Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/214

 202 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

is in search of the gold-producing stone to be found in the tail of a serpent, respecting which he has received information from a malevlolent personage called the Black Oppressor, he has occasion to destroy an Addanc, or water-monster, in which he is aided by a mysterious lady who appears to him on a mound, and bestows another stone, which has the property of conferring invisibility, on condition of love service. Thus assisted, he kills the serpent and gets the auriferous stone, which, however, together with the hand of a lady deserved by feats of arms, he bestows on a follower. He wanders to a place where is in progress a tournament, of which the prize is the hand of the Empress of Constantinople, a beauty of whom he forthwith becomes enamored, and who turns out to be the very person to whom he had sworn allegiance ; during fourteen years he lives with the empress, who imitates the example of her prede- cessor in a sudden and permanent retirement from the scene.

III. We now have a continuation of the tale as in Crestien, — the denunciation before Arthur by the ugly maiden, who reproaches Peredur for his neglect to put the question which would have restored his uncle, the lame king; the announcement of various adventures to be performed by Arthur's knights, and the accusation of murder brought against Gwalchmei ; the journey of the latter ; the attack of the commons on the visitor ; his defence with a chessboard- shield ; his succor by the daughter of his feudal enemy, and release on the promise to return in a year : the writer assures us that his source was silent concerning the conclusion of this adventure. On Good Friday he comes to a hermit, who rebukes him for wearing arms on that day, and with whom he spends Easter (the hermit directs him to a palace where he may obtain information as to the Castle of Wonders (i. e. that of the Lame King, in which was kept the bleeding lance).

E. A brief episode describes how Peredur becomes a prisoner, and is assisted by the daughter of his jailer to appear incognito in a tournament, where he obtains distinction.

IV. The adventures of Peredur now follow the lines of Crestien's second continuator : we read of the castle of the self-playing chess- men, belonging to a lady called an empress ; the quest of the head of a stag ; the loan of a hound for this purpose ; the theft of this dog, and the encounter with the knight of a tomb, who disappears ; the adventure is uncompleted, and the lady of the chessboard, like her predecessors, drops out of the action.

F. The tale is cut short by a brief conclusion. Peredur a second time reaches the Castle of Wonders, where he finds Gwalchmei, and takes his seat beside his maimed relative (nothing is said of the question). It turns out that the bleeding lance was the weapon

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