Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/279

Rh by the prevailing romances of chivalry," (p. xv). This opinion is worth recording in view of the doctrine, advocated by Professor Forster, which holds the Welsh tales to be simple abridged versions of the French poems, for the order of the latter is the reverse of that stated by Dr. Evans, and it would be strange indeed, if the German scholar were right, that the Welsh translation of a French poem finished about 1200 at the earliest should be "older in language" than that of the poems belonging to the period 1160-70. Whilst agreeing on the whole, in so far as I am competent to express an opinion, with Dr. Evans, I think his statement is too general; it neglects the fact, upon which I have repeatedly insisted, that none of the three Welsh tales is homogeneous; each is the result of a process of amalgamation, and it is quite possible that there may be not inconsiderable differences of date between the component parts. Thus the opening of The Lady of the Fountain is certainly older and more "Welsh in feeling and atmosphere" than the subsequent adventures; similarly, there are passages in Geraint which belong to the school of the Kulhwch story-teller. Again, in Peredur there are considerable sections which have no analogue in the French poem; portions of these strike me as older than anything in the Conte del Graal; portions again as younger. A deal of minute analysis is necessary before philological criticism has contributed all it can to the determination of the date and provenance of these three tales.

As stated above, I agree on the whole with Dr. Evans' chronological classification, because the points of difference between Peredur and the Conte del Graal imply, to my mind, more distinctly the priority of the Welsh tale than is the case as regards the other two Welsh tales and their French analogues. Whilst admitting certain signs of relative lateness in Peredur, I must still insist, as I did a quarter of a century ago, upon the fact that it presents in orderly and intelligent sequence a series of folk-tale incidents which can just be detected, but in a fragmentary, obscure, and distorted form, in the Conte del Graal. This thesis of the substantial antiquity of Peredur is supported by Dr. Evans with arguments, not only of a linguistic and stylistic nature, but implicating the subject-matter of the tale.