Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/294

268 in M. Gaston Paris's often-quoted essay surely point out as essential for the study of this subject. This is a poem of a different sort from Chrétien's; an admirable poem of an old school (as the author seems to acknowledge in his preface), with hardly any trace of the "newe jet," the sentimental art of the more ambitious romantic authors. It is nearer to the Celtic manner, by all that it has renounced of the more modern interests of Chretien and his followers.

The Mule sans Frein is so little decorated that the story is left in the end a mystery unexplained. Who the damsel was, why the bridle had to be fetched from the other world, what were the virtues of the bridle, these things are not made clear. Yet the action of the story is plain enough. As the summary of Sir Frederick Madden, on which Miss Weston relies, is very short and not accurate, there may be some excuse for attempting to give the story here. It has not yet been fully considered, with reference to the genealogy of Gawain and his Highland cousins.

Paien de Maisières, the author, begins by saying that the old ways are best. The poem is dated about 1200, provisionally, but apparently the poet had a taste for an older style than was commonly in fashion about that time, and preferred to keep closely to the original fairy tale in its natural shape.

A damsel, riding on a mule without a bridle, came to Arthur's court and asked for the help of a knight to recover her bridle for her. Kay set out on the mule till he came to a forest high and great, full of beasts, lions, tigers, and leopards, and these came and knelt to him, for the knowledge they had of the lady and for the honour of the mule. Then he passed out of the forest and came to a valley full of fiery serpents and scorpions, and an evil stink and cold wind; thereafter to a pleasant plain and a clear fountain, and then to the River of Dread and the narrow bridge. And there he turned and went home again; the beasts of the forest were no longer friendly, but for the sake of the mule they let him go by.

Then Gawain took up the adventure, and passed through the same places and rode across the narrow bridge. On the other side he found a narrow path leading to a castle; there was broad water round the castle, and knights' heads on spikes all about,