Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/327

 Notes on Orendel and other Stories. 303

The locks fall off as he comes near, the lions and bears that keep the gate are harmless, the trees bow to him, the bride's father acknowledges him more readily than Yspaddaden Pencawr in the Welsh story when Kulhwch came woo- ing.

Kulhwch has a step-mother also, who lays him under a destiny to win Olwen. " I declare to thee that it is thy destiny [mi atynghaf dynghet itt) not to be united with a wife until thou obtain Olwen, daughter of Yspaddaden Pen- cawr." ^ This was intended to destroy Kulhwch ; for Olwen^s father, whose name is interpreted " Hawthorn Head- giant," was accustomed to kill all his daughter's suitors. He is like the father of Alfhild in Saxo's story referred to above, like the father of Medea, like the king with the red cap, like the white-bearded Scolog, and a vast number of other fabulous parents. Kulhwch went to King Arthur's court, and came to the giant's land with the help of King Arthur and all his men. There they met a shepherd, the giant's brother, who tried to dissuade them, but in vain ; and Kulhwch went on to encounter the dangerous father, and to perform with the help of King Arthur all the tasks prescribed.^

Hjdlmters Saga, the last of Grundtvig's references, has never, as far as I know, been closely examined in this connection. There is a valuable study of it in relation to the Icelandic rhyming romance on the same sub- ject {Hjdlmters Rimur) by Kolbing.-^ The Saga is one of the later Icelandic romantic Sagas ; professional hack- work again. Its date is uncertain ; it is extant in 17th century paper MSS. The Rimur are found in i6th cen- tury MSS., and are attributed to one Indridi, who lived at the end of the 14th century. Dr. Jon Thorkelsson is

' Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, vol. ii. p. 252. ^ Rhys, Hibbert Lecttcres, p. 486, sqq.

des Mittelalters (1876), p. 200.
 * Beitrdge ztir vergleichenden Geschichte der roniantischen Poesie und Prosa