Jessie Weston - The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that if the Welsh stories were as late in date and as dependent upon French tradition as some scholars maintain, Lancelot would certainly be mentioned in them.

Cf. Erec , Foerster's ed., l. 1694; Hartmann's Erec , l. 1630.

Cligés , Foerster's ed., ll. 4765-4798.

The advocates of Chrétien as an independent and original genius would do well carefully to consider the meaning of such curious inconsistency. If Chrétien were dealing with matter either of his own invention, or of his own free adaptation, he would surely have been more careful of the unities. If, on the other hand, he simply retold tales belonging to different stages of Arthurian tradition, this is exactly what we might expect to find.

In the opening lines of Cligés , Chrétien gives a list of his works. This includes a version of the story of Tristan , and several translations from Ovid. Tristan probably preceded Erec , but there is nothing to indicate the relative order of the other works.

Signor Rajna has found the names of Arthur and Gawain in Italian deeds of the first quarter of the twelfth century, and from the nature of some of these deeds it is clear that the persons named therein cannot have been born later than 1080.

Charrette , ll. 2347-2362.

Romania , vol. x. p. 492.

Studies in the Arthurian Legend , chap. vi.

The only adventure of the kind I can recall is that of the fiery lance of the Charrette and prose Lancelot , an adventure which is the common property of several knights, and by no means confined to Lancelot.

Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Litteratur , vol. xii. Heft I.

Der Karrenritter , herausgegeben von Wendelin Foerster: Halle, 1899.

Cf. Anturs of Arthur , where the ghost foretells to Gawain the treason of Mordred, the destruction of the Round Table, and his own death. Lancelot is not mentioned. Nor does he appear in Syr Gawayne and the Grene Knyghte or in The Avowynge of Arthur . In some of the other poems, Galogres and Gawayne , The Carle of Carlile , The Marriage of Sir Gawain , and Sir Libeaus Desconus he is mentioned, but plays no important part. The ballad of Sir Lancelot du Lake in the Percy Collection is a version of an adventure related in the Prose Lancelot .

Cf. Karrenritter , Introduction, p. xxxix.

The materials for this study had been collected, and my conclusion as to the origin of the Lancelot story arrived at, before the publication of Professor Foerster's book. I am glad to find myself supported in any point by such an authority, but think it well to avoid misconception by stating that my results have been arrived at through independent study.

Lanzelet von Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, ed. Hahn: Frankfurt, 1845. Out of print and difficult to procure.

This account, and the mention of England, l. 7054, seem to render it possible that the original poem may have been written in this island.

This is entirely in accordance with Tristan's character as represented in the poems. He is in the highest degree rusé and resourceful.

Is it not possible that this Malduz the magician may be the original of Mauduiz li Sages whom Chrétien ranks as eighth of Arthur's knights? Cf. Erec , 1699. Hartmann's version gives Malduiz; Diu Krône , 1379, Malduz der Weise. The identification seems clear.

I am quite at a loss to account for the mistake into which such authorities as M. Gaston Paris and Professor Foerster have apparently fallen. In M. Paris's study the idea that Lanzelet is the rescuer is perhaps rather implied than stated, but when I wrote the Charrette chapter (viii.) in my Studies on the Legend of Sir Gawain , in which I followed the article in Romania , I was certainly under the impression that the latter was the case. In the introduction to the Karrenritter , p. xliv., Professor Foerster distinctly says that Lanzelet frees the queen. I have read and re-read the text carefully and made my final summary direct from it, and there is no doubt that Lanzelet has nothing to do with the matter. The passage in question is contained in ll. 6975-7445. How too did Professor Foerster come to ignore the real character of Guinevere's imprisonment? Cf. Charrette , lxxi.

Karrenritter , Introduction, p. xliv.

I think it is worthy of note that though Lanzelet is the hero of the tale here and not Guinglain, Gawain's son, as elsewhere, yet in this poem Lanzelet is Arthur's nephew, and of Gawain's kin, which he is not in any other version. The Fier Baiser is thus still restricted to the family of Gawain.

Cf. my Legends of the Wagner Drama , Siegfried .

I say especially 'as told by Geoffrey and Wace,' for these writers give us clearly to understand that the queen was a consenting party, and no victim to Mordred's treachery. It is quite a different version from that of the prose Lancelot .

I shall have occasion to refer very frequently to Professor Foerster's introduction. It is a full and powerful statement of views which so far as they affect the origin and evolution of the Arthurian legend I believe to be radically unsound. It is most useful to have at hand a summary so clear and concise.

Merlin , G. Paris and Ulrich's ed., vol. ii. pp. 136-137.

In the prose Lancelot the hero is always addressed as 'king's son.' Cf. in this connection Professor Ker's review of my Legend of Sir Gawain , Folk-lore, vol. ix. p. 266. I incline to think that the question of a hero's possessing from the first a name and a well-marked story depends upon whether he has or has not an existence in myth . If of mythical origin he probably would have both, if an actor in folk-tale very likely neither; thus while I should reject Professor Ker's correction as regards Gawain , I would certainly hold it true of Lancelot . In the case of this latter hero, I think his name may well have been determined by his title du Lac. The tendency of early verse is towards alliteration, probably mere chance determined the Lancelot , the one essential was that it should begin with an L . It should, I think, also be noted that while in the Lanzelet the hero's ignorance of his name and birth are genuine, in the prose Lancelot he knows who he is, and the wrong done to his father and uncle by Claudas. The pseudonyms ' Filz du Roi ,' ' Beau Varlet ' are here unnecessary; a meaningless survival from the original tale.

This feature is, I think, peculiar to Wolfram; Chrétien does not mention it.

Professor Hertz, in his edition of the Parzival , p. 440, records these points of contact, but does not discuss the question of the relation of the two poems. Professor Foerster in his introduction simply notes that the instruction by Johfrit de Liez recalls the Perceval story.