Page:Studies on the legend of the Holy Grail.djvu/178

152 CHAPTER VI.

of the most popular of the poetic narratives in the old heroic quatrain measure still surviving in the Highlands is the "Lay of the Great Fool" (Laoidh an Amadain Mhoir), concerning which, according to Campbell, vol. iii., p. 150, the following saying is current:—"Each poem to the poem of the Red; each lay to the Lay of the Great Fool; each history to the history of Connal" (is to be referred as a standard). This Lay, as will be shown presently, offers some remarkable similarities with the central Grail episode of the quest romances, but before it is investigated a prose opening often found with it must be noticed. This prose opening may be summarised thus from Campbell, vol. iii., pp. 146, et seq.

There were once two brothers, the one King over Erin, the other a mere knight. The latter had sons, the former none. Strife broke out between the two brothers, and the knight and his sons were slain. Word was sent to the wife, then pregnant, that if she bore a son it must be put to death. It was a lad she had, and she sent him into the wilderness in charge of a kitchen wench who had a love son. The two boys grew up together, the knight's son strong and wilful. One day they saw three deer coming towards them; the knight's son asked what creatures were these—creatures on which were meat and clothing 'twas answered—it were the better he would catch them, and he did so, and his