Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/555

 Rh in distinguishing the elements of which that body was composed; further, he pointed out the part which specifically Celtic tradition had played in this evolutionary process.

The earlier studies contributed to this Review,—the examination of J. G. von Hahn's "Aryan Expulsion and Return Formula," and the study on the "Mabinogi of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr" —and the later essay on The Influence of Celtic upon Mediæval Romance, (which inaugurated the series of Popular Studies on Romance and Folklore), dealt with this question in its main aspect, and brought to light many hitherto unsuspected parallels between Welsh and Irish tradition and the literary Arthurian cycle.

The Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail carried the attack further, to the very heart of the citadel in which Christian mediæval tradition and imagery had been for so long securely intrenched. The first English "Travail d' ensemble" on the subject, it at once freed English scholarship from the reproach of having too long neglected a study which might have been expected to make a special claim upon the attention of English scholars, and drew attention to the pressing character of the folklore problem. The opposition which the work met with in certain quarters may be best realized by a perusal of Mr. Nutt's Apologia contra Zimmer, which, appearing originally in the Revue Celtique was subsequently published in pamphlet form. From that time forward Alfred Nutt's name was, on the Continent, definitely associated with the plea for the insular, Celtic, and popular provenance of the Arthurian cycle, and he was regarded as the most prominent advocate of the views championed, more moderately, by the late M. Gaston Paris.

At that time the theory associated with the names of Professors Foerster and Golther practically held the field. These scholars staked, (and stake), all on the genius and originality of Chrétien de Troyes; with him the romantic Arthurian tradition had taken a definite literary form, before Chrétien all was chaos, after him all was imitation, and the indignation with which the ' evolutionary ' theory, militating as it did against the inventive genius of their idol, was received, was unbounded.

But 'Wisdom is justified of her children'; doubtless many readers of Folk-Lore have perused with interest Mr. Lawson's