Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/269

 Correspondence. 233

strengthen the tie between father and son. But Dr. Pokorny forgets that Conchobar, who ex hypothesi is also a cuckoo, is represented as prostrated by the fioinden Ulad equally with all his warriors save Cuchulinn.

12. The name which in the Arthurian romance appears as Gawain is in Welsh Gwalchmai {i.e., according to Sir John Rhys, Hawk of May). But popular beUef, the trace of which may be found in Aristotle and Pliny, treats the cuckoo as an immature hawk. Gawain is nephew of the cuckoo hero Arthur, possibly even his son.

I make Dr. Pokorny a present of the demonstration, fully worked out by Miss Weston ^ following up hints of mine, that Gawain is a Brythonic counterpart of Cuchulinn. ^

I omit minor ' proofs ' upon which the author himself lays less stress, as also philological arguments which I am incompetent to appreciate, but which, even if correct, cannot warrant his inferences from them. Although I have summarised the theory semi- humoristically, I do not think I have done it injustice. I may say at once that I do not believe a word of it. In the first place, as I have indicated, the Celtic variants of the Expulsion and Return theme cannot be treated apart from the other Aryan forms. Now, if the theory were true, the Cuchulinn form would be the nearest to the original one : no other Aryan hero has retained so many

^ The Legend of Sj}- Gawairi.

^It is well known that the German Walsh (whence our Welsh) is derived from the Celtic tribal name Volcse. The Germans of about 400 b.c. came across the Volcse in what is now central Germany, and regarded them as ' the stranger ' par excellence. (The mediaeval Eastern use of Fraiik to designate all Westerners is analogous.) Now, in the discussion which followed Dr. Pokorny's paper, Prof. Much made a statement of considerable import for the history of the Arthur cycle, if correct. He asserts the Welsh Gwalch (Hawk) to be a loan from Germany, and maintains that the form Gwalchmai can only have come into existence after the Celts had come into contact with the Anglo-Saxons. The historical process involved is, to say the least, complicated. The primitive German comes in contact with the Volcre, and styles the hawk (why ?) ' the Volcan bird ' or ' the Volcan ' (Anglo-Saxon

Wealh-nafor, Old Norse Fair). Several centuries later the Celt discards his own term for hawk (why?) in favour of the German one, and applies it to a famous hero of his own, little doubting that its real meaning is ' the Volcan {i.e.

Wehhva.'i.TC) of May.' I would like Sir John Rhys' opinion on all this.