Part 14 (1/2)

Thus, in ”How the Great Tuairsgeul was put to Death” (Scot Celt Rev I, p 70) the ician ”lays it as crosses and charms that water leave not your shoe until you found out how the Great Tuairsgeul was put to death”

The hero retorts by laying the saician leave not the hillock until he return In Campbell, No XLVII, Mac Iain Direach, the stepmother, ”sets it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the year upon thee; that thou be not without a pool of water in thy shoe, and that thou be wet, cold, and soiled until, etc;” and the hero bespells her, ”that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house and the other foot on the castle: and that thy face be to the tempest whatever wind blows, until I return back” The forach is very archaic ”I lay thee under spells, and under crosses, under holy herds woman, the little calf, most feeble and powerless, to take thy head and thine ear and thy wearing of life froht or day; where thou takest thy breakfast that thou take not thy dinner, and where thou takest thy dinner that thou take not thy supper, in whatsoever place thou be, until thou findest out in what place I lobe”

These instances will suffice to show the nature of the _gess_ in Celtic folk-lore, but some references to older Irish literature are necessary to show its great iious life of the race

O'Donovan (Book of Rights, p xlv) explains the word _geasa_ as ”any thing or act forbidden because of the ill luck that would result fro;” also ”a spell, a charm, a prohibition, an interdiction or hindrance” This explanation occurs in the introduction to a poeatives (_buada_) of the Kings of Eire, found in the Book of Ballymote (late fourteenth century) and Book of Lecan (early fifteenth century) The poem is ascribed to Cuan O'Lochain (AD

1024), and, from the historical allusions contained in it, O'Donovan looks upon it as in substance due to that poet, and as eeasa_of Eire, ”that the sun should rise upon hi of Leinster, ”to go round Tuath Laighean left hand-wise on Wednesday;” for the King of Munster, ”to remain, to enjoy the feast of Loch Lein froo in a speckled garrey speckled steed to the heath of Luchaid;”

for the King of Ulster, ”to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of birds of Luin Saileach after sunset”[135] Even these instances do not exhaust the force or adequately connote the nature of this curious institution In the Irish hero-tales _geasa_ attach themselves to the hero from his birth up, and are the means by which fate compasses the downfall of the otherwise invincible chaess_ of Diarmaid that he never hunt a swine, and when he is artfully trapped into doing it by Fionn he ess_ of Cuchulainn's that he never refuse food offered hiht he accepts the poisoned h he full well knows it will be fatal to hieasa_ ic charm laid upon him, and it is sometimes difficult to see by which of the two motives the hero is easa_ upon Diarh he is in the last degree unwilling he h has been said to show that we have in the _geasa_ a cause quite sufficient to explain the mysterious prohibition to ask questions laid upon Perceval, if the first explanation I have offered of this prohibition be thought inadequate

CHAPTER IX

Su up of the elements of the older portion of the cycle--Parallelism with Celtic tradition--The Christian element in the cycle: the two forms of the Early History; Brons forend--The Joseph conversion legend: Joseph in apocryphal literature--Glasobry--The head in the platter and the Veronica portrait--The Bran legend the starting point of the Christian transforend--Substitution of Joseph for Bran--Objections to this hypothesis--Hypothetical sketch of the growth of the legend

I have now finished the examination of all those incidents in the Grail Quest romances which are obviously derived froend, and which are, indeed, referred by pronounced adherents of the Christian-origin hypothesis to Celtic tradition I have also claiin for features hitherto referred to Christian legend This examination will, I trust, convince many that nearly all the incidents connected with the Quest of the Grail are Celtic in their origin, and that thus alone can we account for the way in which they appear in the roree inconsistent in their account of the mystic vessel and its fortunes; the end to be composed of two parts, which have no real connection with each other; the older of these parts, the Quest, can easily be freed from the traces of Christian syeneous or consistent tale, but a coin and character These incidents are: the rearing of the hero in ignorance of the world and of , his uncle; his slaying of his father's murderer, the trial made of him by ; his quest in search of the sword and of the vessel byof his kinsman; his accomplishment of this task by the aid of a kinsman who is under spells from which he will not be loosed until the quest be ended; the adventure of the stag-hunt, in which the bespelled kinse; the hero's visit to the Castle of Talismans; the prohibition under which he labours; his failure to accomplish certain acts; the effects of his failure; his visit to the Magic Castle, the lord of which is under the enchantment of death-in-life; his visit to the Castle of Maidens; his visit to the Castle Perillous; and his deliverance of the captive daoes To one and all of these incidents Celtic parallels have been adduced; these have in each case been drawn froeneral similarity of outline with the Grail ro conceptions, whilst at the same time they are so far disconnected with the can account for the features they have in common The inconsistencies of the roinally distinct groups of stories, and this explanation is confirmed by the fact that traces of this fusion may readily be found in the parallel Celtic tales These latter, when studied by scholars who never thought of co them with the Grail romances, have been found to contain mythical elements which other scholars had detected independently in the romances Those features of the ro and the oroup of Celtic traditions, and in accordance with the same scheme of ht upon the remainder of the cycle Finally, the one Celtic version of the Grail Quest, the Mabinogi, which presents no admixture of Christian symbolisuishable interpolations, to be genuine in character, and to present the oldest form of one of the stories which enters into the romances

I have tried not to force these parallels, nor to go one step beyond what the facts warrant I have also tried to bear in ht upon the puzzling features in the development of the romances I thus rest my case, not so much upon the accumulative effect of the similarities which I have pointed out between the romances and Celtic tradition, as upon the fact that this reference of the roend makes us understand, what othere cannot do, how they came by their present shape It now remains to be seen if this reference, can in any way explain the Christian eleend, which I have hitherto left almost entirely out of account Birch-Hirschfeld's hypothesis is condemned, in my opinion, by its failure to account for the Celtic eleh I do not think an explanation of a late and intruding feature is as incuend is upon hi to say on such a vital point can hardly be considered satisfactory It is the Christian transforave thees, which endowed the theme with such fascination for the preachers and philosophers who used it as a vehicle for their teaching, and which has endeared it to all lovers of mystic symbolism The question how and why the Celtic tales which I have tried, not unsuccessfully I trust, to disentangle froht into contact with Christ and His disciples, and how the old e became at last the sacramental cup, must, therefore, be faced The hypotheses set forth in the preceding page ht be accepted in their entirety, and the merit of this transformation still be claimed, as Birch-Hirschfeld claims it, for the North French poets, to e the present versions of the roht this claiument, and, as will be seen by reference to Chapter IV, other investigators, who accept the Christian origin of the larger part of the legend, hold that it has been shaped in these islands, or in accordance with Celtic traditions now lost I think we can go a step farther A number of myths and tales have been used to illustrate the roh whom probably took place the first contact between Celtic end

We must revert for one moment to the results obtained in Chapter III by an examination of the way in which the Grail and its fortunes are uished two forend, the Early History In both Joseph is the first possessor and user of the holy vessel, but in one its farther fortunes are likewise bound up with him or with his seed He, or his son, it is who leads the Grail host to Britain, who converts the island, and by whoh a chosen line of kings in anticipation of the pro In the other for to do with Britain, which is converted by Brons and his son, Alain; Brons is the guardian of the holy vessel, and, in one version, the fisher of the mystic fish, whilst in another his son takes this part There is repeated insistence upon the connection between the Grail host and Avalon Finally Brons is the possessor of ”secret words,” and randson

This account is, , later in form than the Joseph one As we have it, it ritten after the greater portion of the Conte du Graal, after that redaction of the Early History made use of by the author of the Queste and of the first draft of the Grand St Graal Its influence only es of developend But none the less it clearly represents an older and purer form of the Early History than that of the Queste and of Chrestien's continuators It has not been doctored into harend as the Joseph Early History has It is still chiefly, if not wholly, a legend, the main purport of which is to recount the conversion of Britain

Such a legend is surely more likely to have been shaped by Welsh or Breton monks than by North French _trouveres_ And e notice the Celtic naes, and their connection with the Celtic paradise, Avalon, there can re the first home of the story We may thus look upon Brons, owner of a mystic vessel, fisher of a end But the naested to most students of the cycle that of Bran The latter is, asin the last Chapter, the representative of an old Celtic God of the otherworld He is the owner of the cauldron of renovation He is also the hero in Welsh tradition of a conversion legend, and is commonly known as Bran the Blessed Unfortunately the only explanation we have of this epithet occurs in a late triad, to which it is not safe to assign an earlier date than the fourteenth century He is described therein as son of Llyr Llediath, ”as one of the three blissful Rulers of the Island of Britain, who first brought the faith of Christ to the nation of the Cye for his son Caradawc”[138] But if late in forives the significant descent of Bran from Llyr, and thereby equates him with Mannanan Mac Lir, hom he presents otherwise so end, as is pointed out to enealogies nor in Geoffrey But it should be noted that the Grand St

Graal does bring oneLuces, the Lucius to whoain, the epithet ”blessed” is applied to Bran in the Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of Llyr I have placed this tale as a whole as far back as the eleventh-tenth centuries, and uments have met with no opposition, and have won the approval of such authorities as Professor Windisch and Monsieur Gaidoz But the Mabinogi, as we have it, ritten down in the fourteenth century; the last transcriber abridged it, and at ti By his tiend of the triad was in existence, and it may be contended that the epithet was due to hiure in his model On the other hand, Stephens (Lit of the Cymry, p 425) quotes a triad of Kynddelw, a poet of the twelfth century, referring to the three blessed families of the Isle of Britain, one of which is declared by a later tradition to be that of Bran[139] Again, the triads of Arthur and his Warriors, printed by Mr Skene, Four Ancient Books, Vol II, p 457, fro of the fourteenth century, and probably at least fifty years older, mentions the ”blessed head of Bran”[140] On the whole, in spite of the silence of older sources, I look upon the epithet and the legend which it presupposes as old, and I see in a confusion between Bran, Lord of the Cauldron, and Bran the Blessed, the first step of the transfore_ into the Quest of the Holy Grail In the first capacity Bran corresponds to the Lord of the Castle of Talisend, it may, indeed, be conjectured that he stood to Peredur in soes to Fionn As hero of a conversion legend he came into contact with Joseph We do not kno or at what date the legend of the conversion of Britain by Joseph originated It is found enjoying wide popularity in the latter half of the twelfth century, the very ti their present shape Wulcker (Das Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendlandischen Literatur, Paderborn, 1872) shows that the legend is not met with before William of Malmesbury; and Zarncke, as already stated (_supra_, p 107), has argued that the passage in William is a late interpolation due to the popularity of the romances[141] But to accept Zarncke's contention merely shi+fts back the difficulty If Williaive currency to the tradition, the unknown predecessor of Robert de Borron and of the authors of the Queste and Grand St Graal did so; and the question still remains how did he come by the tradition, and what led him to associate it with Glasobry Birch-Hirschfeld, it is true, makes short work of this difficulty The fact that there is no earlier legend in which Joseph figures as the Apostle of Britain is to him proof that Borron evolved the conception of the Grail out of the canonical and apocryphal writings in which Joseph appears, and then devised the passage to Britain in order to incorporate the Arthurian roend he had invented It is needless to repeat that this theory, unacceptable on _a priori_ grounds, is still more so when tested by facts

But Joseph under other aspects than that of Apostle of Britain is worthy of notice The e of hieliuated by Wulcker The earliest allusion in western literature to this apocryphal gospel is that of Gregory of Tours (Wulcker, p 23), but no other trace of its influence is to be met with in France until we come to the Grail ro of hell In Provence, Italy, and Germany the thirteenth and twelfth centuries are the earliest to which this gospel can be traced In England, on the contrary, it was known as far back as the latter quarter of the eighth century; Cynewulf based upon it a poe of hell, and alludes to it in the Crist; the ninth century poee of it, and there is a West-Saxon translation dating froe and popularity of the gospel in England several centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other European people? Wulcker can only point by way of answer to the early spread of Christianity in these Islands, and to the possibility of this gospel having reached England before it did France or Gerlo-Saxon literature

Whether the fact that the apocryphal writings which told of Joseph were known here when they were unknown on the Continent be held to warrant or no the existence of a specifically British Joseph legend, they at all events prove that he was a faure on British soil It would be rash to go any farther, and to argue from the inadequacy of the reasons by which Wulcker seeks to account for the early knowledge of the Evangeliuland, that Joseph enjoyed particular favour a the British Christians, and that it was fro their Saxon conquerors

The legendary popularity of Joseph in these islands, though not in any special capacity of Apostle of Britain, is thus attested Let us adend did first take shape in the twelfth century, is it not s about him idely spread, than in France, where they were practically unknown? And why if Borron, or any other French poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had io out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more natural one for him And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a ridiculous pun (_supra_, p 78)[142]

These difficulties are epoint of the Christian transforend In any case we end, whether associated with Joseph or anyone else, would alravitated towards Glasobry, but there are special reasons why this should be the case with a Bran legend Avalon is certainly the Welsh equivalent of the Irish Tir na n-Og, the land of youth, the land beyond the waves, the Celtic paradise When or how this Cymric myth was localised at Glasobry we know not[143] We only know that Glasobry was one of the first places in the island to be devoted to Christian worshi+p Is it too rash a conjecture that the Christian church may have taken the place of some Celtic temple or holy spot specially dedicated to the cult of the dead, and of that Lord of the Shades froned their descent? The position of Glasobry, not far from that western sea beyond which lie the happy isles of the dead, would favour such an hypothesis

Although direct proof is wanting, I believe that the localisation is old and genuine: Bran, ruler of the otherworld, of Avalon, would thus come into natural contact with Glasobry; and if, as I assuend the association would extend to hiend would then be almost a matter of course Bran, the ruler in Avalon, would pass on his ear (cauldron, spear, and sword, as in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan) to Bran the Blessed, ould in his turn transfer theend, he would not fail to recall that last scene of the Lord's life hich he was so closely associated, not by any pseudo-gospel but by the canonical writings theear of the old Celtic Gods became transformed into such objects as were most prominent in the story of the Passion and of the scene that immediately preceded it The spear became that one ith Christ's side was pierced As for the vessel, the sacrae of its Christian developinal object was merely to explain the sustenance of Joseph in prison, and to provide a miraculous refreshment for the Grail host, as is shown by the Early History portion of the Conte du Graal and by the Queste In a dim and confused way the circue of the pagan resuscitation-cauldron into a syinal legend--some insistence upon the _contents_ of the vessel, soested the use to which the vessel was first put

This hypothesis assuend, of which the only evidence of anything like the sale epithet; it assuinally an old Celtic divinity; it assuend, for which there is really no other evidence than that of the roends, and that Joseph took over in a large measure the _role_ and characteristics of Brons And when it is recollected that the primary assue end, that this fish is nowhere in Celtic tradition associated with Bran, that it is associated on the other hand with a being, Fionn, e have compared with Peredur, but that it is absent froa, the hypothesis must be admitted to be of a tentative nature

I fully appreciate the force of the objections that can be urged against it; at the sa features in the legend When in the sauished whose _role_ is e is subordinated in one version and has disappeared altogether froinally independent accounts have become blended, and that one has absorbed the other The hypothesis is on safe ground so far It thus explains the presence of Brons in the legend, as well as his absence fro to say in explanation of the connection with Glasobry; it explains in ay the Celtic traditions were started on their path of transfor the very course it did There is nothing to be urged against it on _a priori_ grounds; once admit the premisses, and the rest follows easily and naturally Its conjectural character (the ree by the other hypotheses, which have essayed to account for the growth and origin of the legend, and _they_ have the disadvantage of being inherently iations and hypotheses we iven in Chapter III The Peredur-saga probably came into existence in es A number of older e The circuiven them not only cohesion, but may also have coloured and distorted them; nevertheless they remained, in the main, mythical tales of the same kind as those found all over the world One of these tales was undoubtedly a Cymric variant of the Celtic form of the Expulsion and Return formula; another dealt with the hero's journey to the Land of Shades; traces of i

Another Celtic worthy, Gwalchmai, was early associated with Peredur, and the two stood in some such relation to each other as the twin brethren of a widely spread folk-tale group Curiously enough, whilst coa orked up into the version which served as immediate model to the North French romances, that version contained many adventures of Gwalchmai's which have not been preserved in Welsh We can trace three a-i contained the feud quest, and, probably, soi; the second, based more on the lines of the Expulsion and Return formula, is represented by the Thornton MS romance; in the third the feud quest was mixed up with the hero's visit to the Bespelled Castle, and those portions of the Gwalcha which told of his visit to Castle Perillous as well as to the Bespelled Castle Whilst the Proto-Mabinogi was probably in prose, the Proto-Conte du Graal was probably in verse, a collection of short _lais_ like those of Marie de France Meanwhile, one of the chief personages of the older a, Bran, the Lord of the Land of Shades, of the Bespelled Castle, of the cauldron of healing, increase and wisdo salan attributes thus suffering a Christian change, which was perfected when Joseph took the place of Brons, bringing with hiends that had clustered round his naa was Christianised, whilst the other portion lost its old, fixed popular character, owing to the fusion of originally distinct ele both of the outlines and of the details of the story Incidents and features which in the earlier folk-tale stage were sharply defined and intelligible beca upon it the peculiarly weird and fantastic impress of Celtic mythic tradition, the story, or story-mass rather, lay ready to the hand of courtly poet or of clerical ht and end supplied the Christian end was soon vigorously developed by the author of the hich underlies the Queste and the Grand St Graal He may either not have known or have deliberately discarded Brons, the old Celtic hero of the conversion, as he certainly deliberately thrust down from his place of pre-e for him a new hero, Galahad, and for the adventures of the Conte du Graal, based as they were upon no guiding conceptions, fresh adventures intended to glorify physical chastity With all his mystic fervour he failed to see the full capacities of the the in especial either over-material or over-spiritual But his work exercised a profound influence, as is seen in the case of Chrestien's continuators Robert de Borron, on the other hand, if to hined, if he was not siinal thinker, if a less gifted writer Although he was not able to entirely har accounts of which heclose to the old lines of the legend whilst giving a consistent sy to all its details His work came too late, however, to exercise the influence it should have done upon the developend; the writers who kneere ether of adventures, and the very man who composed a sequel to it abandoned Robert's end of the Holy Grail is, thus, the history of the gradual transfored with Christian symbolism and mysticism This transformation, at first the inevitable outcome of its pre-Christian development, was hastened later by the perception that it was a fitting vehicle for certain moral and spiritual ideas These have been touched upon incidentally in the course of these studies, but they and their manifestation in modern as well as in mediaeval literature deserve fuller notice

CHAPTER X

Popularity of the Arthurian Romance--Reasons for that Popularity--Affinities of the Mediaeval Romances with early Celtic Literature; Ihthood; the _role_ of Woman; the Celtic Fairy and the Mediaeval Lady; the Supernatural--M