to the Otherworld.[1] The two halves would thus be complementary parts of one and the same myth. The first tells how a mortal is invited to fairyland, journeys thither successfully and weds a fairy queen, but disobeys her injunctions, loses her, becomes insane and has to be cured by a magic remedy. The second tells of a wondrous journey, in which the hero, aided by a helpful beast, fights his way through terrible dangers back into the Otherworld and so returns to live with his supernatural wife.
While accepting in the main Prof Brown's conclusions, I would urge—and he would hardly deny it[2]—that the larger part of our romance is paralleled by The Slothful Gillie even more nearly than by The Sick-bed of Cuchulain. This will be readily seen from the following table of contents:
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The Slothful Gillie.
Yvain + The Lady of the Fountain.
- ↑ The tale exists in two versions, a longer (s. xi.) and a shorter (s. viii.). The text of the longer version was published by K. Meyer in the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 1901 iii. 229 ff., and an English translation by the same scholar in The Archœological Review 1888 i. 68 ff., 150 ff., 231 ff., 298 ff.: cp. E. Hull The Cuchullin Saga London 1898 p. 55 ff., Lady Gregory Cuchulain of Muirthemne p. 21 ff. Text and English translation of the shorter version by K. Meyer in the Revue celtique xi. 434 ff.: French translation in D'Arbois L'épopée celtique p. 39 ff.
- ↑ In Iwain p. 103 ff. Prof. Brown himself lays stress on the resemblance of Yvain to In Gilla Decair. See supra p. 35 n. 1.