Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/216

 204 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

tender and truthful passage of the French poet. By an inconsist- ency, the teacher who knights Peredur is made to give instruction only in cudgel-playing (the idea is borrowed from a line of Crestien, who makes Perceval say that he has been used to play single-stick with cowboys). Having thus acquired one third of his force, in a visit to a second uncle (his maimed relative), Peredur learns the use of the sword, and acquires a second third of his strength ; it seems to me obvious that the narration of the trouvere is mangled, with the intent of assimilating the plot to that of folk-tales familiar to uninstructed readers.

In contrast to the petrification of the story is the introduction of romantic traits belonging to the fourteenth rather than the twelfth century. Thus Peredur, instead of tearing away the ring obtained from the maiden of the tent, is made to kneel and humbly represent, " My mother told me, wheresoever I saw a fair jewel to take it." Where, in this scene is the roughness of the savage youth armed with a wooden fork, with which he is absurdly depicted as killing an armed knight ? The effort on the one hand to be decent, on the other to appear primitive, has worked havoc with the psychology of the tale.

The conclusion is, that in the Welsh story we have an example of the manner in which a later and foreign author may alter a refined composition into a set of extravagant and meaningless adventures.

As for the Grail, the recaster may be excused for the omission of a feature concerning which he doubtless had no more distinct idea than had the Norse translator of the Perceval.

SIR PERCEVELLE.

In English verse of the fourteenth century, the story of Perceval received a treatment which differs from that last noticed, inasmuch as the recast was no literary production, deliberately created by a self-conscious artist writing pen in hand, but the work of some unlettered minstrel, who produced his tale for recitation, and who may probably have obtained his material from the oral relation of imperfectly instructed informants.

I. A knight named Percevelle obtains the hand of Arthur's sister, Acheflour ; in a tournament held at the christening of his son, also named Pcrcvelle, he is slain by the Red Knight. The widow, desir- ous to keep her son from knowledge of warfare, retires to the desert with one maiden and a troop of goats. She carries also a throwing- spear for the use of the boy, who becomes expert in its use. His mother having bidden him to worship God, he employs his time in seeking his unknown benefactor.

II. The story proceeds according to the plot of Crestien. Per-

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