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The Visit to the Perilous Castle: A Study of the Arthurian Modifications of an Irish Theme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Roger Sherman Loomis
Roger Sherman Loomis*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

Discussion of the Homeric question, the Carolingian epic, the ballads, and Arthurian romance remains, and seems destined to remain for some time a conflict between two hypotheses. One may be called the traditionalist hypothesis; for it emphasizes the origins of narrative themes in oral traditions more or less remote from the first recorded versions, and attempts to trace genetic relations between the surviving versions and to explain differences between them on the assumption that originals or intermediate stages or both are lost. The second hypothesis may be called that of literary craftsmanship, for it minimizes or denies the existence of any oral tradition, finds the source of our surviving texts either in other written texts or in the creative imagination of the author, and attempts to explain the differences between one version and another by some artistic or rational motive controlling the later author. A classic of the traditionalist school is Professor Gilbert Murray's Rise of the Greek Epic; a classic of the contrary school is M. Bédier's Légendes Épiques. The traditionalist hypothesis emphasizes the genetic relationship of story-patterns to their sources; the hypothesis of literary craftsmanship emphasizes the intellectual and artistic processes which create or modify story-patterns.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1933 , pp. 1000 - 1035
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 R. Thurneysen, Irische Helden- und Königsage (Halle, 1921), p. 449.

2 R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York, 1927), pp. 47–50, 68 f.; Studi Medievali, Nuova Serie, iii, 291–294; Celtic Review, x (1915), 265; Proc. of Roy. Ir. Acad., xxxiv, c, 138.

3 W. J. Gruffydd, Math Vab Mathonwy (Cardiff, 1928), 265–270.

4 J. Loth, Mabinogion (Paris, 1913), i, 261 f.; Rev. Celt., xli, 489.

5 W. F. Skene, Four Ancient Books (1868), i, 254; ii, 198.—Cf. T. P. Cross, W. A. Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere (Chicago, 1930), p. 41 n. 2.

6 Mon. Germ. Hist., xiii (1894), 107. Cf. Cross and Nitze, op. cit., 21.—Note the one-year search common to both the Curoi and the Melwas abduction.

7 R. S. Loomis, op. cit., p. 59.

8 Ibid., pp. 7, 15, 21, 22 n. 36.

9 Ibid., pp. 159–175.—The Galaphes version on p. 162 may be a story not of Curoi's castle, but of Bran's. Cf. Miscellany of Studies Presented to L. E. Kastner (Cambridge, 1932), pp. 347 f.

10 Feast of Bricriu, ed. G. Henderson, Ir. Texts Soc., ii (London, 1899), 117; G. L. Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge, Mass., 1916), p. 10; Thurneysen, op. cit., p. 460.

11 Feast of Bricriu, p. 46, l. 5, Curoi wears an arit odor, “gray covering”; on the same page (Egerton MS.) he wears an arait breclachtna, “speckled gray covering.” Cf. also Thurneysen, op. cit., pp. 441, 443, 445.

12 Feast of Bricriu, pp. 101–115.

13 W. J. Gruffydd, Math Vab Mathonwy, 27, 263 ff.—It seems to me quite unnecessary to postulate an intermediate form Blodened, since the name Blodeuwedd seems to have had an independent origin in a nickname for the owl (cf. Gruffydd, p. 256) and would easily have been substituted by the Welsh for Blathnat because of the common element meaning “flower.”

14 Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vii (Boston, 1903), 55 n.

15 Sitzungsberichte der königlichen preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil. hist. Kl., ix (1911), 174.

16 PMLA, xlvii, 2 (June, 1932), 315–338.

17 F. Madden, Syr Gawayne, Bannatyne Club (London, 1839), 187.—The later Percy Folio version is on p. 239. Cf. Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight, pp. 85–89, 301 f.

18 Kittredge, op. cit., pp. 93–103.

19 Cf. Webster in M.L.R., xxvi, 71.

20 P. Piper, Das Höfische Epik (Stuttgart), ii, 173–175. Cf. Kittredge, op. cit., pp. 219, 262.

21 Deutsches Heldenbuch, ed. A. Amelung, O. Jänicke (Berlin, 1871), iii, 154–157; H. Schneider, Deutsche Heldensage (1930), 136 f.

22 Deutsches Heldenbuch, iv, 74.

23 Kittredge, op. cit., p. 219; H. Schneider, Die Gedichte und die Sage von Wolfdietrich (München, 1913), p. 261 ff.

24 Le Chevalier à l'Epée, ed. E. C. Armstrong (Baltimore, 1897), p. 50 f.—Cf. Kittredge, op. cit., pp. 89–93, 302 f.

25 Chevalier à l'Epée, pp. 51, 61

26 Heinrich von dem Türlin, Krone, ed. G. H. F. Scholl (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 100–106. Cf. Kittredge, op. cit., p. 253.

27 Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight, pp. 90 f.

28 R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, pp. 159–176, 223 f. Cf. also Le Chevalier à l'Epée, pp. 59–62.

29 J. L. Weston, Legend of Sir Gawain (London, 1897), cf. Index, sub Diu Krone. Weston, Sir Gawain at the Grail Castle (London, 1903), viii ff. Cf. also Romania, xii, 506; Englische Studien, xxxvi, 346; G. Schoepperle, Tristan and Isolt (London, Frankfurt, 1913), ii, 534 ff. La Damoisele à la Mule, ed. B. Orlowski (Paris, 1911), pp. 62 f.; Warnatsch, Der Mantel (Breslau, 1883), pp. 118 ff.; R.S. Loomis, op. cit., cf. Index sub Heinrich; L. L. Boll, Relation of Diu Krone to La Mule sanz Frain (Washington, 1929).

30 Ed. Scholl, ll. 20346 ff.

31 Loomis, op. cit., pp. 177–179.

32 Ll. 1294 f.

33 R. Thurneysen, Sagen aus dem alten Irland (Berlin, 1901), p. 26.

34 Loomis, op. cit., p. 172.

35 The following summary is based on the MS., Livre du Petit Artus, now in the New York Public Library, of which a full description with half-tones of five illuminated pages was published by the Library in 1928. The one opposite p. 6 illustrates the Porte Noire adventure. Lord Berners' English translation was published in 1550 and reprinted by Utterson in 1814. The material for this summary is drawn from folios 18r, 21v, 50r, 52v–61v.

36 Fol. 57b v.

37 Gesta Romanorum, tr. C. Swan, Tale cvii, Note 10.

38 W. H. Schofield, “Studies in the Libeaus Desconus,” Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, iv (Boston, 1895).

39 Le Chevalier du Papegau, ed. F. Heuckenkamp (Halle, 1896), p. liv.

40 Wirnt von Gravenberg, Wigalois, ed. Kapteyn, Rheinische Beiträge, ix (1926), ll. 6770–8565.

41 Kastner Miscellany (Cambridge, 1932), pp. 347 f.

42 H. O. Sommer, Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, iv, 343–347.

43 Perceval le Gallois, ed. C. Potvin, iii (Mons, 1866), 284–300.

44 Fouke FitzWarin, ed. L. Brandin (Paris, 1930), pp. 3–5.

45 For Pseudo-Wauchier Gawain's amie is sister of Bran de Lis; in the Vulgate Lancelot Bohors' one love-affair is with Brangor's daughter.

46 Loomis, op. cit., p. 145 f., MLN, xxvi, 66 f.

47 P. 25.

48 P. 72.

49 P. 76.

50 L. 1574.

51 PMLA, xlv (1930), 432–438. M.L.R., xxiv (1929), 425–427.

52 Keating, History of Ireland, Irish Texts Soc., viii, 223.

53 P. 26.

54 R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, p. 84; PMLA, xliii (1928), 386 ff.

55 On this nocturnal adventure cf. Kittredge, op. cit., pp. 265 f. On Book vii cf. Vinaver in Medium Aevum, I (1932), 157.

56 Ivain, l. 2415 ff.

57 On this name cf. Brugger in Zeits. f. franz. Spr. u. Lit., xlix (1927), 206–216, Zimmer, ibid., xiii (1891), 7 ff., and Freymond, ibid., xvii (1895), 17 ff.

58 Ed. J. R. R. Tolkien, E. V. Gordon (Oxford, 1925), p. xxi f.

59 See note 16.

60 Ed. Baist (Freiburg-in-Breisgau), ll. 4709–4775, 5665–6177. Ed. Hilka (Halle, 1932), ll. 4747–4814, 5703–6215.

61 M. Wilmotte, Le Poème du Graal et Ses Auteurs (Paris, 1930), p. 17.

62 Mary Williams, Essai sur la Composition du Roman Gallois de Peredur (Paris, 1909), pp. 81–95; Zenker in Romanische Forschungen, xl, 256 ff.; Nitze in Studies in Honor of A.M. Elliott, (Baltimore, 1911), i, 19 ff.; R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, pp. 166, 223 f.

63 Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. E. Martin (Halle, 1900), 318, 20–325, 17; 399, 1–432, 30.

64 R. S. Loomis, op. cit., p. 68 f.

65 Romanische Forschungen, xl, 251 ff.—Cf. Rev. Celt., xlvii (1930), 39.

66 J. Loth, Mabinogion (1913), ii, 111–114.

67 Haverford Essays (Haverford, Pa., 1909), p. 248 ff.

68 Kittredge, op. cit., p. 260 ff.

69 Loth, Mabinogion, ii, 83–87.—The translation of llwyt, “gray,” by “aux cheveux gris” is probably a mistake.

70 J. G. Evans, White Booh Mabinogion (Pwllheli, 1907), col. 146.

71 Ibid., col. 225, 234 f.

72 Loth, Mabinogion, ii, 67–73.

73 Crestien de Troyes, Conte del Graal, ed. Baist, 1682–2695. Ed. Hilka, ll. 1706–2703.

74 This form is given by MS. B.N. fr. 12577, and is supported by Wolfram's Kingrun. Cf. C. Potvin, Perceval le Gallois, ii, 113.

75 PMLA, xlv (1930), 431.

76 H. O. Sommer, Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, iv, 114–137.

77 Thurneysen, Irische Helden- und Königsage, p. 434. Loomis, op. cit., pp. 13–15.

78 Sommer, op. cit., iii, 61.

79 Ibid., 26.

80 Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Tolkien and Gordon, l. 845: “al beuer-hwed.”

81 Folklore Record, iv (1881), 1 ff. PMLA, xxxii (1917), 598 ff.

82 H. Zimmer, Keltische Studien (Berlin, 1884), ii, 201 ff. Rom. Forsch., xl (1926), 314–322.

83 Studies in Honor of A. M. Elliott (Baltimore, 1911), i, 19 ff.

84 MLN, xlii (1928), 534–536.

85 J. L. Weston, Legend of Sir Gawain, p. 36 ff.

86 Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, pp. 165–170.

87 Romanische Forschungen, xlv (1931), 66–94. Speculum, viii (1933), 415 ff.

88 Cf. Krappe in Romania, lviii (1932), 426, for other Irish elements.

89 Mod. Phil., xxv (1928), 335–340.