Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/290

 262 Reviews.

by a love-potion accidentally drunk, and in the story of Diarmaid and Grainne by Diarmaid's " love-spot " which Grainne has acci- dentally looked upon ; in both, the affection they bear to each other is at war with the loyalty and affection the man feels for the king he is outraging. Minor points of similarity to Irish romance are the incidents of the twigs sent down the stream as a token, the rudderless boat, the harp and rote, the separating sword, the splashing water, the arts of which Tristan is a master, and the horse's ears of King Mark. These, though not peculiar to Celtic romance, are common features of it.

Miss Schoepperle had a strong case in thus emphasizing the Celtic elements of the tale ; for, like many other writers who deal with Celtic tradition, M. Bedier was dependent chiefly upon the scanty stores of Welsh literature for his examples, and was un- fortunately almost ignorant of the large masses of Irish literature bearing upon his subject. Miss Schoepperle's contention that the tale is founded on an early Celtic story overlaid by additions derived from later French courtly traditions is likely to be accepted as the true explanation of the theme. In addition to the Celtic examples she has given of the practice of putting to death by fire a woman who had been unfaithful, we would remind her of the incident in the Battle of Cnucha in which Murni Fairhair is con- demned by her father to death by burning in punishment for her flight with Cumal, and of the passage in LL. 206a 2 in which it is said that "at the begmning it was the custom to burn any woman who committed lust in violation of her compact." The Welsh laws on the subject are given by Prof. Loth in his article in Revue Ceitique, vol. xxx., pp. 278-9.

Eleanor Hull.

Le Roman Idyllique au Moyen Age. By Mvrrka Lot- BoRODiNE. Paris: Auguste Picard, 1914. 8vo, pp. 271,

In this charming little volume Mme. Lot-Borodine analyses, and discusses, a group of French mediaeval romances of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, connected with each other