A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages.

  • Bernard Quaritch Ltd
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of medieval literature, especially of the romances of chivalry, and books relating to the customs, costume, art, and pageantry of the middle ages. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/100 (page 45)
    Kai, Bedivere, are among the heroes of the court, but Lancelot, Perceval, Tristan are as yet unnamed and unknown. Thus we see that a new stream of fiction, probably out of Cambrian sources only, mingled with the Arthurian story after Wace’s time. That is, after 1160. Then Lancelot appears, assumes a portion of Mordred’s character with respect to the Queen, and she herself is called Guinevere, which, as it is nearer to the Cymric form, implies a sort of fresh start in closer connexion with Welsh folk-lore. But in Lancelot there is no hint of Tristan and Yseult, which consequently marks a third element in the growth of the Arthurian romances. When the tales had become the common property of the trouv^res and the arrangers, many heroes of strange names were added to the dramatis personse—such as Palamedes the Saracen, and others of classical sound. As for Galaad, he had already been borrowed from the Old Testament, and the Biblical sense of “testimony” extended into “Witness of the Truth.” The Hebraic names in the History of the Grail had a similar derivation, and are equally suggestive of a cleric’s hand in the compilation of the Lancelot.—It is much more likely that the early Arthurian poems and romances (which, notwithstanding their manifold variations of incident and narrative due to the individuality of their interpreters, yet show that there was an original unity of some kind in their main plot)—were derived from the Latin note-book of a French-speaking Welshman or Breton, than from the independent dealing of several widely-separated trouv^res with the scattered folk-lore of a people speaking a strange language. The name of Arthur remains a puzzle stiU. It was not C5rmric, although adopted in the nomenclature of Wales, as a result of its legendary fame. The earliest authentic use of the word as a man’s name is found in Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba (written about a.d. 695). It is there recorded that Artarius, son of Aedan, King of Dalriada, was one of the slain in a battle which he calls bellum Miathorum. The research of modern scholars has identified this with the battle of Cattraeth, fought in 695-6, which is celebrated in old Cymric literature in Aneurin’s poem Y Gododin. Aedan was an Irish Scot or Gaedhil, and was crowned by St. Columba in 674 as the first independent King of Dalriada. (—This was when the old Empire of the Bomanised Britanni, already shrunk into a territory comprising only South- West Scotland and Western England, was finally broken up into three kingdoms, —Dalriada, Strathclyde, and Cambria.—) Three of Aedan’s sons: Arturius, Echodius, Domingartus, led the royal army, consisting of Scoti and Strathclyde Britons (called Mseatffi, i.e., Lowlanders) against the Piets of Lothian and the Angles of Bernicia, in the region of the old Ottadeni (Gododin) somewhere between Stirling and Edinburgh, close to the shore of the Forth. The three chiefs were slain in the fight; —according to Tigernach’s Annals, there were four sons of Aedan who fell there, named Bran, Domangart, Eochaidh Find, and Artur.—In the poem ascribed to Aneurin, among the slaughtered chiefs of the British forces were Euein, Erthai, Graid son of Hoewgi (alias Braint son of Bloeddgi), Peredur, Gwawrddur, Aeddan. We may conjecture that Euein or Owain was Eochaidh, that Graid was Bran, and that Arturius is to be identified with Gwawrddur, Peredur, or Erthai. However that may be, Aedan, his sons, and his chiefs bore Gaelic names, although there is an apparent tendency to Picticism in some of those just mentioned. Such for instance are Art-ur, Gwawrdd-ur, and Pered-ur. When they passed into Welsh tradition, they were explained in accordance with Cymric speech and considered to be words of domestic origin. As for Art-ur, we have a certain assurance that it was still a comparative novelty in Wales when Nennius tried to explain its meaning by two alternatives. No one ever thinks of explaining old and familiar names; and the inveterate meaning attached to them admits of no alternative in the popular mind. To Nennius, it was questionable whether the name was a compound of Artli vawr or Gordd dur (ursus terribilis or malleus ferreus), but the word is presumably Gaelo- Pictish from Art and ur or Gaelic for Ard-Tor. The other name Gwawrddur, was evidently the form which suggested to Nennius his “iron hammer,” but is no doubt compounded of the syllables Gort or Gard (as in Domangart) and the ending ur. Peredur most probably corresponds to the name Fearadach which was borne by a grandson of Aedan, and may be rendered as Champion, or Stout Warrior. In Cymric literature, the false analysis of the name as Per-e-dur (Pyrydur)=Steel-erest, has evidently led to the description of the hero as Peredur of steel armour. Geoffrey of Monmouth calls him Peredur mah Eridur, Wace Peredur fil Elidur, and the modern Welsh call him son of Evrawc. 240 PERCEVAL L.E GALLOYS. Tresplaisante et Recreatiue Hystoire du Trespreulx et vaillant Oheuallier Perceual le galleys Jadis cheuallier de la Table ronde. Leql. acbeua les adnetures du saict Graal . . sm. folio, lettWS g£it]^tqU£0, double columns, the title and the fourth leaf in facsimile; fine cojpy in red morocco extra, lined inside toith red morocco, dentelle borders, by Simier, from the Yemeniz library Paris, 1530 30 0 0 Very rare; this being the only old edition of the work. Didot’s copy fetched 2800 francs, and was like this without the four leaves of the “Elucidation du Graal.” 241 tbe same, sm. folio, quite perfect, with the four extra leaves “ Blucidatio de Lhystoire du Graal”; very fine and tall copy in crimson morocco super-extra, double with olive morocco, gilt border inside, gilt 3