The French variant which seems to have most affinity with the tale referred to is that of the Didot Perceval, printed by M. Hucher in vol. i. of his Saint Graal, p. 453.
55
Introduction, Charrette, p. cxxvii.
56
Cf. 'Nouvelles Etudes sur la provenance du cycle Arthurien,' Romania, vols. xxvii. and xxviii.
57
Cf. Artus Kampf mit dem Katzenungetum, E. Freymond, Halle: 1899.
58
Romania, vol. xxix. p. 121 et seq.
59
The evidence of the lais, and the fact that Marie de France was Chrétien's contemporary, forbids us to postulate an entirely oral transmission.
60
Of this the 'runs' of Celtic and Gaelic story-tellers form a good example. Cf. Hyde's Beside the Fire, p. xxv.
61
Mr. E. S. Hartland, to whom I submitted the question.
62
Cf. M. Ferd. Lot 'La patrie des lais Bretons,' Romania, vol. xxviii.
63
Chap. iii.
64
'Morgue la Fée et Morgan Tud,' Romania, vol. xxviii. p. 327.
65
Professor Foerster's references to this character (Charrette, lxxiii.) are perplexing. He prints Chrétien's description of the 'Ile' side by side with a parallel passage from Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hiberniæ, informing us that both are 'ganz einfach eine naturgetreue Beschreibung von Irland.' He cannot mean us to understand that the one description is borrowed from the other; the work of Giraldus is at least thirty years later than the Erec (circa 1186), and that chronicler would hardly go to a romancer like Chrétien for the description of a country he knew personally. But is it a 'Naturgetreue' description of Ireland at all? Professor Foerster is compelled himself to admit naïvely, 'Gewitter und Stürme fehlen nicht ganz!' Is this not rather a description of the fabled Irish Paradise which Chrétien and Giraldus alike have borrowed from a source common to both?
66
Of course I here use the word Breton in a general sense as opposed to French. I do not intend to imply that Arthur is of Continental origin.
67
Ueber die Bedeutung von Bretagne, Breton, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache, xx. 79-162.
