosi 
 regis Arthur i, qui apud Wallenses a longo tempore in maximo 
 honore habebatur, cum aliis jocalihus pretiosis Domino Regi [Ed- 
 uard I.] est oblata, et sic Wallensimn gloria ad Anglicos Ucet invite 
 est translata. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 17 
 
 'Here lies Arthur, the flower of Kings, the glory 
 
 of sovereignty, 
 'Whose honourable life enjoys everlasting fame; 
 'Here lies Arthur the King of the Britons, the 
 
 avenger, unavenged.**"^ 
 
 We have not quoted these passages to prove the ex- 
 istence of the Arthur of history, but to show how an- 
 nalists endeavoured, by every means, to exclude from 
 history the Nugse Brittonum, or Fables of the Britons 
 concerning Arthur. Guillaume le Petit, in the fifth Book 
 of his Hist. rer. Anglic, goes so far as to stigmatize Geofirey 
 of Monmouth as a most impudent liar, and extravagant 
 visionary, who would endeavour to introduce the stories of 
 Arthur, Merlin, Uther Pendragon, and others into authen- 
 tic history. We wish at the same time to demonstrate, 
 that, down to the thirteenth century, the memory of Ar- 
 thur, as a National Hero, was most fondly cherished 
 amongst the Welsh ; from which it follows, that in the 
 purest and most ancient Traditions, Arthur would be made 
 the great actor and Hero. This is expressly confirmed 
 by the Chronicle of Geofirey of Monmouth, which was 
 
 1 *'Ad annum 1091 [the discovery of the grave of Gawain] Galvaini, 
 quatuordecim pedes longum ; ad ann: 1193, de corpore Arthuri 
 magni dicitur quod circa hunc annum sit inventum in Anglia in 
 insula Avalonis ubi est Abbatia sancti Dunstani Glastonia vulgariter 
 dicta ad sanctum Petrum de Glastemberin, Batoniensis diocesis, et 
 hoc factum est per industriam cujusdam monachi ejusdem ecclesiae 
 novi Abbatis qui totum cimiterium loci diligenter excavando fecit in- 
 vestigari, animatus verbis, quae olim [adhuc:] monachus audiverat ab 
 ore Henrici, Patris Richardi, et inventa est tumba lapidea in pro- 
 fundo terrae defossa, super quam lamina plumbea quibusdam versibus 
 erat insignata 
 
 * Hie jacet Arturus, flos Regum gloria Regni, 
 
 ' Quem probitas morum commendat laude perenni ; 
 
 * Hie jacet Arturus Britonum rex ultor inultus.' " 
 
18 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 written after the year 1140.^ We may presume that this 
 book, De Origine et gestis regum Britanniae, is so generally 
 known, that any detailed extracts would be unnecessary. 
 He likewise wrote Vita Merlini Caledonii; Arturi regis 
 gesta; et Commentaria in Merlini prophetias ; and, although 
 we have not ourselves seen these works, a good idea of 
 them may be formed from the contents of the book 
 first mentioned; throughout which it is apparent, that 
 Geoffrey's principal object was to collect all the ancient 
 traditions of Wales, and that ''A certain very ancient 
 book in the British tongue, which in most beautiful lan- 
 guage, continuously, and in order, relates the acts of all 
 the kings of the Britons from Brutus, their first king, to 
 Cadwalader, the son of Cadwallon, and which book Walter, 
 Archdeacon of Oxford, brouoht out of Britain,'"- was not 
 tlie only book he had in view, but also many others, which 
 he frequently quotes, particularly Le Brut d^Angleterre in 
 Bas Breton,^ (nieder bretonische,) written towards the 
 middle of the twelfth century, which he translated into 
 Latin, at the same time that Maister Grasse (Wace, 1155,) 
 translated it into the Langue d'oui.* Also the Laws of 
 
 ^ This is by no means certain, as Henry of Huntingdon states that he 
 had seen the work on the continent as early as the year 1139. — Tr. 
 
 2 " Liber quidam Brittanici sermonis vetustissimus qui a Bruto, 
 prima rege Brittonum, usque ad Cadvalladrum, filium Cadvallonis, 
 actus omnium continue et ex ordine perpulchris orationibus pro- 
 ponebat, (L. 1. c. 1.) et quem Gualterius Oxonefordensis Archi- 
 diaconus ex Brittania advexit." (L, 12. c. 20.) 
 
 3 Though under the necessity of following the Author in this ren- 
 dering of the original words, yet the Translator by no means concurs 
 with him in its accuracy, as it is not said that the work alluded to was 
 written in the Bas Breton^ but in the British, [Britannici sermonis.'} 
 And it is even maintained by some that the word Britannia does not 
 refer to Brittany, but to Wales. The same observation will apply to 
 the word Breton, in several other places in this Essay. — Tr. 
 
 * MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, No. 27. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 19 
 
 Dyfnwal Moelmud, (Leges Mulmutinge,) which Gildas is 
 said to have rendered from British into Latin ; King Al- 
 fred's in Anglo-Saxon ; and other works, whose contents he 
 does not give, because they are not to be found in Walter 
 of Oxford. The Prophetia Merlmi, which he introduced 
 in the seventh Book, is a sublime fiction which no doubt 
 existed before his time : It is a perfect Apocalypse, which 
 maintained a high degree of importance even during the 
 Wars of the Roses; and historians refer to it, as to the 
 Prophets of the Holy Scriptures, Ut impleretur prophetia 
 Merlini. As Geoffrey's History approaches the time of 
 Arthur, his language, generally dry and simple, becomes 
 spirited, rich, and florid, until his work appears to assume 
 the character of a complete epic poem. The deeds of 
 Arthur himself form the basis of the history ; and al- 
 though the well known names of Mazadan, Oaradoc, Oador, 
 Lot, Vortigern, Uther Pendragon, (i. e. Uter Caput draco- 
 nis,) Maugantius, and Merlin are mentioned, they belong- 
 to secondary and less important personages. Above all, we 
 must remark, that Geoffrey does not mention the institu- 
 tion of the Round Table, as a society of Knights ; which 
 leads us to presume, that the Liber vetustissimus contained 
 nothing on the subject of the Round Table, although at 
 Chap. 11. of the ninth Book there is an indication of it, 
 where it is said that the renown of Arthur had become so 
 much extended over the world, that all valiant men were 
 armed and dressed in imitation of the Knights (Milites) of 
 King Arthur. Besides the Historians we have quoted, 
 and to whom we might add Leland, (Assertio Arturii,) and 
 some other writers of that period, there remains to us a 
 much more important source, which gives us not only a 
 description of facts, but (if we may be permitted the ex- 
 pression) a direct reflection of the person of Arthur and 
 his companions, in the wars against the Saxons: — We allude 
 to the ancient poems of Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen. 
 
20 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Merddin, '&c. &c. Their age and genuineness have been 
 disputed by Pinkerton, in his Preface to Babour, and by 
 others ; as Geoffrey of Monmouth has also had his oppo- 
 nents, from Guillaume le Petit down to A. W. Schlegel, in 
 his critique on the " Memoire sur FOrigine des Epopees 
 Chevaleresques du Moyen Age," and by Fauriel in the 
 Journal des Debats, 1833. Nevertheless, those who have 
 read Sharon Turner's Vindication of the genuineness of the 
 Ancient British Poems, — of Aneurin, &c. (London, 1803,) 
 will be forced to acknowledge that his learned and compre- 
 hensive arguments have established for ever the genuineness 
 of these venerable remains of ancient Celtic hterature ; and 
 yet he has neglected to adduce one proof, which must have 
 confirmed his results, viz. the philological proof, founded 
 upon the character of the language in the different epochs. 
 Aneurin, in his Gododin, conducts us to the unfortunate 
 battle of Cattraeth. From Taliesin we have elegies in 
 honour of tlie brave combatants, — Urien Bheged, Owain, 
 Uther Pendragon, and others, whom in the later Romances 
 we find as estabhshed characters. There we accompany 
 Llywarch Hen to the combat with his host Cynddylan, 
 with Geraint and Cadwallon ; we hear the harp of the vene- 
 rable bard lamenting the fate of his children, slain by the 
 enemy. These bards are at the same time heroes and min- 
 strels ; they sing not of past times, but of present deeds ; 
 their poems are rather lyrics than epics, their language is 
 without art, but rich and vigorous, and their rhAi;hm, ex- 
 cited by the deeds before them, and imitating the tide of 
 battle, is heroic and inspiring. Their memory was as 
 warmly cherished as that of Arthur by the bards of the 
 ninth century, and Nennius expressly mentions them as 
 "the ancient and illustrious bards;" and speaks also of 
 the heroes whom they celebrated as historical characters. 
 Among others, (besides those we have already named,) is 
 Pantha, who is mentioned bv Bede under the name of 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 21 
 
 Penda, and who re-appears in the Eomance of Lancelot, in 
 German, by Ulric Von Zazikofer, about 1190, as King 
 Pant ; also K-iderchhen, the Rodarchus of Geoffrey, and 
 others besides. We perceive in them the germ of the 
 Round Table, which was not established for five cen- 
 turies afterwards. At the same time we recoonise the 
 Arthur of History, not yet invested with the poetic ra- 
 diance with which posterity surrounded him. They fre- 
 quently speak of Arthur, calling him as Nennius does 
 Dux Bellorum ; but they do not exalt him, as in later 
 traditions. Llywarch Hen, who was his companion in arms, 
 and one of his council, does not panegyrize him in an ex- 
 aggerated style. In the combat of Llongborth, the bravery 
 of Geraint engrossed the attention of this bard, and the 
 chief, who according to later traditions must have sur- 
 passed every other, is scarcely named throughout his long 
 elegy; and, since his poem is an offering paid to the dead, 
 it is natural to suppose that his praises were more fraught 
 with truth than flattery. He speaks of Arthur with vene- 
 ration, but not admiration; Arthur is simply mentioned 
 as the chief, and leader of the combat, while Geraint is 
 celebrated as worthy of the highest renown. In the same 
 way, in the Afallenau of Merlin, we see Arthur the well 
 known king ; but he is not deified, although he was then 
 dead, and all his great deeds of valour and patriotism were 
 achieved. Indeed there is not a single epithet by which we 
 could recognise that whirlwind of battle, who surpassed 
 the whole of Europe in power and wisdom. He w^as 
 undoubtedly a most brave warrior ; but the comparatively 
 moderate praises of the contemporary bards of his own 
 country prove that he was not the wonderful and absolute 
 Mars of British history, before whom all kings and nations 
 bowed in terror. Nennius had already represented him as 
 the prince of warriors, the conqueror without a reverse, 
 and the pilgrim to Jerusalem. This proves that, in the 
 
22 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 ninth century, he had been raised from the simple ground 
 of history, on which he originally stood, and had entered 
 the region of fable, where henceforth we must follow him 
 and his companions. But first there remains a very diffi- 
 cult question to propose, if not to solve. To whom do 
 Arthur and his Warriors owe their poetical resurrection — 
 To the Welsh, or to the Bretons ? And why should Arthur 
 he selected above all others? — Was it in Wales, or in Brit- 
 tami, that he icas. chosen as the centre of this new creation ? 
 Tradition is not wafted from country to country, Hke a 
 hght seed at the mercy of the winds. It is a part of the in- 
 tellectual life of the people to whom it belongs, and could not 
 take root beyond the limits of the material and intellectual 
 power of that people. But the more intimately we study 
 the history of Wales and of Brittany, from the earliest 
 date to the year 1000, the more vain and fruitless does the 
 discussion on the origin of the second period of tradition, 
 down to the eleventh century, appear to us ; consequently, 
 all that we can attempt is to throw more light on the epoch, 
 without hoping to arrive at satisfactory results on every 
 point. It is generally admitted that the first inhabitants 
 of Britain were Celts, and that Armorica, the country 
 between tlie Loire, the Seine, and the sea, was at the 
 time of Julius Csesar inhabited by Celts, of whom, in Pliny, 
 we find traces as far as the Pvrenees ; and that, accordins: 
 to Caesar and Tacitus, Britain and Armorica were peopled 
 bv a kindred race. In the wars against Csesar, Armorica 
 rejoined the Britons ; and Caesar took the opportunity of 
 passing into Britain, there to forge the first links in the 
 chain of slavery, which that Island was for four hundred 
 years destined to bear. When the Eoman legions left 
 the country, the Picts and Scots penetrated into it ; and, 
 as early as 383, many of the inhabitants quitted the Island 
 with Maximus, and passed over into Armorica. In 448, 
 the Britons reluctantly solicited the help of the Romans : — 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 23 
 
 *' There is not," said they, " a place that we can flee to — 
 driven by the barbarians into the sea, and thrown back 
 by the sea among the barbarians, there remains to us but 
 the choice of death from the sword, or from the waves of the 
 sea." But ^tius was too much engaged with Eocharich, 
 King of the Allemanni, and the whole Roman Empire too 
 much occupied by Attila, to give ear to their complaints. 
 Fresh bodies fled to Armorica, and these emigrations were 
 repeated when the Anglo-Saxons entered in 513, and their 
 new country was called by the general name of Llydaw^ 
 (the coast) which has the same signification as Armorica. 
 " Others sought foreign regions — (Aldhelmus Benedictus, 
 Annals of the Kings of the Franks.) — For when the island 
 of Britain was invaded by the Angles and Saxons, a great 
 part of the inhabitants crossed the sea, and settled in the 
 extremity of Gaul, in the country of Vannes and Quimper, 
 in Armorica, formerly a district of Gaul, then called 
 Letama^ by the Britons, by whom it was possessed."^ — 
 " A province, formerly called Armorica^ then Littau^ and 
 now the Lesser Brittany T^ 
 
 The Cornish and Devon names, which the emigrants 
 carried with them to their new country, prove, that they 
 came principally from these parts of Britain. Soon after 
 the Anglo-Saxons were established in the island, the yellow 
 plague (Pestis flava) made considerable ravages, and oc- 
 
 1 " Alii transmarinas petebant regiones. — Adelmus Benedictus^ pn 
 the 8th century.] Anales regum Francorum. — Nam cum ab Anglis et 
 Saxonibus Brittania insula fuit invasa, magna pars incolarum ejus 
 mare trajiciens, in ultimis Galliae finibus Venetorum et Corosolitarum 
 regiones occupavit. [Corpus Francicae historiae veteris p. 366 ed. 
 Hanover, 1613.] (Life of Gildas.) — In Armoricam quondam 
 Galliae regionem tunc autem a Brittanis, a quibus possidebatur 
 Letavia dicebatur." (Bouquet III. p. 449.) 
 
 2 <<■ Provincia quondam Armorica deinde Littau nunc Brittania Mi- 
 nor vocatur." (Cotton Library, Vesp. A. 14. p. 32.) 
 
24 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 casioned fresh emigrations to Armorica ; "At length the in- 
 habitants, and, especially, certain nobles being compelled by 
 the wide spreading pestilence, as well as the violence of 
 invading enemies, sought other lands. Francanus, the 
 cousin of Cato the British King, with his two sons, Gwer- 
 thenor and lago, and his wife Alba, went into Armorica, 
 where, at that time, perfect tranquihty was understood to 
 exist."' 
 
 It was therefore most natural, that the remembrance of 
 the last battles of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons, 
 under Arthur and his warriors, should be preserved in Armo- 
 rica by the refugees ; and it is not surprising, that they should 
 paint the past in glowing and exaggerated colours, since, in 
 the present, they found themselves in all the misery inci- 
 dent to strangers, in an unknown and uninhabited country, 
 deprived of all they had held most dear. Until the ninth 
 century, with the exception of a few notices in the Lives of 
 the Saints, of little value, we have only the account of the 
 Bollandists upon the subsequent intercourse between Armori- 
 ca and Britain, and particularly Wales ; — from which we 
 learn but little, except the existence of a reciprocity of intel- 
 lectual influence between the two countries, in consequence 
 of the introduction of Christianity. The Armoricans were 
 compelled to fight against the Franks, as the Cymry fought 
 against the Saxons. The war continued without cessation, 
 but, most frequently, the Armoricans were defeated. The 
 possession of Vannes was disputed by the two nations for two 
 hundred years ; in 635 they w^ere defeated by Dagobert ; in 
 
 * " Tandem ob pestis late grassantis luem atque etiam irrumpentium 
 hostium vim coacti incolae ac prcecipue quidem nohiles alienas petivere 
 terras. (Vita Winwaloci actis sanctorum, IMartii 256.) 
 
 Francanus Catonis regis Brittanici consobrinus cum geminis suis 
 natis Guerthenoro et Jacobe cum uxore sua Alba contendit in Armo- 
 ricam — ubi tunc temporis alta quies vigere putabatur." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 25 
 
 753 by Pepin; Charlemagne sent Count Guy to guard 
 the frontier of Brittany ; Louis le Debonaire twice conquer- 
 ed them, and gave them Nominoe as regent, who in 848, 
 made himself king of Brittany and D61, and repulsed 
 Charles the Bold in three expeditions ; (851) but his son 
 Erispoe yielded, and his brother Solomon entered into alli- 
 ance with the Franks against the Normans in 857, and re- 
 ceived a crown richly ornamented with precious stones as 
 his reward; he was however vanquished in 877 by Pasquitan 
 Count of Vannes, and Gurant Count of Eennes. Alain, the^ 
 brother of Pasquitan, succeeded at Vannes, and Judichael, 
 the son of Erispoe's daughter, governed Eennes. War 
 broke out between them; but an incursion of the Normans ^ 
 taking place, they made peace : Judichael was killed in 878 :> 
 by the Normans ; Alain afterwards put them to flight, and 
 became the king of all the Bretons. Out of fifteen thou-,^ 
 sand Normans, only four hundred men were saved after the 
 combat with Alain. — He reigned with glory till 907, and "" 
 received the surname of Great. But of the sons of Alain, 
 the Chronicle of Nantes says, that " not following the steps 
 of their father, they w^ere altogether lost."^ ^ 
 
 Mathuidoc, Count of Poher, had married the daughter "^ 
 of Alain. At the beginning of the tenth century. Hollo de- 
 vastated Brittany : — all resistance was vain. Mathuidoc 
 fled with his family to England ; the nobles of Brittany, 
 and all who preferred poverty to the loss of liberty, emi- 
 grated with him. King Athelstan received them cordially, 
 and they now took refuge among the Britons, as the latter 
 had at an earlier period passed over to Armorica, when 
 driven out by the Anglo-Saxons. On this occasion Athel- 
 stan treated them as friends ; he educated young Alan, 
 the son of Mathuidoc, and the daughter of Alain the 
 Great, at his court ; Alan repaid his hospitahty by a life 
 
 1 '* Miniiiie vestigia patris sequentes omniiio defect! fuerunt." 
 
26 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION. 
 
 dedicated to valour and honour, and he had scarcely attained 
 the necessary age when he assembled the fugitive Bretons 
 and their descendants, and conducted them into Brittany ; 
 they occupied D61 and St. Brieux, and his presence, and 
 the happy consequences resulting from it, re-animated the 
 patriotism of the Bretons, and gave them a hope of happier 
 times ; he drove the Normans from those regions, as well 
 as from the Loire, and received the sceptre of Brittany, as 
 the well merited recompense of his bravery. The Chronicon 
 Nannetense says of him, " He was a powerful man, and 
 an exceeding brave warrior against his enemies ; and hav- 
 ino" chased away the Normans, he possessed the whole of 
 Brittany, including Rennes and Nantes, and also all the 
 country beyond the Loire, the Manges, the Tiffauges, and the 
 Herbauges. ^" If we allow that the Welsh nation loved to 
 cherish with the utmost fidelity the remembrance of Arthur 
 and his warriors, and their exploits, we cannot deny that 
 these recollections must also have been cherished in Brit- 
 tany — The desire to renew the existence of their primitive 
 country on another soil, is proved by the great number of 
 names, which they carried from Wales and other parts of 
 Britain into Brittany — If the Welsh, in their own country, 
 exalted Arthur to the height at which Nennius already found 
 him, decked with the glory of a Saint, and making an expedi- 
 tion to Jerusalem, why should not their kinsmen in Brittany 
 have done the same thing? The Celtic establishment of 
 
 ' " Fuit vir potens ac valde ad versus inimicos suos belligerator fortis 
 habens et possidens omnem Brittaniam fugatis inde Normaiiis, sibi 
 subditam, et Redonicam, et Namneticum, et etiam trans Ligerim, 
 Medalgicum, Tlieofalgicum et Herbadilillicum." (Bouquet, VIII. 
 p. 276,) 
 
 The apparent digression upon Alain and Alan, which we have 
 here allowed ourselves, will be justified by our future remarks upon 
 the historical character of these personages, who re-appear in the 12th 
 century, in the fable of the Graal. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 27 
 
 bards was always common to the two nations ; Turner proves 
 their existence from the seventh to the tenth century, why 
 should they not also have existed in Brittany ? And if the 
 bards from inclination cherished and maintained the ancient 
 and patriotic remembrances, and if, with a vivid imagina- 
 tion, they entwined authentic history with these traditions ; 
 — if, in the seventh century, the Welsh Tales were transport- 
 ed into Brittany, and these stories, altered and remodelled, 
 were carried back to England and Wales, under Math- 
 uidoc in the tenth century, and lastly, if a mixture of the 
 traditions of both Breton and Welsh were ao-ain intro- 
 duced into Brittany, with Alan ; — who would decide from 
 the obscure sources, a part of which are at present either 
 inaccessible or not yet critically examined, which portion of 
 the traditions of this period belong to Brittany, and which 
 to Wales? Wales possesses a valuable literature, to a 
 portion of which that nation has accorded a high antiquity. 
 On the other hand, the Comte de la Villemarque has pro- 
 mised us the publication of an important, and of its kind 
 unique series of ancient Breton traditions, which have been 
 preserved upwards of ten centuries, and which still exist in 
 the mouth of the people. Shall we find there also the 
 original source of Geoffrey's history of his Merlin, or of 
 the most ancient French Romancesrelative to Arthur? In 
 any case there is but one method whereby to resolve these 
 doubts, and to throw light on this obscurity ; it is by a 
 most impartial, indefatigable, and searching criticism of 
 all sources, whether Welsh or Breton. It would require a 
 second Jacob Grimm, to construct the historical grammar 
 of the different Celtic dialects particularly of the Oymry and 
 the Bretons, from the earliest period to the nineteenth or 
 at least to the fifteenth century, to enable us to place each 
 document in its true position, and to judge by the language, 
 descriptions of manners, historical facts, arts, and other 
 points indicative of its contents, of the date of each docu- 
 
28 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 ment, and place it in its proper situation ; to purify it from 
 the extraneous matter of later interpolations, to reinstate 
 all the noble sentiments, in a word to restore, by the most 
 minute and, at the same time, elevated criticism, sustained 
 by a profound knowledge of every thing relating to those 
 periods, to clear, we say, this literature from the dust of 
 an honourable partiality, from the pedantry of antiquaries, 
 from old errors, and spurious authorities. One other doubt 
 would remain to be resolved, namely, whether, as is com- 
 monly believed, the bards exclusively transformed and 
 propagated the traditions of Arthur, or whether, and at 
 what period, and for how long, the princes, clergy, and 
 monks exercised an influence over them, and what class of 
 persons stamped the character of the Mabinogion on these 
 traditions ? We see from a passage in Giraldus, in his 
 work De jure et statu Menev. Eccles. that the princes at- 
 tached a high value to ancient traditions. One day when 
 Llewelyn prince of Gwynedd held a full court, "there 
 came forward before all, at the conclusion of the dinner, 
 a certain man of fluent speech, such as those who in the 
 British language are called bards, of whom Lucan says, 
 
 ' The bards poured forth many songs.' "'' 
 
 And further Giraldus savs, "As lonof as Wales shall 
 exist, this noble deed shall be related throuo^hout all ao^es 
 with due celebrity, both in written history and by oral 
 recitation.^" 
 
 1 *' Processit in fine prandii coram omnibus vir quidam linguae dica- 
 cis cujusmodi lingua brittanica sicut et Bardi dicuntur unde Lucanus : 
 
 *Plurima concreti [:securi:] fuderunt [:fudistis:] carmina Bardi.' 
 
 quod quamdiu Wallia stabit nobile factum hujus et 
 
 per historias scriptas, et per ora canentium dignis per tempera cuncta 
 laudibus atque efFeretur." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 29 
 
 We must infer the same thing from the situation and pri- 
 vate authority of the domestic bard, (Bardd Teulu,) of the 
 bard Cadeiriog, and Pencerdd, which were certainly not want- 
 ing in the castles of the great. Their political influence may 
 be appreciated, even in later times, by the cruel persecution 
 they suffered under Edward I. Giraldus also proves that 
 the bards of the twelfth century were not merely min- 
 strels, but likewise writers. " This also appears to me 
 worthy of notice, that the Welsh bards and singers or re- 
 citers have the genealogy of the above-mentioned princes 
 in their most ancient and authentic books, and that, too, 
 written in Welsh.'"* And in Leland's Assertio Arthuri, p. 52. 
 we find, — " As Henry IL King of England, had heard from 
 an ancient British historical singer." William of Malmes- 
 bury likewise says, in speaking of Henry II. — " The King 
 also had frequently heard this from their historical singers."^ 
 
 It would be impossible to deny that the monks and ec- 
 clesiastics possessed an influence over the traditions, and 
 often gave them a monastic character ; it is also true, that 
 in the most ancient bards we find strong contempt expressed 
 for monks, and Merlin says, " I will not receive the sacra- 
 ment from those long-frocked, detestable monks, let me 
 receive it from God himself." On the other hand we find 
 Gildas the monk bitterly complaining of the princes, who 
 paid more attention to the songs of the bards, than to 
 sacred hymns in honour of Christ ; but he also treats the 
 
 1 " Hoc etiam mihi notandum videtur, quod Bardi Cambrenses et 
 cantores, seu recitatores, genealogiam liabent praedictorum principum 
 in libris eorum antiquissimis et autlienticis, sed etiam Cambrice 
 scriptam." 
 
 " Rex angliae Henricus II. sicut ab historico cantore Britone audi- 
 verat antiquo." — Leland Assertio Arthuri. 
 
 " Rex autem hoc ex gestis Britomim et eorum cantoribus historicis 
 frequenter audiverat." 
 
 E 
 
30 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 monks as simpletons, and ignorant in all matters of Christ- 
 ian instruction, and only attentive and zealous in listening 
 to stories.^ 
 
 The ancient, but false, derivation of the Britons from 
 Brutus, cannot be of Celtic origin ; the ancient bards knew 
 nothing of this species of tradition ; in the passages already- 
 quoted from Nennius, \yilliam of !Malmesbury, and Geo- 
 ffrey of Monmouth, we cannot mistake the pen of the 
 ecclesiastic, and the disposition to surround the head of the 
 national hero with the halo of sanctity; this continued 
 down to modern times, for the greater part of these memo- 
 rials of Arthur were found in convents. 
 
 We must now touch on the second question, less on ac- 
 count of its importance, than in order to avoid any omission. 
 Why was Arthur chosen as the centre of tradition ? It 
 appears that King Arthur owes this preference to Merlin.- 
 Posterity regarded their character as most important. The 
 remembrance of Merlin was preserved by his Afallenau, in 
 which he pronounced the prophecy, "Arthur will re-appear." 
 
 The bards of the sixth century do not overwhelm Arthur 
 with glory and praise, but they name him as the principal 
 chief, and commander general, who headed the expeditions. 
 Do we not see at the present time, that the deeds of inferior 
 warriors are attributed to the commander in chief, and the 
 acts of ministers to the King? Posterity. required a centre, 
 around which she could group her recollections of subor- 
 dinate heroes; the natural centre was the King; and what 
 stronger consolation could be afforded to an oppressed people 
 deprived of their chiefs and heroes, and what more enliven- 
 ing hope could accompany a fugitive nation in its new 
 country, than that of the prophetic bard? He, the King, 
 will return to reconduct the emiorants to their ancient 
 
 ^ King Edward prohibited monks from being rhymers and ra- 
 conteurs, a sufficient proof that they frequently appeared as such. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 31 
 
 country, to restore them from their present misery, to their 
 former glory ! We find this tradition very generally known 
 in the twelfth century, and considered even then very an- 
 cient; William of Malmesbury says, "Arthuris sepulchrum 
 nusquam visitur, undo antiquitas nseniarum adhuc eum 
 venturum fabulatur." GreofFrey of Monmouth gravely 
 mentions this tradition. Alanus ah Insulis relates, towards 
 the end of the twelfth century, that the Breton people would 
 have stoned any one, who dared to deny the fact that Ar- 
 thur still lived. Johannes Fordun says, " For some of the 
 race of the Britons believe that he shall again live, and re- 
 store them from a state of servitude to liberty."^ And 
 at the period of the Eomances of the Graal, his mys- 
 terious immortality was accounted for in this sense, that 
 he was gone to the east, in search of the Graal. Mer- 
 lin, next to Arthur, was evidently considered of the high- 
 est importance in the minds of the people, and it was 
 owing to his gift of prophecy, that so many predictions, 
 poems, and promises were attributed to him. Nennius 
 testifies how highly he was appreciated even in the ninth 
 century, that his birth was shrouded in mystery, and that 
 he appeared as a magician at the building of the tower of 
 Guorthigirnus (Vortigern.) We shall trace the develope- 
 ment of this new character in tradition in the following 
 section. 
 
 1 "Credunt enim quidam de genere Britonum, eum futurum vivere, 
 et de Servitute ad liberatem eosque reducere." 
 
\ 
 
 32 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. 
 A.D. 1066 TO 1150. 
 
 In the first period, we saw Arthur and his companious 
 in their primitive and historical character, and we have 
 followed them in their transit from history to fable. We 
 must, however, acknowledge, that we have no positive 
 proofs by which we can refute the opinion, that till about 
 the year 1066, these traditions faithfully followed their first 
 direction and national tendency. — This is indeed rather 
 confirmed by Nennius, the Life of Merlin, and the Chronicle 
 of Geofirey, and it wiU doubtless be confirmed from Welsh 
 sources ; but these appear to be rare, since even the learn- 
 ed Turner complains, more than once, of the scarcity of 
 materials for history from the ninth to the eleventh century. 
 Very different on the other hand are the contents of the 
 French Romances of Erek, Ivain, Percival, Tristan, Ar- 
 thur, Merlin, &c. none of which in their present form are 
 so old as the eleventh century. They are compositions 
 which belong to the twelfth century; but according to their 
 own testimony, the greater part are compiled from more an- 
 cient tales, especially Breton: and it is well to observe, 
 that in all their romances, Arthur no longer appears as 
 the fighting hero of the Welsh, but is commonly merely 
 a spectator, the ruler of a wealthy court, the monarch who 
 rewards the exploits of his knights ; and also that the deeds 
 of the heroes are no longer directed to patriotic expeditions, 
 but rather to those which concern their own personal glory, 
 and the glory of knighthood in general. Consequently the 
 ancient Welsh national character of these romances is 
 thus obscured, and they indicate a time when another great 
 and general interest had dimmed the pristine lustre of the 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 33 
 
 first remembrance of Arthur. Tradition does not develope 
 itself by capricious starts, it leaves no intervals ; for like the 
 mind of man it does not advance suddenly, but proceeds 
 from one step to another, according to its own laws; we 
 must suppose that there was a period of transformation, 
 during which Arthur began to lose his patriotic importance 
 and his knights to gain a new character ; and we are of opi- 
 nion that this change from the ancient traditions to the nu- 
 merous romances which we find in France subsequent to the 
 year 1150, was essentially prepared and effected in Brittany. 
 We are far from imagining, that in Wales traditions had 
 emr slept, or had ever been forgotten; but with respect to 
 the complete transformation it underwent in Brittany, and 
 its influence from thence upon French literature, we can 
 bring forward, besides the testimony of Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth, whose Chronicle rests expressly on a book in the 
 Breton^ language, the evidence of the most ancient ro- 
 mances of the North of France; we refer to the numerous 
 names of persons and places in these romances, which must 
 be sought for in Brittany, and not in Wales; and lastly 
 we shall appeal to the primary ancient sources of Wales, 
 and of Brittany, as far as we have hitherto been enabled 
 to examine them. — Nor shall we omit the testimony 
 afforded by the conclusive reasoning to be found in poetic 
 history. In the Red Book of Hergest, (Llyfr Coch o Her- 
 gest,) Peredur comes from the North. Aneurin names Pere- 
 dur of steel arms^ as one of the heroes at the battle of 
 Cattraeth,2 and Geofirey of Monmouth says, in his Vita Mer- 
 lini, which doubtless was composed from the most ancient 
 traditions, (p. 42.) "Dux Venedotorum Perederus bellage- 
 rebat!" Vide Turner's Vindication, p. 120. I know of no 
 
 1 British. See note p. 18. — Tr. 
 2 See Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, p. 297. 
 
34 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Venedoti in Wales, i but there were Veneti wlio inhabited 
 Vannes, near the bay of Morbihan. The Bretons have ap- 
 propriated Peredur to themselves. 
 
 We now turn to Merlin ; he is still the warrior and the 
 historical bard, who abandoning himseK to despair, after 
 the lost battle of Ardervth, flies to the forest of Celjddon, 
 where he wanders desolate and alone. This is quite a na- 
 tional metaphor. Geofirey gives the same description. 
 "He became a wild man, frequenting the wood, where 
 he long continued lost and forgotten of his friends, dehght- 
 ing in the woods and leading a savage life."^ 
 
 1 The Venedoti are the people of North Wales. They are mention- 
 ed by Geoffrey of Monmouth as acting m conjunction with the 
 Demeti, or people of South Wales, and the other British tribes. 
 *'Ad edictum itaque ipsius venerunt Demeti, Venedoti, Deiri, et 
 Albani, et quicunque ex genere Britonum fuerant.'* The name of 
 Venedotia is repeatedly used by Giraldus Cambrensis, and distinctly 
 explained to signify North Wales. '' Divisa est antiquitus Wallia 
 
 in tres partes Venedotiam scilicet, quae nunc Nord wallia, id est, 
 
 Borealis Wallia dicitur, &c." — " Totius autem Walliae sicut aus- 
 tralis pars circa Cereticam, &c. — sic borealis Venedotia, et situ ter- 
 rarum munitior, &c." And tliis is again confirmed by the site of 
 the district of Tegengl, which is stated to be in Venedotia, and to have 
 been under the government of the Prince David ap Owen. " Te- 
 gengl est nomen provinciae apud Venedotiam, cui dominabatur 
 David Oeni filius." Indeed, the name is similarly explained by 
 Alanus de Insulis, in his exposition of the prophecy of Merlin; for 
 having referred to the original words "■ Venedotia rubebit matemo 
 sanguine," he says that the name applies to a province of Wales, 
 and that the prophecy was fulfilled in the war of the Welsh against 
 King Henry. *' Venedocia quaedam Cambriae, id est Waliae, provincia 
 est, Synechdochicos ergo significat bellum quod Venedoci, hoc est 
 Wallenses Henrico regi intulerunt." — Tk. 
 
 2 " Fuit Sylvester homo, quasi silvis deditus esset 
 Inde per sestatem totam, nullique repertus 
 Oblitusque sui cognatorumque suorum 
 Delituit silvis, obductus more ferino." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 35 
 
 The Bretons went still further; with them his mysterious 
 disappearance in the forest became the result of the en- 
 chantments of Viviane, who had learned the art from Mer- 
 lin himself, and of which Nennius also appeared to be 
 aware. The whole of his history is connected with the cele- 
 brated forest of Breceliande, and its still more celebrated 
 fountain of Baranton in Brittany. The Mabinogi of larlles 
 y Ffynawn, in the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, does not even name 
 this fountain. In later poems, Owain, the warrior of history, 
 and the companion of Arthur, becomes a complete Breton, 
 so much so that the author of the Roman de Rou, (v. 
 11514 to 11539,) cannot forgive himself, for having been 
 so much deluded by the fable of the fountain as to make a 
 pilgrimage to it. 
 
 " La alai jo merveilles querre, 
 Vis la forest e vis la terre ; 
 Merveilles quis, mais nes"* trovai ; 
 Fol m'en revins, fol i alai, 
 Fol i alai, fol m^en revins, 
 Folie quis, por fol me tins.^' 
 
 A more modern poet, Huon de Mery, was, it is true, more 
 fortunate, and the Oomte de la Villemarque, has recently dis- 
 covered certain ancient traditions in that neiirhbourhood.i 
 
 Let us now return to history. — Whilst Wales, from 
 the time of Athelstan, became tributary to the Anglo-Saxon 
 kings, — frequently revolting against them, obtaining slight 
 victories, and receiving serious defeats; whilst Griffith, 
 king of South Wales, devastated great part of Herefordshire 
 in 1052, and in the time of* Edward the Confessor 
 massacred the people, and ravaged the country, until, in 
 1063, he lost all his advantages, through the vengeance of 
 
 * See Mabinogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest. 
 
36 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Harold and Tosty, who drove him out, destroyed his vessels 
 and his castles, and carried away hostages, having exacted a 
 heavy tribute ; Brittany in the meantime remained at rest, 
 enjoying peace from the time of Alan, the descendant of 
 Alan the G-reat, and began to develope its internal power. 
 The troubles from the death of Alan to Conan, the first 
 Count of Rennes, soon ended, when the latter had set aside 
 the pretensions of Alands natural sons, Hoel and Guerich. 
 Godfrey I. succeeded him, until 1008 : Alan II. reigned till 
 1040: Conan II. till 1067: and Brittany was an undivided, 
 independent, and respected state. The period of continual 
 strugo-les for existence, of family dissensions, and civil war, 
 had passed, their constitution was modified according to 
 the feudal system of the Franks, and they began to 
 take part in the more advanced civilization of their neigh- 
 bours ; — v,']ii\e the two nations were not divided by the 
 furious and implacable hatred, which many of the Welsh 
 bards breathe against the Normans and Saxons. Great 
 political movements always occasion a reaction in the 
 developement of the minds of the people, and give them a 
 fresh impulse. Such was the expedition of the Normans 
 against England. When William the Conqueror assembled 
 his warriors to cross over to England, the Bretons did not 
 object to accompany him. " He also collected an immense 
 army from amongst the Normans, Flemings, French, and 
 Bretons." " For the French and Bretons, the Poite^-ins 
 and Burgundians, and other Cisalpine people flocked to the 
 transmarine war.^i The imagination of the chiefs must 
 doubtless have been excited bv the idea of undertakino^ an 
 avenging expedition against the descendants of those who 
 
 ^"Ingeiitem qiioque exercitum et Normanis, Flandrensibus, ac 
 Francis et Britonibus aggregavit. [W. Gemetensis, 286.] Galli nam- 
 que et BritoneSy Pictavini et Burgundiones, aliique populi Cisalpini 
 ad bellum transmarinum convolarunt." [Ordericus VitalLs, 494.] 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 37 
 
 had opposed Arthur ; but their ambition was more influ- 
 enced by the desire of rivalling foreign princes in valour and 
 heroism, of shining in victories, and equalling their allies in 
 civilization and virtue. The conquest of England took place 
 in the reign of Oonant II. and the prophecy of Merlin, accor- 
 ding to Geoffrey, is as follows : — " The Bretons shall, 
 through weakness, for many years lose their kingdom, until 
 Conan shall come in his car from Armorica, and Oadwalader 
 the honoured leader of the Welsh."^ It would, in fact, be 
 astonishing, if this prophecy in the life of Merlin were writ- 
 ten before 1066: Conan cannot be the Conan Meriadoc of 
 Geoffrey's Chronicle, which this writer places before the in- 
 cursion of Hengist and Horsa in England, nor can he be the 
 Aurelius Conanus, who slew Constantine, and who is a per- 
 son of small importance. The passage in the Afallenau of 
 Merlin, which Geoffrey here imitates, says nothing of Con- 
 an's (Cynan) being expected from Armorica with succours. 
 It would be extraordinary if tradition had not appropriated 
 to itself a historical name that still existed in the memory 
 of the people at a time which seemed (mutatis mutandis) 
 to accomplish the ancient prophecy. 
 
 The Bretons triumphed with the Normans, and no time 
 could have appeared more fit for representing Arthur as the 
 great conqueror of the world. Some learned men, and 
 among them A. W. Schlegel, assert, that it was a spirit of 
 revenge against their oppressors that prompted the Welsh 
 to represent Arthur as the conqueror of the world, and a 
 king among kings. But it would have been a ridiculous 
 revenge, which must have still more humiliated the existing 
 generation, who, conquered and oppressed, but too well 
 
 1 " Britones ut nobile regnum 
 
 Temporibus multis amittant debilitate 
 Donee ab Armorico, veniet temone Conanus 
 Et Cadwaladrus Cambrorum dux venevandus, &c.' 
 
38 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 knew, that they could not in reality celebrate these fictiti- 
 ous triumphs. The period had now arrived, when the Bre- 
 tons for the first time were able to look beyond the narrow 
 limits of their territory, when they rushed upon victory, 
 with a mio-hty host, to whom they had hitherto been 
 strano-ers, and felt the first impulse of a dawning chivalry. 
 It was the time when a vast and novel sentiment, penetra- 
 tino- the genius of past ages, transplanted Arthur the cele- 
 brated hero into a new and hitherto unknown world, which 
 opened to his warriors a new field for their exploits, and 
 gave to those exploits a difi*erent character to that which 
 they had previously possessed : in fact we find in the 
 Chronicle of Geoffrey, where he speaks of Arthur, Genhu- 
 mara and Modred, almost all the elements, though but 
 slightly touched upon, which soon after appear in tlie ro- 
 mances ; we already feel the spirit of rising chivalry burst- 
 ing forth, although it still partakes of the rudeness of 
 past ages. 
 
 It is natural that the conquest of England should rouse 
 anew the national spirit of Wales, — that the triumph of 
 the Bretons should not be without its influence on their 
 countrymen, and that they should listen with greater at- 
 tention to the Cantoribus historicis Brittanicis, which now 
 began to celebrate Arthur in another style ; but it is also 
 certain that Wales did not abandon herself to her new 
 masters, but on the contrary continued opposed to them. 
 The language of the Welsh was strange and disagreeable to 
 the Normans, they always called it barbarous ; the Welsh 
 were never very communicative to strangers, and we now 
 deeply lament the patriotic pride of the writers of that day, 
 who obstinately persisted in only -making use of the difficult 
 language of their country, and thus were themselves the 
 authors of the obscurity which still veils a large portion of 
 their literature ; while Gildas, Bede, Nennius, and others, 
 who wrote in Latin, became the study and dehght of all. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 89 
 
 We have no authentic documents to prove that Welsh li- 
 terature had been diffused throughout England earlier than 
 the twelfth centurj. 
 
 In returning to the French romances, we must again first 
 distinguish between the romances of the twelfth century, 
 in which we can still recognise the primitive Welsh and 
 Breton elements, and those trivial and more recent works, 
 which, mingling the traditions of Arthur with the Fable 
 of the Sangraal, formed with these materials a sort of liter- 
 ary tower of Babel. 
 
 We reckon the following among the most ancient of the 
 principal Romances : — 
 
 1. The first part of the English Romance of Merlin. 
 
 2. The Tales of Arthur, related in the Chronicle of Geo- 
 
 ffrey, and which describe his own particular exploits; 
 they were much amplified in the second and more 
 modern part of Merlin, and in the Morte d' Arthur. 
 
 3. The E7iglish Tristan of Thomas Brittanicus,^ from which 
 
 Godfrey of Strasbourg, (about 1217) composed his 
 German poem of Tristan und Isolde ; and the French 
 Tristan, which was the model of the work composed 
 by Eilhart von Stolbergen about 1180 or 1190. 
 
 4. Twain, the Che'calier au Lion, Avhich was composed in 
 
 French about 1180, by Chrestien de Troyes, and 
 about 1200 in German by Hartmann von Aue, from 
 Welsh allegories, (nach Wälschen Vorbildern ditch- 
 teten.) 
 
 5. The English Lancelot du Lac, communicated by Hugo 
 
 de Morville, who was imprisoned with Richard Coeur 
 de Lion, at Vienna, to Ulric von Zatzikofen, a 
 German. 
 
 1 This Thomas cannot be the same with Thomas of Ercildoune, if 
 Sir Walter Scott is correct in asserting that the latter was born in 
 1220, and died between 1286 and 1289. 
 
40 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 6. The Welsh Geraint, (Erek,) see the Mabinogion, bj Lady 
 
 Charlotte Guest, which was probably put into 
 French by Chrestien de Troyes, and (about 1200) 
 into German, by Hartmann von Aue. 
 
 7. Peredur, the Percival of the French, w^ho became the 
 
 hero of several Romances, and whom we again see 
 
 in his purely \yelsh character, in the Mabinogion, 
 
 lately published, by Lady Charlotte Guest. 
 
 In all these romances, we find the heroes represented as 
 
 warrior-adventurers assembled round Arthur, either in his 
 
 suite, or as his vassals. In^dncible courao^e in battle, an 
 
 unwearying desire to fight, an insatiable passion for the 
 
 most extraordinary adventures, an inordinate ambition, 
 
 love in its most engaging aspect, an unequalled splendour, 
 
 the most refined courtesy and gallantry, the Service des 
 
 Dames, in the most whimsical and refined form, mingled 
 
 with the deepest devotedness. — Such are the characteristic 
 
 traits of these romances, as they are those also of the most 
 
 perfect and brilliant chivalry in general. 
 
 None of these compositions are older than 1150, but all, 
 as we have already said, refer to more ancient traditions; 
 therefore feudal and chivalric institutions must have been 
 mentioned in such traditions. Now, it is true, that a sort 
 of rude and scarcely defined feudahsm existed in England 
 during the latter part of the heptarchy, and until 1066, as 
 it did in France and Germany, under Charlemagne and his 
 successors ; but it nevertheless appears, that the introduc- 
 tion of a regulated and legal feudal system into England, 
 must be attributed to William the Conquerer, who likewise 
 introduced the true spirit of chivalry with his numerous 
 followers. It is for this reason that we are inclined to 
 deny a higher antiquity than 1066 to all those poetical 
 compositions of the Welsh, which breathe this spirit, not- 
 withstanding certain names and passages which might 
 belong to an earlier period. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 41 
 
 In Provence, during a peace of nearly two centuries, which 
 was never interrupted by the wars in the rest of Europe, 
 where a wise administration, the intellectual habit of life of 
 the people, and great affluence were not disturbed by hostile 
 incursions, but strengthened and encouraged by commerce, 
 a bright sky, and a fertile soil, — there, we maintain, that 
 laws, manners, language, and every branch of civilization, 
 must have expanded and prospered. 
 
 Poetry attained its highest perfection at the end of the 
 eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century. It sung of 
 war, adventures, religion, and love. Chivalry arose and ob- 
 tained its proper character in the Proven9al poetry. Chi- 
 valry was the ideal of poetry, and in real life, feudalism 
 corresponded with it, and was dignified by it. 
 
 This Provencal spirit soon communicated itself to the 
 North of France, and the first Crusade, which emanated 
 principally from Provence, drew with it the inhabitants of 
 the North of France. The Normans had not lost, in their 
 new country, that ancient love of adventure which had con- 
 ducted their ancestors to the shores of England, France, 
 Spain, Italy, and Sicily, even to the heart of Russia and 
 Constantinople ; they had not abandoned their love of heroic 
 tales ; but they forgot their ancient pagan fables, and their 
 Scandinavian and Germanic traditions, and turned, with 
 avidity, under the serene sky of France, to the Frankish 
 tales of Roland, Formun, and others. The Romance of 
 Rollo does not yield in antiquity to the oldest romances 
 of the North of France. These most ancient traditions of 
 Wales and Brittany, which, after 1066, the Cantores His- 
 torici carried to them, (bringing them, no doubt, in greater 
 number, in consequence of finding an attentive and admiring 
 public,) here found a fertile and well prepared soil, in which 
 they would easily take root. The chief character of Pro- 
 ven9al poetry was lyric, and although the epic was not 
 unknown to them, (as Mr. Paris asserts in the preface to 
 
f.. 
 
 42 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 the first volume of his Garin de Loherain, contrary to M. 
 Fauriel, Sur Torigine des epopees chevaleresques du moven 
 age,) it is however certain, that the epic did not prevail in 
 Provence ; but, like the people of the North of France, the 
 Provengals seized with avidity on the Welsh and Breton tra- 
 ditions^ they possessed themsehes of them as xaluahle and full 
 of interest^ imparting to them^ however^ a neic character ac- 
 cording to their own peculiar nationality^ — a character which 
 had hitherto been foreign to tliem^ xiz, the spirit of French 
 chivalry. In this manner Arthur, the champion of Wales 
 against the Saxons, was transformed into the brilliant re- 
 presentative of every cliivalrous virtue ; his court became 
 the seat of the most luxurious, distinguished, and chival- 
 rous life, and the heroes of his round table, the faultless 
 models of courtesy and gallantry. 
 
 It may here be asked. Why, when the Provencal lyric 
 poetry was abandoned for the epic, a foreigner, as Arthur 
 was, should have become the nucleus of this poetry instead 
 of their own national hero, Charlemagne? For in facta 
 royal centre of this kind was necessary for the epopee of 
 chivalry, because the knights, thirsting after deeds of va- 
 lour, as much required a king and master who would accord 
 them the crown of glory, and feudal privileges, as adven- 
 tures to enable them to merit that glory. Kings and prin- 
 ces were the supports of chivalry, and representing it in 
 the most brilliant and perfect form. 
 
 It is true that Charlemagne was as much the object of 
 national poems, among the Franks in the tenth century, as 
 Arthur was in Wales, and in the eleventh century the 
 traditions concernino; him were continuallv extendino^ : we 
 will only mention the Tales of Eoland, of the sons of 
 Haincos, of Bertha au Gros Pied, of Guillaume au court Nez, 
 fcc. where the poets overwhelm him and his paladins with 
 all the glory and splendour of chivalry ; but, according to 
 an ancient and unchanging tradition, Charlemagne lived 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 43 
 
 for ever in their memories as the patron of Christianity, — 
 the invincible barrier against the assault of Paganism. 
 It is on this account, that the romances which represented 
 him fighting against the pagans, could not assign him any 
 other place than that which tradition had already accorded 
 him. Tradition in that case would have been its own de- 
 stroyer. This would have been an easier task for those 
 romancers who described his expeditions against his vas- 
 sals ; i^ut there also, tradition rested upon historical and 
 unvarying foundation, and following its general purport did 
 not yield to the tendency, which had become general, of 
 making the description of chivalry in itself the object of the 
 epic, and creating for it an ideal world of its own. It was 
 on this account that poets abandoned themselves so easily 
 to another circle of traditions entirely new to them, and 
 which, because it was new, was the fitter for that transfor- 
 mation, which could not originate in Wales, for the same 
 reason that prevented the French from altering the tradi- 
 tions of Charlemagne. Still less could the Norman-Franks 
 receive the Saxon poetry which they met with in England. 
 The ancient poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, took its origin in 
 the Scandinavian and German Mythology. This is proved 
 by Beowulf, the Battle of Finnsburg, Csedmon, the Travel- 
 ler's Song, and other fragments of ancient poetry which 
 are still extant. The different bodies of emigrants from 
 the North, from Norway, Denmark, and Friesland, did not 
 carry to England a complete and national history, but 
 merely separate traditions of different colonies and families. 
 The more modern poetry of the Anglo-Saxons partly re- 
 vived their ancient poems, mingling with them the elements 
 of Christianity, and partly selected the deeds of their kings, 
 as the object of historical poems ; we cite the Battle of Bru- 
 nabourg, (p. 937.) the poems on king Athelstan, of which 
 William of Malmesbury gives many fragments, and the ex- 
 ploits of Beorthnoth, who fell in battle against the Danes 
 
44 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 990. But under Williaui the Conqueror, the people were 
 animated with a new spirit, which became dominant under 
 their new rulers. The heroic songs of a people who were now 
 subjugated could not satisfy, especially as they recalled the 
 memory of Paganism. 
 
 We have already mentioned why these times and cir- 
 cumstances were favourable to Breton Minstrels and Ra- 
 conteurs, enabling them to throw a new splendour over 
 Arthur, and to present him in this guise to the allied 
 Normans. The Celtic imagination, which could only be 
 compared to that of the East, awed the Normans and 
 French, who listened with admiration, as Giraldus, and 
 Geoffrey, have proved by translations from British books. 
 Henry II. one of England's most powerful kings, (1154— 
 1189,) was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of 
 Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of Henry I. His eminent 
 talents early displayed themselves under the excellent 
 guidance of the wise and learned Eobert of Gloucester, 
 whom Geoffrey in his Chronicle terms his protector. He 
 became Duke of Normandy, and at the death of his father, 
 Count of Anjou, Tourraine, and Maine. He married the 
 celebrated Eleanor of France, who after having been repudi- 
 ated by Louis le Jeune, (1151,) brought him the sovereignty 
 of Guienne, Poitou, and Saintonge. She was grand-daugh- 
 ter of William IX. of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine, who was 
 equally celebrated as a poet and a warrior, (1071 — 1127.) 
 This acquisition of a great part of France, and especially 
 of the countries where the Langue d'oc (or Provencal) was 
 spoken, would necessarily have the greatest influence not 
 only over the manners, tastes, and opinions of the nobility 
 and knio'hthood of the united countries, minolino; the tribes 
 and uniting their poets and minstrels at the English court, 
 but it would naturally attach the separate interests of the 
 kings of England and France to the cause of literature. If 
 Henry and his court delighted in hearing the tales of Arthur, 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRA^'CE. 45 
 
 would not the French and Proven9al poets make themselves 
 masters of these tales l Henry liberally rewarded such ef- 
 forts, and he gave Robert Wace a prebendal stall in the Ca- 
 thedral of Bayeux, for the dedication of his Roman du Rou. 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth also eulogizes the young prince in 
 his Chronicle. Other poets addressed him in a still more 
 flattering strain. It can be proved, that, in order to please 
 Irmengart, who w^as so celebrated in Proven9al poetry, and 
 whose court was frequented by the most celebrated Trouba- 
 dours of the twelfth century, the heroes in Guillaume au 
 court Nez were placed in very palpable relation with Ay- 
 meric I. Vicomte de Narbonne, who in 1103 or 1104 visit- 
 ed the holy land, and died soon after, as well as Aymeric 
 IL the father of Irmengart, who was killed in 1134, in Ca- 
 talonia, in the bloody battle of Fraga, (Fauriel, &c.) 
 
 The traditions of Wales were treated in a similar manner. 
 In the German Romance of Percival, by Wolfran von Es- 
 chenbach, which rests on a poem by Kiot the Proven9al, 
 written before that of Chrestien de Troyes, the hero is always 
 called a Waleisin, (native of Wales,) proving that the origin 
 of this personage must be sought for in that country; but he 
 makes him at the same time prince of Anjou, and the bat- 
 tles of his father Gamaret against the pagans, so fully de- 
 scribed, and the care which he takes to unite the Anjou 
 family to the royal family of Sangraal, have no other end 
 than to exalt the house of Anjou. But when these inter- 
 ests of the time had disappeared, these allusions disappeared 
 also, and we discover no trace of them in the later romances 
 by Chrestien de Troyes and his four continuators. 
 
 Fauriel mentions nearly twenty five Troubadours who 
 allude to Tristan, of whom about ten belong to the latter 
 half of the twelfth century ; he has found several others, of 
 the same period, who mention some very remarkable scenes 
 which belong to the German Percival. In short, if we 
 remember what bands of Minstrels, Troubadours, Jongleurs, 
 
46 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 &;c. &c. carried the favorite Tales, which they borrowed 
 from the equally numerous Bards of Brittany and Wales, 
 from chateau to chateau, and from house to house, and that 
 the nobles equally cultivated poetry, that almost every 
 nobleman maintained a learned clerk to write down inter- 
 esting tales, ^ — that these clerks or scholars zealously 
 collected and arranoed these tales, and affected, to the 
 great grief of the Troubadours, to be the sole possessors 
 of the true history in their compilations, — and that they 
 composed such works for their ovm profit,2 — we shall, thus, 
 
 iLeland, quoting Giraldus, (Assert. Arturi, p. 52,) says, "As 
 Henry II. King of England had heard from an ancient British 
 historical singer.'* 
 
 William of Malmesbury, v. Gale III. p. 295. '' The King Henry 
 II. had also frequently heard this out of the Acts of the Britons, and 
 from their historical singers." 
 
 Usher's Ghaldus. Epis. Hiberniarum Sylloge, p. 116. '^ His 
 prophecies are orally preserved among very many of the British 
 bards, but in writing among few." 
 
 2 Wace, in the Roman du Rou, complains that Henry III. had 
 not given him the reward promised him by Henry II. at the con- 
 clusion of the poem. 
 
 33iel (^nii 5cr Ä'öntg mir crftjies^, 
 @a6 eiel, o6ft)o|)t er mc&r f)cvl^kiß, 
 ^cnn ^ai ft>al cr öcrsprac^ ^escbcj^en 
 (go burft cr ixikv urn mid) 5te|)cn; 
 fRxö^U l^ah idb, miU ilE)m nidbt gepel; 
 £o Ukht 5cnn audb hü mir nicßt M. 
 
 Much favor the King did shew, 
 Gave much, but promised more ; 
 If what he promised had happened, 
 I should have thought better of him ; 
 Kothing have I, because it did not please him. 
 So that Httle remains to me. 
 
 At the commencement of the work he greatly praises the Clerks, 
 .who write dovm. illustiious achievements, as it is through them alone 
 that the remembrance of them can be handed down to posterity. — 
 Such was the case in the year 1150. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 47 
 
 comprehend why in the middle of the twelfth century we 
 see a deluge of romantic poetry spread itself at once over 
 England, and Northern and Southern France, in the dif- 
 ferent languages of each country, forming the second class 
 of Traditions of Arthur, and flourishing in every civilized 
 country of Europe, until the downfal of chivalry. 
 
 THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 ARTHUR AND THE SANGRAAL, A. D. 1150 TO 1500. 
 
 The Fable of the Sangraal was not less fertile in produ- 
 cing romances in the twelfth century than the traditions of 
 Arthur and his Round Table.^ The purport is frequently 
 
 1 The Round Table is neither mentioned by the ancient bards, nor 
 by Nennius, nor in Geoffrey's Chronicle. This is worthy of notice. 
 As far as my knoAvledge carries me, its institution is first noticed in 
 the Brut d'Angleterre, which Robert Wace (1150) rendered into 
 18000 octosyllabic verses, after a Latin translation by Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth from a Breton book. The first book contains the origin 
 of the Round Table, its feasts, tournaments, and knights. It was 
 publicly read at the English Court. We do not here quite rely on 
 the veracity of Geoffrey. Wales and Brittany certainly must have 
 known of the royal and princely table, with its places of honor, 
 concerning which the Laws of Howel Dda contain much, (Turner's 
 Vindication, p. 95, 96.) and that is the historical origin of the Round 
 Table ; but the account of the Brut cannot be older than knight- 
 hood, or chivalry itself ; nay, it even presupposes it already in a 
 flourishing state, which it was in those countries about 1100, or, at 
 the earliest, at the end of the eleventh century; — certainly not 
 before 1066. 
 
48 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 the same in many respects, but tlie character of the Ro- 
 mances of the Graal is nevertheless very different, and the 
 question now is, Whether the Fahle of the Graal is also 
 of Welsh origin^ or not ? 
 
 AVe do not know how this question has been considered in 
 England ; the Germans, and the French, generally, have not 
 taken much trouble to resolve it, and have lightly supposed 
 that this fable belonged to that of Arthur. The confusion 
 which has resulted from this supposition is the less excusable 
 in Germany, as they had long been in possession of the pre- 
 cise sources it would be necessary to examine. It is only 
 of late that Gerovius (History of the National Literature of 
 the Germans) and Rosencranz (History of German Poetry) 
 have pointed out the truth, though rather as a conjecture 
 than a certainty. The sources are, the German Poem of 
 Perckal, written by Wolfran von Eschenbach, 1205, and 
 the Titurel of Albrecht, finished in 1350. Both, accor- 
 ding to their o^vn testimony, refer to a common origin, viz. 
 a poem in the northern French dialect, written by the 
 Proven9al Kiot,^ which is otherv\'ise unknoT^ii. 
 
 ^iot, 5cr meister ^\% Kyot, the wise niaster 
 
 ^ijmäreCtJon (g.®röl)k9un5e Of this story (S. Graal) set 
 
 luoc^cn about to search 
 
 3n latinilc^cn 6twdbm, In Latin books, 
 
 ^a gcfVCScn fuaere Where could have been 
 
 (fin ()Olf ba 3UO gcböcrc A people of such qualifications 
 
 X^Oj C3 5c5 ©rales jcflagC Who might ever have the cus- 
 
 tody of the Graal, Qiiind; 
 Unt 5cr fiusdbc ^\i) bcWacge; And who inclined to purity of 
 ©r (as 5cr lanbe dbronica, He read the Chronicles of the 
 
 countries, 
 
 1 Guiot de Provence belonged to a later period, and must not be 
 confounded with our Kiot. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 49 
 
 Sc ^ritane ixnt anhcv^tva. In Brittany and elsewhere, 
 
 3e ^vantviä^C (3lOr5 ftantvdd)) In France, (Northern France,) 
 
 Unt ^vhni; and in Ireland 
 
 3c ^n^C^OUftJC Cr Un mocrc Oant In Anjou he found the story ; 
 
 (Sv U^ OOn ^a]a5arte He read of Mazadan, 
 
 Mit ivavUit ^unber warn ; With truth without deceit ; 
 
 UmO allc^ ÜC gc^IacfetC About all his family 
 
 (Biaont 5a gc^c6rikn f c{)tC ; Stand these rightly written. 
 
 Unt an^CV^alp,U)k%Xtmd And on the other hand, how 
 
 Titurel 
 
 Un( 5c^ inn Jriamtcl And his son Friamtel 
 
 Dm @ral kal^t Uf ^ilmfortal Brought the Graal to Amfortas, 
 
 S)C^ imUiX 5)CrjclOt5c Wa^, Whose sister was Herzeloide, 
 
 S3i 5cr ©amurct ein Stint (5cr By whom Gamuret a child 
 
 PcrdOal) 
 ©CftJan, 5c^ 5i^iu maac ^int. Had, after whom this story is 
 
 named. 
 
 This testimony, which the German poets could only 
 have found in the French poem, is important, as proving 
 that the Fable of the Graal did not exist in the Chronicles 
 of those countries which preserved the traditions of Arthur, 
 (Britain, France, and Ireland.) The common observation 
 that traditions are most diflfused by Latin translations, such 
 as the British tales by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Oarlo- 
 vingian tales by Turpin, the romances of the Cid (1207,) 
 and again the Carlovingian traditions through the Chro- 
 nicles of St. Denis, compiled by order of the Abbe Suger, 
 minister to Louis le Jeune, (1137 — 1180,) leads us to 
 presume, that the Fable of the Graal was made known 
 through such Latin compilations, and we cannot be very 
 far from the truth if we suppose such a translation in the 
 middle of the twelfth century, when the Provencal dis- 
 appeared as a written language, and the Latin was em- 
 
50 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 ployed as the medium of communication with England, 
 France, and Provence, and became at the same time the 
 common language of the learned. Now, Robert, and after 
 him HeHs de Boron, say expressly in their romance of the 
 San Graal, (Vatic. MSS. 1687, fol. 66,) Mess. Eobt. de 
 Boron chi eheste estore translata de Latin en Romance par 
 le commendement de St. Eglise. 
 
 This is repeated in the French romance of the Sangraal 
 in prose, (Paris, 1523,) and the passage (fol. 40, Vol. 2. of 
 the MSS. de TEglise de Paris, No. 7,) which is quoted by 
 Rochefort (Glossaire de la langue Romaine. — V. Sangraal) 
 is almost word for word the same with the printed prose Ro- 
 mance fol. 50. These prose romances do in general follow the 
 ancient poems very faithfully The reasons why the poem of 
 Boron, as well as his Lancelot, diiFer so essentially in some 
 points from the German Percival and Titurel, will be explained 
 as we proceed; for he dedicates Lancelot to King Henry III. 
 of England, and Roquefort and Fauriel are consequently 
 right in placing it between 1227 and 1271, although the au- 
 thors of the Histoire Litteraire de France, (Tom. 15, p. 495,) 
 without any reason place them as far back as Henry II.; it 
 was therefore written at a time when Chrestien had already 
 changed the tradition. Still we cannot suppose that the in- 
 centive to latin books could be entirely fictitious. But, ac- 
 cording to Wolfran, Kiot had, besides the Chronicle of 
 Anjou before named, another work before him which had 
 been discovered at Toledo, in pagan writing, by a half 
 Jew and astrologer, Flegetanis, and which related to the 
 Histoiy of the Graal in a short and very unsatisfactory man- 
 ner. We are thus led into Spain, to an Arabian MS. and it 
 does not appear more impossible that we should find the 
 Fable of the Graal in Arabic, than to find the Bible trans- 
 lated into that lan2:ua£:e for the benefit of those who under- 
 stood Arabic better than Spanish. We pass over all the 
 derivations, frequently so childish, of the word Graal, and 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 51 
 
 the interpretations of that miraculous Vase, which by 
 some has been connected with the Hehotrapezon of the 
 Ethiopians, which is again found in the Indian Vajapu- 
 rana, and by others with the black stone of Mecca, or 
 with the Cratera of the Egyptian Hermes, the Oratera of 
 Djemjid, or with the cavern of the wise men in the moun- 
 tain of Raken, &c. &c. without gaining any certain results. 
 If we were to allow that the MS. of Kiot at Toledo is an 
 entire fiction, yet we can still point out with certainty a 
 connexion between this Fable and Spain, and also between 
 the Arab poetry, which flourished there, and Provence. 
 We find this connexion in the Arabic names of the planets, 
 the Arab word .Sennabor, (Sember a wise Man,) the Per- 
 sian names Sabbilor, Azubar of the Catholico de Ranculat, 
 (Catholicus len Nestorien,) the Indian figures of Cundric 
 the sorceress, and Malcreature, born through the influence 
 of venemous roots and malignant stars ; then the Provencal 
 words Monsalvage, Floramic, Albaflori Flordicale, Gras- 
 waldanek, (Valley of Graisevandan near Grenoble,) Titurel, 
 Frineutel, Tschoinatulander, &c. &c. and, above all, the 
 localities, which always and in every country indicate the 
 original scene of a Fable. The forest of the Graal (terre 
 de salvage) is in the north of Spain ; Catalonia, Arragon, 
 Toledo, Seville, and the shores of Africa are, for a long 
 time, the scenes of tlie tales, countries which are entirely 
 unknown to the traditions anterior to Arthur. Titurel 
 says, — " Whoever has travelled in Gallica, knows St. Sal- 
 vador and Salvaterre." The family of Percival, and of his 
 relations Herzeleide, Orilus, Gurnemanz, and Sigune live 
 in Auvergne, the Landes, Gascony, and Anjou. Parille 
 received, as a reward, the kingdom of France, and his 
 brother had Anjou. But here, as elsewhere, political his- 
 tory mingles itself with fable. The house of Burgundy, 
 which reigned over Provence, became extinct with Gilli- 
 bert, who divided his kingdom between his two daughters ; 
 
52 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Faidide married Alplionso, Count of Toulouse ; the other, 
 Douce, married Raimoud Berenger, Count of Barcelona. The 
 conquest of Toledo in 1085 was of the greatest importance 
 in unitincr the South of France with Spain, and in making 
 kno\\Ti the manners of the Saracens. Spaniards, French, 
 the men of Provence and of Grasconv, fought together under 
 the Cid. Toledo was the principal seat of art and Arabic 
 literature, and the knights from beyond the Pyrenees found 
 themselves under the necessity of hving at the Court of 
 Alphonso VI. with men whose imagination, mind, and 
 taste had been developed among the Saracens. We find 
 in history the same separate expeditions against the iNIoors 
 as those of Gamuret against the pagans, in Percival, and 
 the same tolerance towards paganism in Spain as in the 
 poem ; — the same small Spanish kingdoms, in history, 
 about the year 1100, as those described by the poet. Sa- 
 ragossa remained a pagan state until 1112, although 
 surrounded by Christian princes. In Titurel, Titurisone 
 of France marries EHzabeth of Arragon ; as in history, 
 Faidide marries Alphonso, and Douce marries Raimond 
 Berenger. Titurel applies to the Provencals, the Carlo- 
 yingians, the people of Aries, and Duke Charles of Lorraine, 
 for aid against the pagans in Averre and Navarre ; in the 
 poem we see an imitation of it, in the Crusade against 
 Toledo. The connexion between history and poetry would 
 be still more apparent, if time and space would permit us 
 to make some extracts from the German poets, and no 
 doubt would remain that these tales were much repeated 
 and sung in Provence about the year 1100 ; Provence was 
 devoted to poetry, and powerfully influenced by Spain and 
 the East. We must place at the same period the deve- 
 lopement of the Fable of the Graal, which we denominate 
 the primitive Fahle of Provence^ in opposition to the change 
 ichich it afterwards undericent in the North of France ; and 
 this chano-e evinces so much connexion with the Order of 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 53 
 
 Templars, that it must have taken place after the institu- 
 tion of that body. It is therefore not so important to 
 elucidate its first obscure origin. The French Knights, 
 Hugo de Payens, Godfrey de St. Omer, Roral, Godfrey 
 Bisol, Payens de M*. Didier, Archibald de St. Amand, 
 Andreas de M*. Barry, Gundamar, and Hugo Count 
 of Provence, were the founders of this order in 1118. 
 If at that time the rank of a Temporal Knight was 
 regarded as the height of all honor and glory, if each 
 Knight appeared to be the natural defender of religion, the 
 protector of all the suffering and oppressed who solicited 
 his aid, how much more to be venerated would the Knight- 
 MonJc^ the Chevalier of Christ, the Miles Tempil appear in 
 the eyes of men, who looked upon both the Knight and the 
 Monk as following the most holy and the most enviable 
 vocation. The Knights Templars increased prodigiously 
 in number over the whole of Europe, but more especially 
 in the South of France, where their possessions greatly 
 augmented. The Templars first gave to the world the 
 example of a noble and purely christian employment of 
 chivalry, united to a complete self-devotion for the benefit 
 of Christianity. Raised on the wings of enthusiastic faith, 
 and animated by the breath of the crusades, poetry found 
 in the conception of this order a rich and wide field ; and 
 all that had ever been dreamed of or imagined of the Graal, 
 the Craterse, the Vases, and precious stones, or, in short, 
 every species of treasure which the Angels of heaven had 
 confided to the care of men, all that had the power of satis- 
 fying every wish in this world, and of creating a paradise 
 on earth, acquired thenceforth a fixed and condensed form 
 in the chivalry of the Graal, as we find it preserved in the 
 poems of Percival and Titurel ; and it is only from this 
 time we can date the authentic history of our fiction. 
 
 We regret that we cannot here enter into details to prove 
 the intimate connexion which existed between the Knights 
 
54 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 of the Graal and the Templars, who soon found numerous 
 imitators in Spain, even in exterior forms; for example, in 
 the architecture of their circular temple, in their ceremony 
 of Baptism and the Holy Supper, in their manner of life and 
 vocation, and in all the rules of their order, even in their 
 name (Tempeleisin, Templiers.) We will only mention 
 that the general purport of these two poems may be di- 
 vided into two principal parts ; first, the exploits of the 
 Knights of the Round Table, who take a secondary station, 
 and form, as it were, the back ground of the picture ; and 
 secondly, the Kingdom and Knighthood of the Graal. The 
 independent manner in which these two groups proceed 
 proves that they have been united at a later period, and did 
 not originate in a common source. The second group, 
 whose centre is the Graal, constitutes the Provencal and 
 Spanish element ; the^r^^ is the Welsh; — and the point of 
 union is the chief hero Percital^ the Perediir of the Welsh. 
 The genealogy we have affixed (Table I.) will give a clear 
 idea of its manner. 
 
 We must here observe first, that until the middle of the 
 twelfth century, not the slightest trace of the Graal, or any- 
 thing resembling it, can be found in the Breton or Welsh 
 poems ; secondly, that towards the same period w^e discover, 
 in the French poems only, the first indications of any know- 
 ledge of the traditions of Arthur ; and thirdly, that this 
 branch of poetry received a particular impulse from the 
 sovereignty of England over a great part of France ; and 
 we must be deceived upon every point, if Arthur and the 
 Sangraal did not first meet half way in France about 1150, 
 coming from the North and from the South. The date of 
 the compilation of the Peredur of the Welsh, given in the 
 Second Number of Ladv 0. Guest's IMabinooion, does not, 
 it is true, appear to us much more ancient than that of the 
 MS, (14th century,) but we have no ground for denying 
 that the character of Peredur is as ancient as Owain, 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 
 
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50 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Gwalchmai, Tristan, and others. We see him leave his 
 country a simple child : — he is not educated like Lancelot 
 by propitious fairies, who shower on him the most brilliant 
 qualities ; but his innate simplicity of heart, and heroic 
 virtue, combined with the trials of life, render him 
 worthy of a place at the Round Table. Nothing is said of 
 the Graal ; even the signification of the bleeding lance and 
 severed head w^as not understood by the raconteur. Such a 
 character, simple and childlike, who feared to question, yet 
 was urged forward by some unknown power to a great and 
 noble end, was the one best suited to a reunion with the 
 ancient fiction of the Graal ; and at this early period, when 
 poetry flourished, ere it had been obscured by a passion for 
 mysteries, and the sombre erudition of the monks, the 
 never failing instinct of poetic genius seized on this character 
 in all its power, to dedicate it to the Graal, and to con- 
 nect it wdth the ancient royal family of Graal; at the 
 same time introducing the hero as prince of Anjou in 
 honor of Henry II. 
 
 Wolfran von Eschenbach does not give any explanation 
 of the holy Cup ; but to the reflecting reader, his descrip- 
 tion of its nature and virtue sufficiently point out the true 
 interpretation. It is the impenetrable mystery of Faith. 
 Neither the most brilliant deeds of chivalry, nor the arts of 
 magic, nor an indefatigable pursuit through the w^orld, not 
 even the most profound and pious contemplation, lead to 
 the castle of the Graal; it remains unknown and indis- 
 coverable to those whom the Graal himself (the Divinity) 
 has not destined to find it. It is to the innocent, the pure 
 only, in whose heart the grace of God has sunk, whose 
 heart is filled with an insatiable desire to possess all that 
 is highest and most holy — that the Almighty reveals 
 himself, when in his humility and contrition he believes 
 him to be far from him, it is to him that his miracles wnll 
 be revealed by the election of his grace. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 57 
 
 This is the way in which ancient Tradition represents 
 the mystery of the Graal ; it is the same with the mystery 
 in which every order must beheve, and which the Templars 
 had seized in a manner to make us doubtful, from certain 
 passages in legal actions against the Templars, whether 
 their symbols and doctrines originated with themselves, or 
 were borrowed from the poetic legend of the Graal. (See 
 Du Puy, Histoire des Templiers, Brussels, 1751, pp. 25, 
 29, 263. Epistol Innocent III. de Baluge, Vol. 2. p. 68. 
 and what Du Puy relates from the Chronicle of St. Denis, 
 ch. 8. p. 22.) The German poet leads his hero from the 
 faith of a child, through doubt and despair, to the pure and 
 clear knowledge of God ; and this idea, though not perhaps 
 so strongly developed, certainly formed the principal ground- 
 work of Kiot's poem. In the latter, happiness is not gained 
 by combating the enemies of Christianity, but the enemy 
 in our own hearts. The combat is not rewarded by glory, 
 riches, and gratifications, but by contumely, scorn, and 
 distress of mind, until the heart is purified from the dross 
 of doubt : — one trial succeeds another, as the Knight-Monk 
 must experience them all before he can attain the highest 
 rank of the order. This is the last tradition that was 
 placed in the bright poetic crown of the Ideal World of the 
 middle aws. Arthur and the Kniohts of the Round Table 
 represented temporal Knighthood; the Templars of the 
 Graal the spiritual Knighthood. The Carlovingian traditions 
 on one side displayed the power of temporal but Christian 
 Knighthood in combats with the pagans ; on the other 
 side, the same traditions showed that in all that apper- 
 tained to feudal government^ Knighthood was opposed to 
 the Suzerain Lord. The ascetic feeling of Monachism B^vQdidi 
 a gloom over the legends of the Saints, and the joyous 
 temper of the times was reflected in the lyric poems. Sup- 
 posing, on the one hand, that these classes of knights and 
 devotees were so dissimilar in their original design, their 
 
58 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 vocation, and ultimate object, that the individuality of the 
 one could not blend with that of the other ; and that, on 
 the other side, the most ancient poets always looked upon 
 Tradition as true, and to which they must, as much as 
 possible, faithfully adhere, we find a remarkable explanation 
 of the fact, which is also observable in Germany, that, 
 in more ancient times, no poet ever thought of mingling 
 the difi"erent traditions, or of placing the characters of the 
 one in another. That was not practicable, until the tra- 
 dition had left its parent country, and had passed into a 
 foreign land. 
 
 The first poet of the North of France, who speaks of the 
 tradition of the Graal, is Chrestien de Troyes, who was 
 endowed with a truly tropical fertility, if indeed he can 
 claim all that has been attributed to him. French Savans 
 formerly placed him between lloO and 1190, — by far too 
 long a period. The more profound researches of Fauriel 
 show, that we have no reason for placing his literary labours 
 farther back than 1170. His Percival (Biblio. de F Arsenal, 
 Paris MS. No. 195, A. and Biblio. du Roi MS. fol. No. 130.) 
 is dedicated to Count Philip of Flanders, who died in June, 
 1191. Death deterred Chrestien from finishing his Perci- 
 val. From the 148th folio of the first MS. it is continued 
 by Gaulthier de Denet, from the 180th folio by Gerbers, 
 (probably Gyrbert of Montreuil, Minstrel to the Countess 
 Marie de Ponthie, died 1251,) and finally by one Manes- 
 sier, who dedicates his work to the Countess Johanna of 
 Flanders, who died in 1244. In this way, half a century 
 passed before this Romance was finished ! There is another 
 History of Percival and the Romance of the Graal in the 
 Bibliotheque du Roi, of which the first poem (MS. No. 
 7536.) continues that of Chrestien; the other (MS. 1987.) 
 states that the author has versified the prose tale of Ro- 
 bert de Boron. — The contents of the latest French Ro- 
 mances of Merlin, (2nd part,) of the new Tristan and 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 59 
 
 Lancelot, of Perceforest, the Morte d' Arthur, and also the 
 Graal, &c. are more or less similar, and are all referable to 
 a Welsh origin. All of these must be placed between the 
 end of the twelfth century and the fourteenth. In the six- 
 teenth century, and even before that time, when the ancient 
 language became inconvenient, they were changed into very 
 thick prose volumes, as the Roman de Percival, (Paris, 
 1529, and L'Histoire du Sangreal, Paris, 1523.) One 
 romance rises from another, and borrows from it ; and an 
 enormous mass of the strangest adventures are thus accu- 
 mulated, without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. 
 There is no trace of a general plot ; sudden apparitions of 
 angels and demons crowd upon each other, while every 
 characteristic trait disappears — there is no character in the 
 persons, — and the tales and personages have no longer any 
 sense or connexion between each other. Whoever has 
 ventured to penetrate this chaos, turns away with sorrow, 
 on seeing the beautiful creations of a sublime poetry dis- 
 figured by the monstrous mysticism of a sombre monach- 
 ism, the ill directed erudition of priests, and an immoderate 
 passion for all that was new and unknown. Nevertheless, 
 we see, rising above this chaotic darkness, like the last 
 gleam of the sun, a rehgious and Christian spirit, always 
 zealously occupied, though not always with equal success, 
 in penetrating the inscrutable mysteries of Faith, the mi- 
 racles eöected by Christianity over the whole world, and 
 the blessed doctrines of the New Testament, — in expressing 
 them by symbols, and in attaching them to the poetical 
 and historical traditions, accordino- to the character of 
 Christian Chivalry. This is the only thing which gives 
 to the scattered elements of these romances some con- 
 nexion and support, and a sense which deeply affects us ; 
 although we must always lament that this Cherubim of 
 light appeared to the eyes of the romancers through thick 
 clouds, and not with that distinctness which we admire in 
 
60 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 the German Percival of Wolfran. These mercenary min- 
 strels were animated by no spontaneous enthusiasm ; in 
 order to Hve, they were obliged to produce something new ; 
 for this reason they searched on all sides, employed every 
 combination, sought out every mystery, and thus profited 
 by the popular passion for reading, together with the frivo- 
 lity of the times, and the inability to appreciate the true or 
 the sublime. For the mind of a people who could find the 
 highest gratification in the trifling romance of Amadis and 
 other pastorals, or in a monstrous allegory like the Ro- 
 mance of the Eose, must have been long deeply corrupted, 
 and become too weak to estimate real poetry. From the 
 thirteenth century we date the lapse of tradition into 
 arbitrary and corrupt fictions ; and from that time we can 
 no longer speak of an influence, or of the dissemination of 
 genuine Welsh Traditions. In order to explain this opi- 
 nion, we will only name the principal facts. 
 
 The Order of Templars, which the annexed Table will 
 explain, had now disappeared with the Kings of the Graal. 
 Amfortas alone remains, under the name of Le Eoi Pecheur ; 
 but it is only the continuators of Chrestien who first men- 
 tion him, under the signification of a fisher for souls. His 
 Knights have nothing in common with the Templars ; and, 
 in fact, it would not have been prudent if the French poets, 
 after the year 1250, had endeavoured in this manner to 
 exalt an order, against which the most sanguinary and ter- 
 rible proceedings had been commenced, (1303 — 1314,) and 
 which was annihilated as a disgrace to humanity. 
 
 The miraculous mystery of the Graal, which no one can 
 discover unless he is ordained to it, has disappeared. It 
 is often named ; Arthur and all the Knights of the Eound 
 Table set ofi" in search of it ; but they and the poets may 
 be compared to men who seek, but who have forgotten 
 what they seek after. Gawain, Lancelot, and others find 
 the Castle of the Graal more than once, as they find many 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 
 
 61 
 
 pq 
 H 
 
 Ph 
 
 Co 
 
 ;2r 
 
 500 Anni. 
 I 
 
 3 Ö5 
 
 (2 
 
 .2 
 I 
 
 — a> 
 
 I. 
 
 <1 
 
 GO 
 
 Is 
 
 500 Anni. 
 
 <a) ft 
 
 
 ^ o 
 
 
 C/] 
 
 p c3 
 PhÖ 
 
 - 03 a> 
 
 M 
 
 Ö 
 
 a> 
 
 
 P^ 
 
 bo 
 
 
 
 ;i 
 
 F^ 
 
 .id 
 
 ^ 
 
 p^ 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1— r) 
 
 pi 
 
 ^ 
 
 HO 
 
 a 
 
 I— I h- ( p- 
 
 « 
 
 l0 
 
 
 
 1-3 P^ 
 
 _03 
 
 .T5 P-i O Jh 
 
 ^ t; — - § ■ 
 
 dj o 
 
 Jo P 
 
 It- '^ 
 
 1, '^ Jn 
 
 Co /-N 03 it:? 
 
 P ^ op 
 
 wO oj 
 
 Ö '^ ~ o? 5 
 
 03 OJ g P 
 
 *23-S P o 
 
 4S 
 
 fcop 
 
 ^ p^ 
 
 ■^ P c» 
 =3:3 P 
 M Co -t^ 
 
 ;> > 
 
62 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 other castles, and, if the poet requires it, the Graal often 
 appears in resplendent glory, or in the midst of lightning; 
 he feasts the Knights with the most exquisite delicacies, he 
 performs other miracles but always "sans rime et sans rai- 
 son,'' and like Deus ex machina. 
 
 Since they could no longer make honourable mention of 
 the templars, it was necessary to invent other means of pre- 
 serving the Graal up to the period of the Round Table ; and 
 it is found in Joseph of Arimathea, who was considered the 
 first British apostle. Gregory of Tours (595) names him 
 frequently, and Baronius in 1300 says of him, that he sailed 
 from Gaul into Britain, and having preached the Gospel, he 
 there closed his life;^ but William of Malmesbury speaks at 
 leno-th of Philip as the apostle of the Britons, and in the 
 passages quoted, he is stated to be in constant communica- 
 tion with the places where the remembrance of Arthur and 
 Avalen was preserved. Gildas, Bede, Nennius, Asser, Geof- 
 frey of Monmouth, in a w^ord all, even the ecclesiastical 
 historians, are silent respecting Joseph of Arimathea till the 
 twelfth century, and this leads us to believe that his jour- 
 ney to England is an invention of the French and English 
 monks of the thirteenth century. Even Chrestien knows 
 nothing of him, but he is mentioned by his continuators. It 
 is true, that in the ruins of the Abbey of Glastonbury, the fu- 
 neral chapel of Joseph is shewn to this day; but that is ex- 
 plained, if we recollect that Robert Wingfield. ambassador of 
 Henry the Eighth of England, sent to the Emperor Max- 
 imilian the First, a book of Joseph and other Saints, 
 under the title Discept. super dignitate, <S:c. Regnorum 
 Brittan. et Gall, in Concilio Constantiensi habita. He was 
 frequently also confounded with Josephus the historian, 
 
 ' " Tradunt ex Gallia in Britanniam iiavigasse, illicque post pi-cedica- 
 tiim Evaiiffelium diem clausisse extremum." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 63 
 
 the son of Mathathias, and much was attributed to him 
 which referred to the other, i 
 
 We will here quote a passage from the Launcelot of Bo- 
 ron, in order to shew the dijSerence between the chivalry of 
 the templars, of the Provencal traditions of the Graal, and 
 of that which more modern poets understand by their 
 knights of the Graal. " L'autre jour, jour de la Pentecote, les 
 chevalliers terrestres (also called La Chevalerie amoreuse) et 
 les Chevalliers celestes commencerent ensemble chevallerie, ils 
 commencerent ensemble ä combattre les uns centre les au- 
 tres. Les Chevaliers qui sont en peche mortel, ce sont les 
 chevaliers terrestres. Les vrais chevaliers, ce sont les che- 
 valiers celestes, qui commencerent la quete du St. Graal." 
 
 "Les chevaliers terrestres qui avaient des yeux et de cceurs 
 terrestres, prirent des convertures noires, c'est a dire, qu'ils 
 etaient converts de peches et des souillures. Les autres, qui 
 etaient les chevalliers celestes, prirent des couvertures blan- 
 ches, c'est a dire, virginite et chastete. "" (Revue des deux 
 mondes. B. 8. p. 692. 
 
 It appeared unjust to the poets that Arthur himself 
 should not be King of the Graal. The second and more 
 modern part of the romance of Merlin remedies this. Ar- 
 thur is the founder of the Round Table; which is now 
 made to signify the table at which our Lord supped with his 
 apostles ; a cratera sent by God is placed upon it, which 
 typifies the communion of the good with the wicked. The 
 Table^ and not the Cup is called the Graal; the cratera has 
 
 1 In the romance of the Sangraal, Alain the great also appears again 
 as the faithful companion of Joseph and great grandson of Cehdon of 
 Kamalot, and is for a long time the hero of the tale ; nor does Conan 
 remain without notice ; and although little positive information as to 
 the national history is to be obtained, yet this anxious striving after 
 great historical names, fully shows the firm resolve of the author to 
 invest his poem, both by their aid and the charm of ancient national 
 association, with extraordinary interest. 
 
64 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 disappeared in the East, and its guardians know not where 
 it remains. There cannot be a doubt that the ancient 
 Welsh MerUn was the first origin of this romance, it also 
 describes minutely all the deeds of Arthur, and the love of 
 Merlin for Viviane; but every thing concerning the Graal 
 is superadded in the most forced manner, though related in 
 the same way as in the other romances. In the Proven9al 
 tradition, Amfortas receives an incurable wound from the 
 bleeding lance, in consequence of having violated the vows 
 of the order. The poets of the north of France suppose 
 this lance to be that which pierced our Saviour's side. The 
 discovery of the lance during the crusades was undoubtedly 
 the cause of this transformation, althouo^h Charlemaone and 
 
 'CD O 
 
 Otho I. had long possessed it. In like manner the Graal 
 was connected with history, by making it the cup of the 
 Holy Supper, or the cup in which the blood of our Saviour 
 was received; probably in consequence of the discovery of 
 the precious cup of which William of Tyre (1174) and all 
 other Historians speak {Alhericiis Ariiim fontium Chron. 
 ad a. 1101. Marinus Sanutus (1321) lib. secret L. III. p. 6. 
 c. 4. in Gesta Dei per Francos. Helinandiis^ (1227) Chron. 
 ad an. 720. Jacobus a Voragine in Chron. Genuense (1244 — 
 1298) &c. &c. 
 
 We see on all sides that the poets of the north of France 
 entirely lost the ancient signification of the romance of 
 the Graal, and enveloped it completely in a christian and 
 dogmatic form; that they placed it in the midst of legends 
 and relics, and thus abandoned every element which could 
 be called Welsh. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 65 
 
 FABLE THE MABINOGION. 
 
 In recapitulating tlie results at which we have so far ar- 
 rived, we should say that the immediate influence of the 
 Welsh traditions upon the literature of France was effect- 
 ed by their passage through that country, where they be- 
 came imbued with the spirit of French chivalry, and form- 
 ed a perfectly new style, of which the tendency was to 
 represent the true life and spirit of chivalry. But there is 
 also another equally important element, which passed into 
 France with these traditions, and like them became dif- 
 fused over Europe ; this is the ancient popular belief of the 
 Welsh and the Bretons, — the ancient Celtic mythology it 
 may be called, — the wonderful and interesting World of 
 Celtic Tales. For, the beneficent fairies who educated 
 Lancelot du Lac, the giants conquered by Owain, Tristan, 
 and Peredur, the enchanted fountains, the miraculous trees, 
 the dragons and serpents, the magic rings, the sorcerer 
 Merlin, the Fay Morgana sister of Arthur, these aerial 
 spirits which once more resumed their power under Shak- 
 speare, do not come from the North nor from the East — 
 they are Celtic — and all these powers and beings which are 
 still religiously preserved in the poetic memory of the peo- 
 ple ^ of Brittany and of Wales, who have always been so 
 remarkable for their attachment to their ancient literature, 
 are of a nature totally different from those which have pass- 
 ed from Asia to the West. In the German and Scandina- 
 vian religion, belief takes an animated nature, which shows 
 itself even after the introduction of Christianity. In them 
 nature and genius are not yet separated, and, in this primi- 
 tive union, nature appears poetic from the mountains and 
 rivers down to animated life. The miraculous beings of the 
 
66 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 East form still more a world apart, and foreign to man; 
 magic does not exist as an elementary spirit in nature, these 
 superhuman beings represent less the powers of nature than 
 human passions; trees and flowers do not in themselves 
 possess an intellectual life, but they shade the dwelUng of 
 the God, or serve to express these mysteries to man; they 
 are symbols, but they are not beings ; we see throughout 
 less of internal life than of exterior marvels. 
 
 Supposing that, after the twelfth century, this style had 
 entered by Spain from the East into the ideas of the people 
 and the chivalric poems, and that these elements had given 
 a certain tinge mingled with these ancient fabulous beings, 
 and with the beUef of the Celts, still we must decidedly 
 deny that all is of oriental origin. This cannot be conceded, 
 except in so far as that the Celts, hke all other nations in 
 Europe, had their primitive home in Asia, and might have 
 brought with them certain remembrances, of which they 
 partook equally -^dth their brethren of the East. 
 
 A behef in superhuman and demoniacal beings, in hidden 
 powers of nature and means to possess oneself of them, is 
 common to every poeple, and penetrates harmlessly more or 
 less into every religion, if it be not perverted by repulsive 
 superstition. Jacob Grimm, in his unappreciable work on 
 German M}i:hology, has shewn in w^hat manner this ima- 
 ginative World, of which we speak, and which is here call- 
 ed the Fabulous Kingdom of Tales, had its first origin, and a 
 well founded and reasonable meaning in ancient paganism; 
 how, at first, notwithstanding the bloody baptism by the 
 sword of Charlemagne, Christianity insensibly bordered on 
 pagan ideas, how places sacred to the pagans were chosen 
 for christian chapels, how they gradually made the pagan 
 divinities subordinate to the one true God of Christianity, 
 degrading them to powerless demons and diabolical beings, 
 or to goblins and gnomes, and how, at last, the ancient 
 belief in these beings was discarded by more enlightened 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 67 
 
 minds, and dismissed to the nursery, to people the fresh and 
 infantile imagination with those changeable and etherial 
 beings which we meet with in these tales. We do not doubt 
 that we could demonstrate a similar progress of the ancient 
 belief from the altar of nature to the nursery, amongst the 
 Cymry and Bretons, and that we should find amongst 
 these people described to us, as possessing such lively 
 imagination, and delighting always in fantastic specula- 
 tions and curious philosophisms, many more documents 
 than among the Germans, where the sources are very 
 scarce, and are often derived from the Scandinavians; 
 although such a research would present another peculiar 
 difficulty, viz. that the Celts very early experienced a Rom- 
 an, German, and Scandinavian influence, which produced 
 a picture much more varied and complicated than in Ger- 
 many, and we feel assured that the ancient pagan belief was 
 transformed among the Celts much earlier in the Childrens*' 
 Tales, because Christianity penetrated much sooner into 
 Wales and Armorica than into Germany and Scandinavia. 
 
 But we must not here enter more largely into the his- 
 tory of this civilization, we must confine ourselves to unra- 
 velling these stories only as far as they are mixed with the 
 traditions of Arthur ; for it is those traditions that have occa- 
 sioned the circulation of these tales throughout Europe. We 
 find that this species of poetry is, at first, exclusively dis- 
 played in the most ancient continental poems, of which the 
 subject is the achievements and adventures of Arthur's 
 Knights. These poems correspond so entirely with those 
 Welsh stories called Mabinogion, that we have only to 
 resolve the question whether the Mabinogion are the origin 
 of the French romances, or vice versa, that is to say, feeble 
 imitations of those eminently poetic creations of the period 
 when chivalry was at its height. 
 
 The word Mabinogion is translated Tales for Children, 
 or by Tales in general; and Lady Charlotte Guest, in a 
 
68 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 very pleasing letter, has dedicated her translation of the 
 Mabinogion to her o^^ti children, but we doubt whether 
 this title would have been employed in the twelfth century 
 in the same sense. Tradition and fables are always sup- 
 posed to contain faith and doubt. A tale is a dream of 
 truth, with the full conciousness that it is but a dream. 
 The relater knows that he repeats an imaginative poem. 
 The manners of nations are reflected in the lives of indivi- 
 duals, and as, in mature age, man can only return to the 
 fancies and pleasures of childhood and youth as to a dream, 
 so, in like manner, a people cannot look upon their past 
 history and historical traditions as fables, until they have 
 long since passed that period, and have advanced to a much 
 higher degree of civiHzation. In the poems of the most ancient 
 bards, we find Owaiu, Peredur, Geraint, and others, men- 
 tioned as warriors, fighting with Arthur against the Saxons ; 
 these persons belong to history equally with Arthur. In the 
 Mabinogion their historical character is annihilated vnih 
 that of Arthur, who here appears in the same light as^in 
 the French romances, a spectator of the exploits of his com- 
 panions ; his court is the rendezvous of his heroes, whose ad- 
 ventures no longer appear as patriotic expeditions. So long as 
 the people faithfully believed in the truth of the traditions 
 of Arthur and his heroes, these Mabinodon could not have 
 been composed. But we are aware of the tendency of tra- 
 dition to amplification. This tendency does not show itself 
 capriciously, but follows the general laws of nature, and 
 only operates when the mind and body are satisfied. It 
 consequently appears in this case, that tradition could not 
 proceed to separate and enlarge on the histories of persons 
 who had hitherto only acted a secondary part, until the 
 glory of Arthur had attained its height, and the people began 
 to find a monotony in the constantly repeated history of one 
 person, and sought to replace it by fresh subjects. The 
 bards and minstrels would then endeavor to revive their 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 69 
 
 feelings with respect to this ancient personage hy the addi- 
 tion of new facts, over which they diflfused a higher interest, 
 by interweaving them with ancient and celebrated occur- 
 ences. We have already seen, from the testimony of Nennius, 
 the manner in which, as early as the ninth century, the origi- 
 nal. Arthur and his histories are amplified. In the Welsh 
 Archaiology p. 167, 175, fee. we find dialogues between 
 Arthur, Kai, and Glewlwyd, between Arthur and Gwen- 
 hwyvar, between the latter and Eliwlod, and between Tris- 
 tan and Gwalchmai, which the learned Turner places in the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries ; they prove that these histo- 
 rical heroes, like their chief, often received a fabulous glory, 
 but we do not find any trace of those elements of chivalry 
 which we shall hereafter describe more minutely. While tra- 
 ditions were thus added to, the Celtic fables and tales would 
 also require a greater extension, as well as a poetical worship, 
 for a stationary condition cannot be imagined where a real 
 existence is demonstrated; it is only in Wales, or perhaps 
 in Brittany also that authentic proofs could be produced, of 
 where and at what time they were combined with ancient 
 historical remembrances. In the Mabinogion in general, 
 the opposition still exists, — Christianity and Paganism are 
 completely opposed to each other. The giants and black 
 men, those savage, sanguinary and inhuman beings who so 
 often appear, belong to Paganism, while the heroes of the 
 tale are always good Christians, but the dogmatic tincture 
 of Christianity is always wanting in these stories, and if 
 their antiquity and purely Welsh origins, were not even still 
 more evident from the intimate connexion with the local- 
 ities, manners, and customs of the country, we should say 
 that one of the strongest proofs of it existed in our inability 
 any where to discover in them the hand of a priest or even 
 of a monk. * Courage and strength form the basis of chi- 
 valry; faith, honour and love, only serve to give it a 
 higher vocation or consecration. Strength and courage are 
 
70 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 also the characteristic traits of the heroes of the Mabi- 
 nogion, but Faith remains at the bottom, even more than 
 in our own Niebelungehed ; it never forms the motive of 
 actions ; Honour is not yet very sensitive or refined, it is 
 only introduced into the Mabinogion to prove strength and 
 couracje; and with regard to Lote^ the women appear more 
 exacting than the men, who constantly say that there is no 
 lady whom they love more than such a one, or such a one, 
 but do not always prove it by their actions. In the Mabi- 
 nogion we can, therefore, only discover the first slight traces 
 of the dawn of Chivalry. These Heroes are called March- 
 awg, which Lady 0. Guest, in speaking of Owain, translates, 
 and, no doubt justly. Knight. But they are knights before 
 whom the Seraphim of the Crusades had not yet carried 
 the cross, — Knisfhts whose hearts had not yet been softened 
 by the soft gales of Provence and Spain, although they 
 were more prepared to receive them than the bards of the 
 sixth century, who knew nothing of this species of adora- 
 tion. In the ninth century the bards had probably ex- 
 hausted in the histories of the deeds of Arthur, the [inter- 
 est which this avidity for a<?hievements and physical strength 
 had excited, but they gained a variety by recalling this an- 
 cient world of fable; there they found giants and di-agons 
 to combat, demoniacal powers to contend with, fairies to 
 amuse them; in short, a world made expressly for these 
 indefatio-able and invincible warriors. In this consisted the 
 interest that procured for these tales, which must, of neces- 
 sity, have existed in the eleventh century, that extraordinary 
 reception from the French and the Normans, who were their 
 untiring auditors. This reception would, on the other side, 
 animate Wales and Brittany to improve still further in this 
 fertile branch of poetry. William the Conqueror profited 
 by this thirst for exploits in order to subdue England; the 
 Church for the expeditions against Toledo and the Saracens, 
 and for the Crusades in the East; and it did not cease so 
 long as chivalry existed, and bodily strength retained its full 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 71 
 
 value. The dignity of knighthood was not hereditary, but 
 purely individual ; it was the reward of merit, and its value 
 depended on the person who bore it. Bodily strength and 
 the sword procured glory; which was the greater, if the 
 hero withstood the attack alone and without succour. The 
 heroes of the Mabinogion are knights-errant, who all seek 
 adventures separately, and it was this, which above all, en- 
 gaged the attention of the listening knight, who, placing 
 himself in the situation of the hero, ruminated over the 
 wonders of the tale as if he himself had witnessed them. 
 
 The Peredur of the Red Book of Hergest is the most 
 certain proof we have of a higher antiquity than 1150, and 
 of the pure tradition of the Oymry without any French 
 admixture, for it is perfectly free from any trace of the 
 Graal which was so soon after interwoven with the tradi- 
 tions of Arthur. There is not a single French or English 
 poem existing in which Perceval could be introduced in con- 
 nexion with the Graal; and the latter became so generally 
 known together with his hero, and created so great an 
 interest, that we consider it psychologically impossible that 
 a poet should have undertaken to separate the Graal and Per- 
 cival. On the contrary, history teaches us that of all kinds of 
 literature poetry has the strongest tendency to possess it- 
 self of new elements and to wander from its original source. 
 Peredur is an invaluable document as regards the fiction of 
 the Graal; but the same Mabinogi likewise proves that it 
 is a recent compilation, and that the Tale existed long be- 
 fore it was committed to writing ; for it refers in several 
 places to anterior histories. Page 353, "And Peredur was 
 entertained by the Empress fourteen years, as the story 
 relates^'''' and page 359, "And the story relates nothing 
 further of Gwalchmai respecting this adventure." 
 
 Thus it is not a fiction, it is not a fable, but it is a tra- 
 ditition perpetuated by writing. But nevertheless, it is a 
 Mabinogi, i. e. according to Owen's Welsh Dictionary, 
 Juvenile Instruction. We would propose this explanation; 
 
72 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 the Eed Book of Hergest was a guide for the instruction of 
 young bards, it was a means, whereby the huge and un- 
 formed mass of objects could be retained in the memory; 
 but to give life, spirit, and ornament, to these di'ily related 
 tales was reserved for the oral instruction of the master; if 
 he had a tale written with the same spirit and imagination 
 with which the Bard {tJie cantor historicus) recited it 
 aloud, we should have a very different work before us to 
 those which are in no way distinguished by beauty of com- 
 position, and which we may compare to mere skeletons — as 
 helps only to the memory, and books for the use of youth, and 
 which, in that form^ do not appear to us much more ancient 
 than the manuscript in which they are found. Even if the 
 poetry of the Welsh had arrived at its period of decay in 
 the twelfth century, such w^orks would not have been reckon- 
 ed as belonging to the Art. On the other hand, Wales was 
 not so raised above the civilization of the rest of Britain and 
 the continent, that it should then present these tales, which 
 excited an enthusiastic interest in the most distino:uished men 
 of the age as Stories for Children! We must draw atten- 
 tion to the circumstance that in the different compilations of 
 the same story, as I wain, Tristan, and Lancelot, and Erec, 
 both in France and England, we see the most remarkable 
 variations, together with certain adventures which are to be 
 found in all, rendering it impossible to reduce them all to one 
 common source. As they were perfectly new to the French, 
 w^e cannot imagine that the French themselves should have 
 invented these variations on their first introduction. But 
 this difficulty is easily explained, if we seek for the common 
 origin in the oral Tradition which was differently modified 
 in the mouth of each Welsh Bard or Tale-teller. The out- 
 line which chance presented to the French clerk, always 
 eager for novelty and reading, to reduce it to writing, was 
 put into French verse in different ways by different per- 
 sons, and thus these romances were formed. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 73 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION ON THE 
 LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 
 
 In the preceding chapter it was necessary to enter into 
 minuteness of detail, as it seemed to us more important to 
 follow the Influence of the Celtic traditions on French 
 literature in its interior developements, than to verify a 
 fact generally known ; and because the first passage of tradi- 
 tion into a strange land — it might almost be said into a new 
 world — was of much higher importance than its posterior 
 progress. Henceforth we shall only follow its exterior his- 
 tory, since the causes which rendered France capable of 
 receiving the Celtic traditions had, for the most part, the same 
 operation as in Germany, and consequently do not need repe- 
 tition. It was not until the end of the twelfth century that 
 Germany, which received these traditions through the me- 
 dium of the North of France, and not direct from Wales, be- 
 came acquainted with that class of romances of the Knights 
 of the Round Table, which we have already placed in the 
 second epoch. They comprise the romances of Lancelot 
 du Lac, by Ulric von Zatzikofer; Erek and Enid, by Hart- 
 maun von Aue; Ivain, the Chevalier au Lion, by the same 
 author; and Tristan, by Eilhart von Hobergen; all belong- 
 ing to the last ten years of the twelfth and the beginning of 
 the thirteenth century; Percival, by Wolfran von Eschen- 
 bach, 1205; Wigalois, by Wiret von Grafenburg, 1212; 
 Tristan and Isolde, by Godfrey of Strasburg, 1214; coiv 
 tinued by Ulric Thürheim, and Heinrich von Freiburg, 
 1240 — 1250; Wigamur and Lohengrin, about 1300; and 
 many others. They all refer to and rest upon the French 
 
74 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 poems, but cannot properly be called translations, for each 
 of these poets evinces the German tendency to reflection; 
 they generally adhere to their models very faithfully as to 
 facts, but, with regard to motives, which seldom appear at 
 all in the French, thev follow their own understanding: and 
 when they cannot discover good reasons for the extraordi- 
 nary actions of their heroes, they frequently rely on their 
 own Muse, ("Frau- A venture") or excuse themselves and 
 complain to their learned translator, for few of these Poet- 
 Knights could read or write that they should be obhged to 
 relate such strange adventures. In this manner the Ger- 
 man character became engrafted on the French romances; 
 the poet always accompanies the actions he relates, with 
 his own remarks and reasonings, or gives them German 
 forms and motives, rendering these poems the richest 
 source of the history of Chivalry and the private life of 
 the age. 
 
 Chivalry was in its prime during the first half of the 
 thirteenth century. The court of the Landgrave Hermann 
 of Thüringen, at Eisenbach, in 1215, was the rendezvous 
 of the poets, and the centre of all that was most intellectual 
 and civilized, as the Court of Weimar was in our ovra time. 
 Emperors and Princes were themselves poets, and honoured 
 the art; and the finest lyric poetry was only practiced by 
 princes, the highest nobility and knights ; while song 
 formed a necessary accompUshment in the society of the 
 nobles. But after the death of the Emperor Frederic the Se- 
 cond, misfortune and dissension spread over Germany, and 
 poetry soon fell from its resplendent height, and was no 
 more re-established during the middle ages. 
 
 We have already seen, that the exaltation of the temporal 
 knight was the idea of the French romancers, which accounts 
 for the oTcat interest thev excited in the nobles and knisfhts 
 of Germany. But a small part is preserved; an immense num- 
 ber of poems having been lost through the ignorance of 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 75 
 
 priests, from the rudeness of later times, and in the devour- 
 ing flames of the Thirty years War. The German authors 
 preserved the French form of two very short rhyming iambic 
 stanzas ; but the language which at first moved heavily and 
 awkwardly in this foreign shape, constantly developed itself 
 more freely, and gained a flexibility and pliability, united to 
 great energy, until the language of Wolfran von Eschenbach, 
 and Godfrey of Strasburg, attained a perfection which 
 would bear a comparison with all that is beautiful and per- 
 fect in other times. In arranging these foreign romances, a 
 poetic spirit was cultivated at the same time with the lan- 
 guage. The more ancient poets were contented if their re- 
 lations enlivened the thoughtful and soothed the unfortunate, 
 they expected that their auditors should be pleased, and 
 found them so ; but they soon discovered, from their ten- 
 dency to explain every motive, that it was necessary to 
 arrange each tale, in order to make a whole ; to shorten 
 those episodes whose solution was not to be found in the 
 model before them, and to give to their images a consistent 
 character; and it is very satisfactory to find a decided im- 
 provement in the works of the same poet, as in the case of 
 Hartman von Aue. 
 
 While in France the Celtic traditions encountered the 
 national tradition of Charlemagne, which they could nei- 
 ther keep back nor unite with themselves, the French ro- 
 mances found a heroic and national tradition in Germany, 
 in which Siegfried von Niederland, the Burgundian kngs 
 at Worms, King Etzel, Theodoric and Hermanrich, form 
 the principal characters, and whose origin can be traced to 
 pagan antiquity, where they mingle with the Scandinavian 
 Mythse and are lost. Until the tenth century this tradi- 
 tion was preserved only in the national songs; but, in the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries, even the clerks themselves did 
 not disdain to celebrate the exploits of these heroes in Latin 
 hexameters. The great epic of the Niebelungen first appears 
 
76 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 in 1210, uniting tlie most ancient tales of Siegfried with 
 the history of the fall of the House of Burgundy, and soon 
 after with a number of other national traditions, some of 
 which are of still older date, and bear on their surface 
 the character of the chivalry of their age, showing how the 
 chivalrous spirit of the French romances, when transplant- 
 ed into Germany, had influenced even these popular poets. 
 But still their general purport always differs from that of 
 Arthurian romances, in the same manner that the Tradi- 
 tions of Charlemagne in France remained distinct from them. 
 The most ancient poems are all composed in the well 
 known long quatrain strophes of the Niebelungen; the 
 chivalric poets did not make use of rhymes in couplets 
 until the second half of the thirteenth century, when they 
 began also to understand these traditions, and previous to 
 this period we can not discern any really artistical princi- 
 ple. In short, their songs were destined for a different 
 audience, for the people and not, like the French ro- 
 mances, for the nobility, who would sing of the glories of 
 chivalry. It is this which occasions the ancient paganism 
 to which they owe their origin to appear through the seve- 
 ral forms of Christianity that -invests the heroes of the 
 national tradition, such as the fierce Hagen, the savage Monk 
 Ilsan, the revengeful Chrienibild, Brunhild, Siegfried, &;c. 
 Wolfran von Eschenbach is the first who attained the 
 highest degree of poetic art, in his Perceval. He is per- 
 fectly aware of his talents, and that he need not shrink from 
 the high task he has imposed upon himself in this work. 
 
 ''Qi untcrna&m hk^ £ie5 ein 53^önn, 
 
 Der (2;an9e^ft)ert]^el tvol^l prüfen fann; 
 
 S)er bai ^c^c ivdii Oom 3flie5ern ]n Idbeibett, 
 
 Un5 e9 in liebliche 3leime 3U fleiben.^" 
 
 1 "This poem was undertaken by one, who knows how to appreciate 
 that which is worthy of being sung : who can separate the noble from 
 what is mean, and can clothe it in beautiful verse." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 77 
 
 He considers that his poem should be a mirror for both 
 sexes ; it should regulate their life, their actions, their love, 
 and their hatred. He blames the narrowmindedness of 
 those who desire to hear tales, without attending to the 
 good advice contained in them ; who hasten to the conclusion 
 merely to satisfy their own curiosity ; for them, his trou- 
 ble and his work are all in vain, since his relation goes 
 in at one ear and out at the other; they would shoot an 
 arrow without drawing the bow, — but a block or an elm 
 stick would comprehend the sense of his poetry better than 
 they ! (See Percival, translated by San Marte, Magde- 
 burg, 1836, pp. 4. 232. 170. 556.) This confidence in 
 himself rests on the firm basis of the clearness of his own 
 views, upon a perfect knowledge of his subject, upon the 
 high artistical and ethical point of view from whence he had 
 seized the sublime idea which was hidden in the Proven9al 
 tradition of the Graal, and which he knew how to vivify, 
 till he inspired the rude mass before him with an immortal 
 spirit ; his predecessors had but a slight foreknowledge of 
 this manner of treating a poetical subject, a manner which 
 has created a new era in the epic poetry of Germany. He 
 rendered himself so independent of the material of the tra- 
 dition, that the unprincipled life of the Round Table, its 
 vain splendour and ambitious ostentation, the savage 
 champion Segramors, the detracting Kai, the Gramoflanz, 
 and the celebrated feasts of Pentecost in the court of Arthur, 
 are frequently the subject of his bitter irony. 
 
 From a comparison of Percival with the Titurel, we per- 
 ceive the manner in which Wolfran drew his Percival from a 
 shapeless accumulated mass in the romance of Kiot, and form- 
 ed and polished it into a perfect and beautiful whole : rejecting 
 all that did not answer his intentions. His extraordinary 
 mind warmed with its celestial fire another equally great 
 and original genius, who felt himself impelled to a similar un- 
 dertaking. We allude to Godfrey of Strasbourg: without 
 
 L 
 
78 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 imitation endowed Avitli a free spirit and a profound know- 
 ledge of the human heart, a finished taste, and a splendour 
 of language, which no one, either since or previously, has 
 ever been able to attain, he made himseK master of the 
 Breton tradition of Tristan and Isolde, and named Thomas 
 of Brittany as his predecessor. Commencing at the same 
 point as Wolfran, viz. that material tradition is not dead, 
 and that it receives life from the use that is made of it, still, 
 he is perfectly difierent from Wolfran. The opinion of 
 Wolfran, not only upon the unprofitableness of the heroes 
 of the Breton romances, but of chivalrv in general, if it 
 were not at once animated by efi'orts of mind to attain the 
 highest good, and to combat the enemies of the heart ; and 
 his profound manner of regarding the world in connexion 
 with God, threatened to overthrow the whole of that ideal 
 Avorld, in which the poets and nobles seriously imagined 
 they should find the object of pursuit, and thus to annihi- 
 late all that had been regarded as the most sublime poetry, 
 and the most noble exercise of intellectual life. Godfrey of 
 Strasbourg opposes this with all the force of genius. In 
 his romance, he cultivates this ideal world with an irresistible 
 charm, and the more easily obtains the general sufii-age, 
 from making love the pivot on which his story turns. But 
 although the tw^o authors are as opposite as fancy and re- 
 flection, as the most joyous gaiety and the most profound 
 gravity, as amusement and wisdom, or, as the enjoyment 
 of the present and the struggle for eternal happiness ; yet 
 both agree in no longer considering these French romances 
 as real traditions, as was formerly the opinion in France, 
 but as works of imagination, composed for entertainment, 
 and to form a collection of good examples. This new 
 opinion is first clearly given in the didactic poem "Der 
 Wälsche Gast," by Thomassin, 1216. He enumerates 
 good and useful books for children, and says, "Girls should 
 hear, of the Lady Enid of Galiena, Blanchefleur, and Sorad- 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 79 
 
 amour; and youths, of Gavain, Erec, I vain, Arthur, Tris- 
 tan, Segramors, Kalogriant, and Percival." 
 
 3r l^aH nu öanomen ml 
 5Bal dttcr ftörcn un5 kkrx iol; 
 ^Uv hk ju ^inne fommm iini 
 T>k inlkti anbcr^ 5ann 5tc ^int 
 ©cmd^tert werben, ha] iU ivav, 
 SBann ik ^ulln Oerlajcn got 
 S)ie 6pil, t)k nidbt n?ar ^int, 
 Damit gefr'önjct ünt 5k d^int.» 
 
 These stories, says he, consist of fanciful images and inven- 
 tions proper to amuse children and peasants, but more ad- 
 vanced youth should find pleasure, and seek for good council, 
 in listenins: to truth itself. We find in him the matter of 
 fact mind of mature age, which, having lost all youthful 
 enthusiasm, and abandoned every chivalrous idea, no longer 
 recognizes the true point of view in which these traditions 
 were formerly regarded and propagated. The same opinion 
 is expressed in more recent didactic poems, in Vridankes- 
 Bescheidenheit, 1230; in the Renner of Hugo von Trim- 
 burg, 1300; in König Tirol, and Friedebraut, his son; in 
 Wiesbek and Wiesbekin, of the same period, which contain 
 good advice from a knight to his son, and from a mother to 
 her daughter. Every thing in this life finds its antitype : 
 and thus we see a whimsical tendency to carry the crea- 
 tions of imaginative poetry into every day life, in opposition 
 to the dry and practical view taken by the above authors. 
 We recollect the two fanciful expeditions which Ulric von 
 Lichtenstein relates at length in his poetical autobiogra- 
 phy, a work which carries the stamp of truth in every 
 line. He sent a circular from Venice to all the Knights 
 of Lombardy, Friaul, Oarinthia, Styria, Austria, and Bo- 
 hemia, informing them, that out of regard to them, the God- 
 
80 INFLUENX^E OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 dess Venus intends to set out to teach them how they 
 mio-ht merit the love of noble ladies. Whatever kniaht 
 comes to meet and break a lance with her, receives a gold 
 ring in reward, which he must send to the lady of his affec- 
 tions. If Madame Venus overthrows the knight, he must 
 prostrate himself tow^ards the four corners of the earth, in hon- 
 our of his lady, but if she is vanquished by a knight, he 
 receives all the horses that she brings with her. He gives 
 very minute details of the grand procession of fantastic 
 masks which took place in 1220. 
 
 Another time this rich Austrian knight undertook a 
 similar tournay, as King Arthur, returning from Paradise 
 to re-establish the Round Table. Each knight who desired 
 to become a member of this society must break three lances 
 with the Kino^ wdthout failino-; he is then admitted, and 
 receives the name of one of the knights of the Round 
 Table; Albert von Arnstein was called Segramors; Hein- 
 rich von Spiegelburg, Lancelot; Nicholas von Lebenburg, 
 Tristan; von Erchenger Landesehre, Iwain; Heinrich von 
 Lichtensteiu, Grawain; &:c. Szq. 
 
 In 1452 — 1458, a Suabian champion, called Georg von 
 Echino^en traversed the whole of Buro^undv, France, Eng- 
 land, Spain, and Portugal; at Ceuta conquered a gigantic 
 Moor, embarked at Rhodes, visited the Holy Sepulchre, 
 and at last, returned to his country laden with jewels and 
 honourable gifts, the reward of his chivalrous bravery. In 
 a Tournay at Worms, even the Emperor Maximilian 
 fought with a knight-errant, Claude de Battre, who had 
 challenged all the knighthood of Germany, and defeated 
 him gloriously. 
 
 Although these extravagances were principally excited 
 by the romances of Arthur, and formed, not the rule, but 
 the exceptions, yet we cannot disavow that these roman- 
 ces and real life influenced each other in many ways, and 
 that the many fine traits of honour, bravery, noble-mind- 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 81 
 
 edness, and devotedness in the romances touched the heart 
 and induced similar actions in real life. In every age the 
 leading tastes of a people have been created and favored 
 by the predominating direction of literature, which, again 
 on the other hand, receives a modification from them. 
 
 The fall of chivalry rendered the decay of poetry inevi- 
 table. Chivalry, so bright and so splendid, fell with the 
 fourteenth century, and was changed into the unholy law 
 of right to the strongest. Internal dissensions divided Ger- 
 many, and the victory of the Papal Hierarchy over the 
 Roman Empire produced its well-known fruits. Art had 
 perished under the pressure of the times ; many of the no- 
 bles became robbers, and the middle classes in the 
 towns had not yet become sufficiently enlightened to pa- 
 tronize poetry. The ancient poets were still read, but the 
 age that produced them had passed away ! It was at this 
 period that the romances, which we have designated above 
 as belonging to the third epoch, were introduced into Ger- 
 many; but there was no longer the spirit and the faculty 
 to enliven them, as Wolfran, Godfrey, and Hartmann had 
 animated the old romances. They are merely dry and 
 faithful translations into a language which had degenerated 
 almost to rudeness, and speak of facts that the world 
 could no longer comprehend or admire. To this period be- 
 longs the poem "Der aventüre Krone" by Heinrich von 
 dem Turlin, about 1250, although he approached more 
 nearly to a better time, and particularly the cyclical and 
 gigantic work of Ulric Flirterer, in the service of Duke 
 Albrecht IV. of Bavaria; who, about 1478, united in one 
 work all the romances of the Graal and the Round Table, 
 making use of the most recent French romances, as well as 
 the works of Wolfran and Albrecht, (Titurel.) The list 
 of chapters will show how and from whence he had drawn 
 for his compilations. 
 
82 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Chapter 1. Of the origin of the order of heroes and 
 knights, of the Trojan war, and the Argonautic Expedition. 
 (From the Brut d'Angieterre and Conrad von Würtsburg.) 
 
 Chapter 2. Of MerHn. (French.) 
 
 3. Of Gandin and Gamuret, (from the Percival 
 
 of Wolfran.) 
 
 4. Of Tschoinatulander and Sigune, (from the 
 
 Titurel of Albreeht.) 
 
 5. Of Percival, (from Wolfran.) 
 
 6. Of Lohengrin, (from a German poem which 
 
 rests on unknown French poems.) 
 
 7. Of Floris and Wigalois, (from a German 
 
 poem.) 
 
 8. Of Siegfried of Ardemont, (French.) 
 
 9. Of Meleranz of France. 
 
 10. Of I vain, (from Hartmanu.) 
 
 11. Of Persibein. 
 
 12. Of Knight Poytislier. 
 
 18. Of Lancelot, (from the French romance.) 
 The Celtic traditions still formed a part of German litera- 
 ture, but they were without life and spirit : — they had no 
 longer any influence. 
 
 The influence of the Titurel of Albreeht upon literature, 
 about 1350, was much greater, and the talent which shone 
 in this poem eclipsed nearly all the rest ; it rests principally 
 upon the Percival of Wolfran, and upon the Provencal tradi- 
 tion of Percival, both so difierent from the romances of the 
 Graal, of the North of France: thus it has nothing to do 
 with Welsh tradition, and does not belong to this enquiry. 
 
 The last traces of Arthur were preserved in short, ludi- 
 crous, and very improper tales, such as Ginevra's Miracu- 
 lous Mantle, mentioned in Lancelot du Lac ; the Miracu- 
 lous Horn, and other inventions below literary criticism. 
 After the discovery of printing, the Percival of Wolfran, 
 and the Titurel of Albreeht, were printed the first among 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 83 
 
 the foreign romances, 1477, together with the national 
 poems ; at a latter period, Tristan and Lancelot [were the 
 only ones added, — a proof that the romances of Arthur 
 were then little sought after. They disappeared entirely with 
 the reformation, until, in the middle of the last century, 
 our ancient German literature was discovered, as it were, 
 anew. 
 
 We will sum up, in a few words, the result of what we 
 have advanced. The traditions of Wales became a very 
 important part of German literature in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, and were the subject of the poetry of art, (Kunst- 
 poesie) so called in opposition to popular poetry, (Volkspoe- 
 sie). They became a medium of developement, not only 
 for language, but also for the esthetic art of the poets ; they 
 influenced the conventional life of chivalry, as well as the 
 moral education of the nobles; but when all the elements 
 in practical life which had formerly caused their origin had 
 perished, then they also lost all their influence and sunk 
 into oblivion. 
 
84 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF ^VELSH TRADITION ON THE 
 LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVL^. 
 
 So long as the hostile expeditions of the Angles, the Sax- 
 ons, the Danes, and the Normans, from Hengist and Horsa 
 down to Canute, disturbed England, it would have been 
 most difficult, if not impossible, to disseminate the Cel- 
 tic traditions in Scandinavia. For, in the beginning, it 
 was this very period that gave birth to these Welsh tradi- 
 tions; and at a later time, war had so divided the nations, 
 that, as we have before said, England itself could not re- 
 ceive the Welsh traditions by the side of the northern. 
 There, the Germanic and Scandinavian traditions disputed 
 the priority, like the Anglo-Saxons and Danes; and the 
 admixture of national Germanic and Scandinavian tradi- 
 tions and the ancient mythology of the North with Chris- 
 tianity, so early introduced into Britain ; the struggle be- 
 tween the more softened manners of the Anglo-Saxons and 
 those of the savage bands of pirate-invaders from the 
 North, form precisely the characterisic elements of Anglo- 
 Saxon poetry. For the Annals of Alfred of Asserius say, 
 ^•Saxo7iica poemata die noctuque solus auditor relatis alio- 
 rum ssepissime audi ens, docibilis memoriter retinebat ;" and 
 in another place, '^Saxonicos libros recitare et maxime carmi- 
 na Saxonica memoriter discere non desinebat;" so that the 
 poemata Saxonica are nothing more than the Germanic na- 
 tional traditions which were early propagated in Scandina- 
 via, and whose existence in England is also confirmed by 
 "The Traveller's Song." In hke manner the ancient gene- 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVIA. 85 
 
 alogies of the Heptarchy, which all go back to Woden (the 
 Odin of and the North, the Wadon of Germany,) confirm the 
 fact of the Anglo-Saxons^ attachment to their traditions. 
 In the poem Beowulf, the scene is laid in Denmark, with 
 her Isles in the Baltic; Sweden, the south shore of the 
 Baltic; Friesland, and the country of the Franks. In the 
 battle of Brunanburg, in Beorthnoth, &c. their Kings are 
 praised as the conquerors of the Northmen; and, as far as 
 we have been able to discover, no mention whatever is made of 
 wars with the Welsh. Wales is also entirely excluded from 
 the most ancient Scandinavian poems, although in almost 
 every one, it is related how the heroes travel and make expe- 
 ditions into Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, 
 the eastern and southern coasts of England, and even Ice- 
 land and Greenland. But the Northman only carried back 
 dead booty to his icy country — he brought no intellectual 
 riches. It would be more reasonable to speak of a northern 
 influence on the traditions of Wales; for accordins: to 
 GeoiFrey of Monmouth, Arthur conquers Hibernia, Iceland, 
 Gothland, and the Orkneys; he places the Saxon Lot, fa- 
 ther of Walwan (Gwalchmai or Gawain) upon the throne 
 of Norway; and again in the German Perceval, taken from 
 Kiot, Lot is named as coming "from Norway." The same 
 poem mentions an Isenhart, a Fridebrant of Scotland, 
 Schiltung, Hernant, and Herlinde, all German and Scan- 
 dinavian names. The heroes of Greenland (Gruonlant) 
 are mentioned, a country perfectly well known to the Sa- 
 gas of Scandinavia, but into which the Britons had never 
 penetrated. Now, as the tales of Herlinde and Fridebrant, 
 as well as Schiltung, are known from other German poems, 
 it is evident that they have been mixed with the Breton- 
 French tales. 
 
 We have before said that, from the earliest times, tlie 
 traditions of Arthur had received a tone of Christianity ; 
 their dissemination would therefore be more difficult among 
 
86 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 a pagan people, whose nationality was of so different a cha- 
 racter. It was not until the year 1000, that Christianity 
 began to shed its light over Scandinavia, and even long af- 
 ter that period it was regarded as a doctrine (Comp. La 
 Kristai Saga) which could easily be interchanged with pa- 
 ganism ; yet, it was Christianity alone which once more 
 brought these nearly forgotten countries into notice. Adam 
 of Bremen, about 1070, says, "To those who pass the 
 Danish Islands another world opens towards Sweden or 
 Norway, which are two extensive kingdoms in the north 
 entirely unknown to our own world."^ The seed planted by 
 Ansgarius and Eimbert grew slowly, and did not take deep 
 root before the first half of the twelfth century. About 
 the same time literature commenced in these nations, prin- 
 cipally among the Icelanders, who may justly be styled a 
 nation of narrative writers. 
 
 Between 874 and 934, a republic had been formed in 
 Iceland by Scandinavian emigrants, principally men of 
 wealth and distinction, who, discontented with their fortune 
 in their own country, or oppressed by those more powerful 
 than themselves, sought refuge in this distant island. It 
 preserved its independence for four centuries, keeping up a 
 brisk commerce with the mother country, Norway. It was 
 considered, even in Scandinavia, that the Icelanders posses- 
 sed the ancient songs of the North, and the most authentic 
 knowledge of its antiquity. All the most ancient Scandi- 
 navian chronicles confirm this. It was in Iceland that this 
 ancient poetry, founded by Odin and the Gods, w^as the 
 longest used; but being of pagan origin, it became con- 
 stantly more artificial after the belief in paganism had died 
 away. The Scald preserved his place at the court of the 
 
 1 "Transeuntibus insulas Danorum alter mundus aperitur in Sueco- 
 niam vel Nordmanniam, quae sunt duo latissima Aquilonibus regna, et 
 nostro orbi fere incoqnita." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVIA. 87 
 
 northern kings long after the introduction of Christianity ; 
 he held, at the same time, the office of historian, which 
 was always occupied by natives. The songs of the Scalds, 
 originally propagated solely from memory, were by this 
 means more carefully preserved. When a song had been 
 recited, another learnt it by heart, and there are instances of 
 the accustomed recompense having been refused to Scalds 
 who had not remained a sufficient time at the court for this 
 purpose. (Müller, Sagabibliothek, Snegle, Halls, Thattr.) 
 Tales were recited with these songs, and became a source of 
 great amusement both at the popular meetings and at court. 
 In this way, the most ancient traditions of the noblest 
 families in Iceland, and of the kings of the North, took 
 their rise. They rested on the testimony of the Scalds, 
 and were easily distinguished by their general character 
 from those later tales which were entirely fictitious. It 
 was not until 240 years had passed, that traditions were 
 committed to writing. Thus a noble tradition, which 
 had been carefully prepared by art when it existed only 
 orally, soon passed into a literature which is distinguished 
 for having exclusively made use of the mother tongue, then 
 spoken in the three kingdoms of the North. The most 
 celebrated name in this literature is Snorro Sturleson, born 
 in 1178; he became Lagman in Iceland, and larl in Nor- 
 way, and died, fighting for his country, in the last struggle 
 for liberty, in Iceland. He wrote a history of the kings 
 of Norway, or, according to his own words, for strictly 
 speaking he only collected materials and arranged them, 
 he recorded the ancient traditions of the kings who had 
 reigned over the kingdoms of the North, as he found them 
 in the songs of the Scalds, in the genealogies of the kings 
 and chiefs, and in the memory of erudite men. The more 
 modern prose Edda also bears his name, although this col- 
 lection of the Mythse of the Gods, and interpretations of 
 wars, of metre, and of the images of pagan poetry, was gra- 
 
88 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 dually formed by the labours of several persons. It was 
 destined for the instruction of younger Scalds, and it proves 
 that the ancient poetry was retained much later among the 
 Icelanders as a learned art. 
 
 The ancient mythological songs, to which the more mo- 
 dern Edda refers, are almost all preserved. They are found 
 in the poetic and more ancient Edda of Sämund, (from the 
 priest Saemund the learned, who died in 1133, and is 
 regarded as the author of this collection.) It also contains 
 those heroic traditions which, founded on the remembrance 
 of the great migration of nations, are here preserved in 
 their primitive and pagan form, while those in Germany 
 underwent a Christian transformation; on this account, 
 therefore, they are invaluable in tracing the history of 
 German traditions. 
 
 This is the national literature of Scandinavia, and we 
 find a similar one in the heroic traditions of Germany, and 
 in the traditions of Charlemagne in France. If we consi- 
 der the purport of this literature, at once so completely 
 national and essentially pagan; if we consider the office 
 of the Scalds as court historians, who, like the Welsh 
 bards, watched over the honour of the reigning family and its 
 patriotic attachments ; and if we remember the geographical 
 situation of Scandinavia, whose political state in the middle 
 of the twelfth century was equally isolated, and whose com- 
 merce was confined to the North of Germany, and consider 
 the continual civil wars, we can comprehend that the time 
 was not yet arrived when a foreign tradition could be trans- 
 planted to this ancient and unchanging Land of the North. 
 There was no commerce with Wales or Brittany ; and 
 having seen how the Breton traditions began to spread in 
 France about the year 1150, we are convinced that they 
 could not enter Scandinavia previous to the change from 
 their primitive to their chivalric form. To efiect this. Chi- 
 valry itself must have taken root in the North, which did 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVIA. 89 
 
 not take place in Denmark and Norway until the end of 
 the twelfth century. In 1113, under King Niels, there 
 were no horsemen trained to arms; the first military fief 
 was given under Swen in 1150, and it was only about 1180 
 that the states, nobles, clergy, and peasants, began to occupy 
 a fixed place in the country. Sweden remained nearly a 
 century behind in civilization. In 1280, under Magnus, a 
 cavalry service of nobles was first formed; under him the 
 dignity of Knight became a personal honour for the nobles, 
 whose classification henceforth resembles the knighthood of 
 other nations. Arnoldus Lubecensis, about 1209, says of 
 the Danes, "Owing to their brisk commerce with Germany, 
 the Danes have already adopted German customs, and imi- 
 tate other countries in their dress and arms." In conse- 
 quence of the exercise of chivalry, the Danes carried away 
 the prize in combats on horseback. The sciences also were 
 not neglected, since the nobles, in order that their sons 
 should not only study the sciences, but be instructed in 
 Catholicism, were accustomed to send them to Paris, where 
 they became acquainted with the French language and litera- 
 ture, and obtained some knowledge of the arts and theolo- 
 gy. We find the same thing in Sweden in 1300, and 
 there still exists a letter from Archbishop John at Upsal, 
 (1291,) which contains rules for young Swedes studying at 
 Paris, and who lived there in a private house destined to 
 that purpose, and received a portion of the tithes of the 
 chapter of Upsal for their maintenance. Great numbers of 
 Norwegians and Icelanders went to the continent for in- 
 struction. An obituary of the convent of St. Blasien at 
 Reichenau, near the lake of Constance, which extends from 
 the ninth to the twelfth century, enumerates, in the last 
 pages, a great number of Icelanders and Scandinavians in 
 general, who are mentioned, some as clergy, and some as 
 laymen. Adenais, roi d' Armes, roi des Minstrels, roi des 
 Eibauds, at the court of Henry III. of Brabant, or of Philip 
 
ÜO INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 III. of France, born, 1240, seems to be correct, when he 
 affirms in the romance of Bertha, that the French was the 
 language received at foreign courts, particularly in Ger- 
 many. Some German poets of this period confirm this, at 
 least by their silly custom of employing so many foreign 
 words. Several political events conspired to transplant 
 French poetry into the North. Philip Augustus of France 
 had lost his Queen, and demanded the sister of Knuds of 
 Denmark in marriage. In 1193, he received the fair Inge- 
 burg, whom the French often call Botilde ; he separated 
 from her the day after the marriage, but was obliged to 
 receive her again in 1213. Numerous embassies passed 
 between the two countries, and French literature must have 
 become better known. Alphonso of Castile sent an embas- 
 sy in 1256 to demand Christine the daughter of Hakon, the 
 young, in marriage. She was richly dowered, and was accom- 
 panied on her journey by Simon the preacher and other eccle- 
 siastics, many Grandees and Nobles. The expedition passed 
 through England and Normandy, and by land through France 
 into Spain, and was every where received with great honours. 
 Alphonso refused her, and she afterwards chose his brother 
 Philip, 1257, although he had been destined to be Archbishop 
 of Seville. (Torfsei, Histor. rer. Norweg. p. 271.) Sturle 
 son of Thord, who continued the Hemiskrinola Sa<ja until 
 1265, has given this story in a poem. Lastly, Euphemia, 
 dauD^hter of Prince Vitzlaw III. and wife of Kino^ Hakon 
 Magnussen of Norway, principally contributed to propagate, 
 not only the Breton traditions, but likewise those of Charle- 
 magne; and following the literary tastes of her husband''s 
 grandfather, Hakon Hakonson, (1262,) she well merited the 
 surname of Patrona Literarum bestowed upon her by Kant, 
 the Professor of History at Upsala, in his Observat. Hist- 
 oriam Suecanam illustrant. p. 1. Euphemia died in 1312. 
 According to the MS. No. 543, of the Arnse Magnsean. part 
 of the University Library at Copenhagen, the Saga of Tris- 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVIA. 91 
 
 trand and Isoldis was translated into Norwegian in 1226, by 
 order of King Hakon ; but as Hakon Hakonson did not 
 ascend tlie throne until 1233, the date 1226 appears only 
 to indicate the commencement of the translation. The 
 above named MS. likewise mentions that the Ivent-saga, 
 (Iwain) was also translated by order of Hakon into Norwe- 
 gian. The same thing is also avowed by the Möttels-Saga, 
 (the story of Ginevra's Mantle,) which is an episode in Lan- 
 celot. Ivain was afterwards translated in 1303, by order 
 of Queen Euphemia, from the Welsh^ into Scandinavian, 
 and it is to be found both in the Danish and Norwedan 
 dialects. These translations are in short verses with double 
 rhymes, similar to those of the French and German ro- 
 mances. There are also translations in Icelandic. The 
 Samson Fagras-Saga, which agrees with the Möttels-Saga, 
 relates the first origin of the wonderful Mantle which tried 
 the fidelity of the Ladies at the court of Arthur, (Le Grand 
 Fableaux, Percy Reliques, &c.,) and ends with these words, 
 "Elida — sendi hana i Eingland Arthur Kongi, or risthar 
 of Skiekis Saga. 
 
 The Prophetia Merlini is likewise to be found in the 
 north, and the defective manuscript in the library at 
 Copenhagen names the monk Gunlang as the translator at 
 the time of Hakon Hakonson. It is to be remarked that 
 this is in verse, and differs from the more modern romance of 
 Merlin, which was not unknown. We find in the library at 
 Copenhagen, Ivent-Mottuls-Friedland-Saga in the same 
 volume with Percival and Erek ; the latter appear to be 
 translations from the German. Halfdan mentions another 
 poem, Gabonis et Vigolis historia, which also seems a trans- 
 lation from the German poem Wigalois, or from the 
 
 iWälsch. By this term the Germans of the Middle ages designate 
 — not the language of "Wales — but the southern languages of Europe 
 generally. 
 
92 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 French poem which formed the model for the German, 
 Thus we find numerous Breton traditions in the three dia- 
 lects of the North, together with translations of French and 
 German poems, forming part of the national traditions ; for 
 instance, Flores and Blancheflores, translated by order of 
 Euphemia; Valentine and Namelos, an ancient Icelander; 
 Paris and Vienna, which is curiously written in strophes of 
 five verses and alternate rhymes ; Wilkina and Niflun^a- 
 Saga, of the thirteenth or fourteenth century; and a more per- 
 fect tradition of Deitrich than we ourselves possess; it appeals 
 to German poems and to the men of Soest, Münster and Bre- 
 men. The German traditions in the Sagas of Blomstur- 
 valla, Floamanna, and ^lagnus larl- Sagas are all treated in 
 the Scandinavian spirit, and we comprehend how, by adhering 
 to the ancient national character, such traditions would be 
 more easily disseminated among the people, than those of 
 the Bretons and the French, which were foreign to them. 
 As in Germany the reading of these traditions was essential- 
 ly confined to the court and the nobles, and the passages 
 quoted above serve to show that it was chiefly the royal care to 
 transplant these exotics; they formed, as in Germany, a 
 considerable branch of literature; but we find, that when they 
 were not mere Hteral translations, they were treated in a 
 much more arbitrary manner than in the latter country. 
 The more ancient German poets received a foreign tradition 
 as simple truth, and consequently treated it with pious res- 
 pect ; it is for this reason that they bewail themselves, while 
 relating tales of which they cannot imagine the motives, 
 instead of entirely throwing them aside. The Scandina- 
 vians were not thus shackled, and from the first looked 
 upon tradition, in the same light in which it was regarded at a 
 later period in Germany, by Wolfran von Eschenbach, and 
 Godfrey of Strasbourg, that is to say, as fiction ; as the 
 following facts will prove. The Swedish poem, "Duke 
 Frederic of Normandv," translated, according to its own 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF SCANDINAVIA. 93 
 
 testimony, first from the Welsh into German and from the 
 German, by order of Euphemia in 1204, into Swedish, com- 
 mences by saying that it was translated for the benefit of 
 the young noblesse, who might there imbibe instruction as 
 from the tales of Arthur. Its French origin is discover- 
 able in the style of the adventures ; the localities, Nor- 
 mandy, England, and Scotland; and the versification. The 
 arbitrary style of the composition shows itself in Samson 
 Fagra-Saga, and still more clearly, in an episode of the 
 Wilkina-Saga; in which, a circumstance unheard of among 
 the German and French poets, two heroes, Arthur and 
 Dietric of Berne, belonging to perfectly difi'erent traditions, 
 meet in the same adventure. King Thidrek solicits Hilda 
 the daughter of Arthur of Britain, in marriage, through the 
 intervention of Herbert, son of Isolden, the sister of Thi- 
 drek. Herbert carries her off; Arthur pursues them with 
 his Knights, but in vain. This adventure is the more re- 
 markable as it can be proved that the abduction of Hilda 
 belonged, in the ninth century, to the traditional songs of 
 the Scalds, viz. to the well known tale of Hogne and Hedin, 
 which, at a later period, was probably influenced by the 
 Anglo-Saxons, and was amplified on the coasts of Denmark 
 and Friesland, for it is partly found in the Beowulf; until 
 in 1217, a German poet appropriated it anew in the poem 
 of Gudrun, with other tales, of which we find traces until the 
 eleventh century. The Wilkina-Saga here gives us a very 
 rare example of a tradition, originally Scandinavian, being 
 brought back five centuries later as a new foreign tradition, 
 with names and localities changed from Germany, where it 
 had meanwhile been naturalized, to Scandinavia. 
 
 Let us now sum up in a few words what was the charac- 
 teristic difference in the manner in which the traditions of 
 Wales influenced the poets, and the poets influenced tradi- 
 tion in these three nations; and it will be seen, if we are 
 rightly understood. 
 
94 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 1. That the French repeated the Breton traditions with a 
 
 chivah'ous enthusiasm; — that the Breton traditions 
 rendered the French Eaconteurs poets. 
 
 2. The Germans inspired the Breton traditions with a Ger- 
 
 man soul ; — the German Raconteurs created poetry 
 from the Breton traditions, 
 o. The Scandinatians received the Breton traditions as 
 poetry, and disseminated them as such. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 95 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION ON THE 
 
 LITERATURE OF FRANCE WITH REGARD 
 
 TO CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 Hitherto we have only considered the influence which 
 Welsh tradition exercised on the literature of France, Ger- 
 many, and Scandinavia, from its general tenor; the ques- 
 tion now remains as to the influence they exercised from 
 the Form in which they were first received in France. We 
 must here mark the distinction between rhyme and metre. 
 
 I. RHYME. 
 
 The opinion commonly entertained is, that rhyme was 
 introduced from the East, chiefly by the Saracens into 
 Spain in the eighth century, but it was known and made 
 use of long before the slightest knowledge of oriental poetry 
 had been disseminated in Europe. The most ancient docu- 
 ments in rhyme now known are in Latin, but they are of 
 an age when the language had already lost its classic cha- 
 racter. During the palmy days of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages, rhyme was unknown or was avoided as a fault; it 
 did not accord with the organization of these languages. 
 The accent of syllables was subordinate to their quantity ; 
 each syllable had its proper quantity entirely independent 
 of its accent, and rhythm was regulated by that quan- 
 tity. But when, in later times, beginning in the third cen- 
 
96 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 tury, the laws regarding the quantity of syllables which had 
 been so rigid in classic ages were less regarded, it became 
 necessary to regulate the rhythm by a new law. From 
 this period then, it was founded on the accent of words. 
 There were poets who endeavoured to unite quantity with 
 this new rhythm, and partly succeeded ; but in general, the 
 latter was neglected. As the laws of quantity became more 
 disregarded, the ancient rhythm passed into the modern. In 
 this way the tetrameter, catalecticus, iambicus, and trochaicus 
 were changed into two kinds of popular verse, of which the 
 rhythm rests on the accent, and consists of fifteen syllables, 
 which are divided into two parts by a pause after the eighth 
 syllable; one sort w^as iambic, the other trochaic. The 
 name of 2T<xot Uo'Xitikoi^ i. e. popular, was given them by the 
 Greeks, because this versification was made use of in their 
 popular songs. We will quote the little poem upon the 
 Emperor AureUan. 
 
 "Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille decollavimus, 
 Unus homo mille, mille, mille decollavimus; 
 Mille, mille, mille vivat, qui mille occidit mille, 
 Tantum vini habet nemo, quantum fudit sanguinis." 
 
 And another in Suetonius. 
 
 " Gallos-Csesar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam. 
 Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumpserunt." 
 
 The change in the principle of rhythm, by which the 
 Latin language became more nearly allied to the Celtic and 
 German, was also the means of gradually introducing 
 rhyme into the Latin, and caused it to become more 
 common each succeeding century. For in order to com- 
 pensate for losing the high perfection of rh^iihm found- 
 ed on quantity, rhyme, the new principle of rhythm, which 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 97 
 
 accorded so well with the accent, was employed. After 
 the Latin language had been so far transformed into the 
 Lingua Bomana that the latter could separate itself from the 
 former like a distinct language, poetry regained in some 
 measure, its ancient classic character, and discovered in 
 leonine and other verse, a means of employing both rhyme 
 and quantity. 1 
 
 The question now remaining is, whether rhyme is really 
 of Latin origin^ or whence it originates. 
 
 It is to be found in the most ancient Christian and Latin 
 poems, from the second half of the fourth century, in the 
 Fathers of the church; Ambrose, Augustin, Prudentius, 
 &;c. Ambrose says, 
 
 "O Lux beata, Trinitas, 
 O principalis Unitas. 
 Jam Sol recedit igneus 
 Infunde lumen cordibus." 
 
 As far as we are able to discover, he is the most ancient 
 poet who employs rhyme, and was born at Treves, or at 
 Aix, in 333. His father was of a Eoman family, and Prse- 
 fectus Prsetorio in Gaul, (at Treves,) and did not go to 
 Rome until after his son Ambrose, had finished his 
 studies at home. St Augustin (430) was his disciple, 
 both in the doctrines of Christianity and in rhymed 
 poetry. In a kind of preface to his poem against the Dona- 
 tists, he says that he had put a Psalm into rhyme, in order 
 to imprint it more deeply on the minds of the people. For 
 this purpose he made use of the political mrse. 
 
 "Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres Qoniwxhare^ 
 Propter hoc Dominus noster voluit nos prsemonere, 
 Comparans regnum coelorum, reticulo misso in mare^ 
 
 1 See Appendix No. 1. 
 
98 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Congregante multos pisces, omne genus hinc et inde, 
 Quos cumtransissentadlittusjtunccoeperuntseparare. &c,"" 
 
 Prudentius, born at Saragossa, lived at the close of the 
 fourth, and the beginning of the fifth century, and was 
 first an advocate, and obtained honours under Theodosius 
 the Great, and was celebrated as a poet. Among the au- 
 thors of rhymed poems in the following centuries, was 
 Venantius Fortunatus, who lived in the fifth century ; he 
 was an Italian by birth, who lived at Tours, and became, 
 eventually. Bishop of Poitiers. 
 
 Columbanus (died 615) born in Ireland, went to Britain, 
 and in 589, to Burgundy ; being driven thence he went to 
 Armorica, and finally returned to England. 
 
 Drepanius Floras, (about 650) a Frenchman. 
 
 Eugenius (died 657) Bishop of Toledo. 
 
 Aldhelmus (died 709) Bishop of Wessex, an English- 
 man, and brother to Ines, King of Wessex. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that with the exception of the Spa- 
 niards Prudentius and Eugenius, aU these authors of rhyming 
 poems, either passed a part of their youth, or of their more 
 mature age, in Gaul or in Britain, and it cannot, we think, 
 be solely accidental that they were precisely those who were 
 the first to introduce rhyming poetry. If the reasoning of 
 Sharon Turner be correct upon the antiquity of Taliesin, 
 Aneurin, &c. &c. and that the greater part of the poems 
 attributed to them are authentic, it is at the same time 
 proved that rhyme was as essential to a poetic form in 
 Wales in the sixth century, as alliteration among the 
 Scandinavians and Germans, and as metrical verse, resting 
 upon the quantity of syllables, among the Greeks and Bo- 
 mans. If rhyme was in use in Wales in the sixth century, 
 it was certainly propagated in Armorica ; if we ought not 
 rather to presume that it was as truly indigenous here, as 
 in Wales, from the commencement. It would be impossi- 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 99 
 
 ble to believe that these most ancient bards were the first to 
 invent rhyme ; the ingenious and refined manner in which 
 they use it proves the contrary. We are therefore obhged 
 to date its origin much further back, although we have no 
 documents to which we can refer : therefore as no other na- 
 tion possessed the knowledge of rhyme at such a remote 
 period, in so high a state of developement, we must recog- 
 nize it as belono^ino^ to the Celtic Lans^uao^es. 
 
 In Gaul, Latin had been so transformed by the mixture 
 of Frank and Celtic elements, that even now the learned 
 cannot agree as to which of these elements is the most essen- 
 tial in the French lanojuage.^ The assimilation of the Cel- 
 tic and Latin form in poetry, was thus most completely 
 prepared; it was also particularly favoured by the clergy, to 
 whom rhyme appeared eminently calculated for Christian 
 poems and religious chants. The Spaniards Prudentius 
 and Eugenius appear to contradict this assertion, but we 
 know too little of their life to be aware whence they obtain- 
 ed rhyme; we must not either forget that the Celtic race 
 extended beyond the Pyrenees, until, at a later period, it 
 was confined to Biscay. Wilhelm de Humbolt, and Par- 
 rot, have proved that the Celtic language of the ancient 
 
 1 Wliile Latour d'Auvergne, De Grandval, Le Brigant, Legonidec, 
 Maheo de la Boiirdonnaye, and very lately, Panet de Premoliere, 
 endeavoured to prove the great preponderance of Celtic elements in 
 the French language, others on the contrary, as Monglave, Renouard, 
 and Rochefort, recognize the Latin and the Romance (Lingua Ro- 
 mana) as the preponderating elements. Don Pelletiers Dictionnaire 
 Celto-Armoricain and the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique ; Pinkerton, 
 and quite recently, Prichard in England, Pictet in France, Bopp and 
 DiefFenhach in Germany, have proved the near relationship and com- 
 mon origin with the Sanscrit and all the Indo-Germanic languages, 
 and in the work by Parrot, (Berlin 1831,) he traces the Celtic lan- 
 guage from the Pyrenees over the whole of Europe, even into the 
 heart of Asia. 
 
100 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 Cantabrians is discoverable in Biscay. From thence tlie 
 knowledge of rhyme would consequently be spread over 
 Spain, even previous to the arrival of the Saracens. On 
 the other hand, it must be acknowledged, that during the 
 ninth and tenth centuries, when Saracenic Spain became the 
 chief seat of the arts and the sciences, and that the schools of 
 Spain were visited by foreigners, particularly by the French ; 
 poetry, the poetic style of the Arabs, and consequently 
 rhyme also, which had been so long known to them, would 
 become more generally diffused ; and, quitting the limits of 
 of the Latin language, would extend to the vernacular 
 tongue, increasing the Arabic influence beyond that of the 
 Celts, especially after poetry had spread it light over Pro- 
 vence, which, previous to 1150, had very Httle intercourse 
 with Brittany, and none with Wales, although it had an 
 essential influence over the North of France. 
 
 The most ancient literary monuments of Germany, the 
 Hildebrandslied, theWessabrunen-Gebet, and Älaspilli, have 
 the alliteration which was also common to the Scandinavian 
 language, and of which there still remain numerous traces in 
 many proverbs and short phrases; for instance, Hans and 
 Hof, Haut und Haar, Gut und Geld, Stock und Stein, Mann 
 und Maus, forming combinations of words which are to be 
 found in the most ancient codes of laws, and which have 
 their own legal signification; and indicate a very remote 
 antiquity. The most ancient German poems possessing 
 rhyme, are the Offrieds-Krist (863 — 872,) and the Lud- 
 wigslied (881.) To all appearance they did not receive 
 rhyme direct from the Celts, the Saracens, or the Proven- 
 cals, but from the Latin poets; who, although all belonging 
 to the clergy, did not confine their poetry to rehgious sub- 
 jects, but extended it to the episodes of the ancient 
 heroic tradition ; the fables of animals by Isengrimm ; and 
 other profane tales; for instance, Unibos, Heriger, Alvera- 
 dacasima, and others. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 101 
 
 The Northern languages retained alliteration until the 
 twelfth century, and were entirely destitute of rhyme. The 
 literary remains of the Anglo-Saxons are also without it, 
 proving that previous to the incursion of the Normans, 
 rhyme was unknown in England beyond the frontiers of 
 Wales. ^On the other hand, the most ancient bards shew that 
 they were acquainted with alKteration, which could only 
 proceed from a Northern Anglo-Saxon influence; it 
 does not, however, appear to have yet followed any fixed 
 rule. A notice by Giraldus is here very important, as 
 shewing us in what manner Celtic poetry adopted alKtera- 
 tion: — "In their rhymed songs and set speeches they are 
 so subtile and ingenious that they produce, in their native 
 tongue, ornaments of wonderful and exquisite invention 
 both in their words and sentences ; hence arise those poets 
 whom they call Bards, of whom you will find many in this 
 nation, endowed with the above faculty, according to the 
 poef's observation, 
 
 ' Plurima concreti fuderunt carmina Bardi.' 
 
 But they make use of alliteration in preference to all 
 other ornaments of rhetoric, and that particular kind which 
 joins by consonancy the first letters or syllables of words. 
 So much do the English and Welsh nations employ this 
 ornament of words in all exquisite compositions, that no sen- 
 tence is esteemed to be elegantly spoken, no oration to be 
 otherwise than uncouth and unrefined, unless it is polished 
 by the file of this rule. Thus in the British tongue, 
 
 Digawn duw da y imic. 
 Wrth boh cryhwylh parawdy ^ 
 
 ' "In cantilenis rhythmicis, et dictamine tarn suLtiles inveniimtur, 
 ut mirae et exquisitae inventionis lingua propria tam verborum quam 
 ' o 
 
102 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 According to this passage, at the time of Giraldus, a poem 
 was considered rude et agreste if it were not alliterative. 
 He himself designates this form as new, -which ought to 
 have struck him much less than rhyme, if he had not con- 
 sidered the latter as generally known and natural to his 
 country, i. e, Wales. This annominatio in cantilenis rhyth- 
 micis appeared to him worthy of remark as a double orna- 
 ment of the language, for it is evident, from the examples 
 cited by Turner, that he had heard some rhymed poems 
 under the name of cantilenge rhythmicse. Aldhelmus 
 makes use of the same expression, "ut non inconvenienter 
 carmina rhythmica dici queat, 
 
 Christus passus patibulo, 
 Atque laeti latibulo; 
 Virmnem viro:o virMni, 
 Commendabat tutamini." 
 
 The words reim, rime, rhimyn, are e^^dently derived from 
 rhythmus. The Welsh have a particular word for a thing 
 
 sententiarum proferant exomationes. Unde et poetas, quos Bardos 
 vocant, ad hoc deputatos in hac natione multos invenies, juxta illud 
 poeticum, 
 
 'Plurima concreti fudemnt carmina Bardi.' 
 
 Prae cnnctis autem Rhetoricis exomationibus annominatione magis 
 utuntiir, eaque proecipue specie, qvusi jjrimas dictionum Uteras vel nyl- 
 lahas convenientia jungit. Adeo igitur hoc verbomm omatu, duae 
 nationes, Angli scilicet et Cambri in omni sermons exquisito utuntur, 
 ut nihil ab his eleganter dictum, nullum, nisi rude et agreste censea- 
 tur eloquium si non schematis hujus lima plene fuerit expolitum, 
 sicut Brittanice m hunc modum, 
 
 Digawn duw da y unic. 
 Wrth bob crybwylh parawd." 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 103 
 
 that was peculiar to themselves ; they call rhyme odl and 
 cynghanedd; while the Lingua Eomana and the more modern 
 Latin poets made use of an ancient word in a new significa- 
 tion for a new idea, rhythmus appeared to them the most 
 proper, because accent alone formed the rhythm, after 
 quantity was disused, and the accent accorded at the end 
 of the line with the rhyme. 
 
 II. METRE. 
 
 We do not find that the Welsh employed any particular 
 metre for a particular style of poem, but at every period we 
 see the varied richness of the most refined poetry. In one 
 place the rhythm flows in an equal and monotonous man- 
 ner, — in another, where the subject calls for it, it rushes on 
 perfectly unrestrained ; the verses are sometimes short and 
 sometimes long; sometimes the rhymes follow in great 
 number, sometimes they are interlaced or alternate; the 
 verses form strophes. 
 
 The French Epic, on the contrary, made use of either 
 alexandrines, or iambics of five feet, which as in Arabic 
 and Welsh poetry, formed strophes of eighty and more, or 
 of ten or fewer lines, having all the samo rhyme, and often 
 finishing by a line without rhyme. The liberty of the 
 Welsh metre is only to be found in lyric poetry and ro- 
 mances. For in the romances of Arthur, the language of the 
 North of France has a particular form, that of iambic verse 
 of four feet, and double rhyme, which became afterwards so 
 general, that up to this time we do not know of a romance in 
 any other metre. The romances of another kind, for instance, 
 Alexander, and even the ancient Roman de Rou, sometimes 
 assume in particular parts the metre of the national epics; 
 the English poets, on the contrary. Sir Tristan, by Thomas 
 
104 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 of Ercildoune, and others, soon returned to the form of 
 strophes. So long as we do not discover any Breton re- 
 mains in this form, we can only conjecture that the Northern 
 French- borrowed it from the Bretons. Their existence is 
 proved in Wales by ancient Welsh poems, but these are 
 not consequent on the former. It is worthy of observation, 
 that even in the tenth century the Latin poets employ this 
 metre in short ludicrous tales, which w^re not intended for 
 singing;! and it is a fact, that in the twelfth century, it 
 is the general form of all chronicles except Latin, and 
 replaces prose. The French national epic poem in long 
 quatrains was intended for song, but we have no proofs that 
 the poems of Arthur in short verses were ever sung in 
 France: on the contrary, the poets generally gave them to 
 their patrons as hooJcs to read; the same thing took place in 
 Germany. They were certainly read in society at the court 
 of Henry II. The chivalrous spirit of these poems render- 
 ed them unfit for introduction among the people, and even 
 if formerly they were sung by popular singers, they became 
 afterwards, under the pen of learned men, such as Chrestien 
 
 1 " Stans apto consistorio 
 Gallus in sterquilinio. 
 Cujus laetus cacumine 
 Cantabat constantissime." 
 
 GaUuset Vulpes, N 10^ S 111. 7100 p. 346. 
 
 *' Rebus conspectis saeculi 
 Non satiantur oculi, 
 Aui-es sunt in hominibus 
 Ainicse novitatibus." 
 
 Rubos, eod. p. 354. 
 
 The metre is the same with the above named devotional songs. 
 For the serious epic, hexameters remained in use either with or with- 
 out Latin rhymes, though rarely the latter. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 105 
 
 de Troyes, Manessier, and others, works for reading.i It 
 is very remarkable that contrary to the practice of the 
 Welsh and Latin poets, the French obstinately adhere to 
 the iambic metre, without troubling themselves about the 
 accent of words. We are of opinion that this form passed 
 from the Latin to the vernacular tongue. 
 
 The epic verse of the German romances is freer and con- 
 sequently approaches nearer to the Welsh versification; for 
 in the traditions of Arthur, and others which were not popular, 
 verses with double rhymes were employed which had gene- 
 rally in a line of masculine rhymes four^ and in a line of 
 feminine rhymes three accents, imparting to this rhythm, 
 which was sometimes iambic and sometimes trochaic, a va- 
 riety and elasticity wanting in French verse.^ We do not 
 deny that the Latin poets, and after them the French, (for 
 Welsh verses were never heard in Germany) occasioned 
 the change from the long verse with eight accents of the 
 
 i**Jö di e dirai ke jo sui 
 Wace de I'isle de Gersui, 
 Ki est en mer verx Occident, 
 Al sien de Normandie''assent, &c." 
 
 Roman du Ron, 10443. 
 
 *'Chrestiens seme et fäit semence 
 Du römäns que il encömence, &c. " 
 
 Percival, f. 1. 
 
 '^Artus li bons rois de Bretaigne 
 La cui proesce nos enseigne, &c." 
 
 Chrestien, Chevalier au Lion, s. 1 . 
 
 2"Sehehäre aller dinge, 
 Cheiser ällir chüöninge, 
 Wol du oberitter ewart, 
 Lere mich selbe dinin wort." 
 
 Ruolandes lief, f. 100. v. 1. 
 
 I 
 
106 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 eight century, first to the epic verse of the Neibelungen, 
 and afterwards to the short verse, but nevertheless it must be 
 admitted that the language developed itself too energetical- 
 ly to allow a foreign influence to be very important. This 
 could onlv be alleged with regard to the introduction of two 
 consecutive rhymes and the want of the strophic form: for 
 after alliteration fell into disuse in the eight century, all the 
 German poems are strophic until the eleventh century. 
 
 In Scandinavia the poetic form followed an analogous 
 route with that in Germany. We cannot here enter fur- 
 ther into the details of the question, as it would involve an 
 explanation of the very extended and comphcated researches 
 of Grimm and Lachmann, which would be beyond the 
 limits of this work. 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 107 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 FALL OF CHIVALROUS POETRY. 
 
 While in the ancient poetry of the East, we trace its slow 
 developement, and see its astonishing preservation during 
 entire ages, and observe in ancient classic poetry a progressive 
 movement, until, having arrived at its highest point, it 
 sinks gradually into barbarism; — in modern poetry, on the 
 contrary, each successive fall only appears to be the founda- 
 tion for a new and hitherto unknown flight. The tales of 
 Arthur, short, confined within narrow limits, and in the 
 commencement of slight importance to the world, pass- 
 ed into Brittany. After five centuries, we find them, 
 separated from their historical foundation, forgetting their 
 patriotic signification, and on the point of degenerating into 
 fanciful and arbitrary fables — revivified in France by a 
 combination with chivalry, and gaining with it universal 
 importance. Again when the first charm of the fantastic 
 richness of the subject was over, when the want of reality 
 in the characters and of a higher and more intellectual 
 principle was felt, and the inspiriting elements of chivalry 
 were nearly exhausted, poetry rose again on the wings of 
 faith by an union with the tradition of the Graal. It was 
 poetry that preserved the remembrance of Arthur's he- 
 roes, viz. Lancelot, Tristan, «fee. and while it flowed on 
 and constantly improved, it extended itself on every side 
 and became an universal literature, until there did not remain 
 a country or a poet in Europe to which it was unknown. 
 From the Tagus to the Archipelago, from Sicily to Iceland, 
 
108 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION 
 
 the romances of Arthur were listened to with delight. But 
 the ancient religious and vahant chivalry had perished du- 
 ring: the course of three centuries, and an affectation of 
 former habits of life produced but a spiritless and artificial 
 imitation. The ancient language became unknown, and its 
 poetical form inconvenient. It resolved itself into an easy 
 and free prose, and the chivalrous elements of the ancient 
 models were lost in a love of imaginary adventures. The 
 ecclesiastical doctrines had nourished and exercised the 
 absurd faculty of sporting with the most abstract ideas, 
 and the moral element, which, it is true, was but faintly 
 discoverable in the ancient romances, transformed itself into 
 a dull allegory, or was lost in a monstrous mysticism. 
 
 Thus the romances of Amadis represent the modern 
 chivalry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, without 
 dissimulating their origin, viz. the Breton traditions of Ar- 
 thur; and the supernatural beings of the Welsh are trans- 
 formed into allegorical personifications of virtues represent- 
 ed by fairies, as the courageous fairy, the energetic fairy, 
 the sincere fairy, &c. and the great allegorical King of the 
 Rats in the Romance of the Rose, obtained the prize, be- 
 cause he could satisfy every wish, however frivolous ; thus 
 the more modern history of the Graal extolled the study of 
 that work as a true arcanum against the devil, and a sure 
 means of acquiring beatitude, while, on the other hand, the 
 priests declaimed against the improprieties of the chivalrous 
 romances, which became daily more shameless. Nevertheless 
 all these prose romances had a different influence in France 
 and Spain to that which they had in Germany, and had 
 none whatever in Scandinavia. There was, at a later pe- 
 riod, in these countries, a certain splendour of chivalry 
 which was certainly borrowed from the knight of poetry. 
 Fantastic fetes and processions, ridiculous ornaments both 
 in dress and arms, figures and curious devices, both on the 
 shields and weapons, the most whimsical vows, pilgrimages 
 
ON THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 109 
 
 and tournaments, the most extravagant devotion in love, and 
 the most punctilious observance of etiquette and ceremony, all 
 that the ancient poets pointed out over-ran life in the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries ; while in Germany, though 
 something of the same kind was seen under Maximilian, it 
 was never carried to this ridiculous heio^ht. While in Lanofue- 
 doc, the martyrs of love realised, in an unheard of manner, 
 all the absurdities of heroes of romance ; in Germany the 
 airs of the Troubadours spread among the people, inspiring 
 the tame and conventional song with a new truth, and 
 replacing the pedantic courtesy of chivalry by a natural 
 passion. While in France and in England, the knights made 
 vows of the Peacock and Pheasant, favourable to warlike 
 adventures,^ the Germans remained in ambuscade in the forest 
 during the winter, and waylaid a rich cargo of merchandise. 
 While in those countries allegorical spectacles, fetes and ban- 
 quets, embellished the commerce of life ; among the Germans 
 there were only a few games during Lent, and mysteries re- 
 presented with lively simplicity by thriving artisans. The 
 terrible wars of fanaticism, and the Hussite peasantry, were 
 calculated to cure the German knights of gallant combats 
 and the enthusiasm of love ; while again, the religious Spa- 
 niards in the war against the Saracens, when the liberty of 
 their country and religion was at stake, rivalled their ene- 
 mies in love adventures and courtesy. While in that 
 country, these romances still continue to be a source of 
 intellectual history, and serve to explain both manners and 
 poetry, in Germany they did not represent the usages of 
 society, and no longer interested any but the higher classes. 
 The Titurel alone, from the theological and theosophic form 
 in which Albrecht had enveloped the tradition of the Graal, 
 still maintained a greater influence. The discovery of the 
 art of printing poured in a new deluge of romances of Ar- 
 
 1 Legrand, — Vie privee des Fran9ais. 
 p 
 
110 INFLUENCE OF WELSH TRADITION. 
 
 thur and the Graal, and this branch of poetry seemed thus, 
 to endeavour, from a presentiment of its proximate fall, to 
 guarantee its eternal preservation. In the Appendix No. 3. 
 we add a list of ancient editions until the year 1 600, which, 
 however, we do not consider to be complete. The extinction 
 of these chivalrous romances had, in fact, been long since 
 approaching. In the South it took place in a literary 
 sense — in the North politically. ^Vhile Dante condemned 
 the daughter of Guido di Polenta to the infernal regions, 
 for having been led astray by reading Lancelot du Lac, 
 Ariosto in his Orlando ridiculed that fantastic and decre- 
 pid chivalry with the most cutting irony by conducting 
 it into the region of fable; and Cervantes destroyed the 
 passion for chivalrous romances by his biting satire. The 
 middle classes of the North freed themselves from the 
 feudahsm which had hitherto reigned there exclusively; 
 the minds of the people were invigorated by the study of 
 the classics, until the reformation in G-ermany and in Eng- 
 land, destroyed the old world of chivalry, and a new era in 
 poetry arrived, represented by Shakspeare, which, Janus- 
 like, at once looked back on the ancient splendour of the 
 past, and forward to the modern Protestant world. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 The Leonine mrse (whose name is not to be derived from 
 the Parisian Monk Leo, of the twelfth century, as Du 
 Fresne asserts) appears in Germany at the same time with 
 the commencement of Latin poetry, and is the favourite form 
 with the monks, from the ninth to the fifteenth century. 
 We subjoin a few examples of the varied manner in which 
 rhyme was employed in hexameters, in some poems of the 
 tenth century, but only in poems which are not rhythmical. 
 
 Laus Domino qui me salvabat dente lupino. 
 
 Ecbasis, 1221. 
 Hie rex Guntharius csoptum meditatur ineptum. 
 
 Walthur, 1304. 
 Seu bello, sen venatu, seu quolibet actu. 
 
 Ruodlieb, 1070. 
 
 hndendum magis est domin2^m quam sit rogiiandum. — 
 Poeniteä^^ vel eum cogitö^^ mala quae facieba^. — ■ 
 Ergo cui regina po/^ componere quibo. — 
 Me circuTRYolitabant^ dente sed asiperitabant. — 
 Totus coniicuit grex^ atque crucis ^iluit lex. — 
 Et ille sit quem de ionte lelvaveris mque. — 
 Piscibus ut citiws vorer, aut diris crocodilzs. — 
 Quid calidum gelidum, dommorum quid ia>mulorum. — 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 The monks of St. Gall already knew that German verse 
 was not metrical, but only rhythmical. Their casus relate 
 (Pertz 2, 9.) that about 917, on Innocents' day, according 
 to ancient custom, the Bishop Salomon was chosen to be 
 master by the scholars, (a jest of that period,) and that the 
 boys ransomed themselves by Latin phrases. Parvuli 
 latine pro nosse, medii rithmice, cseteri vero metrice — ilium 
 offeruntur. The younger ones only offered prose ; others 
 more advanced, offered accented verses in the German man- 
 ner, the elder ones metrical verses. Some of the latter are 
 -quoted, they are hexameters with Latin rhymes. 
 
 It is to be regretted that there are no examples of ac- 
 cented verse, which were probably in rhyme, for the rhyth- 
 mical verse without rhyme is only found among the most 
 ancient Latin-born poets; but still the opposition of rhyth- 
 mical and metrical verse is important. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 LIST OF THE ANCIENT EDITIONS OF THE ROMANCES OF 
 ARTHUR AND THE GRAAL, DOWN TO 1600. 
 
 1. FRENCH. 
 
 1. Tres plaisante et recreative Listoire du tres preulz et 
 vaillant chevallier Percival le GaUois, jadis chevallier 
 de la table ronde. Lequel acheva les aventures du St. 
 Graal. Avec auschuns faictz belliqueulz du noble che- 
 vallier Gauvain, et aultres chevalliers estans au temps 
 du noble roy Arthus, non auparavant imprime. Paris, 
 1530. 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 2. Historie du San Graal qui est le premier livre de la table 
 ronde, laquel traicte de plusieurs matieres recreatives, 
 et ensemble la queste du diet St. Graal faicts par 
 Lancelot, Galaad, Boors, et Percival, qui est le dernier 
 livre de la table ronde. Nouvellement imprime a 
 Paris, 1523. 
 
 3. Histoire du Eoy Artus et des clievalliers de la table 
 ronde. Bouen, 1488,- Pam, 1502; Paris, 1543. 
 
 4. Les grandes Chroniques de Bretagne, depuis le roy 
 Brutus jusqu'ä Cadvaladrus, dernier Koy Breton. 
 Caen, 1518. 
 
 5. Les devises et armes des chevaliers de la table ronde qui 
 etoient du temps du tres renomme et vertueux Artus, 
 Boy de la Grande Bretagne. Lyons, 1590. 
 
 6. L'Histoire de Merlin et de la table ronde (with Viviane) 
 Paris, 1498. 
 
 7. La vie de Merlin. Paris, 1528. 
 
 8. Historie de Perceforest, Roy de la Grande Bretagne, 
 3 vol. Paris, 1528—1531. 
 
 9. Le Roman de Lancelot du Lac, etc. Paris, 1494. 
 
 10. Le Roman de Tristan le Leonais, et Le Nouveau Tris- 
 tan Paris, 1544, 1567, 1586. Lyons, 1577. 
 
 11. Ysaie le triste, fils naturel de Tristan le Leonais. 
 
 12. Les faicts et gestes du Roy Meliadus de Leonais, p^re 
 de Tristan. Paris, 1523, fol. et 1584, quarto. 
 
 2. GERMAN. 
 
 1. %xi\xxd, l<% mUt^t 1477. 
 
 2. 5)crdeal, Oön 2Bolfran ()on @^dben&ad^. 1477. 
 
 3. In^tan, m ^jro^e. ^ug^burg, 1498. 
 
 Jranffürt 1587. 
 
 ^lürnkrg, 1664. 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 4 ^BigaloB, pvdaUfi)^ ^ufl'o^ung h^i 5mt5(feen ©ebidbtc^ 2Birct5 
 eon ©röfcn^urg, 1470. The same ^vantfnvt, 1564, and 
 1586. etras^Jurg, 1519. 
 
 5. ^Beislenguugctt 9Hcrlml mU einem Kommentar 5e^ ^lanu^ ob 
 
 3nluli5. Jranffurt, 1608. 
 
 6. ^ie ein htittomi^tv fitter 5ie ©eletje 5er 5Jlinne 5en ^vinf 
 
 :£)öf fan5 mh j^eimtrac^te, eon 3*J6ötttt O^rtlielJ, 1450. 
 
 3. ITALIAN. 
 
 1. L''antica cronica della Gran Bretagna. Venezia, 1558. 
 
 2. La vita di Merlino con le sue profezie, 1539. 
 
 3. Tristan. Venezia, 1552 — 1555. 
 
 4. SPANISH. 
 1. Tristan. Sevilla, 1528. 
 
 5. ENGLISH. 
 
 1. Morte d' Arthur, with the Graal, 1485. 
 
 2. The life of Merlin, surnamed Ambrosius, his prophe- 
 cies and predictions interpreted, 1641 — 1658. 
 
 3. The ancient order, society and unitie laudable of Prince 
 
 Arthur and his Knightly Armory of the Eound Table, 
 1583. 
 
 4. The true Legend of famous King Arthur, 1601. 
 
 5. The Hystorie of the most noble valyant Knight Arthur 
 of Lyttel Bretagne. 
 
 6. The Story of the most noble and worthy King Arthur. 
 
 6. WELSH, 
 
 Are quoted by Turner in his Histcrt-y of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 with reference to Lhuyd's Archseologia, pages 256, 
 262, 264, 265. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 No I. 
 
 THE HOLY GRAAL. 
 
 The word, Gral^ or Graal^ has received various interpre- 
 tations from the learned ; and if we omit those derived or 
 taken from the poems of the Holy Gral^ or relating to the 
 Gral of poetry, and which are therefore not to be cited 
 without petitio principii of these, we shall find the follow- 
 ing are principally to be considered. 
 
 1. It is explained to be a vessel. — 
 
 (a) Garalis^ in ^fricus (eleventh century.) Gloss 
 Angl. Saxon, ed Sommer p. 80, and also at the same 
 time acbtahulum^ for the Anglo-Saxon word, Vinegar vessel. 
 In Leo Ostiens (twelfth century,) in the Chron. Sasin. L. 
 1 c. 24 and 28 in the numbering of several vessels, the 
 plural garales. Further information concerning the signi- 
 fication of the word Garales may be found in Ducange 
 Gloss. 
 
 (b) Gradalis^ Graatz. Helinandus (who died 1227) 
 in his Chronicle (Tissier Bibli. Patr. Cisterc. T. VII. 
 p. 92) in making mention of the Romance of the Holy 
 Gral, explains the word thus ; Gradalis sive Gradale gallice 
 dicitur scutella lata et aliquan datum profunda, in qua 
 pretiosse dapes suo jure divitibus solent apponi gradatim 
 unus morsellus post aluim in diversis ordinibus, et dicitur 
 vulgari nomini graatz^ quia grata et acceptabilis est in ea 
 comedenti ; tum propter continens, quia forte argentea est, 
 vel de alia pretiosa materia ; tum propter contentum, id 
 est ordinem multiplicem pretiosa rum dapum. 
 
116 ADDENDA. 
 
 (c) Graal. Roquefort (Gloss : de la Langue Romaine ; 
 Paris 1808.) sub voce Graal^ Graille^ Greal^ plur. Graux, 
 Greaux gives an explanation which does not exactly apply 
 here ; as baton dfaugure^ baton pastoral^ crosse d''abhe 
 dPe'ceque. But again under the word Graal^ Greal^ plur ; 
 Graxiux^ Greas^ Greaux, he gives, Vase ä boire, grand plat, 
 grand bassin creux, propre ä servir des viandes. He illus- 
 trates this signification from a note of the Assizes of Jeru- 
 salem, p. 289. relating to Court offices, and more particu- 
 larly to the office of Seneschal. 
 
 " Le jor dou coronement le Seneschau pent et doit ordener 
 le mangier dou jor, et comment on servira celui jor en la 
 maniere que means li semblera * * et quant le Roy aura 
 mangie * * doit le Seneschau mangier, et toutes les 
 escueles et les greaux en que il aura servi le cors dou Roy 
 dou premier mes (service) doivent estre soues (siennes) 
 pleines de tel viande com le cors dou Roy aura este servi 
 celui jor." 
 
 For this reason Roquefort remembers the derivation at- 
 tempted by Borel from gres, earthenware, crockery, as it is 
 impossible that kings should have dined ofi" such mean 
 dishes which were always left as presents to the cour- 
 tiers. 
 
 (d) Grasal. According to the old Glossary of Borel 
 (Tresor des Antiquites francaises 1655) the people of Tou- 
 louse, Mantauban, and Castres in his time used to call a 
 vessel un grasal or une grasalle : and from these observations 
 he deduces the signification ; dish, bowl, deep or hollow basin 
 for food or drink, which is the same meaning retained in 
 the poems relating to the Holy cup or vessel. In its first 
 origin it might perhaps be connected with the Greek 7/)aa) 
 (to eat.) 
 
 2. Blood of the Lord Sangreal, sang royal. 
 The saint Greal is frequently but improperly derived 
 from this. This may have arisen from a note of Jacobus 
 
ADDENDA. 117 
 
 a Voragine (1244 — 1298.) in the Chron. Genuens. (Mu- 
 ratori Thesaur. rer. Ital. T. IX.) in which he speaks of the 
 well known vessel, (cup or dish,) which the Genoese had 
 received as part of the booty at the conquest of Caesarea, 
 and which the poem of Titurel designates as the counterfeit 
 Gral; "Illud vas Angli in Uhr is suis Sangreal appellant." 
 This reference to the romances of the Holy Gral is un- 
 doubted, and it is therefore evident that the division ought 
 to be San greal not sa7ig real. 
 
 3. The opinions of Kanne (Chrestus im alten Testa- 
 mente p. 132.) and Von Hagen, (Briefe in die Heimath,) 
 on the derivation of the word Gral are so contrary to all 
 other authorities on the subject, and to the idea which 
 has always been connected with the word Gral in the West, 
 and, at the same time, receive so little confirmation even 
 from the supposed derivative, that we deem it unnecessary 
 to say more on this head. 
 
 4. Circle^ orbit, circumference, or ring. Mone in his An- 
 zeiger für künde des Mittelalters, 1833, p. 289, discovers 
 the original meaning of the word Gral to be a circle of nine 
 tents, or circle in general. This discovery seems, how- 
 ever, to rest in the imagination of the Poet alone. 
 
 5. Pit, cavern. The learned orientalist Von Hamer 
 (Kuriositäten, B. IX. p. 118.) joyfully announced the dis- 
 covery of the true derivation of the Gral, which he had 
 only been able to guess at in his Mysterium Baphometis 
 revelatum. "In the Arabian language gar means a camrn, 
 al is the well known Arabic article;" and he has read the 
 following inscription on an ancient baptismal basin in Rad- 
 kersburg: "' Have ait garal XII ;^ signifying ' be saluted, 
 says the cavern of the twelve C and the traces of this cavern 
 of the twelve," he continues, "are indeed really preserved unto 
 this day in the historical traditions of the East." In this 
 manner he arrives at the cavern in the mountain Rakim, 
 which is likewise to be found mentioned on the well known 
 
 Q 
 
118 ADDENDA. 
 
 Gnostic monuments of the middle ages, and the cavern 
 Sermenai, where the twelfth Imaun sleeps until doomsday, 
 when he will unite all religions into one. "It was from a 
 dark cavern that the fire worship of Zoroaster came forth, 
 the Mani and Mokanna. The ancestors of the Munalide, 
 or eastern Gnostics, founded their doctrines in caverns, of 
 of which those of the twelve wise men of the mountain of 
 Bakim had served as the original example." — But alas ! 
 this glowing and interesting deduction with its document 
 of the baptismal basin falls to the ground, as it is anything 
 but Templarlike. The M.S. as every competent judge 
 will instantly see, after looking at the representation of it 
 in the " Kuriositäten," is neither Majuskel nor Minuskel, 
 nor altogether belonging to any kind of writing which has 
 ever been established by custom ; but the letters have 
 been disfigured, either intentionally or through ignorance, 
 and are totally incomprehensible. 
 
 Since the clamor about these and similar basins and 
 inscriptions, many more of the same kind have been disco- 
 vered ; for instance, at Berlin and Freiburg in Thüringen, 
 and they may be found without difficulty in the curiosity- 
 shops of Nuremberg or Augsburg, in which places they used 
 formerly to be frequently manufactured by the tinmen. 
 Nothing therefore can be thought of this new discovery of 
 the secret of the Gral; and indeed less than nothino-; since 
 Von Hamer has been sadly exposed and cut up in similar 
 experiments ; for instance, in the second yearly account 
 of the Thüringian Saxon Society, p. 36. and in NelPs 
 contradiction of his Myster. Baphom. revelat. This much 
 is quite certain, that no sort of conclusion or determination 
 as to the orio-in of the tradition, or of the mvstical sio^ni- 
 fication of the Holy vessel, can be arrived at from the 
 word gral. 
 
ADDENDA. 119 
 
 OF THE MYSTERIOUS SIGNIFICATION OF THE ORAL, THE 
 
 DERIVATION OF WHICH FROM THE EAST HAS BEEN 
 
 FORMED IN VARIOUS WAYS. 
 
 It is possible that an imperfect or incorrect account of 
 the Heliotrapezo7i, or Sun-table^ of the pious Ethiopians, 
 which, according to Herodotus, was covered every night 
 with meat and fruits, might have been preserved, and per- 
 liaps more widely disseminated in oriental tales at a 
 later period. This tradition has spread even to India, 
 and the Vaja Purana describes the locality and surround- 
 ing country in precisely the same manner as the German 
 poem of Titurel describes those of the Gral. It says, " In 
 the West, in the country of the Troglodytes, lie the exten- 
 sive mountains of the Sitanta, rich in metals and precious 
 stones. They are surrounded by an agreeable plain, en- 
 livened by the song of birds and the hum of bees. There 
 are towns with gates, and the streams which water the 
 country descend from the Lord of the Zodiack, and collect 
 themselves into one stream, the River of the Moon. There 
 Siddhas and Yacshas dwell in caverns, and in many intri- 
 cate but pleasant labyrinths. There too, beneath immense 
 caverns, is the Cridavana, (grotto of Crida,) the favorite 
 resort of Mohendra, where every kind of knowledge, and 
 the fulfilment of every wish may be obtained."' 
 
 Further, it is not impossible that the well known and 
 highly prized Blach Stone of the south-eastern corner of 
 the Kaaba in Mecca, may have some obscure reference to 
 our tradition. 
 
 This stone was greatly venerated by the Mahomedans, 
 and kissed by pilgrims with the greatest devotion ; it was, 
 in fact, called by some devotees, the right hand of God upon 
 earth. It is considered to be one of the precious stones of 
 
120 ADDENDA. 
 
 Paradise, and to have fallen to the earth with Adam;^ and 
 having been preserved and placed in safety, at the time of 
 the deluge, the angel Gabriel subsequently delivered it to 
 Abraham, when he built the Kaaba :- in like manner the 
 the angel ordered the temple to be built by Titurel for 
 the Gral. 
 
 The temple at ^Mecca is also styled Masjad al alhoram, 
 i. e. the holy, inviolable, and inaccessible ;3 as the Mont 
 Salvage in Titurel is called the protected mountain, and 
 the Castle of the Graal is undiscoverable and inaccessible 
 to the unconsecrated. 
 
 Finally, it is by no means improbable, that the ancient 
 Egyptian Hermes-goblet, goblet of Dschemschid, Hercules, 
 or Bacchus, may have mingled with the mysteries of our 
 fable. Dschemschid is the hero of the traditions and souo^s 
 of the Persians, as Solomon was that of the Hebrews, and 
 Alexander that of the Greeks. He built Estthacar, which 
 siofnifies a town hewn out of a rock; in dio-oinor the founda- 
 tions of which he discovered the miraculous goblet Giam, 
 (Dscham,) also called the mirror of the world, the magic 
 mirror, and the cup of salvation."^ 
 
 A rich field lias been opened for hypotheses, and the 
 learned will doubtless make much greater discoveries ; but, 
 nevertheless, the origin of the Holy Graal is not thus ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 1 According to the Gemian poem of " Singerkrieg uf Wartperg," 
 the Lapis exillix fell fi'om the crown of Lucifer, and was hurled with 
 him to the earth, where the Graal was manufactured from it. 
 
 2 Vide the Koran translated from that of George Sale, hy Arnold, 
 Lemgo, 1746, p. 148.— Assemanui Bihl. Oriental. T. III. P. II. 
 p. 585 et sequent. 
 
 3 Vide G. Sale, L. c. p. 144. 
 ^ Kreuzer. Symbolik. 
 
ADDENDA. 121 
 
 No. IL 
 
 THE TEMPLARS, AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE 
 SANGRAAL. 
 
 It was not till the institution of the order of Templars 
 that the tradition of the Sangraal first began to assume a 
 defined form ; and with regard to the influence which this 
 order exercised upon our tradition, we may be allowed to 
 detail the points on which history agrees with the German 
 poems of Percival and Titurel, both of which are derived 
 from French sources. 
 
 The words Tempelherren, (Templiers, Templars,) and the 
 Templeisen in Titurel, at once point out a relation between 
 them. In like manner as the Miles Templi fights for the 
 honour of the Cross, and for the protection of pilgrims, so 
 the Templeise, by night and day, fights for the glory of 
 the Sangraal entrusted to his care, and guards the land 
 wherein it is preserved. 
 
 The order chooses its own grandmaster, and the most 
 remote member may suddenly be appointed ; no human 
 power directs the election, it is settled by divine inspira- 
 tion. So in the story, the king of the Graal is sent for, 
 and should he be in the most distant corner of the earth, 
 Or in the depth of the Lehermeeres^ yet the GraaPs messen- 
 ger, Cundric the sorceress, will be able to discover the se- 
 lected one. 
 
 The grandmaster stands only second to the Pope, as the 
 representative of Christ, and possesses and performs the 
 rite of absolution. The Kino- of the Graal is freed from 
 
 o 
 
 all deadly sins, and lives in angelic purity in the sight of 
 God upon earth. Happy is he, whose children are destined 
 by the Graal to be his servants, they are all called in very 
 early youth to Mont Salvage. 
 
122 ADDENDA. 
 
 The Latin regulations of the Templars objected to taking 
 children into the order; but Guido, brother of the Dauphin 
 of Auvergne, was a Templar at eleven years old. Parents 
 used frequently to destine their children to the order ; for 
 instance, Guillaume de Beauvais extended this decision 
 even to children yet unborn. 
 
 Onh^ children of pure birth could be chosen as servants 
 of the Graal ; and only knights, or the sons of a knight 
 and a lady of noble birth, were admitted to the order of 
 Templars, even the natural children of kings and princes 
 being excluded. ^ 
 
 The vow of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and the 
 defence of the Holy Land, were the four vota substantia 
 ordinis. Be chaste, and brave with devoutness, says the 
 law of the Graal ; and Amfortas is made to suffer heavily 
 for the violation of this command. 
 
 Every thing is in common with the Templars, and 
 neither the grandmaster nor any member dare suffer 
 a brother to possess any thing as his own, even were 
 it of no more value than a halfpenny. In like manner, 
 the Graal alone distributes all human necessaries in abun- 
 dance to the Templeisin. 
 
 Admission cannot be obtained to the order by force ; the 
 choice of the brothers depending on the order itself. Thus 
 Mont Salvage is inaccessible, and it is never discovered by 
 the uncalled or unconsecrated, be he heathen or christian. 
 
 The King of the Graal may marry, and the Graal has a 
 number of chosen female ministers. The grandmaster of the 
 Templars dare not marry ; but there are many indications 
 which prove, that from the foundation of the order he had 
 sisters living in the establishment ; for which reason the 
 Latin regulations (chap. 56.) forbid for the future such 
 
 1 Vide Moldenhawer, Prozess gegen die Templeherren, p. 345, 
 28, 35. 
 
ADDENDA. 123 
 
 communities as dangerous, and which might, in earlier 
 times, have occasioned irregularities.^ 
 
 The splendour of the Castle of the Graal, and the solemn 
 processions at the time of the carrying of the sanctuary, 
 correspond to the magnificence of the divine service as per- 
 formed by the Templars. Jacob Molay, the last grand- 
 master, acknowledged that he knew of no order whose 
 churches and chapels were more richly ornamented, so well 
 supplied with every requisite for performing divine service, 
 or better served by the priests.^ 
 
 It may be permitted here to mention the description of 
 the Temple of the Graal in Titurel, although it is not per- 
 haps to be found in the French poem. The Graal temple 
 is a rotunda — the churches of the Templars are also round. 
 At Mont Salvage there are only two bells; which accords 
 with the custom of the Cistercians and Bernardines, whose 
 rules the Templars followed. 
 
 In the administration of the Holy Sacrament, the Tem- 
 plars differed from the Romish liturgy, and on presenting 
 the host, or consecrated wafer, made use of the first words 
 of St. John^s Gospel. In Percival likewise these words 
 are frequently repeated ;^ and it is worthy of remark, that 
 they are distinctly applied at the baptism of Feireliss. 
 
 Whoever penetrates deeper into the mysteries of this 
 order will, without doubt, discover other dogmatical proofs of 
 relationship ; this is certain, that the Templars had a 
 secret dogma peculiar to themselves, which must exist in 
 every order, or community strictly separated from the 
 rest of the world, especially when, like the Templars, it 
 pursues worldly as well as religious objects. We may, 
 
 ^ Moklenhawer, 1. c. p. 113, 410. Dupiiis, Histoire des Templiers, 
 II. p, 119. 
 
 2 Moldenhawer, 1. c. p. 41. 
 
 3 Vide Percival, translated by San Marte, p. 541), 56-5. 
 
124 ADDENDA. 
 
 however, lay aside the proUx and complicated enquiry as to 
 how far the accusations against the Templars of crimes and 
 heresies have been substantiated, and w^hether this secret 
 doctrine contained any, or what proportion, of Gnostic ele- 
 ments, and what relation it might have had with the 
 celebrated Mysterium Baffometi, the idol Baphomet, called 
 by the Saracens Yalla, from which finally the poet of 
 Garin de Loherain has made a King Beaufumes;i whether 
 it were a Johannes-teufels or a cat's-head,- — all this we may 
 put aside, because such enquiries have not contributed in 
 any way to throw light upon our tradition ; neither does 
 a cultivation of the Proven9al, Norman-English, or Ger- 
 man enable us to discover anything of the Garsis, and 
 of those crimes and heresies. One point only is worthy of 
 remark, and this certainly appears to stand in connexion 
 without our tradition. The following is the third point of 
 accusation against the Templars, which Du Puy (1. c. 
 chap. 8. p. 22.) had given abridged from the Chronicles of 
 St. Denis : — " Car tantot apres ils allaient adorer une 
 idole, et pour certain, icelle idole etoit une vielle peau, ainsi 
 comme toute embamee et comme toile polie, et illecques 
 ccrtes le Templier mettoit sa tres vile foi et creance, et ea 
 lui tres fermement croioit, et en icelle avoit es fosses des 
 eux escarboucles, reluisans comme clairte du ciel ; et pouen 
 certain toute leur esperance etoit en icelle, et etoit leur 
 Dieu souverain, et memement se affioit en lui de bon 
 coeur." 
 
 1 Mone, Anzeiger für Kunde des Mittelalters, 1833, p. 253, 
 - Compare Von Hamer, Myster. Baphom. revelat. in der Fund- 
 gruben des Orients, B. VI. Part 4. p. 481. 9.— Franz Maria v. Neil 
 Gegensclirift darüber. Vienna, 1820. Kuriositäten, B. IX. p. 110, 
 118. B. VII. p. 142.— M. Marset, Journal des Savans, Avril, 1819.— 
 JNicolai, Versuch über die Beschuldigungen des Tempelherrenorders, 
 1782, B. I. — Moldenhawer, Prozessactes, &c. — Munter, Statuterbuch 
 des Tempelherrenorders. — Du Puy, His. des Templiers, Brussels, 1751 . 
 
ADDENDA. 125 
 
 The continuation of Cardinal Baronius''s Church His- 
 tory, by Abraham Bzovius, contains extracts from a Vene- 
 tian MS. in which we find the several points which the 
 Italian bishops brought forward against the Templars; 
 the 2nd. of which is as follows. 
 
 " Caput quoddam, faciem albam, quasi humanam, prse se 
 ferens, capillis nigris et crispantibus, et circa collum de 
 auratis ornatum, quod quidem nullius Sancti fuerat, culta 
 latrise adorabant, orationes coram eo faciebant, et cingulis 
 quibusdam illud cingentes illis ipsis, quasi solutores forent 
 sese accingebant." 
 
 And among the particular points at issue, which the 
 Pope brought most prominent at the trial, was also, 
 
 " An cranicum, cattumve, aut similacrum quodpiam, et 
 idolum hujusmodi fictum et commenticium, divina venera- 
 tione coluissent, in magnis Comitiis aliove Fratrum loco, 
 divitiasque ah eo^ et terrarum^ arbor um'ce über es fructus spe- 
 r assent?'''' 
 
 Another point of accusation is nearly similar." 
 
 " Item, quod dicebant quod illud caput poterat eos sahare^ 
 dimtes facere^ quod omnes dimtias Ordinis dabat eis quod 
 facit arbor es flor ere et terram germinare} 
 
 In accordance with this idea. Innocent 3d. in his Bull to 
 the Grandmaster, Theodard de Berciacio, in 1208, designates 
 the Templars as utentes doctrines DcBmoniorum.'^ 
 
 This and many other things indicate so forcibly some 
 particular idol and secret mystery of the order, and point 
 indeed so exactly to the fruitful power of the Holy Graal 
 dispensing all spiritual and bodily necessaries, that we can 
 only remain in doubt, whether the accusers took their in- 
 criminating articles from the Romances of the Sangraal, or 
 from fragments of the secret dogma of the Templars. 
 
 1 Du Puy, 1. c. p. 25, 29, 263. 
 
 2 Epist. Innocent Sd. by Baluze. part 2. p. C8. 
 
 R 
 
126 ADDENDA. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 THE GRAAL AND JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 
 
 Although Wolfram von Eschenbacli gives us no dis- 
 tinct explanation of the Holy Cup in his Percival, yet he 
 points out its nature and power T\dth sufficient clearness to 
 guide the reflecting reader to a right understanding of it, yet 
 still he leaves it in such a truly poetical chiaroscuro, that a 
 great diversity of explanations are possible, thus giving the 
 mind constant food for meditation. The romance of Martin 
 undoubtedly explains it as the cup of the holy communion, 
 but the Norman- French give a different interpretation. The 
 most complete account of the Sangraal, and Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea, is contained in the prose romance of the Sangraal. 
 "Joseph (ung gentilhomme chevalier, qui estoit adonc nom- 
 me Joseph d'Arimathie, oultre la fleuve Jourdain; et, dit 
 la lettre, qu'il fut estime estre le pere Samuel,) had lived 
 seven years at Jerusalem, before the crucifixion of our 
 Lord, and had observed the doctrines of Christ with his 
 mfe and son, named JosejjJius. After the crucifixion of 
 our Saviour he went to the house of Simon, and enquired 
 where Christ and the Twelve had supped I Simon showed 
 him the place on the top of the house, and Joseph found 
 there the same plate (ung plat ou escouelle) out of which 
 the Lord had eaten with his disciples. Highly rejoic- 
 ed he took it home with him, and deposited it in an 
 honourable place. He then begged the corpse of Jesus 
 from Pilate, took the body do^^Ti from the cross with many 
 tears, laid it in a rocky tomb which he had destined for his 
 own family, and caught the blood, which ran from our 
 Lord's wounds at the time of interment, in that dish. But 
 the Jews, enraged with Joseph, seized on him, and incar- 
 cerated him in a dark prison, five hours distant from Jeru- 
 
ADDENDA. 127 
 
 saleui, where the Saviour appeared to him, and brought him 
 the dish containing the blood, and exhorted him to be of 
 good cheer, for he would not perish, although Caiaphas had 
 commanded that he should be starved to death ; and further 
 told him that he should come out again one day, and should 
 find the world wonderfully changed. Joseph remained in 
 this dungeon for forty two years, without any other as- 
 sistance than that of God and the Holy dish, the power of 
 which nourished him, and miraculously preserved his life. 
 Then Titus, son of the emperor Vespasian, moved by the 
 holy Veronika, and enlightened by a belief in Christianity, 
 came with an army to Jerusalem to revenge the death of 
 Christ, which he did by sacrificing all his persecutors and 
 murderers. The wife and son of Joseph of Arimathea then 
 appeared before him to complain of their husband's and fa- 
 ther's fate, saying that they had heard nothing of him for 
 forty two years. Thereupon Titus threatened to burn many 
 of the Jews, unless they made known the place of Joseph's 
 imprisonment. At last, Caiaphas, after extracting a 
 promise from Titus that he would not take vengeance on 
 him, led him into the prison of Joseph. Titus himself des- 
 cended into the dungeon, into which he was lowered by 
 ropes, and found it filled with a wonderful light. He called 
 the prisoner by name, who answered, "Merciful God, who 
 calls meV Titus replied to him, "I am the son of the 
 Emperor of Eome, and am come here to deliver you." When 
 drawn up out of his prison, he was asked how long he 
 thought he had been there, and he answered "only two days." 
 So miraculously had God shortened to him the long weary 
 time of his captivity. In the night previous to the departure 
 of Titus for Rome, Jesus appeared at the bedside of Joseph, 
 and ordered him to baptize Titus, and to take the dish with 
 him, which would provide for all, and would grant to all 
 those who served Him faithfully, every thing that their 
 heart could desire. Thereupon he baptized Titus and all his 
 
128 ADDENDA. 
 
 officers in the Euphrates secretly, in order that it might not 
 come to the ears of Vespasian, he also collected all his rela- 
 tions and baptized them, and went with them to the Euphra- 
 tes, in order to preach the word of Christ. 
 
 Not far from Bethany he was commanded by a heavenly 
 vision to have a small chest made for the Holy Graal (for 
 BO this dish was called) to keep it therein, which he might 
 open every day ; but no one was to be permitted to touch it 
 save himself and his son.^ Joseph and the holy pilgrims his 
 companions were wonderfully sustained on the journey 
 through the power of the Graal, and were not obliged to 
 supply themselves with food. They came at last to Sarraz, 
 a town between Babylon and Salmandra. The Saracens 
 first took their name from this City ; and the assertion that 
 
 1 Enfin Joseph avoit ete dans la maison ou J. C. avoit fait la cene 
 avec ses Apotres, et y trouva Pescuelle, ou le fiex Dieu avait mangie, 
 il s'en sesist, il la porta chez lui, et il s'en servit pour ramasser le 
 sang, qui coula du cote et des autres plaies; et cette escuelle est 
 appellee le St Graal. (Rom. du St Graal par Robt. du Boron, f, 4^*. 
 vol. 2. MS. de I'Eglise de Paiis, No. 7, of the same contents with the 
 edition of 1523, f. o°.) 
 
 Le St Graal est, le meme qu le St Vaisseau, en fonne de calice, 
 qui n' estoit de metail, n'y de bois, n'y de come, n*y d'or, et dans 
 lequel fust mis le sang denotre Seigneur. (Rom. de Lancelot, T. II. 
 f. 51 ^ col. 2.) 
 
 Le St Graal le meesme que le St Vaissel, dont on lit ici I'histoire ; 
 les douze Apotres v avait mange 1' aignol le jeudi absolu, (le jeudi 
 saint) et it fust conserve en Angleterre danz une tour bastie expres 
 ä Corbenicy. (Rom. de Perceforest, T. VI. f. 120«^. col. 2.) 
 
 The prose romance of Percival le Gallois agrees perfectly with the 
 Romance of the Sangraal, although the account of the history of 
 Joseph and his journey to England is much shorter. In that part 
 of Percival which was ^\Titten by Chrestien de Troyes, no mention is 
 made of Joseph, although he might have heard of him thi-ough 
 British Legends ; and it has not been sufficiently proved that Joseph 
 was introduced into the romances prior to the year 1170. 
 
ADDENDA. 129 
 
 their name was derived from Sara, the daughter* of Abra- 
 ham, is not only highly improbable, but evidently false, for 
 it cannot be believed that they would call themselves after 
 the Mother of a Jewish tribe, but rather after the place 
 where Joseph, by means of the Graal, converted them to a 
 new religion, to which they strictly adhered until turned 
 from it by Mahomet.^ 
 
 Joseph and his companions went immediately to the 
 Temple of the Sun, when King Enelach the Unknown, (le 
 mescogneu,) for no one in his country knew from whence he 
 had come, sat with his counsellors and wise men to advise 
 and deliberate by what means they should be able to de- 
 fend themselves against the Egyptians. Joseph, at once, 
 preaches the Gospel to him and promises him a complete 
 victory over the Egyptians and their King Ptolemais if 
 he would embrace the christian religion. Enelach listens 
 to the doctrines of Christ and the history of his life and 
 sufferings with great attention, but cannot understand 
 the mystery of his birth. Joseph gives himself a great 
 deal of trouble to explain this, but in vain, until one night, 
 after Enelach had become very meditative, he saw a won- 
 derful vision of a tree split into three parts, each part bear- 
 ing an inscription; the first in golden letters is mj forme; the 
 second in silver, cy sauhe; the third in azure cy puriffie. 
 Thereupon a child enters his room through a marble door 
 without opening it, mighty thunders shaking the Castle at 
 the same time. Enelach in great alarm calls for his cham- 
 berlain, but a voice answers the astonished king, and ex- 
 plains the mystery of the incarnation so much to his satis- 
 faction that he, his wife Sarasiste, the husband of his 
 sister, Serafal, and his son Nascien, are all, with many others, 
 baptized. The crucified Saviour himself appears to them 
 
 Query Wife.— T] 
 2 Folio 9. 
 
130 ADDENDA. 
 
 in person amid terrible peals of thunder, and raises Josephus, 
 the son of Joseph, to the dignity of high priest (grant 
 prebstre) of the whole world, explains to him the mysteries 
 of the mass, and the signification of the insignia of the 
 bishops, teaches him how to consecrate his flesh and blood, 
 and in what manner to minister. Josephus appoints thirty 
 three bishops in the different towns belonging to Enelach and 
 Serafels, and the converters then proceed on their journey 
 to seek for the bodies of the holy Hermits, whose names 
 and histories are found in their tombs. 
 
 Previous to their departure they had supplied Enelach 
 with a w^onderful shield, by the power of which he succeeds 
 in conquering the Egyptians and many other enemies. In 
 the course of the journey Joseph and his. companions arrive 
 at Kamelot where they find King Agrestes and his people 
 sunk in the grossest wickedness, "sire le plus felon et des- 
 loyal du monde et le plus cruel." The people, however, soon 
 adhere to the doctrines of Joseph, Agrestes rages with fire 
 and sword against them, but divine miracles cause the new 
 religion to extend on every side. Subsequently ^ the com- 
 pany, which is always sustained by the power of the Graal, 
 visits Ebron, who has twelve sons whom he desires to see 
 established in life; consults Joseph on the subject. Joseph 
 enquires of each separately how he would wish to pass his life ; 
 eleven of them agree in choosing a w^orldly life and mar- 
 riage, but the twelfth prefers a life of celibacy devoted to 
 the service of the holy vessel. Joseph on this embraces and 
 kisses him, and prepares a great feast. To the Eleven he said, 
 " You shall possess that which you desire, I will procure you 
 wives, and may God bless your matrimony." To the twelfth 
 he said, "Thou shalt be the keeper of the Holy Vessel after 
 me, and when thou departest for a better world, thou shalt 
 give it into the hands of another of devout principles 
 
 1 Folio 103. 
 
ADDENDA. 131 
 
 Jind conduct, and so it shall go on according to the judg- 
 ment of each. They will be so blessed through the Holy- 
 Vessel, that their possessions will always prosper." Thus, 
 there is nothing concerning an inscription on the Graal, 
 by which the successors are chosen; it is the election of 
 Grace, as in the Paronarzaled. 
 
 The missionaries proceed to Britain, and the number of 
 professors of Christianity and of ministers to the Holy 
 Graal increase continually, although now and then a black 
 sheep may be found in the flock. • 
 
 The twelfth son of Ebron was named Alain, and after- 
 wards received the name of the rich Fisherman. 
 
 The wanderings of Joseph are continued long after this, 
 till the narration runs into a confused genealogy of the pos- 
 terity of Joseph, in which it loses itself entirely. 
 
 The romance of Percival however mentions incidentally 
 and succinctly that "when Joseph was delivered from his 
 danger by Vespasian and Titus, and brought to Rome, he 
 took with him the Graal and the Holy Lamp; he afterwards 
 went to Britain, became king of the country, and built the 
 mao'iiificent castle which the Roi Pecheur inhabits, in which 
 he ordered these Holy relics to be kept. 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea is often mentioned by the Evange- 
 lists in a manner which may have led the Fathers of the 
 Church and historians to mingle traditional legends with 
 true history. In this manner Gregory of Tours ^ (born 
 
 1 Histor. t. C. 21, Baronius, annal. eccles. Mayence 1601, T. 1. p. 
 265, ad ann. 84. cli. 192. Apprehensiis et Joseph, qui eum (Christ.) 
 aromatibus conditum in pro monumento recondidit, in cellam inclu- 
 ditur, et ab ipsis sacerdotum Principibus custoditur, majorum in eum 
 habentes sacritiam (ut gesta Pilati ad Tiberium missa referunt) quam 
 in ipsum Dominum, cum ille a militibus, hie a sacerdotibus custodi- 
 retur. Sed resurgente Domino, visione Angelica territis, cum non 
 inveniretur in tumulo, nocte parietes de cellula, in qua Joseph tene- 
 batur, suspenduntur in sublimi; ipse vero de custodia, absolvente 
 
132 ADDENDA. 
 
 544-595.) relates how he proves the fact of the imprison- 
 ment and liberation of Joseph upon the authority of the legal 
 documents sent bv Pilate to Tiberius at Eome, and accor- 
 dino- to Baronius (1300) this narrative, which does not ap- 
 pear very authentic, is also found in the Pseudo Gospel of 
 Nicodemus, as well as his embarkation on the sea and pas- 
 sage to Britain, where he is said to have preached the Gospel. i 
 It does not appear to us probable that the tradition of 
 Joseph as a British Apostle was known in England previ- 
 ous to the 10th century, because the most ancient British 
 Historians, Gildas, Bede, Nennius, Asserius, and others, 
 who disdain to incorporate legends and tales in their his- 
 torical works, but, on the contrary, made the propagation of 
 Christianity and the extension of Church power tlieir prin- 
 cipal object, make no mention of him. Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth is also silent respecting him, from whence we may 
 infer that in the year 1140 the history of Joseph was not 
 included in the popular traditions. According to William 
 of Malmesbury, (de antiquit. Glaston. eccles. by T. Gale. 
 T. I. p. 290.) Phillip is the peculiar Apostle of Britain. 
 He says; "Postdominicseresurrectionis Gloriam, ascension- 
 
 Angelo, liberatur, ^arietibus restitutis in locum suum. Cumque 
 Pontifices militibus exprobarent, et sanctum corpus ab iisdem in- 
 stanter requirerent, dicunt eis milites : "Reddite tos Joseph, et nos 
 reddimus Chi-istum : sed ut verum cognovimus, nee vos benefactor- 
 em Dei, nee nos filium Dei reddere nunc valemus." Tum illis con- 
 futatis milites ab liac accusatione liberantur, »S:c. 
 
 ^Baronius, 1, c. ad ann. 35. c. v. p. 327. Lazarum, Mariam xMag- 
 dalenam, Martham et Marcellam pedissequam in quos Judaei majori 
 odio exardescebant non tantum Hierosolimus pulsos esse, sed una cum 
 Maximinio discipulo navi absque remigio impositos in certum peric- 
 lum mori fuisse creditos, quos divina providentia MassiUam tradunt 
 appulisse, comitan'que ferunt ejusdem discriminis Josephum ah Ari- 
 mathea nobilem decurionem, quem tradunt ex GalUd in Brittanniam 
 navigasse, illicque post prsedicatum Evangelium diem clausisse ex- 
 tremum. 
 
ADDENDA. 133 
 
 isque Triumplium, ac Spiritus Paracleti de supernis mis- 
 sionem, qui discipulorum corda temporalis poense adhuc 
 formidine trepidantia replevit — invidia? fascibus accensi 
 sacerdotes Judaeorum, cum Pharisseis et scribis connecta- 
 verunt persecutionem in ecclesia, interficiendo proto-mar- 
 tyrem Stephanum, et fere a finibus suis omnes procul pel- 
 lentes. Hac igitur persecutionis procella sseviente, dispersi 
 credentes petierunt diversa regna terrarum a Domino sibi 
 delegata, verbum salutis gentis propinando. Sanctus autem 
 Philippus, ut testatur Ferculfus^ 1. II. c. 4. regionem 
 Francorum adiens gratia prsedicandi, plures ad fidem con- 
 vertit ac baptizavit ; volens igitur verbum Christi dilatari, 
 duodecim ex suis discipulis elegit ad prsedicandam Incarna- 
 tionem Jesu Christi, et super singulos manum dexteram 
 devotissime extendit, et ad evangelizandum verbum vitse 
 misit in Brittaniam ; quibus, utferunt^ carissimum amicum 
 suum Joseph ah Arimathea, qui et Dominum sepelivit, prse- 
 fecit. Venientes igitur in Brittanniam anno ab incarn. 
 Dom. LXIII, Rex autem Barbarus cum sua gente tam 
 nova audiens et inconsueta (King Agrestes of the Ro- 
 mance) omnino prsedicationi eorum consentire renuebat, 
 nee paternas traditiones commutare volebat." 
 
 The King thereupon gives them a woody marshy island, 
 called by the inhabitants Yniswitrin, where they are com- 
 manded by the Angel Gabriel in a vision to build a chapel, 
 to the honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of 
 God. " Hoc autem se habere, tum ex carta Beati Patricii, 
 tum ex scriptis seniorum cognoscimus," p. 292. This 
 island, called Yniswitrin by the Britons, was named 
 Glastgebirg by the Angles after their king Glasteing, and 
 also Avallon, the apple island, because Glasteing found an 
 excellent apple tree near this Chapel, and it is said the 
 island was named from it. To the authors of romance, the 
 connection between Joseph and Arthur, who died in this 
 same island of Avallon, was now closely established ; the 
 
134 ADDENDA. 
 
 above ut ferunt^ however, seems to place the story among 
 legends and traditions in 1143, at the time of William 
 of Malmesbury. The prose romance of Merlin, in the thir- 
 teenth century, speaks rather more at length with regard 
 to it than William does; and previous to that century Jo- 
 seph certainly had not attained any degree of eminence and 
 celebrity in the romances. The quoted book of St. Patrick 
 makes no mention of Joseph ; but relates, that when he 
 went to Avallon, in 480, he found twelve brothers, whom 
 he instructed in the rules of the order ; and, according to 
 their tradition, they were the twelve disciples of Philip and 
 James, who founded the chapel situated there, and which 
 William relates very particularly. This tradition received 
 fresh support from the Pseudo Dexter, which was discovered 
 towards the end of the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth 
 and beginning of the sixteenth century, the old tradition 
 was current in England, of Joseph's having been the first 
 Apostle to that country. This is proved by the papers of 
 the Council of Constance, (sess. 30,) and by the book which 
 Kobert Wingfield, Ambassador of Henry VIII. of England, 
 presented, in 1517, to the Emperor Maximilian I. under 
 the title, Discept. super dignitate etc. Regnor. Brittan. et 
 Gallici in Concilio Constantiensi habita. The sepulchral 
 chapel of Joseph is still shown among the ruins of the an- 
 cient Abbey of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire.^ 
 
 It is however certain, that the later romance writers 
 frequently confounded Joseph of Arimathea with Josephus 
 the historian ; and, in short, this branch of the tradition 
 seems to have been principally worked out by learned monks, 
 from whom the Trouveres and romancers received them, and 
 probably never transferred them into their romances pre- 
 vious to the last ten years of the twelfth century. 
 
 iCard. Bona, Rer. liturg. lib. c. not. R. Sala. T. I. p. 106 & 108.— 
 Dugdale, Monast. Anglic. T. I. p. 1. — Rickman, Gothic Architect. 
 in England, ed. 3, p. 307. 
 
ADDENDA. 135 
 
 Josephus, the son of Mathathias, of the tribe of the high 
 priests, (bornann. 87.) undertook a journey to Rome in his 
 twenty sixth year, on account of some high priests who had 
 been sent captives to Rome by FeHx, the Governor of Judea. 
 He obtained their pardon from Nero, and returned to Judea; 
 and, at the general insurrection of the Jews, placed himself 
 at the head of the Galileans ; but he was obliged to save 
 himself, with forty other men, by lying concealed in a well, 
 where they contrived to sustam themselves for a long time in a 
 most wonderful manner^ till at last, discovered and taken 
 prisoner by Vespasian, and threatened with death,^ he fore- 
 told to him that he should wear the crown of Rome. Titus 
 subsequently took him a second time to Rome, and treated 
 him with the most distinguished marks of approbation on 
 account of his learn ing.^ The captivity and wonderful pre- 
 servation of Josephus are almost identical with the ro- 
 mances ; the prophecy to Vespasian reminds us of the 
 conversion of Titus and Enelach, whom the tradition seems 
 to have concealed in Vespasian. The Romance of St. Graal 
 relates rather curiously, that Joseph's son, the bishop 
 Joseph, on the occasion of the conversion of Enelach le 
 mescogneu, related the secret history of his life ; according 
 to which he was born in Gaul, at Meaux in Brie, from 
 whence Augustus sent him as a hostage to Rome, with two 
 sons of Count Cenis, the lord of the whole territory of 
 Meaux ; he was confided to the care of Count Felix, who 
 was afterwards Governor of Syria, and made him partner 
 in his dignity of Governor, &c. &c. «fee. The warlike 
 movements of Joseph remind us of Josephus' participation 
 in the insurrection, and Count Felix is the prototype of th^ 
 Governor Felix, who occasioned the visit of Josephus to 
 Rome. On the other hand, Vespasian appears again in 
 
 * Otto von Freissengen, Chron. 1. III. c. 18. Basil, 1569. 
 2 Josephus de Vita sua. — Eusebius in Chron, <S.:c. 
 
136 ADDENDA. 
 
 Provencal tradition, in the Poem of Titurel, where he 
 conducts Parille with pomp from Jerusalem to Eome, as 
 Titus conducted Josephus ; and Parille propagates the 
 Christian doctrine in France, Anjou, and Cornwall, as 
 Joseph of Arimathea did in Marseilles and Britain. Never- 
 theless, the Joseph of History and the Joseph of the Legends 
 have no connection with the Holy Graal, if by this is under- 
 stood the cup, or dish, of the Lord's Supper. The latter 
 signification however, and that the blood of Christ had been 
 received in it, seem to be placed in connection with historical 
 facts. 
 
 Caesarea was highly venerated by the Crusaders. The 
 Apostle Paul had here undergone a long imprisonment,^ and 
 the Apostle Philip had a house here, which was shown to 
 the faithful in 1101, when the town was taken.s When 
 Caesarea was plundered, a cup was found, which, in the 
 division of the booty, was valued to the Genoese at an 
 enormously high price. The sanctity of the place of its 
 discovery gave it an additional value ; and the Genoese, 
 rejoicing in their acquisition, placed it in the Chapel of St. 
 John the Baptist in the Cathedral of St. Lorenzo, at Ge- 
 noa. The discovery of this wonderful cup, of inestimable 
 value, made a great sensation among the Crusaders, for it 
 was believed to be cut from one enormous emerald ; and 
 although scarcely any historian of the twelfth century 
 omits the mention of this great event, yet no one affirms 
 that the blood of Christ is said to have been kept in it ; it 
 is rather the preciousness, splendour, and mystery of the 
 material whereof it is formed, that excite their obser- 
 vation.3 Alberic des Trois Fontaines, (middle of the 
 
 1 Jacobus de Vitriaco, L. 1. c. 24. 
 
 2 Robert Monach. L. 8, in fine. 1120 died. Gesta Dei per 
 Francos. 
 
 3 William of Tyre, L. x. c. 16. '* In hoc eodem Oratorio (quod 
 situm erat in loco edito ubi olini ab Herode ad honorem Augusti 
 
ADDENDA. 137 
 
 thirteenth century,) who appeals in his chronicle to Bede, 
 Helionandus, Otto von Freisingen, William of Malmes- 
 bury, &c. and also to Turpin, Merlin, and the Cantilense 
 Heroicae, as authorities to be relied on, and who places the 
 story of the dog of Aubry (Albreius) of Galleron, and the 
 treacherous family of Ganalon, of the combat of Charle- 
 magne and his Paladins, St. Willian^, Gerard of Rousillon, 
 Amelius and Amicus, &c. by the side of historical facts, 
 makes no mention of this signification of the Vessel,^ as 
 the dish of the Holy Supper, or receiver of the blood; and the 
 care which Alberic takes to mention his authorities, proving 
 that the traditions which he relates were considered to be 
 really true and were generally believed, it consequently 
 follows, that the narrative of the Graal and of the blood of 
 the Redeemer was not considered as belonging to them, and 
 must, in his time, have been in its infancy, or must at least 
 
 Caesaris miro opere dicitur fabricatum templum) repertum est vas 
 colons viridissimiy in modo paropsidis formatum, quod praedicti Janu- 
 enses, smaragdinum reputantes, pro multa summa pecuniae in sortem 
 recipientes, ecclesiae suae pro excellenti obtulerunt ornatu. Unde et 
 usque hodie transeuntibus per eos magnatibus vas idem quasi pro 
 miraculo solent ostendere, persuadentes quod vere sit, id quod color 
 esse indicat, smaragdus." Otto von Freisingen (1159) mentions it 
 in a similar manner. Robertus Monachus (1120,) Jacobo di Vitri- 
 aco, Maimondus de Agiles, Baldricus, Albertus Aquensis, (Gesta 
 Dei per Francos.) 
 
 ^ Chronic, ad ann. 1101. " Civitate (Caesarea) violenter effi-acta 
 cives in quoddam oratorium suum confugerunt, ubi tanta fuit strages 
 eorum, quod columnarum bases sanguis tingeret occisorum, ubi par- 
 ticipes illius victorise Januenses, vas viridissimi coloris repertum, et 
 in modum paropsidii formatum, pro multa summa pecuniae recipien- 
 tes in sortem, pro excellenti obtulerunt ornatu Ecclesiae suae." Ac- 
 ces. Histor. T. II. ed. Leibnitz, Hanover, 1698. Marinus Canutus, 
 (about 1321,) Lib. Secret. L. III. P. VI. c. 4. ad ami. 1101. " Ibi 
 Januenses repertum vas pretiosum, sive de lapide viridi, quem Sma- 
 ragdum asserunt, pro parte mercedis aceeperunt, et matrici ecclesiae 
 dederunt." (Gesta Dei per Francos.) 
 
138 ADDENDA. 
 
 have been then considered a mere fable. Neither could 
 Helionandus, (1227,) a Monk in the Cistercian Abbey of 
 Fremont, in the diocese of Beauvais, trace this matter. 
 He says ad ann. 720, Ohron. p. 92. Tissier, Bibli. pat. 
 Cister. T. VII. " Hoc tempore in Brittania cuidam ere- 
 mitse monstrata est mirabilis qusedam visio per angelum de 
 sancto Joseph decurione, qui corpus Domini deposuit de 
 cruce, et de catino illo suo paropside^ in quo Dominus coena- 
 vit cum discipulis suis ; de quo ab eodem eremita descripta 
 est historia^ quce dicitur de Gradali. Hanc historiam La- 
 tine scriptam invenire non potui, sed tantum Gallice scripta 
 habetur a quibusdam proceribus, nee facile, ut aiunt, tota 
 inveniri potest. Hanc autem non dum potui ad legendum 
 sedulo ab aliquo impetrare." 
 
 This testimony confirms the idea, that about the year 
 1227, this tradition, which evidently at a later time held a 
 distinguished place in French romances, was new and little 
 known. Jacobus a Yoragine^ (1244 — 1298) decidedly 
 ) points out this vessel or dish from Caesarea, as illud xas quod 
 ^/A or uyt • ^rigli in lihris suis San Greal appellant. It is highly pro- 
 bable that, in order to bestow on their magnificent vase a 
 still greater fame, the Genoese endeavoured to make it a 
 holy relic, by calling it the cup of the Lord's Supper ; 
 which cup, according to other traditions, was said to have 
 been presented by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, 
 from whom it descended to Herodes, and then to Nicodemus, 
 at whose house our Lord made use of it. It was quite in 
 the spirit of the romantic poetry of the twelfth century to 
 appropriate this idea in the romances, and the Proven9als 
 would hardly have allowed it to pass unnoticed, had it been 
 started by the Genoese about 1150. 
 
 History and Romance seem to agree on this point ; for 
 at the period when the romancers were acquainted with, and 
 
 ^ Chron. Genuens. — Muratori Thesaur. rer. Ital. p. 9. 
 
ADDENDA. 139 
 
 related the nature of the circumstances connected with the 
 tradition, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (1247) sent as a gift 
 to Henry III. of England a vase said to contain the holy 
 blood, and to have originally belonged to Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea and Nicodemus ;i but that the Genoese of the thir- 
 teenth century wished to vindicate the Sangraal, is attested 
 not only by Jacobus a Voragine, but by our German Ti- 
 turel. Chap. 41. 1. 138. 
 
 €m anber ichüffä rdc&C Another magnificent cup (dish) 
 
 33i( c5cl unb f)il teure Very precious, and very costly, 
 
 S)ic tVOVC^t man UiCV öleid^e; Which was fashioned Hke this 
 
 one, 
 S)ie l^ai an l^dliUlt fetne ItmrC. Which has no claim to sanctity, 
 Die priifetett ^mUaniiwpkv JUO Which the people of Constan- 
 
 reic^en lanbett/ nople proved in rich coun- 
 
 tries, 
 Un5 grofler an tr ftJUr5e/ And became greater from it, 
 
 DaÖOn 5ö^ ^p ^9 fur 5en gral Because they recognized it to 
 
 erfan5en ; be the Gral ; 
 
 though he appears to substitute Constantinople for Genoa. 
 There is a detailed account of this fictitious Graal in the 
 Chroniques de Loys XII. by Jehan d'Autun, of which Eo- 
 quafort gives a short account in his Gloss, de la langue Ro- 
 maine, s. V. Graal. It has for centuries been asserted, that 
 this vessel, called il sacro latino, was hexagonal, the width 
 thirteen French inches, and height five inches and a half ; 
 
 ^ Matth. Paris, Historia Anglica, p. 493, ad Wats, Parisiis, 1644. 
 '* Magister enim Templi et Hospitalis, cum testimonio quam plurium 
 sigillorum, videlicit Patriarchae Hierosolymitani, Archiepiscoporiim, 
 quoque et Episcoporum, Abbatum et aliorum Praelatorum et Mag- 
 natum de terra sancta, miserant qiiandam portionem Sanguinis Do- 
 minici, quern pro salute mundi fudit in cruce, in quodam vase 
 cristallino venustissimo, per quendam fratrem Templarium benenotum." 
 
140 ADDENDA. 
 
 and, as William of Tyre also mentions, made out of a 
 single Emerald. In later times, when this vessel like many- 
 other treasures was carried to Paris, it was examined by a 
 Commission of the French Institute, and was considered 
 to have been made of oriental glass at Constantinople.! 
 
 Fra Caetano, a Genoese Monk and preacher, has written 
 a very fabulous and mysterious book, of most entertaining 
 eloquence, on the origin and history of this cup ; which, 
 after a deeper research into the sources from which it is 
 derived, might perhaps be serviceable in showing the pro- 
 gress of mystic significations out of History into Ro- 
 mance, and back from Romance to History. 
 
 1 Millin Magazin, Encyclop. Jan. 1807. — Voyage en Savoye, &c. 
 II. p. 165. — Bossi, sur le Vase que Ton conservoit ä Genes sous le 
 nom du Sacro-Latino, Turin, 1807. — Wilkner, Geschichte der Kreuz- 
 zuge, Th. II. p. 103, and Continuation II. 
 
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