72-4627

ROOT, Martha James, 1939- CELTIC MOTIFS IN THE PROVENCAL ARTHURIAN ROMANCE, JAUFRE: THE GRAIL LEGEND BEFORE PERCEVAL.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, modern

University Microfilms, A XERQ\ Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan CELTIC MOTIFS IN THE PROVENCAL ARTHURIAN

ROMANCE, JAUFRE; THE GRAIL LEGEND BEFORE PERCEVAL

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Martha James Root, A.B., M.A.

The Ohio State University

1971

Approved hy

Department of Romance Languages' PLEASE NOTE:

Some Pages have in d is tin c t print. Filmed as received.

UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS ACI®OWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my appreciation to my adviser, Mrs. Eleanor Bulatkin, to my parents, grandmother, and husband and to Anne Tilton and Janet Zimmerman.

ii VITA

November 22, 1 9 3 9 ...... Born - East Chicago, Indiana

1 9 6 1 ...... A.B., Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

I96 I-I965 ...... Teaching Assistant, Department of Romance Languages, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

196^ . M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1965-1966 ...... Lecturer, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: French Literature

Minor Fields: Spanish Literature Provencal Literature

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

VITA iii

INTRODUCTION X

Manuscript Editions Metric Form, Dialect, Localization Date of Composition Purpose of Dissertation Celtic Motifs The Qp.es ting Hero J aufre

Chapter

I. ARTHUR'S ADVENTURES 28

The Red Beast The Giant Bird

II. THE KNIGHT JAUFRE 63

III. THE WOUND, THE WASTING AND THE LAMENT 68

IV. GENERAL COMPARISON 91

Jaufre, Chretien’s Perceval and Lug Airt, Jaufre and Peredur

V. FURTHER ADVENTURES OF JAUFRE 124

The Hanging Lance The House of the Storm Enchantment The Fairy Mistress of the Underwater Otherworld

CONCLUSION 166

BIBLIOGRAPHY 171

iv INTRODUCTION

Manuscript Editions

Among the Arthurian romances, the Provencal tale of Jaufre lias been studied very little„ The complete text exists in two manu­

scripts: A, in the Bibliothecjue Nationale, fr. 2164, copied at the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth centuries; and B, also

in the Bibliotheque Rationale, fr. 12571> copied at the beginning of the

fourteenth century. There are four manuscript fragments: c, Vatican

lat. 3206 , in a collection set down at the end of the fourteenth century; d, a fourteenth-century parchment at Cheltenham (Gloucester); e, a thirteenth-century parchment in the Archives du Gard at Nimes

containing 527 lines, discovered in 1929 ; and f, another thirteenth- century parchment in the Archives du Gard containing 162 lines, dis­ covered in 1951 *

Manuscript A has heen published by Clovis Brunei.1 Where A lacks a line or a page, Brunei has filled in the lines from manuscript

B, using italics. Following Brunei’s edition closely is that of Rdnd

Lavaud and Rdnd Nelli, which has been translated into French on facing pages.2

1 p Jaufrd, roman arthurien du XIII' sldcle en vers provenqaux, Socidtd des anciens textes frangais, 2 vol., Paris, 1949. 2 Les Troubadours: Jaufre, Flomenca, Barlaam et Josaphat, Bibliothbque europdenne, Bruges, i960 . Manuscript B, freely amended by A, was edited by I. Raynouard. 3

Wendelin Foerster and H. Breuer put out a carefully annotated edition of

B with some additions from A, c and d. 4 Fragment c, comprising lines

2623-2634, 3733 -3 O18 and 7123-7973, was edited by M. Pelaez. 5 Excerpts from c were also published by H. Breuer. 6 Fragment d was published by

H. Suchier. 7 Fragment e was published by Clovis Brunei and M. Gouron; 8

fragment f by the came authors.9

Several editions of various portions of Jaufre are listed in the Introduction to Brunei's work, pp. xxxii-xxxiii, and in the Intro­ duction of Lavaud and Kelli, pp. 29-30-

Metric form, dialect and localization

Manuscript A has 10,956 lines. The work is composed in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, and according to Brunei (Intro., p. xlvii), the language is closer to that spoken by the common people than to the refined poetic expression of the troubadours. He describes linguistic phenomena present in Jaufre as follows: lack of strong distinction

^Lexique roman, I (1838 ), 48-173- Jaufre, Gottingen, 1925 . 5 II canzoniere provenzale L, Studi romanzi, XVI (1921), 112-24. ^"Zum altprovenzalischen Artusroraan Jaufre," I, Zeitschrift ftir romanische Philologle, XLVI (1926 ), 411-27- 7 DenkmHler provenzalischer Literatur (Halle, 1883 ), I, 301-08. 8 "Fragment d’un nouveau mo. de Jaufre, 11 Romania, LV (I929 ), 529- 9 "Fragment d'un sixifime manuscript de Jaufre," Romania, LVII (1931), 207. between open e and closed e, absence of diphthong!zation of open e, passage of open o followed by a palatal consonant to a vowel identical

to that represented by Latin u, tendency to reduce diphthongs, soften­

ing of the 11 and mi groups, fall of intervocalic n which has become

final, and the use of the accusative forms lo and los for the dative,

all of which traits were found in Catalonia and as far north as Beziers

and Montpellier. However, the language is not homogeneous. Brunei points out, for example, that perfect forms of the semblec type which

occur in the text were found mainly around Toulouse. The author, then,

has used these different forms either consciously, to make his compos­

ing easier, or unconsciously, because his native language had become

contaminated by other dialects. Brunei concludes that the author was

Catalan or from somewhere south of the former province of Languedoc

(pp. xli-xlii).

Little knowledge of the author's country can be gained by an

examination of place names or proper names in Jaufre, because as we

shall see, the majority are Celtic in origin and have been transported

from Brittany or the British Isles to the Provencal work. Thus Jaufre

has as a setting not the locality of the author, but the vague and

almost mythical landscape of the Arthurian romances.

Date of Composition

Until relatively recently Jaufre was assigned by most scholars

to some time between the years 1225 and 1228 , that is, several decades

later than the novels of Chrdtien de Troyes, and the work was considered a rather poor reworking of the same material. However, Rita Lejeune's articles on the dating of the romance determined the date to he around ll80, or ahout forty-five years earlier than had been previously esti­ mated. 10 It is believed that Chretien was in the process of writing both Le Chevalier de la charrette (Lancelot) and Le Chevalier an lion

(Yvain) between 1177 or H79 an(i H 8l, having completed Erec et Enide around 1170 and Cliges about 1176. Perceval's story, Li Conte del Graal, was begun after 1181.11 Thus, according to Lejeune, three of Chrdtien's four Arthurian romances were probably not yet completed by the date she sets for Jaufre, and the author of the Provencal romance could have been familiar with only Erec and Cllgds. Lejeune even proposes Jaufre as a possible source for Chrdtien1s Li Conte del Graal. She explains similarities between Jaufre and the two intermediate works of Chretien by the prevalence and popularity at that time of the "matidre de Bretagne" from which the Arthurian romances were drawn.

Thus, the matter contained in Jaufre would be parallel to, or even more archaic than that found in the works of Chretien. The episodes in Jaufre might, in some cases, be regarded as intermediate forms between

"^Le jeune's articles are: "La Late du roman de Jaufrd, 11 Moyen Age, 5^-55 (19^8), 257-95> and "A propos de la datation de Jaufrd, Le roman de Jaufrd, source de Chrdtien de Troyes? ,11 Revue beige de Philologle et d'Histoire, XXXI (1953), 717-**7. In "A propos," pp. 717- 19, she lists Jeanroy, Histolre sommaire de la podsie occitane (Toul­ ouse- Paris, 19^5)) P* 9i|u n* 15> and others who have used as guide for the dating of Jaufre one unconvincing paragraph by Gaston Paris. H Jean Frappier, "Chretien de Troyes,11 Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. R. S. Loomis (Oxford, 1959)> P° 159* early Irish and Welsh legends which contributed to the "mati&re de

Bretagne," and the later Arthurian romances, including Chretien's

Perceval story.

Lejeune bases her argument for the earlier dating of the work

on an impressive array of facts. First, she establishes that the

phrases in the two accolades to the "roi d 'Aragon" fit only Alphonse II

(1162-1196), and no later or earlier king. Thus, he is the patron of

the author of Jaufre. A poem by Folquet de Marseille containing an al­

lusion, similar to one in Jaufre about the king of Aragon who makes his

enemies obey, has been definitively assigned to 1179j for this reason,

Lejeune assigns the composition of Jaufre to around ll8o.12

Secondly, she quotes passages from troubadour poems dated no

later than 1193 to 1200 and from Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzrval,

written between 1200 and 1212 , which show that the story of the hero,

Jaufre, was known by this time. 14

The allusions are to a "jeune couronnS," "seigneur de Bonaventure," "chevalier de la Paix," "cavalier de Dieu," and "adver- saire de ses enemies /de Dieu/, vainqueur de ceux-ci 5 la premi&re bataille livrSe," "protecteur des troubadours." "Le roi est simple et agrSable, affectueux pour ses amis, mais plein de superbe 5 l'dgard de ses enemies, si bien qu'il se fait ainsi craindre d'eux tous" (lines 262^-30). After establishing the identity of the only possible recipient of this accolade as Alphonse II, Lejeune points out that Gtanislaw Stronski has definitively assigned to 1179 a poem by Folquet de Marseille containing a similar allusion to "lo bon rei d'Aragon...qu'als enemix vem que's fai obezir." 13 Kurt Lewent in "The Troubadours and the Romance of Jaufre," Modern Philology, XLIII, 155 j treats three references by Provencal troubadours to the Jaufre story, ll* Otto Springer, "Wolfram's Parzival," Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, p. 220. A third argument lies in the fact that there is evidence show­

ing that the Celtic Arthurian matter was known in the area where Pro­ vencal was spoken, and that this matter did not enter the regions from the north of France through Chrdtien as has been assumed by some other

scholars. In this she has for support the noted work of Roger Sherman

Loomis, whose findings we will investigate at greater length below.

The crux of his theory is that Breton conteurs traveled to various

courts throughout Anglo-Norman England, France and southern Europe in

the eleventh and twelfth centuries, entertaining them with stories

culled from their Celtic heritage, but translated into the native tongue of the listeners. Two pieces of evidence that the Arthurian matter had spread over a wide portion of southern Europe by an early date are: the Modena archivolt in northern Italy dating from the first part of the twelfth century and portraying Arthurian characters with names inscribed below; and a floor mosiac in the cathedral at Otranto in southern Italy, inscribed "Rex Arturus" and dated 1163-66. In the region of the langue 6*oc, troubadour poetry contains numerous re­ ferences to Arthurian heros and situations, many more, in fact, than are seen in that of the trouv&res of northern France. The relative lack of enthusiasm in the North is, in itself, claims Lejeune, a reason to doubt that the North was the transmitter of the matter.15

Lejeune's chart, "La Date," p. 282, comparing numerical references to Arthurian characters by the poets of the North and the South is as follows: In addition, Lejeune states that in comparing the Arthurian romances of Chretien vith that of the Froven

several elements in Jaufre which are different from, more archaic than,

or not included in, Chrdtien's material. She mentions 1) the presen-

10 tation of Ivain in Jaufre as "lo "ben enseinats1' (lines 103j , and absence of the attributes given him by Chrdtien such as pity, justice,

charity and capability to serve as a model in matters of love 2 ) two personal adventures of Arthur who usually does not play an active role in the Arthurian romances of the Continent, including those of Chrdtien

5) the theme of a mistress of an underwater otherworld 1+) two fantastic birds, one Arthur's abductor, the other in the subaquaeous land 5) the name of Arthur's queen, "G(u) illamier, 11 "G(u)illalmer" or "Guilalmier," and her passive role as contrasted with Chrdtien's "Guenievre" and her

Heros Trouveres Troubadours

Arthur 5 2k Gwenhwyfar 1 1 Iseut 7 22 Tristan 21 40 Gauvain 2 15 Ivain 2 5 Perceval 0 7 Lancelot 1 5 Keu 1 2 Erec 0 7 Enide 0 3 She has also compiled a list of early references by troubadours to Celtic heros, p. 283 . including those to be found in Marcabru, around 1137; Cercamon (1135-1145); Guiraut de Cabrera (11^5-1179)j Raimbaut Amauld-Guilhem de Marsan (II7O-II80); etc. 16 All line references to Jaufre in this study will be to the edition by La valid and Nelli. 8 starring part in the Lancelot story. Several of these motifs and their backgrounds will be explored more fully below, and will further strengthen the argument that Jaufre1s sources are independent from those of Chretien.

Wolfram von Eschenbach claimed that for Parzlval he had as a

Provencal source a certain Kyot of Catalonia, a fact which could be taken as further evidence that knowledge of Arthurian matter was present in the

Midi before 1212. However, some scholars feel that the author Kyot's existence is doubtful, and that he is a cover for variations of Chrdtien's work drawn from various sources, including the story of Jaufre. 17 In support of Wolfram's having some source of Celtic material besides

Chrdtien, is the fact that Parzlval does occasionally restore a motif to a more archaic form than that seen in the works of Chretien, In one instance, as R. S. Loomis points out, Wolfram in Parzlval has the gi-ail placed before the King, rather than being carried out of the hall to feed the Fisher King's father, as in Li Conte del Graal. He continues,

"and from some source, possibly the First Continuation, Wolfram took over the idea that it served the whole company assembled in thelnll with whatever food or drink each man desired. Thus he restored to the grail the traditional attribute of the Welsh dysgl of plenty; 'whatever food one wished thereon was instantly obtained. ' " 18 We note that Loomis has arbitrarily picked the First Continuation as the possible source

17 Springer, p. 22t-25. The Development of Arthurian Romance (London, 1963)} pp. 68-69 . for the more archaic concept of the groil. Why not a Provencal source, which Wolfram himself repeatedly claims to be following? Wolfram says of Kyot:

Kyot la schantiure hicz, den sin kunst des niht erliez, er ensunge und sprdhche so des noch genuoge werdent fro. Kyot ist ein Provenzal, der dise aventiur von Parzival heidensch gesehriben sach. swaz er en franzoys da von gesprach, bin ich niht der witze laz, daz sage ich tiuschen furbaz. (VIII, k16, 21-30)

In notes to her translation of Parzival, Jessie Weston makes several arguments for a Provencal source: names derived from the langue d 1 oc; familiarity with the history of the House of Anjou, which would be likely in the case of a Provencal author; and the accuracy of

Wolfram* s other statements on contemporary events and contemporary literature, which it seems would extend to Kyot. Kyot wrote in French and she surmises that he had the same French source as did Chretien, thus accounting for the similarities between Chretien’s and Wolfram's versions, but added details from other literature with which he was

19 Ed. Gottfried Weber (Darmstadt. 1963)} p. 351. Jessie Weston translates, Parzival, 2 vols. (189 % rpt. New York, 1912), I, 238 : And I speak here of Kiot the singer, and so sweet was I ween his song That none was of the hearing weary, tho' the days of their life be long And I rede yc to wit that Kiot of old v/as a Provencal, Who found writ in a book of the heathen this story of Parzival. And in French again lie sang it, and I, if no wit shall fail, Would fain in his footsteps follow, and in German would tell the tale. 10 20 familiar, thus explaining the differences. Perhaps when all the evidence is assembled, we shall have reason to "believe that Kyot, or some Provencal source, did exist. At least, we realize that the Midi played a more active role in the spreading of the "mati&re de Bretagne" than lias "been widely recognized.

Lejeune points out a historical situation favoring the trans­ mission of matter from the Breton conteurs to the Provencal courts.

Count Jaufre, half "brother of Marie de Champagne, Chretien's patroness, and son of Eleanor of Acquitaine, was the ruler of Brittany through his 21 marriage. He shared his family's interest in fostering the arts and made his court a rendez-vous for poets, "both the southern troubadours and the northern trouveres. Undoubtedly the native Breton conteurs were present too, so that exchange of Celtic matter with southern poets could easily have taken place in Brittany itself. Another link to the

Examples of names bearing Provencal influence are Anfortas (Fr. enfertez, "sick man," with Prov. ending as), Trevrezent (Prov. treu, ‘'peace," and rezems, "redemmed"), Schoysiane (Prov. Jauziana) whose husband is Kyot of Katelange (Guiot of Catalonia), Schenteflur (Prov. gente-flors, "fair flower"), I, 297* The discussion of fami­ liarity with the House of Anjou occurs in I, 291-95; of the unlikelihood of Wolfram's creating Kyot, I, 323-24; of Wolfram's relation to Chrdtien, II, 193-94. 2 1 "La Date," 274, n. 47, cites M. E. Burtelle de Saint-Sauvcur, Histoire de Bretangc des origines A nos jours, (Rennes-Paris, 1935); I; 125. Jaufre was promised to Constance of Bretagne in 1166 when he was eight and she was five years old. At fifteen he began to be politically active in the affairs of Brittany and at seventeen fought against a revolt of the nobles. He was married to Constance in ll8l at the age of twenty-three. 11

Provencal court is Jaufre's niece, Sanche, who was the wife of the patron of Jaufre1s author, the King of Aragon, Alphonse II. Alphonse's court, reputedly hospitable to troubadours and story-tellers, would have been a logical destination for the Breton conteurs in their travels, and there they could entertain their listeners with the ancient Celtic matter.

The author of Jaufre had three apparent sources for his work: the lays and stories of the Breton conteurs, and perhaps some Celtic matter written in Provencal; the poetry of the troubadours; and con­ temporary French works with which he seems to have been familiar, at least by hearsay. Allusions are made to the Roman d’EnGas, dated around

1160; Tristan and Yseult, whose story is seen in fragments from about

1170; Lai des Deux Araants, by Marie de France who wrote in the second third of the twelfth century; Floire et Blanchefleur, from the same period; and Cliges, written around II76 by Chretien. There is also a reference to Blibis (the Latin Byblis,) an Ovidian tale which has not left a trace in northern French literature but is mentioned three times by the troubadours, a fact which leads us to believe it had found its way into a Provencal version.

That Jaufre1s author was familiar with Clig&o is seen by his description of the love of Fenice, which was so great that she had herself buried alive for CligSs to rescue. Afterwards they were able to live undisturbed for a time as lovers. Jaufre1s author writes of CligSs:

Aital amor mi sobreporto Cun fes Fenisa, que per morta Se fes sebelir per Cliges Qe puis amet lone temps apres (lines 7609-12 ). 12

The other French works are mentioned in the same passage (lines 7601-

20), except for the Lai des Deux Amants (line ¥ 160). Cliges is not an

Arthurian tale hut shows the influence of Ovid, whose works Chrdtien had

translated. The Ovidian images and psychological treatment, coining

perhaps through Chrdtien since we know Jaufre*s author was familiar

with CligSs, are apparent in the long monologues which take place dur­

ing the sleepless nights of the as yet undeclared lovers, Jaufre and

Brunissen (lines 7362-7672).

Lejeune points out the fact that Jaufre1s author does not mention the titles of Chrdtien1s Arthurian works, Erec et Enide and

Le Chevalier au lion ("La Date," pp. 286-87). Neither does he speak

of Le Chevalier de la charrette nor Li Conte del Graal. The names of

the heros are used: Erec (lines 10*1-, 8055), hut always alone without

Enide; Ivan,many times hut with the qualities of elegance attributed

to him only,.by Provenqal texts and not by Chrdtien; Lancelot du Lac

(lines 102, 8055); and Persaval (lines 105, 8056). In no instance

however, are they recognizable as the individuals Chrdtien made of

them. She concludes, therefore, that it seems unlikely that Jaufre*s

author was familiar with Chrdtien*s Arthurian works.

Where then, did Jaufre*s author obtain the names of the heros,

if he did not get them from Chrdtien? Where indeed did Chrdtien, who

mentions the protagonists of his later works, Yvain, Lancelot del Lac,

and Percevax li Galois, as early as 1170 in lists of Arthur’s knights 13 in Erec et Enide, first hear of them?22 It seems probable that the names of some of Arthur's knights not found in previous written works such as those by Wace and Geoffrey of Monmouth were known through shorter and perhaps less well-developed stories concerning these heros which were being told by storytellers of the period. As Lejeune mentions ("La Date," p. 280, n. 6^), at the beginning of Erec Chr6tien speaks of a conte d'avanture about the hero which has been mangled before kings and counts by those who make their living telling stories

(lines 13-22). The existence of the earlier conte about Erec may be considered further evidence that a body of Celtic matter was being spread in oral tales prior to 1170. When we note that Gllflez or

Girflez li filz Do (lines 317, 1697, 217*0, Melianz (line 1678) and

Taulas (line 1697), three inportant personages in Jaufre, are named in

Erec as knights of the Round Table, we may conjecture that stories con­ cerning those characters were in existence by that date, although not necessarily the same narrative which has come down to us.

Erec et Enide, ed. Roques. Yvains: lines 1685-86, 217^; Lancelot del Lac: line 167*)-; Perceval li Galois: line 1506. The fact that Chretien included the names in a work dated 1170 would refute the argument put forth by Paul RSmy, "Jaufrd," Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, p. *f03, that such a listing found in Jaufre, lines 101-09, "could have no other source than a collection of ChrStien's poemG," and thus could not have been written before 1182. R5my's other arguments against the earlier dating of Jaufre have been thoroughly answered by Lejeune in her 1953 article, a reply to a 1950 article by Paul R6my, "A propos de la datation du Roman de Jaufre," Revue Beige, XXVIII, 13^9-77. Some of the stories may have been written, as well as told, but

lost in the intervening centuries. One reason for believing that they

may have been set in writing ds ChrStien ’ s statement in Li Conte del

Graal that the Count has asked him to put into rhyme the best story told

in a royal court, the story of the grail, of which the Count has given

him the book (lines 62-67)• We knew that ChrStien had heard of the

knight, Percevas li Galois, as early as 1170, since he mentions him in

Erec, but we have no evidence that the name Perceval was associated with

the grail story by that time, or indeed, that the grail story was yet

developed and in existence. It is possible that it is ChrStien or his

Immediate source who first used the name, Perceval, for the grail

knight, perhaps substituting this name for Peredur, the grail hero of

the corresponding Welsh tale.

Lejeune, then, has established the date ll80 for Jaufre on the

basis of the accolades to the king contained within the story, references

by other Provencal troubadours and Wolfram von Eschenbach to the hero of

the romance or to incidents in it, evidence showing that the Arthurian

material was well-known and popular in the Midi by that time and a

historical situation which favored the creation of a protagonist of an

Arthurian tale bearing the name Jaufre in the environment of the court

of Alphonse II.

The author of Jaufre was familiar with Chr6tien's CligSs, of

II76, which is not an Arthurian tale. He does not, however, appear to

have direct knowledge of the earlier Erec et Enide, since Enide is never mentioned, nor of the later Arthurian works concerning Yvain,

Lancelot and Perceval. Although the names of the heros are mentioned in Jaufre as knights of the Round Table, Yvain is referred to as having characteristics given to him only by the southern troubadours, and the others do not have the personalities given them by Chrdtien. We surmise that Jaufre1s author was familiar with the names of these knights through oral tales, in the same manner that Chrdtien knew the heros of his own later works, and indeed, three of the characters of Jaufre, as early as

1170, evidenced by their being listed in Erec et Enide. That Jaufre is not a mere reworking of Chrdtien's material is shown further by the fact that some motifs appear to be more archaic or closer to Celtic sources than those found in Chrdtien's works.

Purpose

It is the primary purpose of this study to establish the relationship of the twelfth-century Provencal Arthurian romance, Jaufre, with the Celtic lore of Irish and Welsh legends and with the later

Arthurian romances, especially the grail stories. It is expected that the study will provide further insights into the evolution of the grail motif in particular and of Arthurian matter generally. As will become apparent, the results of the study would seem to lend support to

Lejeune*s argument that Jaufre was not a reworking of Chrdtien*s material but was in fact written earlier than most of the French author's romances. The Celtic Motifs

What was the origin of the matifere de Bretagne spread by the

conteurs and how did this material arrive in Brittany? Roger Sherman

Loomis has concentrated much scholarly effort on this question. To begin with, Irish mythology and oral literature were passed on and mingled with Welsh lore through continuous contact between the two peoples over the centuries. At one point, around A.D. JiOO, there was even a large Irish colony which flourished in Western Wales and which was eventually dispersed by the British. The resulting legends of mixed Irish and Welsh origins traveled in turn to Brittany withthe

Celtic peoples who were fleeing there from Cornwall and Wales between the fifth and the seventh centuries. The Bretons kept close contact with their relatives across the Channel. The languages diverged slowly and could be understood by people on either side of the Channel at

least until the eleventh century. Thus the original Irish and Welsh matter had evolved and expanded over an extended period of time, before being recounted by the Breton conteurs, the story-telling entertainers

for the royal courts of the twelfth century. The conteurs translated

the lays and contes into the language of their listeners, thus pro­ viding material in French for Chrdtien de Troyes in Champagne and for

Marie de France in Anglo-Norman England, among others.

Although the Breton conteurs have remained anonymous, the name

of a Welsh conteur, Bleheris, Bledhericus, Bledri or Breri, has come IT down to us. Lejeune ("A propos/' p. 731) points out that he is reported 23 to have told his stories before a count of Poitiers. She extends

Loomis' postulation and asks if the conteurs might not have used the langue d ^ c in visits to the hospitable courts of the South where the arts were nurtured and the troubadours flourished.

In a major work, Loomis analyzes the wealth of Celtic matter present in the Arthurian works of ChrSticn in terms of individual episodes and personages and compares them with their counterparts in 24 Irish and Welsh tales and later Arthurian stories and novels. In examining them, he takes into account phenomena which occur in any traditional literature which is passed from generation to generation and from one culture to another by word of mouth. One such phenomenon is called fusion, in which two or more characters or stories are com­ bined into one that retains motifs of each in the finished product. A second phenomenon is the reverse of the first one; a character or motif is split or repeated in two or more instances, thus providing variants of the same basic personage or theme. A third occurrence which changes the original tale is the unintentional loss of details as the story is told repeatedly by different persons over a long period of time.

Deliberate losses and additions are also made by storytellers who try

For more on Bleheris, see Jessie Weston, From Ritual to Romance (New York, 1920), pp. 181-91* 2k R. S. Loomis, Arthurian Tradition and Chrdtien de Troyes, New York, 19^9. 18 to resolve inconsistencies in an old tale which has been subject to the phenomena discussed above. In addition, he may wish to modernize the story and place it in the ambiance of his listeners. Loomis warns that, in studying the matter, one must also be alert to misinterpretations and transformations of common names which can occur tlirough scribal errors and particularly when the story is transferred from one language and culture to another.

All of the above phenomena are apparent in Jaufre when the poem is compared with parallel Irish and Welsh and other Arthurian tales.

As we examine the various episodes in Jaufre according to Loomis' method, we will try to remain aware of the possibilities of the occurrence of

1) fusion, 2 ) splitting or repetition, 3 ) intentional or unconscious loss and/or addition of detail, often for the purpose of setting the story in the author's own environment and 4) changes which occur as the tale is transferred from one culture to another. By identifying the transformation which the material has undergone in its various forms, we will be able to identify the original plots and basic characters.

The Qnesting Eero

In studying Jaufre, five basic tales from Irish, Welsh, French, and German material will be used for comparison. The first is the

Irish Cath Maige Tured, "Second Battle of Moytura," the matter of which is as old og the ninth century.25 It is found in a fifteenth-century

Opinion of Robin Flower, Catalogue of Irish Mss, in the British Museum, II (London, 1926), p. 319. Vernam Hull puts it before 19

manuscript in the British Museum, Harleian 5280. A translation has heen made hy Gustav Lehmacher, S. J., Anthropos, XXVI (1931); 435-60.

The second is the Irish tale, Echtra Alrt ocus Tochmarc

Delhchaime, "The Adventures of Art and the Wooing of Delhchaem," the pQ matter of which dates at least from the twelfth century. The story

exists currently in a fifteenth-century manuscript in the Book of

Fermoy, translated by R. I. Best, Eriu, III (1907); 150-75*

The Welsh tale, Peredur son of Efrawg, comes in its most

complete form from the White Book of Rhyddereh, Llyfr Gwyn Rhyddereh,

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and was written down about

1500-25, according to the most recent translators of the Mabinogion,

Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones (London, 19^9)* The date for Peredur is presumed to be the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth

27 century.

908 , ZCP, XVIII (1930); 8l, 89 . A summary of the translation is found in A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Cambridge, Mass., 19^3)f PP* 228-5^. There is also a partial translation by W. Stokes, Rev, celt., XII (1891 ); 58-130, which has been completed by Thurneysen, zcp, xii (1918 ), ^Olf. 26 Thurneysen puts it in his List B. Irlsche Helden- und Kbnigsage (llalle, 1921), pp. 23-2^. 27 Loomis, Arthurian Tradition, p. 33; quotes from Joseph Loth, Les Mabinogion, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1913); "Dans ma premifere traduction j'avais conclu de certaines fautes du scribe du Livre Rouge qu'il copiait un manuscript plus ancien, vraisemblement de la fin du xiie ou du com­ mencement du xiiie siecle", I, 19. The Red Book of Hergest, a later ms, than the White Book, was first translated by Lady Charlotte Guest in 18^9« Jones and Jones date other stories of the Mabinogion: Four Branches, second half of the eleventh century; Culhwch and Olwen, earliest Arthurian tale, second half of the tenth century, with much of its subject matter even older. 20

The French Perceval story, Li Conte del Graal, was begun by

Chretien after May, ll8l, and before September, 1190. There are

fifteen extant manuscripts. The one edited by William Roach, Textes

littdraires francjais (Paris, 1956), is T, the thirteenth-century manu­

script 12,576 of the Bibliotheque Nationale.28

The German Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, was written between 1200 and 1212, Over seventy more or less complete manuscripts have survived. The edition used here is by Gottfried Weber (Darmstadt,

1965). A complete English translation with notes was made by Jessie

Weston (1894 , rpt. New York, 1912).29

In general outline, Jaufre has much in common with the first

two Irish tales, the Cath Maige Tured and Echtra Airt, which are not

grail stories. Jaufre itself contains no grail procession. It does

include, however, many motifs similar to those in the three works con­

cerning the grail, the Welsh Peredur son of Efrawg, the French Li Conte

del Graal and the German Parzival. Let us summarize, then, each of the

five major tales which we will use in discussing Jaufre.

2S For the date, see note 11 above. Other editions are by Ch. Potvin, Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte du Graal (Mons, 1865-71); Got­ tfried Baist, Crestlen1s von Troyes Conte del Graal (Freiburg, 1909); Alfons Hilka, Per Percevalroman (Halle, 1952J. 29 . On the date for Parzival, see note 14 above. Other editions are A. Lentzmann (HaUe, 19^7-50)j^K. Lachmann, 7th ed. (Berlin, 1952); E. Martin, 4th ed., revised by M. Marti (Leipsig, 1927-29). M. F. Richey translated the major parts in English (Oxford, 1955)> as did E. H. Zeydel (chapel Hill, 1951)• Translations into German are by W. Hertz (Stuttgart, 1898 ); W. Stapel, 4th ed. (Munich, 1950); F. Knorr and R. Fink (jena, 1945). French translations by M. Wilmotte (Paris, 1953) nnd E. fonnelat (Paris, 1954). 21

The Cath Maige Tured is the story of Lag, who comes to the court of the maimed king, Nuadu, of the Tuatha D£, one of the tribes who inhabited Ireland. The Tuatha D6 have been forced to pay yearly tri­ bute to their enemies, the red giants. After several tests, the youth

Lug is recognized as the one to lead the people in throwing off the hated yoke. The king of the red giants is killed by Lug with a spear through the eye, the magic talismans of the Tuatha DS are recovered, the land is restored to fertility. Not present in the manuscript, but found in Irish tradition, is evidence of the marriage of Lug, following the battle, to the "sovereignty of Ireland." The female personification of the reign, the state of ruling the land, called the "sovereignty," appears in many of the Irish legends as a living, talking goddess or queen. Thus when it is said that Lug marries the sovereignty, it is meant that he enters the kingship, becomes ruler of Ireland and its people.

In Echtra Airt we find a series of adventures undergone by the hero: he comes to a fruitful land of flowers and birds containing a square palace and inhabited by a beautiful lady and her company of women, he traverses a forest where there are seven hags'and other dangers, he slays a giant, he encounters Ailill Black Teeth and kills him. Finally arriving at the abode of the maiden Delbchaem, he slays her mother, Coinchend, "long head," who has arranged all the dangers, and places her head on a stake in a row of stakes with heads on them, one of which had been reserved for him. After killing a giant, the father of Delbchaem, he carries the girl off with him. 22

In the Welsh Peredur, the hero passes through a great number of tests and adventures, many of uhich correspond to those in ChrStien' s story of Perceval. Pirst there are the childhood incidents and entry of the youth into Arthur's court just after a knight has spilled wine on the queen, Gwenhvyfar, has struck her, and has ridden off with a goblet.

Cel insults the dwarf and dwarfess, who, having remained dumb for one year, make their first words a greeting to the awkward youth as the

"flower of knighthood." The youth then kills the knight of the goblet with a pointed fork or javelin through the eye. Peredur rides on, fighting and conquering sixteen enemies in one week and sending them back to Arthur, He comes to the castle of a hoary-headed man, his uncle, who instructs him in arms, and advises him not to be inquisitive, then to the castle of a second hoary-headed roan, also an uncle, who gives him a test consisting of striking a hugh iron column in the floor three times with a sword. Both sword and column mend themselves the first two times, but not the third. Two youths enter bearing a bleed­ ing lance, then two maidens carrying a bloody head in a dish, at which the whole company laments and mourns, but Peredur, remembering the advice of the first uncle, does not inquire about this. The next day,

Peredur meets his foster-sister, who says he has caused the death of his mother by leaving her. Peredur avenges the slain husband of his sister. The next adventure is at the besieged castle of a fair maiden whose eighteen foster brothers force her to offer her love to Peredur to obtain him as a champion against the enemy. He falls in love with the maiden and stays three weeks, regaining her dominions through

"battle. At another palace he fights nine witches and is taken "by one

of them to learn the use of arms. He gets revenge on Cei who tries to

take him back to Arthur by force. Having returned to Arthur’s court

at Gawain's invitation he falls in love with a beautiful maiden,

Angharad Golden-hand, and pledges not to speak to any Christian until

she loves him. Riding off again, he has encounters with a lion, a

grey-headed man, a serpent on a gold ring, then returns unrecognized,

to Arthur's court where he is called the “Duirib Youth" until Angharad

falls in love with him for his prowess. Next he fights the one-eyed

Black Oppressor, who informs him that his eye was put out by the Worm

of the Barrow on the Dolorous Mound. On his way to the mound, he meets

the Sons of the King of Suffering, who are killed each day by the

Addanc of the Lake, Next he meets the Lady of the Feats, whose war- band of three hundred men must be overcome before a visitor may be

seated at her side. Finally he reaches the Dolorous Mound and kills

the Worm. Years later an ugly maid comes into court and reproaches the

hero for not having asked about the bleeding lance. Because of this

the country will not flourish. Peredur seeks out the Castle of Wonders, has several more adventures with a gameboard, 30 a stag, and a black man

and finally avenges the wrongs done to his lame uncle and his cousin,

50 Jones and Jones, The Mabinogion, inform us that the board- game so frequently played in the Welsh stories is gwyddbwyll, not chess, as it has been hitherto translated, "The king, from the centre of the board, tries to break through to the safety of the outer edge; the hunting party (without a Icing) endeavors to pen him in and capture him," p. 80, n. 1 . 2k whose head it was which he had seen in the dish, by hilling off all the witches with the aid of Arthur1s men.

Chretien's Li Conte del Graal has far fewer episodes. In the main, Perceval's adventures are as follows: the childhood incidents and the youth's entrance into Arthur's court; the blows by Keu to the dwarf and maiden who foretell the youth's success; the fight with the knight who has insulted the queen; instruction in chivalry by an old knight; rescue of Blancheflor, the lovely damsel whose castle is being besieged; visit to the grail castle, where he is presented with a sword and witnesses a procession in which a youth carrying a bleeding white lance, two youths holding candelabra, a maiden holding a grail of gold encrusted with stones and a second maid carrying a silver tray pass before the company several times; return to Arthur's court by Gawain's persuasion after Keu's insult has been avenged; discovery that he has caused damage to the land and people by failure to ask about the pro­ cession; rebuke by the ugly maid; stay with a hermit or holy man and renewed determination to find the grail Castle again and rectify his youthful, error. Also included in the narrative are various adventures of Gawain. We surmise that ChrStien intended to return to Perceval but was interrupted in his labors by death.

The middle part of Wolfram's longer, sixteen-book work,

Parzival, follows ChrStien. It includes the adventures of both

Parzival and Gawain, but there are additions not present in ChrStien's work at the beginning about Parzival's father and at the end bringing life to a satisfactory conclusion with election to the grail kingdom achieved. Wolfram’s third hook begins the childhood incidents, entrance into Arthur's court and battle with the red knight. Even in the section which follows Chrdtien, however, there are differences. The red knight in Parzival has insulted the queen inadvertantly. In the grail, pro­ cession, a squire enters the hall carrying a bleeding lance, at which all the company laments. Next come twelve maidens with candelabra and stools, then six maids with silver and six with tapers. Last of all the fairest maiden brings in the grail, consisting of a single stone which has the ability to furnish the whole company whatever each most desires. Later, the lament is explained as a monthly occurrence when the wounds of the Fisher King become excruciatingly painful and his people suffer to think of it. Near the end of the work, Wolfram says that his source, the Provencal Kyot, who has presented the tale authen­ tically, has every right to be angry with Chrdtien for doing the story an injustice..... 31

Each of the five tales we have reviewed consists of a series of quests or adventures. The major theme in the Cath Maige Tured is the overthrow of the red giants and the restoration of prosperity to the land of the Tuatha Dd. That of Echtra Airt is overcoming the dangers set up by Coinchend to prevent access to her daughter. Peredur lacks unity, but here, too, dangers must be overcome, maidens won, and wrongs, evidenced by the grail procession, avenged. Li Conte del Graal

31 Springer, p. 221, from Parzival, XVI, 827, 1-1^« 26

and Parzival are more unified with the hero's major task to return

happiness to the land and the people hy asking about the grail pro­

cession. The rescue of ladies, particularly Blancheflor, is a secondary

theme. The first two Irish legends are not Arthurian romances, since

Arthur was a Welsh contribution, nor are they tales of chivalry and knighthood as are the Welsh Peredur, the French and German versions and

Jaufre itself.

Jaufre

Jaufre contains several features of each of the above tales, but differs from the latter three in that there is no grail procession.

It has the usual form of an Arthurian romance, a series of quests, and

in this case, the connecting links seem exceptionally rigid and stylized.

Between each adventure there is an almost tediously repetitive scene at

King Arthur's court, in which the conquered knight or rescued damsel presents his life and service in the name of Jaufre, and relays to the

anxiously awaiting assemblage news of his progress. It is as if the

author is writing a long poem using the court scene as a refrain at

the end of each stanza. Since the author was certainly familiar with

the highly polished troubadour poetry with its emphasis on form, per­ haps the tying together of a long series of adventures by court scenes was an effort to pull into a cohesive whole what seemed a diversified body of material.

Two major threads of story, besides the scenes at Arthur's

court, are carried tliroughout the romance: first, the insult to the court by Taulat and Jaufre’s subsequent vengeance on him; and second, the falling in love, courtship and marriage of Jaufre and Brunissen, which overlaps and intertwines with the first theme. In addition, there is a succession of minor episodes or adventures, some of which have counterparts in other Arthurian tales. However, two incidents con­ cerning Arthur himself seem to be unique to Jaufre. With the exception of the very eari.y Welsh Culhwch and Olwen, Arthur usually plays a rather passive role in the romances, restricted to handing down a decision or holding a feast, although, judging partly from Culhwch and Olwen, one surmises that he must have played an active role at one time. Perhaps in these two adventures, then, as Lcjeune suggests, we see traces of a more ancient tradition, which has disappeared almost altogether ("La

Date," p. 295)o

With the end in view of determining the background of the characters and motifs in Jaufre by comparison with Irish, Welsh and other Arthurian episodes, we will examine first the two adventures of

King Arthur, and then the hero, Jaufre, himself, and the' individual adventures in which he is the protagonist. ARTHUR'S ADVENTURES

The legend of Arthur originates in Wales, where Arthur was a mighty warrior against the Angle and Saxon invaders of Briton in the first half of the sixth century.1 Arthur is mentioned in Welsh stories which have "been preserved "but there are no tales which correspond

directly to the two episodes concerning Arthur in Jaufre. However, there are several motifs which attest to their antiquity, as we shall

see.

The Red Beast

In the first episode in Jaufre, King Arthur has a full court

(several knights are listed) at the feast of Pentecost. After mass, all

the knights talk joyfully and noisily. The seneschal, Quex, enters hearing a hastun or stick from an apple tree. The King will not permit his court to eat until he hears or experiences an adventure. Noon is well past when he decides that no adventure will he forthcoming at the

castle, so he commands all to saddle up. The whole court rides off to

the forest of Breseliande where they hear cries of distress. The King wishes to proceed alone in spite of protests from Galvain. He comes to

a river with a mill heside it and sees a woman in a window tearing her

- R.L. Loomis, Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes, (New York, 19**9)> P* 12,

28 hair and screaming because a beast is eating up all her wheat. Entering

the mill, he sees the beast, which is bigger than a bull and which has

soft red fur, a long neck and thick head with a row of horns, big round

eyes, big teeth, a short muzzle, long legs and big feet. To get the beast to leave, the king slaps it with the broadside of his sword and

finally grasps it by the horns in an effort to budge it.

Then he discovers that he can not remove his hands from the

horns. The beast slowly drags him onto a high rock. Galvain, who has

followed the king, wants to kill the beast, but Arthur warns him not to

harm it; he seems to sense that as long as the beast is not hurt he him­

self will be safe. Tristan and Yvan are also most anxious at Arthur's

plight. Heeding their cries and urgings, the other knights proceed to

the foot of the cliff and loudly lament at the sight of their king being

dangled over the edge by the red beast. Frantically they take off all

their clothing and pile it under him; the beast joins its four feet and

jumps into the heap, setting Arthur free and changing into a knight

dressed in red as he descends. Earlier, according to the narrator, King

Arthur and the knight had agreed that the knight should receive a gold

cup, the best horse in the court and a kiss from the prettiest girl whom

he could choose, if he succeeded in transforming himself some day when

full court was being held or Arthur was wearing his crown. Galvain says

the knight has enchanted all of them since they are all going around un­

dressed. Grabbing a few pieces of the jumbled clothing, without regard

to ownership, the court returns joyfully to Carduel for dinner (lines 30

A mixture of Christian motifs, Celtic matter, twelfth-century manners and Provenyal courtly love are manifested in the first few lines of this episode. Several Arthurian tales begin at full court on Pente­ cost or some other Christian holiday in the Spring. Here the Christian calendar has been superimposed on the ancient Druidic spring festivals, which often were celebrated with a queen of the May. Quex' bastun from an apple tree is a recurrent motif in the literature of the tree- worshipping Celts. The life-giving apple was one of their sacred trees and the stick occurs in several contexts, sometimes as a Druid's wand, used for divining or prophesying the future, sometimes as a receptacle for a message written in the secret Druidic alphabet, ogam.

The name "Breselianda" (line 189 ), the forest to which Arthur and his knights ride, and the castle of "Carduel" (line ^79), to which the court returns, reflect the influence of Breton redactors on the

Arthurian matter, Loomis discusses Broceliande, a famous forest in

Brittany, quoting the twelfth-century author Wace, who reported that the Britons told many stories about it and that one could see fairies and other marvels there. Wace says that he himself went there but could not find any fairies.2 Loomis also studies the name Carduel, the

2 Loomis, p. 292. His source for the report by Wace is Andresen (Heilbronn, 1879), II, 283-8k, lines 6395-96, 6k09-l8. Loomis observes that the authors of Le Tornoiement Anticrist, Claris et Laris, and Brun de la Montaigne were also familiar with the legends about Broceliande. See F. Bellamy, "ForSt de Br6ch£liant," Beihefte zur Zeltschrift fur romanische Philologie, LXX, 129-39- ChrStien mentions the famous forest in Yvain, lines lb9, ^97. 31 modern Carlisle in England, from the old Welsh form, Cair Ligualid.

Carduel, or Kardoel, is an Anglo-Norman form which "became known to the

Bretons after the Norman Conquest. It became a favorite seat for Arthur and his court in the tales spread by the Bretons. King Arthur's re­ fusal to eat until an adventure arrives, no matter how long the court shall last, seems to be an echo of King Conchobar's statement in the tenth-century Irish story, The Feast of Brlcrlu, "that his food ought* not to be enjoyed without a brave deed of the Ulstermen. 114

In addition to the preceding Celtic motifs, we add the names of Arthur's knights, which are Celtic in origin with one or two ex­ ceptions, They are: Galvain, Lancelot del Lac, Tristan, Yvans, Erec,

Loomis, pp. 29, 291-92. Arthur's court is placed at Kardoel in Lanval, one of the Lais of Marie de France. Marie mentions in several places that she obtained her material from the Bretons. For example, concerning the name "I/snval" itself, which Loomis says is not known in Welsh, Marie states "en bretans I'apelent lanval" (line k). She says it is "li Bretun" who told her of Lanval's departure to Avalon. In Guigemar, she says she will tell the stories from which the Bretons have made lays (lines 19 -21 ). Chretien mentions Carduel, or variants of it, in Erec (lines 4515, 5282), Yvain (line 7), Graal (lines 336 .1839 )* Loomis, in the Appendix of Names, says that the d is probably due to contamination with the Breton "Kerduel" and refers to Snell, King Arthur's Country, p. 242. 4 The Irish story arose in the 10th century, see Tliurneysen, Irische Helden- und Konigsage, p. 668. A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend ("Cambridge, Mass., 1943)) P* 55, has summarized it from the 14th-century Yellow Book of Lecan, ed. Stokes and Windisch, Irische Texte, II, i, 173-7^* note 47, Brown mentions the similar theme in ChrGtien's Graal (line 2824), when Arthur refuses to eat until he has heard an adventure. 32

Qpexs, Persaval, Calogremans, Clige, Coedis, lo Bels Desconogutz, and

Caraduis (lines 101-9)* Loomis has discussed the Celtic origins of most of them in Arthurian Tradition, Appendix and Index of Names and

Titles. Coedis is not treated "by him since it is not found in Chrdtien's work. Nor is Caraduis, hut there is a Karados in Erec, with variants

Cardos and Caradue from Welsh Caradoc (p. M36). Two of the Welsh

Mahinogion stories have a similar name for one of Arthur's men, Cradawg in the early Culhwch and Olwen, and Caradawg in The Dream of Rhonatwy. 5

The closely ressembling name, Carrado, appears on the Modena sculpture, and the name Karadas is used in Heinrich von dem Turlin's Krone. 6

Calogremans, or Calogrenant, as it is seen elsewhere, is a fusion of the three words Ca-lo-grenant, or Keu-the-Grumbler. The epithet was used so often it "became a formula and eventually was understood as an individual name hy someone who was perhaps unfamiliar with Keu's per­ sonality. Thence it was copied hy others and became the name of one of

Arthur's knights (Arthurian Tradition, pp. 273-78). Here is an example of "splitting," one of the phenomena pointed out hy Loomis, which occur in the oft repeated popular matter.

Clige is, of course, Chretien's Cllgcs, which, as we have seen, was known hy Jaufre's author. The inclusion of Cligfes in the list of knights recalls ChrStien's novel which followed Ovid in its treatment of love. Ovid was enjoying a renewed interest, both in the South, where

5 Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, The Mahinogion (London, 19^9)> pp. 101, 1^3 . Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York, 1936), p. 163 . E. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston, 1882-98), I, p. 26k, note, lists further variations of the name. the troubadour poetry reflected his influence, and in the North, as

evidenced by the fact that Chretien had translated his works into

French. He may have done this at the suggestion of his patroness, Marie

of Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Acquitaine, who had helped to bring

the polished, sophisticated culture of the South to Chretien's region.

We know that it was at her request that he wrote the story of Lancelot based on courtly love, but Chretien himself evidently did not regard

this as the ideal love situation.

Let us now consider the problem of Arthur's adventure with a beast with horns. That horns were significant in Celtic mythology is

demonstrated by Anne Ross in Pagan Celtic Britain. 7 Horned figures, human and animal, abound in archaelogieal findings "perhaps second only

in importance to the cult of the head," according to Ross (p. 127). The

stag had importance for the inhabitants of Europe from very early times,

as evidenced by a carved portrayal of the stag-god, Cernunnos, in northern

Italy, dating possibly to the mid-fourth century B.C., when the Celts were in occupation there (p. 131). Some other frequently found horned

animals are the serpent, the bull, the ram, and the boar. Often bulls or boars having three horns or a stag having three antlers are seen, which is particularly significant when one considers that the beast confronting

King Arthur had a "row of horns."

The association of kings and warriors with horned animals was

customary in ancient Druidic tradition. Before electing a new king, the priest bathed in the broth of a slain and cooked bull and ate of the

- Studies in Iconography and Tradition (London, New York, 1967). flesh, and in the sleep which followed, the new king was revealed to him. The dominance of the hull is further shown in the most important

Irish legend which has come down to us, TfSin Bd Cufilgne, "The Cattle-

Raid of Cooley," in which two supernatural hulls, actually shape-shifting gods, are the cause of a great war between the Ulstermen and the armies of Queen Mebd. Ross mentions two Welsh triads, Three Bull-Chieftains of the Island of Britain, and Three Bull-Protectors of the Island of

Britain. She comments that these titles are appropriate "for eminent warriors in a society which at one stage likened its tribal god, leader in war and protector of his people, to a great horned bull, possessing all the most impressive and desirable qualities of the animal" (p. 306).

Ross, in her extensive discussion of the boar as a sacred ani­ mal of the Celts, gives several examples from Irish legends, some of which contain situations strikingly similar to those in our story of

Arthur and the beast. She quotes from the Lebor Gabdla, "Brigid the poetess, daughter of Dagda, she it is who had Fea and Femen, the two oxen of Del, from whom are named Mag Fea and Mag Femen. With them was

Triath, king of the swine, from whom is Treitherne. Among them were heard three demon voices in Ireland after plunder, namely whistling, and outcry and groaning" (from Macalister, 133)«0 Boss comments that

"this passage is suggestive of n whole host of stories about these destructive, powerful otherworld beasts" (p. 31?) • The great noise

8 The full titles of reference works cited by other authors in the text will be included in the Bibliography at the end of this work. recalls the terrible lamenting and tearing of hair which first attracted

Arthur's attention to the beast which was plundering and eating all the wheat in the mill.

It is difficult to ascribe a species to the beast in Jaufre, but certain features which are mentioned do have parallels in the

Irish legends. The beast which Arthur encounters is bigger than a bull, has soft red fur, a long neck, thick head, row of horns, big round eyes, big teeth, short muzzle, long legs and big feet. The thick head and round eyes fit the description of a pig, and some other features of

Arthur's beast can be found in the legendary Irish boars, at least size and color, big teeth, and perhaps even an explanation for the "row of horns." Ross testifies (p. Jl8) that the swine of Derbrenn are described as being red, as were some swine-like animals seen on an island in the voyage of Mael Duln (p. 320). Concerning size she maintains "gigantic pigs are the subject of contention at Bricriu's feast and in the story of Mac D5th6's pig" (p. 320). Another big beast is the terrible boar of Formael, "'The description of that huge boar were enough to cause mortal terror, for he was blue-black, with rough bristles...grey, hor­ rible, without ears, without a tail, without testicles and his teeth standing out long and horrid outside his big head...and it raised the mane of its back on hi$a so that a plump wild apple would have stuck on each of its rough bristles'" (Ross, p. 317* from Meyer, 65). Ross points out that "the description of the powerful beast's mane is reminiscent of the exaggerated, crest-like manes of the boars figured on the Celtic coins and in the iconography," It is possible that this is the ex­ planation for the "row of horns." The big teeth are also mentioned. We note that all the items lacking to the hoar of Formael were not men­

tioned in the description of Arthur's beast; this, however, is rather

negative evidence.

The fact that the animal is a transformed person also has pre­

cedent in legend. Concerning the six red swine of Derbrenn, Ross says

that Derbrenn "was the first love of Oengus mac ind 6c, and the swine were foster-children of hers when they were human beings; until the mother of the men...put upon them a spell mixed in the gathering of the

nuts of Caill Achaid....The boars (into which the men were transformed) were named Froechen, Bariban, and Brogarban; the sows were named Crain-

chrin, Coelcheis and Treilech" (p. 317> from Stokes ^189 ^ H70). An­

other legend cited by Ross tells of a bishop whose clerics are roasting

a young wild pig when a tall man emerges from the loch and tells them

the pig is a transformed boy, his son. He and others lived in a monas­

tery under the lake and had been turned into swine as punishment for a mutiny. The man is given the dead pig to bury, and the bishop visits

the underwater monastery.9

The transformed pigs were not always caught and roasted. Fre-

quently they put an enchantment on the pursuing hunters to lead them

where they willed. Ross notes:

The Fenian warriors are constantly portrayed as hunting not only powerful boars; but treacherous, transformed otherworld animals, whose purpose seems to be to lead the heros to some otherworld abode.

9 , M Page 320, from MacNeill (I9 O0), no. XVIII. Some of the Irish tales, when they were written down by monies, were put into a Christian context, or had religious details added, in an attempt, perhaps, to cover up their paganism. 37

Derbrenn's swine figure again in a legend accounting for the name of the place, Belaeh Conglals. Glas, the son of Donn Desa, meets a wild pig in the plain of Tara. Glas and the pig and the hounds are all destroyed. This animal was one of the red swine of Derbrenn. Again, in the prose dindshenchas, Mananann' s hounds chase a giant, devastating pig. It springs into a lake and causes all the dogs to be drowned, hence the name Loch Con, "loch of the dogs." Then it swims to an island known afterwards as Mucc-Inis, "Pig-island. 1,10

Here we see an enormous red transformed animal leading the hero and his followers, in this case, dogs, at his will.

One further example mentioned by Ross which contains several motifs of our story is the Fenian legend concerning the finding of

Caillte’s urn:

Finn sets out to hunt a huge pig: "comparable was he to every evil: a mountain height was not bigger than he, his color purplish and brindles black." Finn incites his hound Bran by reciting to it all the vast boars it has killed in the past— a recitation of mythical boar- hunts which seem to have furnished one of the chief occu­ pations of the Fenian warriors. The animal is brought to bay at length and utters a hideous screech. This brings an enormous churl or aithech who threatens the Fenians if they dare to kill his pig. He then picks up his pig and...goes off with it over his shoulder followed by the warriors whom he now has under spells to go with him to his sldh dwelling. When they reach his domain, he strikes the boar which turns into a splendid young man, the son of the churl. The churl, who is in reality king of the regions into which he has led Finn and his warriors, is married to a daughter of the god Mananann. The purpose of waylaying the Fenians by means of an enchanted boar is to marry the churl's daughter to Finn himself, which event takes place.

10 Page 218, from Stokes (189*0, *t-21, *f7**-75. "Fenian" is the adjective for Finn, the hero of one of the cycles of the early Irish legends. Other cycles are the mythological cycle, containing the oldest motifs and gods; the Ulster cycle, with Cuchulainn as the hero, and which was known primarily by the elite, the courts, rulers, and Druids; and the historical cycle, supposedly somewhat later. The Fenian cycle seems to have sprung up after the Ulster cycle and was the favorite of the common people. Here again wc have an example of enchantment into animal or bird form talcing place in order to bring about an amorous situation (p. 319 > from MacNeill, ll»2).

Motifs in this excerpt which are common to both this story and

that of Arthur and the beast are: the chase of a huge animal which is

not allowed to be harmed, the leading of the group of warriors to a

kind of a hill. The fact that this hill was a form of the otherworld

will become apparent in the discussion of a later chapter. Further

common motifs are the striking of the animal by a king, the transfor­ mation of the animal into a splendid young man, and the purpose of the

transformation and enclvantment being "amorous."

The theme of a hunted animal's life being bound to that of the

hero is not uncommon. We remember that King Arthur could not bring

himself actually to h a m the beast and warned the others not to do so,

sensing that as long as the beast was respected, his life was not in

danger. Ross mentions the hero Diarmaid whose life span was "controlled

by that of the great magic boar of Gulban. When he destroys it, his own

fate is sealed" (p. 320, from MacNeill).

In both stories, it is a king who strikes the animal, Arthur

with the broadside of his sword in trying to get it to move away, the

king disguised as a churl in transforming the boar back into his son.

It is possible that the striking got separated from the ti’ansforming in

the later version where Arthur is the hero. This could have came about

either because it had been told so many times that by the time it reached

the Provencal court it bad been accidently garbled, or because some inter­ mediate conteur consciously changed it to fit better with his story. It is also a king in "both legends who leads the men to the otherworld; the forest of Broceliande in the case of Arthur, and a s£dh in the Fenian tale. The sidh is a mound or hill containing an otherworld. We note that the red beast carried Arthur to a high place, a hill or bluff, before it was transformed.

Arthur thus seems to be a combination of both Finn, who set out to hunt the huge pig, and the disguised king, who led the men to the otherworld and struck the beast. We learn that it was Arthur also who had arranged earlier for the knight to transform himself and thus Arthur himself was behind the whole adventure, as was the churl-king who en­ chanted the Fenians. Galvain’s jocular remark that the knight had en­ chanted all of them thus takes on a deeper significance:

"Per ma fe, bels compains," dis el, "Asats nos avets encantats C'aisi faits anar despolats." (lines k66-6Q).

The fact that the transformation, enchantment, and waylaying of the men leads to an amorous denouement is another striking parallel.

The churl-king wants to marry his daughter to Finn; one of the rewards promised the knight by Arthur is a kiss to the prettiest girl of the court, whom the knight himself will choose. The combination of motifs, transformed person--hunted animal— amorous purpose, is commonly found in

Celtic material.

In the Irish Laoidh na Sealga, "Lay of the Chase," Fingal pursues with two dogs a beautiful doe who leads him to a lake and dis­ appears, whereupon Fingal sees a lovely damsel. 11 Such motifs occur

n William A. Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions (London, 1887), p. 216. 1)0 again in two lays, Gufngamoor and Graelent. Guingamoor starts out to hunt a white boar after several other knights have hunted him and failed to return. During the chase he comes to a fountain in which a beautiful

lady is bathing, goes with her to her castle and finds the ten other knights. Graelent chases a white hind from the woods to nil open place where a beautiful girl is bathing in a fountain. She had previously arranged for the hunt to take place. 12

Another lay containing a similar motif is Guigemar, by Marie de

France. While hunting a stag, Guigemar gets separated from his men, then notices a white doe with antlers and her fawn. He wounds her mortally above the hoof with an arrow which returns and wounds him in the thigh. The doe speaks, saying that he will never be cured until a lady has suffered for him and he for her. 13 Guigemar then proceeds to further adventures with a fairy mistress.

Loomis discusses the motifs in connection with the White Stag

Hunt in Erec et Enide (lines 27-124, 279-341, 1751-1843). He gives ex­ amples of white otherworld animals, such as the pack of shining white hounds in the Welsh mabinogi of Manawydan which disappears after Pryderi has pursued it into an enchanted castle. From the Second Continuation of Li Conte del Graal, the Breton lay Tyolet and variations in the

Didot Perceval, the Dutch Lancelot, the Welsh Peredur, the Huth Merlin and Malory, he concludes that there existed an early Breton conte con­ taining these features: "A fay offers her love on condition that the

12 John Reinhard, The Survival of 'Geis* ha Medieval Romance (Halle, 1933), pp. 279, 243. 13 Lais, ed. Jeanne Lods (Paris, 1959)> lines 69-122. hi hero pursue a white stag with the aid of a white hound which she pro­ vides; the hero cuts off the stag's head; he is robbed of it; he finally recovers it and receives the fay's love as his reward" (Arthurian Tradi­ tion, pp. 68-70).

These examples may be compared with a group of Irish legends to be treated more thoroughly below, in which several brothers go on a hunt, in one case for a golden fawn, and meet an ugly hag who turns beautiful upon fulfillment of the condition of kissing or sleeping with her. She reveals herself as the sovereignty, or the personification, of Ireland, promising the kingship to the brave one who dared to kiss her.

Another feature which has not yet been mentioned is Arthur's inability to let go of the animal once he lias grasped its horns. This motif finds a parallel in an Irish otherworld horse which requires four­ teen men to mount it before it will move, "When it does so, they find they are unable to dismount, and its speed on sea and land alike is terrifying. It carries them to the otherworld of which Gille Deacair is ruler" (Ross, p. 328 , from O'Grady Jl&jZj, II, 292f.). Ross explains that some of the same motifs are seen "in the universal Celtic legends of the water horse to which, when once a human being touches it, he sticks, and the creature usually goes swiftly to the water from which it has emerged and plunges in with the victim firmly attached to its back." In the Welsh triads, there is an example of a horned horse, Kor- nan, "little horned one." 14 We recall certain features of Arthur's beast which fit a horse better than a boar, notably size, long neck and long legs.

55 Ross, p. 351. One of the four carried on the back of Cornan is called Peredur. k2

One further motif which needs discussing is the red color of the beast and the red dress of the transformed knight. Red has special significance in Celtic lore, being a color particularly identified with the otherworld. We have already noted the red swine of Derbrenn from Irish tales; white pigs with red ears are found in the Welsh

Mablnogion stories. The color is associated with the Irish god, Lug, who is a solur deity according to Loomis, accounting for the capacity of red knights to increase in strength to the hour of none, or midday, and to wane thereafter. We note that Arthur's adventure with the red beast took place at midday, after mass and before dinner. Red is also the color of death in Irish tales as is shown in the tale of Da Perga1s

Hostel when King Conaire sees three red men on three red horses riding before him on his way toward the hostel. It is a geis, something which has been prohibited by supernatural powers on pain of death, for the three reds to precede him thus, but they can not be overtaken or stopped. They state that they come from Donn Detscorach, god of Death, and though they are alive, they are dead. The king and his followers are frightened, 16

Several enemy knights in other Arthurian tales, originally personifications of death, wear red, have red arms, or ride red steeds.

— Celtic Myth, p. h6 and Arthurian Tradition, p. 165. See n. 22 below, 16 Brown, Grail Legend, pp. 169-70, summarizes and quotes from W. Stokes, Revue celtique, XXII (1901), 36-37, sections 30-36. Brown discusses red as the color of giants from the land of death, pp. 166-73 * See n. 23 below. One example is found in Chretien's Perceval story, mentioned hy Brown:

Outside the castle gate Perceval meets a knight in red armor holding a gold cup, who says: "Tell the wicked King Arthur to send somebody to defy me, or else to hold his land in fief for me, for it is mine." Perceval rides so dashingly into the hall that, he knocks Arthur's hat off. Arthur welcomes Perceval, who asks that he be made a knight at once. Arthur tells Perceval that his worst enemy, the Vermaus Chevaliers de la forest de Quinqueroi, has just put in a claim to Arthur's land, and after spilling wine on the queen, has carried off a gold cup. Perceval says, "Give me the arms of the Red Knight who has stolen your cup." Kay shouts to Perceval to go and win the arms, and Perceval departs....(He) rides outside the castle gates, encounters the Red Knight and strikes him through the eye with a javelot, killing him. Yonet, who has followed, first shows Perceval how to put on the Red Knight's armor and then carries the gold cup back to Arthur (Grail Legend, pp. 125-27)«

Here we see the motif of the insult to the queen, the remains of an original abduction of the queen, who personified the land in

IT Irish mythology. The red knight's role of insulter or abductor of the queen is not brought out in this episode of Jaufre, but we do remember that two of the rewards offered him are a gold cup and a kiss to the prettiest girl of the court. It would seem that at one time the red beast-knight was an eneB$r of Arthur and the act of frightening Arthur and the court is a vestige of his former role. The fact that he is now one of Arthur's most excellent knights is not surprising since vanquished

Brown, p. 126, n. 22, also pp. 393-9^* Loomis, Arthurian Tradition, pp. 162-68, discussed the red knight, his connection with the sun and death, his role as the enemy of the king and abductor or insulter of the queen in various Arthurian tales, Lanzelet, Livre d'Artus, Erec; in Irish myth; in a legend by Walter Map from around 1181; in a Breton folk tale; and in the Middle English Sir Orfeo, probably based on a Breton lai. enemies frequently turn up as regular knights of the Round Table in other tales. 18 This is an example of the fading of the original Welsh and Irish tradition which customarily cast the red knight as an enemy.

Now to look at Welsh stories concerning Arthur and wild beasts which may give us a clue to the intermediary stages between the Irish and Provencal tales. Ross quotes the longest of the Welsh triads, telling of Drystan, who guards the swine of March; Essyllt, to whom he sends a message to come to meet him; Arthur, who is trying to obtain a pig from them, either by deceit or force, but does not succeed; and

Coll, who guards a supernatural sow, Henwen, who brings forth wheat, bees, barley, a wolf cub, a young eagle, and finally a terrible kitten, known as Palug's Cat (p. Jlk from Bromwich no. 26). Arthur has a fight with Palug’s cat in another legend. In a variant of the triad,

26W, Arthur assembles an army and sets out to destroy the sow. In

Ross' opinion, the legend of the introduction of pigs into Briton and their herding by swineherds has been combined with the tradition of the hunt of the supernatural animal in this triad (p. 315).

5B--- Taulat is listed in Chretien's Erec along with his conqueror as one of Arthur's knights who never neglected the duty of taking up arms: Girflez li fiz Bo et Taulas Qui onques d'armes ne fu las; (lines 1729 -30 ).

As will be seen, Jaufre and Girflez are the same, as are Taulat and Taulas, pursued so relentlessly after his insult to the court. The names could be used as evidence for the earlier dating of Jaufre, but it is also possible that Chrfitien had heard the names in shorter contes. Ross cites one of the Mabinoglon stories, Culhwch and Olwen, in which Arthur and his men are chasing a giant hoar, Twrch Trwyth, who is exceedingly destructive, as was the "beast in Joufre. Arthur follows him and his seven young pigs, who are also transformed people, to

Ireland, where the animal lays waste to one of the five provinces of

Ireland, despite the day-long defense of the Irishmen. Arthur fights him for nine nights and nine days, hut succeeds in killing only one little pig. When asked ahout the history of the hoar, Arthur says, "He was a king and for his wickedness God transformed him into a swine," 19 another example of the attempt to put a pagan story in a Christian con­ text. Thus we have second encounter of Arthur and an enchanted de­ structive animal in which the heast remains unharmed, although in this instance, Arthur definitely intended to slay it if possible.

The mosiac on the floor of the cathedral in Otranto in southern

Italy has been mentioned previously. There, the figure "Rex Arthurus" holds a scepter and rides a horned animal, a goat, according to Loomis

(Arthurian Tradition, p. 20). The mosaic was laid in 1165, a fact which would indicate that a story concerning Arthur's riding a horned animal was in existence and known in that region sometime before that date.

Since Jaufre was written around ll8o, the mosaic may illustrate the same tale of a horned heast as that of the Provencal roman.

Thus there is extensive evidence for the Celtic origin of the

first adventure of King Arthur, beginning with the scene at his court

3 9 Jones, Jones, p. 1J1. in the Spring. The place names, Breselianda and Carduel, and the names of most of Arthur’s knights have keen shown "by Loomis to come from the

Breton conteurs. The fact that Chretien's Cliges is included may in­ dicate a knowledge of the work of that name by Jaufre1s author. The adventure of Arthur with the horned beast, however, is not found in other Arthurian literature. It would seem to be Celtic in origin, as is shown through comparison of archaelogical findings and motifs in

Irish legend. Numerous figures of horned animals, some having three protrusions from their heads, a "row of horns," have been found among

Celtic artifacts. Irish legends show that the bull is associated with leaders and royalty, and Ross claims that the Celtic society at one time "likened its tribal god...to a great horned bull" (p. 506). Some­ what closer to our story is the tradition of the giant boar, often red in color, frequently a transformed person, who would lead a hunter or hunters on a chase to an otherworld location, a lake or hill. The pursuer then finds himself abducted and under an enchantment of some sort, unable to harm the animal or escape from him, and discovers that the purpose of the enchanter is amorous in nature. We find that the color red, the color of the beast and the dress of Arthur's enchanter- knight, was significant to the Celts as the color of the otherworld, death or the enemy. Red knights in Arthurian tales seem to play a traditional, role of enemy or insulter of the court and especially the queen. There is evidence that they were originally abductors of the queen. In Welsh tradition, we find that Arthur hunts giant supernatural pigs and "boars, one of which is exceedingly destructive and continues the fight for nine days and nine nights without Arthur's "being able to hurt him.

In AmSrico Paredes' Folktales of Mexico (Chicago, 1970), there is a story collected in Texas in 1968 from a 7^-year-old woman, which contains some motifs of Arthur's adventure. Called nThe Horse of Seven

Colors," it tells of Juan, a third son, who succeeds in rescuing his father's wheat from a horse which is damaging it after his two elder brothers have failed. The horse makes a bargain with Juan to let him­ self be caught and to help Juan in various ways if Juan will not hurt him. He then helps Juan to win a princess as his wife and to deal with the malicious brothers before transforming himself back into a prince

(pp. 102-12). Although many additional motifs are included in the narration, it seems possible that the wheat-eating, transformed noble­ man either existed in a Spanish tale from which Jaufre's author obtained it, or that it entered the body of Spanish folklore as a result of the account in Jaufre.

Although we have not found a parallel story of Arthur riding a horned red beast in Irish or Welsh literature, it seems probable that such a tale did exist at one time, at least in Welsh or Breton oral tradition. Possibly a skillful storyteller combined the various motifs from his background of lore to form the adventure, which has come down to us through the Provencal Jaufre. i#s

The Giant Bird

The story of Arthur and the red beast is counterpoised at the end of the novel by one concerning Arthur and a giant bird. Wo hint is given that the second adventure has anything to do with the first or that the transformed knight will receive a reward as before, but the same enchanter-knight seems to be involved.

The scene is the wedding feast of Jaufre and Brunissen, served by Lugan the boteiller with twenty thousand young boys, dressed in scarlet cendal, wearing soft white napkins at their necks, and carrying basins of silver and cups of gold. The king is brought water for wash­ ing in a golden conch. Every dish imaginable is served. Suddenly the

.jongleurs are interrupted by a squire who enters running, warning every­ one to take arms and defend himself. The king questions him about the danger and finally obtains the information that there is a giant bird outside with a beak as big as ten palps and a head as large as a valssel. Ilis eyes are so shiny and beautiful they seem like carbuncles, and his feet are bigger than the big gate. King Arthur arms himself and insists on going out alone, as before, this time on foot. On seeing the bird, he crosses himself. Believing that it is going to hit him with its beak, he starts to strike it. At this, the bird becomes angry, picks him up by the arm and knocks the sword out of his hand. The two fly higher and higher while all below lament and tear their hair and clothes. A count has the idea of killing five bulls, skinning them and dragging them as far as a crossbow can fire to distract the bird and entice him to land. The bird pays no heed to the dead bulls and flies to a tower where he sets Arthur down, rests a while, then takes off

over a thick forest where there are serpents, hoars and other wild

beasts and which no one dares enter. All lament, then both men and

women plxxnge into the woods on horseback. The bird, carrying Arthur,

flies along a riverbank and then back to the castle, where he changes

into an excellent knight, kneels and asks forgiveness of the king. Then

he changes back into a bird, and leads the others home. They enter and

see the knight with the king. Again he has enchanted everyone and made

them go around in torn clothes. The queen, Guilalmier, says the knight

will never do as much good in his life as he has done harm that day in

frightening her so. The king sends to town for material to replace all

the clothes (lines 9767-10,110).

This adventure contains many motifs from Irish mythology,

although no one story parallels it completely. There is a tale, the

Tochmarc JKtaine, in which the god Midir seeks to obtain Etain, the wife

of the king, Eochaid Airem. He wins the right to embrace Etaine in a

chess game with Eochaid. Eochaid surrounds the court with warriors but Midir, taking his weapons in his left arm and Etaine in his right,

rises through the skylight of the house. The warriors rush outside

and see only two swans circling Tara before they fly off to Midir's

dwelling in the otherworld (Ross, p. 2*K), from Best and Bergin, Eriu,

12 /1932-87, l8if). Perhaps the original victim of the abduction to

the skies by the bird was Arthur's queen. The group of warriors rush

outside in confusion and helplessness as do Arthur's knights. The

course taken by the giant bird over a dense, dangerous and mysterious forest which no one dares enter, and along the "banks of a river is

reminiscent of the "boundaries to the otherworld, the home of Midir,

Forests and water in any form: rivers, seas, wells and fountains, are

frequent borders of the Celtic otherworld, which will be treated in

detail in a later chapter. In addition, we note the peculiar detail

of the Qqeen's scolding the enchanter for a harm done to her that day which he can never undo nor make atonement for. Although it is to the king that the knight kneels asking forgiveness, it seems that he has

frightened the queen more than Arthur himself. We recall the red knight who traditionally insults the queen, and originally abducted her, and remember the red dress of the enchanter-knight in his first

adventure with Arthur.

Let us now examine Lugan, the boteilier 20 or butler who appears with 20,000 pages all dressed in red, wearing soft white towels at

their necks and carrying basins of silver and cups of gold. It seems

to me that the name is close enough to Lug, or a variant form, Lugaid,

to render an examination of that Celtic deity at least interesting, and perhaps revealing.21

20 "Lucans li hoteliers" is mentioned in Erec (line 1509)> as one of those watching out the castle window for the return of Erec with his future bride. 21 Several scholars of Irish literature have claimed that nftrthological or legendary heros often have more than one name, but that each of the variations originates in one figure. Examples are the sev­ eral Eochu forms, and the various Lugs or Lughaids, Loomis, Arthurian Tradition, pp. 51-5^> Brown, Grail Legend, pp. 217-18. Brown writes, "Eoin MacHeil.l (Celtic Ireland, p. 6l) has pointed out that most kings named Lughaid are merely faded pictures of the god, Lug mac Eithne." As kings, the Lughaids of the historical cycle are consorts of the sovereignty of Ireland. Sec n. 27, below. There is some difference of opinion as to whether Lug is a solar deity, as Loomis thinks, and thus the prototype of the red knights whose strength increases as the sun reaches its zenith, then decreases as the sun starts to fall in the sky. 22 Brown finds that the color red

■belongs to the giants, the enemies from the land of the dead. According to him, Lug's association with red would he primarily in overcoming enemies of that ilk. 23 What is agreed upon hy all is that Lug or Lugus, as he was known on the Continent, was one of the oldest and "best-known deities. He has given his name to several towns and cities, including

Lyons, formerly Lugudunum. 24 He was a god of all skills, including crafts and poetry, and a warrior with a powerful spear. Because of the spear he was called Lug Ldrahfhada, "of the Long Arm,"ss as well os the

Loomis, Celtic Myth, p. k6f,} bases his opinion on comparisons in the Irish legends which liken Lug's aspect to that of the sun, for example: "The shining of his face and of his brow was like the setting sun; it was impossible to look upon his visage, so great was its brilliance," and "The aspect of his visage and of his brow was as bright as the sun on a summer's day." A gloss states that "a red color used to be on him from sunset to morning." 23 Grail Legend, pp. 166-75* Brown establishes red in Irish mythology as the color for the giant enemies, called Fomorians, who come from the land of the dead. He also cites an incident from the Oided Chloinne Tuirem, an 18th-century ms. translated by E. O'Curry, Atlantis IV (1863), l6^f.: "Lug, immediately upon arriving at Nuadu's castle, slew Fomorian tax-gatherers and so brought about the battle, Fomorian tax-gathers would, like other Fomorians, be red giants," p. 236 . Although a relatively recent ms., it is the only one containing a record of this incident, which seems to be of an earlier origin, corresponding to the red knight episode of Perceval. 2 A Loomis, Celtic Myth, p. U6, Ross, p. 2^9. 25 Loomis believes this epithet and a second one, Loinribheimio- nach, "of the mighty blows," show him as a god of thunder and lightning as well as the sun, Celtic Myth, p. kf, but Marie-Louis Sjoestedt, Gods and Heroes of the Celts, trans, Myles Dillon (London, 19^9)# says the epithet refers not to his solar nature but his way of fighting with a long spear, p. ^3* 52

Samildanach, "the many-skilled." 26 Another of his functions, or that of his namesakes in the historical cycle, is to be consort to a female who is the sovereignty of Ireland herself. In this role he is the king or ruler. An Irish story, the Baile in Scdil, "The Spectre's Prophecy," written down some time before 1056, contains a portrait of Lug, son of

Eithne. Conn, who was traveling with three druids and three poets, arrived at a long house with a white bronze roof. They entered and saw

a young maiden in a glass chair with a gold crown on her head and a cloak with borders of gold round her. A bowl of silver with four golden corners before her, full of red beer. A cup of gold on the ground. A beaker or cup of gold at her lips.

And they saw the sc&l himself in the house before them in his royal seat. And great was his dignity. This was proper because there was not found in Tara before him a man of his size, nor of his beauty, in respect to the nobility of his form, and his appearance, and in respect to his wonderfulness. He spoke to them and said: "I am not a sc&l (shadow) and I am not a phantom,...After my death I am come, and I am of the seed of Adam. This is my name, 'Lug mac Ethnen' (here he tells his geneology). And it is for this reason that I have come that there mightest be seen by thee the duration of they reign, and of every reign that shall be after thee in Tara forever."

And the maiden who was in the house before them was the sovereignty of Ireland, and 'twas she that gave a meal to Conn....When the maiden went to the distribution, she said to them: "To whom shall be given the beaker with the red beer?" And the scdl answered her name, and he named every sovereign, one after another, from the time of Conn forever (Brown, pp. 218-20).

The sovereignty of Ireland, who is often an ug3.y hag to begin with, but reveals herself as beautiful after testing the man destined

In a legend reported by Sjoestedt, Lug claims to be a car­ penter, smith, harper, poet, historian, champion, hero and sorcerer, p. Mf. Ross also discusses Lug's role, pp. 251-52. 53 to rule, is the prototype of the "hateful fSe" of Arthurian tales.

Sigmund Eisner, in A Tale of Wonder (New York, 1957)> in the chapter entitled "The Irish loathly Lady," says she was originally part of a seasonal myth, an earth goddess who in her ugly form represented the earth in winter; cold, gray and infertile. When kissed "by the sun, or lug, the solar deity, she became like spring or summer; radiant, warm and beautiful (pp. 37-38). The land's fruits, food and drink, symbolize the product of the union, the marriage of the sun and the earth (p. 4o).

One such legend is the Temair Breg, Baile na Fian, written by Cuan ua

Lothchdin who died in 1024. Five brothers go hunting and one by one go to seek a drink at a fountain guarded by a hideous hag who demands a kiss as price for a drink. "A mouth she has into which a hound would fit. Her spiked tooth-fence about her jaws is more hideous than all the goblins in Ireland." One brother gives her a hasty kiss for which he will have a short reign, but the youngest throws his arms around her

"as if she were forever his wife." She immediately grows beautiful, and says to him, "The fearsomeness thou sawest in my face, since it repelled not thy desire, thou art the princely heir of Tara." 27

Brown, pp. 210-12, from Maud Joynt, Eriu, IV (1910), 92-111. Another story, Lughald laighe, Brown, p. 213, from O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, II, *jB9-90, 537-58, concerns a namesake of Lug in the his­ torical cycle. "Dair, because of a prophecy that a son of his named Lughaid shall rule Ireland, names all his six sons Lughaid. When he is holding the Tailtiu assembly he asks his druid which son shall be king. The druid replies: 'A golden fawn shall come to the assembly and who­ ever captures it shall rule.' When a fawn appears, the six brothers pursue it to Benn Edar. Lughaid, who from this is named Laighe, catches the laegh, 'fawn'. They are now lost in a magic mist and snowstorm. One of them finds a 'great house with a big fire, with victual and liquor in plenty, silver dishes, bedsteads of white bronze, and a dreadful hag. The hag will grant food to him only who will sleep A few motifs from the first legend, The Spectre1s Prophecy, fit

in with the vignette we have of Lugan in Jaufre. Perhaps his position

as "boteilier" came as a result of his being in charge of the desti­

nation of the red ale or beer. The red color worn by his pages and their white napkins show association with the Celtic otherworld. The theme of every dish imaginable being available is also seen in Celtic legend.

A more striking parallel is the silver bowl with four golden corners, the gold cup set before the maiden and the gold beaker at her lips, which would seem to be repeated in the silver basins and gold cups brought by the young pages. The third gold vessel finds an echo in the gold conch brought to King Arthur to wash in. In other Celtic matter we find damsels from the otherworld carrying basins and towels pn to serve honored travelers or guests. The change to young men may be a modernization to the ways of twelfth-century court life. with her. He refuses. 'Thou hast missed of royalty,' she cries. He goes back to his brothers. One after another, the others come. She names each by a nickname, but they all refuse her. At last comes Lughaid Laighe who is brave.enough to enter her couch. She forthwith becomes beautiful and says to him: 'Thine is an auspicious journey, for I am royalty and thou shalt have Ireland's rule.' '(Then they) have meat of the freshest, liquor of the oldest, drinking horns of themselves (automatically) pouring to them, and of royalty so he makes his own. On the morrow the six find themselves without house, without fire, without anything but the open plain, smooth and level, and their wolfdogs tied to their spears.' They return to Tailtiu and tell the adventure," 28 The Lais of Marie de France contain the motif in Lanval: two beautiful maidens approach the hero, one carrying an elegant gold basin, the other a towel. "L'aisnee portout uns bacins, Core furent, bien faiz e fins, Le veir vus en dirai sans faile, L'autre portout une tuaile"lines 59-6^. Although Lugan does not seem, to play a direct role in Arthur’s adventure with the giant "bird it is interesting to note that he does have a connection with birds, particularly the raven. Ross mentions

"several coins and medallions associated with the town of Lyons, dating from the first and second centuries A.D. on which the youthful genius of the city is portrayed accompanied by ravens" (p. 250). She adds that the ravens might have been symbols for the "all-wise, all-purpose deity" since the bird is supposed to have wisdom and the power of prophesy, and there may have been "legends about his raven followers or servants."

Such legends do exist about other gods and heros in Irish and Welsh literature. In an Irish poem, the hawk of Achill mentions seeing "full many a raven and crow along with Lugh of the hero's hands" (Ross, p.

251, from Bergin, Best, Meyer and O'Keefe [ } 9 o i J } 31). In another legend, magic geese or swans help him beget his hero son, Cuchulainn, and he may even himself have been one of the swans transformed (Ross, p. 25l).

The name of the central character of a Welsh Mabinogion story,

Math son of Mathonwy, is Lieu, which Ross believes to be a cognate of lug and Lugus. When Lieu's wife betrays him he turns into a great eagle and eventually punishes her by turning her into an owl (Ross, pp. 274-73, 277). Thus the god Lug is seen to have several associa­ tions with birds and bird transformations.

The usual purpose for Celtic figures transforming themselves to birds seems to be to fulfill an amorous goal, as we have seen hitherto in the case of Midir and Etain. The motif occurs again in the case of

Etain's granddaughter. The girl, Mes Buachalla, "saw a bird on the skylight coming towards her. Leaving his 'bird-dress' on the floor, he said to her, 'They are coming to you from the King, to destroy your house and to "bring you to him by force, and you will be pregnant by me and you will bear a son, and that boy shall not slay birds and Conaire will be his name'" (Ross, p. 262, from Knott /l93^7, If.).

We note that the twelfth-century lay, Yonec, by Marie de

France, is based on the plot of a bird, a hawk, entering the tower where a lady is kept captive by her jealous husband. On changing to a hand­ some young lord, he becomes her lover. He visits her often in this manner, but is finally discovered and mortally wounded by a trap the husband has set. Before dying, he informs her that she has become pregnant by him, and will bear a son to whom will be given the name

Yonec. Later Yonec is informed of his identity and is accepted as the lord and ruler of his father's people. "The Greenish Bird," from the

Folktales of Mexico, collected by Am6rico Paredes, follows this story with remarkably few changes (pp. 95-102).

In the preceding Irish tale, after a few years the son Conaire has an experience with "some great white speckled birds of unusual size and colour" who turn into men after he chases them but is unable to

catch up with them. "The birds put aside their bird cloaks and turn upon him with spears and swords." One of them protects him, telling him that he is the king of his father's birds. "'It was forbidden you

to cast at birds since there is not anyone here who does not lawfully belong to you, on his father's side or his mother's.' 'I did not know,' he said, 'that thing until today.' 'Go to Tara tonight,1 he said, 'it is more fitting for you. There is a bull-feast in progress and it is 57 you who will be king as a result of it, that is a stark-naked man going at dawn along one of the roads to Tara and he having a stone and a

sling, he will be king'" (Ross, p. 263 from Knott, /1956.7j 5f*)*

In this legend the transformation seems to occur in order to

foretell Conaire1s becoming a king and to instruct him how to fulfill

the prior requirements. We note the "bull-feast" which was held, as was mentioned in the discussion of Arthur and the red beast above, to discover who would be the next king. A closer connection between birds and bulls will be seen below.

When the birds first "put aside their bird cloaks," they faced

Conaire, the future king, with spears and swords, evidently with the in­

tention of killing him if it had not been for the protector, the king

of his father's birds. The transformation with a malevolent purpose

towards a king fits closely with what we have seen of the enchanter, a

former enemy of Arthur, although we do remember that originally he may

also have had amorous intentions toward the queen.

Thus far we have had an example of a god transforming himself

and a queen to birds for the purpose of talcing her away. There is another legend, Sergllge Cuchulainn, in which a transformed bird, or

rather, two birds, arrive in order to take the hero, Cuchulainn, to the

otherworld. First a flock of birds appears over a lake and their songs put all the warriors to sleep. The hero captures two for each woman

except Emer, his wife, who is angry at this. Then the two most beauti­

ful birds arrive, linked together by a gold chain. Thinking to capture them for Emer, Cuchulainn casts at them and strikes one on the wing, at which both submerge. Later two beautiful women from the otherworld, Fann and LlBan, appear and beat Cuchulainn until he is unconscious.

(in one version he becomes sick for a year.) The purpose is to obtain

Cuchulainn*s promise of aid ugainst an enemy, and his love, in which

2 9 Fann eventually succeeds.

Although the birds do not actually pick the hero up bodily, they do manage to get him away from his wife and his land against his will. The submerging of the two birds recalls the theme of an under­ water entrance to the otherworld, a motif which will be treated in a later chapter.

It seems a bit curious that the count in Jaufre would suggest five slain and skinned bulls as an irresistable temptation to the great bird and a means of distracting his attention from the king. In a study of the sacred birds of the Celts, Ross mentions two slabs dating from the first century A.D. on which birds and bulls are represented to­ gether, although in this case the bulls are alive. On one side of the first stone a figure, Esus, "lord, master," is seen cutting down a tree, and on the reverse side is the same tree and a bull with two large wading birds on his back and third between his horns. The name Tar- vostrigaranus, "the bull with three cranes," is written above the bull.

On the second stone, a figure similarly dressed to the previous Esus is cutting down a tree containing a bull1s head and three large wading birds.30 Because of the inscribed name, Ross says the bull is probably

^Ross, p. 238f. Brown, p. ljff. 30 The first stone was discovered in 1711 in the choir of the church of Jfotre Dame in Paris, and the second in 1895 at Trier (Fr. Treves), Germany. Ross, p. 279* 59 a deity, and is certainly a divine symbol (p. 29 O). In discussing the insular Celtic tradition, she points out that birds and bulls are associated in the "Thealby and Ribchester bucket fitments, where male head, hull and bird are built up into a complex arrangement, and... numerous other fitments from ritual buckets and cauldrons where birds emerge from the top of bulls' heads" (p. 291) . In the Aided Conrof roaic

Dairi, "The little birds that used to be on the ears of the cows, even luchna's cows," are mentioned (p. 291, n. 1, from R. I. Best, Eriu, II,

20). Ross finds that the crane or water bird was a common shape of metamorphosis or a symbol for a goddess, as was the bull for a god, thus fomning a natural pair in ancient Celtic tradition. Possibly we see here the bull in the Arthurian story as the other half of a symbolic pairing, and thus a means of attracting the bird. However, the bird-knight in

Jaufre is masculine and the motivation for slaying the bulls seems to be to provide food for a giant bird who might be supposed to be ravenously hungry. A more likely Celtic motif explaining the slain bulls might be a sacrifice, common in the Druidic religion, performed to obtain the release of the king from the bird, a supernatural being.

As for a direct association of King Arthur with birds, there are at least two examples in the Welsh tradition. In one, Arthur's nephew

Eliwlod, son of Madog, comes after his death to speak with Arthur in the shape of an eagle. 3X The other example is in Breudwyt Ronabwy "The

— Ross, p. 278, from Myvyrian Archalology, I, 176. Ross com­ ments that this example seems to be approaching the concept of the soul in bird form rather than being a clear-cut metamorphosis. Dream of Rhonabwy," a Mabinogion story dating to the thirteenth century but containing pagan elements from older legends. Owein is playing gwyddbvyll with Arthur when a squire comes to report that Arthur's men are attacking Owein's ravens. Owein asks Arthur to call off his men but the emperor commands him to play on. Two more times this happens, and the third time the squire announces the slaying of the most famous ravens and wounding of the rest. At this, Owein orders him to return and raise the standard. Immediately the birds are revived, recovering both strength and magic powers, and begin to attack Arthur's men, carry­ ing off heads, eyes, ears, arms, "and they were raising them up in the air, and there was a great commotion in the air, what with the fluttering of the exultant ravens and their croaking, and another great commotion what with the cries of the men being gashed..." (Jones, Jones, p. 1^7)-

Here the squire's warning is not to the court in general but to

Owein; the attack by the birds is not on Arthur himself but on his men;

Arthur is not lifted into the air but his men or parts of them are. Per­ haps the cries of the men and the "commotion" is echoed in Jaufre by the laments and tearing of hair and clothes at Arthur's plight.

There is a story, not found in the Irish or Welsh matter, with which the Provenjal author may also have been familiar, that of Siribad or Sindibad, who tied himself to the talon of a giant bird, a roc or rukh', which carried him safely away from a deserted island. The story is contained in the fifteenth-century The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, the nucleus of which collection of tales is probably from Baghdad and

Cairo of the eighth to tenth centuries, according to the Preface in the

1927 edition of Edward William Lane's translation, originally published 6l between l8i*8 and 1850. Lane says in his Notes on the voyages of Es- sindibad of the Sea that this work "is evidently founded upon the ex­ aggerated reports of a variety of travellers, and almost all these reports I find related in the' ’Ajaib el Makhlookat’ of El-Kazweenee and the 1Khareedet el-’Ajaib' of Ibn-El-Wardee. The former author flour­ ished in the latter half of the thirteenth century, and the latter died about the middle of the fourteenth." (p. 1185). Lane also mentions an article on the Thousand and One Nights in No. Vf of the Foreign Quar­ terly Review in which is discussed a German romance of the twelfth century, Duke Ernest of Bavaria, by Henry of Veldeck, who flourished around ll6o, and a Latin poem from the same period by Odo, both of which contain the "aeronautic excursion in the second voyage of Sindbad," as well as adventures from the other voyages (p. 1186). In this tale, however, the bird seems unaware of the man which he is carrying, and the transformation, landscape and other motifs are not included.

As was the case with the first episode there is no one tale which parallels the adventure of Arthur and the giant bird. However, judging from examples which we find in the Irish stories of gods transforming themselves to birds for the purpose of obtaining a wife or begetting a child, it would seem that here, too, the original victim of the abduction by the giant bird to an otherworld location was the queen. It is she who was most agitated and who admonished the en- chanter-knight most severely. We see additional Irish motifs in the butler Lugan, who seems to originate from the god Lug, consort to the female figure of the sovereignty of Ireland who served drink in a gold "beaker to the king-to-be. Lug is also associated with birds, possibly- being transformed to a swan in one instance to beget the hero, Cuchu­ lainn. In another legend two female figures take the shape of birds

to obtain the services of Cuchulainn in both war and love. In the

Welsh story of Arthur and Owein, we see Arthur's warriors being deci­ mated and raised in the air by a flock of supernatural ravens which

they have attacked, and the subsequent great commotion.

The second adventure of Arthur has several points in common with the first. Arthur insists on proceeding alone and is abducted by a giant animal after first striking it with his sword. He is taken

to an otherworld location while the court attempts to follow him, lamenting all the while. In spite of his hostile overtures, he is unharmed, as is the beast or bird. The abductor is finally revealed to be an enchanter-knight. In the first case, he is dressed in red and receives a kiss from the prettiest girl of the court, in the second, he greatly upsets the queen; all indications of a former role as queen- napper. Thus we have seen in the two adventures in which Arthur is

the protagonist motifs which stem from ancient Irish and Welsh lore.

These themes would seem to indicate that the tales were part of a body of early Arthurian legends, many of them known only through oral trans­ mission, which have come down to us in fragments and pieces. THE KNIGHT JAUFRE

How did a knight named Jaufre, lo fil Dozon, happen to join

Arthur at the Round Table? Lejeune has searched out several pieces of evidence to explain his presence there. The name "Jaufre," she main­ tains, can be identified with the name "Giflet." Both are from the

German root "Gaut-frid," coming through the intermediate "Guifred," of which "Guiflet" is a dissimulated form.1 As has been mentioned pre­ viously, a knight Gilflez or Girflez, li filz Do, had been listed by

Chretien as early as 1170 in Erec as one of Arthur's knights (lines

317, l697> 217*0• In °ne case, his name is associated with that of

Taulas, further evidence that Gilflez and Jaufre are the same knight, and evidence that a story concerning him and Taulat was known and re­ counted (line l697)«

Loomis identifies Giflet fils Do with the Welsh Gilvaethwy son of Don in the Mabinotion story, Math son of Mathonwy, the matter of 2 which dates from the eleventh century. This would indicate a Celtic background for Chretien's Giflet and for Jaufre.

^Rita Lejeune, "La date du roman de Jaufrd,11 Moyen Age, 5^-55 (19**S), 271. n. 36, quotes Ferran Soldevilla, Historia de, Catalunya (193*0, I; n. 1, "Ultra la forma Guifre, apareix en les formes Guifr£, Gifr€, Grif£, Guifred, Wilfred, Jofr6, Jofre i encora Xifr6, Xifre, i altres olgunes de les quals son cognoms corrents." A Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes (New York, 19*$)> p. 162. There is also the Irish king of the dead, Donn, in the eighth- century Togail Bruidne Da Perga, "Da Derga's Hostel," summarized by

63 64

Lejeune conjectures that the name, Giflet, fils Do, may have been crossed with that of the epic hero, Gotfrit, son of Doon de May- ence, to expand the father’s name, spelled variously "Dozon," "Doson" and "Dovon."3 Arthur speaks of Dozon as his most valiant knight who was killed while fighting for him in Normandy (lines 684-98).

In addition to the literary forerunners of Jaufre, lo fil

Dozon, there are historical precedents for the hero's appellation.

Lejeune mentions two Geoffreys who would have helped to make the name a favorite with the Breton Celts who were instrumental in transmitting the tales. The first was the duke of Brittany, Gcoffroy I (992-1008), who worked to make downtrodden Brittany an important fief and thus was popular with the Celtic inhabitants, both insular and continental. The second has already been mentioned, the duke Geoffrey (or Jaufre) of

Brittany, son of Eleanor of Acquitaine and Henry II of England; brother of Henry, the Young King; of Richard the Lion-Hearted; and half brother of Marie de Champagne, Chrfitien's patroness (p. 274). He was also the uncle of Alphonse II's queen Sanche through another sister, a second

Eleanor, who had married Alphonse VIII of Castille, Duke Geoffrey took up the cause of the Bretons to the extent of revolting against his own father. He was celebrated by the troubadours and likened to Arthur

A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Cambridge, Mass., 1943), pp. 169-70. Donn, king of the dead, and Tech Duinn, "Donn's house," mention of which occurs in a poem written by a poet who died in 887, is discussed by Brown, pp. 255-60. Other Donns are also mentioned in Irish tales: Donn mac Nera, Donn Desa and a Donn-b6, see Brown, Index, but none have a son with a name corresponding to Giflet or Jaufre, 5"Dozon" in lines 679, lll6, 1209, 1557, 1610, 2112, 2887, 4528, 4535, 6562, 9708, IO858. "Doson" in lines 682, 2029, 2942, 9242, 10592, IO678, "Dovon" in lines 1212, 6525, 64l3, 6788. himself, whose return from Avalon the Bretons still anticipate.4 His posthumous son was given the name Arthur, after Geoffrey was killed in a tourney in 1186.

In 1183-8JS-, Duke Geoffrey became an adversary of Alphonse II, who had joined forces with Henry II. After this date, then, it seems unlikely that a roman by the name of Jaufre would liave been dedicated to

Alphonse II. Thus, as Lejeune points out, we have a terminus ad quern

for the Provencal novel (p. 277> n. 58)•

Lejeune furnishes additional motives for a Provencal author to dedicate a romance named Jaufre to Alphonse II. The national dynasty of

Catalonia, from which Alphonse was descended, was founded by a Guifre

(Guifred) in the ninth century. A vast territory was united into one kingdom under his rule and he became a subject for legend soon after his death (p. 271 ). Also well known in Catalonia was a count Guifredus,

founder of the abbey of Canigou who died at the end of the tenth century

Lejeune, "La Date," p. 276, quotes Peire Vidal: XXIII 29 Que pos Artus an cobrat en Bretanha Non es razos que mais jois mi sofranha,

"Puisqu'en Bretagne, ils ont retrouve Arthur, il n'y a pas de raison que la joie me fasse dSfaut."

XXVIII H6 E cel que long 'atendensa Blasma, fai gran folhizo; Q ’er an Artus li Breto On avian lor plevensa

"Et celui qui se moque d'une longue attente fait grande folie puisqu’ auj cud' hui les Bretons possMent leur Arthur ou ils avaient mis leur esp€rance..." She mentions, too, a planh addressed to Jaufre by Bertrand de Born and points out other places in the same poet1s work where Jaufre is men­ tioned under the pseudonym of Rassa. 66

(271, n. 38 ). Thus the author, most probably Catalonian himself, 5 and undoubtably familiar with these figures, could flatter his patron by naming the courageous hero-knight of his story after the ancestor of

Alphonse II, the Catalan ruler, Guifre. Lejeune maintains also that

the fact that the name has significance in Spanish history and culture

is the reason for Jaufre*s greater popularity in the southern regions

than elsewhere, for the former depiction of the story in a mural in the royal palace at Saragosa, and for the tale's existence yet today in the

Philippine3 where the Malays learn it in a Romance dialect.6

Thus, the name Jaufre, lo fil Dozon, originates in both

literary and historical backgrounds. First, as Lejeune points out,

there existed already an Arthurian knight Girflet or Giflet, fils Do,

about, wham tales were being told as early as 1 1 7 0, shown by the listing

of the name in Chretien's Erec. The forms "Giflet" and "Jaufre" are both from the same German root "Gaut-frid" through the intermediate

form "Guifred." Giflet-Jaufre1s Celtic background may be further in­

dicated by identification, made by Loomis, with the Welsh Gilvaethwy

son of Don in the Mabinogion. According to Lejeune, the father* s name may have been expanded through a crossing with the epic hero, Gotfrit,

son of Doon de Mayence. In addition the name would have been popular with the Breton conteurs because of the two Duke Geoffreys who had made

great efforts to improve the lot of the people of Brittany. In the poet's own region, Jaufre would have been identified with the tenth-

century Count Guifredus, founder of an abbey, and more Importantly,

Clovis Brunei, Jaufre (Paris, 19^3)> Intro., pp. xl-xlii. ^Brunei, Intro., pp. xxii-xxiii, liii. the ninth-century Guifre, founder of the Catalan dynasty and ancestor of Alphonse XI. Hence, Lejeune maintains, a romance called Jaufre would flatter the poet's patron and have special appeal for those in the region where Provencal was spoken. THE WOUND, KDS WASTING AND THE IAMENT

Let us now consider the adventures of Jaufre himself, which comprise the great bulk of the roman. Jaufre, on arriving at Arthur's court, finds that Taulat de Rogimon, whose name, "red mountain," would indicate that he also is a red knight, has just insulted the king and queen by riding into court and killing a knight at the feet of the queen, with a threat to repeat the act every year, Jaufre immediately asks for arms and permission to pursue Taulat. Qecx mockingly says Jaufre will have more courage after having something to drink, to which Jaufre does not reply, holding his silence out of respect for Arthur and the rest of the court. The king rebukes Qecx, Jaufre pledges that he will not eat his fill until his mission is accomplished. Arthur is reluctant because he does not want to lose the handsome lad, but finally grants

Jaufre*s request, furnishes arms and dubs him knight. Jaufre's name is not revealed until just before his departure. In this scene, Jaufre is not an ignorant, untaugjit lad, as is Perceval in his corresponding entrance into Arthur's court, but a youth well versed in manners and knightly skills, although as yet young and untried.

Jaufre sets out after Taulat, and finding that he is already at least two leagues away, swears the knight will not escape him unless he disappears under the earth. Then he sees a dead knight, and another, and finally comes to a third who is severely wounded and who tells him it is the belligerent Estout de Vertfueil who has fought them. After informing

68 the servants of their voxmded master's plight, Jaufre searches for

Estout. He climbs a mountain, looks out over the valley, sees a fire

vith many people around it. They are Estout's prisoners, vanquished

knights who must follow him about on foot and prepare his meals. All beg Jaufre to leave before Estout arrives but he refuses. In the en­

suing battle, Jaufre deals several blows to Estout's helmet and finally breaks his sword on it, but is unable to dent it. Estout also damages

Jaufre's shield and spurs. Finally Jaufre jumps on Estout and squeezes

him so hard that his ribs break and he cannot stand up. Then he is able

to remove Estout's helmet and make him his prisoner, taking his hauberk,

helmet, shield, and sword, against which no iron or steel can hold up.

He sends the forty prisoners, Estout and his dwarf guard back to Arthur.

Jaufre*d obtaining the excellent arms as a result of his first battle on leaving Arthur's court corresponds to Perceval's and Peredur's

obtaining the Red Knight's arms, although Jaufre does not kill Estout

and the color mentioned in his name, Vertfueil, "green leaf,11 would seem

to identify him with life, not the red giants from the land of the dead.

It is possible that Vertfueil originated in a contamination or scribal misreading of Vermeil, "vermilion," "red," as seen in the Chevalier

Vermeil of Li Conte del Graal; thus a splitting of the red enemy knight

into Taulat and Estout would have taken place. However, it appears that

green is also a color of the otherworld.1 Perhaps the name Estutz or

1 e Clovis Brunei, Jaufr6, roman arthurien du XIII siScle en vers provengaux, Socidtfi des anciens textes franjais, 2 vol., Paris, 19^3, suggests the possibility that the name has been borrowed from a town, Verfeil, near Tou3.ouse, or from another Verfeuil near Uz£s where stand the ruins of a fortified castle. Rita Lejeune, "La Date du roman de Estout, fairly close to estlu, 11 summer," from Lat. aestas, aestatis, reflects the season, spring or early summer, when the queen is custom­ arily abducted. The importance of the season of the year in the ritual abduction will be discussed more fully below.

Jaufrc's next combat occurs after he removes a white lance which is hanging from a tree. The episode does not have parallels in the Perceval and Feredur stories and will be treated more thoroughly in a separate chapter.

Next, in the middle of the night, Jaufre comes to a tall mountain with only one narrow path leading up it. Suddenly there rises in front of him a sirvens, heavy and tall with a shaved head and carry­ ing three darts sharper tlian arazor. lie tells Jaufre he must leave his horse and arms there or lie can not proceed. A battle is fought between the two, and the sirvens is furious when his weapons, which have never failed him before, break and crumple on Jaufre1s armor. His three throw

Jaufrd," Moyen Age, LIV-LV (19^8), 273, n. h 1?, observes that several names contain symbolic colors. The red of "Rogimon" has already been mentioned and the brown of "Brunissen" will be discussed below. Speak­ ing of "Vertfueil," she says that green is the color of Islam, and therefore evil, as is the villain, but it seems more likely to me that the color has a Celtic origin. J. R. Hulbert, "Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyjt," Modern Philology, XIII (1915); ^55-57> observes that green is a color worn by otherworld beings and gives several examples: the green clothing of the woman who comes for Cuchulainn in Serglige Cuchulainn to conduct liim to the otherworld; the green cloak of an otherworld knight in Conception of Mongan, Meyer, Voyage of Bran, I, 153; Q dark green steed in the story of Ciaban; green ghosts in the ballad, Thomas Rhymer; green clothes and even green skin of fairies reported by Reginald Scott, Bourne and William of Newburgh, Keighlley, Fairy Mythology, pp. 28l, 290 297j green clothes of nearly all the fairy folk of Britain and Ireland and the green horse of Guinevere in a Celtic folk tale, W. Y. Evans Wentz, The Fairy Faith, pp. 312, 31^; and the "Green Man of No Man's Land" of another folk talc, F. H. Groome, Cypsy Folk Tales, p. 71 used up, be finally jumps up behind Jaufre on M s horse and squeezes him, forcing him to ride this way until dawn. Eventually, Jaufre succeeds in pulling out his left arm, finishes by cutting off the feet of the sirvens and delivering his twenty-five prisoners and their dwarf guard to Arthur.

The motif of the three darts may originate in the three throws of a javelin in Celtic literature, especially since darkness is the setting: "They saw a great mist all round, so that they knew not where they went because of the greatness of the darkness; and they heard the noise of a horseman approaching. The horseman Lug let fly three throws of a spear at them."2

The fourth adventure, concerning the house of the storm en­ chantment, will be treated more fully further on. In this section,

Jaufre rescues a damsel from a giant leper who has slain her lover.

Perceval and Peredur also aid a lady whose lover or husband has been killed by doing combat with the one who killed Mm. However, in Jaufre the episode is much expanded, as we shall see below.

Exhausted from all the adventures and combats, during which time he has not stopped for rest, Jaufre arrives at a garden containing every kind of sweet-smelling flower and healthful herb and all the birds of the region singing sweet music. The garden or verger is adjacent to the strong castle, Monbrun, whose mistress, Brunissen, is a

- Prom the Baile in Scdil, "The Spectre's Prophecy,11 trans. Eugene O'Curry, Lectures on the Manuscript Materials (Dublin, l86l), p. 6l8, reported by H. d'Arbois de Jubainvi’lle, Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology (Dublin, 3.903), p. 170. beautiful orphaned maiden.3 Jaufre attempts to sleep in the verger, but

his presence disturbs the birds, whose songs lull the tormented Brunis­

sen to a fitful sleep, and she sends three men out to fight and capture

him. He vanquishes each one, becoming increasingly angry as he is

waked three times in succession. Having been taken prisoner at last by

several of Brunissen1 z knights together, Jaufre is brought before her,

falls in love with her and she with him. Feigning anger, she finally

allows him to sleep under guard. Shortly, however, he is awakened

again by a terrible noise, a loud lament of all those in the castle.

He asks the guards about it, with the result that they beat him un­

mercifully until they imagine he must be dead. His armor and the sheets

protect him, but he is badly frightened, thinks he is in a household of

madmen, and sneaks out as quickly as possible, in spite of his love for

Brunissen.

In this episode, both mistress and inhabitants are in distress,

a situation similar to that in Li Conte del Graal and Peredur. In this

case, however, the distress is not the result of a direct siege. Every­

one throughout the countryside seems to be compelled to set up a dread­

ful lament at appointed times through the day and night, three times at

least during the night, A general lament of all the people is not men­

tioned in Li Conte del Graal, but is present in Peredur and in Wolfram's

Lejeune, p. 273, n. points out that the brun of Monbrun and Brunissen is a color frequently used by the troubadours for "somber" or "sad." Thus Brunissen does not come from the German Brunhilde or Brunichilde, but forms the present participle of the verb brunezir, "to become dark or clouded," "to become sad." Brunissen is "the sad one," "she who suffers," and her castle is that of sadness and lamentations. Other feminine names formed this way were Clarissent and Florissent. Parzival, occurring whenever the grail procession takes place. Unlike

Perceval, however, who will not ask about the grail procession, Jaufre

does not hesitate to inquire about the cause of the lament. It proves

to be a dangerous course of action, for whoever is asked becomes un­

controllably angry, no matter how amiable he was prior to the question.

Perhaps this is the reason behind the warning to Perceval and Peredur

not to ask too many questions, causing them to fail to cure the wounded

host.

Jaufre travels without meeting anyone until noon the next day, when a man with a cart invites him to partake of his repast. On leaving,

Jaufre inquires again about the lament, upon which his formerly hos­ pitable friend turns violently on him, throwing anything he can find and breaking ujj his own cart in his anger. At this, Jaufre laughs long and

loud, an inappropriate action for one who has displayed such courteous behavior to this point.

This singular behavior enabled Kurt Lewent to explain a verse

in a devinalh by Giraut de Bornelh, whose poems date from the mid-ll60's

to 1 1 9 9 * A lover's madness is described:

Ab celui vauc que no-m samo e quer li, can non a que*m do. Par benestar sui ab Jaufre, c'aissi sai far so que*m conve qufeu*ra leu, can me degra colgar, e chan d'aco don dei plorar (lines 1 5-1 8).

"I go with him who does not invite me, and ask him for something when he has nothing to give me. Through good manners, I am with

Geoffrey (normally a model of good behavior) who got up when he was expected to sleep and sang (was gay) when he was expected to cry." The date of Giraut's work is a strong piece of evidence for placing Jaufre at least between 1160 and 1199-4

The sequence is parallel to the "perilous bed'' and "shameful cart" adventures undergone by Lancelot and Galvain in several Arthurian tales. Loomis discusses the origin of these motifs in the Irish liter­ ature.5 Although few of the individual features have been retained in

Jaufre, the fact that the two adventures follow so closely is one in­ dication of their relationship to the other bed and cart episodes and of their derivation from the same Irish story, Bricriu1s Feast, pre­

served in a text of the eighth century.

Cuchulainn and two rivals go to Curoi's fortress in order that

Curoi might decide which one best deserves the sovereignty among Ire­ land's warriors. They are welcomed by his wife, Blathnat, "little

flower," who receives them, especially Cuchulainn, more than hospitably

in the absence of her husband. Each is to take a turn keeping watch during the night, Cuchulainn is attacked by three troops of nine un­ earthly foes and a water monster, but he vanquishes them all. Then a giant herdsman, undoubtedly Curoi, who has previously thrown Cuchulainn's rivals out of the fortress, hurls branches at him, but cannot make him

surrender, and finally is forced to concede the sovereignty to him.

j- "The Troubadours and the Romance of Jaufre," Modern Philology, m u (19^6), 159. 5 Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes (New York, 19^9)) pp. 203~l47Ut2-M+.' 75

Blathnat is aware of what is happening to her lover, as is Curoi, who awards him the sovereignty on his return.

Another time the rivals are sent to Ercol to "be tested. Suc­ cessively they fight with Ercol and his horse. Cuchulainn defeats him and ties Ercol behind his chariot for the trip to Etna in Macha, the royal palace of Ulster.

Some other Arthurian tales have motifs closer in detail to those of the Irish story, particularly in the case of the cart incident, which is usually shameful to the one riding in it, and includes refuse and offal being thrown at the rider in the Vulgate Lancelot and in the

First Continuation. In Jaufre, the carter throws things, beginning with a dart, which item is thrown also in the First Continuation.

The features of the Curoi episode similar to those in Jaufre are the provision of a bed, the three combats by night in which the hero is victorious, the love between the lady of the castle and the hero, the absence of the master of the fortress. Later, we see the overload of the region confer honor on Jaufre, as did Curoi on Cuchu­ lainn. We note that the knights in the other Arthurian tales also wear their armor during the "perilous bed" adventure, in which they are attacked violently.

The next evening, Jaufre meets W o handsome young boys hunting rabbits who invite him to stay with them that night. They are so polite that he agrees when suddently, at sunset, the clamor rises again and they throw their game at him, and Jaufre changes his mind about re­ maining with them. Eventually, however, they are able to persuade him again to stay and all. three enter the castle of Augier d'Essart, father of the hoys, who is having a .jongleur sing him the lay of the Dos amans on the drawbridge, Augier also has a "beautiful daughter who serves

Jaufre with every courtesy. He is extremely pleased to discover that

Jaufre is the son of Doaon, formerly his faithful sworn companion for seven years, and offers him a share of his children's inheritance if

Jaufre will become a part of his household. However, Jaufre says he must start out the next morning. As he is leaving, he asks again about the clamor arid the host and his sons turn against him once more.

When they calm down, they explain that this is their reaction no matter who asks about the "adventure" and beg him not to be angry. In reply to a query from Jaufre about Taulat, Augier first warns him against fighting him, then gives him instructions on how to reach Rogimon and what to do when he arrives.

lie is to proceed between numerous tents, cabanas and pavilions without speaking a word to any of the rich and powerful kuights and barons staying there, and to dismount when he reaches the palace.

Leaving his shield and lance, he is to enter a room where he will see a wounded knight on a bed with a beautiful young maiden who is weeping, seated at his feet, and an old woman at his head. Jaufre is to take the old woman aside, tell her that he has been sent by Augier to be in­ formed about the dolor. Augier himself dares say no more about it but looks sadly after Jaufre as he departs.

In the Perceval and Peredur stories, the hospitable host epi­ sode occurs much earlier, and it is the host who instructs the hero not to ask questions, as Augier's sons do Jaufre. Several clues show that 77 in an earlier version there was love "between the daughter and the hero which has been suppressed: in Jaufre, because it would not be in ac­ cord with the courtly pattern of his love for Brunissen; and in Li

Conte del Graal, either in anticipation of the love for Blancheflor or because of the hero's youth and naxvetd. In any case, the twelfth - century concept of ideal love did not permit the numerous loves of the

Irish heros.

The "hospitable host" motif is one which has been treated by many scholars. The elements in Jaufre which are repeated in other tales are the two sons who eventually fight with the hero, the friend­ liness and courteous service of the daughter, the careful attention to the hero's physical needs, the information about the dangerous adventure into which he is heading and instructions on how to navigate safely the perilous roads and situations ahead. No one Irish tale seems to con­ tain all these features, but some have a number of the motifs, as for example, the Tochmarc Etnire, where Cuchulainn "puts up at 'a large house in a great glen,' where he is entertained by a hospitable maiden, and by a youth who gives him instructions regarding the road and its dangers."6

On Jaufre1 s arrival at Taulat's castle, the prisoner-knights taunt him, trying to persuade him not to attempt the feat which they have failed to accomplish and which has made them prisoners of Taulat.

6 Tom Feete Cross and William A. Nitze, Lancelot and Guenxvere (Chicago, 1930}, p. 5^, r_. 2, from Eleanor Hull, Cuehullin Saga, pp. 72ff. For other treatments of the "hospitable host," see Loomis, Arthurian Tradition, Index of Subjects; A. C. L.. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Cambridge, Mass,, 19^3)* Index; and Cross and Nitze, Index. On entering the castle he sees the -wounded knight served by the two women. The old one informs him that the knight's father, the former ruler of the lands, was killed by Taulat, and the son wounded by him seven years ago. Taulat has caused the wounds to be reopened every month since then, forcing the knight to climb the mountain behind his castle. This action instills such anguish in the people that they cannot endure being questioned about their grief.

We have noted that the "red" of Rogimon associates Taulat with the red giant or red knight type of enemy. The color of the mountain may also come from the blood of the wounded knight. Perhaps it is this connection which suggested to storytellers the Christian motifs which eventually were incorporated into the grail procession. The suffering of the knight, the forced climb up the hill, the bleeding from his wounds and consequent grief of his people, all calling to mind Christ's passion, would lead to the development of a Christianized version from an originally pagan tale. The addition of a counterpart of the Last

Supper, as in the grail procession, was a logical next step.

The only element of the grail theme seen in Jaufre, besides the wounded knight and lament, is the presence of the two women, one old and one young. Here, however, rather than being part of a pro­ cession, or in service to the grail, they have the ihnction of caring for the wounded knight and healing him before his next ordeal. In this role, they are like the healing fairy mistress of the Celtic otherworld,

Morgain la f6e, who heals Arthur's wounds in Avalon.

Subsequent versions omib the climb up the mountain, the re­ opening of the wounds, and elaborate the procession which does not even occur in the Irish tales. The only exception is in Parzival, where the wounds are also reopened. In this respect, Jaufre has perhaps re­ mained closer to the original pagan version, giving us a possible link in the development of the grail stories.

The fact that the reopening of the wounds and the grief of the people is not foundin Chrdtien’s work, but does occur in Parzival, is evidence that Wolfram did have access to another version of the tale in addition to Chretien, especially if the second author were a

"Provenyal" and familiar with Jaufre or its source. Let us examine the lament and its cause in the story which Wolfram says Kyot found written in Arabic in Toledo.7

A squire begins the procession with a bleeding lance. "And then thro’ the lofty palace was weeping and wailing sore,/ The folk of thirty kingdoms could scarce have bemoaned them more" (Book V, lines

1£9_30). The lance seems to be the instrument for reopening the wounds of Anfortas, the Fisher King, thus causing the grief of the people.

Later, in Book IX, the grief is explained further by the hermit:

"As ever the time draws near When Saturn his journey endeth— (that time by the wound we know, And yet by another token, by the fall of the summer snow) Then sorely the frost doth pain him, thy king and uncle dear, And deep in the wound empoisoned once more do they plunge the spear, One woe shall help the other, the spear cure the frost's sharp pain, And crimson it grows with his life-blood ere men draw it forth again!

7 Jessie Weston, trans. (l89^j rpt. New York, 1912); Book IX, line 551. When the stars return in their orbit, then the wailing it waxeth sore, When they stand in opposition, or each to the other draw. And the moon, in its waxing and waning, it causeth him bitter pain— In the time that I erst have told thee then the king little rest may gain; His flesh thro' the frost it groweth colder than e ’en the snow, But men know that the spear sharp-pointed doth with fiery venom glow, And upon the wound they lay it, and the frost from his flesh so cold It draweth, and lo! as crystals of glass to the spear doth hold, And as ice to the iron it clingeth, and none looseth it from the blade. Then Trebucbet the smith bethought him, in his wisdom two knives he made, Of silver fair he wrought them, and sharp was the edge and keen— (A spell on the king's sword written had taught him such skill I ween,) Tho’ no flame on earth can kindle Asbestos, as men do tell, And never a fire may harm it, if these crystals upon it fell Then the flame would leap and kindle and burn with a fiery glow Till th' Asbestos lay in ashes, such power doth this poison knowl

The king, he rideth never, nor yet may he walk, or lie, And he sitteth not, but, reclining, in tears his sad days pass by. And the moon's changes work him evil..." (lines 9 6 5 -89 )

"Yet scatheless I passed that woodland in the day that I found the king By the lake," quoth the knight, "and at even his palace with grief did ring, And sure, as they mourned, I think me, no fold ever mourned before 1 In the hall rose the voice of wailing as a squire sprang within the door, And a spear in his hand he carried, and to each of the walls he stept, Red with blood was the spear, as they saw it, the people they mourned and wept." 8l

Then answered the host, "Far sorer than before was the monarch's pain, In this wise did he learn the tidings that Saturn drew near again. And the star with a sharp frost cometh, and it helpeth no whit to lay The spear on the sore as aforetime, in the wound must it plunge alvay! When that star standeth high in heaven the wound shall its coming know Afore, tho1 the earth shall heed not, nor token of frost shall show. But the cold it came, and the snow-flakes fell thick in the following night Tho1 the season was spring, and the winter was vanquished by summer's might. As the frost to the king brought sorrow and pain, so his people true Were of joy bereft, as the moment of his anguish thus nearer drew,"

And Trevrezcnt quoth, "In sorrow that folk hath both lot and part, When the spear thro' the king's wound pierceth, it pierceth each faithful heart. And their love to their lord, and their sorrow, such tears from their eyelids drew That, methinks, in those bitter waters had they been baptized anew" (lines 1007-26).

We note that the pain of his wounds increases at monthly intervals:

"The moon's changes work him evil," recalling the monthly reopening of I the wounded knight's injuries in Jaufre. The astrological regulation of the wounds and their reopening is tied in with the lament of the people which occurs at certain times each day and night.

By conquering Taulat, Jaufre can put an end to the reopening of the wounds, thus relieving the distress and lamenting of the people, including Brunissen. On hearing from the women that Taulat will not return to the castle for a week, however, Jaufre sets off and comes to a path, desolate and overgrown, through countryside which has been ravaged until woods, tad roads, tushes, thorns and meadows are all that is left to the inhabitants. He finds his way barred by un ugly hag or witch, lying under a pine tree with her head propped up on her arm. No one lias conquered the peril of the path guarded by the witch for thirty years. She is hairy, wrinkled, thin, drier than kindling. She has a big head, rheumy eyes ringed with blue, long lashes, thick heavy lips, big long red teeth, hairs on her chin, long white moustaches, dried up arms, black hands, chin and forehead, puffed-up stomach, hunched and bony shoulders, thin bony thighs, bony knees, long skinny legs, feet with nails so long she can't get her shoes on. A curious contrast to the preceding features is that she is beautifully and finely dressed, and even lias a silk scarf around her head, above which her bristly hair sticks up (lines 5190-5232). It is her husband who has destroyed all the land around before he died, and one of her two giant sons is the leper whom Jaufre has killed. However, the hag does not recognize him as the slayer of her son.

The hag is reminiscent of those in the Irish tales who repulse the hero, but who are actually the sovereignty of Ireland and turn beautiful when the hero fulfills a request for a sign of love. For ex­ ample, in the Dinnshenchas of Carn Mdil: "Taller was she than a mast upright, bigger than a sleeping-liut her ear, blacker than any visage her foim, a weight on every heart was the hag. Broader her row of teeth than a board set with draughtsmen; her nose stood out far before her; it was longer than a ploughshare. Bigger than a basket full of sheaves was each fist of the mis-natured woman; bigger than roughhewn stone in <

85

' rampart, each of her black bony knees. A paunchy belly she bore, I

trow, without a rib to the armpits; a scabby black crown with a crop

of wens like a furzy hillside upon her."0

g Brown, Grail Legend, pp. 216-17, from Metrical Dinnshcnchas, trans. Gwynn, IV, 159* As was mentioned in Chap, I, Sigmund Eisner, A Tale of Wonder (New York, 1957), P* 37, treats the "Irish Loathly Lady." The hag originally appears to have been part of a seasonal myth, the earth goddess in her winter state: cold, gray, dry infertile and ugly. Perhaps this is the origin for the "serrana," the wild mountain woman who bars the pass to travelers, waylaying them and permitting them through only for a price of some kind. In the case of Juan Ruiz, Llbro de Buen Amor, written about a century after Jaufre but reflecting earlier traditions, she personifies an aspect of loco amor. After de­ scribing three "serranas" who were not so bad, he tells of "La Serrana Fea," who was horribly ugly, with many of the same features we have noted in the Celtic hag.

Avia la cabe^a mucho grande syn guisa; Cabellos chicos, negros, corao corneja lysa; Ojos fondos 6 bermejos: poco £ mal devisa; Mayor es que de osa su pisada do pisa.

Las orejas tamanas como d'anal borrico; El su pescueyo negro, ancho, velloso, chico; las narices muy luengas, semejan de jarapico; Beveria'n pocos dfas caudal de buhon rico.

Su boca de alana, grandes rrostros 6 gordos; Dyentes anchos 6 luengos, cavallunos, maxmordos; Las sobrejejas anchas 6 mas negras que tordos: iLos que quieran casarse, non sean aqui sordosl

De pelos mucho negros tiene bogo de barvas, Yo non vy fll en ella; mas si en ella escarvas, Fallar^s, segun creo, de las chufetas parvas; Pero mfis te valdrfa trillar en lac tus parvas.

Mas en verdat, sy bien vy fasta la rrodilla, Los huesos mucho grandes, la janca non chiquilla, De las cabras del fuego una grand manadilla; Sus tovillos raayores que d'una afial novilla.

Mfis ancha que mi mano tyene la su muSeca, Vellosa, pelos grandee, pero non mucho seca; Boz gorda 6 gangosa, A todo ome entcca; Tardia como ronca, desdonado 5 hueca. 8lf

Features present in both descriptions are the great size, blackness, terrible teeth, bony knees, oversized stomach and bristly, spikey hair. The fact that Jaufre’s witch is beautifully dressed may reflect the other half of the split personality, the sovereignty when she is beautiful.

The fact that the hag1 s husband lias laid waste to the land around seems to connect him to the wounding of the knight and the kill­ ing of the king since the fertility of the land is tied up with the royal personages and is restored when the wrongs are avenged, as in the

Lug story. Perhaps he originally abducted the queen, now the hag, who possesses features of the sovereignty of the land.

Jaufre refuses to heed the hag's warning not to proceed and has just spotted a small chapel in the woods, when he is suddenly and ferociously attacked by a black knight on a black steed. Their battle continues all through the night, with the black knight, the Devil, dis­ appearing every time he is unhorsed and wounded, only to reappear, fully

El su dedo chiquillo mayor es que mi pulgar, Pienssa de los mayores si te podrias pagar; Sy ella algund dxa te quisiese espulgar, Sentirfa tu cabe

Trafa por el garnacho las sus tetas colgadas; Dfivanle a la cjinta, pues qu1 estaban dobladas; Ca estando sen^illas darl* yen so las yjadas: if todo son de 5xtola andarxan syn ser mostradas.

Costillas mucho grandes en su negro costado, Unas tres veses contains estando arredrado: Dfgote que non vy mfis nin te serif mas contado, Ca moco mesturero non es buen'para mandado. (Stanzas 1012-20, ed. Julio Cejador y Frauca, 1951)• recovered, whenever Jaufre remounts. Finally the hermit of the chapel, having listened to the clangor all night, comes and sprinkles holy water on the fray, at which the Devil vanishes permanently, and a mighty storm arises. Several features of this episode are found in an ad­ venture experienced hy Yvain and Peredur, which will he treated in more detail further on. Yvain is directed hy a giant hlack herdsman to a tall pine tree heside a small chapel; when he pours water from a hasin onto a hlock of stone, a terrible storm arises, after which the huge, fierce Esclados fights with him. Peredur is instructed to call out a challenge when he sees a stone slab under a hush, whereupon a hlack man rises from under the stone and fights, leaping hack onto his horse whenever Peredur manages to unhorse him and finally disappearing al­ together when Peredur dismounts. In Jaufre, we see the Christianizing of the legend by the change of the black herdsman into the Devil, who can he made to vanish hy sprinkling holy water. The storm which fol­ lows the sprinkling, however, is a sign of the pagan origin of the episode. Hulbert observes, "The idea of chapels as places where mysterious, dangerous, and terrible things happened doubtless goes hack to the well-known early Christian practice of building churches on spots formerly connected with heathen worship" ("Syr Gawayn," p. 705).

Such a place would he thought to he haunted hy evil spirits.

After a week with the hermit, Jaufre sets out fully rested for the battle with Taulat. On the way, he rescues Augier*s daughter, after a tremendous struggle, from the other giant son of the witch, managing to vanquish him even though the giant heats him with uprooted trees. We have already mentioned, in connection with the "perilous ■bed" and "shameful cart" episodes, the Irish talc in which the giant

Curoi hurls branches at Cuchulainn but can not conquer him and is forced

to concede to him the sovereignty of Ireland’s warriors. Curoi’s wife

also becomes Cuchulainn1s mistress. Here, perhaps, we see a twelfth-

century version of the battle. Jaufre uses the opportunity not to make

love to the girl, but to point out how her services of hospitality have

been repaid when she was in need, in a way she could not have foreseen.

Continuing on with the damsel, Jaufre begins his encounter

with Taulat. Taulat is so proud and confident that he does not wear

armor to answer Jaufre’s challenge, and is defeated, losing a hand. He

pleads for mercy, which is granted, then he is attended by physicians.

The inhabitants rejoice, the terrible lamenting ceases, and the wounded

knight, Melian, named for the first time, regains rule over his lands.

These factors may reflect King Huadu1 s loss of a hand and Bros' pleading

for mercy in the Second Battle of Moytura. The humane treatment of

Taulat seems out of keeping with the usual fate of enemies, and prepares

the way for his eventual admission as one of the knights of the Round

Table, as is evidenced by the list in Erec. The pleading for and grant­

ing of mercy with respect to the red knight, does not occur in either

Li Conte del Graal or Peredur. The mercy is not complete, however,

since Melian later wins permission in Arthur's court to wound Taulat

in the same manner as he has been wounded for an equal number of years.

Withholding a name seems to have been a popular device among

storytellers, but in the case of the wounded knight, Melian, I believe, we see the fusion of two characters, the nameless wounded knight and

Melian or Meleagant. Loomis points out that Meliant is a variant of Meleagant, and gives as evidence the facts that one manuscript of the

Vulgate Lancelot has the name Meliagant de Cardoil where another has

Milianz li Sires de Carduel, and that the abductor of Ginover is called

Milianz by Heinrich von dem Turlin. 9 Earlier, Loomis has shown the

traditional role of Meleagant to be that of the abductor of Arthur's

queen in the spring of the year, originating in the seasonal rites of

the Celts; by quoting passages from Caradoc of Lancarvan's Vita Gildae, written before II36 , in which the names are Guenuuar and Melvas in Latin,

Gwenhwyvar and Melwas in Welsh. Loomis postulates that the name Melwas

has been influenced by the name Meleager of Ovid or the Roman de Thebes.

A Welsh poem contains a reference to Melwas' love for the queen, and an

Austrian romance, 12u0-80, by Der Pleier, says that it was in May on the

day of Pentecost "that Meljakanz appeared in a flowery plain before the wood of Briziljan (Broceliande), demanded that Arthur yield up his queen,

and rode away with her" (p. 216).

In the character outlined by Loomis, we see correspondences with both Taulat and Melian. We have noted that the original role of the red knight to abduct the queen has been softened to an insult in the twelfth-

century works except for the Lancelot story, where Guenivere is abducted by Meleagant, son of hospitable King Baudemaguz, a wounded king. Tau­

lat's insult does occur on Pentecost, the same day as Arthur's adventure with the red beast and Jaufre's entrance into the court, the traditional

_ Arthurian Tradition, p. 427* n. 5, F°r first fact, Loomis refers to H. 0. Sommer, ed., Vulgate Lancelot, Index of Names and Places, p. 62. For the second, to Jessie Weston, Legend of Gawaln, p. 80, note. 88

day for Meleagant's abduction of the queen. It is Melegant that

Lancelot trails and finally fights with, cutting off his arm before

dispatching with him altogether. Taulat loses a hand to Jaufre, after

a long chase by Jaufre. We note that Immediately before fighting

Taulat, Jaufre rescues an abducted maiden, whom he returns later to her father.

Lancelot's purpose in combatting Meleagant is to rescue the abducted queen. It seems that Taulat and Melian were originally one

character which was split by the Provenjal poet, or more probably one

of his sources, giving the vilainous deeds to Taulat, and keeping the wounded king's son (or here, the dead king's wounded son, now himself a wounded king, having inherited the land,) to retain his role as lord

of the region. Thus we have another example of the "splitting" men­ tioned earlier, one of the phenomena of a traditional literature re­

ferred to by Loomis.

Although it is not stated in Chretien's Chevalier de la Charrette that King Baudemaguz is wounded, Loomis cites as evidence that wounds do belong with this character, his derivation from King Bran, a wounded king in Welsh literature, and the wounded Baudemagus of the Vulgate

Lancelot, who is visited by Lancelot and whose son is named Meleagant.

"In the same romance appears an aged knight named Traan, who was healed

of his wounds by Lancelot," and whose son is Melyant (p. 2k2f). Thus

Melian has two traditional roles which have been separated here; abductor of the queen, and son of the wounded king.

Jaufre, in a playful and jubilant mood, delivers Augier's daughter back to him In a disguise so that the poor Augier does not realize it is M s own daughter whom Jaufre is returning. The hero then

sets off as quickly as possible for Monburn. Eagerly, Brunissen and her people ride out to greet him. She is on an iron-gray horse, her

fine blond hair tied with a gold thread, wearing a hat of peacock feathers and carrying a fragrant flower. They ride back together, an­ noyed by the swarm of people surrounding them which prevents them from

expressing their love. After a night of soliloquys full of amor

cortois, Jaufre and Brunissen agree to marry. This is not intended to humorous, but it is, since one of the "rules" of courtly love is that such love-making cannot occur within a marriage. Cleverly they cause

Melian to think that the marriage is his idea, then all begin the journey to Arthur's court for the wedding festivities. On the way

Jaufre is waylaid by the two damsels, one of whom needs a champion to defend her land. Jaufre is taken against his will down through a fountain into an underwater fairyland. After defending the lady and castle, which lias only enough meat, bread and wine for one day, against her foe, he is allowed to return, and they all continue to Arthur's court. It is worth noting that the rescue of the fairy mistress, the lady of the besieged castle whose parallels in Li Conte del Graal and

Peredur win the love of the hero, occurs at the very time that Jaufre is on a journey to his wedding.

On arriving at Karduel, Jaufre has an opportunity to unhorse

Qecx before he is recognized, thus repaying him for his previous insult.

The wedding feast is interrupted by Arthur's adventure with the giant bird. Afterwards, the couple and their train return to Monburn, being entertained and presented with gifts on the way hy the fairy mistress.

Jaufre becomes the protector of Brunissen* s lands, but does not share in the ownership; thus, he is the consort of the sovereignty of the land as was Lug. The witch appears to ask that her lands be returned to her, to which Jaufre agrees on condition that she no longer bar the road to travelers nor invoke the occult powers, The witch's appear­ ance at this point in the story seems to strengthen her association with the sovereignty of the land.

Since no earlier account of the grail has come to light, perhaps we have in this romance the collection of tests and adventures which was later used as a setting for the grail quests. As we shall see, the main plot seems to be based on the Irish tale of Lug in the

Cath Maige Tured, combined with several adventures derived from the

Irish Echtra Airt ocus Tochmarc Delbechaime. To these deeds were added the motifs of chivalry, knighthood, twelfth-century courtly manners and

Christianity to form the stories of the grail which have captured men's imaginations for centuries. GENERAL COMPARISON

Jaufre, Chretien’s Perceval and Lxig

In order to examine Jaufre1s position in relation to the Irish

Lug story which seems to he its prototype and the later French tale of

Perceval which includes the grail procession, we will first look at a summary of each, then at a chart comparing all three. There are nine- ' teen episodes which concern Jaufre following the first adventure of

Arthur and the red beast:

1. Entry into Arthur's court, the insult to the court hy Taulat of Rogimon, being dubbed a knight, teasing by Qecx, and setting out for revenge on Taulat (lines 486-713)•

2. Combat with Estout de Vertfueil and the liberation of his forty prisoners into Arthur's hands (lines 714-1531).

3 . Fight for possession of a white lance whose owner has placed thirty-three victims on stakes (lines 1332-1657).

4. Struggle with a servins who throws three javelins at Jaufre, and, on missing, jumps on Jaufre*s horse and squeezes him (lines 1658-2180). * 5. Freeing of children whom a giant leper was going to kill to furnish blood for a bath, killing of the giant, saving of a damsel whose lover the giant had killed, and breaking of an enchantment which held him captive in the giant's house (lines 2181-3016).

6. Capture by the lovely orphan, Brunissen of Monburn, whose lands are under a spell of sadness, and who falls in love with him and he with her, after three combats in the garden, his escape during the night (lines 3017 -4l67)•

7. Dinner with a carter in a meadow, after which the carter becomes angered 011 Jaufre's inquiry as to the reason for the constant lamenting in the land, Jaufre's inappropriate laugh at his blind anger (lines 4168-4343).

91 I

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8 . Augier d'Essart, friend of his father, entertains him for a night, tells him how to find out ahout the dolor, and has his daughter serve Jaufre (lines 4344-4878).

9 . Jaufre rides through the encampment of prisoner-knights who have tried to save the wounded knight, and talks to the two women who care for him (lines 4879-5169)•

10. Jaufre meets a witch, mother of the giant leper and another giant, who bars his way into a forest and whose husband has laid waste to all the surrounding land; fights with a mysterious black knight who disappears, then reappears; and finally is cared for by a hermit in a chapel in the woods (lines 3170 -5660).

11. He fights the other giant son of the witch, who has carried off Augier's daughter (lines 5661-5840).

12. Jaufre conquers Taulat, who is brought on a litter to Arthur just as a damsel is requesting a champion from the court to aid her (lines 3841-6684).

1 3 . He delivers Augier's disguised daughter to him (lines 6685-6923 ).

14. Return to Monburn, agreement with Brunissen to marry her and defend her property (lines 6924-7978).

15. Meeting with two damsels crying because they have not received a champion from Arthur to defend them against a wicked felon. Melian, the wounded knight and overlord of the region, approves the marriage of Jaufre and Brunissen, who cleverly have made him think it was his idea (lines 7979 -8326 ).

16. Jaufre is led to a fountain and down into an underwater land by the distressed damsels, conquers Fellon and returns to the grieving Brunissen (lines 8327-9426). *

1 7. Marriage of Jaufre and Brunissen at Karduel, during which feast Arthur has his adventure with the giant bird; presentation of Fellon's wonderful bird to Arthur (lines 9427-10,248).

18. Arrival of underground fairy mistress, Gibel of Gibaldar, who sets up a magic tent and serves Jaufre's group a feast, afterward pre­ senting them with supernatural gifts (lines 10,249-10,691).

1 9 . Return to Monburn and arrival of witch, mother of the leper and giant, who promises to stop barring the path and is granted her former possessions (lines 10,692 -10,956). t

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Chretien1 s Li Conte del Graal begins in tlie Waste Forest where

Perceval’s mother raised him in ignorance of knighthood and chivalry,

hoping to avoid for him the fate of his two older brothers who were

slain in combat. At news of their death, his wounded father had died

also. His mother called him her "beau filz" and he did not know his real

name. One day as he was throwing javelins in the forest, five armed

knights appeared and answered the eager questions of the lad, who

thought at first they must be angels. On finding that he too, might be * made a knight by King Arthur, he determined to go to the court, despite

the pleading of his mother, who fell in a faint at his departure. Still

he continued, arriving at the Proud Knight's tent, all scarlet and green

with a gold eagle on top which brightened the whole meadow. The clumsy

ill-clad, ill-mannered youth entered the tent on horseback, saw a lady

sleeping on a bed and proceeded to eat one of the meat pies and drink

the wine which had been laid out for the knight's return. After kiss­

ing the lady by force and taking her emerald ring, he rode off, leaving

her trembling with fear. When the Proud Knight arrived, he refused to * believe her protestations of innocence and forced her to follow him on

horseback, never allowing her to change clothing nor her horse to eat

its fill until he was avenged. The lad, meanwhile, reached King

Arthur’s court immediately following an insult to the King and Queen

by the Red Knight of the Forest of Quinqueroi who had taken a golden

cup from Arthur, poured wine on the queen and claimed Arthur's lands

as his own if Arthur did not send out a champion to win them back in

combat. Perceval entered the court on horseback, asking to be given

the beautiful arms of the Red Knight. Keu, the seneschal, mocked him, telling him to go get the arras., they were his. Taking Keu at his word, the youth departed, greeting as he left a fair maiden who laughed joy­ fully, saying that he would become the best of knights. The maiden had not laughed for six years and Keu was so infuriated at her action that he knocked her to the ground. He also kicked into the fire a dwarf who had predicted that the maiden should never laugh until she saw him who would become the best of knights. The lad proceeded to where the Red Knight awaited a challenger and demanded his arms. Ir-

* ritated, the Red Knight hit him with his lance. Perceval let fly a javelin into the knight's eye and killed him. Yonet, who had followed him from Arthur's court to see the result of the encounter, helped the lad to disarm the knight and arm himself.

The youth1s first lodging was with Gornemans de Gohaut who taught him the use of arms and advised him to beware of talking too much for fear of seeming rude. He stayed only one night before setting out in search of his mother, whose fainting was causing him worry. The next evening he came to another castle. There he met the lovely maiden

Blancheflor, of the golden hair, Jrigh white forehead, dark eyebrows, smiling large bright eyes and white skin glowing with red. After a meager dinner of six loaves, one bottle of boiled wine and one buck killed that morning, half of the servants and squires went to keep watch, while the others prepared a fair and costly bed for the youth. During the night, the maiden approached Perceval's bed and woke him with her tears. She begged him not to mistake her intention and poured our her woes: the evil knight Engygeron, seneschal of Clamadeu des Illes, had I

95

killed or taken prisoner all Taut fifty of her J10 knights. He had laid

siege for a whole winter and summer., and her castle, Biaurepaire, would

fall the next day for lack of provisions. She, however, would die by

her own hand before submitting to Clamadeu. Perceval promised his aid

in return for her pledge to be his lady-love. He drew her into his bed

where they shared an embrace until morning. The lad conquered Engygeron,

sending him as captive to Arthur with a message to the maid who had

laughed that she would be avenged. He and Blancheflor were married.

* Soon, however, a new threat appeared in the form of Clamadeu, whose

attempts to starve out the castle were thwarted by the arrival of a

shipload of provisions. Perceval vanquished Clamadeu and sent him to

Arthur. All the prisoners were released and returned to Biaurepaire, where there was great rejoicing.

Perceval soon left, despite protests, to continue the search

for his mother, promising to return. He arrived at the banks of a wide

river and could find no bridge nor ford. A fisherman said he might

lodge that night with him, and after much difficulty, Perceval found the * castle to which he had been directed. He entered a square hall and saw his host sitting on a couch in the middle of the room before a blazing

fire. The hood of the fireplace was supported by four bronze columns and four hundred men could seat themselves comfortably around it. The youth was seated beside the grizzled lord, the wounded Fisher who could not rise. A squire came in carrying a richly mounted sword of fine steel which the host presented to the lad, saying it was destined for him.

While they were talking, a youth entered grasping by the middle a white I

96

lance, from the point of which a drop of red blood ran down to the

squire's hand. Two other squires came in carrying candelabra and a

damsel followed them holding a grail of gold set with precious stones.

Behind her came another damsel with a carving platter of silver. At all

this, the youth held his tongue, following the instructions of Gorne-

mans, although the procession passed before him, and on into another

chamber, each time a new course was served. He decided to ask the ser­

vants about it the next morning, but when he awoke, no one was in sight.

1 * He found his saddled horse and left, barely reaching the end of the

bridge before it was drawn up behind him.

In the forest he found a maiden crying over a dead knight in

her arms. She asked him his name and suddenly he knew it was Perceval.

She informed him of the evil he had done by not inquiring about the

lance and grail. lie had failed to cure the King so that he might rule

his lands. The girl revealed that she was Perceval’s cousin, his

foster-sister, and told him that his mother was dead. She also warned

him that his new sword would break when used. Perceval set out to * avenge his cousin for the death q f her knight. Soon he.overtook a

scrawny, ill-fed horse carrying a maiden in rags and tatters, the lady

of the tent. Discovering the source of her trouble, he defeated the

Proud Knight and commanded him to pardon his innocent lady, to restore

her to health and to appear with her at Arthur’s court with a message

for the maiden who had laughed.

On hearing the Proud Knight's story, King Arthur decided to <>«. search for Perceval, himself. After two weeks, the members of the

court found a knight lost in revery as he contemplated three drops of blood melting into a newfallen snow. It was Perceval, reminded of his

Blancheflor, but they did not recognize him. First Saigremor, then

Keu tried to bring him to Arthur by force and were thrown from their horses, Keu receiving a broken arm and collarbone to avenge the insult to the maiden, just as the dwarf had predicted. Finally the mannerly

Gawain talked with Perceval and discovered who he was. When Perceval found that it was Keu whom he had injured, he returned to court gladly and all rejoiced, except Keu-the-grumbler.

Three days later a black maiden came into court riding a mule.

She was horribly ugly. 1 She rebuked Perceval, listing all the calami­ ties which would befall because of his failure to ask the questions about the lance and grail. Perceval vowed not to spend two nights in the same place until he had learned about the procession, and set off.

Gawain went out on other adventures at the same time and the narrative follows him for a while before returning to Perceval. The latter had been wandering for five years, during which time he had sent sixty knights back to Arthur's court as captives. On Good Friday, some pilgrims on their way back from d visit to a holy man chided him for traveling armed on such a day, when one’s thoughts should be fixed on

God. Perceval found his way through the thicket following the path the

William Roach, ed., Conte du Graal (Geneva, 1956); lines ^6l4- 57; can be summed up: She had two black twisted braids, her hands and neck were blacker than iron, her eyes small as those of a rat, her nose like that of a monkey or cat, her lips like those of an ass or an ox. Her teeth were as yellow as an egg yolk, and she had a beard like that of a goat. She had a hump in the middle of her chest, her back was crooked and hunched, her legs were twisted like two willow wands, too well made for leading a dance*. I

98 pilgrims had marked until he arrived at a chapel, where he knelt in humble contriteness for forgetting God during thost long years. The hermit, his uncle, said that he had sinned at the grail castle because of his first sin, causing the death of his mother. He told him about the wounded Fisher’s father, the old king, also Perceval’s uncle, who was so holy he lived only on the host blessed for holy communion. It was to him that the grail was being taken as Perceval sat with the

Fisher King. The hermit said Perceval should do penance and atone for * his sin by staying for two days sharing his humble fare of herbs, barley bread and water. Perceval agreed and promised to enter and pray each morning that he was near a chapel or minster. Here, the nar­ rative returns to Gawain, then Chretien’s part of the story is cut off, presumably by his death. Four other authors continued the story, and two more added prologues. The First and Second Continuations are the earliest additions, probubly written before 1200 , and contain some in­ teresting material, but we will confine our comparisons to Chretien’s work. * The exploits of the Iris^i god, Lug, starting w:i.th his entrance into the court of Nuadu, are recounted in the Cath Maige Tured, "The

Second Battle of Moytura"2 probably composed in the ninth century, re­ written in the eleventh, and existing today in the fifteenth-century manuscript.

- Summarized by A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Cambridge, Mass., 19^3)> PP* 228-5^. Brown points out similarities in the careers of Lug and Perceval, pp. 2^h-^8. I

99

The Tautha D5 were the inhabitants of the northern Islands.

Their king was Nuadu and they had four talismans: a stone at Tara, Lia

F5il, which roared whenever a future king of Ireland stood on it; Lug’s

spear, which felled all enemies in battle; Nuadu1s sword which no one could escape when it was drawn from its sheath; and the Dagda's cauldron which fed all until they were satisfied. The Fir Bolg, another people, also called red giants or Foraorians, held Ireland, and the Tuatha D6 invaded to take it from them. In the battle, the First Battle of

Moytura, King Nuadu1 s hand was cut off and later a silver hand was made for him. Judging Nuadu unfit to be a king because of his de­ formity, they gave the kingship to Bres, son of a Fomorian father and

Tuatha D6 mother.

Under Bres, considered an unrightful usurper of the sover­ eignty of Ireland when he let three Fomorian kings lay tribute on

Ireland and when he made servants of her champions, the Tautha d £ did not flourish. When the Tuatha had been in bondage for come time,

Bres was driven from the kingdom and fled to the Fomorians.

At this point entered Lug, called Lonn ainschlech, "furious fighter." His mother was Eithne, daughter of Balar, a Fomorian, and father was Cian, son of Dian-C6cht of the Tuatha D<5. Nuadu, once more the king, was holding a feast at Tara. The fair young warrior asked to be admitted and was given a series of tests: questions about what arts he knew, and a game of chess or fidchell, probably the same as the Welsh gwyddbwyll, mentioned above. Having passed the first two tests, he was admitted by Nuadu and sat in the sage's seat, a third •

test. Next he tossed back into the palace a stone requiring eighty 100

oxen to pull It, the fourth test. Fifthly, he played the harp and put

all the warriors to sleep, afterward making them weep and laugh by his

playing. At the end of the testing he was given the throne temporarily

for the purpose of overthrowing the Fomorians who were still levying

tribute on the Tuatha De.

Lug conferred with the champions of Ireland, two of whom went

with him on a quest for "contrivances" or "talismans for battle," and

seven years were spent preparing for the battle and making weapons.

Nine men were put in charge of Lug to keep him out of the battle because

the warriors feared for his life. After the second battle of Moytura

began, the Tuatha D6 had their weapons renewed every day by Goibniu the

smith, and the dead restored for further fighting by a magic well into

which they were thrown. The chant of four physicians around the well,

one of whom was Lug1 s grandfather, Dian-C

However, the Fomorians filled up the well with stones.

Balar, Fomorian king and grandfather of Lug on his mother^

side, killed King Nuadu. He had an evil eye which was opened only on the battlefield by four men with•a polished pole going through the lid.

Lug shot a sling-stone, and killed Balar by pushing the eye through

his head so it fell among the Fomorians, killing tzenty-seven of them.

The Tuatha D£, victors of the battle, captured Bres, who asked

for mercy, offering promises: "If you spare me, the kine of Ireland

shall always give milk." This ransom was refused. "For sparing me the

men of Ireland shall reap a harvest in every quarter of the year."

This also was refused. Then Lug asked, "How shall the men of Irelarfd 101 plough, sow and reap?" Bres replied, "On Thursday shall they plow, sow and reap." By this answer, Bres obtained his release.

Ograa of the Tuatha D£ found the talking sword of one of the

Fomorian kings, and they looked too for the Dagda's harp which had been stolen by the Fomorians. It returned by itself when they called it, killing nine Fomorians on the way.

Nothing is said in the Cath Maige Tured about Lug's marriage, but there is a tradition in Ireland that Lug was married after the * battle of Moytura. We find in the Tochmarc Emire, assigned to the middle of the twelfth century, a remark by Cuchulainn: "it is there

(Taillne) that Lug Scimaig gave the great feast to Lug son of Ethle to comfort him after the battle of Moytura, for that was his wedding feast of kingship. For the Tuath Dea made this Lug king, after Muadu had been killed." 3

R, S. Loomis disucsses the role of Lug as consort for the sovereignty of Ireland, and mentions the Lugnasad, "marriage of lug," according to Rhys, which is still celebrated in August at Tailtu. 4

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt mentions the feast of Lugnasad held in honor of

Lug’s foster-mother, Tailtu, who cleared all of Ireland with an ax.

Tailtu is also a symbol of the sovereignty of the land. 5 It will be recalled that Lugan, in Jaufre, played a role at the wedding feast but

_ Brown, p. 238 , n. 31* Ij. Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes (New York, 19^9)> pp. 377-78. Gods and Heroes of the Celts, trans. Myles Dillon (London, 19^9), P. 30. did not appear elsewhere in the roman. Jaufre's wedding took place two months after Pentecost, comparable to the August date of the Lugnasad.

Let us now look at a comparison of events or motifs found in the three works, Proverigal, French and Irish:

Jaufre Perceval

Father killed in Father wounded in Father absent or combat combat, killed through dead death of sons in combat

Enters King Arthur's Enters King Arthur's Enters King Nuadu's court on horseback court on horseback court during feast during feast during feast

One knight per year Red knight has laid Tuatha D6 under bond' claimed by Taulat of claim to Arthur's age to Fomorians or Rogimon, who has just lands, taken gold red giants slain first at feet cup, splashed wine of queen on queen

Youth knighted and Youth mockingly Youth passes tests and given permission to allowed to try to is given power to lead pursue to red knight obtain red knight's country in effort to arms free itself from bondage

Qecx insults youth, Keu insults youth, says he will be strikes maid who braver after drink laughs and dwarf

Hero's name re­ Name not revealed Called by nickname vealed just as until after Grail Samildanach, "many- leaving court castle episode skilled"

Conquers arms of Obtains arms of Prepares weapons for Estout, helmet which red knight battle cannot be dented, sword, spear, hauberk

King worried about Arthur fears Perce­ Nine men appointed to hero's lack of val will be slain keep Lug out of battle experience so will not be slain

Captures lance hang­ Receives sword at Sword of a king cap­ ing in tree, sends Grail castle tured which relates to Arthur all it has done f

103

Jaufre Perceval lug

Stay with Augier, Stay with Gornemanz, hospitable host hospitable host who advises hero not who advises hero not to to ask about lament be too inquisitive

Rescue from continual Rescue from long lament of lovely siege of lovely orphan with whom he orphan with whom he falls in love falls in love

Lament has lasted Seven years are seven years spent preparing for battle

Sends many captives, Captives, ladies sent rescued ladies back to Arthur with message to Arthur for laughing maid

Witch bars way, tells Ugly maid rebukes of dangers, Jaufre hero, tells of proceeds in spite dangerous adventures, of her spurs him on to try again at grail castle

Saves knight who has Destined to save Wins battle for been wounded, son of wounded son of the old wounded king, al­ king who was killed king who is served though king himself with the grail killed

Saves region from the Saves Blancheflor’s Frees Ireland from lament and wasting lands, probably de­ tribute, curse and stined to restore wasting those of grail king * Grants mercy to de­ Grants mercy to Grants mercy to Bres stroyer Taulat, sends Engygeron, Clamadeu, who had forced people him to Arthur sends them to Arthur into subjugation

Unhorses Qecx on re­ Unhorses and wounds turn to Arthur’s Keu before returning court to Arthur's court

Marries Brunissen, Marries Blancheflor, Feast to celebrate becomes protector feast to celebrate wedding of Lug to and defender of her lifting of siege, sovereignty of land, lands, great feast return of prisoners becomes her pro­ tector and defender as king r

10k

Thus ve see that the three stories have several points of correspondence: the father is dead or absent, the hero arrives at the king1s palace during a feast, he avenges an insult to the sovereignty or the queen, his life is feared for by the king and court, he slays or wounds a red giant or knight. All three heros rescue the surrounding land from a curse or wasting, grant mercy to the one responsible, then are married to a woman representing the sovereignty of the land.

However, as can be seen from the chart, the events in Jaufre « * follow those of the Cath Maige Tured more closely than does Chretien* s work in the hero's effort to pursue and punish the villain who has laid tribute on the king and his people and caused a curse and wasting on the land, lathe first two cases, a period of seven years is mentioned.

When the goal is achieved and the curse is lifted, the lamenting ceases and the people rejoice.

In Li Conte del Graal, the sequence of events has been changed.

The Red Knight is killed immediately after the youth1s entrance into

Arthurs court, not for his wrongdoing or insult to the court, but because Perceval .wants his arms.*. The lad rescues Blancheflor, whose castle he happens to find in his wanderings, and he restores her land and causes her starved people to rejoice, but there is no wounded king or son of a king involved, and the hero departs soon after his victory to continue his adventures, rather than staying to protect and defend the lands, although he does promise to return. A wounded son of a king appears in a later episode, but an enemy which Perceval would have to conquer in order to cure him and restore his father's lands is never mentioned. !

105

In comparing the Jaufre and Perceval stories with that of Lug, then, we see examples of both fusion and splitting, those phenomena mentioned by Loomis as occurring in traditional literature. In the twelfth-century works, the court of King Arthur which the youth enters has been separated from the court of the king associated with wounds, an example of splitting. A further splitting appears to have taken place: the old king and the wounded son both seem to originate in the wounded King Nuadu. In Jaufre, the same red knight, Taulat, who had * formerly killed the old king, wounded his son and caused the lament of the entire region, has also laid a tribute of one knight per year on

King Arthur* s court. Jaufre conquers him, even cuts off his hand, but also grants him mercy. Thus it would seem that in Taulat we have a fusion of Balar, the red-giant slayer of Nuadu, whom Lug killed, and

Bres, subjugator of the people, to whom Lug granted mercy.

In Li Conte del Graal, the Red Knight, whose correspondence to

Balar is evident in the death-wound of the eye, is killed immediately by the youth for his arms and horse, not for the wrong which the red ' * enemy has done. -Clamadeu, Blancheflor's enemy, is vanquished and granted mercy by Perceval, and thus could be a parallel to Bres. How­ ever, we are not told who has wounded the Fisher, the son of the old king who is fed by the grail, and what Perceval must do to cure him and restore their lands. Possibly there is a third enemy to be conquered.

Thus in Jaufre Lug's two enemies seem to have been fused into one and in Chretien's work they may have been expanded or split into three. 4

106

It will be noted that there are several points in the chart where the Jaufre and Perceval stories match but where there is no corresponding incident in the Lug story. Jaufre and Perceval each win arms by killing an enemy knight. In the series of incidents tied in with the ugly maid, hag or witch, the twelfth-century romances seem to be following the outline of a second Irish tale which lias become appended to the Lug story to form the prototype of the Provenjal Jaufre, the French Perceval and the Welsh Peredur. In the motif of the insult

* by Kay and revenge on him, we do not find a parallel in Celtic lore.

Kay is respected as one of Arthur1s best warriors in Culhwch and Olwen, the tenth-century Welsh romance, but in the Provencal Jaufre and the grail stories he is so rude that the hero must wreak vengeance on him.

It was noted earlier that the return to the court of captives who re­ late the brave deeds of the hero becomes a refrain or leitmotif in the

Provencal work;6 to this motif in the grail stories is added the con­ stantly recurring threat of revenge on Kay. In Jaufre, the hero threatens Kay only when Taulat is sent back to Arthur, not with each returning captive, and finally hq merely unhorses Kay; he does not break his bones as does Perceval.

The listing of Jaufre*s conquered enemies, his prisoners, and those he has rescued and sent back to Arthur goes thus: Estout de Vertfueil and his 1+0 prisoners, lines 1019-1252; the knight of the white lance wham he kills, his dwarf, lines 11+71-1657; the sirvens whose arms and feet he cuts off, his 25 prisoners and dwarf guard, lines 1855-2180 ; the giant leper whom he kills, the leper guard, the mother, children and damsel, lines 2828-3016; Taulat, Melian and the knights who had tried to save him, lines 6l8l-6681+. 107

Thus, the Provencal work seems to be in an intermediate position, closer to the original Irish Lug story in the order of events but not as veil developed and unified psychologically or dra­ matically as is Chretien1s tale of Perceval. It even seems possible that Jaufre itself provided Chretien or his source vith material in­ cluding the theme of revenge on Kay and varning of the hospitable host not to be too inquisitive about the lament in Jaufre, vhich eventually leads to Perceval's failure at the grail castle.

Airt, Jaufre and Peredur

Several motifs of Jaufre and Li Conte del Graal which do not occur in the Cath Maige Tured are to be found in the fifteenth-century

Irish manuscript, the matter of which dates to the twelfth century,

Echtra Airt ocus Tochmarc Delbchaime, "The Adventures of Art and the

Wooing of Delbchaem."7

Art, son of the King, Conn, is sent on a quest to woo Delb- chaem by his sinful stepmother, Blcuma, who causes a lack of corn and * milk in Ireland as long as she liyes with the king. Art travels from island to island until he comes to a beautiful land full of apples, birds, flowers and a hospitable house thatched vith bird-wings, white and purple, where he is welcomed by the beautiful Creide and her company of women. She tells him that his coming has long been

7 R. I. Best, ed., Eriu, III (1907 ), 1^9-73. Summarized by Brown, Grail Legend, pp. Q^-Qk. 108 decreed, and informs him how he may find Delbchaem, Morgan1 s daughter, and about the dangers of the journey.

After six weeks in that enjoyable spot, Art continues over a sea full of beasts, then traverses a narrow path in a dense and thorny oak forest. At the head of the path in a dark house are seven hags who have prepared a bath of melted lead for him. He fights the hags until morning, then goes on to a venemous icy mountain. He passes a forked glen full of toads, encounters lions lying in wait, crosses a % narrow bridge over an icy river, slays a giant by a pillar stone, over­ comes Ailill Black Teeth, cuts off his head and forces Ailill's wife to tell him where the Land of Wonders is, where Morgan lives with his wife, Coinchend, and daughter, Delbchaem. Art comes to the stronghold of Morgan which is pleasing in appearance with a palisade of bronze, extensive and hospitable houses and a stately palace in the middle.

The lovely Delbchaem, in a bright, shining bower set on a pillar over the stead, has a green cloak, fastened with a pin over her breast, and long, fair, very golden hair. She has dark-black eyebrows, flashing grey eyes and a snowy-white body.' She is fair both in shape and intelli­ gence, wisdom and embroidery, chastity and nobility. She has Art brought to the bower where he is welcomed and his feet bathed. Coin­ chend, her mother, is called Cendfada, "long head." It is she who has arranged all the dangers in order to slay Art because it has been fore­ told that she will die in the same hour that her daughter is courted.

She does battle with Art, who kills her and places her head on the empty stake in front of the fortress which she had intended for his head. Art J

I

109 and Delbchaem are merry that night until the return of Morgan who is full of vrath at the taking of his daughter and death of his wife. In a terrible combat. Art slays Morgan. He collects gold and silver from the land which he gives to Delbchaem and the two return to Tara. There is great rejoicing and welcome because Bdcuma must now leave and fertility will be restored to Ireland.

As can be seen, the motif of returning prosperity to the land is important here as in the Cath Maige Tured, although the means of accomplishing it is different. The main theme of the Echtra Airt, the wooing of the maiden, becomes a major part of the Jaufre story also, and the two stories are alike in several details. Art comes to the house of the beautiful Creide and her company of women in a land of apples, flowers and birds. In another Irish tale, a certain Crede, in a land and house of the same description, also accompanied by 150 beautiful women, is wooed by Cael ua Neranainn with a poem: "Yellow- haired Cr£de has a bower of silver and yellow gold with a roof of birds' wings. Her couch is of gold made by Tuile in the east, and has cur- * tains running upon copper rods. MTairy birds on the eaves furnish sleep-giving music. Her house is a hundred feet from corner to corner.'6

The similarity of names, descriptions of the houses and the hospitality

poem is ft;am Crdde, Daughter of Cairbre, summarized by Brown, pp. 75-76. It is found"Tn the Acallam, ed. W. Stokes and E. Windisch, Irische Texte, IV, i, lines 7ipi'-T}68. A translation is in S. H. O'Grady, Silva Gadelica (London, 1892 ), P- 119 f- The Acallam na Sendrach took shape around 1200, according to Thurneysen, Heldcnsage, p. 1+8, and E. Gwynn, Eriu, X (1926 ), 6k, 75* t

110 offered to the hero lead one to suspect that Creide and CrSde are the same lady, although they appear in different stories. The square palace of Cr£de or Creide, set in a land of beautiful flowers, fruits and birds singing sleep-inducing music, combined with Delbchaem's pleasant and extensive stronghold, has much in common with Brunissen's castle of strong walls surrounding a busy town with a straight, strong keep in the middle, protected by 1000 men at each of the eight portals.

Beside the castle is a verger, "orchard" or "garden," containing every kind of good and beautiful tree, flower and herb. Brunissen, blond as are Delbchaem and CrSde, is served by 500 lovely maidens, of which she is the most beautiful. In the evening, the birds come from miles around to the garden and their songs calm the tormented lady so she can sleep. The motif of birds enabling the suffering to sleep occurs frequently in descriptions of the Celtic otherworld where wounded warriors are healed by fairy mistresses and lulled to sleep by birds singing a "melody sweet and harmonized, such that the sick would sleep to it."9

Another .motif of the Ecktra Airt found in Jaufre is the hags near the path in a dense forest who wish to do evil to the hero. Art fights with the hags themselves until morning, whereas Jaufre fights all night long with the hag1s accomplice, the black night on a black horse, the Devil. The giants which Jaufre slays may correspond to the giant, Ailill Black Teeth, who is conquered and slain by Art. Art puts the head of Cendfada on a stake; Jaufre puts on a stake the defender of

9 O'Grady, p. %)k. !

111 the white lance who has mercilessly slain thirty-three knights. After the fight with the hags, Art proceeds to a venemous icy mountain. Per­ haps this is reflected in the terrible mountain which the wounded knight in Jaufre must climb each month. Images of frost, ice, snow and venom are recurrent in Parzival1s description of the reopening of the wounds.

The tests and dangers in Echtra Airt, some of which are echoed in Jaufre, find parallels also in the Welsh Mabinogion story, Peredur * son of Efrawg. Many of these episodes in Peredur are not present in

ChrStien1s work although Li Conte del Graal and Peredur are so similar in some passages that they appear to be derived from the same source.

It is possible that Chrdtien cut out some of the adventures to make a reman which is more unified psychologically than the Welsh tale, or perhaps they were not available to him in his source. The major points of similarity in Li Conte del Graal and Peredur are: the childhood incidents, recognition by dwarf and dwarfess or maiden at Arthur's court, defeat of Red Knight by a blow to the eye, instruction from an old knight who advises the hero rjot to speak too much, failure to ask about procession of lance and dish, admonishment by ugly maid, second quest to rectify error, rescue of lovely maid who later occupies his mind as he gazes on drops of blood in snow, Kay* s challenge and defeat, stay with hermit over Easter who instructs him how to go about finding the grail castle again. However, even in the parallel sections there are differences; for example, the beautiful orphan maid in the Perceval story has gold hair, in Peredur, black. Thus, in Peredur, there is a I

112 raven present to complete the image of the colors of the hero1s lady as he looks at the drops of blood on the snow. Here the Welsh story is closer to the original Irish motif as it is found in The Exile of the Sons of Usnech, in which the maid, Dierdre, watching a raven drink­ ing the blood of a calf on the snow claims she will love a man who has those three colors: hair like the raven, cheek like the blood and body like the snow. Loomis remarks that when ChrStien and Peredur differ, Peredur frequently reflects an earlier tradition (Arthurian

* Tradition, p. ^15). In this case, it is possible that the golden hair of Chrfitien1s Blancheflor is derived from Brunissen or Delbchaem, Other features of Delbchaem shared by Blancheflor are dark eyebrows, bright, flashing eyes and snow-white skin.

Where motifs or episodes not found in Chretien ore concerned,

Peredur often finds parallels in Jaufre. One example is the lament,

"Everyone set up a crying and a lamentation, so that it was not easy for any to bear with them." Again, the host says nothing about the procession, which could correspond to the reluctance to speak about the cause of the lament in Jaufre, sq strong that it seems almost to con­ stitute a taboo. Another difference of Peredur from Chretien's work is that after the sword dripping blood is brought in by two youths, two maidens enter carrying a man's head surrounded by blood on a big tray.

"And then all shrieked and cried out, so that it was hard for any to be in the same house as they."10 This is certainly similar to the reaction of Jaufre on hearing the terrible din, and indeed, he did leave the

■^Gwyn Jones, Thoms Jones, The Mabinogion (London, 19^9) > p. 192. r

113

castle of Brunissen, in spite of his love for her. He found later that the lament had been going on for seven years. The decapitated head and perhaps the number of years could be a transmission from the

Welsh story of Bran, who instructed his men to carry his severed head with them after his death to provide them with food, drink and enter­ tainment for seven years. Loomis remarks that Wolfram also includes

something of this idea in his version of the grail, and that it differs

from GhrStien's tale in this respect.11

Another of Jaufre1s motifs which is found in Peredur is that

of the witches. As we have seen, the witch in Jaufre bars, the hero's way on the path and it is because of her that he must fight the black knight, the occult power with whom the witch has made a pact, who keeps disappearing when Jaufre unhorses him. It is the husband of the witch who has somehow caused the curse or wasting of the land, and her sons who fight fierce battles with Jaufre. In the end, however, it is she who is asking favors of the hero. The witch-like creature in Chrdtien's work is the ugly maid who rides into court to rebuke Perceval for his failure to ask^about the grail procession. The corresponding ugly maid * on a mule exists also in Peredur.12 At the end of the story she reveals

The Development of Arthurian Romance (London, 1963 ), p. 6 9 . 12 Jones and Jones, p. 217 . "And thereupon they could see coming in a black curly-headed maiden on a yellow mule, and rough thongs in her hand, urging on the mule; and a rough unlovely look about her. Blacker were her face and her hands than the blackest iron that had been steeped in pitch; and it was not her colour that was ugliest, but her shape: high cheeks and hanging, baggy-fleshed face, and a stub wide-nostrilled nose, and the one eye mottled green, most piercing, and the other black, like jet, deep sunk in her head. Long yellow teeth, yellower than the flowers of the broom, and her belly swelling from her breastbone higher :

114

that it has been she who set up all the dangers, including the fight

with the black man who disappears, as in Jaufre. In Peredur, the hero

has to climb to the breast of a certain mountain where he will see a

bush with a stone slab at its base. In response to a challenge to

joust, a black man in rusty armor on a bony horse rises from under the

slab and fights. Each time Peredur unhorses him, he leaps back into

the saddle. Peredur dismounts and draws his sword and the black man

disappears, along with his horse and Peredur1s. This occurs at the

very end of Peredur, just before he avenges his slain cousin and wounded

uncle by slaying all the witches. Jaufre^ battle with the disappearing

black knight immediately precedes his victory over Taulat.

The ugly maid of Peredur, however, does not seem to be one of

the band of witches who are responsible for the death of his cousin,

whose head was in the platter, and for the laming of his uncle. The

band of witches attacks one of the castles where Peredur is staying

early in the story. In battle one of them recognizes him as the hero

destined to kill her, also as the one she is to train in arms, which die does.13 At the end of the stOry, Arthur^ men slay all the witches,

including her.

than her chin. Her backbone was shaped like a crutch; her two hips were broad in the bone, but everything narrow thence downwards, save that her feet and knees were clumped." 15 Parallel to Cuchulainn1s training by the witch, Scathach, "shadow," who was also a prophetess. He overpowered her with his sword and gained from her three wishes; to teach him skills of fighting, to become his mistress, and to foretell what would happen to him. From the Irish ms., Tochmarc Bmire, see Brown, pp. 49-51. :

115

Another section of Peredur which appears to echo motifs in

Echtra Airt and Jaufre is that of the Black Oppressor. Having arrived

at a house during the owner's absence, Peredur is warned by one of his

daughters of the danger of staying there. After a while a clatter

arises and a hugh, black, one-eyed man enters. At the pleading of his

daughter, he agrees to grant Peredur his life that night. When Peredur asks him how he lost his eye, however, he says it is one of his peculiarities to kill all who ask him that question. The next morning,

* Peredur beats him in combat and grants his life only long enough for him to relate that he lost his eye fighting the Worm of the Barrow in

the Dolorous Mound, and the stages of the journey to reach the Mound.

Peredur then slays the Black Oppressor who himself has always refused

to grant mercy and has slain so many men. Jaufre also kills the merci­

less slayer of thirty-three knights. The incident seems parallel to

that of Art who kills Aillel Black Teeth and forces his wife to inform him of the location of the Land of Wonders. In Jaufre, the hero

obtained information of the whereabouts of Taulat's castle only after * fending off the attacks of the host’s two sons and even the host him­

self, because they went into a frenzy whenever asked about the lament.

The first stop on the way to the Dolorous Mound is at the

abode of the Sons of the King of Suffering. Perhaps the King of

Suffering is a wounded king; it is not explained. Dead knights are

returning on horseback from a cave where they have been killed by a beast called an Addanc. Each knight is revived on being bathed in warm water and treated with ointment by his lady-love. We recall the motif

of warriors being revived each night to do battle again the next day in :

116 the Cath Maige Tured. On hi a way to the cave of the Addanc, Peredur sees a "beautiful lady -who gives him a stone to make him invisible and to enable him to conquer the Addanc who is protected behind a pillar- stone, this in return for a promise to love her best of all women.

After killing the Addanc, Peredur's next stop on the way to the Mound is at the court of the Lady of the Feats, a countess whose war-band of 300 men sits between her and her guests. If anyone should conquer them, he may sit beside the countess and be loved by her best * of all men. On Peredur’s way to the court, Edlym Red-sword, a red- armored man on a red horse, asks to become his attendant. They arrive at the court, Peredur overcomes the war-band and the countess agrees to love him since she can not have her first choice, Edlym Red-sword, wham she has never seen. Peredur turns his place over to Edlym.

In the episode, we are reminded of Brunissen vith her hundreds of knights, one thousand for each of the eight doors of her castle, three of whom Jaufre defeated before being brought before the lady, at which moment each began to love the other.

The next day Peredur an<^ Edlym ride to the Dolorous Mound which they find surrounded by the tents of 300 noblemen who are guard­ ing the Worm until it dies, at which time they will contest with each other for the gold-giving stone in its tail. Since the noblemen re­ fuse to do homage to Peredur, he overthrows them all, conquers the worm and presents the stone to Edlym and the countess before riding on. The importance of stones in Peredur, one producing Invisibility, the other gold, calls to mind the fact that the grail was a stone in

Wolfram's Paraival, and a jewel-encrusted stone in Li Conte del Graal. t

117

The name, Dolorous Mound, or Mound of Mourning in Lady Guest's translation, recalls the hill in Jaufre, Rogimon, which the wounded knight was forced to climb every month, causing the terrible lament and mourning of all the people. The many tents at the base of the hill around Taulat's castle, belonging to the best knights and lords of the surrounding region, and their challenge to the hero, are other features which the two episodes have in common.

Several motifs of the Echtra Airt found in Peredur are the witches or hags, a lion lying in wait for the hero, his killing of a giant or the Addanc by a pillar-stone, the conquest of a "black" vil­ lain, Aillel Black Teeth or the Black Oppressor. In Peredur, it is the ugly maid with the long face who arranges all the dangers for the hero;

^-n Echtra Airt, it is the awful Coinchend, "long head."

The motifs of the Echtra Airt which are also found in Jaufre are the lovely garden or land of singing birds adjacent to the castle or house of a beautiful maid; hags or a hag waiting in the forest; a trip to a venemous icy mountain; slaying of a big "black" enemy; the hero's killing of an enemy and pitting him or his head pn a stake which had been intended for the hero.

Jaufre and Peredur correspond in the lament of all at certain times for some wrong which has been committed, for which a witch or hag seems to be indirectly responsible in Jaufre and for which a whole band of witches is directly responsible in Peredur; in the combat with the black knight who disappears; in the conquering of and refusal to grant mercy to a merciless oppressor; in the overcoming three or three hundred i

118 of a rich lady's knights before she loves or is loved; and in the adventure at a mountain associated with sadness, surrounded by the tents of noblemen who have not succeeded in their goal and are not anxious for the hero to try his luck.

Thus, the Provencal Jaufre and the Welsh Peredur, one of whose sources, at least, is the same as that of Li Conte del Graal, both have motifs derived from the Echtra Airt. Most of the motifs are not pre­ sent, strangely enough, in Chrdtien's Perceval story. The motifs take • * forms so disparate in Jaufre and Peredur that there is no reason to postulate a close relationship between the two, especially since each romance contains some features of the Echtra Airt not present in the other. The fact that the Echtra Airt motifs are appended to the Lug story in each case, however, does seem to indicate that an early ver­ sion based on the two Irish tales did exist at one time. The authors of both Jaufre and Peredur may have had access to some early matter not available to Chretien,

In comparing all the stories, one factor to observe is the ✓ development of a motif from the Cath Maige Tured through Jaufre, Li

Conte del Graal and Peredur to Farzival, the German work written be­ tween 1200 and 1212. One example is that of the red knight. As has been noted previously, the giants or Fomorians from the Daid of the dead, as is Balar, who killed King Nuadu, are associated with the color red. The only clue to the fact that Jaufre's adversary, Taulat, is a red knight, is found in his name, Rogimon, "red mountain." He kills one of Arthur's knights at the feet of the queen, declaring that he will perform the same act every year, thus laying a sort of tribute on J

119 the court. In Li Conte del Graal and Peredur, the knight is called the

Vermax Chevalier de 3a Forest de Quinqueroi and it is stated that his arms are red. He takes the King's gold cup, spills wine on the queen, and claims Arthur’s lands as his unless they are won back in combat.

The description of the red knight in Wolfram's Parzival is given in great detail. Ither of Gaheveiss, claimant of Brittany, who regrets having insulted the queen by accidentally spilling wine on her dress, is described thus:

All dazzling red was his armour, the eye from its glow gleamed red; Red was his horse swift-footed, and the plumes that should deck its head. Of samite red its covering; redder than flame his shield; Fair-fashioned and red his surcoat; and the spear that his hand would wield Was red, yea, the shaft and the iron; and red at the knight’s desire Was his sword, yet the blade’s fair keenness was not dimmed by the raging fire. And the King of Cumberland, stately, in his mailed hand did hold A goblet, with skill engraven,and wrought of the good red gold— From the Table Round he had reft it— All red was his shining hair Yet white was his skin,^and kindly his speech to the lad and fair.14

Jessie Weston, trans. (189 *4, rpt. New York, 1912), Book III, lines 550-59* In Appendix A, I, 293j Weston mentions that the ex­ tensive treatment of the "red" seems to be owing to an Angevin influence on Wolfram's work. Geoffrey II of Anjou received a challenge from William of Normandy in 10*43, stating that he would find him (William) waiting "without the gates armed and mounted, bearing a red shield, and having a pennon on my spear wherewith to wipe his (Geoffrey's) face." Red hair was also characteristic in the family of the Angevin counts. This is, perhaps a further clue to the origin of one of Wolfram's sources besides Li Conte del Graal. s

120

The wrong done the king and queen becomes less grievous and the description of the red knight more extensive from the Lug story, where Nuadu is killed hy Balar, to Parzival, where Ither inadvertantly insults the queen. Perhaps this reflects a weakening of the motif as the story gets further from the original source, or perhaps it shows the developing of a taste which placed a greater emphasis on descrip­ tion, particularly of clothes and arms.

Another motif which reflects a progressive development is the

* insolence of Kay, which rankles Jaufre but is not mentioned each time he sends someone back to Arthur. In Chretien's work and the other grail stories, the motif has been expanded with the laugh of the maiden and prediction of the dwarf and becomes a refrain, and the threat for revenge on Kay is repeated whenever a captured knight or rescued lady returns to court. Jaufre merely unhorses Kay and laughingly remarks as the stunned knight stumbles around that he looks drunk. Perceval not only unhorses Kay in a scene reminiscent of Jaufre*s three combats in Brunissen's garden, but breaks Kay's arm and collarbone in the process. It seems possible th'atyChretien extended the incident, ac­ centuating the revenge-on-Kay motif and combining it with the three combats which disturb the hero's sleep. He changed the slumber into a meditation on the charms of the beloved, using the image found in another Irish tale but retaining the blond hair of Blancheflor and

Brunissen.

A third motif which has revealing differences is the stay with the hermit. In Jaufre, the visit occurs following Jaufre's battle 121 with the "black knight, right after his first sight of the wounded knight at which time he was unable to aid him, but only because of

Taulat's absence, not from any sin or failing on Jaufre1s part. He knows he will return at the end of the week to accomplish his mission.

The holy man does prepare him physically, by rest and food, after his arduous journey, so that he is in the peak of condition the day of the battle. In Peredur, the stay is one more stop on the way to the Castle of Wonders, the hero having been forbidden to continue his quest, all

* armored up, over the Easter holiday. The priest does give instructions on how to discover the Castle of Wonders, but Peredur*s next adventure consists of being taken prisoner by a king whose daughter is in love with him.

For Perceval and Parzival, however, the episode takes on a far greater significance, and is, in fact, the emotional climax of the work.

Here, the hero*s whole motivation is changed. Humble and penitent for having neglected to worship God as he practiced the art of chivalry and made conquests, for having caused his mother’s death, and for * having failed to.cure the wounded king on his first visit to the grail castle, it is with a different attitude that Perceval emerges from the experience, dedicated to let nothing distract him until he might find the grail castle once more. Thus we have a progressively complex reason for the initial failure to save the king. Taulat is simply not home on Jaufre1s first trip to the castle; Peredur fails to ask the question because he has been warned not to talk too much by his mentor;

Perceval's failure originates in his sin towards his mother. i

122

The most obvious example of the increasing complexity of an episode from story to story is, of course, that of the grail pro­ cession. In the Lug story, the wounded king has been restored to the throne but the country is still under tribute to the enemy. In Jaufre, the king's son is being held captive. Two women care for him and heal his wounds which are reopened every month for seven years. The whole country laments for him several times each day. In Peredur, a bleeding white lance is brought out by two squires at the castle of the wounded host, followed by candles, and a bloody head on a platter carried by two maidens. A lament is shouted at the appearance of the lance and head. Peredur is destined to avenge the laming of his uncle and the slaying of his cousin which were committed by the band of witches.

In Li Conte del Graal, Perceval sees a bleeding lance brought through the hall by a youth before the couch of his wounded host, his uncle, followed by two youths with candelabra, and a maiden with a grail of refined gold set with precious stones. Another maiden comes after her, carrying a silver. platter. They enter a separate chamber, where, Perceval learns later, thq Fisher King's father is fed and miraculously sustained on nothing but a single Mass wafer. Two other servants enter with a costly table for Perceval and his host, but this is not part of the grail procession.

In Parzival, the procession is even longer, beginning with one squire carrying the lance, at which there is a terrible lament.

Then eighteen maidens enter with candles, stools, a costly table, knives, and set the table for Parzival and his host. Six more maidens bear tall glasses containing burning incense, and a seventh, fairer than all the rest brings the grail, in this case, a single precious stone. There are twenty-five maidens in all. The old man in the other room is also present in Parzival. Thus we see that the theme of the grail procession, which seems to have begun in Irish mythology as the situation of a wounded king whose lands are under subjugation, has become an elaborate ritual, containing religious significance and revealing the psychological weakness of the hero by his failure to ask the proper question, cure the king and restore the land. I

FURTHER ADVENTURES OF JAUFRE

Some of the adventures of Jaufre do not have parallels in either the Cath Maige Tured, nor in the Echtra Airt ocus Tochmarc

Delhchaime. These individual episodes do contain, however, numerous

Celtic motifs, and in the case of the fairy mistress of the under­ water otherworld, correspond to a separate Irish tale more closely than any other account derived from it.

The Hanging Lance

The first of the three episodes to he examined is that of the shiny hanging lance which Jaufre wins through his prowess in battle.

He sees in the branches of a tree on a hill the white lance of ash, one of the sacred woods of Ireland.1 The lance is bela, lusens,

"beautiful, shining," with the iron parts clars, resplandens, "bright, glittering." As he reaches for it, a dwarf, whose ugliness is de- * 2 scribed at length, appears and gives forth a mighty shout, at which ^ * an armed man comes out. He has fought thirty-three knights and hanged

^Three of the five ancient sacred trees of Ireland were ash trees, Eleanor Hull, Folklore of the British Isles (London, 1928), p. Il8f. The ash is one of the trees of the ogam alphabet of the Druids, J. Vendryes, "L'Ecriture ogamique et ses origines," Etudes Celtiques, IV (19^8), 85. 2 He has a big head, long lashes, nose with hugh nostrils, thick lips, big teeth, much hair, beard and long moustaches, lines 1382-1)105.

12lf 125 them on forks, and he gives Jaufre the option of surrendering without fighting on condition that he never again mount a horse, cut his hair or nails, eat yeast bread, drink wine, nor wear clothes he has not woven himself. Jaufre says the last would be too bard to learn and the battle begins, in which he is victorious. Jaufre refuses to spare the life of his foe, on the ground that he is not a well-bred knight be­ cause he has refused to show mercy to so many. The dwarf, who claims to have been kept in his role against his will for fourteen years, is * sent to Arthur with the lance (lines 1352-1566).

The epithet attached to Peredur is "Longspear" or "of the long lance." 3 Lug is called "of the Long Arm," which seems to refer to his spear, already mentioned as one of the talismans of the Tuatha De. It is described thus: "When battle was near...it roared and struggled against its thongs; fire flashed from it; and once slipped from its leash, it tore through and through the ranks of the enemy." 4 Lug’s spear with fire flashing from it may be echoed in the description of the bright and glittering iron on the lance of Jaufre. * As has been mentioned, the situation is similar to that of the Black Oppressor in Peredur, who was obliged to fight all who came

3 The formula occurs twice for Peredur: Lady Charlotte Guest, trans., The Mabinogion, (London, 1906), pp. 206, 209. Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, trans., The Mabinogion, (London, 19^9) > PP* 213, 217. R. S. Loomis, Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes (New York, 19^9)} p. 5^1, quotes C. Squire, Mythology of the British Isles, p. 62, in discussing the spear's relationship to the bleeding lance of the grail processions. f

126 to his dwelling without permission and who had killed all his op­ ponents, oppressed those around him and done justice to none. Hence

Peredur slew him.

The custom of putting conquered enemies on forks or stakes is a recurrent motif in Celtic literature, although it is usually only the head which is so placed. Perhaps the decapitation has been omitted in Jaufre because the head did not hold as important a position in twelfth-century Aragon as it did in the Irish culture. In a corre- » sponding but much longer episode, the "Joie de la Cort" adventure of

Erec (lines 5689-6UIO), the heads are severed before being placed on the stakes. That there is extensive precedent for this practice in Celtic custom can be seen in writings of classical times, which told of the heads of the Celts' prized enemies being taken home in triumph, and

"thereafter impaled on stakes about the houses and fortresses of the

Celtic chiefs and placed in their temples," 5 Archaeological findings bear out these observations: the temple at Entremont, from the third or second century B.C. contains stone tgtes couples, and the temple at Roquepertuse, probably going back to the fourth century B.C., is decorated with horses and furnished with niches into which were set human skulls, all of males under forty years of age, obviously war­ riors (Ross, p. 6*0 .

There are numerous instances of severed heads on stakes in the old Irish tales. In the seventh-century T&in b£> Cufilnge, Cuchulainn

Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain (London, New York, 1967)> p. 6k, from Diodorus Siculus, XIV, 115; Strabo, IV, 5; Livy* X, 26. t

127 puts the heads of four enemies on the prongs of a wooden fork. 6 In the tenth-century Spectral Chariot of Cuchulinn, the poem tells of a city

of Death surrounded hy seven walls. Each wall has a rampart of iron

on which are nine heads. 7 Finn finally succeeds in killing Allien and puts his head on a stake outside Tara after the latter has burned

the city every year on Hallowe'en for twenty-three years. 8 Morgan's

castle in the Echtra Airt has a palisade of bronze adorned with heads,

one stake of which is empty and waiting for the hero's head. In the k t Welsh Mabinogion story, Culhwch and Olwen, the matter of which may be

as early as the tenth century, the head of the giant Yspaddaden is cut

off and set on a stoke in front of the castle (Jones and Jones, p.

136).

Ross explains the Celtic preoccupation with the head in a

lengthy chapter entitled "The Cult of the Head" and concludes, "The

Celts were no mere head-hunters. They clearly carried their reverence

for the head beyond its use as a symbol of martial success, and it is

found in all spheres of their life, material and spiritual. Although

this veneration had an ancestry in Europe and in the British Isles far

------g----- Gertrude Schoepperle, Tristan and Isolt, 2nd ed. (New York, i960 ), II, 318; from ed. Windisch, Tain, pp. 82 -83 . Schoepperle re­ fers us to similar examples in d'Arbois de Jubainville, T&in B6 Cu&lnge, p. 29; L'Epopee celtique en Ireland (Paris, 1892), pp. 97/ 113/ ll6, 138 , 139 , 1^1,347, 352, 353; aLso cf. A. H. Leahy, Heroic Romances of Ireland (London, 1905)/ I* 10. 7 A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Cambridge, Mass., 19^3)j P* 66f., gives the translation of J. O'Beirne Crowe, Blightly altered after comparison with other texts. 8 Ross, p. 77/ from the Acallam, lines 1651I~ 1771- 128 older than the Celtic peoples themselves, the Celts developed it into an elaborate cult, and made it a distinct feature of their religious expression" (p. 125).

In the Erec adventure, the buttle takes place in a verger, an enchanted garden surrounded by a vail of air through which nothing can pass, which shuts it up as tightly as if it were iron. Within there are brilliant flowers, all kinds of fruit, medicinal herbs, and singing birds all the year around. On stakes are the heads of those knights who have attempted the adventure and failed for the past seven years. The last stake is vacant, awaiting Erec's head. It has a horn dangling from it which shall be blown by Erec if he succeeds. As Erec rides toward a lovely maiden reclining on a silver and gold couch under a sycamore tree, a knight in vermillion arms approaches and challenges him. They fight long and hard until the hour of none, when the red knight's strength wanes and Erec is victorious.9

As has been pointed out by Loomis, some of the same motifs occur in an adventure in the Eirst Continuation. The hero wanders

into a castle garden, where the tall lord is attended by a dwarf and damsel, and is overthrown by a tiny knight who says it is his custom to make all whom he conquers weavers and workers with gold-embroidered

silk. Loomis mentions also the motif of captives being forced to weave and do embroidery in Yvain, although here the captives are maidens

_ Brown, pp. 92-99> treats the episode, as does Loomis, pp. 16^ - 6 8 . I

129

(lines 5107-5809) • 10 The motif of maidens embroidering is found in the Irish manuscript, Tochmarc Emire. Brown believes that Emer and her handmaidens, seated outside her father's house at their needle­ work, are originally captive f^es. 11 It will be remembered that the particular threat which rankled Jaufre was that of being forced to weave cloth.

In Erec, there is a psychological motivation for the hero's fighting, that is, to undertake a challenge in which no one has sue-

* ceeded, whereas Jaufre enters the adventure unknowingly by removing the lance. Several additional motifs appear in the story in Erec.

However, the single combat under a tree with a foe who has defeated all challengers for many years and placed them, or their heads, on stakes, seems more than mere coincidence. As they ride alone toward a hanging object, the lance in Jaufre and the horn in Erec, the mighty foe appears. With the victory they break the bad spell or power which has held for seven, in Erec, or twice seven, in Jaufre, years, and there is cause for rejoicing. The number of years which the curse has lain * on the region may be compared al^o with the seven years.which the wounded knight was forced to suffer in Jaufre.

In this episode of Jaufre there is a combination of Celtic motifs which are repeated in Irish and other Arthurian tales but not in Li Conte del Graal nor in Peredur. The lance, one of the special

Arthurian Tradition, pp. 320-23. The passage in the First Continuation, also called the Pseudo-Wauchier, can be found in Potvin, Perceval le Gallois, IV, 53-53. n Brown, p. 4? and n. 31* 1

130 talismans of the Tuatha De in the Irish Lug story, is hanging from a tree and must be fought for in single combat, as is the horn in Erec.

The dwarf who guards the lance is described in a manner similar to the ugly hag, the Irish sovereignty of the land. The sovereignty's beau­ tiful counterpart could be reflected in the reclining maiden in Erec.

The stakes on which are hung enemies or the heads of enemies is a wide­ spread Celtic motif seen in the earliest extant Irish Legends. The captives weaving of cloth, perhaps an echo of Emer's handmaidens, is * repeated with variations in other Arthurian tales, including Yvain.

It is possible that the episode stems ultimately from the Lug story in the freeing of the region from a powerful and oppressive aggressor who has dealt harshly with all challengers, and in the obtaining of the talisman, the lance, which the hero sends back to King Arthur's court.

The particular combination of motifs of the hanging lance episode in Jaufre is not seen in the other Arthurian stories. It seems to be one of those carried to the land of the troubadours by the

Breton conteurs, -whence it found«.its way into the Provencal tale and has come down to us in its unique form.

The House of the Storm Enchantment

As the exhausted Jaufre continues on his worn-out horse after his adventure with the siryens, a frightened squire in torn clothes runs up to warn him to flee a monstrous leper who has killed the squire's master and carried off a rich and beautiful damsel. Then a small leper appears carrying a child, pursued by the mother who entreats Jaufre to rescue her baby. The leper makes an insulting gesture towards Jaufre, who follows them, arrives at a house, entrusts his horse and lance to the mother, and enters with sword and shield.

Before him is the giant leper holding a lovely crying damsel on a hed.

The leper rises suddenly and confronts Jaufre, who becomes frightened on seeing his great height and shoulders, knotted arms, puffy hands, crooked teeth, bumpy face, eyelids without lashes, eyes rimmed with red. Under his puffed up, blue receding gums are big, stinking, poi- soned red teeth. His whole face is red and inflamed like a burning coal with crushed nose and distended nostrils. Angry and breathing heavily, he asks Jaufre if he came to render himself prisoner. A ter­ rific battle ensues, the giant wielding a huge mace, but Jaufre finally cuts off the giant's right arm and splits his head down the middle, although he is rendered unconscious by the giant's final kick. The damsel sadly takes Jaufre for dead, but then sees him move and throws cold water in his face, which startles him and makes him think he is still fighting. Finally he realizes the situation and calms down from * his frenzied fighting. The unremitting activity which continues after the combat has passed is reminiscent of the battle frenzy of Cuchulainn, who became heated up to the point that it was necessary to cool him down with baths of cold water when he returned to Tara, so that he would not destroy his own people. 12

As he begins to search for the child, Jaufre finds he is trapped in the house and cannot go out through either the door or the

12 Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Gods and Heroes of the Celts, trans. %les Dillon (London, 19^9), pp. 65-66. r

152 windows, no matter how hard he tries. He wonders if a spell has been put on him, and states he would rather die than be kept there by en­ chantment. Suddenly hearing children's voices, he runs into a long wide room at the end of which is a small door, barred and tightly closed from the inside. Breaking down the door, he finds the small leper with twenty-five or thirty live children and eight whom he has already killed. Jaufre knocks him down, and cuts off the hand with which the leper had first made an insulting gesture at him. The leper * asks for pity, saying he was forced to kill the children against his will to make a bath of blood for his master to cure his leprosy.

Jaufre asks how he can get out of the house and the leper promises to tell him in return for Jaufre's mercy. The enchantment was made so that anyone who came into the house with evil intent to the master would be forced to remain a prisoner until the master could deal with him. In the long room is the head of a young boy, presumably a piece of sculpture, placed in a window. Jaufre must seize and break the head to dissipate the enchantment. However, he must be well armed

* because the whole house is going«to come down around him, crushing and pummeling him with blows as it falls.

Tying the leper up and setting the rescued damsel to guard him, Jaufre sends all away, laces on his helmet and takes down the beautiful, well-made head, sitting down on a bench to brace himself before striking it. As soon as he breaks the head, it jumps up and cries, whistles and brings on a torment. It is as if all the elements in the earth and sky are jousting. All the stones, tiles and dust fall t

153 on Jaufre. It gets dark, thunders, lightnings, rains and a tremendous wind arises and blows everything away. Neither the foundation nor anything else remains of the house and Jaufre is so battered he can not move. The mother, children, damsel and leper return and he sends them to Arthur, where they give a report of him (lines 2180-301*1).

In this episode are several important Celtic motifs: the red enemy giant, the beautiful, well-formed head which controls an en­ chantment, the storm brought on by a ritual act of breaking or strik- * ing, and the use of a bath of blood as a cure.

The theme of red giants as enemies has already been treated above. We will point out the eyes rimmed with red, the stinking poi­ sonous red teeth, the red face inflamed like a burning coal, and con­ clude that this red giant is another enemy of the same ilk.

In the discussion of the previous episode of the hanging lance, the importance of the head in the Celtic culture and religion and the discovery of human skulls in the niches of a temple were mentioned. In the giant's house, the head is not necessarily one of

* an enemy nor a symbol of martial victory, but one of enchantment and magic powers which can move, cry out, whistle and menar tormen, "bring on torment."

Although in the case of Jaufre the head was in a window sill, one of the most frequent locations of Celtic artifacts, including both sculptured heads and human skulls, is in wells and pits. Ross relates several archaeological finds of this type (pp. 10^-07), then furnishes examples from Irish and Welsh folklore and literature to show their significance. A well near Hadrian's Wall dedicated to the goddess I

13k

Coventina has "been found to contain several small heads in bronze, and a human skull. She reports that in some instances in Welsh folklore a skull was regarded as a guardian of the well and that there existed a

Scottish-Gaelic tradition that spring-water drunk from the skull of an ancestor would cure epilepsy.

There are several stories in Ireland about wells with heads in them. One well which had a head thrown into it reacted by running salty and bitter part of the year, sweet and pure the other part.

Several wells obtained their names from the person or persons whose head was thrown in, or who were killed near the well. One woman's head was set up on a stake beside the well. The magical power of such a well is evident in this story from the Dindshenchas: "In a fight between two Irish factions only one man, named Riach, escaped alive.

The heads cut off in the fight were brought to a well in a glen. Riach, apparently aware that the spring had now evil powers, built a strong structure with a door over the spring in an attempt to control it.

Despite his efforts, the magic water boiled out in fury and drowned a «*• thousand men, Riach amongst them£ (Ross, p. 108).

The talking severed head is seen in the legend of Saint Melor of Cornwall and Brittany. As the saint's head was being carried back to his uncle by the man who had killed him, the man became weak and faint with thirst. The head told him to put his staff in the ground, and it turned into a tree with branches, fruit and an unfailing foun­ tain gushed forth from its roots. In another legend, Saint Melor's head rose up where it was buried to seek its body which was buried at 1

135 some distance. Ross reports that several healing springs are asso­ ciated with Saint Melor in Brittany, also a holy well at Linkinhorne in Cornwall. In this instance, a sacred head which can talk and move about at will is associated with water or wells.

There are several other examples. One tradition from France tells of a healing spring, the Spring of Saint Reine, "bursting forth as a holy martyr's head struck the ground. In Wales, St. Lludd's head rolled down a hill, coming to rest against a rock from which pure water

% "began to flow. Ross gives other examples and says that in Wales, the number of instances where the pagan association of heads and sacred wells has been transferred to murdered saints could be multiplied indefinitely (p. 108).

There are folk legends in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands of

Scotland still told today which exemplify the motif further. In one story, three brothers are murdered at a well named Tobar nan Ccann,

"the Well of the Heads," The father removes the heads from the well to take home for burial. As he passes a pillar-stone, one of the heads speaks, prophesying that his unborn son will avenge the.murder. The prophesy eventually comes to pass. Ross notes the association of pillar-stones with talking, singing and moving heads (p. 111).

Another example in which the decapitated heads talk comes from Kilmuir in the district of Trotternish in the Island of Skye. At

Cuidrach, the MacDonalds defeated the MacLeods in battle and cut off their heads, which then rolled down the hill crying, "theab, theab, theab, theab a latha dhol leinn," "almost, almost, we almost won the r

136 day.1' The hill was known henceforth as Cnoe Theab, the lake as Loch nan Ceann, “Lake of the Heads," and a nearby well as Tobar nan Ceann,

"Well of the Heads" (Ross, p, 112),

Ross gives numerous other examples of local traditions asso­ ciating severed heads with wells, but the two preceding, in which the heads speak, are of most interest to us here. Several such heads are also recorded in the old literature of Wales and Ireland, the most famous being the huge Welsh god, Bran, described as being too large * for any house to hold. Mortally wounded in an invasion and battle in

Ireland, he tells his surviving fellow Welshmen to cut off his head I and take it with them on their travels. They will be safe and fare well as long as it is with them, and it will provide feasts, enter­ tainment and sweet music of birds. He tells them when these good days will end, and where they must then bury the head. All comes to pass as he foretells, the head furnishes their needs for many years, and in addition, proves to be an entertaining companion (Ross, p. 119). As

Ross points out, the legend of Bran's head embodies many motifs; since

Bran is a god, his head has superhuman powers and is to, be venerated.

It keeps away invaders, presides over the otherworld feast, furnishes all needs, foretells the future.

Several Irish tales also tell of marvelous heads: Fergal's, which blushes, opens its eyes and thanks God for the reverence being shown to it in the form of seven oxen, seven wethers and seven pigs which have been cooked and placed in front of it; Donn-B6's, which is placed on a pillar at a feast and sings sweetly; Lorana's, also put on t

157 a stake, which protests three times because a serving of salmon is not set out for it; Fothad Caninne's, which sings a long poem to his be­ loved with whom he was fleeing, bewailing his fate and telling her what to do with his possessions; Conaire Mor's, which speaks only after the messenger who had been sent for water before his death returns and pours water into its mouth (Ross, pp. 120-23).

Here we have copious evidence for the Celtic motif of a head set up on a pillar, having superhuman powers to control an enchantment, » to cry out, speak and set up a commotion as it wishes. There is also the strong association of heads with water, particularly sacred wells.

There was one example of a saint's head striking a rock to cause water to gush forth, as well as numerous wells and lakes which had heads thrown into them, occasionally causing a reaction, such as the boiling up of the water which drowned 1000 men. Thus a person or his decapitated head seemed to have a magic power over, or control of, the element, water.

The belief that certain people have power over the elements to the point of being able to send rain and other kinds of weather was widespread in the Middle Ages, as described by George Lyman Kittredge in his Witchcraft in Old and New England (Cambridge, Mass., 1929). In the chapter on "Wind and Weather," he cites many examples of unusual mists, rain squalls, winds, and thunderbolts, supposedly caused by

spells which certain people cast, or by evil spirits or the Devil.

Churches and steeples are common targets for the latter. Sometimes

Satan even appeared to the congregation in the form of a gray friar or !

138 a "black dog, and caused suffering to those with whom he came in con­ tact. That storms were considered acts of agents opposed to God is shown in a York pontifical of the eighth century for blessing a church bell, "Wherever this bell sounds, let the power of enemies retire, so also the shadow of phantoms, the assault of whirlwinds, the stroke of lightnings, the harm of thunders, the injuries of tempests, and every spirit of the storm-vinds."13 The belief that storms are caused by evil and supernatural forces is a primitive one, implanted in the minds * of men long before Christianity arrived in the British Isles.

One of the figures of the Celtic matter has several qualities which seem to associate him with storms. He is Curoi, who appears to

Cuchulainn as a giant herdsman bearing an ax in the Jbast of Bricriu.14

He gives a beheading test in which Cuchulainn earns first place among the warriors. In comparing the Storm-Knight, called Esclados le Ros in Chrdtien's Yvain, the Hospitable Host in the Welsh Owain, the Green

Knight in Gawain and the Green Knight, and Claudas de la Terre De- serte in Vulgate Lancelot, Loomis discovered several features also common to Curoi: gigantic size,^wielding an ax, red beard, blazing

15 like a live coal, making much noise.

— Kittredge, p. 158, from The Pontifical of Egbert, Arch­ bishop of York, A. D, 732-66, ed. Greenwell, Surtees Society (XXVIl), 118. lh Sjoestedt, pp. 72-73> from Thurneysen, Irische Helden-und Konigsage, p. 46of. 15 Arthurian Tradition, pp. 278-85. In Yvain, red coloring is suggested by the epithet "li Ros" of Esclados, line 1970. In lines 812 -1^, he is described as having an anger blazing more than a burning coal and making as much noise as if he were chasing a rutting stag. 139

In the storm adventure in Yvain, Calogrenant, and later Yvain,

"brings on a storm after being directed to a fountain by a giant herds­ man. The spring is situated under a tall pine tree beyond which is a little chapel. A basin hangs from the tree and if one pours water from it onto a block of stone near the tree, a terrible storm of wind, thunder and lightning arises, which one escapes only with great dif­ ficulty. After the air has cleared, a flock of birds settles on the tree and begins to sing, followed by the noisy arrival of the fierce

Esclados li Ros, who battles fiercely with the intruder who has brought on the storm.16

Looking back to Jaufre*s narrow escape in the awful storm of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, brought on by breaking the well- made head in the giant's enchanted house, we note that the ear- splitting battle with the giant took place before the storm, rather than afterwards. Jaufre*s giant is associated with red three times: his eyes are rimmed with red, he has red teeth, and his whole face is red and inflamed like a burning coal. His nose is crushed in, with diBtended nostrils, like the "shstrt, hideous nose" of Claudas de la

Terre Deserte. He wields a "massa" or bludgeon, not unlike the back­

side of the ax used by Curoi for the beheading test.

Claudas, in the Vulgate Lancelot, is nine feet tall, has a short hid­ eous nose and bears an ax. The Green Knight is also huge, wields an ax and is noisy. The Hospitable Host has a red-brown beard and face as fierce as fire.

Mario Roques, ed. (Paris, i960 ), lines 370-580, 800-75. iko

Two other features of Yvain1s storm fountain episode, the tall pine tree and the small chapel, appear in Jaufre when Jaufre fights the black knight: the giants' mother, the witch, is lying under a tall pine when she warns him not to go further, and the fight takes place beside the chapel. Whether Chretien's source united separate motifs into one episode or the source of Jaufre1s author split them up is hard to judge, but the giant black or red herdsman associated with the storm seems to have descended originally from Curoi. Both epi- sodes are challenging tests of Jaufre's bravery, as was the encounter with the herdsman a test for Cuchulainn.

We have seen the association between heads and water, and that a certain person or evil spirit might cause a storm by a spell, but why the breaking of the head? The closest parallel I have found is the saint's head striking a rock and causing water to gush forth, noted above. However, the belief that storms could be brought on by certain express actions is shown in several examples in Witchcraft in

Old and New England. In the fourteenth-century, witches on the Isle of Man sold sailors wind tied in

Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot"(Kittredge, pp. 159-60). r

iki

The closest example to the Yvain episode is that told to a friend of Kittredge by an elderly man, Stephen Dolloff, horn in 1795; who had heard it from his grandmother. She had a woman visiting her called Aunt Patty, who was reputed to he a witch. Three hoys, who had been teasing Aunt Patty, were attempting to cross the Squamscot River in a small boat. "'Long about three o'clock in the afternoon Patty fetched a pail of water and dipped up the water and tipped it over a little three times, and then over it went, and she said 'There you go,

* you dogs! 1 Waal, jest that time them boys was a-crossin' the river, an' a squall struck 'em all of a suddent, an1 the boat upsot, an' they was all drownded. 'Taint't safe to hector a witch, noway’1 {pp. l60-

6l). Both in Kittredge's story and in Yvain water poured from a basin or bucket provided the imitative magic to produce a storm.

Another motif to be examined is the form the enchantment took in the giant's house: no one who intended harm to the master could get out, although the doors and windows were apparently open. Stith

Thompson's Motif Index mentions a Chinese motif in which a person is held fast by enchantment and cannot cross the threshold.. A similar spell is seen in the garden of the "Joie de la Cort" episode in Erec, surrounded by an invisible impenetrable wall of air with cne opening.

Even that opening cannot be found by anyone wanting to carry off some of the everripe fruit until he has replaced the piece of fruit (lines

5689“750*J-). Loomis points out the similarity of this wall of air to

the one by which Niniane enclosed her lover, Merlin. Merlin states,

"There is no tower in the world so strong as that in which I am locked; 142 and yet there is no wood, iron or stone in it, but by enchantment it is enclosed with air and nothing more....I cannot issue forth nor can anyone enter, save only her who has done this to me and who, when she pleases, keeps me company here." 17 Loomis says this enclosure has been influenced by a legend from Virgil, as reported by Neckham, "How is it that the said prophet fortified and surrounded his garden, move­ less air taking the place of a wall?"18 But, he continues, the barrier of air was probably suggested originally by the Druidic mists, which concealed the palaces of the gods, as in The Adventures of Connac in

19 the Land of Promise.

There remains the motif of the bath of children's blood which was supposed to cure the giant's leprosy. One Irish tale, The Exile of the Sons of Dael Dermait, contains the motif of bathing in the blood of a conquered giant as a means of healing wounds. Cuchulainn succeeds at last in slaying the giant Eochu, whereupon fairies come from the east and the west to bathe in his blood, and be cured of the wounds he had inflicted on them while he was alive. 20

There was a popular medieval belief that blood .would cure leprosy. Francis James Child, in The English and Scottish Popular

If Loomis, p. 178, from Malory, Vulgate Lancelot, ed. H. 0. Sommer, II, 46l. 18 From Alexander Neckham, De Naturis Rerum, ed. T. Wright (London, 1863), p. 310. 19 From T. P. Cross, C. H. Slover, Ancient Irish Tales, p. 504. 2Q — Brown, Grail Legend, pp. 55-58, from Stokes and Windisch, Irische Texte, II, i, 173-74." Brown's n. 46 states that the story arose in the 10th century according to Thurneysen, Heldensage, p. 668, and is in the 14th-century Yellow Book of Lecan. I

1^3

Ballads, (Boston, 1882-98), tells of a German 'ballad in which a rich leper tried to cure himself by bathing in the blood of twelve pure maidens. In a note, he says, "it is well known that in the Middle

Ages the blood of children or of virgins was reputed a specific for leprosey" (i, ^7* 50). An early fifteenth-century manuscript tells of

Averoys the physician who is cured of leprosy by a bath of kid's 2 1 blood. There is also the story of the leprous Emperor Constantine, who was advised by a bishop to bathe in the warm blood of three * children. However, when he saw the distraught mothers, he decided not to kill the children, saying it would be better for him to die than these innocents. That same night, Saint Peter and Saint Paul appeared to him and told him he would be healed after confessing to the bishop,

Silvester. On hearing the good Silvester, he was converted to

Christianity and baptized, whereupon he was cured immediately. 22

The story of Amis and Amiloun, found in Latin in a manuscript from the eleventh century, in Anglo-Norman in a twelfth-century and two later manuscripts, in French as Amis et Amiles in a manuscript from the first half of the thirteenth^century, and in several additional later manuscripts, tells about the friendship of the two men which is so strong that Amis cuts off the heads of his two young children in order to cure the leprosy of the friend, Amiloun, with their blood.

An angel had appeared in a dream to tell Amiloun that he could be cured

21 J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Dept, of Mss. in the British Museum (London, 1910), III, 202. 22 Mary Macleod Banks, An Alphabet of Tales, an English 15th- Century Translation of Etienne de Besan Vf8. :

in this manner. Afterwards, the children are found to be miraculously restored to life. The numerous manuscripts of the tale, twenty-seven including the hagiographic versions, listed by MacEdward Leach, Amis and Amiloun (London, 1937)> in an introduction to his edition, would seem to indicate that the story was extremely popular and widespread

(pp. ix-xiv).

The only factor in the episode of the giant leper in Jaufre which has a parallel in the Perceval and Peredur stories is the hero's coming to the aid of a damsel whose lover or husband has been killed through combat with the slayer. However, the situation in Jaufre is entirely different from those in the other stories and has been ex­ panded into a major segment of the romance. Neither the Celtic motifs of the enemy as a red giant and living in an enchanted place nor the more general medieval motifs of his being a leper trying to cure him­ self by a bath of children's blood is seen in Peredur or Li Conte del

Graal. The breaking of the house's enchantment by throwing down a talking head, which brings on a terrific storm, is not duplicated in * any Irish, Welsh or other Arthurian tale, although it seems to be founded on various Celtic motifs, such as talking decapitated heads set on pillar-stones and sometimes having special powers or control over water. Other Celtic features are seen in the description of the giant and of the enchantment as an invisible barrier which contains the hero. Bringing on a storm by u ritual act is found in Yvain, and several examples of the belief that a storm has been or can be brought on by certain actions or people, often considered agents of the Devil, t

occur in medieval superstition. Thus the incident seems to embody commonly held beliefs of the period in which it was written as well as Celtic matter from earlier times.

The Fairy Mistress of the Underwater Otherworld

The damsel-of-the-besieged-castle motif, seen in the Blanche- flor episode of the Perceval stories, is set in an underwater fairy­ land in Jaufre. It is skillfully woven in by the appearance of the fairy mistress several hundred lines before the full adventure; the vanquished Taulat arrives at Arthur's court with Melian just as a damsel in distress is putting her case before KingArthur. An unjust knight is fighting to gain all her lands and the damsel herself. She has only one small castle left which will fall at the end of a week if she does not find a champion to defend her in single combat. All of

Arthur's best knights are out of the court and she receives no aid.

Meanwhile she hears Taulat describing Jaufre's tremendous victory over him (lines 628^-6535)*

We see the fairy mistress next almost 2000 lines later as * Jaufre and Brunissen ride out to greet Melian. Two damsels approach on horseback, crying and red-eyed, sighing and moaning. Jaufre asks what is wrong and why Arthur has not been sought for aid. One lady replies that none of Arthur's knights offered to help, and she is now seeking the valiant Jaufre. She lists all his deeds of bravery. At this, Brunissen says softly "between her teeth" that the damsel will not get him away from her unless she takes him by force, and Jaufre states that he cannot undertake another venture until his marriage !

ll*6 with Brunissen takes place. The girl is overwhelmed with despair. She has only four days left, after which all hope is lost. Jaufre tells her not to worry and to have faith in God, who has power to send aid quickly. Then he and Brunissen joyfully gallop off to greet Melian

(lines 8003-81^9).

Two hundred lines and two days later, Jaufre, Melian, Brunis­ sen and many of her people, 3500 knights, at least 1500 maidens and

1000 ladies, set out for Arthur’s court where Jaufre and Brunissen are » * to he married. They journey for three days, arriving on the fourth at a beautiful meadow of fresh grass and pretty flowers enclosed by lovely trees. In the middle is a large, deep clear spring of healthful water.

They begin to set up camp when Jaufre hears a cry for help. Refusing

Melian's offer to accompany him, he rides to the spring and sees a girl tearing her hair because her lady is drowning. He dismounts and stretches out his lance to the surfacing lady, but it does not extend quite far enough. Suddenly, the girl gives him a shove and in he goes, armor md all. She follows and the three sink. Jaufre's horse, the * seneschal, Melian and Brunissen ^re crazed with despair, The excessive grief of the hero’s horse reminds one of the Gray of Macha, Cuchu- lainn’s horse, who performs extraordinary feats at the death of the hero, "making ’three red charges' in which it kills fifty men with its teeth and thirty with its hooves" (Sjoestedt, pp. 79 -80). Then it returns to the lake from which it rose originally for the purpose of

OO being captured by Cuchulainn.

_ Lucy Paton, Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance. 2nd. ed. (New York, I9 S0J, p. l6l7 t

1^7

Brunissen throws herself in the water, hut is fished out hy

the hair. The grieving and lamenting continue for several hundred

lines. The seneschal observes that Jaufre's disappearance must be due

to enchantment, since no knight would be able to conquer him so easily

and quickly. Finally, the Archbishop and Melian agree that there has been enough useless lamenting and messengers are sent to Arthur for

advice.

Jaufre, meanwhile, is led below the middle of the fountain in « the most beautiful country in the world, with hills, plateaux, moun­

tains, valleys, hollows, plains, waters, woods, meadows, towns,

castles and cities. There are no inhabitants, however, because the

cruel knight, Fellon d'Albarua, has devastated everything by his wars.

The damsel says she now has Jaufre in her power. It is she who had

asked his aid earlier. She describes Fellon, so that when Jaufre sees

him he will not be afraid as others have been. He has a head bigger

than a bull's, eyes larger than eggs, a monstrous forehead, squashed

nose, thick lips, enormous teeth, mouth bigger than a leopard's

reaching from ear to ear, a horsa's neck, big haunches,.stomach, thighs

and legs. Once again we see features of a Celtic villain, originating

in the hags who represented the sovereignty of Ireland.

Jaufre, having no alternative, agrees to defend the lady, while

condemning her manner of seizing him, which he believes will cause

Brunissen's death. The damsel assures him that Brunissen will not die

and will recover quickly from her unhappiness, whereas she herself

would have been miserable for the rest of her life if Jaufre had not

come. There are few people left in her strong, deep-moated castle, t

11*8

"but they welcome Jaufre graciously, sharing the meat, wine and bread which remains, just enough for one day, then tranquilly go to bed.

The deserted town, gracious welcome, meager nourishment of meat, wine and bread, the calm way of retiring for the night are all themes in

Li Conte del Graal and Parzival.

The next day after mass Jaufre watches Fellon, called the

"enemy of God" by the lady, approach with a strong, beautiful bird on his fist. Near the castle the magnificent bird is loosed on some cranes, upon which Jaufre determines to obtain it for Arthur. The lady assures him he will return with both the conquered enemy and the bird, and all comes to pass just as she has foretold.

After several rounds of insults during which Jaufre tells the enemy he has been sent by God to champion justice and law, the battle takes place. Fellon's shield hand is cut off. Jaufre delivers him to the lady, who has him attended by a doctor. The nobles are sent out for food and a huge celebration feast is held. Jaufre, however, is sad, and asks the lady, who has placed him at her side during the banquet, if he may not return tobrunissen. She smiles,and says they will be with her tomorrow. Going to bed, rising and getting dressed, mass, repasts, all the rituals of daily life are attended to with the most courteous service in the most pleasing manner possible in this underwater fairyland. On returning, the lady goes up through the fountain first, preparing the way so that the others, about 100 knights, have not the slightest difficulty. J

llj-9

They reach Brunissen just as the messengers arrive from Arthur, to tell her that she must not worry because Jaufre has not drowned, but merely been detained on an adventure. 24 All are happy, but Brunis­ sen rebukes the lady for carrying Jaufre off against his will. She is told not to be angry; Jaufre has saved her and restored her lands, and

Brunissen is none the worse off.

As the entourage nears Karduel, Melian suggests sending ten men ahead to challenge Arthur's knights, so that Jaufre will have a

* chance to knock Qecx off his horse and pay him back for his insult

(lines 8352-9256).

We see the fairy mistress from the underwater otherworld once more after the marriage has taken place. On the way back to Brunis­ sen' s castle, camp is set up in the same meadow. The next morning many men on carts and beasts of burden emerge from the fountain, bearing gifts and escorted by about 300 knights and more than 500 ladies.

Then the lady herself appears on an iron-gray horse and advances toward them all alone. Jaufre alerts his men, thinking she is going to enchant them again. She orde*s her nobles to serve Jaufre and the rest a magnificent meal, since it is he who has restored all their fiefs and patrimonies. Quickly, all the carts containing food and

25 This reassurance seems to indicate that Arthur has a special knowledge or link with the otherworld. Brown proposes that Arthur was already in Avalon or "The Land of the Dead" even as he played his role of king in the Arthurian romances, thus accounting for the fact that he did not take an active part in most of the adventures. We have already noted the two exceptions in Jaufre, which lejeune has pointed out to be archaic because Arthur is the protagonist. 1

150 equipment are unloaded, and a marvelous tent, covering half a league, is set up to protect them from the sun. Jaufre and his train watch in amazement. Ordinarily, twice as many men would not have been able to accomplish that much work in two days. The lady instructs her people to be attentive in serving, and to bring cups and towels to the guests. As she advances with 100 male attendants, Jaufre and his men put down their arms and go to meet her. She asks why they had armed themselves and is given the excuse that they thought it was Fellon's * men coming from the spring for vengeance. The lady says they need fear neither Fellon, nor anyone else, implying that she is more power­ ful than any potential enemies. She has come to serve and honor him and his friends, and invites them to approach and partake of the meal.

Jaufre replies, somewhat ironically, that she has such authority over him that there is no place that she cannot lead him, either to the end of the earth or under it. Understanding his implication, she again guarantees their safety. They proceed to the tent, where each person is served by his equal in rank, and every dish in the world is * available. ^

After the meal, the lady presents Jaufre with the marvelous tent which cannot be burned or penetrated by water, and which is so

25 lightweight it can be carried in one cart in spite of its great size.

She also confers on him the gift of protection from any man or animal who might wish to harm him, including herself. To Brunissen, she

The tent with its magical qualities has been compared to Arthur's enormous portable round table by Loomis, p. 6 6. i

151 grants that she will never displease anyone, no matter what her actions or words may be. Melian is given the gift of freedom from ever being made prisoner or being harmed by an enemy. To Jaufre's knights she gives gold and silver. She promises lifelong friendship to Jaufre.

Finally, Jaufre asks her name, to which she replies "la fada de Gibel."

Her castle is "Gibaldar," the strongest in the world. Jaufre and all his train thank her and depart (lines 10,539-691)• Once again the name of a person has been held in reserve, here, until the very end of

« her last appearance.

In this episode occurs an important Celtic feature which is not seen in Li Conte del Graal, the underwater fairyland or otherworld.

The Celtic otherworld is usually situated in one of four places: in­ side a siflh, "hill" or "fairy mound;" on an island; under the sea or at the bottom of a well; in a meadow, plain or castle. Sometimes two or more types of locations are combined. The meadow in which Jaufre camped, with its trees, flowers and water is a typical description.

We will see the association of water with the entrance to the other-

* world when Loeg has to cross in 3 boat to arrive at Fanp's palace, and the entrance through a lake, pool, river or spring also occurs fre­ quently.

Ross discusses the ancient legends and archaeological finds which together show clearly the important role water features played in the Celtic culture (pp. 20-53). One shaft-well, of wooden con­ struction, three and one-half feet square by forty feet deep, with traces of paths leading to it, was found filled, after nineteen feet I

152

of varied relics had been removed, with "fairly perfect urns placed

in layers, and embedded in leaves of hazel and hazel nuts. Of especial

interest is the fact that the hazel nuts in the upper layers were more mature than those lower down. There were some objects amongst the urns

including fibulae, some iron utensils, bones; the bottom of the shaft was paved coarsely with flints" (p. 28). Ross points out that not

only was the hazel tree venerated by the Celts, but was associated with sacred wells over which the boughs would hang and drop their ftuit. • * The special wisdom of the hero Finn was obtained from such nuts. The magic hazel nuts were eaten by the salmon, and wisdom and knowledge was then imparted to anyone partaking of the fish. In cooking a sal­ mon, Finn burned his thumb, quickly put it to his mouth, and thus received the hero’s special knowledge. S 3

R. S. Loomis quotes Laura Hibbard who, in discussing the con­

cept of an otherworld beneath the water, cites examples of Irish heros reaching the otherworld by plunging beneath the waters. 27 The oldest

example is that of Fiachna, in The Adventure of Laeghaire Mac-

* Crimhthainn, who,asked Laeghaire^to help him recover his wife from

the king, Goll. He and fifty of his men went down under the lake

following Fiachna, attacked the fort and returned the wife to her

' 11 1 'g> Robert D. Scott, The Thumb of Knowledge in Legends of Finn, Sigurd and Taliesin (New York, 1930), p. 91* 27 Arthurian Tradition, pp. 222-2^, from Romanic Review, IV (1913), 167. 153 husband. 28 Loomis also mentions the fourteenth-century reference to an underwater palace, first observed by Jessie Weston, in the Ee- ductorium Morale of Pierre Bercuire, or Bercher, who died in 1362 .

Loomis gives examples in modern Celtic folklore of a "sub­ aqueous land of faerye" in a discussion of Morgain as a fountain-nymph.

A Welshman in his nineties recounted around 1910 how: "A special sort of Tylwyth Teg (fairies) used to come out of lakes and dance, and their fine looks enticed young men to follow them back into the lakes, and

* r there marry one of them..,.This sort of Tylwyth Teg were as big as ordinary people; and they were often seen riding out of the lakes and back again on horse." 29 J. Khys also heard stories as a child, about

1845* of a water-sprite, Morgan, who carried off naughty boys into the lake." 30 Loomis points out that both stories come from western Wales, and that a similar Morgan exists in modern Breton folklore. 31

Lucy Paton, in a discussion of La Dame du Lac of Chretien's

Lancelot tale, mentions that the Irish goddess, Macha, seems to have a watery background, since she is the daughter of Saimreth mac Inibraith,

"Saimreth the son of Ocean." Perhaps it is she who gave Cuchulainn his

28 Speculum, XVII (1942), 38 I-8 5. 29 Arthurian Tradition, pp. 306-07, from W. Y. E. Wentz, Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries (New York, 1911), P» 148. ^From Celtic Folklore, I, 372f. 31 See Wentz, p. 200f.; P. Sebillot, Folklore de France, 11,36; F. J. Snell, King Arthur's Country, pp. 263 -6 5. supernatural horse, Liath Macha, "Gray of Macha," who rose from a lake and returned to it after his master's death. Other underwater ladies are pointed out hy Paton as occurring in the lay Tydorel, the Eludi- cation (lines 29-62), and the First Continuation (lines 13,011-480 and 15,426-639)•32 A richly dressed lady rises from a moat in the

Second Continuation, in which Perceval is the hero and which contains several motifs similar to those occurring in the last part of Peredur.

Perceval, in searching for the Fisher King, is nearly drowned by a * * treacherous maiden. It will be recalled that it was feared that

Jaufre was drowned by the fairy mistress and her damsel. Seeing a fair castle, Perceval enters and finds a gameboard, begins to play on one side, is responded to by the pieces on the other side and is finally defeated. After losing three times he starts to throw board and men in the moat. A richly dressed maiden rises from the water and orders him to desist. After lifting her in at the window, Perceval falls in love with her, but before she will grant him her favors, Perceval must bring her the head of a white stag.33

In the course of Peredur*s search for the Castle of Wonders, a maiden in a castle situated in a river valley becomes enarmored of him. Her father, the king, has strong men set upon Peredur and de­ tains him in prison. One is reminded of Brunissen*s initial treatment of Jaufre. After saving the kingdom from a besieging earl, Peredur continues on his way, having been directed to a lake, in the middle of

1 32 Fairy Mythology, pp. l6l, 167-6 9 . Tydorel, ed. G. Paris, "Lais inddits," Romania, VIII (1879 ), 66-72. ^Jessie Weston, The Legend of Sir Perceval (London, 1906-09); pp. 107-08 from Fotvin, lines '227 594ff, which is the Castle of Wonders, Entering through the open door, he finds a gwyddbwyll hoard on which the pieces are playing by them­ selves, Angered when the side he favors loses, he throws the board in the lake, upon which the black maid enters and rebukes him for losing the prized possession of the empress. To recover the board, he must slay a black man, kill and decapitate a stag, then fight with a black man who rises from beneath a stone slab beside a bush. Thus, in Peredur, although neither lady actually comes out of the water, the *• first one lives in a castle in a river valley and the second, the empress, lives in a Castle of Wonders situated in the middle of the lake.

To understand the episode of the fairy mistress from an under­ water land, let us consider an Irish story, written down in 1106 with language dating from the tenth-century and which is based on eighth- century material. It is called Serglige Cuchulainn, "The Sickbed

(or Wasting Sickness) of Cuchulainn." The Ulstermen are celebrating a feast near a lake when some beautiful birds settle. Cuchulainn * captures them and presents them to each of the women except his wife,

Emer. Suddenly, he sees two especially beautiful birds which he attempts to capture for her, although she demurs, sensing something

3IJ. Mtyles Dillon, Early Irish Literature (Chicago, 19*$); P» 118 Brown says the story goes back in the main to the 8th-century. The early 12th-century version is based on two older versions: 8th-century and 11th-century (based on 8th-century material), p. l6f. His refer­ ences are Thurneysen, Heldensage, pp. 29-31, 413-15, 667; R. I. Best and 0. Bergin, Lebor na Huidre (Dublin, 1929); PP* xvi-xxi, 104-26. The text is also in E. Windisch, Irische Texte, I (Leipsig, 1880), . 205-27. An English translation can be found in A. H. Leahy, Heroic Romances of Ireland (London, 1905), I, 57f« *

156 unusual about them. Their song puts all the other warriors to sleep.

After wounding one of the birds, Cuchulainn too falls asleep. Two women appear to him, one in green, the other in purple, and strike or stroke him with switches, causing him and the other Ulstermen to be sick and unable to speak for a year. Then a messenger arrives saying he will be cured if he will come to fight against the enemies of the fairy king, Labraid, in the Plain of Cruath, or Delight, for one day.

He will also receive the love of the beautiful Fann or Fand, "tear- « drop," Unwilling to go himself, he sends ahead his charioteer, Loeg, with one of the two women, LiBan, "spendor of women," who had appeared to them at the same lake mentioned at the beginning.

LxBan takes Loeg by the shoulder, saying that he cannot return alive unless protected by a woman. They cross the lake in a boat of bronze. On his return, Loeg describes the extraordinarily beautiful land, castle, and maidens to Cuchulainn, who then goes himself. Suc­ cessful in battle against labraid1s foes, be remains with the lovely

Fann for one month of happiness. Before returning he arranges a tryst ✓ with her for a month hence, but is discovered by Emer who comes to the meeting with fifty women, intending to kill Fann. Her chidings and reproaches touch Cuchulainn, who decides to return to her and be loyal.

Fann grudgingly and unhappily agrees to release him from her love. Her husband, Manannan, arrives to take her away, shaking his cloak between the lovers so they will not meet again. Cuchulainn and Emer are given potions of forgetfulness so that the former state of happiness is restored between them. *

157

This visit to fairyland has several points in common with that

of Jaufre. The episode begins at a celebration or feast, and we re­ member that Jaufre and Brunissen were on their way.to celebrate their wedding, including a wedding feast, when Jaufre was taken by the two women to the beautiful land underneath the water. The motif of the birds lulling the warriors to sleep with their songs, and the two

special birds who, it is implied, are transformed fairy mistresses,

are absent in Jaufre, although the other knights seem helpless when * Jaufre is enticed into the fountain, thus indicating that supernatural powers are being used. We see the extraordinary bird of Fellon, which

Jaufre takes back to King Arthur. The motif of two beautiful damsels

or fairy mistresses approaching the hero, hoping to carry him away with them to fairyland to fight enemies is in both stories. In Ser- glige Cuchulainn, the otherworld is reached by crossing the surface of

the water; in Jaufre, by sinking down through the waters of a fountain

or spring. We note that it is the second maid, not the fairy mistress herself, who comes for the hero in both cases. It is she who serves

as the messenger .and guide in Serglige Cuchulainn, and who in Jaufre, runs to tell him her mistress is drowning, then pushes him in as he

attempts the rescue.

In both episodes, the otherworld has a complete and beautiful

landscape, including castles, but it is deserted in Jaufre because of

the terrible Fellon. After the victory over the enemy, each hero stays

for a time in the otherworld under the power of the fairy mistress,

Cuchulainn rather more willingly and for a longer period than Jaufre, I

158 who is constantly thinking ah out his betrothed, Brunissen. The abso­ lute power of the fairy mistress is manifested in Serglige Cuchulainn as LiBan warns Loeg that he cannot return alive from there except under the protection of a woman, presumably herself, and in Jaufre by

Gibel's claim when they reach her kingdom that he is now in her power, and by her reminders afterwards as her people prepare the magnificent repast in the meadow. One has the feeling that Jaufre's fge would have preferred to keep him there at her side longer, and that twelfth- century manners and amor cortois which oblige him to think only of

Brunissen and express the wish to leave quickly, also obligate her to let him go, forbidding her to restrain him against his will, Jaufre mentions her strong authority over him, when she invites him and his company to dine, saying that such is her power that she could lead him anywhere on this earth, or under it.

The conflict between the f£e and the wife or wife-to-be is an important element of each story. The first signs of Emer's jealousy show when her husband captures birds for all the women except her, and we also see that.she feels a threat or a menace from the two beautiful supernatural birds which she wants him to leave alone. In other stories, she is portrayed as beautiful, noble, charming and intelli­ gent, as is Brunissen, so this is not the nagging jealousy of a shrewish wife, but one with just cause for suspicion and injured feelings, as we see later when Cuchulainn stays with Fann for a month, enjoying her love. The other manifestation of Emer's jealousy is seen as she appears at the tryst planned by Cuchulainn and Fann, with fifty f

159 of her women and intentions of killing Fann. Confronted by her rival, however, she soons abandons thoughts of violence and even says to

Fann sadly that it would be better that Cuchulainn leave her, Emer, in spite of the pledge he has just made of renewed loyalty to his wife.

Fann demurs, also sadly, because she still loves him, but recognizes that Emer has a more lawful claim on him.

Brunissen's jealousy is seen at her first encounter with the two damsels, where, on hearing their appeal to Jaufre, she mutters

* between clenched teeth that they will not get Jaufre away from her ex­ cept by force. This strong reaction seems rather unwarranted at the time, since we have no way of knowing that this is not merely a typical plea for aid, but rather the efforts of a fairy mistress from the otherworld to lure a mortal away from his wife, or wife-to-be, to the happy land where he will fall under the charms of the lady and become her lover, as did Cuchulainn.

Both heros refuse to accompany her and be her champion until coercion is used. It is made apparent that the alternative for Cuchu- * lainn and all his warriors is to"remain invalids indefinitely; Jaufre is physically forced into the fountain after having been lured there by false cries for help.

Brunissen1s grief and desperation on his disappearance is ex­ pounded upon at great length, supposedly because she believes he has drowned, but it would surely be similar if she thought he had been carried off by a fairy mistress. The suspicion of enchantment is voiced by the seneschal who says that no knight could take him so t

160 quietly and quickly without a noisy "battle which they would have heard.

The fact that they do not break camp, but send to Arthur for advice, also shows that they do not really believe that Jaufre is dead, and

Arthur reassures them on this matter, indicating that he has some liaison with or knowledge of the otherworld himself.

Lastly, we note that Brunissen's first reaction on seeing the

"lady" after Jaufre's return was to rebuke her, saying she would have preferred her to challenge herself, Brunissen, and the whole train, * * rather than to lead Jaufre off that way against his will (lines 9362-

66). This is not as strong, of course, as Emer's intentions to kill

Fann, but the circumstances have been modified to fit with the twelfth- century story, and we see merely that her reception of the other lady is not exactly cordial. Their further conversation is civil and polite, as indeed was that of Emer and Fann, who each ended up saying that

Cuchulainn should abandon herself and go with the other one. Thus both women and both fairy mistresses are portrayed as sympathetically as possible. Perhaps it adds renown to the heros as well, to be loved so greatly by such exceptional famale figures.

There is a lay, Laaval, written by Marie de France in the second third of the twelfth-century, which contains several parallels to the Serglige Cuchulainn and the Jaufre episodes concerning the fairy mistress. One of the most generous, brave and handsome of knights, called Lanval by the Bretons, had not been justly rewarded for his services by King Arthur and was downcast. He wandered out of the town on horseback all alone. He entered a meadow and crossed a flowing stream. At this, his horse trembled excessively. He unbridled it and let it graze in the middle of the field while he stretched out with his cloak folded under his head. Sad and pensive, he gazed down towards the river and saw two damsels approaching, the most beautiful he had ever seen. They had beautiful faces and were richly dressed and tightly laced, in purple bliauts. The eldest carried a fine gold basin, the other a towel, a motif mentioned earlier and seen also at the feast given by the fairy mistress for Jaufre. Lanval, who was

* well taught, rose to his feet. They informed him that they had been sent for him by their lady. Leaving his horse, he accompanied them to a nearby tent, which was rich and beautiful, topped by a priceless gold eagle. Inside was a lady who surpassed the lily-of-the-valley and the new rose in beauty. She was lying on a rich bed in nothing but a chemise, A cloak of white ermine lined with purple was thrown over her for warmth. Her sides were bare and her face, throat and breast were whiter than the hawthorn flower. The lady called to Lanval, and he sat down before her couch. She informed him that she had come out * of her land to seek him from afa^ because she loved him. He looked at her, loved her immediately and said he would do anything in his power which she might command him; from now on his greatest wish was to be able to stay with her. After much lovemaking, she told him that she would appear whenever he might think of the meadow and tent. Her

only condition was that he should speak to no one concerning her.

Lanval was elated. He kissed her and arose. The two damsels who had led him there dressed him richly, gave him water to wash his hands, a I

towel to wipe them, and brought a supper which he ate with his lady, whose kisses and hugs were the side dishes. The two damsels then brought his horse, all saddled, and he rode back to the city, looking behind him frequently. He was frightened and did not know what to make of his adventure. He came to his lodging and was well cared for. He had now all the wealth he could use and became exceedingly generous, aiding knights in need, prisoners, jongleurs, strangers and friends.

He was able to see his lady-love often, day and night, as he wished.

* That same year, after St. John's Day, thirty knights were on their way to an orchard or garden located below the queen's apart­ ments. Gauvain said that they did wrong never to include the generous and courteous lanval in their outings, so they returned for him. As they arrived, the queen was leaning on a windowsill, gazing out the window. She recognized Lanval, and promptly had more than thirty of her most beautiful ladies-in-waiting accompany her down into the orchard. The knights took them by the hands and led them off for conversations, but Lanval went away by himself, not caring for the * company of any lady except his own. When the queen saw-him alone, she came and seated herself beside him, summoned all her courage, and de­ clared her love for him, offering to be his. He refused, saying he did not wish to love her nor to betray the king. Stung by anger and wounded pride, she accused him of not liking women and insulted his service to the king. In a state of fury, Lanval replied to the ac­ cusation that he loved and was loved in return by one whose beauty was so great that her lowliest servant surpassed the queen in beauty, 163 education and goodness. After this encounter, the queen took to her bed, refusing to leave it until the king had avenged her for the in­ sult. A lawsuit was drawn up against the miserable Lanval, who had lost the privilege of seeing his lady by speaking of her, no matter how much he might implore her to appear. Only during the trial did she arrive with her serving-maids to prove the truth of Lanval's claim.

As she was riding out of the court, lanval flung himself up onto the horse with a mighty leap and rode off behind her, never to be seen again.35

In Lanval are seen motifs of both Jaufre and Sergllge Cuchu­ lainn: the beautiful meadow, a body of water, the nervous horse, the solitude of the hero, the approach of two beautiful damsels who wish to take him to the dominion of a lovely but powerful supernatural female, the hero's fright and distrust and the anger and jealousy of a beautiful lady who loved him previously, although not, in the case of

Lanval, his wife or betrothed. It is apparent, however, from the queen's sudden declaration, that she had fallen in love with Lanval before his meeting with the fairy mistress. Indeed, it can be sur­ mised that Lanval's original difficulties with King Arthur stem from that very situation.

Lanval and the Serglige Cuchulainn differ from Jaufre in that the hero does become the lover of the fairy mistress. The purple clothing worn by the maidens who come to lead Lanval to the lady echos

55 Lais, ed. Jeanne Lods (Paris, 1959)- l6l»- that in Serglige Cuchulainn, although one of the damsels in the latter also wears green. Twelfth-century manners are apparent in Lanval when, as a well-taught knight, he rises at the approach of the two damsels.

One of Lanval1 s insults to the queen is that his lady^ handmaidens ore not only lovlier, hut Letter educated than she is. However, well- instructed ladies were not limited to the twclfth-century, since Cuchu- lainn's Emer was able to speak with him in the secret language of the learned fill, "poet".36 Lanval differs from the Serglige Cuchulainn and Jaufre in the willingness of the hero to go to the fairy mistress and love her, in his ability to make her appear whenever he wishes, in the lack of prior commitment of his love elsewhere and in the fact that there is no besieging enemy.

Hence, the episode of the besieged castle and fairy mistress in the otherworld in Jaufre is closer to the Irish tale than in other parallel episodes. In Chrdtien's Li Conte del Graal and other ver­ sions concerning Peredur and Perceval, one cannot always see that the lady is responsible for getting the hero to her castle, nor that it is in the otherworld, nor that she is a powerful fairy mistress since she is an orphan in a weak and desperate situation, and in Peredur, has several foster-brothers who are urging her to offer her love in order to obtain Peredur as a champion. Neither is she luring a famous war­ rior or kuight away from his wife or fiancde, since the hero is still quite young, just starting on his adventures and without previous romantic attachments, at least in the case of Perceval. A reflection

Sjoestedt, Gods and Heroes, p. 50. 165 of the underwater episode may he found in Peredur's Castle of Wonders in the middle of the lake,, but the hero searches it out on purpose; the empress does not bring him there against his will seeking his love or his prowess to defend her during a siege.

I*1 Jaufre, then, we have a fairy mistress who closely re­ sembles Fann of the Irish Serglige Cuchulainn. In additi on, there is the lovely orphan, Brunissen, who corresponds to Delbchaem in the

Echtra Airt, although, ironically, she becomes an orphan in the Irish tale only after the hero has killed both her parents. In the Brunis­ sen theme of the Provencal parallel, the author has concentrated most of the motifs of the troubadours and amor cortois. It would seem that the two stories, the lovely-orphan-of-the-castle and the fairy-mistress- of-the-besieged-cestle-in-the-otherworld, which can be examined in­ dependently in Jaufre, have been combined or fused in Chretien's and later works, disguising or eliminating several motifs, to form the

Blancheflor episode. CONCLUSION

In this dissertation, a study of the twelfth-century Provencal

Arthurian romance, Jaufre, was made with the purpose of discovering its relationship to the Celtic lore of Irish and Welsh legends, and to later Arthurian romances, primarily the grail stories. Thus an exami­ nation of Jaufre using the technique developed by R. S. Loomis promised to yield further insights into that nebulous, elusive, but fascinating literature concerning King Arthur and the knights of the Bound Table.

It was to accomplish this end that a comparison was made of the Celtic motifs found in Jaufre with those found in Irish and Welsh manuscripts, folk lore, and archeology, as well as with those in other Arthurian matter, and an effort was made to identify occurrences of splitting and fusion of episodes and characters in the Loomis manner.

Pita Lejeune's re-assigning of the date of Jaufre to around ll8o, about forty-five years earlier than had been previously estimated, places the Provencal work in a new perspective in respect to other works of the period, particularly Chretien’s Li Conte del Graal, begun between

May, ll8l and September, 1190> which had been considered one of its sources. The fact that many of the motifs of Jaufre seem closer to the Irish and Welsh sources than do those in Chretien would seem to substantiate Lejeune's position and would justify the conclusion that

Jaufre could have served as a source for Chretien.

166 *

167

The first studies were made on the two adventures of Arthur himself which do not seem to have parallels in any language. Only the tenth-century Welsh Culhwcb and Olwen shows Arthur tailing a correspond­ ingly active port in events, which leads one to believe that the two episodes concerning the red beast and the giant bird must also be de­ rived from ancient tradition. A comparison of the individual motifs with those in Irish and Welsh manuscripts attests to their antiquity.

Next, the historical environment of the Provencal roman was * considered. Pita Lejeune has pointed out several reasons why a Catalan poet in the court of Aragon might name his knight Jaufre. The name,

Giflet, for one of Arthur's knights, was already in circulation by ll8o, as is shown by its inclusion in a list of Chretien's Ercc et

Enide, written about 1170. The duke of Brittany, another Geoffrey, was popular with the Bretons, the transmitters of the Celtic matter, to the extent that some of the troubadour poetry calls him the long- awaited Arthur, whose return to aid the Bretons had been promised in a legend which persists even today. ''Jaufre," from the German "Gaut- fridus," is also the root of "Giflet" and of "Guifre,11-the ninth- century founder of the Catalan dynasty and an ancestor of the patron of Jaufre1s author. Thus the choice of the name "jaufre" for his hero, at least before 1183 or ll8if, when Alphonse joined forces with Henry II against Brittany's rebellion, would have been logical and circumspect for n Catalan poet who wished to please and flatter his patron,

Alphonse II, the king of Aragon. 168

In general outline, Jaufre follows the story of Lug, the Irish

god whose deeds are recorded in the Cath Maige Tured "The Second Battle

of Moytura," the matter of which may date to the ninth century. The

careers of the grail heros parallel that of Lug in many respects, as

has been pointed out hy A. C. L. Brown, hut Jaufre is closer to Lug in

the sequence of events, in the absence of a grail procession, and in

the fact that the hero does save the wounded king and his lands. There

are several themes which occur in both Jaufre and the grail stories which are not found in the Cath Maige Tured. In some cases, including

the hero's love for the lovely orphan, these motifs seem to be derived

from a second Irish tale, Echtra Airt ocus Tochmarc Delbchalme, "The

Adventures of Art and the Wooing of Lelbchaem," the matter of which

dates at least to the twelfth century. In others, for example, the

revenge on Kay, they may be innovations of the Provencal author which were developed and elaborated by ChrGtien and/or his source.

In comparing various motifs, such as the red knight, the stay

with the hermit and the grail procession, in the Irish Cath Maige Tured * and Echtra Airt, the Provencal Jaufre, the French Li Conte del Graal,

the Welsh Peredur and the German Parzival, a pattern of increasing

complexity seems to emerge which further establishes the intermediate

position of Jaufre.

For example, the description of the red enemy grows until it

fills several lines in Parzival, the stay with the hermit becomes more

significant psychologically, and the grail procession develops from the

situation of the wounded king whose lands need to be released from *

169

"bondage to an elaborate ritual in Parzival. In Jaufre, we have the wounded son of the king who has been killed by the red knight, whose wounds are reopened each month during a forced climb up a mountain, which causes all his people to lament. The grail stories omit the

climb up the mountain, but Peredur contains a lament and Parzival has both a lament and the reopening of the wounds. Jaufre, then, seems to

fall between the Irish tales and the fall-fledged grail stories.

Several major segments of Jaufre, hew ever, do not have direct

parallels in the grail stories: the adventures of Arthur with the red beast and giant bird; the encounters of Jaufre with the guardian of

the hanging lance, the sirvens, the giant leper in the house of the

storm enchantment and the fairy mistress of the underwater otherworld, which is remarkably close to the Irish Gerglige Cuchulainn and which

has been combined with the lovely-orphan motif to form the Blancheflor

episode of the grail stories. The fact that Irish and Welsh motifs

abound in all these incidents would seem to indicate that Jaufre1s

author had first-hand access to an expansive array of Celtic lore, * presumably brought to the court of Alphonse II of Aragon by the widely

traveled Breton conteurs, who related the tales of their Celtic an­

cestors in the tongues of their tv/elfth-century listeners.

Thus the theory of Rita lejeune that the Catalan author of

Jaufre did not obtain his material from Chretien but from the Arthurian

matter available more directly to him in his own region, where it was

so popular from an early date, seems to be substantiated. With the

Celtic motifs, the poet combined twelfth-century modernizations: descriptions of towns, clothing and manners and themes from troubadour poetry. lie fitted the whole into a balanced framework between the two adventures of Arthur, using the refrain of the court scene following each adventure, and narrated it in a light-hearted manner to form a unique tale of the Hound Table, that of the Provencal hero, Jaufre. t

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