Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/322

 298 Notes oil Or en del and other Stories.

it is worth while to consider the other alternative — the possible survival of a definite plot in Orendel. The Argyll- shire tale is the nearest in this case (it is remarkable that it has also, like Orendel^ been found to recall the Odyssey in some of its incidents) : the King's Son of Ireland is helped on his way by three mysterious helpers, one of them an old man of the sea, who goes back to his whale-fishing when the quest is over.

In Curtin's story of The White-bearded Scolog^ the King tells his son to find a bride for himself, and a druid names the incomparable lady, to whom the King's son is directed by three giants who are won over to his side.

It is not too much to suppose that the gray coat, the horse and shield, which Orendel receives from his rather unpromising helpers, may have belonged to an original scheme, and that it was a fairy coat of darkness which gave the professional minstrel a chance of working in the legen- dary interest of the Holy Coat of Treves.

The stories edited by Mr. MacDougall and Mr. Curtin are recent ; if it is necessary to find more ancient evidence it may perhaps be found in the story of The Wooing of Erner'^ where Cuchulainn is helped on his way by the gift of the wheel that carries him over the freezing plain, and the apple that rolls before him through the field of spikes.

It is time to put things together, though it may not be easy. It is possible, however, to make some sort of classifica- tion of stories that more or less resemble Orendel. Takinor as the common element the winning of a princess, ivho is unknown to the adventurer at the outset, we may distinguish the following types of story as among the commonest : —

I. The quest begins as a quest for something else, not for the fairy princess. The princess appears at the end of a series of difficulties, and is carried off along with the

' Hero Tales of Ireland {\?>C)ii,), p. 163.

'■^ Kuno Meyer, in ArcluEoloffical Rev., vol. i., p. 298 ; Revue Celtique, vol, xi., p. 447.