Page:Le Morte d'Arthur - Volume 1.djvu/27

Rh by sea to the realms of twilight and darkness; but the one in quest of the cauldron of the Head of Hades reminds me of that described in the Kulhwch as having for its object the cauldron of Diwrnach the Goidel: Arthur sets out with a small number of men on board his ship Prydwen, and after severe fighting brought away the cauldron full of the money of the country, which was, however, according to the Kulhwch, not Hades but Ireland. But with this difference the stories agree, not to mention that yr Ych Brych, or “the Speckled Ox,” of the poem figures also in the Kulhwch. To do justice to this part of the comparison, and to complete the outline which I have suggested, I should have here to append at length the story of Kulhwch; but as that is out of the question, I will only add that a translation of it into English will be found in the second volume of Lady Charlotte Guest’s Mabinogion. The Kulhwch is contained in the Jesus College manuscript, the Red Book of Hergest, which belongs to the latter half of the fourteenth century; but the present version carries with it some evidence that it was copied from a manuscript written in the Kymric hand usual in Wales before the Norman Conquest and its influences had introduced another hand. On the whole, one cannot go far wrong in supposing that it was composed in the tenth century; and as to its contents, it has been pronounced purely Kymric by Professor Zimmer,—that is to say, as contrasted with stories in which the influence of the romances cannot, as he thinks, be mistaken.

It is not to be supposed, however, that other manuscripts, whether belonging to the same period as that of the Kulhwch or to later dates, relate nothing concerning Arthur but the echo of incidents occurring in the French romances. Instances could readily be cited to the contrary: take for example the episode in which the Welsh Triads bring Arthur in contact with Drystan the gal-ofydd or “war-leader” of March and the lover of Essyllt, that is to say, Malory’s Tristram, kynge Mark, and Isoud respectively. Drystan is represented sending March’s swineherd on an errand to Essyllt, Drystan in the meantime taking upon himself the charge of the swine. The story then makes Arthur, assisted by March, Kei and Bedwyr, attempt to get possession of some of the swine by every means in their