can be widely paralleled from other cycles? If so, the “données nationales” may safely be set down as the least portion, not only of the Celtic but of every other epic cycle.
The determination of earlier Celtic elements in the Arthurian romances has unfortunately been complicated by questions respecting the relations between some of the Mabinogion and the poems of Crestien de Troies. As is well known, the Welsh tales (found complete in the Red Book of Hergest and fragmentarily in much older MSS.) to which the title Mabinogion is commonly though incorrectly applied, fall into four classes. One, comprising the Lady of the Fountain, Peredur, and Geraint, is obviously connected with the Chevalier au Lion, the Conte du Graal, and the Erec of the French poet.[1] The connection is manifestly closest in the case of Geraint. Herr K. Othmer’s exhaustive, elaborate, and careful demonstration that the Welsh tale is directly taken from the French poem, of which indeed it is in many parts a simple translation, has thus somewhat the nature of a breaking in of open doors. But Herr Othmer, a pupil of Professor Förster’s, draws far wider conclusions from the fact he has proved than he is at all entitled to. Because the 13th century Welshman adapted Crestien’s poem, it by no means follows that the latter may not be based upon earlier Celtic lays. The merit of the 12th century French poets lay largely in the unity they gave to independent and often discordant episodic ballads or tales, and it is easily conceivable that the superior literary qualities of their works should win acceptance for them even in the original home of the Arthur cycle. Moreover, on Herr Othmer’s own showing, the Welsh tale has retained traits of early Celtic
- ↑ The other three classes are (1) what may be called the non-French Arthurian Mabinogion, Kilhwch, and the Dream of Rhonabwy; (2) The Mabinogion proper, Pwyll, Branwen, Manawyddan, Math; (3) Maxen Wledig and Lludd, which apparently represent the stratum of Welsh legend which Geoffrey worked up in the Hist. Brit.
