The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Part 60

[277] _Chevalier de la Charrette_ (ed. by Tarbe), p. 22; _Romania_, xii.

467, 515; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[278] _Romania_, xii. 467-8, 473-4; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 55.

[279] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 93-4.

[280] _Romania_, xii. 508; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[281] Book XIX, c. i.

[282] In the _Lebar Brecc_ there is a tract describing eight Eucharistic Colours and their mystical or hidden meaning; and green is so described that we recognize in its Celtic-Christian symbolism the same essential significance as in the writings of both pagan and non-Celtic Christian mystics, thus:--'This is what the Green denotes, when he (the priest) looks at it: that his heart and his mind be filled with great faintness and exceeding sorrow: for what is understood by it is his burial at the end of life under mould of earth; for green is the original colour of every earth, and therefore the colour of the robe of Offering is likened unto green' (Stokes, _Tripart.i.te Life_, Intro., p. 189). During the ceremonies of initiation into the Ancient Mysteries, it is supposed that the neophyte left the physical body in a trance state, and in full consciousness, which he retained afterwards, entered the subjective world and beheld all its wonders and inhabitants; and that coming out of that world he was clothed in a robe of sacred green to symbolize his own spiritual resurrection and re-birth into real life--for he had penetrated the Mystery of Death and was now an initiate. Even yet there seems to be an echo of the ancient Egyptian Mysteries in the Festival of Al-Khidr celebrated in the middle of the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt.

Al-Khidr is a holy personage who, according to the belief of the people, was the Vizier of Dhu'l-Karnen, a contemporary of Abraham, and who, never having died, is still living and will continue to live until the Day of Judgement. And he is always represented 'clad in green garments, whence probably the name' he bears. Green is thus a.s.sociated with a hero or G.o.d who is immortal and unchanging, like the Tuatha De Danann and fairy races (see Sir Norman Lockyer's _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_, London, 1909, p. 29). In modern Masonry, which preserves many of the ancient mystic rites, and to some extent those of initiation as anciently performed, green is the symbol of life, immutable nature, of truth, and victory. In the evergreen the Master Mason finds the emblem of hope and immortality. And the masonic authority who gives this information suggests that in all the Ancient Mysteries this symbolism was carried out--green symbolizing the birth of the world and the moral creation or resurrection of the initiate (_General History, Cyclopedia, and Dictionary of Freemasonry_, by Robert Macoy, 33{o}, New York, 1869).

[283] _Myv. Arch._, i. 175. The text itself in this work is said to be copied from the _Green Book_--now unknown. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._ p.

56 n.

[284] In this text, the Gwenhwyvar who is in the power of Melwas is referred to as Arthur's second wife Gwenhwyvar, for according to the Welsh Triads (i. 59; ii. 16; iii. 109) there are three wives of Arthur all named Gwenhwyvar. As Sir John Rhys observes, no poet has ever availed himself of all three, for the evident reason that they would have spoilt his plot (_Arth. Leg._, p. 35).

[285] D. ab Gwilym's Poetry (London, 1789), poem cxi, line 44. Cf.

Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 66.

[286] Malory, Book I, c. xxv. One account of Arthur's sword _Caledvwlch_ or _Caleburn_ describes it as having been made in the Isle of Avalon (Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_, ii. 322 n.; also _Myv. Arch._, ii. 306).

[287] Malory, Book IX, c. xv; Sir John Rhys takes the Lady of the Lake who sends Arthur the sword and the one who aids him afterwards (though, apparently by error, two characters in Malory) as different aspects of the one lake-lady _Morgen_ (_Arth. Leg._, p. 348).

[288] Merlin explained to Arthur that King Loth's wife was Arthur's own sister (Sommer's _Malory_, i. 64-5); and King Loth is one of the rulers of the Otherworld.

[289] Book XXI, c. vi.

[290] This poem, according to Gaston Paris, was translated during the late twelfth century from a French original now lost (_Romania_, x.

471). Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 127.

[291] Malory, Book XII, cc. iii-x; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 145, 164.

Galahad, however, does not belong to the more ancient Arthurian romances at all, so far as scholars can determine; and, therefore, too much emphasis ought not to be placed on this episode in connexion with the character of Arthur.

[292] We should like to direct the reader's attention to the interesting similarity shown between this old story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ and the fairy legend which we found living in South Wales, and now recorded by us on page 161, under the t.i.tle of _Einion and Olwen_. As we have there suggested, the legend seems to be the remnant of a very ancient bardic tale preserved in the oral traditions of the people; and the prevalence of such bardic traditions in a part of Wales where some of the _Mabinogion_ stories either took shape, or from where they drew folk-lore material, would make it probable that there may even be some close relations.h.i.+p between the Olwen of the story and the Olwen of our folk-tale. If it could be shown that there is, we should be able at once to regard both Olwens as 'Fair-Folk' or of the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the quest of Kulhwch as really a journey to the Otherworld to gain a fairy wife.

[293] We may even have in the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ a symbolical or mystical account of ancient Brythonic rites of initiation, which have also directly to do with the spiritual world and its invisible inhabitants.

[294] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), p. 252 n.

[295] Cf. J. Loth, _Le Mabinogi de Kulhwch et Olwen_ (Saint-Brieuc, 1888), Intro., p. 7.

[296] Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_ (London, 1849), ii. 323 n.

[297] Cf. R. H. Fletcher, _Arthurian Material in the Chronicles_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, x. 20-1.

[298] Fletcher, ib., x. 29; 26.

[299] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 7; and Rhys, _The Welsh People_{3} (London, 1902), p. 105.

[300] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., x. 43-115; from ed. by San-Marte (A.

Schulz), _Gottfried's von Monmouth Hist. Reg. Brit._ (Halle, 1854), Eng.

trans. by A. Thompson, _The British History_, &c. (1718).

[301] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 117-44.

[302] Sir Frederic Madden, _Layamon's Brut_ (London, 1847), ii. 384.

Here the Germanic elves are by Layamon made the same in character and nature as Brythonic elves or fairies.

[303] Madden, _Layamon's Brut_, ii. 144.

[304] J. Bedier's ed., _Societe des anciens textes francais_ (Paris, 1902).

[305] E. Muret's ed., _Societe des anciens textes francais_ (Paris, 1903).

[306] A. C. L. Brown, _The Knight and the Lion_; also, by same author, _Iwain_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, vii. 146, &c.

[307] _Celtic Mag._, xii. 555; _Romania_ (1888); cf. Brown, ib.

[308] J. Loth, _Les Romans arthuriens_, in _Rev. Celt._, xiii. 497.

[309] _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_, pp.

86-112.

[310] Cf. W. H. Schofield, _The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the Story of Wayland_, in Pub. Mod. Lang. a.s.s. of America, xv. 176.

[311] Cf. Schofield, _The Lay of Guingamor_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, v. 221-2.

[312] For editions, and fuller details of the fairy elements, see De La Warr B. Easter, _A Study of the Magic Elements in the_ ROMANS D'AVENTURE _and the_ ROMANS BRETONS (Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, 1906). See also Lucy A. Paton, _Studies in the Fairy Mythology of the Arthurian Romance_, Radcliffe College Monograph XIII (New York, 1903).

[313] Perc., vi. 235; cf. Easter's Dissertation, p. 42 n.

[314] _Joufrois_, 3179 ff.; ed. Hofmann und Muncker (Halle, 1880); cf.

Easter's Diss., pp. 40-2 n.

[315] _Brun_, 562 ff., 3237, 3251, 3396, 3599 ff.; ed. Paul Meyer (Paris, 1875); cf. ib., pp. 42 n., 44 n.

[316] E. Anwyl, _The Four Branches of the Mabinogi_, in _Zeit. fur Celt.

Phil._ (London, Paris, 1897), i. 278.

[317] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 19, 21.

[318] _Black Book of Caermarthen_, xvii, stanza 7, ll. 5-8. This book dates from 1154 to 1189 as a ma.n.u.script; cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 372.

[319] Stanzas 19-20. This book took shape as a ma.n.u.script from the fourteenth to fifteenth century, according to Skene. Cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 464.

[320] See _A Fugitive Poem of Myrddin in his Grave. Red Book of Hergest_, ii. Skene, ib., i. 478-81, stanza 27.