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 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 Hgents 
 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH
 
 Sir Perceval of Galles 
 
 A Study of the Sources of 
 the Legend 
 
 BY 
 
 REGINALD HARVEY GRIFFITH 
 
 Adjunct Professor of English in The University of Texas 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
 
 COPTHIGHT 1911 By 
 The Univeesitt of Chicago 
 
 All Eights Reserved 
 
 Published March 1911 
 
 • • • 7 ^ 
 
 ' • , • * * « 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In making this investigation, many obstacles besides the scanti- 
 ness of time allowed by classroom duties have had to be overcome. 
 The University of Texas library is not a large one, and, in the 
 field immediately concerned, is weak. Access to needed books 
 has been had only in summer vacations and in libraries a thousand 
 miles and more away from Austin. The difficulty continues a 
 very present one. In seeing the book through the press, I have 
 not been able to verify references by a comparison with original 
 authorities, but have had to rely upon my manuscript notes. To 
 hope that no errors have crept in is unreasonable; but I trust the 
 reader will find them few, and will believe that I have made a 
 painstaking endeavor to avoid them. 
 
 In seeking the origins of the Perceval tale, I have circum- 
 scribed the interpretation of "origins." It is the immediate 
 ancestry, not the ultimate source, that has here been sought. 
 I have made no inquiry into Old Irish literature in the expectation 
 of pointing out its parallels to the Perceval tale, if such there be; 
 nor any into folklore domains in the hope of tracing the tale or 
 its elements to an origin in custom, myth, or religion. Finally, 
 the Grail problem lies outside the limits of this investigation, 
 since no allusion to the Grail occurs in the English poem which is 
 taken as the point of departure. 
 
 In several ways this study is incomplete, as perhaps any study 
 of its kind must be. The number of tales discussed is large, for 
 ._ I have mentioned every tale I have found that appears to throw 
 
 light on the origin of the tale of Perceval as it is told in Sir Perceval 
 of Galles; but the collection makes no pretense to finality. There 
 are doubtless many variants now unknown to me. If the reader 
 will indicate any such, I shall feel much beholden to him. In 
 
 1 especial, the tale which is studied in chapter III (the tale in which 
 JJ a despised youth avenges an insult to his king and relieves his 
 
 relatives from the attacks of an army that, slam every day, is 
 restored to life every night by a hag with a reviving cordial) is 
 
 S2» 
 
 302248
 
 VI PREFACE 
 
 intrinsically most interesting, and would surely repay investiga- 
 tion. J. F. Campbell says his MSS contained variants. Still 
 others are doubtless procurable. Any tales, too, that appear akin 
 to the story of the secondary heroine, the lady whom Perceval 
 kissed and so brought into reproach, will be welcome additions. 
 
 The courtesies I have received from many people are remem- 
 bered most kindly and with a lively sense of obligation. To 
 Professor John M. Manly, of the University of Chicago, I owe 
 a debt of gratitude for inducting me into the mystery and fascina- 
 tion of mediaeval romance. The late Alfred Nutt, whose recent 
 death seems a personal loss to me, was very kind when I ventured 
 to seek him in his house of business some years ago. Miss Jessie 
 L. Weston was cordially friendly when I had opportunity to dis- 
 cuss Sir Perceval with her one summer. To the books and articles 
 of the many students who have preceded me my indebtedness is 
 writ large on every page. The authorities of Lincoln Cathedral, 
 of the British Museum, of the Library of Congress, and of the 
 university libraries at Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Wisconsin, and 
 Texas I desire to thank heartily for their many favors. And to 
 my colleagues and very good friends. Professor Callaway, Professor 
 Campbell, and Dr. Law, my very best thanks are due for criticism 
 and many another deed of kindness; all of them have "read proof" 
 for me; how can friendship do more? — unless it be to "read proof" 
 twice, as Professor Campbell and Professor Callaway have both 
 done. 
 
 R. H. Griffith 
 
 Austin, Texas, U.S.A. 
 March 7, 19 11
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ......... i 
 
 Statement of the problem. — Materials from which evidence is to 
 be adduced: a condensed bibliography. — Resume of opinions of 
 some of the most important students. — Lines of investigation in 
 the present study. 
 
 Chapter I: The Hero's Forest Rearing . . .14 
 
 The four incidents to be considered. — Comparison of SP and C 
 by svmimaries. — Evidence of other versions, by simimaries. The 
 father's marriage tournament, in SP and W. The father's 
 death, in SP, PC, W, Pd, Card, Fool; some comments. The 
 widow's flight, in SP, PC, W, Pd, Card, Fool. Boyish exploits, in 
 SP, W, Pd, Card, Fool, Ty; comment; evidence of C. — Table. — 
 Argument: C as the source; any other version as the source. — 
 Conclusions. 
 
 Chapter II: The Hero's Awkward Attempts to Follow 
 
 Instructions 29 
 
 The four incidents to be considered; materials not sufficient for an 
 argument; summary of SP. — Two divisions of two incidents 
 each.— Table: SP, W, Card, Ty, Fool, C, Pd, PC— First, or 
 Religious Instruction-Forest Knights portion; comment. — Second, 
 or Advice-Tent adventure portion: Advice, summaries of SP, W, 
 Card, Ty, C, Pd; Tent incident, summaries of SP, W, C, Pd; 
 comment. — ^Tentative conclusion. 
 
 Chapter III: The Red Knight- Witch-Uncle Story . 40 
 
 The five incidents to be considered. — Summaries of SP and C. — 
 Their difi'erences. — Incident of the arrival of the hero at court; 
 summaries of Pd, Ty, Card, Fool; comment. — ^The Red Elnight- 
 Witch-Uncle story: summaries of SP, Pd{a), Pd{b), G, Red Sh, 
 Red Sh Variants, Conall; table of incidents; table of particulars; 
 summaries of another set of tales, arranged in four groups. — 
 Comment and argument on the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story; 
 the Insult, its types; the Meeting with Relatives, the number of 
 meetings, the Uncle, the Three Young Men, the two Women; the 
 Witch; the Death of the Insulter. — Recapitulation. — The incor- 
 poration of the story into the frame-tale. 
 
 vii
 
 Vm CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter IV: The Relief of the Besieged Lady . . 78 
 
 The six incidents to be considered. — Summaries of SP and C. — 
 Their four notable differences. — "The Saracen Influence"; sum- 
 maries of SP, W, Conall, Saudan Og, Pd{b) ; difficulties in the way 
 of the argument. — Recapitulation; comment and argument on 
 the "Saracen Influence." — A new problem stated. 
 
 Chapter V: The Rescue of the Lady Falsely Accused 94 
 
 The nine incidents to be considered; two groups, the first of seven, 
 the second of two incidents. — Simimary of SP. — An incident- 
 outline of SP, C, W, Pd. — The Tent Lady's history: differences 
 between SP and C. — The Snow Scene in C. — The Tent Lady- 
 Giant story : summaries of Yv and LF {SP not repeated) ; table 
 of incidents; table of particulars. — Threads that bind this story 
 together: Tent Lord's suspicion; the Lady's ring; the Giant 
 combat and Gawain's relative. — The evidence of W concerning 
 this story. — SP and C compared again. — The hero's mother. — 
 His wife. — The end of the tale. 
 
 Conclusion . . . . . . . . .116 
 
 Resume of the foregoing chapters. — The test of synthesis. — 
 A-Stage: summary of frame-tale; tales showing it. — B-Stage: 
 simamary of Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story; tales showing it; 
 the process of absorption; summary of the resultant account. — 
 C-Stage: summary of Tent Lady-Giant story; process of absorp- 
 tion; summary of the resultant account. — D-Stage: cleavage; one 
 branch subjected to Saracen Influence; development within this 
 stage. — E-Stage: the Grail story incorporated. — F-Stage: the Swan 
 Knight story incorporated. — Diagram. — Geographical home of the 
 sources. — A final word on the evidence adduced. — SP independent 
 of C. — SP probably not the translation of any French poem.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The problem to which the following pages address themselves 
 concerns the origin of the mediaeval English poem Sir Perceval of 
 Galles, whether or not it is the offspring of a romance composed 
 in French by Crestien de Troyes and now commonly known as 
 Perceval le Gallois, ou le Conte du Graal. 
 
 The materials from which to draw evidence for an argument are 
 a group of tales^ gathered from widely separated places — from 
 England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, from France, Germany, 
 and Italy. They may be Hsted as follows: 
 
 1. SP. — Sir Perceval of Galles {ca. 1370) is a Middle-English 
 metrical romance, preserved, with some imperfections and sHght 
 irregularities, as 143 sixteen-line stanzas (2,288 lines), in a single 
 MS, the Thornton MS of Lincoln Cathedral. It was printed by 
 J. O. Halliwell in The Thornton Romances (pp. 1-87), for the Camden 
 Society in 1844, and reprinted at the Kelmscott Press in 1895. 
 Its dialect is Northwest Midland, its date about the middle of the 
 fourteenth century (some of its phrases are quoted in Chaucer's 
 ''Sir Thopas"); its author is unknown, but its rhyme-scheme and 
 plot-structure indicate that the composer was not without practice.' 
 
 2. C. — Crestien's tale of Perceval, Le Conte du Graal {ca. 1175), 
 is an uncompleted poem of about 9,300 lines in Old French. It 
 usually appears as part of a mass of verse that grew up around it. 
 
 This composite mass developed because of the desire of other poets to 
 finish what Crestien left unfinished. No single book contains all of it. There 
 are sixteen MSS, the longest of which stretched its meter to the length (impos- 
 sible, let us hope, outside of an antique song) of more than 63,000 lines. A 
 prose redaction was printed in Paris in 1530, and Potvin edited the larger 
 part of the "poem" as Perceval le Gallois, ou le Conte du Graal, in six volumes, 
 Mons, 1866-71. Besides Crestien, three other contributors are known by 
 name, Wauchier (Gaucher, Gautier), Manessier, and Gerbert; but the limits 
 
 ' I have uniformly used the word "tale" to mean the whole account any one author gives 
 of his hero; "story" to mean a group of incidents more closely bound to each other than to 
 other incidents in the tale in which they stand — a circle within a circle, so to speak. 
 
 ' For working bibliography see A. H. Billings, "A Guide to the Middle English Metrical 
 Romances," Yale Studies in English (1901), 125 ff.
 
 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 of the portions they contributed are uncertain. At least two writers prefixed 
 introductions to Crestien's lines. One of these introductions and the portions 
 by Crestien and Gerbert are the parts of the "poem" I have used most. 
 
 3. PC. — The second of the two introductions just mentioned is 
 about 800 lines long; once thought by some scholars to be by 
 Crestien, it is now considered the work of an anonymous contrib- 
 utor, and is referred to as one of the "pseudo-Crestien" portions. 
 It is preserved in two MSS, Mons and British Museum Add. 36,614; 
 its substance appears in part in the prose redaction of 1530; and 
 it is printed in full from MS Mons by Potvin. The first introduc- 
 tion (Potvin, 1-484) may be referred to as Elucidation. 
 
 4. G. — Gerbert's "Continuation" is preserved in two MSS, 
 but it has not been printed. I have had to rely upon two resumes, 
 one given by Potvin (Vol. VI) and the other by Miss Weston in 
 The Library (magazine), January, 1904. Gerbert's 10,000 lines 
 appear in the MSS between the parts by Wauchier and Manessier. 
 
 If the reader will imagine Potvin's edition revised so as to place 
 Gerbert's lines before Manessier's, he may gather from the appended 
 table an idea of the various parts of the Conte. 
 
 Author 
 
 Lines 
 
 Nature of Contents 
 
 Assigned Date 
 
 Anonvmous 
 
 1-484 
 485-1,282 
 1,283-10,601 
 
 10,602-34,934 
 34,93S-ca. 4S,ooo 
 ca. 45,000-ca. 63,000 
 
 "Elucidation"; Grail's 
 mystery and winners 
 
 Death of Perceval's father; 
 flight of his mother 
 
 Perceval's deeds; Ga- 
 wain's adventures 
 
 Adventures of Perceval 
 
 and others 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1220-30 
 1220-30 
 I175 
 
 I 190-1200 
 1216-25 
 
 Anonvmous 
 
 Crestien de Troyes .... 
 
 Wauchier, and Inter- 
 polators 
 
 Gerbert 
 
 Manessier, and Inter- 
 Dolators 
 
 1210-20 
 
 
 
 For discussions of these tales see the books mentioned on pp. 
 7 ff., infra, and the authorities to which they in turn refer. 
 
 5. W. — Parzival ( ?i2oo-i2i6), a Middle-High- German poem by 
 Wolfram von Eschenbach, has been preserved in many MSS and 
 edited by several scholars. I have used editions by K. Bartsch 
 {Deutsche Classiker des Mittelalters , Leipzig, 1875-77), P. Piper 
 {Deutsche National-Litteratur, Stuttgart, 1890-92), and K. Lach-
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 mann (4th ed., Berlin, 1879); translations by Hertz and by 
 Botticher into modern German; and the translation by Miss Weston 
 into English. The poem is arranged in sixteen books, averaging 
 about 1,500 lines each. Books I-VI and XIV are the ones I have 
 used most. My references are to Bartsch's edition. 
 
 6. Pd. — Peredur (?i25o-i35o), a Welsh prose tale in which the 
 hero is Perceval under another name, is preserved in the Welsh 
 Red Book of Hergest, dating from i3oo(?) to i35o(?). It was 
 translated into English by Lady Charlotte Guest (The Mabinogion, 
 1838-49), and into French by J. Loth (in D. de Jubainville's 
 Cours de Litt. Celtigue, Vol. IV, Paris, 1889). Reprints of Lady 
 Guest's text issued by D. Nutt, 1902, 1904, by Dent, 1906, and 
 by other pubhshers have made Peredur the most easily accessible 
 of all the versions of the Perceval tale. My references are by pages 
 to Nutt's reprint (when no name is given) and to Loth's translation. 
 
 I have not had opportunity to see The White Book Mabinogion: Welsh 
 Tales and Romances Reproduced from the Peniarth MSS, edited by J. Gwen- 
 ogvryn Evans, Pwllheli, 1909. In his review of this volume {Folk Lore, June, 
 1910, pp. 237-46), Nutt comments upon Evans' Introduction. 
 
 7. Ty. — Tyolet (?i25o), a French lai preserved in a single MS, 
 was printed by G. Paris in Romania, VIII (1879). The 704 lines 
 of the poem fall into two parts : {a) the early life of Tyolet and his 
 coming to court (1-320); {b) the adventure of the White Stag, 
 whereby Tyolet wins a wife (321-704). I have used all of the 
 first part, and the concluding lines of the second. 
 
 8. Card. — Carduino (?i375), an Itahan poem, was published 
 from a unique MS by Rajna in 1873 {Poemetti Cavallereschi, Bologna) . 
 A portion of the poem is wanting in the middle. There remain two 
 cantos, one of thirty-five eight-line stanzas, the other of seventy- 
 two. My references are to stanzas. 
 
 Card is the most primitive of its group of four tales; the others are Libeaus 
 Desconus (LD), Bel Inconnu {BI), and Wigalois i}Vig). For an excellent 
 study of the group cf. W. H. Schofield, "Studies on the Libeaus Desconus," 
 Harvard Studies atid Notes, IV, 1895. 
 
 9. Yv. — Yvain (?ii65), by Crestien de Troyes, ed. by W. 
 Foerster, Halle, 1887, and later years. References are to the 
 edition of 1906.
 
 4 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 10. LF. — The Lady of the Fountain (?i25o), the Welsh version 
 of the Iwain tale, is accessible in Lady Guest's Mahinogion (Nutt's 
 reprint, pp. 167 £f.) and in Loth's translation (ref. as for Pd, supra), 
 pp. I ff. 
 
 On 9-10, see a valuable essay by A. C. L. Brown, "Iwain: A Study in the 
 Origins of Arthurian Romance" {Harvard Studies and Notes, VIII, 1-147), 
 1903; and Foerster's comment on Brown's book, Yvain (ed. 1906), p. xlix. 
 
 Besides the materials already mentioned there are some folk- 
 tales still current that furnish evidence. These tales are told of 
 different heroes, and no one of them relates more than a portion of 
 the adventures attributed to Perceval. Often, indeed, it requires 
 a comparative study to show that the adventures are akin. The 
 citation of these tales, however, makes it possible for us to study 
 the evolution of the Perceval tale. They are presented in three 
 groups. 
 
 THE SCOTCH GROUP 
 
 11. Fool. — Amadan Mor, or the Lay of the Great Fool} 
 
 12. Red Sh. — The Knight of the Red Shield. 
 
 13. Conall. — Conall Gulhan.* 
 
 14. Een. — How the Een Was Set Up.^ 
 
 11-14 are from J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands (four 
 vols., London, 1890-93): Fool, III, 160-93; Red Sh, II, 451-93; Conall, III, 
 199-297; Een, III, 348-60. 
 
 15. Manus. — A Tale of Young Manus. 
 
 Maclnnes and Nutt, "Folk and Hero Tales of Argyllshire," Waifs and 
 Strays of Celtic Tradition, II (1890), 338-75. 
 
 ' There are other versions of the Lay, which may be spoken of as variants: var. a is O'Daly's, 
 in Transactions of the Ossianic Soc, VI, 161-207; var. b, "Amadan Mor and the Gruagach 
 of the Castle of Gold," in Curtin's Hero Tales of Ireland, 140-62; and var. c, "The Amadhan 
 Mor," in Kennedy's Bardic Stories of Ireland (1871), 151-55. 
 
 ' Conall var. a, "The Adventures of Conall Gulban," is in Kennedy's Bardic Stories of 
 Ireland, 156-60; its variations do not help us. Dr. D. Hyde says (Beside the Fire [London, 
 i8go], p. xxxii)- "On comparing [Campbell's Conall] with an Irish MS, by Father Manus 
 O'Donnell, made in 1708, and another made about the beginning of this century, by Michael 
 O'Longan, of Carricknavar, I was surprised to find incident following incident with wonderful 
 regularity in both versions." 
 
 ' There are several versions of Fionn's youthful deeds, which only in part parallel those 
 of Perceval. A second version is "The Boyish Exploits of Finn MacCumhail" in Transactions 
 of the Ossianic Soc. (Dublin, 1859). A third is "The Birth of Fin MacCumhail"; see chap, 
 iii, 64, infra.
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 1 6. Big Men.— Fin MacCoul in the Kingdom of the Big Men. 
 
 17. Ransom. — -Fiomi's Ransom. 
 
 16-17 are in J. G. Campbell, "The Fians," Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tra- 
 dition, IV, 175-91, 242-57. 
 
 THE IRISH GROUP 
 
 18. Lonesome. — The King of Erin and the Queen of Lonesome 
 Island. 
 
 19. Kil A. — Kil Arthur. 
 
 20. Fear Duhh. — Fin MacCumhail and the Fenians of Erin in 
 the Castle of Fear Duhh. 
 
 18-20 are in J. Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Boston, 1890), 
 93-113, 175-85,221-31. 
 
 21. Coldfeet. — Coldfeet and the Queen of Lonesome Island. 
 
 22. Lawn D. — Lawn Dyarrig, Son of the King of Erin, and the 
 Green Knight of Terrible Valley . 
 
 23. Faolan. — Fin MacCool, Faolan, and the Mountain of Happi- 
 ness. 
 
 21-23 are in J. Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland (Boston, 1S94), 242-61, 
 262-82,484-513. 
 
 24. Mananaun. — King Mananaun. 
 
 25. Red Belt. — The Champion of the Red Belt. 
 
 24-25 are in W. Larminie, West Irish Folk Tales and Romances (London, 
 1893), 64-84, 85-105. 
 
 26. D'yerree. — The Well of D^yerree-in-Dowan. 
 D. Hyde, Beside the Fire (London, 1890), 129-41. 
 
 27. Dough. — Amadan of the Dough. 
 
 28. Hookedy. — Hookedy-Crookedy. 
 
 27-28 are in S. MacManus, Donegal Fairy Tales (New York, 1900), 29-57, 
 95-133- 
 
 29. Golden Mines. — Queen of the Golden Mines. 
 
 S. MacManus, In Chimney Corners (New York, 1899), 37-53.
 
 6 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 THE WELSH GROUP 
 
 30. Kg of Eng. — King of England and His Three Sons. 
 
 J. Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales (1894), 132-45. Although in a book 
 of EngHsh tales, this tale, so a note implies, came from a gypsy in Wales. 
 
 BRETON TALES 
 
 The two tales of Morvan Lez Breiz, and Peronnik l' Idiot I have 
 not used: primarily, because they offer no help; Morvan offers 
 only the battle against a black giant, the ''More du Roi," which 
 bears but the faintest Hkeness to a part of SP, and gives no help 
 at all, and Peronnik is like SP in only two places — the beginning 
 and the end — and only vaguely similar there; and secondarily 
 because de la Villemarque's Morvan has been discredited, and 
 Souvestre's Peronnik has been suspected of being not altogether a 
 folk-tale, not altogether free, i.e., from "cooking." 
 
 TEUTONIC TALES 
 
 Nutt, "Mabinogion Studies," Folk Lore Record, V (1882), 1-32, 
 compares Red Sh with the Faroese Hognilied, with parts of the 
 Volsunga and the Thiarek Sagas, and with the Hilde legend 
 (mentioned in Bartsch's Kudrun, pp. v-viii). I have not been able 
 to get at the books for a proper study of the Hild story, and cannot 
 tell whether it is akin to the "Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story" 
 of chapter III, infra, or not. Two versions given in Magnusson 
 and Morris' Three Northern Love Stories (London, 1901) give no 
 evidence of kinship; the same statement holds for Saxo Gram- 
 maticus; for the brief outlines in Bartsch's and in Symons' editions 
 of Gudrun and in Schofield's translation (pp. 193-94) of S. Bugge's 
 The Home of the Eddie Poems (London, 1899); and for the discus- 
 sions in Paul's Grundriss (2d ed.), Ill, 711, in F. Panzer's Hilde- 
 Gudrun (1901), and in F. E. Sandbach's Niehelungenlied an4 Gudrun 
 in England and America (1903). 
 
 For the tales that I have listed the source has been carefully 
 stated by all the collectors except MacManus.
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 Other tales are referred to, but bibliographical information con- 
 cerning them is given in notes. 
 
 On the propriety of using these tales, see the note on p. 41, 
 infra. 
 
 In the seventy years since the matter began to be much discussed, 
 almost every shade of opinion possible has been expressed concern- 
 ing the relation of the English Sir Perceval to the French Conte 
 du Graal. The English poem makes no mention of the Grail, yet, 
 paradoxically, every scholar who has studied the origin of the 
 Grail legend has been forced to consider the Sir Perceval. Digests 
 of the body of the literature that has thus grown up are to be found 
 in several places; e.g., in A. Nutt's Studies in the Legend of the Holy 
 Grail (London, 1888); in E. Wechssler's Die Sage vom heiligen 
 Gral in ihrer Entwicklung bis auf Richard Wagners Parsifal (Halle, 
 1898); and in Miss J. L. Weston's Legend of Sir Perceval (London, 
 1906-9). On the more restricted subject, the relation of the Eng- 
 lish poem to the French, a good working resume is given by Miss 
 A. H. Billings, in her "Guide to the Middle English Metrical 
 Romances," Yale Studies, IX (1901). It does not seem advisable 
 to recapitulate here all the opinions scholars have expressed, but 
 the leading ones, arranged in groups, may be stated. 
 
 FIRST group: GERVINUS and GASTON PARIS 
 
 1871. Gervinus, G. G. Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung. 3 vols. Leip- 
 zig. Fiinfte vollig umgearbeitete Auflage. — i, 576-77: "Wir haben oben die 
 bretagnischen Volkslieder von Morvan erwahnt, die von seiner einsamen Wald- 
 erziehung erzahlen, und wie er seine Mutter, nach Ritterthaten diirstend, ver- 
 lasst, die dann der Gram um ihn todtet. Ob diese einfache Sage zuerst an dem 
 Namen Morvan oder an welchem anderen gehaftet habe, ist gleichgiiltig; 
 gewiss ist sie der Kern und Rahmen der Sage, deren Held im 12. Jahrh. in 
 walschen und romanischen Erzahlungen die Namen Peredur und Parzival 
 fiihrt. In einer sehr volksthiimlichen Gestalt, die an jenem cinfachen Kern 
 am treuesten festhalt, ist die Sage in einem spaten, strophisch abgetheilten, 
 burlesken Gedichte eines englischen Bankelsangers des 14. Jahrhs. erhalten, 
 das einem alteren bretagnischen Lai nacherzahlt sein mag." 
 
 1883. Paris, Gaston. "Perceval et la legende du Saint-Graal," Bulletin 
 de la Societe Historique et Cercle Saint-Simon, II (November, 1882, Paris): 
 "Le conte de Perceval appartient a la tradition galloise, recueillie de la bouche
 
 8 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 des conteurs et musiciens gallois par les jongleurs et trouveurs normands ou 
 frangais apres la conquete de I'Angleterre. La forme la plus authentique de ce 
 conte nous est sans doute representee par un poeme anglais du XIII* siecle, 
 
 Sir Perzivell, dans lequel le graal ne joue encore aucun role Le Sir 
 
 Perzivell s'appuie certainement sur un poeme anglo-normand perdu, et nous 
 offre un specimen des romans biographiques qui forment la plus ancienne 
 couche des romans franfais du cycle breton" (pp. 98-99). 
 
 1888. [Paris, Gaston.] Histovre litteraire de la France, Ouvrage commence 
 par des Religieux Benedictins, etc. (Paris), Vol. XXX: "L'editeur, M. Halli- 
 well, le {SP) regardait tout simplement comme un abrege tres sommaire du 
 Perceval de Chretien et des continuations de ce poeme. Une telle opinion 
 
 n'est pas sou tenable Le 'Sir Percevelle'remonte done a une autre source, 
 
 et sans doute a un poeme anglo-normand (p. 259) La vraie place de 
 
 'Sir Percevelle' dans revolution du cycle tou jours amplifie de Perceval a, 
 
 au contraire, ete parfaitement discernee par un savant qui est un poete 
 
 M. Wilhelm Hertz .... a montre que le poeme anglais nous represente, 
 sous une forme assez voisine de I'original, quoique alteree, un des elements 
 primordiaux qui sont entres dans la composition du conte gallois et du roman 
 frangais. II faut ajouter, comme nous I'avons dit, que ce poeme repose tres 
 probablement sur un poeme anglo-normand, derriere lequel on peut avec 
 vraisemblance chercher un conte purement celtique" (p. 261). 
 
 SECOND group: steinbach, nutt, and kolbing 
 
 1885. Steinbach, Paul. Ueber den einfluss des Crestien de Troies auf die 
 altenglische literatur. Diss., Leipzig: "Dass diese annahme des beriihmten 
 literar-historikers (Gervinus) betreffs der vorlage unseres gedichtes entschieden 
 
 eine irrige zu nennen ist, wird die folgende untersuchung zeigen (p. 28) 
 
 Bis vers 820 folgt der engl. dichter genau dem gauge der erzahlung des franzo- 
 sichen gedichtes (hier bis vers 2400) , mit nur wenigen und nicht bedeutenden 
 abanderungen, .... dagegen manchen punkt weglassend und stark kurzend. 
 
 Von vers 821 linden wir .... Cr. mehr oder weniger frei benutzt (35) 
 
 In einen, urspriinglich bretonischen iiberlieferungen entstammenden rahmen 
 hat er [the English poet] in freier kurzender bearbeitung, unter benutzung 
 einiger vielleicht bei den in England wohnenden Bretonen vorgefundenen 
 volkstiimlichen ziige, teils alteren, teils neueren ursprungs, und unter hinzu- 
 fiigung einiger an die schilderung von kampfen in den Chansons de geste 
 erinnernder partien, das Crestiensche werk 'Li contes del graal' bis ca. v. 6000 
 eingeschoben, indem er sich dabei im ersten teile seines gedichtes (bis v. 821) 
 mehr, im letzteren weniger an dasselbe anlehnt und zugleich mit bemerkens- 
 werter konsequenz jede beriihrung mit der gralsage vermeidet" (41). 
 
 1 88 1. Nutt, Alfred. "The Aryan Expulsion-and-Return Formula in 
 the Folk and Hero-Tales of the Celts," Folk-Lore Record, IV, 1-44: "Schulz's 
 opinion that the English romance is a translation or a close imitation of a twelfth-
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 century Breton poem is probably correct. The romance represents at any 
 rate an independent and, in many respects, older treatment of the subject than 
 the Mabinogi" (ii). 
 
 1888, Nutt, Alfred. Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail, etc., London: 
 Nutt restates Steinbach's view, and adds, "The use of Chrestien by the author 
 of Sir Perceval seems, however, uncontestable: and, such being the case, Stein- 
 bach's views meet the difficulties of the case fairly well" (150). 
 
 1891. Nutt, Alfred. "Les derniers travaux allemands sur la legende du 
 Saint Graal," Revue Celtique; same art., Folk Lore, II, Appendix: "Mais M. 
 Golther a-t-il parfaitement raison? II n'expose nulle part sa these d'une 
 fagon claire, mais je ne crois pas aller au dela de sa pensee en la formulant ainsi: 
 Chrestien a le premier traite le sujet de la quete du Graal et de la lance qui 
 saigne; tout ce qui a ete ecrit depuis releve de son roman inacheve et a ete ecrit 
 dans le but de le completer; a la verite il avoue avoir puise a une source anteri- 
 eure, mais cette source est entierement perdue et n'a eu aucune influence sur 
 
 les autres ecrivains du cycle [Folk Lore, p. xxv] Je n'ai pu que me 
 
 rencontrer avec des erudits distingues, en y reconnaissant des traits archaiques 
 [ in SP]. L'auteur, on le sait, laisse absolument de cote tout ce qui, chez 
 Chrestien, se rapporte au Graal. La faute en est toujours, d'apres M. Golther, 
 aux allures enigma tiques du poete frangais; dans le doute, le traducteur anglais 
 s'est abstenu. Voila une reserve dont on trouverait difificilement un second 
 exemple chez les ecrivains du moyen age. Mais lui aussi a connu non seule- 
 ment Mennecier, auquel, d'apres indication formelle de M. Golther, il a 
 emprunte la fin de son roman, mais aussi Gerbert, auquel, ex hypothesi, il a du 
 emprunter, en denaturant etrangement, I'episode de la vieille sorciere. Lui 
 done aussi, il a neglige les indications formelles de ses modeles sur la nature et 
 la provenance du Graal; lui qui ex hypothesi Golther i ecrivait vers 1250 au plus 
 tot (Gerbert est de 1 230-1 240), a ignore I'immense litterature qui existait des 
 lors sur Vhistoire du Graal" (xxxiv). 
 
 1895-96. Kolbing, E. Vollmdllers Jahresbericht, etc., II, 42g: "Wahrend 
 W. Golther das enghsche Gedicht unmittelbar auf Crestiens Werk zuruck- 
 fiihren will und es als eine freie Bearbeitung des Conte del Graal und einzelner 
 Motive aus Werken seiner Fortsetzer bezeichnet, deren eigene Ziige samtUch 
 dem Kopfe des Bearbeiters entsprungen seien, erblickt A. Nutt in dieser 
 Fassung eine Verquickung von Crestiens Epos allein (ohne die Fortsetzungen) 
 mit keltischen Sagen. Ich muss gestehen, dass mir vor der Hand Nutts 
 Ansicht mehr Wahrscheinlichkeit fiir sich zu haben scheint." 
 
 THIRD group: golther, suchter-birch-hirschfeld, and 
 
 NEWELL 
 
 1890. Golther, W. Chrestiens conte del graal in seinem verhdltniss zutn 
 wdlschen Peredur und zuni englischen Perceval. Sitzungsberichte der philos- 
 phil. u. hist. Classe der Bayern Akad. d. Wiss. Munich, II, 174-217: "Dass das
 
 lO SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 gedicht [SP] unter dem einfluss Chrestiens steht, kann nicht bestritten werden. 
 Es erhebt sich nur die frage, wie die von Chrestien abweichenden ziige auf- 
 
 zufassen sind (203) Das englische gedicht ist u. e. unmittelbar auf 
 
 Chrestiens werk zuriickzufiihren so gut wie das mahinogi; es ist eine freie 
 bearbeitung des conte del graal; die ihm eigenen ziige entstammen sammtlich 
 dem kopfe des bearbeiters und diirfen nicht fiir die erklarung der Perceval-sage 
 irgendwie beniitzt werden, fiir welche es, als aus einer bekannten franzosischen 
 
 vorlage abgeleitet, iiberhaupt nicht in betracht kommt (207) Alle 
 
 anderen quellen haben fiir diese frage, als aus Chrestien abgeleitet, gar keine 
 bedeutung. Jeder andere standpunct tragt von vornherein unlosliche wirren 
 
 in die forschung (213) Auf den ursprung der letzteren [the thoren- 
 
 marchen as distinct from the graalsage], der keineswegs aufs keltische zuriick- 
 gehen muss, will ich hier nicht eingehen, nur zum schiuss die vermutung aus- 
 sprechen dass die Percevalsage, worunter ich die verwendung marchenhafter 
 motive verstehe, in ihrer literarischen form ein werk Chrestiens zu sein scheint. 
 Denn die tatsache ist einmal nicht abzuleugnen, dass aUe literarischen denk- 
 maler, die bis jetzt bekannt sind, auf Chrestien zuriickweisen, und keines mit 
 sicherheit auf eine altere quelle" (213). 
 
 1900. Suchier, Hermann, und Birch-Hirschfeld, Adolf. Geschichte der 
 franzosischen Litteratur von den dltesten Zeiten bis zur Gegenwari, Leipzig und 
 Wien: "Der mittelenglische 'Perceval' ist nur ein verblasster Ausfluss aus 
 Christian," etc. (147). 
 
 1 902 . Newell, William Wells. The Legend of the Holy Grail and the Perceval 
 ofCrestien of Troyes, Cambridge, Mass. (Newell quotes Golther's opinion with 
 emphatic approval.) "This curious example of a popular rhymed novelette 
 [SP] of the fourteenth century assuredly can boast no more remote antiquity. 
 The love story may very well be explained as made up under the influence of 
 suggestions indirectly obtained from the extant French poem, and the style 
 and proper names correspond to such a supposition. A lingering remnant of 
 the portion of Crestien's story relating to the unasked question may be found 
 in the untimely reverie of the hero. That the knight of the cup should be 
 represented as the slayer of Percevelle's father is entirely in the manner of a 
 reconstructor; that the vengeance is unintentional, and even unknown, shows 
 that the feature is not ancient. A considerable number of verbal coincidences 
 attest the connection with the French verse, which is further made clear by 
 the proper name of the hero. Sir Percevelle le Galayse. The incidents of the 
 German, Welsh, and English versions of the story, where they vary from the 
 tale of Crestien, also disagree with each other; such aberration, according to the 
 remarks above offered, is a plain indication that the changes must be considered 
 as due only to the fancy of the several recasters. Minor agreements between 
 traits of the English poem and those, for example, mentioned by Wolfram, 
 are to be disregarded, being in every case exphcable as due to a common inter- 
 pretation of the data of the French original. The assumption of an Anglo- 
 Norman romance as the presumed source of the Enghsh verse (suggested by
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 II 
 
 G. Paris) ought not to be considered so long as the production can be explained 
 as a variation founded on a vera causa, on the celebrated and easily accessible 
 work of Crestien. The outlines of the latter composition might easily, in 
 the fourteenth century, come into the knowledge of a popular poet" (82). 
 These opinions may be tabulated thus : 
 
 SP derived from C 
 
 SP influenced by C 
 
 SP independent of C 
 
 
 
 1842. 
 1842. 
 
 1871. 
 1880. 
 1881. 
 1883. 
 
 1888. 
 
 1891. 
 1898. 
 
 1906- 
 
 San Marte 
 
 
 
 (A. Schulz) 
 De la Villemarque 
 
 1844. 
 
 HaUiwell 
 
 
 (discredited) 
 
 
 Gervinus 
 
 
 
 Martin ( ?) 
 
 
 1881. Nutt(?) 
 
 Nutt (?) 
 
 
 Paris, G. 
 
 
 1885. Steinbach 
 1888. Nutt 
 
 
 
 Kaluza, 
 
 1890. 
 
 Golther 
 Zimmer (?) 
 
 Paris, G. 
 
 1 89 1. Nutt 
 1895-6. Kolbing 
 
 Heinzel 
 
 
 
 
 Wechssler 
 
 1899. 
 1900. 
 
 1902. 
 
 Foerster (?) 
 Suchier-Birch- 
 Hirschfeld 
 Newell 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9. Weston 
 
 
 
 
 No scholar, so far as I know, believes that Crestien invented the 
 materials he used in his Perceval poem. But some students con- 
 tend that it is impossible for us, through a study of such tales as 
 we now have, to arrive at any definite knowledge concerning those 
 materials as they were before Crestien used them, and that Crestien' s 
 poem and the idiosyncrasies of later writers are sufficient to account 
 for all later versions; and they assert (implicitly, if not explicitly) 
 that only documentary evidence of a date prior to Crestien's time 
 can be held sufficient to prove any version's independence of the 
 Frenchman's Conte. Other scholars hold that other versions of the 
 tale bear within themselves evidence, if not proof, that they have 
 inherited portions of the source materials through a tradition inde- 
 pendent of Crestien. 
 
 Most of the tales (all from i through 14 mentioned above) that 
 I intend to compare have been studied in connection with the 
 Perceval tale before. I, unhappy that I am, have no manuscript
 
 12 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 risen from the dead with which to convince unbeHevers. It 
 remained for me to see if a more minute observation of the facts 
 and a new marshaling of the evidence could not be made to present 
 that proof of one theory or another which has hitherto been wanting. 
 
 Since the matter has long been in dispute, it is evidently not 
 easy to prove that all the versions are based on Crestien's; and 
 since, on the contrary, no single version has been proved to be 
 independent of Crestien's, it is difficult to see how the evidence of 
 any one version can be of any value in an effort to prove the inde- 
 pendence of any other. The method of investigation I have 
 adopted is one that I learned in my college days in mathematics — 
 the method of demonstrating the falsity of a hypothesis by assum- 
 ing that it is true and then exposing the inadequacy or absurdity 
 in which it ends. In this way the versions are made — ^and that 
 without begging the question — to furnish evidence concerning 
 themselves. 
 
 For this working hypothesis I have assumed that Crestien's 
 poem is the source out of which the other Perceval romances were 
 evolved. Upon this hypothesis, it is patent that departures from 
 C are the evidence to be sought especially, not agreements with it. 
 And departures are of no worth unless two or more tales agree in 
 making the same departures. In this search I soon found that 
 summaries could not be omitted, though at first I had hoped to 
 avoid printing them and depend upon references to those of my 
 predecessors.^ In order to prepare these summaries I divided 
 each tale into incidents. These, of course, are subdivisible into 
 items and points, but the incident has been my unit. In present- 
 ing my study I have followed the sequence of incidents in SP, 
 The incidents occur in groups, and my comparisons have proceeded 
 according to these groups. 
 
 Five such groups, apparently, are presented in SP, and I have 
 devoted a chapter to each one. At the beginning of each chapter 
 I have summarized and compared SP and C, and stated whatever 
 conclusions the comparison warranted; next I have brought in 
 any other tales that have a bearing, summarizing, comparing them 
 
 ' Cf., e.g., Birch-Hirschfeld, Die Sage vom Gral (Leipzig, 1877); A. Nutt, Stud.; and Miss 
 J. L. Weston, Leg. of SP.
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 3 
 
 with SP and C, and stating my conclusions. To make my meaning 
 more readily intelligible, I have recapitulated by means of tables. 
 I have condensed this volume as much as possible. I am aware 
 that as a consequence some of my paragraphs, because of the close- 
 ness of the argument and the number of abbreviations, items, and 
 tables used, must offer some trouble to the reader; but I trust that 
 this trouble and the arithmetical look of some of the pages will not 
 annoy him overmuch. My plan necessitates the presentation of a 
 world of minutiae, but I hope it will not fetch the reader to a point 
 where he cannot see the forest for the trees (or the leaves either). 
 Condensation, too, has deprived me of certain pleasures; I have 
 avoided the Grail problem (since SF omits the Grail entirely); 
 I have made no effort to reconstruct Kiot's version; I have not 
 discussed the relation of Pd to C, etc., etc., giving room only here 
 and there to a footnote/ 
 
 ' Several books and articles have appeared since this study was made ready for the 
 printer. 
 
 1910. Williams, Mary Rh. Essai sur la composition du roman Gallois de Peredur (Paris; 
 pp. 121). This I have read, and some of its data I should have been glad to incorporate. 
 Miss Williams argues for Pd's entire independence of C, but the matter is as yet, it seems to 
 me, far from being settled beyond dispute. 
 
 I have not yet had access to : 
 
 1908. MacNeill, Eoin. "Duanire Finn," Irish Texts Society, VII. Texts and translation 
 of nimierous metrical Lays of Fionn. 
 
 1908. Golther, W. Parzival und der Gral. Munich. 
 
 1909. Baist, G. Parzival und der Gral. Freiburg. 
 1909. Lot, F. Bibl. de I'ecole des chartes, LXX.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE HERO'S FOREST REARING 
 
 References are arranged in groups on the basis of similarity of treatment. 
 
 First iNcroENT: The Father's Marriage 
 SP, i-ioo; W, n, 1-1284.' 
 Other versions, wanting. 
 
 Second Incident: The Father's Death 
 
 I. SP, 101-60; PC, 485-940; W, II, 1285-1598. 
 II. Pd, 244; Fool, 160-61; Card, I, i — VI, 4; Een, 349. 
 III. C, 1607-82; Ty, 1-56. 
 
 Third Incident: The Mother's Flight 
 
 I. SP, 161-92; PC, 941-1223; W, III, 24-59; -P^j 244-45; Fool,va.T. b. 
 II. Card, VI, 5— VIII, 3. 
 
 III. Fool, 161; Een, 350. 
 
 IV. C, 1607-82. 
 
 Ty lacks this incident, but cf. 11. 57-64. 
 
 Fourth Incident: The Hero's Boyish Exploits 
 
 I. SP, 193-228; W, III, 60-126; Pd, 245; Card, VIII, 4— XVI, 8; Fool, 
 
 161-62. 
 II. Ty, 65-88. 
 III. PC, 1124-82; C, 1 283-13 13. 
 
 The portion of the Perceval legend to be treated in this chapter 
 is the forest life^ of the hero — its causes, stages, and results. It 
 appears in SP as four incidents: the father's marriage tournament, 
 his death tournament, the widow's flight, and the hero's boyish 
 exploits. These may be summarized as follows: 
 
 I. King Arthur gave his sister Acheflour in marriage to Percyvelle, the 
 most honored knight at court. At the joust in honor of the bridal Percyvelle 
 overthrew all the knights (including the Black Knight) who opposed him, 
 
 ' In W there are two marriages, each with its accompanying tournament; the second one 
 is discussed here, the first being reserved for discussion in chap. iv. 
 
 ' After the Grail part, this has probably been the part of the legend most studied. It 
 has furnished the bulk of the evidence in the strongest argiunents hitherto offered to show that 
 the tales had a common source outside of C. Nutt, Hertz, Schofield, Miss Weston, all have 
 used it; Rajna, Golther, Newell, and others have stated their opinions on more or less of it. 
 Hence I have to travel over a much-trodden field, though not, I hope, without adding some- 
 what to the gatherings of my predecessors. 
 
 14
 
 THE HERO S FOREST REARING 1 5 
 
 breaking sixty shafts that day. One of the knights overthrown was the Red ' 
 Knight, who in anger swore he would be revenged. II. Later, when Percy- 
 velle's son was born, the father gave him his own name, Perceval. A second 
 joust was declared; and again PercyveUe vanquished all comers — until the 
 appearance of the Red Knight, at whose hands he was slain. III. The widow, 
 hoping to preserve her son's life, fled with him to a wild wood, to rear him where 
 he should never hear of tournaments and shoiild have only beasts to play with. 
 She took with her only a maiden, a troop of goats, and of her lord's possessions 
 merely a Scotch spear [but cf. 1. 410]. IV. When the lad grew old enough to 
 play in the woods, she gave him the spear, and told him in reply to his query 
 that it was a doughty dart she had found in the forest. Perceval slew birds 
 and beasts, and brought them to his mother. He became so skilful that no 
 beast could escape him. Thus they remained for fifteen years, the mother 
 keeping her son as ignorant as possible. 
 
 Crestien was an accomplished writer, and instead of beginning 
 his account with any such family history he chose to open his poem 
 with an incident which would capture the attention of his romantic 
 audience; so he commenced with that event^ in the hero's life which 
 was to initiate the series of his adventures, his chance meeting 
 with a group of knights in the forest.^ The only passage in C 
 that treats of the hero's earlier life in the forest or of how he came 
 to be living there is one of about seventy-five lines, placed in the 
 mouth of the widow when Perceval returns home and tells her he 
 has seen knights. And the authenticity of this passage has 
 been disputed (see note on p. 25). It runs thus: 
 
 Tl Perceval could boast of both father and mother; for his father had been 
 an excellent knight, and his mother was daughter to a knight, one of the best 
 in the country. ^ But all the knights had suffered hardship after Uther 
 Pendragon's time; Perceval's father was wounded, lost his estates, and fell 
 into poverty. ^ For safety he fled into this forest (where he had a house), 
 being borne hither on a litter when Perceval was scarcely two years old. Perce- 
 val had two older brothers, and when it happened that in one day they were 
 both slain, the father died of grief. ^ Since then the widow had lived on with 
 only her son and their servants in this remote place (1607-82). 
 
 This is the only passage in C that gives any account of the 
 father's marriage, or of his death, or of how the widow came to be 
 
 ' There was, to be sure, a conventional prologue of the sermonette variety. It is quoted as 
 some sixty lines from the Montpelier MS by Potvin, II, 307-8. 
 
 " Potvin's U. 1 283-1606; this is matter for chap, ii, infra.
 
 1 6 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 living in the solitary forest. If C was the source, SP has introduced 
 a great change. 
 
 The other versions are next to be examined to see whether they 
 support C or SP. The incidents will be taken seriatim. 
 
 I. The tournament at the father's marriage appears in only one 
 of the other versions, W. The German tale, however, doubles 
 the incident, the father (Gahmuret) doing battle for each of his 
 two wives. The first, which wins Belakane for him and which 
 provides the subject-matter of Book I of W, offers little resemblance 
 to this part of SP; but it is much like a later part, and is reserved 
 for discussion in chapter IV, infra. The second battle, fought for 
 Herzeloyde, presents several similarities: 
 
 Herzeloyde, queen of "Waleis," appointed a great tournament, the victor 
 in which was to become her husband and king of her states. Gahmuret arrived 
 before Kanvoleis (the capital city) and found the plain covered with the tents 
 of many kings and valiant knights. He armed himself richly and entered the 
 tourney. He overthrew many knights, among them four kings, and wherever 
 he came he cleared a space about him ; he became known and so much feared 
 that when his opponents saw him coming they scattered, crying, "Flee! flee!" 
 One opponent, Lahelein, became disgusted at such behavior and rode in anger 
 against him, but only to be cast a spear's length out of the saddle. In his 
 half-day's battle Gahmuret broke a hundred spear shafts. And none dared 
 meet him. He and Herzeloyde were married, and within the year a son — the 
 hero — was born to them. 
 
 Shortly before this tournament Gahmuret's brother, Galoes, had been 
 slain by Orilus, brother of Lahelein; cf. Ill, 559-62. 
 
 In both SP and W the father fights a marriage tournament,, 
 and proves victor over all comers. The wife is a queen or sister 
 to a king. In both the father breaks many shafts. In both he 
 overthrows a powerful knight who later becomes his son's enemy. 
 In both he is brought into contact with still another knight (Black 
 Night = Tent Lord in SP, and Orilus = Tent Lord in W) who is 
 later to play an important part in the life of his son. In both he 
 has a son born to him within a year from this tournament. 
 
 II. Of the second incident, the father's death, the circumstances 
 are related at length in SP, PC, and W, and briefly in Pd, Card, 
 and Fool.
 
 THE hero's EOREST REARING 1 7 
 
 PC. — The father, who was the only survivor of twelve brothers, heard that 
 the King of Wales was to give a tournament, and, despite the entreaties of his 
 wife and his folk, gathered his followers and went. At first he won great fame, 
 but soon he was mortally wounded. News of his death and burial was brought 
 to his wife by an abbot. 
 
 W. — The father learned soon after his marriage that his former friend the 
 Baruch (Caliph) was beset with enemies. He went to his aid, and was absent 
 half a year. Then he was slain treacherously, and buried in Bagdad. When 
 the news was brought to Herzeloyde, she fainted and would have died but 
 for the ministrations of an old man who was present. 
 
 To Trevrizent Parzival says his father lost his life through his love of 
 jousting; cf. IX, 1256-59. 
 
 Pd. — Evrawc, Earl of the North, and father of seven sons, maintained him- 
 self principally by tournaments. "As it often befalls those who join in 
 encounters and wars, he was slain, and six of his sons likewise." 
 
 Card. — At Arthur's court at Camelot lived a noble knight, whom several 
 knights murdered because they were jealous of the favors shown him by the 
 King. 
 
 Fool. — A "ridere," who was father of several children and a brother of the 
 King of Eirenn, raised a revolt against the King, and he and all his sons were 
 slain in battle. (He had a posthumous son.)' 
 
 Boyish Exploits of Finn. — Cumhail, Finn's father, was slain in battle. 
 
 Een. — Fionn's father, Cumhail, could be slain "only with his own sword, 
 when he was spoilt with drink, and love-making." Black Arcan was insti- 
 gated to slay him treacherously while he slept with the daughter of the King 
 of Lochlann. 
 
 ' The Hero's Father: Name. — No two versions use the same name. Four state the name 
 at the outset: SP, Percyvelle; PC, Bliocadrans (570, etc.); W, Gahmuret; Pd, Evrawc. A 
 fifth states it later in the tale: Card, Dondinello (XXVII). Three, Ty, Fool, and C, mention 
 no name. 
 
 Gahmuret is successor to the kingdom of Anjou after the death of Galoes, his brother. 
 With "Gahmuret" cf. "roi Ban de Gomeret" in C, 1661 ("disputed passage") and "Gomeret" 
 in index of Prose-Tristan. Wolfram makes little attempt to connect Parzival himself with 
 Anjou; the hero first speaks of Anjou as belonging to him in the battle with Feirefiz (XV, 361 ff.). 
 
 Gerbert gives the name " Gales li Caus" to the father of Perceval; " Gales 11 Chaus" occurs 
 in Erec, 1726; Bel Inconnu, Hippeau's ed., 41, has "Gales H Cauf" (? = Caus). 
 
 Time. — SP and Card place the father in the time of King Arthur; C and W, in that of 
 Uther Pendragon; PC, in that of a "king of Wales"; Fool, in that of a "king of Eirenn"; 
 two versions are silent. 
 
 Kin. — (a) Brothers: SP, W, and Fool agree that the father had one brother; PC gives 
 him eleven ; others are silent. (Perlesvaus gives him a brother, EUnant of Escavalon, who in 
 his turn has a son, Alein.) (b) Wife: SP and W describe his marriage at length; others are 
 silent. In W the tournament celebrating the marriage occurred in "Waleis"; in SP it was 
 probably understood to occur in Wales, (c) Sons: SP, PC, and Ty state positively that he 
 had only one child; Card implies the same; IF gives him an older son (Feirefiz) by his heathen 
 wife Belakane, but only one by Herzeloyde; Pd, Fool, and C give him others besides the one 
 son, though they are slain in combat while the hero is a babe, (d) No daughter is given to the
 
 1 8 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 All these versions are agreed upon three large elements: (i) 
 the father was a rich and vigorous knight of high rank, (2) who, 
 at about the time of the birth of a son, (3) was slain because of his 
 devotion to arms. 
 
 Still other agreements may be pointed out between the three 
 versions that make much of the father's life. The following 
 paragraph, quoted from the Legend of Sir Perceval (I, 72), gives 
 Miss Weston's summary of the agreements between PC and W: 
 
 "In both versions the devotion of the father to warlike exercises is insisted 
 upon. In both he is overcome with grief at the death in tourney of a brother 
 or brothers, which death leaves him the sole surviving member of his family. 
 In both he is svunmoned from home, shortly before the birth of his first 
 child, to attend a tourney; in both is there slain, and buried away from home 
 with great honours. In both versions an old man plays an important role 
 at the moment of breaking the news to the widow; in fact, the version of the 
 Parzival where the presence of mind of this personage saves the life of the 
 Queen, whom her maidens would have allowed to die in her swoon, requires 
 the explanation of the 'Bliocadrans^ [ = PC], where he has been sent for to break 
 the tidings, otherwise what is he doing in the Queen's private apartments?" 
 
 SP agrees with PC upon a number of points. The father had 
 not long been married. He had only one child. At the time 
 of the birth of this son he took part in a tournament, in which he 
 was slain, after he had fought valiantly. And his burial is 
 mentioned. 
 
 father in these versions, but in several a foster-sister to Perceval is mentioned, (e) The hero's 
 birth: at the time of the father's death the hero was in SP, PC, and Ty only a few days old; 
 in W to be born later, two weeks after the mother hears of the father's death; in Fool yet to be 
 born; in Card nine months old; in C, disputed passage (1607-1682), over (how much is uncer- 
 tain) two years old; in Pd "too young to go to wars." (In Perlesvaus and Didot-P the father 
 did not die until after Perceval had left home.) 
 
 The Prose-Tristan knew C, but drew upon another source for Perceval's family history. 
 Pelinor, the father, slew King Loth, the father of Gauvain. In revenge Gauvain and his broth- 
 ers slew PeUnor. The names and number of PeUnor's sons vary. § 250 (p. i6g) gives four — 
 Tor, Agloval, Doryan, and Lamorat; § 150 (p. 114) gives Driant (for Doryan), the common 
 form; § 217 (p. 156) speaks of "Alain, the brother of Driant"; §215 (p. 155) has "Tor, son 
 of Ares, son of Pellynor." Gauvain, Mordret, and Agravain, passing through a forest, encounter 
 and slay Driant and Lamorat — two of Pelinor's four (or more) sons, pp. 237-38. Gaheriet 
 tells Gauvain (his brother) that Perceval looks well able to avenge the deaths of Pelinor, 
 Lamorat, and Driant. 
 
 Morten appears to spring from a version akin to both the Prose-Tristan account and the 
 disputed passage in C. (Cf. Miss Weston's translation of Morien, pp. 116 S.) 
 
 The similarity between the Prose-Tristan and the Card accounts is evident.
 
 THE HERO S FOREST REARING 1 9 
 
 The points upon which SP agrees with W are more numerous 
 and more significant. The father fights in two tournaments, which 
 are described. His wife is a queen or a king's sister. He has by 
 this marriage a single child. He has one brother. In this tourna- 
 ment he makes an enemy who is later to do battle against his son. 
 His burial is mentioned. 
 
 Four versions — SP, W, Card, and Fool — present a revenge 
 motive; and the first three show a cycle of interesting events that 
 look like reminiscences of older and more closely related forms. 
 
 Observe the parts played by the Red Knight and the Tent Lord : 
 (a) In SP the father overthrows the Red Knight and the Black 
 Knight (Tent Lord) at the marriage tournament; afterward the 
 Red Knight slays the father; later the hero slays the Red Knight 
 and overthrows the Black Knight, (b) In W the father overthrows 
 Lahelein at the marriage tournament; later Lahelein conquers two 
 kingdoms which the hero should have inherited; Lahelein's brother 
 is Orilus, the Tent Lord; Orilus has slain Galoes, the father's 
 brother; the hero overthrows Orilus. Near the time of the mar- 
 riage tournament the father met Ither (the Red Knight) at Seville 
 (IX, 1963 ff.), but as a friend. (See a comment in the Conclusion, 
 p. 126, infra.) 
 
 Note the place, too, of Gawain: (a) In Card the father is slain 
 by Mordarette (Mordret, the brother of Gawain) and his brothers; 
 the hero, after he has rescued the Bespelled Lady, wishes to revenge 
 his father's death, but King Arthur makes peace between him and 
 his enemy, Gawain.^ (b) In SP while the hero is in the midst of 
 rescuing the Besieged Lady, and in W after he has rescued her, 
 he meets Gawain and does battle with him (neither friend recog- 
 nizing the other), though little comes of it; in SP the battle is 
 fought in the presence of King Arthur ; in W Arthur is not far away, 
 and the friends go from the battle to his tent. 
 
 Revenge is prominently mentioned — in SP by King Arthur (561- 
 68), in W (III, 359-66) by the mother, in Card in several places. 
 
 Everywhere there is a tendency to bring the hero into relation- 
 ship with the king. In Fool the father was brother to the King 
 
   Card is, of course, not alone in making the hero (equating Carduino with Perceval) and 
 Gawain enemies; of. supra, p. i8, note, and Malory's account.
 
 20 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 of Eirinn. But when the king was thought of as King Arthur, 
 some other arrangement had to be made, for tradition provided 
 him with no available brother. W presents the father as brother 
 to the King of Anjou and sixth cousin to King Arthur. SP says 
 the mother was sister to King Arthur. The Grail gr6up (C, W, 
 " continuators ") and Pd make the mother the daughter or the 
 sister of the Grail King or his equivalent.* 
 
 To recapitulate for incident II: six versions, though they vary 
 much, yet show such significant agreements as to render it nearly 
 indubitable that they had a common ancestor; cf. the high stand- 
 ing of the father, his death in joust or by the treachery of a knight, 
 the survival of one son, the mother's behavior at the father's death, 
 the presence of future actors in the tale at or near the time of the 
 father's death, and the feud inherited by the son. 
 
 III. The third incident, the flight of the widow, is one of the 
 most widely current of all the incidents in the Perceval tale. 
 Instead of summarizing* each version, we may state the main 
 points upon which they agree. 
 
 Five versions — SP, PC, W, Pd, and Card — relate how: [after 
 (i) a rich and vigorous knight of high rank, (2) at about the time 
 
 ' The following details concerning the widow and her flight may be noted: 
 The Hero's Mother: Name. — Only two of the seven versions give the name: SP, Ache- 
 flour; W, Herzeloyde. Rhys says: "Now Herzeloyde is clearly nothing but the Welsh word 
 arglwydes, 'lady, domina,' appUed to her in the Welsh original, drawn upon by some one of 
 Wolfram's French predecessors in the treatment of the story." — Artk. Leg., p. 123. Golther 
 {op. cit., 206, note) considers "Acheflour" a garbUng of C's "Blancheflour." 
 
 Ra7ik. — In SP the mother is sister to King Arthur; in W, queen of two kingdoms, Waleis 
 and Norgales; in Pd, a countess; in Card the hero once said that the mother was "of the com- 
 mon people," but he was probably misled into that statement; in PC and Fool she is spoken of 
 vaguely; in C — disputed passage — she is daughter of "one of the best knights of the country" 
 (but see next paragraph). 
 
 Kin. — Ty, Card, and Fool are silent; PC is vague; in three versions she is sister to a king — 
 
 in SP to King Arthur and in C and W to the Grail King (and to the Hermit also) ; in Pd she 
 
 is sister to a nobleman who is the equivalent of' the Grail King. In two versions the mother has 
 
 sister: in SP the mother of Gawain; in W the mother of Sigune. In the legend of the 
 
 Grail the mother's relationship is important, and in some tales is considerably expanded. 
 
 The Flight: Two variants could easily arise: the story-teller could have the mother flee 
 in haste and go from plenty to poverty; or, remembering her station, he could have her plan 
 leisurely and go with retinue and rich stores. 
 
 Provisions. — (a) In SP (but cf. 4og-io) and Pd she took a flock of goats. (6) In PC she 
 took silver and gold, over one hundred cars and chariots, much wheat and oats, beeves and 
 cows, horses and sheep; in Card, precious stones, pearls, and rich provisions, (c) W is 
 silent; in Fool the mother arranges to provide for the foster-mother and the boys; in Fool,
 
 THE hero's forest REARING 21 
 
 of the birth of a son, (3) had been slain tJirough his devotion to 
 arms] (4) his widow (the hero's mother) feared she might lose her 
 only (living) son (5) if he should learn of arms and knightly deeds, 
 (6) and so she determined to rear the lad in ignorance; (7) to 
 accomplish this design, she fled (8) to a forest far from civiliza- 
 tion, (9) accompanied (a) by her son alone or (b) by her son and 
 a small number of household attendants. A sixth version. Fool 
 (Een agreeing), is a variant of the story underlying the five versions: 
 the widow, instead of going herself, sent her kitchen wench with the 
 babe to a forest, where she supported them; mother and son seem 
 never to have met again: but in Fool, var. 6, the widow goes with 
 her son alone to the forest.' The same story, then, appears in 
 six versions. 
 
 These agreements are too numerous and too detailed to have 
 been the result of accident. 
 
 var. 6, she goes herself in poverty; C is non-committal, but the father had previously fallen 
 into "great poverty" (disputed passage). 
 
 Dwelling-place. — In SP, a "wood"- — indefinite, the home beside a "well" (11. 6-7); Card, 
 in a forest, the most hidden place, a glen; Pd, a desert and unfrequented wilderness; {Ty, a 
 forest, ten leagues from any mansion); W, a waste in Soltane (of. C, 1289, "gaste forest sou- 
 taine"); Fool, a forest within walking distance of a town; PC, the mother says she is going 
 to visit the shrine of Saint Brandain d'Escoce (1035, 1071), passes by a castle on the "mer de 
 Gale," and goes twelve days' journey into a wood to the "gaste forest"; C, a "manoir" belong- 
 ing to the father, in this "foriest gaste," skirting Valdone (1507-10) and less than four days' 
 journey from Carduel (1547-51). In SP, W, and Pd, no house is mentioned; in Card the 
 mother built a cabin of boughs; in Fool there is a "bothy"; in PC nine men spend fifteen days 
 building a house; in C there is a dwelling that had been built in former days. 
 
 Allendants. — In Card and Fool, var. b (and Ty), the mother is alone with her son in the 
 forest; in SP she has a maiden only; in Fool the kitchen wench has her son with her (but cf. 
 var. h); in W, laborers to support them, and Sigune (?); in PC, the mother's major-domo and 
 his eight sons and four daughters (on the number twelve in PC, cf. Miss Weston, Leg. of SP, 
 I, 66 ff.); in C (disputed passage) the father and mother are accompanied by two older sons, 
 servants to carry the father's Utter, plowmen, etc., and perhaps Perceval's germaine cosine. 
 
 ' The Amadan Mar and the Cruagach of the Castle of Gold. — The widow fled to the forest, 
 and her son, the Fool, was bom there. (The earlier incidents are not so greatly Uke the prose 
 introduction to Campbell's Fool, but the enchantment part of this tale is much the same as 
 Campbell's verse.) 
 
 Toward the end, the Gruagach assures the Fool: "I am your own brother born and bred"; 
 and then the two go to attack four giants. End. — J. Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, 140-62, 
 
 Boyish Exploits of Finn. — Cumhail's wife gave birth to Finn, whom two heroines (for 
 nurses) took away to rear in a forest. (The remaining exploits, with one exception, are not 
 of service to us.) — "The Boyish Exploits of Finn MacCumhail" in Transactions of the Ossianic 
 Society, Dublin, 1859. 
 
 Een. — Cumhail's widow bore twins, a daughter and a son. On the night they were born, 
 the muime (nurse) of the son fled with him to a desert place, where she reared him till he was 
 a stalwart, goodly child. (The remaining adventures are of no service to us.)
 
 22 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 IV. The fourth incident is the account of the hero's boyish 
 exploits. Before leaving his forest home, the youth demonstrates 
 his strength and agility in several ways. Four versions — SP, W, Pd, 
 and Car^— stand fairly close together ; Fool agrees as far as it goes ; 
 and Ty leans in their direction. PC and C are pretty far removed. 
 
 SP. — The mother gave her son a spear^ that had belonged to his father, 
 telling him she had found it. With it he shot birds, harts, and hinds, and 
 brought them to his mother. No beast might escape him. 
 
 W. — Parzival made a bow and arrows for himself, and shot at birds with 
 them. Distressed when one fell slain, he questioned his mother about it, and 
 she taught him of God. He returned to the woods to hunt, and became so 
 skilled at throwing a dart {gabyldi, source unexplained) that no beast could 
 escape him. Many a hart, heavy enough for a mule's burden, he shouldered 
 home. 
 
 Pd. — No one brought horses or arms near Peredur, lest he should desire 
 them. He diverted himself, throwing sticks and stones in the forest. One 
 day he saw two hinds standing near his mother's flock of goats.^ By his 
 swiftness he drove them into the goat house, and called his mother and her 
 attendants to see. They marveled at his prowess. 
 
 Card. — Carduino, wandering in the forest one day, found two hunting 
 spears that hunters had left. To his questions the mother replied they were 
 darts that God had sent him; and she taught him their use. After that he 
 hunted, and no beast was able to escape him. He and his mother ate the 
 flesh and used the skins for clothing. 
 
 Fool. — The Fool, walking in the woods with his foster-brother one day, 
 saw some deer, and was told that they were creatures upon which were food 
 and clothing. By running, he overtook three, and brought them to his foster- 
 mother. Shortly afterward he outran a horse. 
 
 Boyish Exploits of Finn. — Finn and the two heroines (his nurses) walking 
 in Sleeve Bloom one day saw a herd of wild deer. The heroines said they 
 wished they could detain them. Finn ran, caught two bucks, and brought 
 them to the hunting booth (hut). After that he hunted constantly (p. 297). 
 
 Ty. — While Tyolet was very young, a fairy^ gave him magic power in 
 whistling, by which he was able to overtake and slay any beast whatsoever. 
 
 Certain other items that occur as parts of incidents later in the 
 tales may be grouped here. The hero outran a tame horse in SP 
 (713 ff.) and Card (XVIII); and a wild horse in SP (325 ff.) and 
 
 'This spear is (by a misreading of "schorte"? cf. 1. 478) called a "Scottes" spear; cf. 
 Scotch connections in chap, iv, infra, pp. go ff. 
 
 ' SP and Pd agree in saying the mother was provided with a flock of goats. Cf . Cuchulain's 
 feat, and Rhys, Arth. Leg., 75 5. 
 
 ' With the introduction of the fay into Ty cf. W, I, 1655-70; II, 1134-36.
 
 THE HERO S FOREST REARING 23 
 
 Fool {162). He outran deer in T^oo/ (161) and PcJ (245). He showed 
 his strength by carrying home heavy animals in SP and W, by 
 lifting an armed man out of the saddle and carrying him in W 
 (V, 1244 ff.), by lifting a woman on the point of his spear and carry- 
 ing her in SP (859-60), and by carrying his mother on his shoulder 
 a long distance in SP (2235)/ 
 
 In all versions the hero is simple and ignorant,^ but quick to 
 learn. In SP his mother would teach him "neither nurture nor 
 lore"; in Pd he did not know the difference between goats and 
 hinds; in Card, having never seen a man, he thought there were 
 no other things but the beasts about him; in PC the mother told 
 him that he had no home but this, and "since he had very little 
 sense," he beheved her;^ in Fool, cf. the title; in C and W no 
 statement is made here, but he is called "foolish" passim; in Ty, 
 no statement.'' 
 
 C nowhere makes place for a direct treatment of the Boyish 
 Exploits. Consequently, as against the comparative fulness of 
 detail in the other versions, C shows meagerness. The few items 
 that the French poem does give are generally not stated in direct 
 narrative, but appear incidentally in conversation or are wrought, 
 indirectly and subordinately, into the presentation of other details. 
 The hero had a horse and he knew how to ride from^ the beginning 
 (1291-92, 1306, etc.); he had three javelins (1293, ^^c. — source 
 unexplained); and he slew^ birds and beasts (1416-17), and does 
 
 ' Cf. also Gerbert {The Library, 88); and W, III, 1254-56. 
 
 ' Folk-tales are fond of the apparently simple but really wise young hero; examples need not 
 be multiplied. Campbell (Tales, III, 96-97) mentions "Smoroie Mor, or as others have it, 
 Sir Moroie Mor, 'a son of King Arthur,' of whom great and strange things are told in Irish 
 
 tradition He was called to his by-name, The fool of the Forest." .... He refers here 
 
 also to Fool and to Canal (not Conall Gulban). 
 
 ' In PC the mother says they are the only people in the world, but the presence of the 
 major-domo and his twelve children (and their servants?) is known, and might reasonably be 
 expected to raise a question in Perceval's mind. Cf. Miss Weston's argument that here the 
 author of PC is unskilfully using older material (in which mother and son were really alone). 
 Leg. oS SP., I, 86 ff. 
 
 ' C, IF, and Ty tend to minimize the foolishness of the hero. 
 
 * PC agrees; in all other versions he thought of riding only after he had learned of knight- 
 hood. Cf. p. zi. 
 
 ' The abihty to provide food for his mother is certainly insinuated in C but it is plainly 
 asserted in SP, W, Card, Ty, and Fool; and one might have expected, a priori, that W, which 
 like C and PC makes much of the household servants, the plowing, etc., would have omitted 
 this point, just as PC does.
 
 24 
 
 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 and stags (1486-88). Other references to his agility and strength 
 are wanting. PC presents nothing here that could not easily have 
 been drawn from C. 
 
 The main points of evidence for the four incidents may be 
 arranged in a table: 
 
 The father is named early (but in no 
 two tales alike) 
 
 He lived in the time of King Ar- 
 thur 
 
 or of Uther Pendragon 
 
 He was a favored knight at court . . . 
 
 He had only one brother 
 
 (a) who was a king 
 
 or he was one of several broth- 
 
 ers. 
 
 10. 
 II. 
 12. 
 
 13- 
 
 14. 
 
 15- 
 16. 
 
 17- 
 18. 
 
 19. 
 
 20, 
 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 He was overcome by grief at the 
 death of his brother(s) in 
 tourney 
 
 He was sole survivor of his family . . . 
 
 He was vigorous, and devoted to 
 warlike exercises 
 
 He left home to go to tourneys 
 
 He fought in two tourneys, which 
 are described 
 
 He fought a marriage tournament, 
 overthrowing all comers 
 
 A vanquished knight became his 
 son's enemy 
 
 Another knight (Tent Lord) 
 played a part in his life and 
 later in his son's life 
 
 His wife was a royal lady 
 
 II 
 
 Within a year a son was born to 
 him 
 
 Who was his wife's only son 
 
 And his only son 
 
 or he had more than one son 
 
 At time of son's birth father en- 
 tered tourney(s) 
 
 He was slain in tournament 
 
 or treacherously 
 
 or in battle 
 
 He was slain at time of son's birth . . 
 
 or before the son was bom 
 
 He was slain away from home 
 
 His burial is mentioned 
 
 An old man assists the widow 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 W 
 
 W 
 
 \¥ 
 W 
 
 W 
 W 
 
 W 
 W 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Card 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 (Card?) 
 
 Fool 
 Fool 
 
 Fool 
 
 Fool 
 {Fool) 
 
 Fool 
 
 Fool 
 (Fool?)
 
 THE HERO S FOREST REARING 
 
 25 
 
 23. A revenge motif is brought into 
 
 the tale 
 
 24. But the revenge is absorbed into 
 
 another incident and slurred 
 over 
 
 Ill 
 
 25. The widow fears her son will be 
 
 slain 
 
 26. To prevent his death he must be 
 
 reared in a forest far from men . 
 
 27. Where he may never hear of 
 
 knightly life 
 
 28. So she determines to flee with him 
 
 or to send him with a servant 
 
 29. She flees with few or no servants . . . 
 or with rich stores of provisions . . . . 
 
 IV 
 
 30. The son becomes vigorous, and 
 
 shows : 
 (o) Expertness, by slaying birds, 
 deer, etc 
 
 (b) Agihty, by outrunning deer 
 
 wild horses 
 
 tame horses 
 
 (c) Strength, by carrying carcasses 
 himian beings 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 PC 
 
 PC 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Card 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 (Card) 
 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 {Card) 
 
 {Fool?) 
 {Fool) 
 
 Fool 
 Fool 
 
 \ Fool 
 
 I var.6 
 
 Fool 
 
 {Fool) 
 
 Fool 
 Fool 
 
 Fool 
 
 (C) 
 (C) 
 
 c 
 
 From the evidence presented the argument may be stated 
 succinctly as follows: 
 
 The marriage tournament occurs only in SP and W. C, then, 
 cannot be the source of it. SP and W are not so much alike as 
 to appear to have an immediate common source, but they have 
 certain significant common possessions that lead us to suspect 
 that they had somewhere more remotely an ancestor in common. 
 
 For the next two incidents — the father's death and the widow's 
 flight — the six versions, SP, W, PC, Pd, Card, and Fool, show so 
 many strains in common that they must revert to a common 
 ancestor. But C is so considerably different that it cannot have 
 been that ancestor: i.e., the passage summarized (C, 1607-82) 
 cannot have been. The passage stands so much alone in the 
 tradition th^t its authenticity has been disputed.* If the lines are 
 
 'It may be designated the "disputed passage." Though it bears some resemblance to 
 the Prose-Tristan account (see p. i8, note), and perhaps is all the more to be suspected there- 
 fore, it differs so far from all other accounts of the father and of the mother's flight that one stu-
 
 26 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 not by Crestien, they do not weaken any part of my argument. 
 If they are by Crestien, they greatly strengthen it. If we omit the 
 disputed passage from consideration for a moment, the remainder 
 of C yields to a close scrutiny the following hints to serve as a basis 
 for an account — and most of these are presented in conversation or 
 as mere accessories to other details: (a) the mother was a widow 
 (1288), (b) and she dwelt in a waste, sohtary forest (1289 £f.); 
 (c) among her attendants were farm laborers (1512 ff.), (d) and 
 perhaps Perceval's foster cousin {W's Sigune) (4774-75); {e) the 
 mother wished to hide her son from people (1532 ff.); (/) and she 
 wished to hide from him any knowledge of knighthood (1532, 1602 
 ff.). How far an account may incorporate these hints and yet be 
 unUke the other versions is shown by the disputed passage. 
 
 dent at least who held that C was the source of all the other versions was forced into looking 
 upon it as an interpolation by an unskilled hand. W. W. Newell, in his rendering of a portion 
 of C, wrote: "Here omitted [is] a passage (lines 1609-1689, sic), in which Perceval's mother is 
 
 made to give a statement in regard to the history of her slain husband The passage, 
 
 intended to emphasize the woes of the widow, seems to be characterized by affectation, and 
 obviously to be the work of a later hand. Wolfram and other successors of Crestien seem to 
 have used a text in which the lady was represented as being a widow at the time of her flight." — 
 King Arthur and the Table Round (Boston, 1897), II, 252. 
 
 There are other indications that the passage is an interpolation: (a) statements concern- 
 ing the mother's kin here contradict statements in the rest of C; (b) Perceval's inattention here 
 (following his mother's remarks) is a mere parallel to that toward King Arthur (2160-65); 
 (c) the style is Uke that of an interpolator — prolix, etc. ; (d) the account of the father's wounds 
 looks like a contamination from the story of the lame Fisher King: 
 
 Vostre peres, si nel saves, Mais il fu en une batalle 
 
 Fu parmi les gambes navres" Navr^s et mehagnies sans falle, 
 
 Si qu'il en mehagna del cors; Si que puis aidier ne se pot; 
 
 Qu'il fu navres d'un gaverlot 
 
 Vostre peres ce manoir ot Parmi les hances ambesdeus, 
 
 Ici en ceste foriest gaste; S'en est encor si angoisseus 
 
 Ne pot frnr, mais en grant haste Qu'il ne puet sor ceval monter; 
 
 En litiere aporter s'en fist, Mais, quant il se viut deporter 
 
 Car aUors ne sot u fuiist. U d'aucun deduit entremetre, 
 
 Si se fet en une nef metre. 
 The mother is speaking to her son (1629-31; Si va pescier al amengon; .... 
 
 1644-48). ,, . . . . 
 
 Percevals giermame cosme is speaking 
 to him just after his first visit to the 
 Grail castle (4687-^7). 
 If the disputed passage was written by Crestien, it must have been known to Wolfram and to 
 the author of PC; yet it was (if known) cast aside and deliberately contradicted by these 
 two writers; and it was accepted by none of the other of Crestien's successors except perhaps 
 the Icelandic redactor. As the case stands, the text of C has not been established; but so far 
 as I am able to learn, this passage is not wanting in any MS that preserves the contiguous lines. 
 Miss Weston in her study of the MSS (Leg. of SP) mentions no instance; Potvin prints it from 
 the Mons MS, and indicates its presence (cf. his notes) in 12577 and MpL, and its prose equiva- 
 lent in the Print of 1530. 
 
 »"Var.: Les hanches" (Potvin's note).
 
 THE HERO S POREST REARING 27 
 
 It is evident, then, that the scholars who hold the theory that 
 it is useless to seek for any source behind Crestien's poem must 
 argue, as a corollary, that PC — an anonymous writer's relatively 
 obscure preface (cf. p. 2, supra) — was the source for an incident 
 (the widow's flight) as widely known as any incident in the popular 
 poem (C) to which it (PC) was prefixed. 
 
 But the difficulty of considering any one of the six versions as 
 the immediate source of the others is evident. Literary history 
 and the brevity of their accounts put Pd, Card, and Fool out of 
 court. The late date of the composition (or translation) of SP 
 and the general facts of literary history discredit the theory that 
 the EngHsh poem can have been the source of the French and Ger- 
 man poems. Literary history makes it difiicult, too, to see how W 
 could have been the source of an English and a French poem.^ 
 And there are at least five reasons for believing that PC is not 
 the source: {a) it does not furnish enough of the materials possessed 
 in common; {b) SP agrees with PF in a larger number of points 
 than with PC; (c) it is highly probable that W was written first ;^ 
 (d) it is highly improbable that Wolfram is responsible for the 
 introduction of the Angevin history; (e) Wolfram suggests the 
 source of his tale, a poem written by "Kiot."^ 
 
 The evidence of this chapter is strong. And while it may not 
 be considered strong enough to amount to proof of, it certainly 
 
 ' Or of two French poems if (with Gaston Paris) we consider SP a translation from the 
 French. 
 
 ' Several things point to a comparatively late date for the composition of PC: had it 
 been written early it would have been incorporated into more of the MSS; apparently it was 
 unknown to the continuators (1190^-1225 a.d.), Wauchier contradicting it in his account of the 
 father's brothers, and Manessier and Gerbert in their accounts of the father's children. 
 
 Miss Weston offers the suggestion that the immediate source of PC was the "book" 
 Crestien speaks of as his own source. Of the two MSS in which PC occurs, one is preserved at 
 Mons; and the other (Brit. Mus.) contains a drawing of the arms of the house of Flanders; 
 both MSS, then, being connected with the Netherlands, "may have come in contact with the 
 book, or what remained of the book, owned by Count Philip, and .... a later copyist, 
 aware that a connection of some sort existed between the poems, supplemented what was con- 
 sidered as a defect in Chretien's work from the earlier version." — Leg. of SP, 97, and 57-58. 
 
 ^ Wolfram's vigorous assertions concerning Crestien and Kiot cannot be explained away 
 by the "mere formula" hypothesis; and the gratuitous assumption of some modem scholars 
 that Wolfram simply hed is to me repugnant. The account of the father is one of the places
 
 28 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 goes far in the direction of establishing, these conclusions: that the 
 different versions had for the parts we have been studying a common 
 source; that C, with or without the disputed passage (1607-82), 
 cannot have been the source; and that C and PC together, with 
 chance thrown in, do not satisfactorily account for the agreements 
 we have found. 
 
 Whether we may believe that there ever was any single written 
 version that was the source of all the others, or whether we must 
 revert to a body of oral tradition, does not yet appear. 
 
 in which Wolfram diverges most widely from Crestien (Wolfram writes 3,300 lines before he 
 reaches the birth of the hero; cf. Books I-II, against C, 1607-82); and, consequently, it may 
 properly be considered one of his main justifications for the assertion (XVI, 1201-11) that 
 Crestien did not tell the tale correctly. For other assertions, cf. VIII, 560-70, Q92; IX, 605-82; 
 XV, 1270; XVI, 550. For other points of divergence cf. Nutt, Slud., 25, 261-63; Hertz, 
 Parzival, 418, 505-6. I was glad to find that the opinion I reached independently, that the 
 account of the father is one of Wolfram's chief objections to C, is also the opinion of such investi- 
 gators as Miss Weston {Leg. of SP, I, 73) and Hertz.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE HERO'S AWKWARD ATTEMPTS TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 
 Fifth Incident: The Mother's Religious Instruction 
 I. SP, 229-56; Card, IX, 5— X, 8. 
 
 II. W, III, 98-116; PC, 1230-54. 
 
 Other versions, wanting (but cf. implications). 
 
 Sixth Incident: The Hero's Meeting with Knights in the Forest 
 
 A. The Meeting (no groups) 
 
 SP, 257-76; C, 1283-1348; W, III, 127-42; Pd, 245; Ty, 85-119; 
 Card, XVII. 
 Fool, wanting. 
 
 B. The Error (no groups) 
 
 SP, 277-304; W, III, 143-208; C, 1349-93; Pd, 245. 
 Ty, Card, Fool, wanting. 
 
 C. News of Knighthood 
 
 I. SP, 305-20. 
 II. C, 1394-1554; W, III, 209-92; Pd, 245-46. 
 
 III. Ty, 120-246. 
 
 IV. Fool, 162. 
 Card, wanting. 
 
 D. The Return Home 
 
 I. (a) SP, 321-88; (b) Ty, 247-68; Card, XVIII-XXI. 
 
 II. (a) C, 1555-1703; W, 111, 293-328; (b) Pd, 246. 
 
 (Cf. Fool, 162). 
 
 Seventh Incident: The Mother's Advice 
 
 I. SP, 389-416; Card, XXVII-XXIX; Ty, 269-74. 
 n. W, HI, 339-68. 
 
 III. C, 1704-92; Pd, 246-47. 
 
 Eighth Incident: The Adventure at the Tent 
 A. Departure from Home 
 
 I. SP, 417-32; Ty, 275-80; Card (lacuna). 
 
 II. Pd, 247. 
 
 III. C, 1793-1828; W, III, 369-401. 
 
 IV. Fool, 162. 
 
 29
 
 30 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 B. The Visit to the Tent 
 
 I. SP, 433-80. 
 II. W, III, 402-501; C, 1829-1972; Pd, 247. 
 
 Ty, Card, wanting (but cf. final chapter, infra, pp. 119). 
 
 C. The Return of the Tent Lord 
 SP, wanting. 
 
 C, 1973-2025; W, III, 502-658; Pd, 247-48. 
 
 The English poem next presents four incidents which constitute 
 a clearly bounded group, of which the purpose is to demonstrate — 
 by showing the hero's awkwardness in following directions — that 
 trait of foohshness which is made prominent^ in his early life. 
 The incidents themselves are among the most interesting in the 
 whole tale, and parallels in other versions are numerous; yet, 
 notwithstanding, the grounds upon which to build conclusions con- 
 cerning the relationship of the versions are scanty. The vagueness 
 results from the fact that one of the chief events, the Tent incident, 
 is part of a story (or parts of two stories melted together) to be 
 discussed later, and its significance does not become clear until the 
 rest of the stories are before the reader. Consequently the sub- 
 stance of this chapter will be compressed as much as possible. 
 
 In SP the group is composed of two symmetrically developed 
 portions. In each portion the mother gives her son directions, 
 he faces a situation in which he attempts to follow them, and a 
 blunder is the result, but through the blunder his fortunes are 
 advanced. 
 
 The account is as follows: 
 
 V. When Perceval had been fifteen years in the forest, his mother gave 
 him Instruction concerning God, to Whom she bade him pray; and he went 
 into the forest to seek God. VI. There he met three knights, and, never hav- 
 ing seen such, he thought them the God he sought; he began to adore them, 
 but they told him they were only knights. Perceval returned to his mother 
 and, to her great distress, told her of the adventure and of his newly formed 
 purpose to go and become a knight. VII. She gave him Advice as to how he 
 should conduct himself. VIII. He left home to go to King Arthur's court; 
 on the way he came to a hall, entered, helped himself to food and wine he 
 
 ' See p. 23, supra.
 
 THE hero's attempts TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 31 
 
 found on the table, went into another room where he found a lady asleep, and 
 took her ring, leaving his own in its place; thence he departed to seek the 
 King. 
 
 The following table (parts of which will be expanded later) 
 shows the main items: 
 
 The 
 
 V 
 
 mother gives her son In- 
 struction concerning God . 
 the devil 
 
 VI 
 
 The hero meets knights in the 
 forest : 
 
 three^ 
 
 a fourth later 
 
 five 
 
 for 
 
 B. 
 
 C. 
 D. 
 
 many 
 
 the Stag-Knight^ 
 
 a horse (metonymy 
 
 kmght)3 
 
 By error he thinks they are: 
 
 the devil 
 
 angels 
 
 God 
 
 From or by them he learns of 
 
 knighthood 
 
 He returns and tells his mother 
 
 of the meeting 
 
 VII 
 
 The mother gives her son Advice 
 not contaminated from 
 
 Instruction 
 
 contaminated from In- 
 struction 
 
 B. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Mother and son are separated 
 
 Mother dies 
 
 or Hves on 
 
 The hero finds a Tent (or 
 hall)4 
 
 By error he thinks it a monas- 
 tery 
 
 He encounters the Tent Lady 
 
 He departs for court 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 SP 
 SP 
 
 W 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 
 {Card) 
 Card 
 
 Card 
 
 Ty 
 
 Ty 
 Ty 
 
 Ty 
 
 (Ty) 
 Ty 
 
 Ty 
 
 Fool 
 
 Fool 
 
 (Fool) 
 
 C 
 
 C 
 
 c 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 c 
 c 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 Pd 
 
 PC' 
 
 ' PC ceases before the meeting with the knights. 
 
 ' Miss Weston (Leg. of SP, I, 86) suggests the Instruction may have concerned the Trinity. 
 ' Summaries given below. 
 
 « I shall use "Tent" for the place where Perceval met the Lady, though chap, v will lead us to believe 
 that SP's hall (palace) is the older form.
 
 32 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Of the two symmetrical portions, the first centers about the 
 meeting between Perceval and the knights in the forest; it begins 
 with the mother's religious Instniction, and ends with her grief 
 when her son tells her he has seen knights. The second centers 
 about Perceval's behavior in the hall; it begins with the mother's 
 Advice, and ends with the hero's departure from the hall. Four 
 versions tell all (or nearly all) of the two stories, faUing into two sets: 
 (a) SP and W, (b) C and Pd. Four other versions tell portions of 
 the story: PC, Ty, Card, and Fool. 
 
 Several comments may be passed on the first portion. It 
 will be observed that in C (Pd concurring') the rehgious Instruction 
 is not developed into an incident and placed previous to the hero's 
 meeting with the knights in the forest, as it is in SP, W, and (to 
 an extent) Card. The substance of this teaching, nevertheless, 
 appears in C, for by Crestien's literary cleverness Perceval's remarks 
 are made to show that his mother has instructed him concerning 
 devils (1326 ff.), angels (1350 ff.), and God (13571?.); and when 
 mother and son meet, after he has seen the knights, she speaks of 
 "angels, .... who slay all they meet" (1592-94), and of God 
 "Who made heaven and earth, and placed men and women there" 
 (1768-70). We may decide either that Crestien refined upon what 
 was the source of the other versions, or that his poem is their source. 
 But the presumption that C is the source of the other versions 
 involves the supposition that Crestien's followers found his version 
 too delicately literary, and that three of them (or four, if PC's 
 partial account be considered) extracted his hints and developed 
 them into an explanatory incident, which they (the three) then 
 prefixed to a more or less cut-up edition of his account of the meet- 
 ing with the knights. SP and Card lack entirely the devil and the 
 angels; Pd knows not the devil and has forgotten God; out of W 
 the angels have fallen ; and the only thing PC catches is the devil. 
 
 As regards the number and names of the forest knights, SP and 
 Pd present a noteworthy similarity in that the knights were three 
 in number, and that the names of two of them were Gawain and 
 
 ' Pd: One day when Peredur and his mother saw three knights pass along the forest, 
 he asked her what they were. She answered that they were angels. Peredur then said he would 
 
 go and become an angel with them. He went to meet them When he returned to his 
 
 mother, he said that the knights were not angels but knights; and his mother swooned.
 
 THE hero's attempts TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 33 
 
 Ewain' (Owain). Opposed to them stands C with five knights, of 
 whom the leader is quite youthful.^ Wolfram appears to have 
 combined the two accounts; he adopts the leader of C, gives him 
 a name, and then adds him to the three (now unnamed) knights 
 of the SP-Pd type.3 
 
 In SP Perceval threatens the life of Kay, who is said to be the 
 third knight. Nothing similar in this scene occurs in C, W, or 
 Pd;"^ but in Fool at exactly the same place relatively the Fool slays 
 out of hand the man (his foster brother) who has just told him of 
 knightly Kfe. In Ty, furthermore, the hero was trying to slay the 
 stag that becomes the Stag-Knight and teaches him concerning 
 knighthood. In SP Kay's Hfe is saved by the sudden and singular 
 intervention of a buck. (Compare Ty's Stag-Knight.) These 
 resemblances may be entirely the result of chance; but I inchne 
 to the beHef that if we were more famihar with the pedigree of 
 each tale, we should find them due to consanguinity. 
 
 In all versions except C the close connection between the horse 
 and knightly life is stressed at this point. ^ In C Perceval knows all 
 along how to ride. In W and Pd, although horses (work-horses) 
 are a part of the mother's establishment, the hero knows nothing 
 of riding; when about to leave home, he has in Pd to make a saddle, 
 and in W to ask his mother to give him a horse. Carduino sees 
 
   Ewayne fytz Asoure (SP, 261) out of Fitz. . " . . z Ur(ien) > Fitz as-Ur(ien) ? Ewayne 
 was son of Urien: cf. Erec, 1706, "Yvains, li fiz Uriien;" Yvain, 1018-19, 1S18, 2122, 3631, 
 "fiz au roi Uriien"; C, 9518 ff.; Potvin I, pp. 24, etc.; Morte Arlhoure, 2066 {E.E.T.S., No. 8, 
 1865), "Then syr Ewayne syr Fitz Uriene full enkerly rydez"; etc. 
 
 " In C the leader was probably not thought of as Gawain, for he is made to say (i 500-1 502) : 
 
 "N'a mie encor. V. jors entiers 
 Que tout cest harnois me dona 
 Li rois Artus ki m'adouba." 
 
 Gawain, however, was not at court when Perceval came there, though his squire Yones was; 
 cf . 11. 5464 ff • 
 
 ' In Prose Tristan (Loseth, pp. 239 ff., §§ 308 f.), Agloval is the informant. The mother 
 lives in her "tower" with Perceval, and there they weep for the death of Pelinor, Lamorat, 
 and Driant. Agloval alone meets Perceval (his brother) in the forest and tells him of knight- 
 hood. Tristan crosses another version through C (cf. p. 18, note), ignorant of or ignoring PC. 
 If C 1607-82 is an interpolation, it might easily have arisen out of an account like this passage 
 in Tristan (perhaps poorly imderstood) . Perceval's two older brothers, Lamorat and Driant, 
 were slain on the same day (Tristan, p. 237, § 307)- Whether the "disputed passage" of C 
 could have been the source for the Pelinor-Lot feud of Tristan need not be considered here. 
 
 * Cf. further comment in chap, v, p. 99. 
 
 ' PC ceases before this point is reached; it asserts that Perceval knows how to ride.
 
 34 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 horses for the first time when Arthur and his party come into the 
 forest to hunt, and upon this occasion he outruns their horses. 
 In SP, when Perceval is on his way home after meeting the knights, 
 he captures a wild mare, rides it home (because the knights had 
 ridden on such beasts), and later rides it when he leaves home. 
 The Great Fool sees a wild horse, hears then for the first time of 
 knighthood, catches the horse, and rides away from home on it. 
 
 The second of the two symmetrical portions is that of the 
 mother's Advice and the son's adventure at the Tent. Six versions 
 have the first incident, the Advice ;^ only four of them contain the 
 Tent incident. The summaries of the two incidents are as follows: 
 
 VII. THE ADVICE GIVEN BY THE MOTHER TO HER SON 
 
 SP.—i. He should— (c) be of "mesure," (b) be "fond to be free," (c) 
 take his hood off to a knight. 2. To his question she repHed, a knight may be 
 known by the fur in his hood. 3. At parting she gave him a ring of recogni- 
 tion — a ring by which she could know him when they should meet again. 
 
 W. — I. He should — (a) cross no dark ford, (b) be courteous, (c) greet 
 people, (d) learn of a wise man, (e) take a girl's ring and her greeting if it could 
 be won, (/) kiss a girl if she would permit such. 2. He was told that Lahelein 
 was his enemy, having taken his lands. 
 
 Card. — I. He should — (a) serve King Arthur as he would his mother, 
 (b) and obey him. 2. He was told to revenge his father's death. 
 
 Ty. — I. He was told to go to King Arthur. 2. He was given Advice — to 
 keep company with none but those of gentle birth. 
 
 C. — I. He should — (a) aid women, (b) if he courted one, serve without 
 annoying her; (c) it is an honor to kiss a girl if she be willing, and he should 
 demand no more than she was willing to grant; (d) he should take her ring, 
 belt, or purse if she would give it; (e) he should ask a man his name; (/) go 
 with gentlemen, for they do not deceive; (g) and pray in churches and mon- 
 asteries. 2. In answer to questions he was told that (a) a church is a place 
 where one makes sacrifice of Him Who made heaven and earth, and placed 
 men and women there; and (b) a monastery is a place where relics are kept, 
 and where is sacrificed the body of Jesus, Who saves souls from hell.^ 
 
 ' The bestowal of advice is not an uncommon thing, even in the romances, but I have found 
 help in no other form of it I have met with. In C Gornemans (2831-S0) and the Hermit Uncle 
 (7813-48) offer the hero advice; in W Gurnemanz (III, 1625 fi.) does, but the uncle, Trev- 
 rizent (V and IX), does not; in Pd (253) one uncle does. Cf., further, C, 7766 ff.; Wauchier, 
 363050.; Morten, pp. 42-43 (Miss Weston's transl.); Erec, 1793-99, etc. 
 
 ' Prefatory to the advice in C the mother says — rather inconsistently: You are going to 
 King Arthur, and you will get arms; I fear you may be slain; but you will be a knight soon if 
 it please God, and I would have you be one (1704-26).
 
 THE hero's attempts TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 35 
 
 Pd. — I. He was told to go to Arthur's court. 2. He should — (o) pray at 
 each church, ib) if he saw meat and drink, and none offered them to him, take 
 what he might need, (c) help anyone crying for aid, especially a woman, {d) 
 if he saw a jewel, take it and give it to another, for thus he would obtain praise, 
 and {e) pay court to a fair woman whether she wished it or not. 
 
 Vni. THE ADVENTURE AT THE TENT 
 
 SP. — I. Arrival — Perceval entered a hall. 2. Recollection — Seeing there 
 a table set, a fire, a manger, and corn, he recalled that his mother had said, 
 "Be of 'mesure.'" 3. Meal — He parted the corn in half for his mare, and 
 ate half of the things on the table, leaving the other half; how could he be more 
 of "mesure"? — he wished to be "free." 4. The Tent Lady — He passed to 
 another chamber, found a Lady asleep, and said he would take a token of her, 
 5. The Ring — He kissed her, took a ring off her finger, and placed his mother's 
 ring in its stead. 6. Departure — Then he left. 
 
 W. — I. Arrival — Parzival came to a Tent and entered. 2. Tent Lady — 
 He saw a Lady asleep, and spied a ring on her finger. 3. The Ring — His 
 grasp waked her, but her struggles were useless; he kissed her, and took her 
 ring and her brooch. 4. Meal — He said he was hungry ; the Lady pointed out 
 bread, wine, and two game birds, saying he might eat them; he ate and drank 
 his fill. 5. Recollection — The Lady bade him return her ring and brooch, 
 and flee from her husband's wrath; the hero, replying that he feared not her 
 husband but would go if his presence annoyed her, kissed her as she lay on her 
 couch, and bade God bless her, "So my mother taught me." 6. Departure — 
 Then he rode away. 
 
 C. — I. Arrival — Perceval came to a Tent, which he took for a monastery, 
 and entered. 2. The Tent Lady — There he found a Lady asleep, but the 
 whinnying of his horse waked her. 3. Recollection — He saluted her, saying 
 his mother had bidden him salute maidens wherever he found them; he also 
 said he would kiss her, for his mother had told him to do so. 4. The Ring — 
 He kissed her rudely twenty times, saw her ring, and took it, saying his mother 
 bade him take it. 5. Meal^Then he saw food in a corner of the Tent, wine 
 and three pasties; he ate one pasty and part of another, bidding the Lady 
 finish it, for then a whole one would still be left; he ate what he wished and 
 covered the rest. 6. Departure — Leaving the Tent, he rode on. 
 
 Pd. — I. Arrival — Peredur came before a Tent, took it for a church, and 
 said a Paternoster to it. 2. The Tent Lady — In the open door of the Tent sat 
 the Lady, wearing a frontlet and a finger ring; she welcomed him when he 
 entered. 3. Recollection — Seeing two flasks of wine, two loaves of bread, 
 and boar's flesh," he said: "My mother told me wherever I saw meat and drink, 
 to take it." 4. Meal — The Lady replied: "Take it and welcome"; he took 
 half of the meat and liquor for himself, and left half for the Lady. 5. The 
 
 ' Loth has: "des tranches de cochon de lait" (p. 50).
 
 36 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Ring — After eating, he bent on his knee before the Lady and said : " My mother 
 bade me take a jewel wherever I found one"; she repHed : "Do so, my soul"; 
 so he took her ring. 6. Departure — Then he mounted and left. 
 
 In SP the Tent Lord is not referred to until Perceval meets the Tent Lady 
 the second time. In C, W, and Pd we are told here of his return to the Tent 
 and of his anger and jealousy at finding that a visitor had been there in his 
 absence. 
 
 Concerning the mother's reHgious Instruction of her son, it has 
 been pointed out that such an incident appears to underlie the C 
 account. If we grant that C is the source, we must presume that 
 the authors of SP, W, and, to a lesser degree, Card and PC con- 
 curred in elaborating Crestien's hints into a separate incident and 
 in giving it the same position in the tale. The hero's behavior 
 toward the forest knights is perhaps sufficient to account for such 
 a development in SP, W, PC; but Card must be explained in some 
 other way. If, on the other hand, we consider that Crestien drew 
 upon a source more like SP and W, we find that he did two things : 
 he chose to weave in the Instruction subordinately rather than to 
 use it as a separate incident, and then he combined a more advanced 
 kind of instruction with the Advice. Pd follows C in this respect. 
 That certain items of the Advice of C and Pd are due to contamina- 
 tion from the Instruction incident looks the more probable when it 
 is remembered that these items lead the hero (in C and Pd only) 
 into his second Error, the supposition that the Tent is a monastery, 
 which is nothing but an echo of the first Error of mistaking the 
 forest knights for God. 
 
 The hero's departure from home occurs, in all versions except 
 C, immediately after he learns of knighthood or e9,rly the 
 next morning; in C he waits three days. The lingering is 
 due merely, I think, to a disposition in the literary group — C 
 and W — to dwell tenderly upon the mother's great love and her 
 suffering. W's poetic treatment of the mother's grief had the 
 same origin. 
 
 The mother's fate is different in two different groups. In the 
 Grail group she is said to fall dead of grief at her son's departure; 
 in what I may call the folk-tale group she either lives on to rejoin 
 her son when he has achieved greatness, or nothing more is said of
 
 THE hero's attempts TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 37 
 
 her at all. This difference I think I can explain, if the reader will 
 permit me merely to state here what I believe I shall show pretty 
 conclusively in the end. The Grail group made the change. Some 
 author (whether Crestien or an earlier one) decided to insert the 
 Grail story into the Perceval tale. Now, in the story of the visit 
 to the Grail castle one element that was fixed was the hero's failure 
 to ask the important question concerning the meaning of it all when 
 he saw pass before him the Grail and other objects.^ This early 
 author conceived it to be a part of his duty to furnish an adequate 
 reason for this failure; he sought it in the punishment of a sin; 
 and for the sin he chose to make the mother die as a consequence 
 of her son's departure.^ The motivation of the mother's death 
 is undoubtedly poor. It is a contradiction to the whole fate ele- 
 ment of the tale to make it a sinful thing for the hero to leave the 
 forest to go seek his fortune. Wolfram (or his authority) felt 
 the insufficiency of this unconsciously committed sin, but instead 
 of getting out of the difficulty, he went farther into it, for he changed 
 the character of the Red Knight (Ither), made him a relative of 
 Parzival, and then counted it a sin for Parzival to slay him 
 (IX, 1279 ff.). The folk-tale group — keeping its events always 
 in the shadow of the pillar of cloud which is foreordination and 
 compelling fate — slurs over the mother's unhappiness, leaves her 
 well after her son's departure, and finds no place for sin and its 
 punishment. 
 
 The two incidents of the Advice and the visit to the Tent are now 
 linked closely together in the Perceval tale.^ Some of the ways in 
 
 ' That the failure was a significant and integral part of the original Grail story appears 
 certain. It is found in the accounts of Gawain's visit to the castle. 
 
 ' Cf. the assertions of the giermaine cosine ( = Sigune) and the Hermit Uncle. The same 
 impulse caused the author to insert Gomemans' advice to avoid many questions (C, 2831 fiE.). 
 
 ' The scribe of SP thought of them as easily separable. At the conclusion of st. 27, or 
 between 11. 432 and 433 — i.e., between the conclusion of Perceval's hfe in the forest and the 
 beginning of the incident of the Tent Lady— there is inserted the expression, "Here is a Fytt 
 of Percyvelle of Galles." Nothing similar occurs elsewhere in SP. Cf. the similar single 
 occurrence in Sir Degrevant, st. 22; cf. also Awntyrs of Arthur, sts. 20, 38; Sir Amadace (Rob- 
 son), 17, 43; Avowing oj Arthur, 30, 48; Eghmour, 30, 54, 77. In Pd Lady Guest's printed 
 version of the Welsh shows three breaks: the first, Vol. I, p. 238, occurs at just the same place 
 at which SP inserts "Fytt"; the other two, pp. 268, 282, set off a series of incidents that are 
 a story within themselves. In the translation, Nutt's reprint (pp. 251, 271, 281) and the 
 edition of 1838-49 do not indicate the first,'but both mark the others. The Welsh of Y Mahino- 
 
 302248
 
 38 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 which an item of the Advice is bound to an item in the Tent adven- 
 ture, and in which a portion in one version is complemented by a 
 portion in another, are of sufficient interest to be pointed out. In 
 two versions, C and W, the hero is advised to kiss a lady if he have 
 opportunity, and in three versions he kisses the Tent Lady against 
 her wiU. The omission of the kiss in Pd is probably the result of 
 accident, for its presence in Pd'?, source is implied by the advice to 
 court a lady whether she wished it or not; and so far as she was 
 tested, P^'s Tent Lady was oddly complaisant. An exchange of 
 rings appears only in SP. There is no mention of a ring in the 
 Advice of SP; there is such in C, W, and Pd. In the last the advice 
 is, where you see a jewel, take it off and give it to another person. 
 In all four versions the hero bears away the Lady's ring. It is 
 possible that the Advice in Pd may have arisen through a misunder- 
 standing of an original in which, as in SP, an exchange of rings 
 occurred. It is possible, too, if for a moment the hypothesis be 
 granted that the author of SP had before him a manuscript of C, 
 that the English account may have arisen from a misreading of 
 C's statement (191 5-16) that the hero took the Lady's ring of her 
 finger and placed it on his own into Perceval took the Lady's ring 
 off her finger and placed his own on it; after which we are to pre- 
 sume that the Englishman inserted the account of the mother's 
 ring to provide for the "his own." But C's statement will not 
 explain the Advice of Pd; nor will it account for the importance 
 attached to the brooch in W. Another interesting crossing is 
 connected with the item in SP's Advice, "Be of mesure." Perce- 
 val recalls this advice when he comes to the Tent, interprets it to 
 mean that he is to take only half of what he sees, and follows it 
 strictly, as regards food and drink. No other version contains 
 anything similar in its Advice. In W he makes no such division, 
 but "eats his fill"; in Pd, however, he divides the meat and drink, 
 taking half and leaving half; and in C the equable division occurs 
 in a blurred way (see the second clause of C 5 on p. 35, supra), as if 
 the writer had preserved in a half-buried fashion a matter from his 
 
 gion Cymreig (Liverpool, i88o) is fully paragraphed. The Text of the Mabinogion (Rhys and 
 Evans, Oxford, 1887) has only two breaks in its Pd (pp. 220, 232), the last two of Lady Guest's 
 text.
 
 THE HERO S ATTEMPTS TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS 39 
 
 source which he did not regard as significant and which — perhaps 
 unconsciously — he altered/ The Advice in Pd to take food if no 
 one offers it is almost meaningless (though referred to) for the Tent 
 incident in Pd, where the Lady bids the hero eat as much as he 
 wishes; but it is apposite to the Tent incident in SP, where through- 
 out his visit no one is awake to offer him food.^ 
 
 It looks as if the Perceval tale developed out of a simpler tale 
 in which, measured by the evidence of Card and Fool, the mother 
 gave her son some elementary religious Instruction, the son shortly 
 afterward learned accidentally of some phase of knightly life, 
 returned to tell his mother of his determination to go out into the 
 world, and the mother gave him simple Advice which was intended 
 to make his life easier and safer. Whether or not such was the 
 evolution cannot be told as yet. 
 
 The discussion is continued in chapter V. 
 
 Cf, 11. 1945-40: 
 
 Et dist: "Pucele, cist paste 
 Ne seront hui par moi use; 
 Ven6s mangier, il sont moult bien; 
 Asses ara cascuns del suen; 
 S'en i remanra .1. entiers." 
 
 And the contradiction(?), 1953-54: 
 
 Et cil manga tant com lui plot 
 Et but tant ke asses en ot, etc. 
 
 ' The hero's behavior at another meal may be compared; a reflection of the equable divi- 
 sion appears in two accounts {W and Pd) of the first meal at the besieged castle (cf. chap, iv), 
 but not in C or SP. 
 
 C. — I. Blancheflur said, We have naught but a few crumbs [from a pious uncle], a 
 flask of wine, and a buck. 2. Tables were spread, and the castle folk sat down and ate with 
 relish. 3. After supper some went to bed, others went on guard. 4. Perceval was cared for, 
 given a bed, sheets, and a pillow, and he soon fell asleep. 
 
 W. — I. Two uncles told Condwiramur they were giving her twenty-four loaves of bread, 
 six shoulders and hams, sixteen cheeses, and four casks of wine. 2. All within the city received 
 food, because— 3. Parzival advised that the food be shared around, though it gave only a 
 morsel about. 4. Then he went to rest. 
 
 Pd. — I. Two nuns brought in a flask of wine and six loaves of bread. 2. The household 
 went to eat. 3. The Lady wished to give more of the food and hquor to Peredur than to 
 anyone else. 4. But he said he would share the food; so he gave an equal portion of bread to 
 each, and a cupful of wine. 5. A chamber was prepared and he went to sleep. 
 
 Compare further Yvain, 1046-54; and Ywaine and Gawin, sn~(>o. 
 
 A capon rosted broght sho sone, 
 A clene klath, and brede tharone. 
 And a pot with riche wine. 
 And a pece to fiJ it yne.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 
 
 Ninth Incident: The Arrival at Court 
 
 A. The Hero Enters the Palace 
 
 I. (a) SP, 481-500; {b) C, 2026-2132. 
 II. Ty, 277-88. 
 
 III. w, III, 779-992. 
 
 IV. Pd, 248-49; Fool, 161-62. 
 
 Card, lacuna. Fool ceases to be similar after this point. 
 
 B. Conversation with the King 
 
 I. SP, 501-600; Ty, 289-320; Card, XXX, i— XXXIII, 4. 
 
 II. (a) C, 2133-2255; W, III, 993-1119; (b) Pd (substitute — with 
 
 Kay), 249. 
 Ty and Card begin to be quite different after this. 
 
 Tenth Incident: A Knight Insults the King 
 
 I. SP, 601-56. 
 II. Pd, 248. 
 III. C, 2057-2159; W, III, 872-936. 
 
 Eleventh Incident: The Hero Avenges the Insult 
 
 I. SP, 675-820. 
 
 II. C, 2256-2399; PF, III, 1127-1292; Pd, 249-51. 
 
 Twelfth Incident: The Encounter with a Witch 
 
 I. SP, 821-68. 
 
 II. G, Potvin VI, 183-86 (The Library, January 1904, pp. 72-74). 
 
 III. Pd, 273-74. 
 
 Thirteenth Incident: The Hero Entertained by Relatives 
 
 A. The Relatives' Enemies 
 
 I. SP, 869-948. 
 
 II. (a) G, 181-83, 187-88; (b) Pd, 273-74. 
 
 III. C, 2497-2892; W, III, 1355-1898; Pd, 251-53. 
 
 B. News of the Besieged Lady's Distress 
 
 I. SP, 949-1056. 
 
 II. C, 2892-3250; W, IV, 1-499; Pd, 256-58. 
 
 40
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 4I 
 
 Modern Folk-Tales' Containing the Incidents of: 
 
 I. Insult, Relatives, Hag Battle, Relatives, Insulter's Punishment 
 
 Red Sh, with its variants, 451-93; Ransom, Champion, Hookedy. 
 II. Insult, Insulter's Punishment, Hag, Relatives 
 Conall, 249-51, 286-94; Fear Diihh, Alba. 
 
 III. Relatives, Hag Battle, Relatives 
 
 Faolan, Manus, Big Men, Fionn and Bran, Dough, Kil Arthur, 
 Mananaun. 
 
 IV. Fragments 
 
 Birth of Fin, Lawn D. 
 
 The present chapter will be devoted to five incidents embracing 
 some 575 lines, rather more than one-fourth of the poem, in the 
 middle of SP. The incidents are : the Arrival of the Hero at Court, 
 the Insult Offered the King, the Death of the Insulter, the Battle 
 with the Witch, and the Hero's Meeting with Relatives. As 
 usual, after a comparison between SP and C, other tales will be 
 introduced into the discussion to see what information may be 
 garnered concerning the ancestry of the EngHsh poem. For results 
 we shall uncover four conditions upon which we may rest further 
 study with a reasonable degree of certainty that they are facts: 
 {a) certain odd details show that SP and C are closely related; 
 
 ' I have brought together in each chapter whatever material I could find that bears a 
 strong Hkeness to SP. Then I have endeavored to weigh and to use each piece of material 
 scientifically. If I imderstand Zimmer aright (in his review of Nutt's "Studies," Goett. gel. 
 Anz. [1890], No. 12, pp. 488 ff.), it is his opinion that the modem folk-tales (Nos. 11 ff. of the 
 list on pp. 4-6, supra) cannot possibly be used "scientifically" in the study of my problem, 
 since the antecedents of these tales cannot be traced before the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries, 
 and since French romances were known to the Gaels before that time — since the romances, 
 i.e., may have been the source of the tales. The opinion is sound in part (and a very good 
 one to keep in memory), but, as I think, only in part. The nature of the evidence itself 
 offered by the tales may help determine their credibility. If the tales demonstrate the 
 existence of a pretty clearly defined series of events; if the most reasonable belief is that 
 this series underlies Crestien's poem, and if, nevertheless, the poem cannot possibly have 
 been the source for the "series of events"; if writers almost contemporarj' with Crestien lend 
 additional evidence for the existence of that "series" and yet cannot have been the source of 
 it; if, finally, SP can be shown to possess more of the "series" than C, cannot be accounted 
 for as sprung from C plus the other French accounts, and cannot itself have been the source 
 of the series; then the evidence of the tales may not be neglected by the student who means 
 to do scientific work. See, also, the comment of A. C. L. Brown, "The Knight of the Lion," 
 Pub. Mod. Lang. Assn., XX, p. 700, n. 2. 
 
 For substance the tales are certainly available evidence. 
 
 For priority and for dates evidence must be sought elsewhere. 
 
 The accounts of a hag ("caillech") mentioned by Zimmer (same article, 508-9) have not, 
 so far as I can determine, any bearing on the accounts of the carlin of chap. iii.
 
 42 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 (b) each of these two versions contains incidents not to be found in 
 the other; (c) comparison of them and other tales makes it possible 
 to reconstruct much of what must have been the common source; 
 and (d) such a reconstruction develops a "story" that had a sepa- 
 rate existence before it was incorporated into the Perceval tale. 
 To summarize SP: 
 
 IX. From the hall ( = Tent), Perceval journeyed on till he came to the 
 palace of King Arthur. He rode into the hall and came so close to the dais^ 
 i/i-r^Or that his horse kissed the forehead of the King, who was eating; he demanded 
 that he be made a knight immediately. The King was reminded of his knight 
 Syr Percyvelle, of his death, and of the prophecy that only the son^ could avenge 
 the father. Perceval was greeted so kindly that he fastened his mare and sat 
 down to table. X. Before he began to eat, a knight in red armor rode in upon 
 a red steed, insxilted the company, grasped the gold cup that was before the 
 King, drank the wine, and rode away bearing off the cup. The King grieved 
 that he had no one to revenge the insult, for the Red Knight had acted in this 
 way for five years. The hero said he would overthrow the Red Knight and 
 return the cup if the King would make him a knight. Arthur agreed, and 
 Perceval followed the Red Knight. XL Overtaking the Red Knight, Perceval 
 slew him with a cast of his dart. Then he desired the red armor, but was not 
 
 'For lists of references to similar feats, cf. Child's Ballads, notes on "King Estmere," 
 II, 51, and the additions of Kittredge, II, 510; III, 508. 
 
 ' Asked who he is, Perceval, not knowing his name, can only reply to the King that he is 
 "his own mother's child"; see 11. 506, 1094, and cf. Hertz's note, Parzival, p. 444; a similar 
 expression does not occur in C at this place. C says only that when Perceval returned home 
 after meeting the forest knights, his mother called him "biaus filz" more than a hundred times 
 (1567); similarly, PC, 1231. Cf. Heinzel, Ueher Wolfram's Parzival, 34. W, III, 722, has 
 "bon fils, cher fils, beau fils"; similarly, j. Titurel, 4387, 4. Cf. similar expressions in Bel 
 Inconnu, 115 (ed. Hippeau); Libeaus Desconus, 26, 66 (Kaluza); Chevalier au cygne (Hippeau) 
 I. 3S; Chevalier a deux espies (Forster, 1877), 10773; Heinzel, Gralroman, 24, note i; P. Paris, 
 Romans d. I. Table Round, III, 27; Nutt, Studies, 153; Miss Weston, Leg. of SP, I, 68 5. 
 
 Cf. further: W, XIV, 1246, Arthur refers to Beaucorps as "My sister's son"; XIV, 1303, 
 Beaucorps is called "Lot's child," and VI, 1291-1303, Gawain's brother; XIV, 1450, Arthur 
 calls Gawain "My sister's son"; cf. also I, 1165. Cf. the kinship between Perceval and Arthur 
 in SP, discussed in chap, i, ante; and between Perceval and Gawain in SP, 1441, 1457, discussed 
 in chap, v, infra. The Beautiful Unknown, in Libeaus D, is Gawain's son; Malory's Gareth 
 is Gawain's brother. 
 
 Perceval, as the name of a knight, occurs first, in romance, in Erec (only once, 1. 1526); 
 it appears four times in Cliges (4828, 4831, 4847, 4851); Crestien does not mention it in his 
 Yvain or Chevalier de la charrette. In the legend of Perceval the hero is usually supposed to 
 be long in ignorance of his own name. C first mentions it in 1. 4751, where the hero states it, 
 although he had presumably never heard it. PC (739-42) makes a mystery of it, saying that 
 when the hero was christened, his name was pronounced so low that no one heard it. I cannot 
 see that any special significance attaches to Crestien's repression of his hero's name, since such 
 ' a repression was no unusual device in his poems; cf . the name Enid in Erec, Laudine in Yvain, 
 
 and Lancelot in Chevalier da la charrette.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 43 
 
 able to unlace it; so he bviilt a fire to burn the body out. Gawain' arrived, 
 stripped the armor off, and placed it upon Perceval. That hero, disdaining to 
 return to the King, sent the cup by Gawain, tossed the dead knight's body upon 
 the fire, and rode on. XII. Next morning he met a Witch, the mother of the 
 Red Knight. She thought him her son, and said that she had been told falsely 
 that he was dead, and that even if he had been dead she could have revived 
 his body. Perceval, rejoicing that he had burned the body, slew the witch with 
 her son's own spear, and bore her body to the fire upon which the Red Knight 
 had been burned. XIII. Then he rode on until he overtook ten knights — 
 his Uncle and nine cousins— who fled from him, thinking him their enemy, the 
 Red Knight. After they learned their mistake, they entertained Perceval 
 in their castle. While they were at table, a messenger brought news of the 
 Besieged Lady's distress, and Perceval determined to go to her rescue. He 
 started, accompanied by three of his cousins, but after a short time he sent them 
 back, and rode on alone. 
 
 In C the account, arranged in six incidents, runs thus: 
 
 If Perceval left the Tent, and next met a charcoal-burner, who directed 
 him to court. Approaching, he saw issue from the gate a knight clad in red 
 armor and bearing a cup in his hand. Perceval said he would demand the red 
 armor from the King. The Red Knight stopped him to send a message of 
 defiance to Arthur. The hero, little regarding the message, passed and came 
 to where the King was seated at meat. Arthur was lost in thought. Perceval, 
 riding in, asked a boy which was the King. Tf Then he addressed the King, 
 who made no response. Perceval said, "This King makes no knights"; 
 and in disgust turned his horse's head, which accidentally knocked ofi^ the 
 King's head-gear. Thereupon the King roused and spoke. ^ He told of the 
 coming of the Red Knight, the insult, and the spilling of wine on the Queen; 
 and said. Unless God helped him he would die. Perceval paid no attention 
 to the acccount, but demanded that Arthur make him a knight. Arthur 
 promised he would do so; then Perceval demanded the red armor. ^ Kex 
 sneered at the hero, and injured a damsel and a fool who did honor to Perceval. 
 ^ Perceval, unheeding Kex, went out to seek the Red Knight, and Yones 
 followed, in order to bring back the news. Perceval came to the Knight, 
 
 ' Perceval's assistant is: in SP, Gawain, the leader of the forest knights; in Pd, the leader 
 of the forest knights; in C, Yones, esquire of Gawain (C, 7064 fi.; Wauchier, 11 102); in W, 
 Iwanet, the queen's servant (III, 1197-99). The disposition seems strong to connect Gawain 
 with the hero's entry into life. W makes Iwanet, not Gawain's squire, but servant to the 
 queen; but it is a romance commonplace that Gawain was a ladies' knight, in particular the 
 queen's knight: cf. Awntyrs of Arthur, st. i; Avowing of Arthur; Gaw. and Green Knight; C, 
 9546 5., W, XII, 1274-1313, XIII, 542 £f.; Merlin (ed. Sommer), chap, xxvi, p. 343; Miss 
 Weston's Leg. of Gaw., pp. 75 £f., and Leg. of Lane, pp. 117-18, 95. 
 
 In C we are told later that Gawain was away from court at the time; cf. p. ss, n. 2. 
 
 Gawain was the assistant in other tales, going to the aid of the hero in Ty and in its cognate 
 in the Dutch Lanzelet.
 
 44 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 demanded the armor, and was struck over the shoulders by the Knight's 
 lance for his pains. With his gaverlot he smote the Knight through the eye 
 to the back of the neck, and slew him. Yones arrived when Perceval was 
 having trouble to loose the red armor, and assisted him to don it. Perceval 
 bade Yones bear the cup to the King and messages to the damsel and the fool 
 whom Kex had struck. ^ He rode on till he reached the castle of Gornemans; 
 there he was instructed in the use of arms by him, received one night's enter- 
 tainment, and was knighted by Gornemans next morning. He left to seek 
 his mother, and came next, by accident, to the castle of the Besieged Lady 
 (Blancheflur) . 
 
 The two poems show great similarity of substance. But they 
 manifest, also, certain considerable differences. For one thing 
 the poets used different devices for presenting their materials before 
 the reader (hearer). The writer of SP narrates in his own person 
 the coming of the Red Knight to court, and the insult to the King. 
 Crestien, in a sort of second-hand way, places the account in the 
 mouth of the King.^ This difference, in its turn, rendered neces- 
 sary another one: in C Perceval, before reaching the King's castle, 
 meets the Knight; in SP there is no such meeting. For a second 
 thing, the two poems are different in contents. All of the fourth 
 incident and part of the fifth of SP are entirely unrepresented in C. 
 Nothing of Kex's insulting behavior to those who honor Perceval 
 and its consequences as told in C appears in SP. 
 
 Although C does not make the hero's entrance into court a 
 separate incident, while SP does, it is interesting to note that the 
 two versions possess in common two striking points that do not 
 appear in any other versions. The first is an evidence of boorish- 
 ness in the hero's manners — he rides so near to King Arthur that his 
 horse's head kisses the King's forehead or displaces his majesty's 
 head-dress. The second is the King's pensiveness— in C, because 
 he is meditating on the Red Knight's insult; in SP, because, when 
 he looks on Perceval, he is reminded of the knight Syr Percyvelle, 
 whom he had lost fifteen years before. 
 
 Crestien's device of presenting indirectly the Red Knight's 
 visit and insult (by making the King recount them) is to be con- 
 
 ' Cf. use of same device in the "disputed passage," chap. i. The author of Pd says (direct 
 narrative) that before Peredur reached court a knight had been there and insulted the King, 
 etc. Wolfram, "improving " upon C, has the Red Knight recapitulate the affair when he meets 
 Perceval about to enter the palace.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 45 
 
 sidered, I think, an attempt at refinement; for the reader's 
 (hearer's) attention is thereby centered upon the King's grief 
 rather than the Knight's roughness, and a rough scene seems less 
 rough if told as having happened than if presented as occurring. 
 It is easy to conceive of Crestien's refining a source of the SP type. 
 It is less easy, if C be considered the source, to account for the 
 stepping-down process from C's refinement to SP's rudeness. 
 
 The incident of the Red Knight's death furnishes three interest- 
 ing points for mention here : (a) The redness of the Knight's armor 
 is insisted on by all the versions — SP, C, W, Pd. The equipment 
 is not stated in our cycle to have possessed magic qualities;' but 
 in C the behavior of Gornemans when Perceval comes to his castle 
 appears vaguely to hint at something extraordinary in it;^ and 
 Wolfram (III, 1355-66) dwells upon the (supernatural ?) power of the 
 horse.^ {h) The red armor came early to be intimately associated 
 with Perceval, who was himself then sometimes referred to as the 
 Red Knight. But for Perceval to acquire it, it was necessary for 
 the Red Knight to die. Hence Crestien found it impossible to 
 save the Hfe of that knight, though his hero does not slay any other 
 person ; and Crestien offers a sort of retroactive excuse for the Red 
 Knight's death by making it (through Gornemans' advice) seem 
 due to Perceval's want of courtly instruction.'' {c) The third and 
 most significant point is the burning of the Red Knight's body. 
 The English writer thought it a very important matter, for he 
 reverts to it twice : the Witch says she could have revived the dead 
 body if she had found it; and the Uncle expresses joy when he 
 learns it has been burnt. There is nothing in C out of which the 
 
 ' SP and Pd, however, assert that the Knight was a magician. 
 
 ' Cf. 11. 2559-71; 2576-77; 2727-30; in the first passage Gornemans shows curiosity 
 about Perceval's arms; in the second, about his horse; in the third — 
 
 "Dont, alons huimais a I'ostel, 
 Fait li preudom qu'il n'i a tel; 
 Et vous arez, qui qu'il anuit, 
 Ostel sans vilonie anuit." 
 
 And the hero in Red Sh (cf. later) says he desires the arms of the Insulter because they 
 are the best in the world, but he does not get them. 
 
 ' Cf. Sir Eglamour, 610-15 ("Thornton Romances," 121 fif.), in which a damsel gives the 
 hero a red horse of such virtue that a man may never be slain while riding it. In C the Knight 
 had dismounted before he struck Perceval; in SP, Pd, and, apparently, T^ he had not. 
 
 * In W Gurnemanz was not pleased to hear of Ither's death (III, 1619-20).
 
 46 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 SP account could easily have grown, but there are some Hnes now 
 of little purport that become significant on the hypothesis that they 
 are remnants of a burning-the-body incident somewhere in the 
 sources of C. Perceval is speaking to Yones: 
 
 Je quidoie de vostre roi 
 Qu'il m'eust ces armes donees; 
 Ains auroie par carbonees 
 Trestout escarbellie^ le mort, 
 Que nule des armes enport. 
 
 — 2326-30. 
 
 The three incidents — the arrival of Perceval at court, the insult 
 of the Red Knight, and the overthrow of the Red Knight — could 
 conceivably, without any overwhelming difficulty, so far as our 
 discussion has yet shown, have come from C into SP. We should 
 then have to say that the visit to the Uncle was so far altered as 
 to leave the merest fact of a visit as the only remnant. But there 
 remains the incident of the Witch in SP, which has no possible 
 origin in C. And the discussion that follows will show that it is 
 not an episode, to be looked on as something standing alone because 
 invented by the author or borrowed and lugged into his tale. 
 But it is part of '' a story." The other incidents in SP that belong 
 with it, as parts of the same story, are the insult of the Red Knight, 
 his death, and Perceval's visit with his Uncle; and the whole may 
 be designated the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story. From the vari- 
 ants that we possess, it is possible to reconstruct much of the story 
 in its more primitive form. It is the basis for this portion of C, 
 but since SP preserves more of the earlier form than C does, it is 
 certain that C is not the source for this part of SP. 
 
 Before beginning a discussion of this "story," let me point out 
 that after the arrival of the hero at court Ty, Card, and Fool cease 
 to be like SP and C; their heroes go to aid a woman, Perceval 
 goes to avenge the insult to the King. Summaries of Ty, Card, 
 and Fool follow: 
 
 Ty. — Having kissed his mother farewell, Tyolet went over mountains 
 and valleys till he came to the court of the King. Arthur was seated at meat 
 when he rode up to the dais. Tyolet spoke not. Arthur bade him descend 
 
 ' Most MSS have "esbraone"; cf. Miss Weston, Leg. of SP, I, 79.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 47 
 
 and eat, and tell what he sought, who he was, and what his name was. Tyolet 
 said he wished to be made a knight, and gave his name, and said his mother 
 was the widow of the forest. Arthur was pleased, and Tyolet sat down to 
 eat. Soon a damsel came in seeking aid for herself (275-323). 
 
 Card. — (Lacuna.) Arthur heard Carduino, took him by the hand, and asked 
 his name, father, mother, and country. Carduino did not know who his father 
 was; his mother was "d'una vil giente"; and Carduino had come to serve 
 Arthur truly. The King bade the barons serve him. He washed and went 
 to the table. The barons marveled at his size. Presently came in a beautiful 
 damsel to seek the King's aid for her mistress (xxx-xxxiii) . 
 
 Fool. — The Fool went in wonder to see the palace of his father's brother. 
 In a dispute he slew the King's son. Then he went where the King was. 
 "Creud orm," said the Fool. The King asked who he was. He replied that 
 he was the fool of the forest and could make a fool of the King. The King 
 said his adviser had done that when he persuaded him (King) to leave the 
 widow alive when he slew his (King's) brother. The King then went with the 
 Fool on an adventure to rescue a beautiful woman (162-63). 
 
 The tales to be studied for the purpose of reconstructing the 
 Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story are SP, C, W, Pd, Gerbert's "con- 
 tinuation," and some modern folk-tales.^ 
 
 Next to be set down are summaries of the tales concerned,^ 
 and afterward will come the discussion of them. Four incidents 
 appear, though they do not always occur in the same order.^ To 
 enable the reader to follow more readily, the summaries are arranged 
 in two sets: SP, Pd {a and b), G, Red Sh, and Conall are first set 
 forth by incident, the sequence of the tale being disregarded where 
 necessary; the second set includes the rest of the modern folk- 
 tales, summarized each according to its own sequence. The reader 
 not familiar with Red Sh will get a good idea of it by reading the 
 summary of Ransom (pp. 55 ff., infra), a variant of it. 
 
 ' Nutt {Stud., esp. pp. 165-69) pointed out many resemblances, using SP, Pd, G, Red Sh, 
 and Conall. He was intent upon finding the Grail, however, and my study leads me to believe 
 the Grail entered the legend late. 
 
 ' Nothing will be gained by repetition or elaboration of the summary of C. IF, in outUne, 
 is much hke C: the chief variations are that (a) the accoimt of the Red Knight's insult is placed 
 in the mouth of the Knight himself; (b) the Knight's character is exalted and praised; (c) the 
 two persons who honor Parzival at court are dignified, named, and given greater importance; 
 {d) Gurnemanz has three sons (now dead) and a daughter instead of the two attendant 3'ouths 
 of C; he offers the daughter in marriage to Parzival, and she is refused. The significance of 
 the variations will be discussed in the comments. 
 
 ' The sentences are numbered to indicate the original sequence, and also for use in the table 
 on p. 55, below.
 
 48 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 A. THE INSULT TO THE KING 
 
 SP. — I. The King was among his courtiers, the hero seated near him. 
 2. The Red Knight (a magician) entered, made sport of the company, drank 
 the wine in the Eling's cup, took the cup, and departed. 3. The King lamented 
 the want of a champion, and spoke of the Knight's former insults. 4. Perceval 
 undertook the adventure. 5. It had been predicted that he woidd avenge 
 the death of his father, slain by the Red Knight. 
 
 Pd{a) — I. King Arthur was in his court, but the hero was not present. 
 2. The Red Knight (a magician) entered, dashed wine in the Queen's face, 
 struck her a violent blow in the face, gave a general challenge, took the goblet, 
 and departed. 3. Shortly afterward the hero arrived at court and was honored 
 by two persons, whom Kay thereupon insulted. 4. He heard from Kay of 
 the Red Knight's visit and insult, and was bidden to go and procure the Red 
 Knight's armor. 5. He departed to do so. 6. By prophecy it appeared that 
 he was to be the best knight in the world. 
 
 Pd{b).^ — 13. The Empress (the lady who before this time had given Pere- 
 dur a magic stone; cf. below) was holding a great marriage tournament. 14, 
 One day when the hero was seated beside her, a Black Man entered, bearing 
 a goblet of wine; he dropped upon one knee and besought the Empress to 
 bestow the goblet on no one who would not fight with him for it. 15. The 
 hero requested the cup, drank the wine, and used the cup to pay a debt. 16. 
 The scene was repeated for a second and a third man. 17. The hero slept 
 that night. 18. Next day he armed himself, went to the meadow, and slew 
 the three men. 
 
 G. — (No equivalent. The scene has already been related in C.) 
 
 Red Sh. — I. The King of Eirinn was seated among his nobles, the hero 
 being near by. 2. A personage (a magician) drew near, spoke to (insulted?) 
 the company, struck the King in the face, knocking out three teeth, which he 
 took, and departed. 3. Red Shield and two other knights undertook to avenge 
 the insult. 
 
 Red Sh variants.^ Variant a. — The king was out hunting with his attend- 
 ants, his son being near by. A rider on a black horse came, struck the king 
 with his fist, knocked out one of his teeth, and took it away with him. The 
 king's son vowed to recover the tooth, and set off on his travels (Mrs. Mac- 
 Tavish's version, Campbell's Tales, II, 484). 
 
 Variant b. — [The King was situated as in Red Sh (?), but instead of the 
 rider on the black horse] a head came in a flame of fire, and another head came 
 
 ' Pd{b} is Peredur from the incident of the Black Oppressor to the marriage of Peredur to 
 the Empress (Nutt's ed., pp. 271-81). It has in its time served several uses: Rhys {Arthurian 
 Legend) used it in an efiort to show that Perceval and Iwain are well-nigh two names for the 
 same hero; Schofield {Harv. Stud, and Notes, IV) made it an important link in his endeavor to 
 reconstruct the earher form of the Beautiful-Unknown tale. In neither of these two cases, it 
 seems to me, was this portion of Pd used properly. For Pd{b) 1-12 see below. 
 
 ' The variants are given by Campbell in his notes.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 49 
 
 singing. A fist was struck on the door of the mouth of the king, and a tooth 
 
 was knocked out The head did this three years after each other/ 
 
 and then it went home (MacDonald in Tales, II, 485). 
 
 Conall. — [A partially similar incident.] i. The King was at table with 
 guests, the hero being present. 2. An enemy entered, drew his fist, and struck 
 the King between the mouth and the nose, and drove out three front teeth, 
 
 which he caught on the back of his fist 3. The hero avenged the 
 
 insult, though not with death (Campbell's Tales, III, 249). 
 
 B. THE INSULTER'S DEATH^ 
 
 SP. — 6. The hero left court, encountered and slew the Red Knight, donned 
 the red armor, and rode on. 
 
 C, W, and Pd{a) are, except for the burning of the Knight's body, much 
 like SP; there are no points needing elaboration. 
 
 Pd{b). — Cf. 18 above and i below. 
 
 ' This statement lends support to, though it does not explain, a difficult passage in SP, 
 in which Arthur asserts: 
 
 "Fyve 3eres hase he [Red Knight] thus gane, 
 And my coupes fro me tane, 
 And my gude knyghte slayne, 
 
 Mene calde syr Percyvelle; 
 Sythene takene hase he three," etc. (633-37). 
 
 Cf. also items 16 and 18 under Pd{h) above; and the time allusions in Faolan (seven years); 
 Manus (seven years); Fionn mid Bran. 
 
 With the prophecy recalled by Arthur, that Perceval should avenge his father's death 
 (by inference, slay the Red Knight and the Witch), cf. the prediction in Pd{b) (p. 276, 1. 9) 
 that Peredur should slay the Addanc; in G that only Perceval could slay the Hag; and in 
 various tales summarized below that only the hero could accomplish the adventure. 
 
 In the Scotch tales it is the King's teeth (or tooth) that the insulter takes away; when the 
 hero recovers them, he places them in a cup of wine or water which he gives to the King, and as 
 soon as the monarch drinks, the teeth fly back into their proper places. In SP, C, W, and Pd it 
 is the King's drinking-cup that the Red Knight bears away. The Scotch form is, I think, the 
 more primitive; perhaps the SP form rose through an effort at refinement. 
 
 ' In SP the hero burnt the Knight's corpse and, later, that of the Witch. A connection has 
 been suggested between the Mother's Advice and the lines: 
 
 "He sayd, 'My moder bad me, 
 Whenne my dart solde brokene be, 
 Owte of the irene brenne the tree. 
 
 Now es me fyre gnede!'" (749-52). 
 
 Cf. Nutt, Stud., p. 149. I have been unable to discover any connection with the Advice, and 
 incline rather to see in them the poet's ex post facto invention for the purpose of justifying the 
 burning of the Knight's body (cf. also SP, 1679 ff.). 
 
 Wolfram makes the Red Knight the nephew of Uther Pendragon (III, 877-78), best of 
 knights, and near kinsman to Parzival. 
 
 The romancers were rather fond of referring to a knight as a "Red Knight": cf. Erec, 
 5367-6410, esp. 5898 ff.; Perlesvaus (Potvin, I, 20-21), a "Knight of the Red Shield." who was 
 slain by Perlesvaus before he left his forest home; Wauchier, 23124 ff.; Jacob von Maerlant's 
 Roman von Torcc (21 21 ff.), where a "Red Knight" is overthrown by Torec; Malory, Morle 
 D' Arthur, Gareth and "Ironsyde" (Sommer's ed., I, 234 ff.); etc.
 
 50 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Red Sh. — Cf. ii and 19 below. 
 
 G. — Wanting. 
 
 Conall. — The hero overthrew but did not slay the Insulter. 
 
 C AND D. THE WITCH AND THE RELATIVES INCIDENTS 
 
 SP . — 7. The hero rode all night [but in the morning was back in the same 
 place]. 8. He met a Witch, who recognized his horse and arms, and thought 
 he was the Red Knight, her son. 9. She addressed the hero, who remained 
 quiet: "Had you been slain and your arms taken off, I could have revived 
 you." 10. Then the hero knew that burning the Knight's body had saved 
 his own life. 11. Taking the Witch upon [her son's] spear, he cast her body 
 into the iire that had burned the son's body. 12. After a short ride, he 
 approached ten men, who fled from him, thinking him the Red Knight. 13. 
 They were the hero's Uncle and his nine sons. 14. When they learned he 
 was not the Red Knight, they explained to him the Knight's enmity, and 
 then all went to the Uncle's hall, where the hero was entertained. 15. While 
 they were at table, a messenger arrived, announcing the plight of the Besieged 
 Lady (Lufamour in SP; Blancheflur in C). 16. The hero decided to go to 
 the rescue. 17. Three of his cousins started off to accompany him, but he soon 
 sent them home, apparently without reason, and he went on alone. 
 
 G. — I. One day Perceval met four Young Men leaving a battlefield and 
 carrying Gornumant, their father, badly wounded. 2. After being entertained 
 by Gornumant, and hearing his story, the hero vowed to avenge him. 3. 
 But he learned that the enemies slain by day were resuscitated at night by a 
 hideous Hag. 
 
 4. After slaying his adopted enemies, the hero lay down upon the battle- 
 field to sleep. 5. At midnight he saw the Hag coming — 
 
 Ele arsist ausi come une esche 
 Se on boutast en li le fu. 
 
 6. She had two little barrels of magic ointment which would revive the dead. 
 
 7. After she had restored four enemies to life, the hero mounted and rode at her. 
 
 8. She recognized him and knew that only he could slay her. 9. She explained 
 to him that he could never find the Grail so long as she lived, that the balm 
 would revive the dead, and that she made war upon Gornumant at the com- 
 mand of the King of the Waste City because Gornumant had knighted Perceval. 
 10. He struck off her head, next had his horse slain under him, and was wounded, 
 but slew the resuscitated knights. 11. He revived his horse, and then the 
 best of his enemies, only to slay him again. 12. He cured himself, and went 
 to the castle and cured Gornumant. 13. Promising to return to Blancheflur 
 (niece of Gornumant) and marry her, he departed. 
 
 Pd{b). — I. After slaying the Black Oppressor, Peredur rode to the palace 
 of the Sons of the King of Tortures, entered, and found only women. 2. 
 Presently a charger arrived bearing a corpse in the saddle. 3. A woman took
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 5 1 
 
 the corpse, bathed it in warm water, placed balsam on it, and the man rose 
 up whole. 4. This was repeated for two other men. 5. Explanation was 
 made that all three were slain once every day by the "Addanc." 
 
 6. Next morning the three Young Men started off to battle. 7. The hero 
 begged to accompany them, but was told that if he were slain there would be 
 no one to revive him. 8. He attempted, nevertheless, to follow them, but 
 they had disappeared. 9. He met a beautiful woman, who accosted him, 
 explained about the Addanc (a mysterious cave-dweller), and gave him a 
 magic stone by means of which to overcome the Addanc — on condition that 
 he should love her supremely, and seek her "toward India." [An incident' 
 omitted.] 10. The hero arrived at the cave, used his stone, pierced the Addanc 
 with his spear, and cut off the Addanc's head. 11. As he left the cave, he met 
 the three Young Men, who said there was a prediction that he would slay 
 " that monster." 1 2. The hero refused the sister they offered him in marriage, 
 gave them the Addanc's head, and departed. [In two incidents the hero 
 befriended Etlym, a knight who wore red armor and rode a red horse. Then 
 he attended the marriage tournament of the Empress: cf. Pd{b) 13, above.] 
 
 Red Sh. — [The hero traveled seeking the Insulter. He leaped over a circle 
 of fire, and entered an island. He found on a hillside a beautiful woman v.'ith 
 the head of a great sleeping youth on her knee. It was hard to wake the 
 youth, but (according to prophecy) the hero roused him. The youth called 
 the hero by his name (Red Sh) — "It is this day that thou has the name"; 
 and they fought till the hero swept the head off the other. Then he took the 
 Lady to the ship; and when he went back into the island, his treacherous com- 
 panions sailed away with the Lady (458-61).] 4. After wandering for some 
 time in the island, the hero drew near a castle, or town. 5. He saw three 
 Young Men coming heavily, wearily, tired from a battlefield. 6. They saluted, 
 and all four entered the town. 7. That night they slept. 8. Next morning 
 the three Young Men began to arm themselves. 9. They were the hero's 
 foster brothers ; and they told him that for a year and a day they had warred 
 against the Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, and a hundred people, but every 
 enemy slain one day was alive the next. 10. The hero wished to go to battle 
 with them, but learned they were under a spell of such a nature that if he 
 fought he must fight alone against all the enemies. 
 
 II. He went to the battlefield, and when he had killed the Son and all his 
 hundred people, being wounded, he lay down on the field to sleep for the night. 
 12. Waked by a great noise [and light?] from the seashore, he saw coming 
 a great, toothy Carlin. 13. She bent over two corpses, placed her finger in 
 their mouths, and restored them to life. 14. Next she placed her finger in 
 the mouth of the hero, who with a bite severed it; she kicked him a long way 
 off, and leaned over another. 15. The hero took "her son's short spear" 
 
 ' The omitted incident bears some resemblance to the brachet incident in the "Lay of the 
 Great Fool" and that in the Wauchier "Continuation." On this resemblance cf. Schofield, 
 Stud., 171 flf.
 
 52 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 and struck off her head. i6. He rested till he heard his three foster brothers 
 weeping and seeking him. 17. They said that if they had the Carhn's vessel 
 of balm, they could soon cure him. 18. He directed them to the Carlin's body, 
 and when they had fetched the balm and anointed him, he rose cured. 19. 
 The next day the hero slew the personage who had insulted the King. 
 
 Red Sh Variants. Variant a (cont.). — The King's son went to three houses, 
 where he found three sisters, each of whom gave him a pair of magic shoes, which 
 returned home when they had carried him seven years' journey in one day. The 
 last sister was young and lovely; she lowered him over a rock in a basket to fight 
 her brother, who was a giant with three heads. He cut off a head each day; 
 fired a pistol shot at the foot of the rock as a signal to be hauled up each even- 
 ing, for the giant never fought after sunset; and he was cured with a magic 
 balsam by the lady each night, and went out fresh each morning. The giant's 
 head leaped on as often as it was cut off, but an eagle came over the prince 
 and told him to hold the sword on the neck till the marrow froze, which he 
 did, and the giant was killed. He took the spoil from a castle, found the 
 King's tooth in a drawer, returned home with the beautiful lady, healed the 
 King, and married the lady (Tales, II, 484-85). 
 
 Variant b (cont.). — Campbell says: "The remainder of [a second] story 
 is nearly the same as the Knight of the Red Shield then follows a differ- 
 ent set of adventures The fearful old woman, with the marvelous 
 
 teeth; the gigantic warriors, of whom there are three with many heads; and 
 three lovely ladies, who are found under the ground, and carried off by the 
 cowards [the hero's two companions]. The story ends with the replacement 
 of the king's lost teeth, and the punishment of the knight and the cook [the 
 companions]; and [the hero] married the three ladies at once" {Tales, II, 
 485-86). 
 
 Variant c— In this variant, which Campbell barely sketches, the story 
 appears to draw close to Conall. The hero was Young Heavenly Eagle, son 
 of the King of Greece: he married a Greek lady, and turned out to be the King's 
 only legitimate son (Tales, II, 487). 
 
 Variant d, under the name of "The Son of Green Spring by Valour." — 
 The hero was son of the Red Ridere, and went off in a boat with the King's 
 two sons to recover the King's teeth [apparently opening with the Insult, 
 just as does Red Sh]. .... He had a stone of victory, with which he slew 
 
 his foes He came to a small house where he found no man, but food for 
 
 three — wine and wheaten loaves. He took a little from each portion, and got 
 into one of the three beds. Three sorely wounded men came in, cured themselves 
 with a magic balsam, and discovered him, and on the morrow he went to fight 
 for them. The three Young Men were enchanted princes, the rightful heirs of 
 this fiery island, compelled for twenty years to contend daily with armies, 
 giants, and monsters. They had lost their mother, and someone had stolen 
 their sister, who turned out to be the lady whom the hero had already rescued. 
 They told him what he would have to encounter, but he went on and overcame
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 53 
 
 everything, and his coming had been foretold. Armies of enchanted warriors 
 fell, three giants with several heads, the three harpers of the little harps, the 
 Son of Darkness, Son of Dimness, and, worst of all, a terrible old Carlin, 
 
 because he was aided by his victory stone When the old Carlin arrived, 
 
 she came over the sea with a magic cup to revive the dead warriors and her 
 son. She put her finger into the hero's mouth, and he bit it off. He cut her 
 head off, it leaped on again, he cut it off again, and it flew up into the skies; 
 he held his sword on the neck, looked up, and saw the head coming down and 
 aiming at him; he leaped to one side, the head went four feet into the earth, 
 •and victory was gained. The three Young Men carried him home, bathed 
 him in balsam, and cured him. He raised their father and mother from the 
 dead, and they promised him their daughter and realm. He recovered and 
 restored the King's teeth, restored his father to honor, and married the fair 
 lady, who was daughter of the king of the town under the waves {Tales, II, 
 491-92). 
 
 Conall. — 4. After a multitude of adventures, Conall wondered how the 
 fight in the realm of lubhar^ [ = Judea, Jewry, Newry ?] was coming on between 
 his mother's brother and the Turks, and if his father and brothers [who had 
 gone to the aid of the King of lubhar] were yet alive. 5. He set out to see, 
 with him his wife, Duanach (his minstrel), and two champions for friends. 6. 
 When they reached the realm of lubhar, the fighting was going on. [7. Three 
 one-day battles are described; as the first two are redundant, only the third 
 will be summarized. All whom Conall slew one day were alive the next. The 
 King of lubhar was brother to Conall's mother. On the evening of the second 
 day, after the battle, the King of lubhar sought Conall at his inn, but Duanach 
 said he was asleep, and refused to wake him; but he told the King who Conall 
 was, and promised to tell Conall of his Uncle's visit and to deliver the King's 
 invitation to Conall to come to the castle next day.] 8. On the third day the 
 army of the Turks came on, and Conall went with the people of lubhar to 
 battle. 9. He saw the big Turk come opposite him the third time [he had 
 slain this giant(?) twice already]; Conall slew him, and the Turks fled. 10. 
 The people of lubhar slaughtered till no more enemies were to be found, and 
 then retired. 11. "It seemed to Conall that there was something that was to 
 be understood going on in the field of battle in the night." 12. Ordering 
 Duanach back to the inn, he stayed to watch the slain — and Duanach stayed 
 to watch him. 13. When the night grew dark, there came a great Turkish 
 Carlin, bearing a white glaive of light with which she could see seven miles 
 before her and seven behind her, and a flask of balsam. 14. She placed three 
 drops of balsam in the mouth of a corpse and bade him rise and go home; he 
 went. 15. She passed from one to another, reviving them for the next day's 
 battle. 16. She treated Conall in the same way, but from his alacrity she saw 
 he was not a Turk, and fled. 17. Conall pursued; she threw away the flask 
 and the glaive; but he overtook her and slew her with his sword. 18. Using 
 
 'A variant gives "Turkey" (Campbell, p. 260, note).
 
 54 
 
 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 the glaive of light he sought the balsam, but Duanach had already picked it 
 up. 19. Conall took the flask, and gave the glaive to Duanach, bidding him 
 lead off the resurrected Turks to destruction. 20. Conall put the balsam under 
 his head and went to sleep, since he could do nothing more till he had slept. 
 21. Afterward he revived his own people, and went about the field seeking his 
 brothers (whom he gave to his two champion friends to take to safety). 22. 
 The great Turk came to him on hands and knees. 23. Conall found his father 
 and the King of Laidheann imprisoned and fettered. 24. The death the great 
 Turk had measured out for them, to that Conall doomed the Turk. 25. 
 After that Conall returned to his wife and took her home with his father and 
 brothers, and all were welcomed by his mother (285-93). 
 
 SP and C show, as has been said, certain significant agreements 
 that lock them closely together. They tell the same story, with 
 this limitation, that SP has added some parts that were not in the 
 original story or that C has lost some that were. 
 
 C, W, and Pd{a) tell one and the same story. 
 
 SP agrees with Red Sh, G, Pd{b), and Conall and they agree 
 one with another, in so many points, great and small, as to show that 
 they preserve the same story. 
 
 SP mediates between the group of the first three accounts on 
 the one side and the group of the last four accounts on the other. 
 The four incidents — A, the Knight's Insult; B, his Death; C, the 
 Witch's Death, and D, the Meeting with the Uncle (relatives)' — 
 appear, in so far as they occur, in sequence as follows: 
 
 C, W, Pd{a 
 
 SP 
 
 RedSh 
 
 G 
 
 Pd{h) 
 
 Conall .... 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 C 
 C 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 D 
 
 C 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 
 •   
 
 B 
 
 The subjoined table shows that in the tales of this set there is 
 incorporated a single story — the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story — 
 and that, though it appears with several variations or as several 
 variants, it is at bottom one and the same story. The table shows 
 
   In the comment on this incident (p. 68, infra), it will be shown that it fell into two parts 
 in the early form of the story, a meeting before, and one after, the battle. In the Perceval 
 tale and in Conall, only the second visit appears, though a modification of even this statement 
 is necessary for SP.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 
 
 55 
 
 that though the sequence of incidents changes from tale to tale, 
 the sequence of items within each incident is much the same. 
 
 
 SP 
 
 RedSh 
 
 G 
 
 P<f(6) 
 
 Conall 
 
 A. A Knight insults the King 
 
 B. The hero slays the Insulter 
 
 He spends the night on the 
 jattlefield 
 
 1-5 
 6 
 
 7 
 8 
 8 
 9 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 12-13 
 
 12-13 
 
 12 
 14 
 
 14 
 [16] 
 
 17 
 
 1-3 
 19 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 II 
 
 13-14 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 (12?) 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 6-8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 [8-9] 
 
 6-7 
 
 8-9 
 
 10 
 
 (10?) 
 
 (5?) 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 [i] 
 2 
 
 2 
 2-3 
 (3?) 
 
 3 
 
 (13-16) 
 
 (17-18? 
 
 or I?) 
 
 6, ID 
 
 9-10 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 10-12 
 
 1-4 
 
 [5] 
 5-6 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 7-8 
 
 8 
 
 1-2 
 
 3 
 II— 12 
 
 C. He encounters the Witch . . 
 Whose Son is mentioned. 
 
 The Magic Balm 
 
 The prophecy' 
 
 13 
 
 13-1S 
 ? 
 
 The Witch's death 
 
 By her Son's spear .... 
 The burning of the Witch. . 
 D. The hero meets the Uncle.. 
 Or (and) the Three Young 
 
 Men^ 
 
 Who are retiring from 
 battle against the 
 Witch's Son 
 
 16-17 
 
 (13?) 
 (7) 
 
 (7) 
 
 (7,9) 
 (7) 
 
 (4) 
 (5) 
 
 They entertain the hero . . . 
 And tell the story of their 
 enmity .... 
 
 The hero offers to aid them 
 
 But because of a spell 
 
 He must fight the battle 
 alone 
 
 
 
 ' A prophecy occurs within the story in both SP and Red Sh, but at a different place; cf. "5 " in SP. 
 
 'In Conall the Big Turk is probably the Hag's son; there is no statement. Conall's father and 
 brothers are substitutes for the three Young Men. The story of the Turk's enmity is known to Conall 
 before he leaves home. He does not meet his Relatives before the battle, but he wins the battle for them. 
 He does not fight alone. His meeting with his Uncle is the "second" one. 
 
 THE SECOND SET OF TALES 
 
 First Group {see p. 41, supra) 
 
 Florin's Ransom [a variant of Red Sh]. — Fionn was with "his three foster 
 brothers, the Red Knight, the Knight of the Cairn, and the Knight of the 
 Sword," on a hill. Out of a shower from the northwest came a rider on a black 
 horse. He knocked out the three upper and three lower of Florin's teeth. 
 The foster brothers started off to recover them. 
 
 A Uttle, insignificant, but strong man appeared, asked permission to accom- 
 pany them, was refused it by the brothers, but was granted it by Fionn. \Vhile 
 sailing, the man climbed the mast when the others had failed. They came to a 
 harbor in the "Kingdom of Big Men" guarded by three Fiery Darts that 
 gleamed all around it. The little man leaped over the fire, then returned, and, 
 carrying the travelers, leaped over it again.
 
 56 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Walking in the island, they found a tall woman with a brown, fat, little 
 lap-dog at her heels; when the dog looked at Fionn, his teeth were in place; 
 when he looked away, the teeth were gone. Taking woman and dog, the foster 
 brothers went back to the ship, and left the little man on the island. 
 
 He came to a small dwelling-house, and entered. A tall man returned 
 home, and to a salutation and inquiry announced: "My news are but sorrow- 
 ful, for my beautiful sister, who used to put me in the bath when I returned 
 home from fighting the battle, and made me as cheerful as ever to go to battle 
 and combat the next day, has been taken away, and is lost and astray from me." 
 The little man washed him in the washing-bath, so that he never felt more 
 refreshed or joyful. The same happened for a second and a third man (broth- 
 ers of the first). The Uttle man asked if he might go to battle in their place, 
 and was refused. Explanation was made: a regiment of soldiers would come, 
 and though he beheaded each one, a Hag would come after him with a Ufe- 
 restoring stoup and dip her finger in that and put the finger in the mouths of 
 the men, and each would spring up alive. Then would come a regiment of 
 soldiers with musical harpers at its head who would put him to sleep. Then a 
 tall man of terrific aspect; and after him would come an old woman whose 
 breath would kill. 
 
 The little man obtained permission to go to battle. He hid till the first 
 regiment passed, then rose and slew each one. The Hag arrived, restored a 
 soldier, and came to the hero, who bit off her finger. He rose and slew her 
 and the restored soldier by one stroke. The harpers came; the hero fixed his 
 sword so that the point would prick his forehead if he nodded. When the 
 soldiers had past, he rose and slew all. He dug a hole and covered it over 
 with wood, grass, and moss. The Big Grey Man came. The hero so con- 
 ducted his fight that the Big Grey Man fell into the hole; then the Uttle man 
 cut off his head. The Old Woman came, and she and the hero fought till 
 both fell exhausted. In the morning the brothers came to the battlefield, 
 and at the hero's request placed balsam in his mouth; thus reinvigorated he 
 rose and slew the Old Woman. 
 
 The hero went home with the brothers and Hved with them for a while. 
 One day when the hero was on a hill, the rider on the black steed came 
 out of a shower and attacked him, but had his head cut off. The hero 
 found on this rider only two combs and a purse in which were Fionn's 
 teeth. He took the teeth and returned to the brothers' home. The tallest 
 brother lamented, telling the hero he had slain their father's only brother. 
 Another said: "It has long been foretold that it would be the restorer of 
 Fionn MacCumhail's loss who would give us deliverance from all our warfare 
 and conflict." 
 
 The hero decided to leave. The brothers gave him the Black Steed. 
 "And you will bring to our sister news of us, and make her your lawful wife." 
 He returned and restored Fionn's teeth. 
 
 The Champion of the Red Belt.—Tht Champion was traveling from Greece
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 57 
 
 in search of the "heahng water" to restore his brother, who had lost his life 
 through the enchantment of the harper, who had played a tune that put him 
 to sleep, after which the King of the Eastern World had slain him. 
 
 The Champion went toward the Eastern World. He came to a ten-foot 
 fence, and leaped it. There were the "three sons of Kanikinn," playing ball. 
 They told the Champion that the King Knight of the black castle had taken 
 the healing water from them seven years before; and now he killed three 
 hundred men every day. They told the Champion he had best not go to the 
 black castle. [Thus the enmity to the Three Young Men is obscured.] The 
 Champion came to a black castle. He heard a noise and jumped behind a 
 barrel to hide. Light burst from the castle door; the knight of the castle 
 arrived home, hung his sword on a peg, and took off his coat of steel. The 
 Champion challenged him; the knight replied that they would not fight till 
 morning, invited the Champion in, and promised him safety, saying he had 
 talked with no one for seven years. The Champion requested the "bottle of 
 healing water," and was told that the knight's stepmother had taken it seven 
 years before. Every day the knight has had to kill three hundred men, and 
 the stepmother ("hag of sorceries") brought them to life again. Conversa- 
 tion revealed the fact that the knight of the black castle was the Champion's 
 youngest brother, lost at the time of birth. [Here the kinship comes in — the 
 youngest brother is substituted for the Three Young Men who are foster 
 brothers.] The Champion asked permission to do the fighting next day instead 
 of the knight, and finally was allowed to go. 
 
 He slew the three hundred men. "Then he lay down among the dead men 
 to see what it was brought them to life." The hideous hag came with a bottle 
 of the water of healing on a button that was on her breast. There was a feather 
 in the bottle; with the feather she rubbed a corpse, and the man came aUve. 
 She restored nine, whom the Champion slew. Then he and the hag fought. 
 He finally slew her by striking off her head, and took the bottle of healing water. 
 Wlien dying, the hag put him imder spells to meet the three hundred cats. 
 He went to meet the cats, and told of the death of the three hundred men and 
 the one-legged hag. He slew the cats, and by the last one was put under 
 spells to fight the Wether of Fuerish Fwee-ere. He sought and slew the Wether, 
 who put him under spells to meet the king cat of the Western Island [who was, 
 however, a hag]. "He went forward in the camp." He met the king cat, 
 and they fought. She [the hag] had a long tail with a poison spot on it. She 
 jumped over him, put the poison spot through his heart, and then with the 
 claw on the end of her tail she drew the heart out of him. As the Champion 
 was falling, he thrust his hand through her open mouth and drew out her heart. 
 The two fell dead. 
 
 The king knight of the black castle followed to see how his brother should 
 fare. He found the slain and followed on. He came to the bodies of his 
 brother and his stepmother. "A lump of mist came" and told him which 
 was the Champion's heart; he washed it, fixed it in his brother, found the
 
 58 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 bottle of healing water, dipped the feather in it, and rubbed his brother's 
 mouth; and the Champion rose up alive and well. 
 
 The Champion provided a wife for the knight; returned, restored the 
 bewitched brother, and provided him a wife, the daughter of the King of 
 Underwaveland. Then he went to the island of the King of Greece, and there 
 he married the King's daughter. 
 
 Hookedy. — Jack was son of the King of Ireland. Seeking his fortune, he 
 took service with a giant, who, going from home, gave Jack the run of the whole 
 place except the stable. Jack entered the forbidden place, and, though pun- 
 ished for doing so, was led thereby into his further adventures. A mare and a 
 bear found in the stable befriended him. On the mare he fled, the giant pur- 
 suing. A chestnut and a drop of water (each taken from the mare's ear) 
 thrown behind him by Jack interposed barriers the giant could not overcome. 
 Jack, mare, and bear came to safety; as they parted, the mare blew on Jack, 
 and he became an ugly little hookedy-crookedy fellow; then she gave him a 
 wishing-cap, promised aid, and they departed. Jack took service with a 
 King of Scotland, who did not fear Jack's influence over his daughters, he was 
 so ugly. The King of Scotland was threatened with war by the King of the 
 East. Advised by his druid, the King of Scotland sought aid by marrying his 
 daughters, the oldest to the King of Spain, the next to the King of France. The 
 youngest daughter refused to marry at all, and was banished the royal presence. 
 
 The Kling of Scotland then sent the Kings of Spain and France to the Well 
 of the World's End to bring bottles of "loca" [a liquid that would heal wounds 
 and revive the dead] to use after the battle. Jack sought advice of the mare, 
 used his wishing-cap, and of course, got the "loca," two bottles of it. He kept 
 some of it, and gave the rest to the Kings of France and Spain, who returned 
 to the King of Scotland and were welcomed as heroes; Jack returned to his 
 humble duties as gardener's help. Battle was prepared. Jack went to the 
 mare, secured arms and equipment, won the battle for Scotland, and dis- 
 appeared. The second and third days were similar, Jack appearing finer each 
 day. The loca revived the Scottish army. After further mystification of 
 his friends. Jack explained the whole matter, and married the youngest daughter. 
 The mare was disappointed, for she was a maiden condemned (bewitched) 
 to that shape for a number of years, and her brother was the bear. She had 
 hoped to marry Jack herself, but she wished him well. 
 
 Second Group 
 
 Fear Dubh. — Fear Dubh invited the Fenians to a feast at his castle in Alba; 
 and when they were seated, they could not rise from their seats. Fear Dubh 
 was coming with an army to slay them — "These men from Alba had always a 
 grudge against the Champions of Erin." The horn of distress was sounded. 
 Fin's son Fialan, only three years old, rose in Jreland and came to aid his 
 father.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 59 
 
 Instructed by Fin, Fialan took his place in the ford, and when Fear Dubh 
 and his army arrived, he slew them all; a second army under Fear Dubh's 
 younger brother fared hkewise; a third under the youngest brother also. Diar- 
 muid, who had been hunting, came to Fin's aid. Through the castle door, Fin 
 told him: "Oh, Diarmuid, we are all fastened in here to be killed. Fialan has 
 destroyed three armies, and Fear Dubh with his two brothers. He is raging 
 now along the bank of the river; you must not go near him, for he would tear 
 you hmb from limb. At this time, he wouldn't spare me, his own father; 
 but after a while he will cease from raging and die down; and then you can go. 
 The mother of Fear Dubh is coming, and will soon be at the ford. She is more 
 violent, more venomous, more to be dreaded, a greater warrior than her sons. 
 The chief weapon she has are [sic] the nails on her fingers; each nail is seven 
 perches long, of the hardest steel on earth. She is coming in the air at this 
 moment with the speed of the hawk, and she has a kur'an (a small vessel), 
 with liquor in it, which has such power that if she puts three drops of it on the 
 mouths of her sons they will rise up as well as ever; and if she brings them to 
 life there is nothing to save us. Go to the ford; she will be hovering over the 
 corpses of the three armies to know can she find her sons, and as soon as she 
 sees them she will dart down and give them the Hquor. You must rise with a 
 mighty bound upon her, dash the kur'an out of her hand and spill the liquor. 
 If you can kill her, save her blood, for nothing in the world can free us from this 
 place and open the door of the castle but the blood of the old Hag." .... 
 Aided in the fight by Bran (Fin's dog) Diarmuid succeeded. 
 
 He caught the Hag's blood in a vessel, and with it cured his own wounds 
 and Bran's, and released the Fenians. 
 
 Fin MacCumhail and the Son of the King of Alba. — [This tale contains 
 almost a repetition of the preceding adventure.] Fin and his followers, stuck 
 to their seats in a magic castle, were released by Pogan and Ceolan. Fin's two 
 sons [ = substitutes for Fialan]. They slew an army; then came music; then 
 the Hag with a little pot [of balsam], and she was slain. Then the heroes had 
 to slay three kings in the north of Erin, for only by the blood of the kings could 
 they release Fin and his company (J. Curtin, Myths, etc., 292-303). 
 
 Kennedy {Bardic Stories, 116-26) has a variant of the last tale in "An 
 Bruighean Caorthain (The Quick-Beam Fort)." Lochlann, a Grecian chief, 
 the King of the World, and three Kings of the Islands of the Floods are among 
 Fin's enemies; but the Hag and her Balm do not appear. 
 
 Third Group 
 
 Faolan. — Faolan and Dyeermud traveled days till they came to a large, 
 white-fronted castle. They knocked, and were admitted by a fine young 
 woman, who kissed Faolan and said: "You and I were born at the same hour, 
 and betrothed at our birth. Your mother married Fin to rescue her brothers, 
 your uncles, from the bonds of enchantment." They sat down to eat and
 
 6o SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 drink; and they were not long eating when in came four champions, all torn, 
 cut, and bleeding. Dyeermud started up, sword in hand. "Have no fear," 
 said she to Dyeermud. The four champions explained: they were returning 
 from battle with a wild hag, who for seven years had been trying to take their 
 land from them. All the warriors they slew in the day she raised up at night. 
 And they would have to fight again the next day. Dyeermud bade them 
 stay at home next day, and he and Faolan would do battle for them. 
 
 Faolan and Dyeermud went out, began at opposite ends of the host in 
 the morning, and met at the middle at sunset, slaying all the hag's warriors. 
 "Go back to the castle," said Faolan to Dyeermud; "I will rest here tonight, 
 and see what gives life to the corpses." Dyeermud left. 
 
 About midnight, Faolan heard the voice of a man in the air just above him. 
 "Is there anyone living?" asked the voice. Faolan, with a bound, grasped 
 the man, and, drawing him down with one hand, pierced him through with his 
 sword in the other. The man fell dead; and then, instead of the old man he 
 seemed at first, he rose up a fresh young man of twenty-two years. The 
 young man embraced and thanked Faolan. "I am your uncle," said he, 
 "brother of the poisonous hound that you freed from enchantment at sea. 
 I was fourteen years in the power of the wild hag, and could not be freed till 
 my father's sword pierced me. Give me that sword, which belonged to my 
 father. It was to deliver me that your mother gave you that blade. I will 
 give you a better one still, since you are a greater champion than I. I will 
 give you my grandfather's sword; here it is. When the wild hag grows 
 uneasy at my delay, she herself will hasten hither. She knew that you were 
 to come and release me, and she is preparing this long time to meet you. For 
 seven years she has been making steel nails to tear you to pieces; and she has 
 sweet music which she wiU play when she sees you: that music makes every 
 man sleep when he hears it. When you feel the sleep coming, stab your leg 
 with your sword; that wiU keep you awake [no Harpers occur]. She will 
 then give you battle; and if you chance to cut oH her head, let not the head 
 come to the body: for if it comes on the body, all the world could not take it 
 away. When you cut off her head, grasp it in one hand, and hold it till all the 
 blood flows out; make two halves of the head, holding it in your hand all the 
 while; and I will remove the stone cover from a very deep well here at hand; 
 and do you throw the split head into that well, and put the cover on again." 
 
 All happened as the uncle had said. But just as Faolan was going^to cover 
 the well, the head spoke, and put him under spells to go teU the Cat of Gray 
 Fort that he had destroyed the hag. The uncle embraced Faolan then, and 
 said: "Now I will go to my sister, your mother; but first I will guide you to 
 this hag's enchanted well: if you bathe in its water, you will be as sound and 
 well as ever." Faolan bathed and was cured. Then, not calling Dyeermud, 
 he went to seek the Cat. He killed the Cat, and was sent to tell the Kitten of 
 Cul MacKip of the deed. He went to seek the Kitten. Toward evening, 
 he saw a castle, went toward it, and entered it. When inside he saw half a
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 6l 
 
 loaf of barley bread and a quart of ale placed on the window. "Whoever 
 own these, I will use them," said the youth; he ate, and then saw a kitten by 
 the ashes. After a battle of a night and a day, he slew the Kitten; and was 
 put under spells to tell the Dun Ox. He went on, met a forester, who welcomed 
 him, and directed him and explained how the Dun Ox was to be slain. Faolan 
 encountered the Ox, and both he and the Ox were slain. 
 
 "Dyeermud slept a hero's sleep of seven days and seven nights." He 
 waked, heard no tidings of Faolan, and, furious, set off to seek him. Faolan's 
 betrothed and her four brothers accompanied him. The young woman was the 
 wise one and the leader. They followed Faolan's trail of slaughter tiU they 
 met the forester, who recognized Dyeermud. The six spent the night at his 
 cabin, and next morning they found Faolan. "The young woman bathed him 
 with some fluid from a vial, and, opening his mouth, poured the rest down his 
 throat. He rose up at once, as sound and healthy as ever." .... The forester 
 directed them to the castle of the Black-Blue Giant, and accompanied them. 
 
 [Other adventures occur that have no bearing here.] 
 
 Dyeermud was sorely wounded, but was healed by the forester, who rubbed 
 ointment on him. Later Dyeermud, by request, cut off the head of the forester, 
 and thus restored him to youth; and he was Arthur, son of Deara, under 
 enchantment, and he was in love with Dyeermud's sister. All visited Erin 
 and returned, and then Faolan married the sister of the four Young Men. 
 End follows soon. 
 
 Manus. — .... Manus entered a room in a brilliantly lighted building, and 
 there found food set out for twelve champions; he tasted some of each portion, 
 and hid himself; but he was discovered soon after the Big Men entered. The 
 Red-haired Man (the leader) shortly afterward explained why he could not sleep. 
 For seven years he had contended against three big giants, their mother, and 
 their hosts of thousands; those slain in the day came alive at night. There 
 was a prophecy that this state of things would last till the coming of Manus, 
 son of the King of Lochlann (and son, also, of the sister of the Red-haired Man). 
 
 By telling a story, Manus put the Red-haired Man to sleep; then he took 
 the Man's sword, went to the battlefield, and lay down among the dead. 
 [Manus had not fought.] One after another, three five-headed giants came, 
 prepared to raise the dead by placing a finger in the corpse's mouth, reached 
 Manus, recognized him when he bit their fingers (the last two speaking of the 
 prophecy), wrestled with him, and then were slain. Each giant bore "a 
 reviving cordial " to waken and bring alive the dead. When day was approach- 
 ing, the hag came, recognized Manus, and engaged in battle with him. When he 
 struck off her head, it flew back on, till a voice told him to hold his sword on 
 the neck tUl blood and marrow froze. He did so; and aU the giants were now 
 destroyed. Harpers came, but he slew them with their own harps. He lay 
 down upon the battlefield. 
 
 In the morning the Red-haired Man sought and found Manus, took him 
 home, and later helped him in his next adventure
 
 62 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Big Men. — Substitute for the Insult: three Champions from the King- 
 dom of Big Men came to Erin in a boat hke "the blackness of a shower"; 
 they challenged Fin, but he put them under spells to remain where they were 
 till his return. 
 
 Fin went to the Kingdom of Big Men and was taken by the King to be his 
 dwarf. The King had to go away each night. 
 
 Fin secured permission to go in the King's place one night The 
 
 King's opponent was a Monster. Fin put the Monster off for two nights. 
 Next night Fin, with the help of Bran, slew the Monster, cut off its head, and 
 took it home. Next night he did the same for a still greater Monster. On the 
 last night he slew the Hag, who like her son and husband, the Monsters, came 
 up from the sea. There was a prophecy, said the King, that only Fin could 
 bring relief from these creatures, who had long harassed the Kingdom. 
 
 Fin returned home, succeeded by the help of Skilful Companions in stealing 
 the magic shirts from the Three Champions, and then overcame them and 
 forced them to swear fealty to him. 
 
 Fionn and Bran. — Much of the incident outlined above recurs. The King 
 has not been able to sleep for seventeen years; and the second Monster and the 
 Hag do not occur (J. G. Campbell, The Fians, 212-18). 
 
 Dough. — . . . . Amadan was forced by his stepmother to leave home. 
 He traveled till he came to a castle, entered, found dinner spread, and ate. 
 Three young men entered, tired and bleeding; they struck a iJint against the 
 
 castle, and the castle shone as if on fire They had daily to fight three 
 
 giants. 
 
 Amadan and they went to battle. The giants were slain; Amadan sent the 
 princes home, and he lay down upon the battlefield. The Hag came, accom- 
 panied by four badachs (unwieldy big fellows), and bearing a feather and a bottle 
 of iocshlainte (ointment of health). She revived the giants; then Amadan slew 
 all eight. By the geasa of the Hag and of successive victims, he had to seek 
 and slay the Black Bull of the Brown Wood, the White Wether of the Hill of 
 Waterfalls, the Beggarman of the King of Sweden, and the Silver Cat of the 
 Seven Glens. After he left the Hag, he came to a cottage covered by only a 
 single feather, where he found "a rough red woman," and from her he had 
 full directions how to meet and slay each new antagonist. 
 
 After aU his enemies had been slain, he traveled back to the "Castle of 
 Fire"; and the princes gave him their sister, extremely beautiful, for wife, and 
 half their fortune. 
 
 The rough, red woman disappears; she is not said to be kin to anybody, 
 hero or princess. Compare the Empress in Pd{h) . 
 
 Kit Arthur. — .... Arthur overcame a giant, who to save his life offered 
 Arthur his sword of light, rod of enchantment, and "healing draught which 
 cures every sickness and wound." Arthur received the gifts, but struck off 
 the giant's head anyway. He thrust the head in the fire, and as soon as he did, 
 a beautiful woman stood before him, and said: "You have killed nine of my
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 63 
 
 brothers, and this was the best of the nine. I have eight more brothers who 
 go out to fight with four hundred men each day, and they kill them all; but 
 next morning the four hundred are alive again, and my brothers have to 
 do battle anew. Now my mother and these eight brothers will soon be here; 
 and they'll go down on their bended knees and curse you who killed my nine 
 brothers, and I am afraid your blood will arise within you when you hear the 
 curses, and you'll kill my remaining eight brothers." Arthur promised he 
 would not. All happened as foretold. 
 
 Next morning he arose early, girded on his nine-edged sword, went to where 
 the eight brothers were going to fight the four hundred, and said to them: "Sit 
 down, and I'll fight in your place." He fought, and at midday he had them all 
 slain. "Now someone brings these to life again," he said. "I he down among 
 them and see who it is." Soon he saw an old Hag coming with a brush in her 
 hand, and an open vessel hanging from her neck by a string. When she came 
 to the four hundred, she dipped the brush into the vessel and sprinkled the 
 liquid which was in it over the bodies of the men. They rose up behind her 
 as she passed along. "Bad luck to you," said Arthur; "your are the one that 
 keeps them alive!" Then he seized her; putting one of his feet on her two 
 ankles, and grasping her by the head and shoulders, he twisted her body till 
 he put the hfe out of her. Dying, she put him under spells to tell the Ram of 
 the Five Rocks of the deed. He went to the Ram, seized it, and dashed its 
 brains out. 
 
 Then he went to the castle of the beautiful woman whose nine brothers 
 he had kiUed, and for whose eight brothers he had slain the four hundred. 
 When he appeared, the mother rejoiced; the eight brothers blessed him and 
 gave him their sister in marriage; and Kil Arthur took the beautiful woman to 
 his father's castle in Erin, where they both lived happily and well. 
 
 Mananaun.^ — Pampogue, daughter of Mananaun, loved Kaytuch, who was 
 slain; she took his body and sailed to an island, where every evening she saw 
 two men carry by a dead man, and in the morning three live men returned. 
 One of them explained to her: "When my father and mother were living, my 
 father was a king, and when he died, there came Fawgawns and Blue-men on 
 us, and banished us out of two islands; and we are on top of the third island 
 with them, and as many of them as we kill are ahve to fight us again in the 
 morning; and every day they kill one of us, and we bring him to life again 
 with the healing water." They healed Kaytuch. 
 
 Next morning he asked where the battlefield was, and the young men said: 
 "If you were a good champion, you would have searched the place, and you 
 would know in what place they give battle." Angrily he strode off alone. 
 "He did not go far when he saw the blackness of the hill with people coming 
 toward him." He slew all; and "stretched himself among the dead to see 
 
 ' A variant of this tale, substituting something else for the part we are interested in, occurs 
 in Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 376-83. A second variant in Campbell's Fians, pp. 
 225-32, has no balm and no battle.
 
 64 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 who else was coming." An old man and an old woman approached, Slaughter 
 and Hag of Slaughter. They "threw a dash" on the dead, who rose up like 
 midges. Kaytuch slew the revived, then the old couple. Next came the tall, 
 toothless, rusty Hag of the Church. He tried in several ways to kill her and 
 failed; at the advice of a bird, he jumped on her shoulders and pulled her head 
 off. Then he had to slay the Lamb of Luck, and the Cat of Hoorebrike. But 
 the Cat slew Kaytuch too. 
 
 The three men (who were brothers) sought Kaytuch, and revived him with 
 the healing water. He restored their realm, and departed to Erin. 
 
 Fourth Group 
 
 Birth oj Fin MacCumhail. — [In general outline, but not in detail. Fin's 
 early life here is similar to Perceval's life in the forest; of. p. 4, n. 3, and chap, 
 i, supra.] .... Fin slew three giants. Then came their mother, a Hag who 
 had a "vial of liquid with which she could bring the sons to life." The battle 
 against the giants, one after the other, had been at night; at midnight the Hag 
 arrived, and Fin, though greatly weakened from loss of blood, sprang up into 
 the air, and swept the bottle from her grasp, which, falling to the ground, was 
 emptied. Fin and the Hag had a fearful battle, but just as dayhght was com- 
 ing, he swept her head off. Then he cured his wounds with her blood (J. 
 Curtin, Myths, etc., 204-20). 
 
 Lawn Dyarrig (a variant of Red Sh). — Lawn Dyarrig was the despised 
 youngest of the King's three sons. The King's teeth were knocked out; and 
 the three sons started oft' to avenge the insult. Lawn Dyarrig being mocked 
 by his two brothers. 
 
 They came to a house, and a woman sheltered them over night, befriending 
 Lawn Dyarrig (the hero), and giving him a sword and a magic horse. The 
 hero took his brothers up behind him, the steed traveled marvelously, and 
 when it stopped in the Eastern World, they ahghted. The hero, following the 
 woman's instructions, cut the sod from under the steed's foot, and the Terrible 
 Valley was under them. The horse was loosed and sent home; and the 
 brothers made ropes and a basket. Then, after each of the older brothers 
 had descended a short way and been frightened back, the hero was let down 
 through the hole. 
 
 Lawn Dyarrig slew seven hundred heroes guarding the country. Next 
 he came to a spring, and lay down and slept. A lady learned through her 
 maid of his presence, knew [by magic or prophecy] that it was Lawn Dyarrig, 
 ran to him, kissed him, and took him to the castle of the Green Knight. 
 
 The Knight returned home and sent three hundred heroes to bring the 
 heart of the hero to him. The hero slew them, and a second three hundred. 
 Next three hundred savage hirehngs were sent; but hfe took one by the ankles 
 and slew all the rest with him, wearing him down to a pair of shin bones. He 
 then went from his room to where the Knight was at dinner, took the dinner and
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 65 
 
 the lady for himself, and then took the lady to his room and spent the night. 
 Next morning he and the Knight fought, and, following the lady's instructions, 
 he won the battle. The hero and the lady spent a second night "very com- 
 fortably." Next morning they rose early and collected all the gold, utensils, 
 and treasures. He found the three teeth of his father in a pocket of the Green 
 Knight and took them. He and the lady carried all the riches to where the 
 basket was. "If I send up this beautiful lady," thought he, "she may be 
 taken from me by my brothers; if I remain below with her she may be taken 
 from me by the people here." 
 
 He put her in the basket. She gave him a ring so that they might know 
 each other if they met. He shook the gad [rope], and she rose in the basket. 
 The brothers ran off with the lady ; and on the way the oldest found the head 
 of an old horse with teeth in it; he took them home and tried to put them in 
 his father's head, but his father stopped him. 
 
 The hero went farther in the Valley, met and overcame Shortclothes, 
 but was put under spells to go to the northeast point of the world to bring " the 
 heart and liver of the serpent which is seven years asleep and seven years 
 awake."' He accomplished that adventure. Then he secured a horse that 
 brought him to Erin just when his oldest brother was about to marry his lady. 
 Lawn Dyarrig dropped his ring into a cup of wine, and the lady saw it and 
 knew him. The King's teeth were replaced. The lady gave the queen a 
 magic girdle which forced her to acknowledge that her two older sons were 
 bastards and that Lawn Dyarrig was her only son by the King. Of course, 
 Lawn Dyarrig then secured half the kingdom. And his two older brothers 
 became his servants. 
 
 A reading of the foregoing summaries shows that while there is a 
 considerable latitude of presentation, there is evidently much the 
 same story at the basis of all the accounts. The first group contains 
 the Insult (or equivalent) , First Meeting with Relatives (or Young 
 Men), the Hag Battle, Second Meeting with Relatives, and the 
 Insulter's Death. The second group contains the Insult, the 
 Insulter's Death (or punishment), the Hag (with or without a 
 Battle), and the Meeting with Relatives. The third group con- 
 tains the First Meeting with Relatives (or Three Young Men), 
 the Hag Battle, and the Second Meeting with Relatives. And in 
 the fourth group, the Birth of Fin presents only the Hag Battle; 
 while Lawn Dyarrig carries the shell of the Red Sh tale, but omits 
 the Meeting with Relatives (or Young Men) and the Battle, sub- 
 stituting other incidents for them that are not variants of them. 
 
 ' A serpent appears in Pd, 269, 277-78.
 
 66 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Since the two incidents of the Insult and the Insulter's Death 
 appear in all five of our Perceval tales {SP, C and G, W, and Pd), 
 it will not be necessary to stop here to consider whether they were 
 integral parts of the original story that told of the hero's rescue of 
 the Young Men from the persecution of the Hag or not. Red Sh 
 reproduces pretty nearly what must have been the prototype of 
 this portion of the Perceval tale. 
 
 The following paragraphs are an argument to show that the 
 source of this part of SP, C, W, Pd{a), Pd(b), and G was a story in 
 which appeared, besides some minor ones, five main incidents: 
 the Insult, the First Meeting with Relatives, the Battle against 
 the Hag's Host, the Second Meeting with Relatives, and the 
 Insulter's Death. Material for the first and last incidents is not 
 plentiful nor decisive as to shape; for the three others it is both 
 abundant and decisive. 
 
 An incident in which a king is insulted is not of uncommon 
 occurrence. Analyzed as it appears in the group of tales summarized 
 above and in still other tales, it occurs in at least three types. And 
 a slight alteration on the part of the narrator could change it from 
 one type to another. 
 
 In the first type a magician (perhaps in the form of a knight, 
 perhaps not) comes to court and insults the king, and a despised 
 youth becomes the hero of the hour by overthrowing him. This 
 form of insult appears in Red Sh and Ransom. It is possible that 
 originally the magician just came, and it was left for the inquisitive 
 minds of later ages of story-telling to inquire why he came. This 
 type presumes a countergif t of magic : the hero is clearly stated to 
 possess this in the Tent Lady's ring in SP (11. 1857-64; 1894-96), 
 the Empress' stone in Pd{b), the stone of victory in Red Sh 
 variant d (p. 491), in the solution of the magician's own riddle in 
 Red Sh (p. 466), and in the advice of the eagle in Red Sh variant a 
 
 (p- 485). 
 
 In the second type a person, a magician most likely, appears at 
 court and dares the king or one of his courtiers to attempt some 
 feat which, of course, can be achieved only by the hero, who is 
 then acknowledged best of knights (or men). Again the hero 
 probably possesses a countergif t of magic. Sir Gawain and the
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 67 
 
 Green Knight represents this type. It appears, too, in Champion of 
 the Red Belt. A magician bespells the Champion's brother, and 
 the spell can be removed only by the healing water, which, in turn, 
 can be procured only by the hero. It appears, probably, too, in 
 the incident in Pd{b) : the Black Man, bearing a goblet, enters the 
 court of the Empress and requests her to hand the goblet only to 
 him who is willing to fight the bearer. Since Pd is in many places 
 rather a bundle of notes than an elaborated tale, it is not leaving 
 certainties far behind to surmise that in the original state the Black 
 Man bore a goblet from which only the destined hero could drink, 
 say, without spilling the contents or without passing under a spell. ^ 
 Tyolet and the Beautiful Unknown tales lean toward this type, 
 though they substitute a lady's plea for aid in the place of the 
 "insult." The death of the magician was not necessary, but it 
 might occur. 
 
 In the third type a knight considers as his own certain lands 
 now ruled by the king, and defies the king to test his claim by 
 combat. This type, in a simple form, is found in the Wedding 
 of Sir Gawain and the Awntyrs of Arthur at the Tarn Waddling 
 (sts. 33 fif.). 
 
 SP and Pd{a) (or their sources) combined the second type with 
 the first to form the incident in their accounts of the Red Knight: 
 C (W following) adapted its incident to fit the third type, but 
 retained remnants of the second. The incident used by all the 
 four versions doubtless belonged, in its earlier form, to the first 
 type, or to the first and second combined; and the result in C is 
 due to the impulse to refine. When Crestien, or his source, pruned 
 away from the Perceval plot the magicaP elements (here as else- 
 where), the insulting portion of the Red Knight's activities was 
 left motiveless. Motivation and refinement were both secured 
 by the substitution of the land claimant of the third type for the 
 
   Cf. confirmatory similarities in the tests in Fool (the Gruagach's cup), Le manteau mal 
 tailU, Gawain and the Green Knight, etc. In C and W it is the spilling of wine on the Queen 
 that is especially distressing. 
 
 ' Magic disappeared everywhere except in the Grail adventures. So completely has 
 magic disappeared from the Perceval parts that it seems to me that there must have been 
 conscious excision. In the Gawain plot (or subplot) of the later portion of the poem magic is 
 still to be found. Cf. comment, p. 127, infra.
 
 68 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 repugnant insulter of the first ; and then any remnants of roughness 
 were to be explained, as Wolfram's Red Knight does explain them, 
 as "accidents." After planning for these changes and for an indi- 
 rect narrative of the Knight's visit to court, Crestien (or his source) 
 had still to provide an adequate explanation of Perceval's willing- 
 ness to fight the Red Knight ; so Perceval was made to see him before 
 reaching court, and since he was one of the few knights Perceval 
 had ever seen and was presumably the most beautifully dressed 
 (and cf. here the comments and notes on p. 45, supra), the hero 
 desired to possess his accouterments and was shortly afterward 
 spurred on to a willingness to do battle for them. Possibly in the 
 source a desire for the red armor was expressed; such almost 
 happens in Red Sh. 
 
 The Relatives were met twice^ in the early form of the story, but, 
 for the sake of economy, both meetings may be commented on at 
 the same time. The first meeting, or visit, occurred before the 
 battle against the Hag's host, and the second after the Hag had 
 been slain. Both appear in the fuller versions of the incident, such 
 as Red Sh and G. In SP only one visit appears, but the account 
 shows a confusion of the two visits of the completer versions: 
 Perceval met his kinsmen after he had slain the Witch, but he went 
 from them to fight a battle the account of which manifests contami- 
 nation from that of the battle against the hosts of the Hag. The 
 visit in C, W, Pd{a) is the second only. 
 
 The Relatives appear in several variant forms. Sometimes it 
 is only an Uncle whom the hero assists against his foes, as in Manus; 
 sometimes only Three Young Men who are not related to him, as 
 in Pd{h) ; frequently it is Three Young Men who are kin to him, 
 as in Red Sh, though in Red Sh the hero's foster father also is 
 mentioned; in Conall the Uncle appears, but the hero's father and 
 two brothers are substituted for the Three Young Men. The 
 form of the story that entered into the making of the Perceval tale 
 pretty certainly had both the Uncle and the Three Young Men 
 (the Uncle's sons). For the presence of the Uncle we have the 
 
 ' There may, indeed, have been three meetings, the third being after the Insulter's death; 
 such a third meeting occurs, e.g., in Ransom.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 69 
 
 testimony of SP,^ Conall, Faolan, Manus, Red Sk variant d, and 
 the mention of the foster father in Red Sk; and in Pd{a) Perceval's 
 Uncle appears.^ The Relative visited by the hero in C, W, and G 
 is said to be the Uncle of the heroine: in reality he is the same 
 character — it is only the kinship that has been shifted; if this is 
 not sufficiently proved by SP, Pd{a), and especially G, still other 
 evidence is offered by W, as will be seen when presently we take 
 up the woman in the case. 
 
 The Three Young Men are a fairly stable factor, appearing in a 
 large proportion of versions. (As a general thing, when an account 
 has changed or omitted them, it has given the hero three antago- 
 nists — giants or monsters — -as a sort of substitute.) Not to multiply 
 examples, the Young Men appear clearest perhaps in Red Sk. 
 Pd{h) has the Three, too. Most noticeable among the departures 
 from the number three are the statements that there were four in 
 G and Faolan, for which variation I have no explanation to offer; 
 and that there were nine in SP and Kil Arthur, though the latter 
 goes on to add eight more to the nine, always, however, keeping 
 the seventeen separated into the two groups of nine and eight. But 
 even SP offers a strong piece of evidence that the number was three : 
 one of the points in the story is that when the hero offers to fight 
 the battle for his Relatives, he must, because of a spell or for some 
 such reason, fight unassisted; the spell is mentioned in Red Sk, and 
 is implied in Pd{b), G, Mananaun, etc.; now, in SP, when Perceval 
 is leaving his Uncle's home, tkree of his nine cousins beg permission 
 to accompany him, and start along, but very shortly they are sent 
 back without any apparent reason whatever, and the battle that 
 Perceval was going to, as will appear in chapter IV, was in part the 
 battle against the Hag's host; the account of the spell on the Three 
 Young Men has fallen out of SP, but its effect remains. 
 
 The Three Young Men do not appear in C. Gornemans is not 
 said to have any sons at all, though his two pages are mentioned. 
 
 ' The fact that SP makes the hero's mother sister to Arthur rose through the influence of 
 this story in some way, I think. Cf. similarities in Manus, Conall, etc. 
 
 ' In Williams' Y Seinl Greal (passim, esp. pp. 276, 716) Perceval has an Uncle who is 
 master of the black art and who is probably his enemy (cf. Faolati); he is called King of the 
 Dead Castle; cf. Rhys, Arth. Leg., 118, 273 5. The Huth Merlin makes this(?) character its 
 Garlan, or Gallan, and in Malory he is Garlon in the Balyn story.
 
 70 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 In Pd{a) his equivalent has two sons — an unusual disregard of the 
 Welshman's conventional love of the number three. W, however, 
 dwells on the fact that the Uncle (Gurnemanz) has had three sons, 
 though none were living at the time of Parzival's visit; and one 
 of these sons at least had lost his life, shortly before the visit of the 
 hero, in the long contest that the hero was to bring to an end (the 
 element of the revivifying Magic Balm had dropped out of W or 
 its source). The shifting of the kinship, making Gornemans uncle 
 of the heroine instead of uncle of the hero, that appears in C and W, 
 is, I think, a paradoxical reflex of the influence of an early form of 
 the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story : in the early form the hero left 
 his Relatives and went to fight their battle ; after the disappearance 
 from C (or its source) of the Young Men and their battle (for the 
 battle was essentially theirs, not the Uncle's), the next battle 
 Perceval fought was in behalf of the heroine ; the kinship then was 
 shifted, and the hero went to fight the battle of the Uncle's niece 
 instead of the Uncle's sons.^ The shift was the more easily made, 
 furthermore, because of the part played by women in this story. 
 
 Among the Relatives and assistants two Women appear; i.e., 
 some versions, as Pd{h) and Hookedy-Crookedy, have two Women; 
 some, as Red Sh and Kil Arthur, have only one. The first of the 
 two is the Sister of the Young Men, and she appears in most versions. 
 As Sister of the Young Men, she is, of course, in many cases foster 
 sister to the hero. In the conclusion of the story she usually 
 becomes the hero's wife; such is the case, e.g., in Red Sh, Lawn 
 Dyarrig, Hookedy-Crookedy, Dough, and Kil Arthur. She is offered 
 to the hero in marriage by the Three Young Men in Pd{h), but is 
 refused. W descends from a similar source; the Uncle, Gurne- 
 manz (the Three Young Men, his sons, are dead), offers his daughter 
 Liaze in marriage to Parzival, but she is refused. Wolfram, then, 
 did not invent Liaze; she was an integral part of his source. The 
 Second Lady had supernatural knowledge and magical possessions. 
 
 ' In C, W, and Pd{a) the function of teacher is attributed to the Uncle. How to account 
 for this addition I do not see. In Pd the real teachers are the Nine- Sorceresses of Gloucester 
 (has the nine here any connection with the nine of the nine cousins in SP?), and previous 
 students have intimated that this incident in Pd may be due to the influence of the Cuchulain 
 tale; the influence of the Cuchulain tale pretty certainly appears in one of the Witch-Uncle 
 stories summarized above; cf. the age and fury of Fialan in Fear Dubh, pp. 58-50.
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 7 1 
 
 She appears in Lawn Dyarrig, Hookedy-Crookedy, and Dough, and 
 best in Pd{b), where she is called "Empress of Cristinobyl." She 
 meets the hero before he goes to battle, recognizes him, knows all 
 about his business, and gives him a magical gift without which he 
 could not succeed in his adventures. Some versions seem to com- 
 bine the two Women in one, in which case the Sister of the Young 
 Men appears before the hero twice. In Red Sh the hero meets 
 (only once) a beautiful woman soon after he enters the island; he 
 takes her to the ship, and his treacherous companions makeoflf 
 with her; she gives him no gifts, but she is the sister of the Young 
 Men, whom the hero meets shortly afterward; in variants of Red 
 Sh the magical gifts appear. A similar first meeting occurs in 
 Ransom, when the hero meets the lady with the dog; the magic 
 seems here to reside in the dog. But Lawn Dyarrig is patently a 
 variant of Red Sh; and in it the hero meets first a Lady who gives 
 him magical gifts, and meets later the Sister (daughter of the pre- 
 ceding), a different person. I think Pd{b) is the only version in 
 which the hero is said to marry the Second Lady, though in Conall 
 his wife is perhaps her equivalent. When the hero first meets the 
 woman in Red Sh (she is there the Sister of the Young Men and 
 consequently foster sister to the hero), she is holding in her lap the 
 head of a dead warrior.^ An incident of this sort in the early form 
 of the story is the source from which came the giermaine cosine 
 of C, Sigune^ of W, and the foster sister of Pd{a). Perceval met 
 the giermaine cosine immediately after he left the Grail castle and 
 while he was still in supernatural territory (no one lived anywhere 
 near), found her embracing the corpse of a knight, was recognized, 
 almost or quite supernaturally, by her (cf. the recognition in, say, 
 Faolan), and received from her information and prophecy concern- 
 ing his affairs (cf. the information and prophecy of the Empress 
 in Pd and the woman in Lawn Dyarrig and Faolan) . In W Sigune 
 
 ' In Mananaun the heroine watches over the dead body of the hero until she secures the 
 healing water to revive him; in Conall the hero lies down to sleep with his head in the heroine's 
 lap and cannot be roused till the time of his "hero's sleep" is past; in SP the hero Ues down to 
 take a nap with his head in the lap of the Tent Lady, but her husband arrives before he falls 
 asleep {vide chap. v). Something of this nature appears to have been a part of the story. 
 
 ' Golther {op. cit., 204-5) considered SP's Tent Lady of the second meeting a combination 
 of Sigune and Jeschute.
 
 72 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 appeared to Parzival twice, first after his \dsit to the Tent and before 
 he reached court, and secondly after the visit at the Grail castle; 
 the first visit is probably not a mere intercalation of Wolfram's, 
 but is an inheritance/ 
 
 Before the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story entered into the mak- 
 ing of the Perceval tale, the hero's marriage with the heroine 
 (Lufamour-Blancheflur-Condwiramur) had been established. He 
 could not be granted two marriages; and so in C, W, and G the 
 difiiculty was solved by making the heroine the niece of the Uncle — 
 she took over so much of the function of the Sister of the Young 
 Men ; and I think it highly probable that both W and G drew from 
 C the idea of making the heroine the niece of Gornemans. 
 
 The Witch incident — with its battle against hosts, the excessively 
 ugly appearance of the Hag, and its revivifying balm — appears as a 
 pretty consistent factor, and retains its form rather more commonly 
 than the incident of the Relatives; but even it occurs in variant 
 shapes. The usual shape includes the battle against hosts (and the 
 death of the Hag's son), the hero's sleep upon the battlefield, the 
 midnight appearance of the Hag with her balm, and her death. The 
 best versions of the incident in this type are in Red Sh, G, and Ran- 
 som. In general if the Hag had a son (or sons), he was probably 
 thought of as a magician or a giant, as in Birth of Fin.^ A variant 
 of the incident was produced by the substitution of monsters for 
 the Hag and her progeny. The incident in this type occurs in Red 
 Sh variants and Big Men; sometimes there was just a single monster, 
 as in Fionn and Bran. Pd{h), with its "Addanc," belongs to this 
 type. The evolution of variants is, I think, easily to be accounted 
 for: if, e.g., the number of sons of the Hag or the number of battles 
 was changed to three, the alteration sprang from the tale-teller's 
 feeling for symmetry — he sought to balance this portion of the 
 incident against the threefoldness of the Three Young Men. In 
 Hookedy there is the threefold battle without the Hag or her sons; 
 
 ' The significance of the meeting and also the apparent absence of both Women from this 
 section of SP will be conmiented on in the Conclusion. Sigune's mother was made sister of 
 Herzeloyde to account for the kinship that had been set up long before. 
 
 ' G, which has neither the Insult nor the son of the Hag, makes the Hag herself subject 
 to a vague "King of the Waste City"; in Pd{b), where several items appear inverted, the father 
 of the Three Young Men is the "King of Tortures."
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 73 
 
 the enemy to be overthrown is an Insulter of the Land-Claimant 
 type, leading three armies, one after the other. Usually the Magic 
 Balm appears only as a possession of the Hag; in several versions 
 it is duplicated, is a possession of the Hag and of the Three Young 
 Men too, as in Conall (244), Mananaun, etc.; in Pd{b) it appears 
 only in the keeping of the Three Young Men. In the more nearly 
 complete form of the incident the Hag's son is not the Insulter. 
 In SP the two persons have been combined; in C, W, Pd{a), and G, 
 indications are too slight to enable us to decide. The whole of the 
 Witch incident is wanting in C, W, and Pd{a) ; SP has a very ema- 
 ciated form of it, touching the fuller versions at six points: (i) a 
 Witch (2) has a son, (3) is able to revive the dead, (4) is enemy to 
 the hero's friends (Relatives), (5) and is slain, (6) with her own 
 son's spear; the battle against the Hag's host seems to have dropped 
 out, yet it has not dropped so far but that we shall find some of it 
 later.' One other point: though the Hag's host (with its battle), 
 her midnight advent, and her supernatural powers have all dis- 
 appeared from C, her distressingly ugly personal appearance has 
 remained as a heritage to the Grail Messenger (C, 5981 ff.) and to 
 her counterparts in W and Pd. Wauchier, also, has a hideous hag 
 (25380-410). 
 
 Death to the Insulter is the punishment for the Insult meted 
 out in most of the tales, but not in all; in Conall he is merely "con- 
 verted" — overthrown and added to the hero's retinue as a traveling 
 companion. After telling of his death, most of the tales are silent 
 as to the disposition made of his body; it is simply left lying where 
 it has fallen; such is the case in Red Sh, Pd{a), W, C, etc. But in 
 G, which was intended to provide an end for the unfinished C, the 
 Red Knight's corpse was placed in an ivory coffer (we are not told 
 by whom), drawn on a barge by a swan back to the Knight's castle, 
 and preserved there ten years by the Knight's four sons. Only the 
 best of knights (the slayer) could open the casket, and the sons 
 knew not its contents. Perceval, entertained at the castle, was 
 bidden try to open the casket, and he succeeded; when the corpse 
 was seen, the sons felt they must avenge the Knight's death; and 
 an encounter by night and by day ensued {Library, 81 ff.). In 
 SP and, apparently, in C's source the Knight's body was thrown
 
 74 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 on a fire and burned. In SP, moreover, the hero burns in the same 
 fire the body of the Witch. The latter point Nutt thinks must have 
 been in the sources; after quoting two verses from G (see p. 50, 
 supra), he adds a footnote: "I cannot but think that these words 
 have connection with the incident in the Enghsh Sir Perceval of 
 the hero's throwing into the flames and thus destroying his Witch 
 enemy." So far I have discovered nothing in the sources to war- 
 rant the connection of a burning of the body by the hero with the 
 Witch incident; and so I am incKned to think the burning was 
 borrowed from the Knight's fate. As to the source of 5P's point 
 of the burning of the Knight's body, I have little to suggest. Pos- 
 sibly it arose, after the Perceval tale was put together, to account 
 for the Witch's failure to use her Balm upon the body, beside whose 
 ashes she had stood (see summary of SP). Perhaps there is some 
 connection between it and such an incident as the burning of the 
 giant's head in Kil Arthur, which looks Kke a garbled transforma- 
 tion scene; there is no transformation in SP; there are two of 
 them in Faolan, but no burning.^ After the Insulter has been slain, 
 we are told in several tales that he is related to the hero's friends 
 or to the hero himself; thus in Red Sh and Ransom he is foster 
 brother or only brother to the father of the Three Young Men; 
 uncle (or "foster uncle"), then, to the hero (cf. the bespelled Uncle 
 m. Faolan). Some such version as a source accounts for Wolfram's 
 
 ' In this footnote I venture to summarize part of a tale which has few if any connections 
 with the tales I have summarized above, but which has a burning incident just here: 
 
 The Bare-stripping Hangman. — [There are many incidents, among them several using a 
 magic balm; at the end this — ] Alastir, the hero, had now finished all he had to do. He there- 
 fore returned the way he came, taking with him the King's three daughters he had rescued. 
 They reached the castle of the Great Giant of Ben Breck, and found the Giant stretched dead 
 on the floor. Alastir seized the Giant's Great Sword, smote off his head and his feet as far as 
 
 the knees, tied them up, and took them with him The King looked from his window, 
 
 and saw Alastir coming with the three women, and the Giant's head and feet over his 
 
 shoulder The King inquired what he was going to do with the head and feet. Alastir 
 
 replied: "Before I eat food or take a drink, thou shalt see that." He gathered fuel, made a 
 large, hot fire, and threw the head and feet into the midst of the flame. As soon as the hair 
 of the head was singed and the skin of the feet burnt, the very handsomest young man they 
 ever beheld sprang out of the fire. The King cried: "Oh, the son of my father and mother 
 
 who was stolen in his childhood!" and he embraced him And all went into the castle. 
 
 [The giant had stolen the King's three daughters. There is no explanation of the young man's 
 enchantment, or of why he had stolen his nieces. But, perhaps, the explanation is not diflScult 
 to suggest.] (MacDougall, "Folk and Hero Tales of Argyllshire," Waifs and Strays of Celtic 
 Tradition, Wl, 76-112, esp. iio-ii.)
 
 THE RED KNIGHT- WITCH-UNCLE STORY 75 
 
 exaltation of Ither, the Red Knight. Ither is nephew of Uther 
 Pendragon, best of knights, and near kinsman to Parzival. With 
 the friendship between Ither and Gahmuret, pointed out in chap- 
 ter, I, cf, the friendship between the Insulter and the hero in 
 Conall; that between Etlym, a very red knight, and Peredur in 
 Pd{h) ; and cf . the study of Gahmuret in chapter IV. 
 
 A brief recapitulation will throw some light on source and 
 chronology. 
 
 C, not possessing them, cannot have been the source of the Three 
 Young Men, the Witch, the Enmity between the Young Men and 
 the Witch, nor the Magic Balm. Yet these are widely and closely 
 associated with the Insulting (or Red) Knight and the Uncle. 
 
 W possesses more items, but not enough to have served as a 
 source for the later( ?) versions. 
 
 G, next in age, cannot have been the source, since it wants( ?) 
 the Witch's son and omits the incident of the Insult. Moreover, 
 Gerbert did not invent either {a) the Magic Balm, for that appears 
 in Fierahras^ {ca. a.d. 1170); or (b) extremely ugly carlins; cf., 
 for one, the Loathly Damsel of C, 5981 £f. He was left then only 
 the combination of the two and the enmity between the Witch and 
 Perceval's friend. G is now found in only two MSS, and appears 
 never to have been very widely known. That G should have been 
 the starting-place for the widely current Carlin and her balm, and 
 that SP's source drew upon G for the two matters and dislocated 
 the C tale, in order to insert them, is not believable; and even if 
 G could thus account for SP, still Red Sh, Pd{b), Conall, and the 
 other versions would be left unaccounted for. 
 
 Neither Pd nor SP, because of their date of composition and 
 because of their paucity of material, can have been the source. 
 
 There never was, I believe, any single MS source, yet common 
 source there was; for the interpretation of "common source" the 
 reader is referred to the Conclusion, infra. 
 
 The Red Knight-Witch-Uncle "story" pretty certainly had a 
 separate existence. The evidence of the tales summarized shows 
 
 ' Cf. my note 6n the Balm in Mod. Lang. Notes, April, 1910.
 
 76 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 that the incidents of this story were not attributed only to Perceval, 
 that they were not associated with a hero of any one particular 
 name, and that the story freely occurred without having prefixed 
 to it those incidents that precede it in the Perceval tale. Some of 
 the tales lead us to believe that the four incidents in the story, 
 with a fifth, the hero's marriage, added, constituted much the larger 
 part of the action, or plot; i.e., that with slight changes the story 
 could, and did, stand by itself as an entity, as a "tale," examples 
 being Red Sh, Ransom, etc. 
 
 And the story was taken up bodily and incorporated, with such 
 filing and dovetailing as was necessary, into a frame-tale, the result 
 being the Perceval tale. The dovetailing and the soldering at the 
 joints are still discernible. In a general way, the frame-tale was 
 this : a lad reared in a forest by his widowed mother heard of knightly 
 life, went to court, and was given the adventure of rescuing a lady, 
 whereby he won for himself a wife, a kingdom, and much fame. 
 The incorporated tale or story ran thus : a youth despised at court 
 went with others to avenge an insult to the king, was the only one 
 to succeed, and restored the king's loss, having meantime passed 
 through adventures by which he won a beautiful wife, fame, and 
 honor at court. The frame-tale is represented approximately by 
 Fool and Card; the incorporated story, though perhaps over- 
 elaborately, by Red Sh. The modern folk-tales show how easy 
 and common such an evolution was. Ample warrant for believing 
 in such a process of incorporation lies in Pd; for Pd{h) is just the 
 story (in a variant form and slightly amplified) inserted bodily 
 and without attempt at dovetailing into Pd{a), the frame-tale. 
 Indeed, Pd is most remarkable. It is a repeater. In the first 
 place, Pd{a), like SP, C, and W, is the result of the incorporation 
 of the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story into a frame-tale ; and in the 
 second place, Pd{a), acting as a frame-tale, has reincorporated into 
 itself the same story, Pd{b), in a variant form. SP affords us a 
 glimpse of the solder, indicating what incident of the enveloping 
 tale perished from C, W, and Pd{a) after its service as a nexus for 
 the incorporated story. The messenger who, in SP, finds Perceval 
 at his Uncle's hall, does not appear in C (where logical connection 
 between events has been rejected) ; and he is not more indispensable
 
 THE RED KNIGHT-WITCH-UNCLE STORY 77 
 
 in SP than in C. But the romance norm was for a messenger to 
 come before the king to request aid;^ the king then assigned the 
 adventure to one of his knights. The frame-tale was doubtless 
 of this type, and it was the appearance of this messenger before 
 the king that gave way to the appearance of the knight who 
 insulted Arthur. Again, at the end of the incorporated story the 
 solder shows; in SP the hero instead of giving aid to his Cousins, 
 who do not need it, goes to the aid of the Besieged Lady; his send- 
 ing the Three Young Men back home is another piece; in C still 
 another bit of solder appears in the transference of the Uncle's 
 kinship from the hero to the heroine; in W we have the appear- 
 ance of Liaze and the death of one of her three brothers (the Three 
 Young Men) in defending the Besieged Lady. 
 
 The discussion of the Battle against the Hag's host is continued 
 in the next chapter. And in the Conclusion we shall see what are 
 the results if we deduct the incorporated portions from the Perceval 
 tale and compare the remainder (the frame-tale) with tales of other 
 heroes. 
 
 ' The reader will easily recall examples: the Beautiful-Unknown group; Malory's "Gar- 
 eth"; the Loathly Damsel in C, Cundrie in JT; Manessier, 45183 £F.; Potvin, I, 185, etc. Cf., 
 further, A. C. L. Brown, "The Knight of the Lion," Pub. Mod. Lang. Assn., XX, p. 677, n. i.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 
 
 ("the saeacen influence") 
 
 Fourteenth Incident: The Messenger at Court 
 
 I. SP, 1057-1124. 
 II. Pd, 256. 
 
 III. C, 3885-4087, 5376-5539; W, IV, 803-31, 1147-1287; V, 1503— 
 VI, 38. 
 
 Fifteenth Incident: The First Battle 
 
 A. The Arrival at the Castle 
 
 I. SP, 1125-44. 
 
 II. C, 2891-2926; W, IV, 1-106; Pd, 256. 
 
 B. The Fighting 
 
 I. SP, 1145-1212. 
 
 II. Pd, 258-59. 
 
 III. C, 3330-3529; W, IV, 500-602. 
 
 Sixteenth Incident: The Hero Enters the Besieged Castle 
 
 I. SP, 1213-1340. 
 II. C, 2927-3329; W, IV, 107-499; Pd, 256-58. 
 
 Seventeenth Incident: The Second Battle 
 
 I. SP, 1341-80. 
 II. Pd, 259. 
 III. C, 3530-3768; W, IV, 603-880. 
 
 [Eighteenth Incident: Perceval and Gawain Encounter 
 
 I. SP, 1381-1524. 
 
 IL Pr,Xm, i52S-XIV,432- 
 C, Pd, wanting.] 
 
 [Nineteenth Incident: King Arthur Entertained in the Lady's Castle 
 
 I. SP, 1525-1608. 
 
 C, W, Pd, wanting.] 
 
 Twentieth Incident: The Third Battle 
 
 L SP, 1609-1728. 
 
 II. Pd, 259-60. 
 
 III. C, 3769-3923; W, IV, 903-1092. 
 
 78
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 79 
 
 [Twenty-first Incident: The Hero Marries the Rescued L.\dy 
 
 I. SP, 1729-72; W, IV, 610-719; X\T, 374 fif.; G, 182 f., 189 ff., 210. 
 C, Pd, wanting.] 
 
 Twenty-second Incident: The Hero Leaves the Lady 
 
 L SP, 1773-1816. 
 II. C, 4088-4162; W, IV, 1 288-1338. 
 III. Pd, 261. 
 
 The Saracen Ineluence 
 
 SP, 973-1816; W, I, 452 — II, 79; Conall, 286-94; Saudan Og, 58-92; 
 Pd{b), 274, 278-81. 
 
 This chapter is devoted to the event of the rehef of a maiden 
 from the too-pressing suit of an unwelcome warrior. The hero 
 frees her, and, according to two of the versions that contain the 
 account, marries her; in the two other versions he either never 
 marries or marries someone else. 
 
 The account of SP includes, nominally, nine incidents, but 
 discussion of three of them will be postponed to the next chapter. 
 C will be summarized and compared with SP, as usual. W and 
 Pd do not manifest such variations from the account of C as to 
 make it necessary to summarize them. 
 
 Even those scholars who think that SP is dependent mainly or 
 largely on C, see that from this point forward the two accounts 
 diverge more and more. The first thing this chapter presents is a 
 statement of their similarities and their divergences. The second 
 is a presentation (at the risk of some repetition) of evidence that 
 this portion of the tale has suffered contamination from the Red 
 Knight-Witch-Uncle story. The third thing is a discussion of 
 what I may term loosely the Saracen Influence, in which I set 
 forth certain grounds for believing that there is consanguinity 
 between this portion of SP, Book I of W, and the concluding parts 
 of Conall. 
 
 The nine incidents of SP are as follows: 
 
 XIV. Perceval went from his Uncle's Hall to the relief of the Lady, and 
 the messenger continued to the court to secure the aid of the King. Arthur 
 first refused to go; but when the messenger mentioned Perceval, Arthur 
 became interested, and, calling three of his best knights, set out to overtake the
 
 8o SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 hero. XV. Perceval made his way to the castle, and in the night came unex- 
 pectedly upon the night army of the besiegers, all of whom he slew before day- 
 light, escaping himself unharmed. Then he lay down beside the castle (city ?) 
 wall and slept. XVI. Next morning the Lady found her enemies slain and 
 saw Perceval lying asleep. She sent her chamberlain to invite Perceval into 
 the castle. He went and was richly entertained. XVII. While all in the 
 castle were dining, a second army (the day army) almost captured the city. 
 Perceval armed himself, attacked them, and slew every one. XVIII. Glan- 
 cing around, Perceval observed four knights approaching. He supposed them 
 the Sowdane and his companions, and rode against them. They were really 
 Arthur and his knights. It fell to Gawain's lot to encounter Perceval. After 
 a short and sharp joust, the two recognized each other. XIX. The ELing 
 and his three knights were then entertained in Lufamour's castle. XX. 
 Next day the Sowdane came before the castle wall, offered defiance, and was 
 encountered and slain by Perceval. XXI. The hero married the Lady and 
 dwelt with her for a year. XXII. After that he departed to go in search of 
 his Mother.^ 
 
 The C account (2891-4162) goes thus: 
 
 ^ Perceval left the castle of Gornemans to go in search of his mother, and 
 came, a distance thence, quite accidentally to a castle. A knock at the castle 
 gate procured a night's lodging for him. ^ After a melancholy supper he was 
 shown to his bed, but at midnight he was roused by weeping and saw beside 
 him the Lady of the castle, who had come to seek his advice. She was in dis- 
 tress because her castle was besieged by Clamadex, who sought to marry her. 
 Her garrison could hold out only a day or two longer, weakened by fighting and 
 
 ' The Lady is in SP Lufamour, whose father, "erne" (uncle), and brothers (gSg-gi) have 
 been slain by the Sowdane, leaving her the only survivor of the family; in C Blancheflur (3593), 
 niece of Gornemans (3093), niece of other uncles, one of whom is "pious" (3103, etc.), and her 
 father has been slain by Guigrenons (3452-56) ; in W Condwiramur(s) (cf . Bartsch's note to Book 
 
 III, 1856, =" Coin de voire amors"), niece of Gurnemanz (daughter of his sister, IV, 315), 
 and niece of two holy men (Kyot and Manpfiljot, brothers of the Lady's father, Tampentiere, 
 
 IV, 219 £f., 327 ff.); in Pd nameless, but her father had had the best earldom in the realm; in 
 G niece of Gurnemans (Potvin, VI, 191). In SF (1339, 1560, etc.) and W (IV, 283) she is 
 a queen. InCa brother (frere giermain) of Gornemans has been slain by Guigrenons (3468-85); 
 in W, a son of Gurnemanz (Schentaflur, IV, 564-65). 
 
 The Besieger is in SP a Sowdane ( = Sultan), GoUerothirame; in C Clamadius (King of 
 the Isles) and Guigrenons (his seneschal) ; in W Clamide and Kingrun (his seneschal) ; in Pd 
 an earl (son of an earl) and two of his household officers. Perlesvaus has a knight Clamados des 
 Onbres, son of the Red Knight (not the Red Knight [ ?] of SP, C, etc.) slain by Perceval before 
 he leaves the home forest (Potvin, I, 117 ff.). 
 
 In C the siege has lasted a winter and a summer (and now it is spring) . 
 
 The castle besieged is in SP in Maiden Land ( ? = Castle of Maidens, Edinburgh, Scot- 
 land); in C Beaurepaire; in W Pelrepeire, in the kingdom of Brobarz (IV, 35-36); in G Bel- 
 repaire. Cf. a Castle of Maidens in Wauchier (26866-67); in Fergus (see also "Introduction," 
 Martin's ed., p. xix.) In Bel Inconnu (5360), BI comes to the Castle of Maidens. Cf., also, 
 the Castle of Maidens in Pierre de Langtoft {Rerum Brit. Med. Aevi Scrip., I, 31); etc.
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 8 1 
 
 reduced to extremity by a rigorous famine. Perceval promised her aid, and 
 comforted her. ^ Next morning Perceval armed and rode to where Guingre- 
 nons' (seneschal of Clamadex) sat before his tent. After a battle in which the 
 seneschal was hurt, he — the seneschal — was forced to beg for mercy; he pleaded, 
 however, not to be sent to either Blancheflur or Gornemans, who would have 
 him put to death because of the harm he had done them. He was sent to 
 King Arthur. ^ Clamadex rejoining his army was surprised to learn of the 
 fate of Guingrenons. At the advice of an old knight, he stormed the castle 
 with his army, but was repulsed. Then he decided to starve the garrison, 
 but paroled prisoners soon told him the famine had been relieved by the arrival 
 of a ship loaded with provisions. If Clamadex sent to the castle to challenge 
 any champion to single combat. Perceval rode against him, and after a great 
 struggle forced him to promise, as the seneschal had done, to free his prisoners, 
 to go with a message to Arthur's court, and to cease annoying Blancheflur. 
 ^ Perceval tarried with Blancheflur for a short while. ^ Then remembering 
 his mother, he set off to find her, promising to return to Blancheflur whether 
 
 he found his mother alive or dead H [After several intervening incidents 
 
 have been recounted] the arrival and stories of the knights Perceval has 
 overthrown (Guingrenons, Clamadex, and Orguellous'') arouse Arthur to a 
 determination to go to seek Perceval (cf. 11. 5376-5539)- 
 
 Of the nine incidents of SP, six, more or less the same, appear 
 in C. These two versions and W and Pd are held together by two 
 fundamental agreements: the Lady to be rescued is besieged by 
 human beings who make no use of magic (in C, W, and Pd they are 
 knights of the normal sort, and in SP, though Saracens, they are 
 but slightly removed from such) ; and the rescue is secured by three 
 battles. 
 
 But even though in general outhne SP and C show agreements, 
 they also show marked differences in both substance and sequence 
 of events. Four of the most noticeable differences may be pointed 
 out. They are first stated here in a group, and later discussed 
 separately, (i) Three of the nine incidents do not occur in C 
 at all — the battle with Gawain, the entertainment of the King, 
 and the marriage to the Besieged Lady. Pd likewise lacks these 
 three incidents; W has the marriage, and at a much later place in 
 the tale the joust with Gawain, but not the entertainment of the 
 King. (2) In SP Arthur is roused to a determination to seek Perce- 
 
 ' The spelling of proper names varies in C. I have not attempted to make it uniform. 
 ' Orguellous is the Tent Lord, whose story comes later; cf. chap. v.
 
 82 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 val by the coming of Luf amour's messenger; in C (and W) he sets 
 out to seek the hero only after the arrival of the Besiegers, whom 
 Perceval has conquered and sent to court with messages. (3) 
 SP and C differ in the time (of day) and the nature of the first 
 battle. (4) The nature of the Besieger and his followers is different 
 in the two accounts. 
 
 1 . Of the three incidents not occurring in C two are reserved for 
 discussion in chapter V, infra, because they appear to be parts of a 
 story taken up there. The marriage between hero and heroine 
 shows only the more clearly what we have observed many times 
 already: the affinity between SP and W. In (the unfinished) 
 C Perceval does not marry the Besieged Lady; in SP, W, and G 
 he does. Concerning the offspring of the marriage SP is silent; 
 but W and G show agreements so substantial as to prove them taken 
 the one from the other or both from a common and almost immedi- 
 ate source. 
 
 2. The suggestion has been made by some students that 5P's 
 messenger^ is a reminiscence of the knights Perceval overthrows — 
 in other versions — and sends to Arthur. The first knights so to 
 be treated in C are the Besiegers; and it is because of their reports 
 of the hero's valorous deeds that the King wishes to add Perceval 
 to his household. The incident there is well motivated. But in 
 SP the motivation is bad enough to arouse suspicion; for Gawain 
 has reported Perceval's overthrow of the Red Knight, and the 
 messenger has no new evidence of the hero's prowess; yet King 
 Arthur leaves a sick-bed to go in search of him. The messenger 
 in SP is doubtless, as I have already stated, preserved from the 
 form of the tale as it was before the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story 
 
 ' In SP the King is at Bath when Lufamour's messenger arrives seeking his aid, which 
 Arthur, being sick, refuses; the messenger speaks of a knight, and when upon inquiry Arthur 
 learns that Perceval has started to the relief of the Lady, he rises, takes three knights with him, 
 and rides after Perceval. In C, after Perceval has relieved the Besieged Lady and reinstated 
 the Tent Lady (4865-5372, a later incident; cf. infra), the knights he has overthrown come to 
 court, at Carlion, with Perceval's messages; upon the arrival of the third (Li Orguellous, the 
 Tent Lord), Arthur is roused to seek Perceval. In W the account is much the same. In Pd 
 the hero overthrows eighteen knights before he comes near the Besieged Castle, and sends them 
 to court, whereupon Arthur determines to search all the island for him. 
 
 Carebedd {SP, io62)=Caer Badon, the City of Baths; cf. for one reference, Trevisa's 
 Higden, Polychronicon (Lond., Longmans Green & Co., i86g), p. 55, "Caerbadown, |)at is, 
 Bat)e
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 83 
 
 was incorporated. When the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story 
 was inserted, the appearance of the Red Knight replaced the arrival 
 of the messenger. In the Grail group the Lady's messenger disap- 
 peared altogether. This explanation leaves a seeming difficulty : 
 in the earlier form of the tale how did the King learn of the hero's 
 whereabouts ? But the difficulty is only a seeming one : in C the 
 news the King hears is that Perceval has succeeded in his adventure ; 
 and if we turn to Card, we find that Carduino sent a messenger to 
 court to announce his success in freeing the enchanted lady/ and 
 that in consequence Arthur sent an embassy to him. In SP, as 
 stated above, the motivation is bad; and the reason is that 5P's 
 messenger is in part a relic of the second messenger, who announced 
 success. In the earlier form of the tale doubtless the Besiegers were 
 all destroyed, as in SP and Card, and there were two messengers. 
 Under the refining hand of Crestien or his predecessor, the Besiegers 
 were made into fine knights, were preserved alive, and were sub- 
 stituted for the messenger of victory as envoys to court. Thus, 
 instead of 5P's messenger being a reminiscence of the conquered 
 knights of C, the latter are a reminiscence of a messenger whose 
 existence is but dimly hinted at in SP. The disappearance of the 
 second messenger from SP, or the more probable coalescence of the 
 two messengers, is due to the incorporation into the tale of another 
 story, which is to be considered in the next chapter. 
 
 3. In C, after Perceval has approached the Besieged Castle and 
 spent a night there without having seen a besieger, he goes out in 
 the morning after breakfast time, and does battle against Guigre- 
 nons ; and the two knights observe all the conventions of chivalry : 
 in SP the hero, approaching the castle for the first time, rides at 
 dusk unsuspectingly into the midst of the camp of the night army^ 
 of the besiegers, is challenged, lays about him with more than 
 
 ' The statement in Card (second canto, kvi-lxviii) is not made distinctly, but the implica- 
 tion is indubitable. 
 
 ' The Sowdane's army consists of twenty score men, eleven score to guard by night and 
 ten score {pace the arithmetician) by day; at present the Sowdane is away hunting {SP, 1133- 
 38). Crestien (3505-7, 3604-14) intimates — though none too clearly — that the besiegers 
 are in two armies. W, Uke SP, announces plainly that the besieging army is in two di\'isions 
 (IV, 731-36, 764-65). The whereabouts of SFs day army are not stated; it vanishes. The 
 phenomenon is perhaps due to the influence of the magic army of the other story, which, slain 
 by day, was revived by night and ready for battle ne.xt day.
 
 84 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 knightly vigor, slays eleven score men, and lies down to sleep till 
 daylight. The details are so different that, except in the broadest 
 outline, the two accounts are not comparable. Neither is drawn 
 from the other. The source of SP's account, however, is easy to 
 see.^ We have here contamination from the story of the preceding 
 chapter. It will be recalled that in the more nearly complete 
 form of the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story the hero, after he has 
 been entertained by his Relatives and heard the story of their 
 long-drawn-out battle, goes out alone to battle against their enemies 
 (forty in G, over a hundred in Red Sh, hosts in other tales), slays 
 them all, lies down by night to sleep on the battlefield, in the middle 
 of the night is roused by the Crone, whom he slays, and later is 
 found by his Relatives, who lead him to their home (hall, castle, 
 or city). Now compare the details in SP. In the Red Knight- 
 Witch-Uncle portion of the English tale, the hero meets and slays 
 the Witch in the daytime (the previous night's history is a mystery) 
 before he meets the Uncle, and in that portion SP presents no battle 
 against a host. Next he visits the home of the Uncle and the Young 
 Men, learns of a long-drawn-out contest (Lufamour's, told by her 
 messenger — a substitute for the Relatives', told by themselves), 
 sets off to assist, comes upon a host whom he slays in the night time, 
 lies down on the battlefield, and is later found by Hatlayne,^ who 
 leads him into the Lady's castle. SP, then, shows clearly the con- 
 tamination^ of one story with the other: but C is, I believe, not 
 without faint traces of it, very faint, yet sufficient to warrant us in 
 
 ' Various romances of the Arthur and of the Charlemagne cycles describe battles slightly 
 like that of SP. Guy of Warwick's deeds against the Saracens are as wonderful. The Great Fool, 
 in O'Daly's version, overthrows seven score guardians of a fair lady, and takes the lady away. 
 An accoimt approaching still nearer is that of the titular hero's battle at night against great 
 numbers in Sir Degrevant (1553 ff., Thornton Romances). Sowdanes and giants occur plenti- 
 fully in the Charlemagne cycle. But I have found in these tales no incidents especially like 
 those in SP. 
 
 'With Hatlayne (SP, 1261-64) cf. the Chastelayne of Morte Arthure (E.E.T.S., No. 8, 
 reprint, 1871), 11. 2952, 3028, and Branscheid's note in Anglia, VIII, Anzeiger, 215, n. 4. 
 
 ^ The contamination mentioned here does not indicate that SP's ancestor came twice into 
 contact with the early form of the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story. If any early form of the Per- 
 ceval tale contained sufficient material to supply both G and the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle portion 
 of SP, it contained an abundance for this battle. And the confusion that we perceive in the 
 Red Knight-Witch-Uncle portion of SP already is decreased rather than increased by this 
 fragment of it we find in another place.
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 85 
 
 thinking that SP and C drew this portion of themselves from a com- 
 mon parentage. The kinship has been transferred: Gornemans 
 is uncle to Blancheflur; and Guigrenons, explaining his refusal 
 (when Perceval has conquered him) to go as prisoner to Gornemans, 
 says he was at the death of Blanchefiur's father and was the slayer 
 of one of Gornemans' brothers ("freresgiermains") in this war (3452- 
 85). One is compelled to wonder if the "freres giermains" was not 
 really a remnant from the "foster brothers" of the hero in the Red 
 Knight-Witch-Uncle story. In C Gornemans is not (?) said to 
 have had sons, but in W he has had three, and Kingrun acknowledges 
 himself slayer of one of them (IV, 564-65, 1046-52). The long 
 duration of the contest waged by the foster brothers (G and Red Sh) 
 had a raison d'etre; the lengthiness of the siege of Blancheflur may 
 be a coincidence, but it is more likely that it is a reminiscence of the 
 long-drawn-out combat of the Relatives. Unfortunately, however, 
 the two forces that evidently were at work in C (or its source) — 
 the excision of magic and the refinement of rudeness — have left 
 little testimony as to source; the incident has been conventionalized. 
 
 The accounts of the second and third battles in SP and C are 
 rather more comparable than those of the first battle, but here SP 
 stands closer to W than to C. 
 
 4. The fourth difference between SP and C leads to a discussion 
 of the "Saracen influence." In SP the Besiegers are under a 
 single leader, the Sowdane (Sultan) Gollerothirame ;^ and his 
 followers are Saracens, arranged in two divisions, one to guard by 
 day, the other by night. In C there are two leaders, Clamadex 
 and his seneschal, Guigrenons; and their followers are ordinary 
 men of the country, who may be divided into two armies. (Cres- 
 tien's statement is not very clear; in W there is certainly the two- 
 fold division.) Although Clamadex is nominally the leader, Gui- 
 grenons seems to be the one who has played the important role 
 in the past and merely-hinted-at events. In Pd the WelsR con- 
 vention has developed three leaders, and the relief of the Lady 
 has become a three days' tournament. 
 
 ' Though not mentioned here, Gollerothirame's brother, a heathen giant, occurs later in 
 SP. See chap, v, infra. Whether the one-leader type of SP or the two-leader type of C is 
 the older I see no way of telling.
 
 86 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 The "Saracen influence" must rely, for the proof of its existence, 
 upon portions of four tales — SP, W, Conall, Saudan Og — and a 
 few allusions in others. The material may first be summarized. 
 
 SP. — If In Maiden Land ( = Scotland) lived Luf amour, mistress of a city 
 which was being besieged by Gollerothirame, a Saracen sowdane, who wished 
 to marry her. The besieging army was divided, half being on guard by night, 
 half by day. The Sowdane was just now absent. 1[ Perceval arrived before 
 the Saracen army at night. He rode into their midst and fought until he had 
 slain every foe. Then he lay down to sleep beside the city (castle) wall. 
 ^ Early in the morning he was perceived by Lufamour, who sent her chamber- 
 lain to invite him to enter the court. He entered and was richly entertained 
 by Lufamour, who promised to marry him if he would slay the Sowdane. 
 ][ Later, the day army attacked town and castle. Perceval had eaten but 
 little, but assisted by Lufamour, he armed himself, called for his steed, went 
 out to battle, and by noon had slain all his enemies. ^ After that he and 
 Gawain fought till they recognized each other. The two were kin, either nephew 
 and uncle or sons of sisters. If Perceval conducted Arthur and his company 
 to the castle, and aU were entertained by Lufamour. ^ Next morning Gol- 
 lerothirame cried a challenge before the castle. Perceval met him and slew 
 him. If The hero returned to the castle, and he and Lufamour were married. 
 He dwelt with her a year, and then left to go seek his mother in his earlier home. 
 
 W. — ^ In the land of the Moors lived Queen Belakane, in the city of Patela- 
 munt, which was being besieged by Friedebrand, Prince of Scotland, to avenge 
 the death of his cousin Eisenhart, who had been the lover of Belakane but 
 had been accidentally slain in a joust with one of Belakane's princes, neither 
 recognizing the other. The besiegers were divided, one part being the Scotch 
 army accompanied by certain Frenchmen, the other the army of Moors. 
 % Gahmuret, seeking adventures, landed in the harbor below Belakane's palace. 
 He entered the town and was richly provided for. The Queen invited him to 
 her castle, and when he appeared in state, requested his aid. The situation 
 was explained to him, and he promised his help. The Burggrave explained 
 that Heuteger came daily before the city wall to challenge any one of the 
 besieged to joust with him. That evening at supper time the Queen and her 
 maidens came to Gahmuret's lodging and served him. If After a night of 
 restlessness (because of desire to fight and love for Belakane) Gahmuret armed 
 and rode out before the city. Heuteger approached. The Queen watched 
 the conflict from her window.' Heuteger was unhorsed, wounded, and forced 
 to surrender. If Shortly afterward Gaschier was overthrown in like manner, 
 and sent to bid the Scotch army cease its attack. ^ Kailet, a relative of Gahmu- 
 ret, was forced by Gaschier to refrain from any joust against Gahmuret. \ On 
 a fresh steed Gahmuret went before the Moorish army, overthrew its com- 
 
 ' CI. the similar statement in SP, 1399-1400; the item, however, is a commonplace.
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 87 
 
 mander Rassalig, and compelled him to stop the advance of the Moorish army. 
 By night he had overthrown twenty-four knights. ]{ Gahmuret, re-entering 
 the town, was conducted by the Queen to the palace, and the two embraced. 
 Soon they were married. Shortly before the time for the birth of a son, 
 
 Gahmuret left his wife to return to his earlier home ^ The hero came 
 
 before Kanvoleis, and there erected the tent he had brought from the East. 
 It had belonged to Isenhart, and was very splendid [and possessed magic 
 qualities ( ?)]. 
 
 Conall. — ^ The King of lubhar was being attacked by the Turks, whose 
 leader was the "Big Turk." The king had for allies the king of Eirinn (who 
 had married his sister) and his two older sons. The youngest son, Conall, 
 had been left in Eirinn. 1[ When a time had passed and Conall had heard 
 nothing of his father, he determined to go and seek him. He was accompanied 
 by his minstrel and by two champions, of whom one was the king of Scotland, 
 the other Garna Sgiathlais, king of Spain. T[ When they reached lubhar, 
 the fighting' was going on. Conall and Duanach (his minstrel — the champions 
 have disappeared for the time being) went to the hostelry; after eating supper 
 they went to bed. % Next morning they were aroused bj^ the sound of battle. 
 Conall went out and fought, mowing down Turks like thistles. A Big Turk 
 slew the men of lubhar in like manner. Conall and the Big Turk met, and 
 Conall slew him. The living Turks fled, and the men of lubhar slew all they 
 could overtake. Tf Conall and Duanach returned to their hostelry, ate, and 
 went to bed, thinking the war ended by the slaughter of the Turks. ^ Next 
 morning, however, the battle had to be fought over. Again Conall slew the 
 Big Turk, and the other Turks fled. ^ That night the king of lubhar, having 
 decided that Conall must be his sister's son (how he knew is not told), went to 
 his hostelry to inquire about him. Conall was asleep, Duanach refused to 
 wake him, and so the king left a message: "Tell Conall .... that his 
 mother's brother came to visit him, and that he wishes to see him at the house 
 of the king of lubhar tomorrow." [^ The third day's battle has been sum- 
 marized in chap, iii, p. 53.] ^ The king of Eirinn took Conall before the king 
 
 of lubhar No less would suffice the brother of Conall's mother than that 
 
 Conall should be crowned king of the realm of lubhar. The nobles of the 
 realm were gathered, a great feast was made, and Conall was crowned king 
 over the lubhair; but he did not stay in that realm. With his father and his 
 friends he returned to the island where he had left his love (Breast of Light), 
 took her aboard ship, and returned to Eirinn, his earlier home. 
 
 Saudan Og and Young Conal (a variant of Conall). — ^ Ri na Durkach (the 
 King of the Turks) lived long in Erin, where he had one son, Saudan Og. 
 When twenty years old, Saudan Og went to Spain to marry the daughter of 
 
 ' This battle was of no service to Conall in winning his wife. He won her (much earlier) 
 by a single-handed combat against hundreds of warriors who guarded her tower. She was 
 connected closely with Beinn Eideinn, or Edinburgh apparently. Campbell (III, 216, note) 
 considers the geography hopelessly mixed.
 
 88 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 the King of Spain, with or against the consent of that king. Tf The latter sent 
 messengers to Ri Fohin, Ri Laian, and Conal Gulban to ask their aid, and the 
 three kings saUed from Eirinn to Spain. When leaving, Gulban took his two 
 older sons with him, and left the youngest (named Conal, like his father) to 
 guard the kingdom. ^ At the end of a year and a day, young Conal set off to 
 seek a wife. He came to the Yellow King's castle and slew all the fighting men 
 and then the YeUow King himself. He entered the castle by springing through 
 an upper window, and there was cured of his wounds by the Yellow King's 
 daughter, who bathed him in the water from a magic well that was in the castle. 
 The daughter went with Conal ; they came to the foot of a wild mountain 
 (Beann Edain), and Conal had to sleep. He lay with his head in the lady's 
 lap for three days and two nights. Then came the High King of the World and 
 took the lady away, but not before she had written a letter explaining all to 
 Conal. Four days later Conal had finished his "hero's sleep," roused, and set 
 off to recover his bride. T[ He acquired for Traveling Companions Donach the 
 Druid, two (out of three) brothers, and their sister; then another, the Short 
 Dun Champion, who was one of another set of three brothers. If Conal and 
 his companions found the castle of the High King of the World, recovered the 
 bride, slew the High King, and started back home. ^ "On their way, where 
 should they saU but along the coast of Spain?" They saw three castles and 
 a herd of cattle grazing near them. ^ One after the other, the two brothers 
 went to ask why the castles were built near together, and the herdsman by 
 magic turned them to stone. Next Conal went, and his strength was greater 
 than the herdsman's magic; Conal overpowered him, and forced him to tell 
 his story. ^ The herdsman recognized Conal, explained that he and Conal 
 were brothers, restored the two bewitched Companions from stone to life, and 
 told his story: " Saudan Og arrived in Spain the day before we did, and he had 
 one-third of the kingdom taken before us. We went against him the following 
 day, and kept him inside that third, and we have neither gained nor lost since. 
 The King of Spain had a castle here: my father and the King of Leinster built 
 a second castle near that; Saudan Og built the third near the two, for himself 
 and his men, and that is why the castles are here. We are ever since in battle; 
 Saudan has one-third, and we the rest of Spain." ^ Conal slew the Saudan the 
 next day, and all his forces. ^ He provided wives for his brothers and Com- 
 panions, and all returned to Erin. End. 
 
 (The last of the tale is greatly condensed. The Hag and her Balsam are 
 absent, and the battle is abbreviated into nothingness. But the "Saracen 
 Influence" is much in evidence. And note how the hero has, in a sense, given 
 his own name to his father, just as happened in SF.) J. Curtin, Hero Tales 
 of Ireland, 58-92. 
 
 A portion of Pd{b), though, in its present shape at least, it does 
 not belong with this group, has threads of connection with these 
 tales; a summary may be placed here for reference.
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY 89 
 
 ^ Peredur left the home of the Three Young Men to go to fight their battle 
 against the Addanc. ^ On the way he found a beautiful Lady seated on a mound, 
 who knew his purpose and gave him a stone of victory that enabled him to win 
 his contest. She made him promise to seek her afterward, "seek towards India" ; 
 and then she vanished. If After a set of adventures, Peredur came to the valley 
 of a river, and found there a vast multitude of tents. He lodged with a miller 
 and learned from him that " the Empress of Cristinobyl the Great" was holding 
 tournament to select the most valiant of men for her husband. He spent that 
 night with the miller, and the next day went out to behold the tournament " 
 (and the Empress) , but did no fighting. He did the same the second and the 
 third day. If On the fourth day he entered the tournament; he fought (several 
 days ?) till he overthrew all. H The Empress sent to him and asked him to 
 visit her. Three embassies he refused. A wise man sought him and prevailed 
 upon him to go. Two days he visited her in her tent. If On the second day, 
 while he and she were discoursing courteously, a Black Man entered, bearing a 
 goblet full of wine, which he gave to the Empress with the request that she give 
 it to no man who would not fight with him for it. Peredur asked for it, and 
 drank the wine. ^ A second and larger Black Man soon repeated the scene. 
 ^Shortly afterward "a rough-looking, crisp-haired man, taller than either 
 of the others," came with a bowl of wine, and the scene was repeated. If That 
 night Peredur returned to his lodging; next morning he went to a meadow, 
 and slew all three men. ^ "And Peredur was entertained by the empress 
 fourteen years, as the story relates." 
 
 Before pointing out the grounds for a belief in a common ancestry 
 of some sort for these accounts, I may mention two barriers in the 
 way of an argument: the materials (only four tales, and one of 
 them a variant of another) are too scanty to furnish evidence upon 
 which we may rely with certainty; and the account in each of the 
 four tales has been subjected to the influence of other stories in 
 such a way as to distort it. The Crusading influence upon Wolf- 
 ram's tale has been insisted on time and again. 5P's account of 
 the relief of the Besieged Lady has certainly been contaminated 
 with the battle in the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story — or perhaps 
 it wifl be clearer to say that the latter battle was altered when it 
 was incorporated into the account of the siege. And the Conall 
 battle suffered in the process of its incorporation into a long frame- 
 tale. The divergences are apparent, and yet it is highly probable 
 that the four accounts revert to the same source. 
 
 A table will not help us, and so a short recapitulation may be 
 substituted.
 
 90 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 In SP the hero frees Lufamour, the Scotch Lady, in Scotland 
 (Maydene Land), besieged by Saracens. In Conall the hero cap- 
 tures Breast of Light, the Lady of Beinn Eideinn (Edinburgh?), 
 from her tower strongly guarded; then he goes, accompanied by 
 the kings of Scotland and Spain, to the realm of lubhar to free his 
 relatives^ (his father, his two brothers, and his uncle, the King of 
 lubhar) from the Turks. In W the hero's father frees Belakane, 
 the Moorish Lady, in Moorish (Saracen) land, besieged by Moors 
 and the Scotch under Friedebrand, Prince of Scotland, accompanied 
 by certain Spaniards and Frenchmen, one of whom, at any rate, 
 is kin to the rescuer. In Saudan Og the hero .... goes to Spain, 
 accompanied by Traveling Companions, and there slays Saudan Og, 
 the Young Sultan, son of the King of the Turks. 
 
 In SP the adventure is assigned to the hero alone; in Conall, 
 jointly, in a way, to the hero (accompanied by the kings of Scot- 
 land and Spain) and his father, though earlier in the tale we have 
 been told that the father visited this same country and found there 
 his wife, the hero's mother; in W it is assigned wholly to the father, 
 and the offspring of the marriage is half-brother to the hero.^ W pre- 
 sents an odd switching around of parts: the Lady is the Saracen, 
 the French and Spanish Traveling Companions have been trans- 
 ferred from the hero to his enemies, and one of his enemies is his 
 kinsman. 
 
 In SP, W, Conall, and Pd{b) the hero goes from the home of his 
 relatives to engage in this battle: from the home of Uncle and 
 Cousins in SP; of his only brother, King Galoes (to find a relative 
 among his enemies), in W; of his Uncle in Conall; of the Three 
 Young Men (= foster brothers) at the instruction of the Empress 
 in Pd{b). 
 
 In each case the battle is in three parts or fought on three days. 
 
 The similarity is evident. That the accounts are related seems 
 indubitable. And the common source can perhaps be suggested 
 with a fair degree of certainty. There are several items to be fol- 
 
 ' The kinship here is, in part, a contamination from the kinship in the Relatives-Hag 
 story. 
 
 " So far as I can see, the legends of Feirefiz and Morien developed or were incorporated after 
 the time when the ancestor of W branched ofi from the parent stock.
 
 THE RELIEF OF THE BESIEGED LADY QI 
 
 lowed as clues: Saracen, Moor, Turk; Scotland; Scotch, French, 
 Spanish kings as Traveling Companions (in W they are shifted to 
 the enemy's camp) ; three battles, etc. 
 
 The common source was a form of the Red Knight-Witch- 
 Uncle story that had been subjected to the "Saracen Influence." 
 The only things of a "Saracen " nature that exerted any "influence," 
 I think, were a few proper names — not either incidents or events 
 drawn from an experience with Eastern life. To show that these 
 names were present, that they were merely substitutes for vaguer 
 names, and how they came to be introduced, is the purpose of the 
 next two paragraphs. 
 
 In Gaehc tales (both Scotch and Irish) one of the common desig- 
 nations for the realm of magic and monsters, the land where things 
 happen, is "The Eastern World"; and a personage of mystery and 
 power is King or Prince of the Eastern World. When this coun- 
 try was localized, it became, depending on the geographical knowl- 
 edge of the tale-teller, Scotland, Lochlann, Alba, Spain, ^ etc. In 
 reaching it, be it which country it might, the hero traveled through 
 other lands, and these in turn acquired — as substitutes for their 
 earlier vaguer and more mysterious names, like Lonesome Island, 
 Golden Mines, D'yerree-in-Dowan, or what-not — such geographical 
 names as France, Greece; and the foes the hero had to overcome 
 became Lochlanners (the Norse) ,^ Sassenach (the Saxons), and such. 
 The process of such a change of names was helped and hastened when 
 the nations mingled in the borderlands of England and Scotland,^ 
 say from a.d. 1066 on. To the Englishman or Frenchman, who had 
 heard of the Saracens in the East, the expression "Eastern World" 
 
 ' Even Prussia occurs in "The Son of the King of Prussia," a tale in which the hero's 
 battle for the Three Young Men against the Hag's host appears in an obscured and brief way; 
 vide Larminie, W.I.F.T., 153 fi. 
 
 ' Concerning the meaning of Lochlann, see an article by A. Bugge, " Contributions to the 
 History of the Norsemen in Ireland, I," in Skrifter udgivne af videnskabsselskabet i Christiania 
 (1900), No. 4. The tellers of the folk-tales, however, do not appear to have attached any very 
 definite meaning to "Lochlann"; it is used quite as vaguely as Greece and Spain. 
 
 The source of " Gollerothirame," the name of the Sowdane in SP, has never been pointed out. 
 Is it possible that it is, say, an Englishman's misrendering of the phrase " Gille Righ Lochlann" ? 
 
 * I do not mean to intimate that the use of "Saracen" in this fashion occurred only in this 
 territory. A disposition to use it so is noticeable early and was widespread. Heathen Normans 
 appear in mediaeval Uterature as "Saracens." For what is apparently a late substitution, 
 cf. the "Souden Turk" of the ballad "Outlaw Murray" and the notes in Child's Eng. and 
 Scot. Pop. Ballads, V, 185 ff., esp. var. C, 1. 22.
 
 92 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 would inevitably suggest the Saracens: when the Gaels learned of 
 the Frenchman's and the Englishman's "East," his own expression 
 acquired a new connotation for him. If a Gael substituted his 
 hereditary enemy, the Saxon, for his hero's more mysterious enemy, 
 any confusion that would arise — through a Frenchman's or an 
 Englishman's mishearing or misinterpretation — between Saxon 
 {Sassun in Gaelic, Saisson in French) and Saracen' would hasten 
 the change. 
 
 Subsidiary evidence pointing likewise to such an evolution in 
 nomenclature is to be had outside of our four tales. In PC, Perce- 
 val's mother announces her intention to retire into Scotland, a 
 connection with Scotland being thus established with a Perceval 
 tale that has some intimate resemblances to the earlier parts of 
 SP and W. The story of a " Saxon " battle is several times referred to 
 in the mazes of the Prose Tristan.'^ The tent of the Scotch Eisen- 
 hart, which Gahmuret brings from Belakane's land (W, I, 795-98; 
 II, 73 ff.), is to be compared with the tent that Palamedes "the 
 Saracen" (out of Saxon?) receives from the Scotch Queen {Prose 
 Tristan, p. 102, §128).^ 
 
 Because of the cleavage it introduces into the group of associated 
 
 ' None of my readers will make the mistake, which sometimes has been made, of supposing 
 that because these tales use the word Saracen, therefore they must have originated after the 
 tale-tellers learned the use of that word. Dr. Douglass Hyde expressed the opinion {Beside the 
 Fire, p. xxxii) that Conall was invented after the fall of Constantinople, arguing from the names 
 and allusions; but Mr. Alfred Nutt {ibid., p. Ui) sufficiently refuted the assumption. 
 
 Robert Hunt wrote: "The term Saracen is always now supposed to apply to the Moors. 
 This is not exactly correct. Percy, for example, in his 'Essay on the Ancient Minstrels,' says, 
 'The old metrical romance of "Horn Child," which, although from the mention of Saracens, 
 etc., it must have been written, at least, after the First Crusade, in 1096, yet from its Anglo- 
 Saxon language or idiom, can scarcely be dated later than within a century of the 
 Conquest.' .... It would not be a difficult task to show that the word Saracen, as used 
 in Cornwall, — 'Atal Saracen!' 'Oh, he's a Saracen,' etc., was appUed to the foreigners who 
 traded with this country for tin — at a very early period." — Popular Romances of the West of 
 England, sec. ser., Lond. (1865), p. 292. 
 
 ' E.g., the knights of Orcanie (Orkney) take part in the war of the Saxons against Win- 
 chester. Cf. L'-'seth's Index, "Orcanie"; cf., also, the "Castle des Saracens," which appears 
 to be in Britain. And cf. Malory, Book X, chap, xxxii: .... "Saracens landed in the country 
 of Cornwall, soon after these Sessoins were gone." North-of-England connections exist in 
 W's "Ither of Kukumerlant" (if this equals Cumberland) and in Meriaduec's "Gernemant [cf. 
 C's Gomemant] of Norhombellande." 
 
 ' Rhys's equation may not assist — it does not antagonize — my evidence: Palomedes = Pabo 
 Prydein, Pabo of Pictland; and Pellinor = EUver. "The tradition is that Pabo was a king who 
 became a saint, and this answers to Malory's story, that Palomydes was a Saracen who was
 
 THE RELIEF OE THE BESIEGED LADY Q3 
 
 tales, this "Saracen Influence" leaves us with a pretty problem. 
 Among the Scotch and Irish tales there are some that do not show 
 the Saracen influence; e.g., the place of combat is in Red Sh and 
 Ransom an island girt with fire, in Manus and Big Men the 
 Land of Big Men, in Lawn Dyarrig the Eastern World; and the 
 enemies are supernatural but not Saracen. Some tales are in a 
 middle position; as Champion, in which the battle occurs in a 
 land beyond Greece, but the enemies are not Saracens. Other 
 tales manifest the influence unmistakably; in Saudan Og the land 
 is Spain, and the enemy the Young Sultan; in Conall the locality 
 is vague (lubhar, Turkey in a variant) but the enemies are Saracens 
 (really, Turks) . The problem lies in the fact that the same cleavage 
 appears in the Perceval tales. C and G never suffered, or else 
 wholly cast off, any Saracen influence; SP, W, and Pd{b) show its 
 effects. The problem is: Was the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story 
 subjected to the Saracen influence before it was incorporated into 
 other materials to form the Perceval tale, and then did C and G 
 (their source or sources) eject all traces of that influence ? Or, 
 on the other hand, did the Perceval tale as such linger long enough 
 in the land of its birth to exist in at least two variants, one showing 
 the Saracen influence, one not ? The solution remains yet to be 
 discovered. 
 
 converted to Christianity" — one day after fighting Galleron of Galway and Tristan (cf. 
 Malory, XII, xii-xiv; and Rhys, Arth. Leg., p. 298). It is interesting that the Palomydes- 
 uncle-of-Perceval version and the Gahmuret-father-of-Perceval version have the tent for a 
 common possession; cf. the tent in Lanzelet, 4735 fif.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 
 
 [Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-first Incidents (see pp. 78-79, supra)] 
 Twenty-third Incident: The Tent Lady Again 
 
 I. SP, 1817-84. 
 II. Pd, 260. 
 
 III. C, 4865-5072. 
 
 IV. W, V, 960-1097. 
 
 Twenty-fourth Incident: The Overthrow of the Tent Lord 
 I. SP, 1885-1948. 
 II. W, V, 1098-1435- 
 
 III. C, 5073-5375 (204 of these lines occur in MS Mens only). 
 
 IV. Pd, 260-61. 
 
 Twenty-fifth Incident: The Hero Slays a Giant 
 
 I. SP, 1949-2 104. 
 C, W, Pd, wanting. 
 
 Twenty-sixth Incident: Perceval Hears News of His Mother 
 
 A. Mother and Son Reunited 
 
 I. SP, 2105-2272. 
 
 B. Mother's Death 
 
 II. C, 4748-4801, 7761-93; Pd, 254-55. 
 III. W, IX, 1280-1320. 
 
 Twenty-seventh Incident: Reunion of Husband and Wife 
 
 I. SP, 2273-2280. 
 IL G, 189 ff. 
 III. W, XVI, 361-434. 
 
 Compare the conclusions of Ty, Card, Red Sh. 
 
 Twenty-eighth Incident: The Death of the Hero 
 I. SP, 2281-88. 
 
 The Falsely Accused Lady Also Appears in 
 
 Yv. — Yvain, Foerster's ed. (1906). 
 
 LF. — The Lady oj the Fountain, Nutt's reprint of Lady Guest's Mahinogion, 
 pp. 167-96; Loth, II, 1-43. 
 
 94
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 95 
 
 In this chapter nine incidents will be discussed. They are 
 subdivided into two groups : the first group includes three incidents 
 postponed from the preceding chapter and four that are to be 
 summarized below; the second group embraces only the two inci- 
 dents that bring SP to an end. The seven incidents of the first 
 group constitute the last of the "stories" that seem to me to have 
 entered into the composition of the Perceval tale as it appears in 
 SP. Evidence for the existence of this story outside of SP appears 
 in two versions of the Iwain tale. W and the tale of Erec furnish 
 cumulative evidence. 
 
 First the divergences between SP and C will be pointed out; 
 then the Tent Lady-Giant story will be taken up. 
 
 A summary of the English poem will make the remainder of 
 the tale clear: 
 
 XXIII. Leaving Lufamour's castle, Perceval rode forward till he came 
 where the Tent Lady was bound to a tree. He freed her, and had from 
 her the account of how she was being punished by her husband for her sup- 
 posed infidelity at the time of Perceval's visit to her tent. XXIV. The Tent 
 Lord rode up, and was overthrown by the hero and compelled to restore the 
 Lady to favor. XXV. When Perceval offered to return the Lady's ring if 
 his own were restored to him, he learned that the ring had been given to a 
 fell Giant; he set off to the Giant's hold to seek it, and there encountered and 
 slew the Giant, who had been persecuting his (Perceval's) mother. XXVI. 
 Told by the Giant's porter that his mother was in the neighboring forest, 
 he went to seek her, found her demented, returned to the Giant's hold with her, 
 and by the aid of the benevolent porter cured her by a (magic) drink. XXVII. 
 With his mother he returned to his queen-wife and his realm. XXVIII. 
 Afterward he went to the Holy Land, and there he was slain. Finis. 
 
 It will be interesting to have next an outline by incidents of SP, 
 C, W, and Pd, and useful, because it will free us from the necessity 
 of summarizing the latter part of C. 
 
 SP.—^ Father's Marriage H His Death If Mother's Flight ' If Boyish 
 Exploits ^ Religious Instruction If Forest Knights ^ Advice ^ First Tent 
 Lady If Court ^ Red Knight's Insult If His Death ^ Witch If Uncle 
 If Messenger ^ First Battle ^ Entering the Castle ^ Second Battle 
 ^ Gawain Encounter ^ Arthur Entertained If Third Battle If Marriage 
 ^ Departure ]f Second Tent Lady If Tent Lord If Giant ^ Reunion with 
 Mother ^ Return to Lufamour ^ Death. 
 
 C— If Forest Knights If Advice If Mother's Death If First Tent Lady
 
 96 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 ^ First Red Knight If Court ^ Second Red Knight (Death) ^ Gome- 
 mans ^ Entering Besieged Castle *[f First Battle ]f Second If Third Battle 
 ^Departure If Grail Castle If " Giermaine Cosine" ( = Sigune) ^Second 
 Tent Lady ^ Tent Lord ^ Arthur's Search ^ Snow Scene ^ Second 
 
 Court ^ Loathly Damsel (Most of the rest of C concerns Gawain's 
 
 deeds.) 
 
 W. — ^ Belakane ^ Father's Marriage (to Herzeloyde) ^ His Death 
 ^ Mother's Flight ^ Boyish Exploits ^ Religious Instruction If Forest 
 Knights If Advice If Mother's Death ^ First Tent Lady ^ First Sigune 
 If First Red Knight ^ Court If Second Red Knight (Death) If Gurne- 
 manz ^ Entering Besieged Castle If First ^ Second ^ Third Battle ^ Mar- 
 riage ^ Departure If First Grail Castle If Second Sigune ^ Second Tent 
 Lady If Tent Lord ^ Arthur's Search ^ Snow Scene ^ Second Court 
 ^ Cundrie . . . . ^ Gawain Encounter . . . . Tf Reunion with Condwiramur. 
 
 PJ.— If Father's Death ^ Mother's Flight If Boyish Exploits If Forest 
 Knights ^ Advice If First Tent Lady If Red Knight's Insult Tf Court 
 If Red Knight's Death If Unknown Knight Sent to Arthur ^ Sixteen Knights 
 ditto If Lame Uncle % Castle of Lance and Salver ^ Foster Sister If Arthur's 
 Search (part) ^ Entering Besieged Castle If First ^ Second ^ Third 
 Battle If Departure If Second Tent Lady If Tent Lord If First Nine 
 Sorceresses If Snow Scene (Arthur's Search, completed) ^ Second Court 
 (^ Adventures, pp. 266-70) ^ Pd{b} ^ Loathly Damsel If 
 
 A glance at the foregoing outlines shows that, for the portion of 
 the tale that succeeds Perceval's departure from the castle of the 
 Lady whom he has rescued from siege, SP and C agree upon only- 
 two incidents; though one of Cs incidents (Arthur's search for the 
 hero) finds its equivalent in an earlier part of SP. , W agrees with 
 SP in two more incidents than does C, the Gawain encounter and 
 the reunion with the Besieged Lady, who is the hero's wife in SP 
 and W but not in C and Pd. The discussion now concerns itself 
 with the two incidents upon which SP and C agree; then some 
 comments are to be offered on portions of C that have no equivalents 
 in5P. 
 
 It is a fact — but one whose significance is not wholly clear — 
 that the three incidents involving the Tent Lady and her Lord 
 (the visit to the tent, the meeting with this Lady in distress, and 
 the downfall of the Lord) are those sections of the whole tale upon 
 which the four versions approach nearest to a complete agreement. 
 After this general statement, it will be more helpful for us to examine 
 differences between SP and C than agreements. In the matter of
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 97 
 
 the lapse of time SP is definite and consistent; the hero stays with 
 the Besieged Lady a year lacking a few days, from one Christmas 
 to the next (1769-70, 1785, 1 801-5). C is confused and self- 
 contradictory; when Yones reports to King Arthur the death of the 
 Red Knight, the fool predicts that Kex will be wounded by Perceval 
 within forty days (2444 ff.), and .the wounding occurs shortly after 
 the second meeting with the Tent Lady, but meantime the Lady 
 has had her clothing worn out and her skin tanned by cold and burnt 
 by heat (4900 ff .) ; Perceval left his forest home when the meadows 
 were covered with spring flowers, but slightly over forty days later 
 he tumbled Kex into a snow-bank. Pd is silent (but cf. p. 253, 11. i 
 and 12-13). Wolfram' perceived Crestien's inconsistency and 
 avoided it ;^ his version omits the forty days of the prophecy of the 
 fool (=Sir Antanor), says that the Tent Lady (Jeschute) "suffered 
 more than a whole year" (III, 706-7), and practically asserts that 
 the hero dwelt with the Besieged Lady for months (IV, 1 285-1306). 
 Again we find that W in departing from C approaches SP; and 
 it does so in this instance, I think, because Wolfram had before 
 him, in addition to C, a version which laid stress upon the hero's 
 marriage and his consequent tarrying with the Besieged Lady for a 
 length of time, probably a year as in SP. Further, the kinship 
 between SP and W as against C is observable here in several details. 
 Five such points are: (i) in SP the Tent Lady recounts to Perceval 
 the visit to the tent, but, though he knows he was the visitor, he 
 keeps silence now; in W she recognizes him and tells him he caused 
 her trials: in C neither apparently recognizes the other, and the 
 Lord is the one who, later in the tale, tells of the visitor at the tent. 
 (2) In SP the hero takes his helmet off and hes down with his head 
 on the Lady's knee; in W he rides along with his helmet off because 
 of the heat (though very soon afterward he is to find the ground 
 snow-covered) : in C there is no hint of anything similar. (3) In 
 SP and W Perceval gives his version of the visit to the tent after 
 the Lord has been vanquished: in C, after the Lord's account but 
 before the battle, Perceval acknowledges that he was the visitor. 
 (4) In SP and W the Tent Lord's past history is given, and, though 
 the two versions offer different accounts, they show significant 
 
 ' Cf. WoKram's perplexity, VI, 42-52.
 
 98 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 resemblances (cf. chapter I, p. 19, supra^) : in C there is no hint out 
 of which these accounts could have grown. (5) In SP and W there 
 is an elaborate accounting for the ring the hero had taken; in SP 
 the ring is not returned, in W the ring is returned but the brooch is 
 not; in C there is no hint concerning the return of the ring, it is 
 of no more consequence than the pasties Perceval had eaten. 
 
 In C the Snow Scene succeeds the overthrow of the Tent Lord 
 (whom Perceval sends with messages to court): 
 
 The King seeking the hero and the hero riding at random arrived at almost 
 the same place. Perceval was riding through the snow that had fallen in the 
 night when he observed three drops of blood fallen from a bird wounded by a 
 falcon. Blood and snow reminded him of the white and red in the face of his 
 love. He rested his face against his lance, and sank into a deep revery. Pages 
 of the court brought news to camp of the stranger transfixed in the snow, and 
 Saigremors went out to fetch him before the King. Perceval roused just 
 enough to unhorse Saigremors. The boastful Kex met a like treatment, and 
 was sore wounded by his fall. Gawain arrived, courteously secured Perce- 
 val's attention, and made himself known; Perceval rejoiced, learned of Kex's 
 wound, and announced his name. The two knights went in gladness to Arthur's 
 camp. (In C this is the first meeting between Perceval and Gawain.) The 
 King and his court returned in joy to Carlion; and next day the Loathly 
 Damsel arrived (C 5533-6022). 
 
 The Snow Scene is analyzable into three elements: the revery, 
 the wounding of Kex as the fulfilment of a prophecy, and the juxta- 
 position of the downfall of the braggart Kay and the success of the 
 courteous Gawain. The revery over drops of blood in snow is a 
 widespread donnee, and is much older than Crestien.^ Indeed, in C 
 it appears in its truncated form; in what is probably the better 
 (older) type of the incident, the remembered lady has black hair, 
 and there is some object present to recall that to the lover's mind. 
 Such is the case in Pd, and we have been assured that the Besieged 
 Lady has black hair and brows {Pd, 257); but C says the Lady's 
 hair was like fine gold. The revery was undoubtedly inserted 
 
   Orilus' attempt to grasp Parzival in the battle, and the humiliating treatment he receives, 
 of being tucked under Parzival's arm like a sheaf of grain and then laid across a log (V, 1242 fi.), 
 recall the Red Knight's threat in SP (681-84) to cast Perceval into the pool Uke an old sack. 
 No such language or deed could be permitted to Ither (Red Knight), who had become, in W, 
 the most refined of knights. 
 
 " Cf. Zimmer, Keltische Sludien, II, 201-8; Nutt, Stud., 137.
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 99 
 
 bodily into the tale, but how early is uncertain. Its absence from 
 SP warrants us in assuming, until adverse evidence is available, 
 that the insertion occurred after the spUtting off of ^P's ancestor 
 from the parent stock. The wounding of Kay has no essential 
 connection with the revery. Three incidents or points make up the 
 Kex story as O has it: the wounding of those who honor Perceval 
 at court, the prophecy of harm to Kex within forty days, and Per- 
 ceval's overthrow of the seneschal. So far as I can see at present, 
 an early form of the tale probably possessed the maiden at court 
 who was to laugh only when the best knight in the world should 
 come. Her presence in C and in Red Sh (though in a different 
 place) is the foundation for my behef. To the lady with the pro- 
 phetic laugh C (or its ancestor) annexed the fool with his forty-day 
 prophecy and its fulfilment. And it was this prophecy and its 
 fulfilment plus Crestien's desire to have his tale begin in the spring' 
 that introduced two different clocks into C — to the confusion of 
 Wolfram. 3 SP apparently descends from a variant in which the 
 prophecy of the coming of the hero is known at court, but in the 
 form of "books" {SP, 561-68), and not in connection with a 
 maiden's laugh. The juxtaposition of Kay's boorishness and 
 Gawain's courtesy is one of the commonest incidents in romance.'' 
 No such scene occurs in this portion of SP, though the encounter 
 with Gawain offered an excellent opportunity for it. And judging 
 from the sentiment concerning Kay expressed in SP, 297 ff. (Per- 
 ceval meets the Forest Knights), I believe that if the author of 
 SP had ever heard of the Snow Scene of C he could never have 
 forgotten it or refrained from using it in his poem.^ 
 
 It has been argued that the battle between Perceval and Gawain, 
 
 ' W and Pd agree with C in part. 
 
 ' Cf. the beginning of Erec and of Yvain. 
 
 ' In Pd there is no mention of forty days; actually, however, about six weeks inter\-ene 
 (three weeks and three days being spent with the Besieged Lady). Aside from the mention of 
 snow there is no indication of the season. 
 
 ' CL Erec; Yvain; Golagros and Gawain; Avowing of Arthur; Marriage of Gawain; Gow- 
 ther and Carle of Carlyle; etc., etc. An interesting parallel appears in Mananaun (74-7S). 
 where Kaytuch, near the camp of Finn, overthrows the surly Conan (who comes as ambassador 
 to him), but goes pleasantly enough with the courteous Keeltje. 
 
 ' Perceval endangers the life of Kay once only in SP; once only in C, in the Snow Scene; 
 twice in IT', in the Snow Scene and when he was first at court, Book HI, 1123-26
 
 lOO SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 in SP, and later the hero's revery' in the midst of the battle with 
 Gollerothirame were drawn from C's Snow Scene. As for the 
 first, there is no such battle in C; its real source will be pointed 
 out a few pages below. The revery in SP is poorly motivated (the 
 author attempts to be humorous), and its cause and surroundings 
 are different from those in C. Both poems have a revery connected 
 with a combat; there may have been a revery in their (distant) 
 common source ; it is hardly possible that one account is drawn from 
 the other. 
 
 The last of the stories we have to discuss includes, in whole or in 
 part, seven of the incidents in SP — the two meetings with the Tent 
 Lady, the battle with Gawain, the entertainment of King Arthur, 
 the overthrow of the Tent Lord, the fight with the Giant, and the 
 rescue of Perceval's mother. The parallels that bear witness to 
 the existence of such a story are drawn from two versions of the 
 Iwain tale, the anonymous Welsh,^ and Crestien's French.^ In 
 the sequence of incidents SP is more like the Welsh; in content 
 it presents a number of things that appear in the French but not 
 in the Welsh. 
 
 Yvain and the Welsh Lady of the Fountain are summarized, but 
 the repetition of summaries of SP is obviated by the table. 
 
 Yvain.— A. [Once at court Calogrenant told how, seven years before, he 
 had passed through the adventures of the Hospitable Host and the Giant 
 Herdsman, and had been overthrown by the Knight of the Rain-making Foun- 
 tain. King Arthur determined to attempt the same adventures; but Yvain 
 desired them for himself, and so he stole away alone. He followed the desig- 
 nated route, mortally wounded the Fountain Knight, and pursued him into 
 the castle of the Fountain Lady (Laudine).] ][ Yvain came to a deserted 
 place within the walls and there met a damsel (Lunete), the chief companion 
 of Laudine. Lunete presented Yvain a Gygean ring, by which means his life 
 was preserved, took him to a room, and gave him food and drink. 
 
 ' See Newell, Leg. of the Holy Grail, 82. 
 
 ' The question of whether or not the Welsh is dependent upon Crestien's poem has not yet, 
 so far as I know, been determined. Its answer either way can only affect, not overthrow, my 
 results. And my study may assist in determining the relationship. 
 
 ^ Mr. Rhys devotes the fourth chapter of his Arthurian Legend to an elaborate comparison 
 between the tales of Peredur and Owein. He makes much use, however, of Pd{b)\ and if the 
 conclusion I reached in chap, iii, supra, be well founded, the use he has made of Pd(h) has 
 rather misled him. The comparison I propose to institute is quite different from his.
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED lOI 
 
 B. ^ Lunete persuaded Laudine it was wisest to marry Yvain that he 
 might guard her Fountain and her castle. ^ Before the wedding feast was 
 over, Arthur and his knights arrived at the Fountain. Kay secured permission 
 to test the adventure, and he was promptly overthrown by Yvain, who recog- 
 nized his opponent but was himself unrecognized. When Gawain offered 
 combat, Yvain made himself known and praised him. [The great battle between 
 Yvain and Gawain, in which neither knows who the other is, comes near the 
 end of the poem, where it occupies over i,8oo lines.] 
 
 C. ^ Yvain conducted Arthur and his attendants to the castle of the 
 Lady whom he had just married, and there entertained them with a great 
 feast. 
 
 D. ^ At Gawain's importunity Laudine consented that Yvain return 
 with the King's retinue on condition that he would remain away not more than 
 a year. She gave her husband a ring that would prevent wound or imprison- 
 ment so long as he wore it and remembered her. [The Gygean ring is of no 
 further consequence.] Yvain remained away for a year and a half. ^ Then, 
 deprived of his ring by a messenger, he became insane, was restored by a magic 
 balm, and secured his attendant Hon. Tf Wandering one day in sadness, he 
 came to the place of the Fountain and paused to bemoan his fate. From 
 "the chapel" an imprisoned woman told him that she was more unhappy than 
 he. He learned that she was Lunete and had been imprisoned by the Foun- 
 tain Lady's seneschal on a charge of treason ( = her friendship for the recreant 
 Yvain) , and was to be burnt unless a knight would champion her cause. She 
 explained, further, that she knew of only two knights who would be willing to 
 defend her, Gawain and Yvain, and her messenger had failed to reach either of 
 them. Yvain promised to be her champion on the morrow. 
 
 E. Below. 
 
 F(a) . ^ Now, following her directions, he sought a castle in which to spend 
 the night. Entering the castle, he was made sorrowfully welcome, and was 
 told that the castle was being besieged by a Giant, Harpin de la Montaigne,' 
 who desired the castle lord's daughter. 
 
 G. T[ The lord's wife was Gawain's sister, and when the daughter pleaded 
 with Yvain in the name of Gawain, her uncle, he consented to fight the Giant. 
 [His previous engagement was the cause of his hesitancy.] 
 
 ¥(b). ^ He slew the Giant, and departed. 
 
 E. ^ He reached the Fountain to find Lunete's enemies preparing to 
 burn her. He was forced to do battle against the seneschal and his two 
 brothers all at once, but, aided by his lion, he vanquished the three, and burned 
 them in the fire prepared for Lunete. 
 
 B{b). Tl Yvain had many other adventures. Near the end of the poem 
 the battle between Yvain and Gawain is elaborately prepared for. t The 
 two fought, neither knowing who his opponent was, in the presence of Arthur 
 
 ' Cf. Ogier le Danois, 9815: "Manda Harpin ki forme ot de gaiant." 
 
 t
 
 I02 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 and his court until they recognized each other. Then each wished to acknowl- 
 edge the other the victor. Tf Later Yvain was reunited with his wife. 
 
 LF. % The Welsh Lady oj the Fountain. — A. [Kynon (instead of Calo- 
 grenant) told of his adventures. Owain ( = Iwain) decided he would test them. 
 He met the Hospitable Host, passed the Giant Herdsman, mortally wounded 
 the Black Knight, the defender of the Fountain, and followed him inside the 
 castle walls.] If His life was saved here by Luned, who gave him a Gygean 
 ring, and then led him to a chamber where she tended him and gave him the 
 richest of food and drink. 
 
 B. ^ Luned next persuaded the Countess of the Fountain that it was 
 wisest for her to marry Owain. ^ Three years later Arthur became uneasy 
 at the absence of Owain, and, persuaded by Gwalchmai ( = Gawain), went with 
 his household to seek him. When the Fountain was reached, Kay begged 
 permission to test the adventure, and was promptly overthrown by the defender 
 (now Owain). Others of the household were overthrown by Owain, who knew 
 them but was not recognized by them. At length Gwalchmai, so clad as to 
 be unrecognized by Owain, offered battle, and the contest was bitter and long, 
 lasting through three days until a blow revealed Gwalchmai's face; then the 
 two friends embraced. 
 
 C. If Owain conducted the entire party to the castle of his wife, the 
 Countess, and feasted them royally. 
 
 D. Tf After three months of feasting, Owain secured his wife's permission 
 to return with the King to court and to deeds of chivalry, to be absent three 
 months. [No statement occurs here concerning the second ring.] If Forget- 
 ful, he stayed away three years; whereupon a messenger from the Countess 
 deprived him of his (hitherto unmentioned) ring. He went mad from grief, 
 wandered in desert places, after a time was cured by a magic balm, and secured 
 a lion for his page. If One evening he came to a meadow, and while eating 
 supper he heard someone sigh thrice in distress. The sighs came from Luned, 
 imprisoned in a vault and being punished for her loyalty to Owain. Two 
 pages of the Countess' chamber had imprisoned her and were going to put her 
 to death on the morrow unless Owain should return to fight them both in her 
 behalf. Owain (unrecognized by her) promised to aid her next day. 
 
 F. ^ At her directions he sought a castle in which to spend the night. 
 He entered the castle and was welcomed, though sadly, being told that a Giant 
 was going to reinforce his demand for the castle lord's daughter by attacking 
 the castle next morning. Owain next day slew the Giant (by the help of the 
 lion), saved the castle lord's daughter, and restored to him his two sons. 
 
 E. \ Owain then returned to the meadow where Luned was prisoner, 
 and fought with the two young men till, with the aid of his lion, he slew them; 
 thus he restored Luned to freedom, happiness, and honor. % Owain returned 
 with Luned to the castle of the Countess; thence he went to Arthur's court, 
 taking his wife with him
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED I03 
 
 The sequence of incidents is : 
 
 SP—A B C D E F G 
 
 LF—A B C D F E 
 
 Yv—A B(a) C D F(a) G F(b) E B(b) 
 
 The Welsh does not make the lady saved from the Giant a 
 kinswoman of Gawain (incident G), and places the punishment of 
 the Damsel's persecutors (E) after the battle with the Giant (F) . 
 SP places the explanation that the lady persecuted by the Giant 
 was a relative of Gawain (G) after the fight with the Giant (F). 
 Yv splits the battle with Gawain (B[a] and B[b]), puts the explana- 
 tion concerning Gawain's kinswoman (G) in the midst of the 
 account of the fight with the Giant (F[a] and F[b]), and places the 
 punishment of the persecutors (E) after the fight with the Giant (F) . 
 
 The following table indicates that the agreements extend to a 
 considerable degree of minuteness: 
 
 A. The Helpful Damsel 
 
 The hero in the Damsel's apartment SP LF Yv C W 
 
 Is given food and drink SP LF Yv C W 
 
 And a magic ring SP LF Yv 
 
 His life is in danger if he should be dis- 
 covered LF Yv C W 
 
 B. The Battle with Gawain 
 
 The hero has just married SP Yv 
 
 Arthur and knights approach^ the wife's 
 
 castle SP LF Yv 
 
 The hero issues against them SP LF Yv 
 
 And overthrows Kay LF Yv 
 
 He and Gawain fight a battle SP LF Yv^ W 
 
 Neither recognizing the other SP LF Yv W 
 
 Accident brings recognition SP LF Yv W 
 
 And joyful embrace SP LF Yv W 
 
 C. The King Entertained 
 
 The hero leads the royal party to the castle of 
 
 his wife SP LF Yv 
 
 And all are sumptuously feasted SP LF Yv 
 
 ' In Yv Arthur is seeking the Wonderful Fountain; in SP and LF he is seeking the hero. 
 ' The combat is placed near the end of the poem. 
 
 /
 
 c 
 
 w 
 
 c 
 
 w 
 
 c 
 
 w 
 
 c 
 
 w 
 
 104 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 D. The Damsel Persecuted 
 
 A year, or more, after his marriage SP LF Yv W 
 
 The hero is back near the place where he first 
 
 met the Damsel SP LF Yv 
 
 He hears a cry of distress SP LF Yv 
 
 Finds the Damsel a prisoner SP LF Yv 
 
 Persecuted for her connection with him SP LF Yv C W 
 
 He befriends her SP LF Yv 
 
 Hears her story SP LF Yv 
 
 And promises his aid LF Yv 
 
 E. The Persecutor Punished 
 
 1 . The Tent Lord approaches SP 
 
 He and Perceval encounter SP 
 
 He is overthrown SP 
 
 And forced to restore the Damsel to his favor SP 
 
 2. Iwain approaches the place of combat LF Yv 
 
 A fire is ready to burn the Damsel LF Yv 
 
 Iwain is ready for battle LF Yv 
 
 He overthrows the persecutors LF Yv 
 
 And burns them in the fire intended for the 
 
 Damsel LF Yv 
 
 F. The Fight with the Giant 
 
 The hero is sent by the persecutor SP 
 
 by the Damsel LF Yv 
 
 To a castle owned by a Giant SP 
 
 attacked by a Giant LF Yv 
 
 Who seeks to win a lady SP LF Yv 
 
 The Giant's garments and weapons are con- 
 ventional SP Yv 
 
 The Giant is slain SP LF Yv 
 
 G. The Rescue of Gawain's Kinswoman 
 
 The lord of the castle LF Yv 
 
 Or the porter SP 
 
 explains what the Giant seeks SP LF Yv 
 
 The lady is Gawain's niece Yv 
 
 Gawain's sister (or aunt) SP 
 
 Perceval's mother is cured of insanity SP 
 
 Iwain is cured of insanity LF Yv 
 
 By a magic balm or potion SP LF Yv
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 105 
 
 The Tent Lord's suspicion is one of the chief threads binding 
 together the hero's adventure at the Tent and the events subsequent 
 to the relief of the Besieged Lady. In recounting the happenings at 
 the Tent, SP makes no mention of the husband; C, W, and Pd 
 detail his return, rage, and determination to punish his wife. There 
 was, of course, no ground for his jealous suspicion; if, however, we 
 might for a moment grant the possibility that he had heard the 
 events of a folk-tale now fairly common, we could pardon in him at 
 least a feeling of uneasiness. I shall, at a venture, subjoin sum- 
 maries of these tales; then I shall point out some striking similari- 
 ties, and also some difl&culties in the way of considering them as 
 connected with the source of the story of the Falsely Accused Lady 
 of the Perceval tale. 
 
 Coldfeet. — After varied adventures, Coldfeet came to an old man who told 
 him that there was only one day in the year in which to accomplish his task, 
 for the Queen and her guardians slept for just a single day; he must reach the 
 Queen before noon, and leave the island before nightfall; and "The sword of 
 light will be hanging at the head of her bed, the loaf [of bread] and the bottle 
 of water on the table near by." Coldfeet came to Lonesome Island. Before 
 noon he was in the chamber of the Queen, and she lay asleep. "He found every 
 thing there as the old man had told him. Seizing the sword of light quickly 
 and taking the bottle and the loaf, he went toward the door; but there he halted, 
 turned back, stopped a while with the queen. It was very near he was then 
 to forgetting himself; but he sprang up, took one of the queen's garters, and 
 away with him." 
 
 A Hag had sent Coldfeet to the Island to procure these wondrous articles. 
 Returning as he came, he reached the Hag's castle, and she demanded sword, 
 
 bottle, and loaf "With that Coldfeet drew the sword of light, and sent 
 
 her head spinning through the sky in the way that 'tis not known in what part 
 of the world it feU or did it faU in any place. He burned her body then, scattered 
 the ashes, and went his way further." 
 
 "In three quarters of a year the Queen of Lonesome Island had a son." 
 When he was two years old, she set off to find his father. Following the traces 
 of the magic loaf, bottle, and sword she came to Coldfeet, and heard his story. 
 " ' Have you the golden garter ? ' [she asked]. ' Here it is,' said the young man. 
 'What is your name?' asked the queen. 'Coldfeet,' said the stranger. 'You 
 are the man,' said the queen. 'Long ago it was prophesied that a hero named 
 Coldfeet would come to Lonesome Island without my request or assistance, 
 and that our son would cover the world with his power. Come with me now 
 to Lonesome Island.'"
 
 Io6 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 D^yerree. — Cart and his two brothers set oflf to the well of D'yerree-in- 
 Dowan [ = end of the world] to fetch a bottle of water from the well, which was 
 a "weU of cure." An old man assisted Cart to reach the island of the Well, 
 and informed him that the Queen of the island and her attendants and her 
 guards likewise were asleep, and would not waken for a year and a day. He 
 gave Cart two bottles to be filled from the well. Cart reached the well, and 
 filled his bottles. Then he saw a castle all lighted. He drew near, and looked 
 in through a window; he saw a table, and on it a loaf of bread, a knife, a bottle 
 and a glass. He entered, and found that the loaf and the contents of the 
 bottle never grew less; so he took them with him. He entered a chamber, and 
 saw the Queen with her eleven waiting-maids asleep, and a sword of light hung 
 over the Queen's head. He kissed the Queen and her eleven maids, and none 
 
 awoke. With sword, bottles, and loaf, he returned to the old man Of 
 
 course. Cart returned to his brothers; they made him drunk, stole his bottles 
 of water, and pretended to the King that they were the heroes and Cart a 
 
 fool A year later the Queen awoke, and her eleven maids likewise, 
 
 and each of the twelve found a young son in bed beside her. The Queen 
 set off to find out who was the father of her son. She followed his track, 
 recovering the sword of light, the never-failing bottle, and the loaf of bread 
 where he had successively left them, arrived at the King's castle, tested the 
 brothers Art and Nart, proving them false claimants, and restored Cart to 
 high honor. Then taking him as her husband, she returned to the WeU of 
 D'yerree-in-Dowan. 
 
 Lonesome Island. — The King of Erin was led into following a pig through 
 the sea (swimming) to an island. Landing, he went to a fine castle, which had 
 a low door with a broad threshold all covered with sharp-edged razors, and a 
 low lintel of long-pointed needles. With a jump, he entered. "When inside 
 he saw a great fire on a broad hearth, and said to himself, 'I sit down here, 
 dry my clothes, and warm my body at this fire.' A table came before him with 
 every sort of food and drink, without his seeing anyone bring it. He ate and 
 drank. When he grew tired, he looked behind him, and if he did he saw a 
 fine room, and in it a bed covered with gold. He went to bed and slept. In 
 the night he waked, and felt the presence of a woman in the room. He reached 
 out his hand towards her and spoke, but got no answer; she was silent." In 
 the morning he left the castle, only to find himself in a beautiful garden whence 
 he could not escape. The same things happened the second night and morning. 
 He jumped into the castle the third night. The same events occurred. ' He 
 waked in the middle of the night. " ' Well,' said he, 'it is a wonderful thing for 
 me to pass three nights in a room with a woman, and not see her nor know who 
 she is!' 'You won't have to say that again. King of Erin,' answered a voice. 
 And that moment the room was filled with a bright light, and the King looked 
 upon the finest woman he had ever seen. 'WeU, King of Erin, you are on 
 Lonesome Island. I am the black pig that enticed you over the land and 
 through the sea to this place, and I am queen of Lonesome Island. My two
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED 107 
 
 sisters and I are under a Druidic spell, and we cannot escape from this spell 
 till your son and mine shall free us.'" .... Years later the King's son was 
 put under spells. He had come to Erin, and was hated by the King's wife 
 (his step-mother?), who put him under spells to fetch her "three bottles of 
 water from Tubber Tintye, the flaming well." He started off, accompanied 
 by his two half-brothers, the queen's sons. He left the brothers, one after the 
 other, behind him, and went on; he crossed successfully a river of fire, and passed 
 a belt of poisonous trees, and came to a castle. [About this time he first 
 learned who his father was, though he had often wondered about the matter.] 
 As his horse shot past an open window of the castle, the prince sprang in. 
 The whole place was filled with giants, long slippery eels, bears, and beasts 
 of every kind, sleeping their period of seven years' sleep. The prince 
 passed to a stairway, entered a chamber, and found there a beautiful 
 woman asleep; he went on by, and passed through eleven more chambers, 
 and each sleeping woman was more beautiful than the last. He made no 
 stop till he reached the thirteenth chamber. When he opened the door to 
 this chamber, the flash of gold took his sight away; he paused till he could see 
 again. Here was a golden couch on golden wheels, and the couch went round 
 and round continually. On the couch lay the Queen of Tubber Tintye, more 
 beautiful than any of her maidens. At the foot of the couch was Tubber Tintye 
 itself — the well of fire; and it turned with the couch. With a spring, the 
 prince landed in the bed, and he stayed there six days and six nights. On the 
 seventh day he came down, and fiUed his three bottles with water from the 
 flaming well . In the golden chamber was a table of gold, and on the table a 
 leg of mutton with a loaf of bread; and if all the men of Erin were to eat for a 
 twelvemonth from the table, the mutton and bread would be the same as at 
 first. The prince ate, and then took the bottles of water with him [but not the 
 mutton and bread]; he wrote a note explaining his visit, and put it under the 
 Queen's pillow; then he left 
 
 Of course, the two cowardly half-brothers claimed to be the heroes. 
 
 When the Queen of Tubber Tintye opened her eyes, she found a six-year-old 
 boy in bed beside her, found the letter, and set off to discover her visitor. She 
 came to Erin, by a test brought about the destruction of the two half-brothers, 
 forced the King to send for his son, the hero, and by the device of a magic 
 girdle forced the King's wife to acknowledge that her sons had been bastards, 
 caused the King to burn his false wife and marry the Queen of Lonesome Island, 
 and then she and the prince were married. 
 
 Golden Mines. — After fighting for three days. Jack slew a dragon. Each 
 day Jack had been wounded, and each night he had been cured by a friendly old 
 man, who "took down a httle bottle of ointment, and rubbed it over Jack, and 
 no sooner did he rub it over him than Jack's wounds were all healed as well as 
 ever again." .... Jack came to a castle, entered, and wandered till he came 
 to the sixth room, where he found the Queen asleep. He kissed her, took a 
 jeweled garter, that was lying by the queen's bedside, a loaf of bread that could
 
 Io8 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 never be eaten out, a bottle of wine that could never be drunk out, and a purse 
 that could never be emptied. The purse, wine, and bread were left at certain 
 stages upon his return journey. Later they served the Queen as clues upon her 
 search. She traveled over Jack's route, and finally found him, through all 
 of his disguises, because of the garter. 
 
 Kg of Eng. — . . . . Jack, the youngest of the King's three sons, came to a 
 castle guarded by giants, lions, and fiery serpents, but all were asleep for the 
 space of one hour. Jack entered the castle. "Turning to the right, upstairs 
 he runs, enters into a very grand bed-room, and sees a very beautiful Princess 
 lying full stretch on a gold bedstead, fast asleep. He gazes on her beautiful 
 form with admiration, and he takes her garter off, and buckles it on his own leg, 
 and he buckles his on hers; he also takes her gold watch, and pocket-hand- 
 kerchief, and exchanges his for hers; after that he ventures to give her a kiss, 
 when she nearly opened her eyes. Seeing the time short, he runs down 
 stairs." .... Of course, the Princess sought him, and a year later found him; 
 and they were married. 
 
 Brown Bear. — The King of Erin had three sons. The King lost the sight of 
 his eyes and the strength of his feet. His three sons set of? to bring three bottles 
 of the water of the Green Isle. John, the foolish youngest, was ill-treated by his 
 brothers. But only John, helped by a Brown Bear, three giants, and an eagle, 
 reached the Isle. '"Now, John,' says she [the eagle], 'be quick, and fill thy 
 three bottles; remember that the black dogs are away just now.'" He filled 
 his bottles out of the well; and he saw a little house. He entered. In the 
 first chamber he saw a full bottle of whiskey; he drank some, and the bottle 
 was still full. He took the bottle. In another chamber he found a never- 
 failing loaf, which he took; in another, a cheese. "Then he went to another 
 chamber, and he saw laid there the very prettiest little jewel of a woman he 
 ever saw. 'It were a great pity not to kiss thy lips, my love,' says John." 
 Then on the eagle's back he left the Isle. He returned by way of the giants' 
 houses, where he left whiskey-bottle, loaf, and cheese, on condition that they 
 should be given to a woman if she called for them. Of course, his brothers 
 
 were treacherous, and John was defrauded The Lady of the Green 
 
 Isle "became pale and heavy; and at the end of three quarters, she had a 
 fine lad son." She set off to seek his father, and by following the route of the 
 bottle, loaf, and cheese, and by using magic, she discovered John, restored him 
 to honor, and she and John were married. End. (Campbell, Tales, I, 168-80.) 
 
 The folk-tales furnish a raison d'etre for several rather arbitrary, 
 if not unreasonable, matters in the Tent adventure (cf. chapter II, 
 supra). First, there is the Lady's ill-timed nap; in Pd she was 
 awake throughout, in C and W asleep part of the time and awake 
 the rest, but in SP asleep throughout. The continuous sleep was a 
 necessity in the hero's visit in the folk-tales. In SP there were no
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED IO9 
 
 attendant maidens; in some (not all) of the folk-tales there were, 
 and they were asleep too; in C they were out of sight gathering 
 flowers. Second, that the bread, meat, and wine are important 
 in the Tent adventure is apparent, but why they are, is not. 
 In the folk-tales these articles were never-failing (the never-failing 
 loaf, meat, and bottle were by no means confined to this group of 
 tales). If in the source of the Perceval tale they started off as 
 never-faiHng, but somewhere lost their magic power, their impor- 
 tance could linger on. And the equable division in SP could, indeed, 
 be a remnant of the never-failing quality: he ate his fill, and left 
 just as much as there was before he took any degenerating into 
 he ate his fill, and left just as much as he took away. Third, the 
 token the hero carries away is a garter in the folk-tales, a ring 
 in the Perceval tale. The garter was, in the circumstances, 
 probably the more natural trophy; the ring is the garter's substi- 
 tute, rather than equivalent, and its origin will be pointed out 
 later. Perhaps W^s "fiirspan" is the real descendant of the garter. 
 Fourth, the story of the Tent Lady is responsible for the introduction 
 into the Perceval tale of the one-year period of time, though as it 
 now stands this story has no especial reason for covering just a 
 year. But if the Tent adventure had an ancestor like, say, Uyerree 
 or Brown Bear, the specification of the time as one year is not hard 
 to account for. Fifth, if, again, the Tent adventure had such an 
 ancestor, the "hall" (= castle) of SP is nearer to the source form 
 than the Tent of the other versions. 
 
 There are several difficulties in the way of considering the Tent 
 adventure and the folk-tales akin. First, the similarities are con- 
 fined to the Tent adventure (the first meeting with the Tent Lady), 
 and, as the argument given in part above and in part below makes 
 clear, the Tent adventure is closely bound to incidents that come 
 later. Second, the Queen in the folk-tales married her visitor; 
 but the Tent Lady could not marry Perceval; another damsel 
 had already been set apart for him. Whence the Tent Lord could 
 arise is a query. Third, the similarities of the folk-tales are mainly 
 with the Perceval, not with the Iwain, tale; yet the two latter tales 
 drew upon a common source for their story of the Suspected Lady. 
 
 The resemblances are interesting, but the discussion need not
 
 no SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 go farther until we have more grounds for suspecting a kinship 
 between the folk-tales and the Tent adventure. 
 
 I have spoken of the Tent Lord's suspicion (the jealousy of 
 Laudine's seneschal is its equivalent in the Iwain tale) as one of 
 the main threads of connection in the Suspected Lady's story. 
 
 The second link to connect the Tent adventure with subsequent 
 events is the Tent Lady's ring. In SP, Yv, and LF there are two 
 rings. Lunete's ring of darkness, so far as I can see, lies outside 
 of our comparison. The mother's ring in SP is to be compared with 
 a ring of recognition in Conall and LD. Yvain's second ring, the 
 one of magic power, received from Laudine, is the equivalent of 
 the one Perceval takes from the Tent Lady, who asserts that its 
 wearer can be neither wounded nor slain {SP, 1857-64). Comment 
 on the connection with the ''stone of victory" in Red Sh will be 
 made in the Conclusion. 
 
 The giant fight of SP I thought, for a time earlier in my study, 
 had an analogue in a giant combat in Wauchier's Continuation, 
 (23880 ff., same in Wisse and Colin's German rendering). But 
 the similarities are not very specific. The trouble with any giant's 
 single combat is that it is very much like every other one; all 
 have been conventionalized. The giant is fond of the flesh of 
 beautiful damsels; he appears for battle, clad usually in skins and 
 armed with a fearsome club ;^ the fight is furious; the hero maims 
 
 ' In the odd description of the club in SP I hoped for a clue, but little has come of it. The 
 following account contains, besides the embeUished club, a caldron of cure that may be compared 
 with the magic draft and the bath given to Perceval's mother. 
 
 Thief. — King Conal overcame and bound the Thief, who saved his Ufe by telling a story 
 of how he had been nearer death than he was at this time [a common device of plot-structure 
 in these tales]: .... "The big giant waited and waited, grew angry, took his great iron club 
 
 with nine lumps and nine hooks on it He ran toward me, raised the club, and brought it 
 
 down with what strength there was in him. I stepped aside quickly; the club sank in the earth 
 to the depth of a common man's knee. While the giant was drawing the club with both hands, 
 I stabbed him three times in the stomach, and sprang away to some distance. He ran forward a 
 second time, and came near hitting me; again the club sank in the ground, and I stabbed him 
 four times, for he was weaker from blood loss, and was a longer time freeing the club. The 
 third time the club grazed me, and tore my whole side with a sharp iron hook. The giant 
 fell to his knees, but could neither rise nor make a cast of the club at me; soon he was on his 
 elbow, gnashing his teeth and raging. I was growing weaker, and knew that I was lost imless 
 someone assisted me. The young woman [giant's captive] had come down, and was present at 
 the struggle. 'Run now,' said I to her, 'for the giant's sword, and take the head off him.' 
 She ran quickly, brought the sword, and as brave as a man took the head off the giant. 'Death 
 is not far from me now,' said I. 'I will carry you quickly to the giant's caldron of cure, and
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED III 
 
 the giant, topples him over, and dispatches him. Such accounts are 
 common, and examples need not be enumerated. My reason for 
 thinking the Perceval and the Iwain giant combats related is — 
 aside from their type similarity and their occurrence in sequences 
 of events otherwise similar — that in each case the hero relieves a 
 distressed kinswoman of Gawain by slaying the monster. Mr. 
 Nutt reached the decision that the giant battle was a part of the 
 primitive form of the Perceval tale; and Mr. Brown concluded that 
 the giant battle was, likewise, an event in the primitive Iwain tale. 
 The topic is reverted to in the Conclusion. 
 
 In the account of the mother, SP weaves in two matters that 
 show resemblances to the Iwain tale. The first, her kinship to 
 Gawain {SP, 1441, 1457), has just been referred to. The other 
 is her dementia. To expand this: (a) In SP the mother sees a 
 ring she had given her son, and thinking he must be dead, she 
 becomes insane: Iwain has taken from him a ring his love had given 
 him, and thinking she is now lost to him, goes insane, {b) Both 
 wander in the woods and live like wild animals.^ (c) The mother 
 is cured by a drink that had been brewed by the giant, hence it is, 
 of course, magical; then she is given a bath: Yvain is cured 
 through the kindness of the Lady of Noroison, who has him anointed 
 with a balm (magical, of course) given her by Morgue the Wise 
 (2946-47). 
 
 The similarities shown by SP, Yv, and LF are too numerous, 
 too specific, too significant to be explained as due to chance or as 
 romance commonplaces: in all three versions a damsel, not the 
 
 give you life,' said the young woman. With that, she raised me on her back, and hurried out 
 of the cellar. When she had me on the edge of the caldron, the death faint was on me, I was 
 dying; but I was not long in the pot when I revived, and soon was as well as ever." [The hero 
 gave some of the giant's treasure to the woman, and they parted.] — J. Curtin, "Black Thief 
 and King Conal's Horses," Hero Tales, 93-113. esp. pp. iio-ii. 
 
 ' Madness and magic balm both occur in the tale of Blaiman, though not together. 
 
 Blaiman. — Blaiman's uncles were left with his wife on a ship and they sailed away with 
 her [cf. the treachery in Red Sh, etc.]. When Blaiman returned, "he found neither wife, ship, 
 nor uncles before him. He ran away like one mad, would not return to his father-in-law, but 
 went wild in the woods, and began to Uve like the beasts of the wilderness. One time he came 
 out on an edge of the forest, which was on a headland running into the sea, and saw a vessel 
 near land; he was coming to his senses, and signalled." [No magic was used for his cure; but 
 elsewhere in the tale an old woman three different times "put him into a caldron of venom, and 
 then into a caldron of cure" to heal his wounds.] — J. Curtin, "Blaiman," Hero Tales, 373-406, 
 esp. 402, 383, etc.
 
 112 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 heroine, furnishes food, drink, and a magic ring to the hero; and 
 months later is found in duress and freed by him from punishment 
 inflicted because of her real or supposed kindness to him. In all 
 three versions the hero and Gawain do battle until they recognize 
 each other, the two being warm friends. In all three the hero 
 entertains King Arthur at the castle of the heroine; in two versions 
 this entertainment is combined with the hero's wedding-feast 
 and in two versions it occurs immediately after the combat between 
 the hero and Gawain. In all three the hero does battle against 
 a giant to free a lady, who, in two versions, is a near relative of 
 Gawain. In all three the battle against the giant is closely associ- 
 ated with the rescue of the damsel whose ring the hero has worn. 
 
 The evidence of W, which has been of signal worth in other 
 places, does not wholly fail us in connection with this story. W 
 has preserved, though in a different place, the battle between 
 Perceval and Gawain, when the two heroes fight without recog- 
 nizing each other. The combat is noticeably like the Yvain- 
 Gawain combat in Yv."- It comes, moreover, near the climax — 
 or is it the climax ? — of the story in W in which Gawain's sister and 
 his aunt play important parts. Parzival does not have occasion 
 to free the sister from persecution, but he does have a single com- 
 bat with the man (a magician ?) who wishes to marry her, the 
 battle being fought in Gawain's own behalf. And King Arthur is 
 in the neighborhood at the time, though he is to entertain rather 
 than be entertained. Again, in all four versions Perceval meets 
 the Tent Lady upon the first occasion near his boyhood home, 
 and in SP the second meeting appears to occur in the same neigh- 
 borhood (2137-40; butcf. 2201-5); and W^ localizes the first meeting 
 in the forest of Broceliande.^ Yv, of course, localizes the Fountain 
 
 'Miss Weston {Mod. Lang. Quarterly, I [1898-99], 200) noticed this similarity: "I am 
 strongly tempted to believe that such a fight was an integral part of the early Gawain legend. 
 We have no fewer than four instances, the foemen being respectively Parzival, Yvain, Gareth, 
 and Meraugis. That the Yvain story has been afiFected by the Perceval legend also seems 
 probable from the circumstances of the maiden's reproaches to Yvain, which strongly resemble 
 the incident of the Grail Messenger's attack upon Perceval." The Gareth battle occurs in 
 Malory, Book VII, chap. iii. W, of course, preceding this combat is paralleled by the last 
 portion of C. 
 
 ' The ways in which Wolfram (or his source) may have been led to the use of "Broce- 
 liande " (Prizljan) are too many to permit any great weight to attach to this bit of evidence, but 
 taken with other things, it appears worthy of statement.
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED II3 
 
 and its chapel, Lunete's prison, in Broceliande. Wolfram (or his 
 source, again) must have recognized a resemblance between the 
 Tent Lady's woes and Enid's trials (in Erec), for he made Jeschute 
 (his Tent Lady) the sister of Erec (III, 542-43). And Erec shows 
 still another resemblance. The two incidents that constitute the 
 history of the Tent Lady are easily comparable to the story of the 
 Lady of the Silver Bed^ in the Joy-of-the-Court episode in Erec 
 (5878-6161) and the Welsh Geraint (pp. 243-44) ; the two differences 
 being, first, that the Tent Lady's history is divided, other incidents 
 intervening between its two parts, while the other Lady's history 
 is not so broken; and, second, the Tent Lady is sorely punished 
 while the Lady of the Silver Bed is not, but it is interesting that 
 much of the rest of Erec is devoted to an account of how a wife 
 is persecuted by her husband.^ And we round back into connection 
 with the Gawain battle and the battle for Gawain's relative in 
 that in W these battles come just after Gawain's adventures (Books 
 XI, XII) of the Wonderful Bed and the breaking of a bough in a 
 magical garden, which are roughly comparable to the adventures 
 of the Joy-of-the-Court episode. 
 
 W, then, appears to be, or to have drawn upon, a variant of 
 the story preserved in SP and Yv. 
 
 SF and C tell the Tent Lady's story with considerable differ- 
 ences. Which is the older version ? If, for a First Supposition, 
 we grant that C is the older, then we must account for SF by assum- 
 ing a contamination from some form of the Iwain tale. But while 
 any reader of the tales will, I beheve, perceive easily the resem- 
 blances here pointed out between SF and the Iwain tales, I do not 
 believe he will arrive at the conclusion that SF is the result of the 
 
 ' Had the Lady been husbandless, I should have said cf. the golden bed of the tales sum- 
 marized above, pp. 105 S. 
 
 ' In Geraint, as in SP, C, and W, the husband suspects his wife's faithfulness to him; in 
 Erec Crestien found a different motive for Erec's conduct. I see no reason why the Erec con- 
 nection should have suggested "Broceliande" to Wolfram. The Joy-of-the-Court episode is 
 usually considered as developed from a fee adventure (it is so much abbreviated it is a difficult 
 subject to form any conclusions about). Many scholars (cf. Brown's "Iwain," Hart. Stud, 
 and Notes, VIII) hold the Fountain Lady tale to be of similar descent. Brown was of the 
 opinion that the story of Lunete's punishment and rescue was not a part of the early form of 
 the tale (op. cit., p. 133). 
 
 It looks not improbable to me that a single story was the common ancestor of the Joy-of-the- 
 Court portion of Erec and (a highly rationalized form of it) of the Tent Lady and the Lunete 
 portions of SP and Yv.
 
 114 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 crossing of an Iwain tale through a condensed version of C. Such 
 an assumption will leave W still unaccounted for. If, for the 
 Second Supposition, we presume SP to represent the earHer form, 
 then the disappearance from C of magic and of the giant, and along 
 with the giant the relative of Gawain, is to be accounted for in 
 accordance with a principle enounced above (p. 67). The absence 
 from C, also, of the hero's marriage, and the Gawain battle and 
 the entertainment of the King, which were closely associated with 
 the marriage, may receive some light from the considerations that 
 follow. The Second Supposition carries with it as a corollary 
 the assumption that LF rather than Yv preserves the original 
 sequence of events in the Iwain tale. If so, then Crestien, or his 
 predecessor, deliberately shifted the battle between the hero and 
 Gawain to serve as an imposing end for his version of the Iwain 
 tale. Since C is unfinished, it is certainly possible to hold that the 
 author intended to transfer some or all of these three omitted ( ?) 
 events to the end of his Perceval tale.^ The possibility is strength- 
 ened by the fact that just that transference occurs in W, where 
 the Gawain combat, Gawain's kinswoman (both a sister and an 
 aunt), and the reunion, if not the marriage, with the heroine (already 
 a wife) provide the material for the last of the tale. And lastly, 
 chapters I, III, and IV, supra, have all shown that SP represents 
 the early form of the tale more closely than C does. 
 
 The results set forth in this chapter have not so ample a founda- 
 tion as those in chapter III, but it appears to me to be almost certain 
 that the story of the Suspected Lady was incorporated into a frame- 
 work to make the tale of Perceval. This chapter, too, accords 
 completely with the preceding chapters in furnishing evidence that 
 the tale was old enough and popular enough to occur in variants, 
 for SP, C, and Wolfram-Kiot's version appear to have drawn upon 
 variant forms of the Suspected Lady's story. The manner of 
 incorporation of story into frame-tale will be discussed more in 
 detail in the Conclusion. The points of contact were a magic 
 ring (or stone) already present in the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle 
 story, the King's search for the hero, and the hero's departure 
 from and reunion with his wife. 
 
 ' Indeed, the last of C looks like the torso of an elaboration of this story on a large scale.
 
 THE RESCUE OF THE LADY FALSELY ACCUSED II5 
 
 In SP the hero is reunited with his mother and then returns to 
 his wife, and the tale ends. In all versions, Perceval's purpose in 
 leaving the Besieged Lady (Lufamour-Blancheflur) is to seek his 
 mother. In the Grail group he is not to find her, for she died 
 when her son parted from her in the forest; he hears of her death, 
 and is shortly afterward plunged into a new set of adventures. In 
 SP she is still living, and he returns with her to the city of his 
 queen-wife. To this extent. Card ends much as SP does. In 
 Red Sh the hero, on his way returning to court, finds his father 
 acting as a ferryman, to which lowly position he has been reduced 
 by the hero's deserting companions; taking him upon his back 
 (cf. the parallel situation in SP), the hero bears him to court and 
 by his might secures him a position of honor; the hero at this time 
 and place rejoins his bride. 
 
 Wauchier and Manessier make their hero a celibate. C is 
 unfinished. In Pd the hero does not marry the Besieged Lady, 
 but he is no ceUbate, his fourteen years with the Empress of Cristi- 
 nobyl being a trial marriage at least. In the other tales the hero 
 marries the lady he has freed from siege, and through her, in most 
 cases, wins a crown and realm; and such, doubtless, in a preliterary 
 day, was the consummation of the Perceval tale.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 By way of conclusion, I wish to restate succinctly the elements 
 of the tale so far as these have been found separable ; to discuss the 
 probable growth of these elements into the Perceval tale ; to present 
 a brief comment upon the home and early travels of the tale; and 
 to offer a word upon the relation of SP to C. 
 
 The events studied in chapters I and II — the father's death, the 
 widow's flight, the forest rearing, the boyish exploits, the revelation 
 of knightly life, and the hero's departure to seek the court of the 
 king — are, as we have seen, some or all of them to be found in a 
 goodly number of widely scattered tales. But these events are not 
 such as could ever have stood alone, could, that is, ever have 
 formed a "story," for by nature they are but precursory to those 
 events of the hero's life that made it the life of a hero. 
 
 The results of chapter III are such as to show that the Perceval 
 tale includes a group of events — the Red Knight- Witch-Uncle story 
 — that occurs in completer form elsewhere. Hence we decided there 
 that this "story" was in some manner absorbed into a frame-tale. 
 
 Chapter IV, which is concerned with what is the climax of the 
 plot in SP, the adventure by which the hero wins his wife, adduces 
 the materials of the Saracen Influence. The events are not such as 
 to compose a "story." And the materials for the discussion of this 
 "influence" are scanty. 
 
 In chapter V we find that SP contains a series of incidents that 
 occur elsewhere in so much the same fashion as to lead us to believe 
 that they, combined with some events from chapter II, likewise 
 constitute a story, the Tent Lady-Giant story. Again the mate- 
 rials, confined to three versions, are scanty; but since the contamina- 
 tion of either tale by the other (the Perceval and the Iwain tales, 
 in the versions now accessible) would be a hypothesis most difiicult 
 to maintain, we decided upon the existence of this story in some 
 form independent of either of these tales. The later events, the 
 hero's search for his mother, his reunion with her, and his return 
 
 ii6
 
 CONCLUSION 117 
 
 to his wife, as they occur in SP, are subsidiary, and can never have 
 stood alone as a story. 
 
 These observations, then, lead us to conclude that the various 
 Perceval tales, or versions of the Perceval tale, are sprung from a 
 frame-tale that developed by incorporating into itself stories which 
 had previously had an existence independent of it. Such a pro- 
 cess of growth by absorption appears, so far as I am able to see, by 
 no means abnormal. Pd affords a striking exemplification of it 
 within our own cycle. The modern folk-tales show it frequently. 
 
 Thus far we have depended upon analysis mainly. Let us 
 extract the accretionary stories, and then test our results by the 
 method of synthesis. In making the subtractions we need to bear 
 in mind that if we were to deduct everything in the incorporated 
 story we should tear away parts of the frame-tale, for, I take it, 
 it was a similarity of some incident or situation in the frame-tale 
 to an incident or situation in the added story that led the teller 
 of the tale to make the incorporation. 
 
 A-Stage. — The Frame-Tale. — The frame-tale had in it approxi- 
 mately these incidents: 
 
 (i) The father's death by violence (variants), (2) the mother's flight to a 
 forest, (3) the boyish exploits, (4) the mother's explanation in reply to her son's 
 questions, (5) the hero's discovery of the existence of a knightly life (variants), 
 
 (6) the mother's advice (in some simple form) when the hero leaves the forest, 
 
 (7) the arrival at court, (8) the heroine's request for aid, (9) the hero's rescue 
 of the heroine (variants), (10) the hero's marriage and consequent succession 
 to high estate, (11) the messenger to inform the king of the hero's success, (12) 
 a battle with a giant to save a damsel, (13) the hero's reunion with his mother. 
 
 Perhaps three other incidents were parts of this tale. The revenge 
 motive was distinctly present, and there may have been an incident 
 embodying it. Again, if the hero left his wife, there was the inci- 
 dent of their reunion. And finally, there may have been, following 
 upon (11), the incident (nx), the king's visit to the hero. 
 
 Concerning (12), the battle with a giant, I am in doubt. It may 
 have had another position, or it may not have been in the tale at 
 all. The incident could have entered the Perceval tale first in the 
 Tent Lady-Giant story, or its presence in the tale already in some 
 form could have helped bring about the absorption of that story.
 
 Il8 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 I have included the incident in the frame-tale because so many 
 versions of it have a battle with a giant in some form. Incident (4), 
 the mother's explanation, was originally for the purpose of showing 
 the lad's simple-mindedness, and it probably included either just 
 the lad's question and the mother's reply that they two were the 
 only people in the world, or this and the additional explanation as 
 to how to slay beasts and bring them home for food. 
 
 As for variants, the father's death, incident (i), must have been 
 accomplished by violence to account for the mother's terror and 
 flight, but variants could easily have arisen; he might be slain by 
 treachery as in Card and W, in battle as in Fool, or in tourney as 
 in Pd and SP. In incident (4) the means by which the knowledge 
 of knighthood (or martial life) came to the hero was of secondary 
 importance, and hence variants arose; it might be the appearance 
 of knights as in the Perceval tale and Card, the sight of a dead 
 knight in armor as in Liheaus Desconus, or the sight of a horse as 
 in Fool. The place in which we should expect most variants is the 
 account of how the heroine was won. The more the feat showed 
 wonderful power in the hero, the better the tale. The heroine 
 might need rescue from an enchanter who held her in bespelled 
 form as in Card, or she might be under a spell that could be removed 
 only by the accomplishment of a particular deed as in Ty, or (when 
 we reach a narrator far removed from the folk-singer in temper) 
 she might be held besieged by normal men as in C. 
 
 In this stage the hero was not yet definitely named, and was in 
 appearance a fool but in reality a predestined hero. He was the 
 only one who could rescue the heroine, and his coming had been 
 prophesied. 
 
 In the summary I have not supplied details; and it is wholly 
 possible the frame-tale was never quite so simple as I have made 
 it appear. But even as it is, this summary appears to me to be the 
 outline of a tale; it is too specific and (if the reader will supply the 
 meanings the phrases have borne in the foregoing pages) too detailed 
 to be considered merely a formula, such, for example, as the "Aryan 
 Expulsion and Return Formula."' The ninth and the tenth inci- 
 dents are formula-like, and the reason for their being so was stated 
 a few sentences back. 
 
 'Cf. Hahn, Arische Aussetzung und RUckkehr Formel; Nutt, Stud., 153-54-
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 119 
 
 This frame-tale underlies a pretty large number of tales, which 
 have grown into their present form by the incorporation of different 
 materials. And it is this twofold fact that accounts for the tanta- 
 lizing resemblances that scholars have often noted. A table will 
 be the best means for showing what I mean. The numerals refer 
 to the incidents in the summary. A bracket means that the 
 evidence of the tale seems to me to warrant the inference that the 
 bracketed incident, though now gone, was once a part of the tale. 
 
 SP 
 
 w 
 
 c 
 
 PC 
 
 Pd 
 
 Card* 
 
 Libeaus D . . 
 
 Fool. 
 Ty.. 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 
 ii:»; 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 [4] 
 4 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 7 
 7 
 
 
 9 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 II 
 
 iia;? 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 b 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 S 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 9: 
 
 O'Daly 
 
 'M 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 version ) 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 two 
 
 MSS 
 
 13? 
 
 •This summary accounts for much the larger part of Schofield's "Version A" {Harv. S. 
 and N., IV, 154-57); of the nine sections, or groups of incidents, he sets up, his 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 
 do not appear in my summary. The right of his 4 to a place in the summary is dubious; his 
 3 is rather vague; 8 is really a part of 7; and 7 is a good deal of a commonplace (see his note). 
 I am not sure but that an adventure with a fay or an enchantress, which Ues at the bottom of 
 Schofield's 6, was a part of our frame-tale (cf. the fay in Ty and the faery in Fool), but the indi- 
 cations are faint and much overlaid, and consequently I have preferred to risk an omission 
 rather than make an expedition into the dangerous realm of the fays. 
 
 Bel Inconnu and Wigalois have been much changed; cf. Schofield, op. cit. 
 
 B-Stage. — The second stage is the result of the incorporation 
 of the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story into this frame-tale. From 
 the evidence of SP, W, Pd{h), G, and the folk-tales we reconstruct 
 the story with about the following incidents : 
 
 (14) A magician's insult to the king and departure with some object belong- 
 ing to him (teeth, cup), (15) the despised youth's offer to avenge the insult, 
 (16) (a) his start and (b) early adventures, (17) (a) the meeting with a damsel 
 (b) who gives him directions and (c) a magic ring (stone of victory), (18) (a) 
 the encounter with the three young men (with or without their father), {b) 
 who are the hero's relatives, and (c) under a spell, (19) (a) the battle in their 
 behalf and (b) the death of the crone of the magic balm, (20) the hero's second 
 visit to his relatives, (21) the death of the magician and the recovery of the 
 king's property, (22) the hero's return to court, (23) the bestowal of honor by 
 the king, (24) (a) the marriage of the hero (b) to the damsel who had given him 
 the ring.
 
 I20 
 
 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Doubtless this summary is incomplete. The hero was pretty 
 surely accompanied by companions, who may or may not have 
 proved false to him; in Red Sh they prove false and carry off the 
 heroine;^ in Conall companions join him on the way and assist 
 him,^ and he provides wives for them; in Pd{h) only one companion 
 (Etlym) appears, else the account is rather similar to Conall. 
 Between incidents (21) and (22) may have occurred the reunion 
 of the hero and his parent, as in Red Sh; in Conall the father is 
 found in duress and righted in the same position but in another 
 manner. 
 
 The presence of the incident in which the hero receives a magic 
 ring from a damsel is assured, first, by the nature of the battle he 
 had to fight, in which he would need magic to overcome magic; 
 and, secondly and more strongly, by the testimony of Pd{b), Red 
 Sh variant d (and cf. the magic shoes of variant a), and by the 
 interchange of rings in Conall and other tales. 
 
 The table shows the sequence of incidents in the more important 
 versions of the story. It is arranged in two divisions. 
 
 Versions unaffected by the Saracen Influence: 
 
 Red Sh 
 
 Variant e . . 
 Ransom . . . 
 Champion . 
 Fear Dubh 
 Faolan .... 
 Manus. . . . 
 
 Dough 
 
 Kil Arthur. 
 
 Big Men . . 
 Lawn D. . . 
 G 
 
 14 
 
 IS 
 
 16 
 
 17a 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 14 
 
 IS 
 
 16 
 
 17a 
 
 I Sac 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 ? 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 (Sub) 
 
   * 
 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 , . 
 
 20 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 
 
 (18) 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 (21) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lyab 
 
 iSac 
 
 19 
 
 186 
 
 (20) 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 
 (17?) 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (17) 
 
 iSac 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 
 
 
 ijab 
 
 I Sac 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 
 (+Sub 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 for c) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 
 
 I Sac 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 (Sub) 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 IS 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 24 
 24 
 
 24a 
 
 24 
 
 24a 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 Versions subjected to the Saracen Influence (the list is given here; 
 the Influence itself produced the fourth, or D-Stage; cf . infra) : 
 
 ' At court one of these companions insults the heroine (who has just greeted the hero with 
 a laugh), and is punished therefor; perhaps such an incident should be included in the summary, 
 for doubtless it is the original of C's account of the damsel who first honors Perceval and is 
 insulted by Kay, who in his turn is punished by Perceval. The insult to the king in C's 
 source drew the insult to the damsel into the court scene as a companion piece. 
 
 ' Conall is so far altered that the insulter has ceased to be a magician, is overthrown by 
 the hero, and then becomes one of the companions.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 121 
 
 SP 
 
 Conall . . . 
 W (Par- 
 zival).. 
 
 (Gah- 
 muret). 
 Pd{b).... 
 
 24 
 
 lyac 
 16 
 
 i7flc 
 j6ab 
 
 17 
 
 17b 
 (Sigune) 
 
 186 
 
 14 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 IS 
 IS 
 
 15 
 
 i6a 
 160 
 
 16 
 
 21 
 21 
 
 21 
 i&ac 
 
 iqb 
 19 
 
 19a 
 17 
 
 18 
 i8a6 
 
 1 8a 
 19 
 
 24 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 20 
 
 19a 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 22 
 
 23 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 24a 
 24 
 
 The process by which the story was absorbed into the frame-tale, 
 expounded in chapter III, may be recapitulated here. The magi- 
 cian's arrival at court and insult to the king (14) dislocated the ar- 
 rival of the messenger bearing the heroine's request for aid (8) . The 
 other incidents of the story, excepting (17), the meeting with the 
 damsel of the magic ring, then followed down to (21), the death of 
 the magician and the return of the king's property, though the 
 sequence was altered. Incident (17), the gift of the magic ring 
 that was to be needed in the combat against the magician, the carlin, 
 and her allies, could not easily have been omitted; with the new 
 order of events produced by the incorporation, it was necessary 
 for the hero to meet the damsel either between his departure from 
 court and his encounter with the magician insulter or before his 
 arrival at court; and the latter was early preferred. Incidents (18) 
 and (20), the hero's two visits to his relatives, were easily amal- 
 gamated, or one visit was dropped; the G and Red Sh versions 
 of the story show two visits, Conall shows only one, and Pd{b) 
 was congealed while in the intermediate state: G makes it sure 
 that a two-visit form of the tale was associated with Perceval. It 
 was after the second visit that he went to the relief of the heroine. 
 By giving to a single hero the deeds of two, the tale-teller had 
 placed himself in the way of providing his hero with two wives, 
 which looks to us like a problem to solve, though solving it would 
 have given little trouble to the teller of Red Sh variant h, who says 
 of his hero that he "married the three ladies at once." Incident (22), 
 the hero's return to court, was lost in incident (11), the sending of 
 a messenger to court to announce the hero's success. Doubtless 
 in earlier times the hero was said to slay all his enemies ; later some 
 of them were saved alive and substituted for the messenger of 
 success; and the notion of sending captive knights to court was
 
 122 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 one that would grow rapidly in favor with literary tellers of the 
 tale. Incidents (23) and (24) were swallowed up in the marriage 
 of the Besieged Lady and the honors and estates won thereby. 
 
 Other changes have been commented on in chapters III and IV: 
 how the Uncle came to be made uncle of the heroine in C; the death 
 of the Uncle's sons or brothers in the war for the heroine in C and 
 W; how Sigune is the representative of a damsel in the incorporated 
 story; etc. Some additional comment concerning the damsel with 
 the ring is to be made a few pages below. 
 
 The tale at the end of the B-Stage, then, would be about 
 thus: 
 
 (i) The father's marriage; (2) his death in tournament or by treachery; 
 (3) the mother's flight to the forest; (4) the boyish exploits; (5) the mother's 
 explanation (or instruction) ; (6) the hero's meeting with knights in the forest; 
 
 (7) the mother's advice (probably in simple form) at the hero's departure; 
 
 (8) the meeting with a damsel who bestows a ring on the hero ; (9) the arrival 
 at court (king's welcome, the prophecy, etc.); (10) the magician's insult and 
 departure with a goblet ; (11) the hero in pursuit ; (12) the magician overthrown 
 and the goblet sent back; (13) the first visit to the relatives who need help; 
 (14) the battle against the carlin and her allies; (15) the second visit to the 
 relatives; (16) the messenger for aid for the heroine; (17) the battle to relieve 
 her — this incident showing varying degrees of contamination from 13, 14, and 
 15; (18) the marriage feast; (19) messenger of success; (20) a battle with a 
 giant to save a damsel; (21) the hero's reunion with his mother and return to 
 his wife. 
 
 C-Stage. — The third stage resulted from the weaving in of the 
 Tent Lady-Giant story. The sources are too few for us to deter- 
 mine the limits of this story with any exactness. As near as the 
 incidents may be stated, we find them as follows: 
 
 (22) The hero, entering a lady's castle, finds food and drink, and receives 
 from the lady or her companion a magic ring; [next follows the hero's marriage, 
 but the bride is not the lady who had bestowed the ring] ; (23) the king desires to 
 see the hero; (24) the king's arrival in the midst of the marriage feast; (25) 
 the hero's encounter with the king's party — the battle between friends (one 
 being Gawain) who do not at first recognize each other; (26) the king enter- 
 tained; [the hero's departure from his wife]; (27) the meeting with the lady 
 in distress because of her former connection with the hero; (28) the battle 
 in her behalf; (29) the resulting battle with a giant, (30) which was fought to 
 relieve a kinswoman of Gawain.
 
 CONCLUSION 123 
 
 Three tales contain this story — SP, Yv, LF; a fairly full form 
 of it appears to have been known to Wolfram's predecessor; and 
 C and Pd contain emaciated forms of it. 
 
 Before it appeared in the Perceval tale, it was so far subjected 
 to the influence of some such tale as the one of which Erec is the 
 hero, that the person who persecutes the damsel of the ring for her 
 kindness to the hero is her husband. Apparently madness con- 
 nected with a ring was part of this story. 
 
 The points of similarity that led to the incorporation of story and 
 tale were about these: — {a) incident (8), the meeting with a maiden 
 who bestows a ring on the hero (preserved from the Red Knight- 
 Witch-Uncle story), and incident (22), the encounter with the damsel 
 of the ring in the Tent Lady-Giant story— the magic ring and the 
 need of it in each case being the points of contact, the former inci- 
 dent being absorbed into the latter, but determining the latter's 
 position in the tale;^ {b) incidents (16), the messenger seeking aid, 
 and (23), the king's desire to see the hero; (c) the marriage feast 
 
 ' It seems to me quite likely that the evolution of the Tent adventure may have been more 
 complex than I have indicated above. In this footnote I may present one or two ideas concern- 
 ing it that are based upon materials too scanty to entitle them to a presentation in the body of 
 the paragraph, {a) The hero's meeting with a damsel who gives him a magic ring or token is 
 a pretty well estabUshed event, drawn from the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story, (i) In some 
 forms of that story the hero comes to the house of the Young Men, enters a room in solitude, 
 finds food set out and helps himself, and then later (in another room ?) meets with the sister 
 of the Young Men, who welcomes him; such, more or less exactly, happens in Faolan, Manus 
 (damsel is absent). Dough, Red Sh var. d. Nowhere does he find this damsel asleep, (c) 
 Given the castle, the food, the going into more than one room, and the damsel, it would have 
 been easy for some of the story of the visit to the sleeping damsel (as in Lonesome, for example) 
 to enter. The original sleeping damsel is guarded by serpents, lions, and other monsters, 
 whom the hero must escape while they too are asleep; in the reconstructed (euhemerized ?) 
 account, the monster to be avoided is the jealous husband. The precipitate from the com- 
 mixture of these events, then, was in the tale ready to assist the absorption of the Tent Lady- 
 Giant story. 
 
 SP knew only this form. But another form seems to have had this and in addition the 
 meeting with the sister of the Young Men when she sat upon a hillside or by a forest and held 
 on her knee the head of a sleeping warrior; from this second form sprang C and W, with their 
 giermaine cosine and Sigune. 
 
 When two women appear in the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story (as in Pd{b), Bookedy, 
 Lawn D, etc.), they were originally, I incline to think, but two appearances of the same per- 
 sonage; nevertheless the tales do not state as much, and I may be wrong in reading anything 
 of the sort into them. 
 
 Miss Paton (^Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romances, Boston [1003], pp. 
 153 ff.) equates the Empress of Pd{b) with Morgain la Fee. Doubtless both of the women in 
 the Red Knight-Witch-Uncle story were supernatural beings, but to equate either of them with 
 Morgain is, so far as I can see, a mistake.
 
 124 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 was an amalgamating point, drawing within its limits incidents (i8), 
 (19), (24), (25), and (26), the marriage feast and messenger of suc- 
 cess in the frame-tale, and the king's desire to see the hero, his arrival 
 in the midst of the marriage feast, and the hero's encounter with 
 members of the royal household (especially Gawain) in the story; 
 {d) incident (20), a battle with a giant to free a damsel, and the 
 incidents (29) and (30), the battle with a giant to bring relief to 
 Gawain 's kinswoman. 
 
 After the setting up of this stage and before the time of any 
 version that remains to us the tale must have continued to grow. 
 
 The mother's explanation, developed into the Instruction, was 
 brought into a connection with the appearance of the knights in 
 the forest, and the hero's error of supposing them God was worked 
 out. The Advice and the incident at the Tent were correlated; 
 in the stories used, the hero took a ring, and food and drink, and 
 kissed the Lady; the kiss and the Lord's treatment of the Tent 
 Lady were already estabhshed affairs; then the Mother's Advice 
 was revised to include these matters: this explanation does not 
 make the Advice seem natural in a mother's mouth, but it at 
 least supposes natural steps by which the Advice could come to 
 be what it is.^ 
 
 The later parts of the tale, from the arrival at court on, do not 
 appear to have needed much readjustment. 
 
 The name Perceval did not dispossess other names for the hero 
 until the tale entered the third, or C-Stage. 
 
 At the end of the C-Stage the tale ran about thus: 
 
 (i) The father's marriage; (2) his death in tournament or by treachery; 
 (3) the mother's iiight to the forest; (4) the boyish exploits; (5) the mother's 
 instruction; (6) the hero's meeting with knights in the forest; (7) the mother's 
 advice (expanded) at the hero's departure; (8) the adventure at the Hall (or 
 Tent), including the meal, the kissing of the sleeping lady, and the departure 
 with her magic ring; (9) the arrival at court (king's welcome, perplexity, etc.) ; 
 
 " Of course I am aware that rationality is no essential in directions to a hero in folk-tales; 
 he may be irrationally advised to do the absurdest things, which in the end prove to be the 
 wisest things; but I wonder if we should not find, if we knew the whole truth, that the wise- 
 absurd deeds were thought of first and then the irrational advice or instruction adapted to 
 fit them ? The interest of an audience in the bearing of such advice upon such deeds is similar 
 to the interest in the connection of a riddle to its answer. And does one invent a riddle and 
 then discover the answer, or think of an answer and then invent a perplexing question to fit it ?
 
 CONCLUSION 125 
 
 (10) the magician's insult and departure with the king's goblet; (11) the hero 
 in pursuit; (12) the magician overthrown and the goblet sent back; (13) the 
 hero's first visit with the relatives who need help; (14) the battle against the 
 carlin and her allies; (15) the second visit to the relatives; (16) the heroine's 
 messenger for aid; (17) the battle to relieve her — this incident showing vary- 
 ing degrees of contamination from 13, 14, 15; (18) the marriage feast; (19) 
 the king's desire to see the hero (roused by the messenger's report of the hero's 
 deeds) and departure to seek him; (20) the king's arrival in the midst of the 
 marriage feast; (21) the hero's encounter with members of the king's house- 
 hold — the battle between two friends (hero and Gawain) who do not recog- 
 nize each other at first; (22) the king entertained at the wife's castle; (23) 
 the hero's departure to seek his mother; (24) the meeting with the lady in dis- 
 tress because of her former connection with the hero; (25) the overthrow of 
 her oppressor; (26) the resulting battle with a giant; (27) the relief of Gawain's 
 kinswoman persecuted by the giant; (28) the hero's reunion with his mother 
 and his return to his wife. 
 
 D-Stage. — Doubtless the tale, in the C-Stage, had minor varia- 
 tions for each narrator. But it appears to have entered into a new 
 stage when two streams of the tradition became marked, of which one 
 continued on its way with little alteration except such as came from 
 weathering, while the other was changed by being subjected to the 
 Saracen Influence. From the first stream came C and G; from 
 the second, SP, W, Pd{b), and parts of Pd{a). 
 
 In chapter IV I have explained what I mean by "Saracen Influ- 
 ence" — not at all the influence of eastern tales or eastern adven- 
 tures upon this tale, but the effect produced by a change of conno- 
 tation in some of the phrases already present within the tale, and 
 the consequent alteration in its supposititious geography. This 
 influence appears not uncommonly in Gaelic tales. And SP, W, 
 and Pd(b) show it. To account for its origin, there is no need to 
 presume contaminations from Charlemagne or other romances, 
 nor to suspect additions from persons who had been among the 
 Crusaders.^ 
 
 That the ancestors of SP, W, and Pd{b) hung more closely 
 together than did those of SP and C, has been abundantly shown 
 
 ' Some of my readers must have been surprised that I have made no mention of the " Celtic 
 Other World." Scholars assure us that the terms Constantinople, Greece, Spain, Scotland, 
 Castle of Maidens, the Town under the Waves, etc., are all substitutes for, or locaUzations of, 
 the Other World; and doubtless they are right. It is perhaps true, further, that the "stories" 
 I have been discussing are of mythological descent. It would be easy and entertaining to set
 
 126 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 in the preceding pages — and this in spite of the fact that SP and C, 
 exclusively, inherit two certain strong traits of family likeness, the 
 instance of the hero's boorishness at court and the burning of the 
 Red Knight's body, as discussed supra, pp. 44 ff. In the history of 
 the father, the mother's flight, and the boyish exploits, SP and W 
 (and even Pd{a) in part) stand together as opposed to C. In the 
 account of Gurnemanz' children W contains (correctly) matter 
 that could not have come from C. And SP, W (the account of 
 Gahmuret), and Pd{b) are held together by the Saracen Influence. 
 Compare the summary on pp. 120 ff. 
 
 The tale did not cease to develop within the D-Stage. In the 
 SP-W stream the Red Knight and the Tent Lord were brought into 
 contact with the hero's father; the old notion of the father's death 
 by violence and something of a revenge motive lingered on dimly, 
 and under its influence the Knight and the Lord, who were over- 
 thrown by Perceval, were made to meet and harm the father, but 
 inasmuch as the death of the Red Knight and the downfall of the 
 Tent Lord were already established events when drawn into the 
 tale, the revenge motive was not sufiiciently strong to affect them 
 much, and consequently it lapsed — it is weak in Fool, a tale of 
 the A-Stage. 
 
 Up to, and including, the D-Stage, the tale was a biographical 
 and not a quest tale; it became a quest tale, in some versions, only 
 when some additional materials were engrafted. 
 
 After the D-Stage, still two other stories were incorporated 
 into some versions, the Grail and the Swan-Knight stories. 
 
 E-Stage. — At just what point the Grail story entered the tale 
 I must leave others to determine. That the account of the Grail 
 
 up an Other- World Visit to a Fay as the origin for one "story" {Lonesome and D'yerree would be 
 excellent tales to build on); and an adventure against dark gods — who eventually develop 
 into black men, then to Saracens — would make a good starting (or ending) point for the Red 
 Knight-Witch-Uncle story, which indeed does look like the offspring of a Solar Myth. 
 
 I have not felt forced to penetrate this hinterland in my search, and so I have stopped short 
 of it. Too often, I think, Celtic material has behaved like the horse of the Slothful Gillie in 
 Gilla Decair: the moment a student touched it, his hands stuck fast, and away it galloped with 
 him to the Other World. And to drink of the milk of Paradise is, I suspect, as dangerous as 
 to sip at the Pierian Spring. I believe that the theory of an Other- World visit can easily do 
 us harm, blind our e'es as much as the Solar-Myth hypothesis bedazzled the orbs of our fathers. 
 It explains so much that one abnost begins to doubt if it can truly explain anything.
 
 CONCLUSION 127 
 
 was a story incorporated into the Perceval tale appears to me no 
 longer subject to doubt. But whether Crestien first incorporated 
 the story' and Kiot used his version, or vice versa, or whether both 
 had a common source, or whether Kiot's version had anything of the 
 Grail in it, remains to be decided. Such few facts as I am able to 
 perceive lead rather in the direction of a decision that Crestien 
 was not^the man who made the incorporation: {a) Crestien was 
 not averse to magic and marvels (cf. Erec, Yvain, Charrette, and 
 supra, p. 67, n. 2) but that part of C that deals with Perceval 
 (the adventures connected with the Grail being excluded) 
 has magic all expunged; {b) C appears to show the work of two 
 hands — one man rigidly rationalized the Perceval tale to make it 
 a fitting vehicle for the Grail story and omitted some parts of 
 it, and then a second man, who did not know the original Perceval 
 tale, revised the first man's work, supplying a few parts (especially 
 if the disputed passage, 11. 1607-82, be genuine), and elaborated 
 the Gawain incidents at the end, in which magic again occurs. 
 
 F-Stage. — The introduction of the Swan-Knight story iJ/V, G) 
 may have preceded the E-Stage or followed it. This, too, is a 
 problem for others to solve. G's use of the Swan-Knight story 
 and its freedom (at the same time) from the Saracen Influence render 
 its position in the genealogical tale most difiicult to determine. 
 
 In the table given on p. 128 I have endeavored to indicate, 
 sketchily, the probable evolution of the Perceval tale. 
 
 Crestien is usually said to have obtained the materials for his tale 
 of Perceval from either Welsh or Armorican sources. If my analysis 
 of the tale, however, be accepted as approximately correct, we 
 find that its constituent parts have retained their life longest and 
 in the simplest shape in the lands bordering the Irish Sea and the 
 North Channel and in the islands still to the north. We know that 
 the Celtic inhabitants here are and were great story-tellers. The 
 natural gateway through which their tales would reach English 
 hearers would be the territory extending from Carlisle (or Edin- 
 
 ' Cf. Foerster's comment, Karrenrilter (large ed., 1899), p. xciv, and pp. cxl fif.
 
 128 
 
 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 A-Stage: Frame- tale 
 
 Red Kiiight-Witch-Uncle Ston' 
 
 Folk-Tales. Red Sh. elc.
 
 CONCLUSION 129 
 
 burgh) to Chester. And that it was within this territory that 
 the Perceval tale (into its D-Stage) took shape, appears to me in 
 the highest degree probable. I have shown how certain folk- 
 tales of the neighboring territory could have developed into the 
 Perceval tale: the reverse is impossible; C, the oldest written 
 version of the Perceval tale, could never have given rise to the other 
 tales we have been studying. Two or three more facts may be 
 mentioned as offering circumstantial evidence that this territory 
 was the mother-country. Pd{b) is the form of the Red Knight- 
 Witch-Uncle story that varies farthest from the norm; it is not 
 unreasonable to suspect that this condition is due to the fact that 
 while as yet in oral tradition, this version had got farthest away 
 from home, was least subject, i.e., to the check of an audience more 
 or less acquainted with it. The Addanc seems to be pecuharly 
 a Welsh substitute for the Hag and her allies.^ SP belongs by 
 dialect to this territory, and SP is not to be accounted for as a 
 descendant of any known French or other version. The tale could 
 easily have been carried east to Edinburgh, Durham, York, or 
 Lincoln, or to Wales, and thence to France, Finally, the geography 
 of all the tales in the group we have studied accords better with the 
 geography of this section than with that of any other.^ 
 
 The first of the two serious objections that can be raised against 
 this theory lies in the personal names. If SP did not owe its per- 
 sonal names — Perceval "de Galays,"^ Arthur, Gawain, Ewain, 
 
   The name of Peredur's father, Evrawc, equals York. Rhys comments {Arth. Leg., 
 75, note): "For the legend which connects Peredur with the Yorkshire town of Pickering, see 
 Stow's Annates or General Chronicles of England (London, 1615), I, 12." For arguments that 
 Welsh and Gaels came in contact in, or to, the north of Wales, see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, II, 
 553-54. and Nutt, "Mabinogion Studies," Folk Lore Record, V (1882), 1-32. On "Addanc," 
 see " Afanc" in the index to Rhys's Celtic Folklore (Oxford, igoi). 
 
 On this Northwest-of-England territory as a gateway for the entrance of Gaelic tales, cf. 
 the last of the routes discussed by G. H. Maynadier in chap, v of his Wife of Bath's Tale (London, 
 1901). 
 
 ' My argument for SP's independence of C will not be affected by any geographical decision 
 the reader may reach. He may prefer to believe that the Breton nobles and their followers 
 who were established in northwest England by William the Conqueror from 11 69 on (cf. Zim- 
 mer, Z. f. nf. Sp., XIII, qi ff., and his references to Freeman's Norman Conquest) brought 
 with them the account which was later to secure so firm a hold among the dwellers thereabouts. 
 To me it appears much more probable that the Bretons and other Continentals learned the 
 tales in the Borderland territory and carried them thence to France. Which of these two things 
 happened or whether either ever really happened, cannot as yet be determined. 
 
 ' C's form is It Gallois; SP has "the Galayse" (1643) and "de Galays" (1990).
 
 130 SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES 
 
 Kay, Acheflour — to C, there is no reason for believing it ever came 
 under the influence of the French version in the sHghtest degree. 
 Since Wolfram (Kiot) and Gerbert attributed to Perceval that which 
 they could not possibly have taken from C; since Pd(b) attributed 
 to Peredur incidents which its author could hardly have suspected 
 of being variants of some in G, even if he knew G; since a similar 
 statement may be made of SP; and since we have determined 
 that these attributions were correctly made; it is only fair to con- 
 clude that the hero became known as Perceval (Peredur, in Wales) 
 early in the C-Stage of the tale, while it as yet lived an oral life 
 and some time before it reached the hands of Crestien. The name 
 Perceval was, it would seem from the attempts to explain it, a 
 puzzle to the French romancers/ Hence, until some scholar can 
 explain its source and meaning, it should not be offered as evidence 
 against the geographical theory just propounded. 
 
 The second objection is to be found in the use of the Tent Lady- 
 Giant story. But until the provenance of the Iwain tale and its 
 component parts shall have been determined, this objection can 
 be considered as ground only for a suspended, not for an adverse, 
 judgment upon the theory. 
 
 To the reader who has been patient enough to follow me thus 
 far, let me point out this fact: PC, W, Pd, and G have been most 
 valuable as guides and controls in seeking and weighing evidence; 
 but the use of no one of them, nor of all of them put together, has 
 been an indispensable factor in the establishment of any of my 
 main contentions, with the single exception of the matter of dates; 
 for all of these contentions could have been based on the evidence 
 of the folk-tales and the Iwain tale. 
 
 Further recapitulation is not needed to show that, first, C, with 
 or without its prefaces and continuations, cannot have served as a 
 source for some parts of SP; and, second, that its influence in any 
 way is not necessarily to be supposed to account for any or all of 
 SP.^ The English poem is, I think, wholly independent of the 
 French one. 
 
   Cf. Perlesvaus, Par-lui-fet, Perce-Forest, etc., with the explanation that Perceval means 
 "through the valley," etc. 
 
 "The "considerable number of verbal coincidences" between SP and C of Newell, Leg. 
 of the Holy Grail, 82, I have not discovered.
 
 CONCLUSION 131 
 
 Most Students have presumed that SP is either an adaptation 
 or a translation of a French original. I see no way to prove that 
 it is or is not. But I see no especial ground for believing that it 
 is; and I think it will be simpler and more in accordance with all 
 the evidence in the case to consider it an English singer's versifica- 
 tion of a folk-tale that was known in his district of Northwest 
 England.
 
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