Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/323

 Notes on Orendel and other Stories. 299

Golden Fleece, or the Golden Bird, or the Glaive of Light, as the case may be. For example : Jason, Mac Iain Direach [Walewein). Huon of Bordeaux (the romantic second part of the story,) might be studied in this connec- tion.

2. The adventure from the very first is a voyage in search of the unknown Queen, as in Orendel (the first part), and in Diirmart le Gallois, in Konig Rather, Kulhwch and Olwen, Svipdag and Menglad. Stories of this type might be classified according to the way in which the adventure begins. In one variety the mere renown of the peerless lady is enough. In some stories the beginning is in the snoiv- white, blood-red incident — Conall Gulban, &c. In many, the beginning is a malignant commission from a stepmother or some other enemy — Kulhwch and Olwen, Svipdag and Menglad, Hjdhnters Saga} Here of course, there is a cross division, for the malignant injunction belongs to Jason and to other stories of that class, to Huon (whose relation to folklore has not yet been fully discussed), and to Mac Iain Direach — not, it may be remarked, to Walewein.

Apart from both these main varieties, it might be possible to reckon another, where the motive is deliverance of the lady from her oppressors, rather than the winning of the lady by her adventurous wooer : Hr. Tomiej^ and other northern ballads, Guinglain^ Rapunzel; ^ but it is plain that in these cases it depends on the choice of the story- teller where the interest shall lie, and that this is rather a

' These three are all compared by Grundtvig, Danske Folkeviser, No. 70, in connection with the ballad of Sveidal or Svendal, the ballad version of the story of Svipdag.

- Grundtvig, Danske Folkeviser, No. 34.

' Gtiinglain, or (in the English version) Lybeaus Descomis : see the account by M. Gaston Paris, in Hist. litt. de la France, xxx.

' Grimm, Mdrchen, No. 12. The story of Rapunzel has received its poeti- cal interpretation from Mr. William Morris ; its resemblance to the story of Syritha in Saxo (vii, p. 225) seems to deserve consideration from mytholo- gists.