Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/206

 1 90 The Romance of Mdlusme.

forbears of Melusine and of places connected with them have any interest for the student of folklore. For the scene of this part of the story is manifestly laid in the British Isles, and in the Celtic and pre-Celtic part of them. If the royal names can be shown to correspond, not to actual kings (that would be to exact too much), but to names in the more or less fabulous lists of Celtic royalties, presumptive evidence would be found of a Celtic origin of the tale in the British Isles. This is all the more likely since Jehan d' Arras was brought into contact with English influences. The second Earl of Salisbury (born 1328) is described by M. Baudot as his protector and correspondent. The earl's possessions included not merely New Sarum, from which he took his title, but also domains in the county of Northumberland and the south of Scotland. His father, the first earl, had been governor of Edinburgh during the second earl's childhood, and the latter had sojourned with his mother in Scotland. He seems, further, by his second marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Jean de Mohun of Dunster, to have come into possession of properties in Somerset. Here, if he had any taste for literature and tradition, (and it seems that he had), was ample opportunity to become acquainted with Celtic story ; and we gather that he lent certain manuscripts to Jehan d'Arras, though what they were we have no present means of knowing. In this loan, at all events, is the possibility that the author of Melusine had some Celtic legends to work over. Since there is nothing in Scottish history corresponding with the names and incidents outlined above, M. Baudot turns to Irish legend. He identifies Elinas'with Laoghaire, the son of Neill of the Nine Hostages, and Mathathas with Oilill Molt MacNathy, the son of Laoghaire's predecessor. The setting aside of Elinas he assigns to the Irish custom of electing a successor in the lifetime of the king, the result of which frequently was that the days of the reigning king were shortened. The romancer, indeed, expressly says that