"these were hidden in the crypts for the cruelty and pride and rage of the beasts that you have killed. But now they say, in their language, that God has delivered them by your hand, and illumined them with all good things. The people that were in darkness have joy of this sight; greater gladness can never be." Then Gawain too was glad, and turned and left the place, and as he rode back the beasts of the forest made obeisance to him.
As he rode into the meadows under the King's castle the Queen saw him, and knights and damsels went out to welcome him home. The damsel of the bridle thanked him and kissed him; and though the King and the Queen besought her and she would gladly have stayed, yet it was beyond her power to stay, nor would she have any escort, but called for the mule to be brought, and took her leave and rode away alone.
This story has been discussed by M. Gaston Paris in connection with Chrétien's Lancelot (la Charrette) and with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.[1] For the present, it is enough to point out some of the coincidences with Gaelic histories. Besides the Fled Bricrend analogies, which are now generally familiar in connection with the Green Knight's challenge, there is the whirling castle, which seems to be specially admired in the Gaelic countries. Compare, again, Fled Bricrend and Mr. Rhys's note on it in his Arthurian Legend; Maelduin, cxxxi., "The Whirling Rampart"; Curtin, Hero Tales (1894), pp. 87, 250, 397, 504.
The relation of Kay and Gawain is the same as in some other romances. Kay, as the clumsy adventurer who does things in the wrong way, is hardly to be taken as an invention of the Arthurian romances; he is a stock type of popular comedy, a counterpart of Conan in the Fenian tradition. Which leads to the question why Cuchulinn should have the preference given to him rather than Diarmaid, who has at least as many of the "differences," the proper qualities, of Gawain. Diarmaid the courteous stands out against Conan the churl. Diarmaid, like Gawain, marries the Loathly Lady, who proves to be the beautiful daughter of the King Undersea (Nighean Righ fo Thuinn, W. H. Tales, vol. iii. p. 103). The adventures of Diarmaid in the other world are noted by Mr. Rhys (Hibbert Lectures, p. 187), and may be compared with Gawain's.
- ↑ Romania, xii.; Hist. Litt. xxx.
