Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/84

 influence. Mr. Grufifydd endeavours to prove that Pryderi's birth-story is identical with the Irish story of Mongán, and he is inclined to regard the Mabinogi as of Gaelic origin. If what he tries to prove were true, then his theory would be very well founded, but I am afraid it is not true.

Mongán's story is as follows: Manannán agrees to fight for the King Fiachna on the condition that he shall be allowed to sleep in his (Fiachna's) shape with the King's wife. This done, he actually does fight for him. Manannán's son is Mongán, and Manannán carries him off when he is three days old. There are here similar motives:

But these motives are either not quite identical or they are differently arranged, and, moreover, it is of great importance that we have in Irish much closer parallels to single motives in the Mabinogi than those which Mr. Gruffydd uses. To get an archetype identical with the Irish story of Mongán, Mr. Gruffydd postulates that in the original story Pwyll was a supernatural being and Arawn a human one; he thinks that only an "Immortal" can help the "Mortal," and he finds support for this suggestion in the account of the combat at the ford (R.B. 713, W.B. fo, 172 c), where Pwyll is alluded to as "the man who was in Arawn's place" (y gwr a oed yn lle Arawn). Mr. Gruffydd argues that this passage speaks about Pwyll as a mysterious stranger. But these words do not convey any other idea than that it was not Arawn himself. Now, there are really instances which prove that a man can give help to an "Immortal":