Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/76

 48 The European Sky-God.

guide Fionn and his company to the home of the Loch- lanners.^ The association of a marvellous horse with the Gilla Backer ^ points, I believe, in the same direction : a reminiscence of this horse perhaps accounts for Chretien's black club-bearing monster, whose head is expressly said to have been larger than that of a horse.^ But if the Celtic folk-tale thus enables us to throw light on some obscure features of the Anglo-Norman romance, the converse process is no less useful. In The Slothful Gillie Dermat, according to all analogy, ought to have married the divine partner of the Knight of the Fountain : the existing, comparatively late, form of the story contains no such incident — at most we learn that Dermat recaptures Taise for Finn, whose name and fame have obviously ousted those of his follower. Prof. Brown "* remarks ' In the original form of the story ... we must infer that Taise the fee fell in love with Diarmaid,' and suggests in a foot-note * that a fairy mistress story about Finn has been worked into the Gilla Decair, and sub- stituted for the original adventures of Diarmaid.' ^ Yvain and The Lady of the Fountain have preserved the more primitive situation, in which Iwain (Owain), helped by Lunete (Luned), marries Laudine (the Countess of the

ij. F. Campbell Popular Tales of the West Highlattds Edinburgh 1860- 1862 iii. 364 ff., cp. ib. iv. 326 f. where a woodcut of a similar giant or achan is given.

''■Supra pp. 27, 30 f.

^ Chretien Vvain 295 f. ■* A. C. L. Brown Iwain p. 113.

^^ It is to be observed that in The Datighter of King Under-waves (J. F. Campbell Popular Tales of the West Highlands iii. 403 ff., Lady Gregory Gods and Fighting Men p. 319 ff.) Diarmaid, after admitting the //£ to his couch, goes to live with her in a magic castle that she has raised above Beinn Eudainn, loses her by neglecting to follow out her injunctions, pursues her to Rioghachd Fo Thuin or ' Realm Qnder-waves,' recovers her of a sickness by giving her three draughts from the cup of King Wonder-plain, but in the end takes a violent dislike to her and returns home without her. Cp. szipra p. 26, and see further G. H. Maynadier The Wife of Bath's Tale London 1901 p. 21 ff.