Now let me try to make peace with our Welsh cousins, for they have dealt hard blows at British
literature. If they were provoked thereto by MacPherson, he did them good, for the work of Owen Jones, which is a standard work still, was not begun till long after MacPherson had set the world upon the study of Celtic literature, and Chatterton to invent African odes and Rowly's poetry.
As an example to be followed, let me point to the work of Hersart de la Villemarqué. 1
The first thing which must strike the reader, is the contrast between the language of this distinguished foreigner in speaking of Welsh antiquities, and the spirit of most writers on the Ossianic controversy.
One aims at discovering truth, the others at proving their own case. Villemarqué is a Celt, but he upholds Celtic antiquities; he is no Welshman, but he upholds Welsh literature, instead of running it down; he can refer to hundreds of ancient Welsh manuscripts, but he does not therefore insist that all Welsh manuscript poems of great age are far more ancient than the manuscripts in which they are found; he can quote French versions of old romances, but he does not therefore claim them for France. Finding a poem attributed to Taliesen, written in a vellum manuscript of great antiquity, he does not therefore assume it to be Taliesen's composition; but working steadily onwards, he compares manuscript with manuscript, till he finally sifts out a residuum which seems to bear the stamp of age and originality, he assumes that this may have been the work of the ancient bard; he does not, like MacPherson, assert it; and he gives the original, and quotes his authorities; he alters the orthography, but he states the fact; and he translates the result of this process into
the plainest of French, without aiming at anything but an honest rendering of what he believes to be genuine old poetry. He collected the traditional songs of the Bretons, and their prose tales; but he does not claim for Bretons all the traditions which he found in their country. In short, he is a man of sense, learning, and liberality; and the fame which be has acquired is well earned. He does not even stand up for the Celtic dialect of his native country, to the injury of all others; but in his difficulties he has recourse of all surviving Celtic dialects alike; and he seeks, and finds aid in translating old Welsh, in Irish, Gaelic, Cornish, and Breton, and thereby he arrives at a valuable result, instead of maintaining a contemptible squabble; and he can point to Owen Jones of Myvyr, a Welsh peasant, who devoted his life to the publication of Welsh poems from ancient manuscripts. He was the MacPherson of Wales, in that he drew attention to the literature of his country; but warned, perhaps, by the errors of his predecessors in the field of Celtic literature, his work was the very opposite of MacPherson's, for it was all Welsh, instead of all English, and all founded upon ancient documents which still exist. The work was published in 1801 and 1807--that is, at the same time as the Gaelic of Os|23:15:42.241|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::NavigateComplete2 : Call function |23:15:42.253|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDocumentComplete : Call function |23:15:42.253|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDocumentComplete : URL=C:\Users\Public\Documents |23:15:42.279|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : Call function |23:15:42.279|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : ObjCounter=0 |23:15:43.231|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=0, ProgressMax=10000 |23:15:43.231|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=10000, ProgressMax=10000 |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::BeforeNavigate2 : Call function |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::BeforeNavigate2 : URL=C:\Users\Public\Music |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::OnBeginLoadNewDocument : Call function |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::CancelProcessing : Call function |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::RiseEvent : Begin |23:16:26.872|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::RiseEvent() : End |23:16:26.873|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadBegin : Call function |23:16:26.977|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=10000, ProgressMax=10000 |23:16:26.995|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : Call function |23:16:26.995|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : ObjCounter=0 |23:16:26.996|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadBegin : Call function |23:16:26.997|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::NavigateComplete2 : Call function |23:16:27.010|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDocumentComplete : Call function |23:16:27.010|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDocumentComplete : URL=C:\Users\Public\Music |23:16:27.099|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : Call function |23:16:27.099|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : ObjCounter=0 |23:16:27.986|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=0, ProgressMax=10000 |23:16:27.986|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=10000, ProgressMax=10000 |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::BeforeNavigate2 : Call function |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::BeforeNavigate2 : URL=C:\Users\Public\Pictures |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::OnBeginLoadNewDocument : Call function |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::CancelProcessing : Call function |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::RiseEvent : Begin |23:16:32.630|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CEngine::RiseEvent() : End |23:16:32.631|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadBegin : Call function |23:16:32.670|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::ProgressChange : Call function, Progress=10000, ProgressMax=10000 |23:16:32.687|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : Call function |23:16:32.687|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadComplete : ObjCounter=0 |23:16:32.689|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::OnDownloadBegin : Call function |23:16:32.689|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBrowserToolbar::NavigateComplete2 : Call function |23:16:32.703|Explorer|0x00001D8C|3 | |RC_BTLB |CRCIEBr with the Celtic race, which are embodied in Gaelic tales, written and unwritten, Scotch and Irish, and which seem to be common to most of the Aryan languages, of which the Celtic is one of the oldest. The poor despised popular tales, which are branded as wicked lies in the West Highlands, and
which such men as Grimm and De la Villemarqué believe to be some of the oldest known products of the human mind. Let me shew, so far as I can, wherein Scotch and Welsh popular tales agree, and wherein they differ.
The Mabinogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest, is a collection of ancient Welsh popular tales, taken from a MS. supposed to have been written about the close of the fifteenth century. These contain the frame-work of many of the romances of chivalry which pervaded all Europe at a far earlier date.
For instance, "The Chevalier au Lion," is the same story in the main as "The Lady of the Fountain"; and the romance is attributed to "Crestien de Troyes" at the close of the twelfth century.
These romances "are found in England, France, Germany, and even Iceland." They are in various metres, but the same stories can be traced in all; the heroes are still British worthies, and their exploits are traced back to Welsh popular tales and to Celtic traditions.
It is impossible to read the text of the Mabinogion, and the notes, without seeing the strong resemblance which these traditions bear to modern Gaelic popular tales.
The resemblance is not that of one entire story to another; were it so, it would be less striking; but it is a pervading resemblance interwoven throughout, and which pervades in a less degree the whole system of popular tales, so far as I am acquainted with it. The Welsh and Gaelic stories are, in fact, often founded on, and consist of the same incidents variously worked up, and differently told, to fit the various manners and
customs of different ages, different people, and different ranks of society.
Take, for instance, "The Lady of the Fountain," strip it of all that is local, and makes it specially Welsh, and fixes a date, the names, the dresses, the decorations, the manners and customs, which were, without doubt, those of the people who delighted in the Mabinogion when it was popular in Wales, and there will remain a bare skeleton of incidents, many of which will be found in these volumes. These I take to be Celtic, to have travelled West with Celtic tribes, and to be founded on still older traditions--the common stock from which the popular tales of Germany, and of that whole family of nations were also drawn.
First, the frame-work is the same; one man tells a story, which starts another, as is the case in Conall, Nos. V. VI. and VII.; and in Conall Gulban, No. LXXVI.; in Murdoch MacBrian, No. XXXVIII.; and in many others which I have in manuscript. The knight comes to a castle, where he finds maidens who shew him the way, and entertain him, as happens in popular tales of all lands; for there is always some one who provides the adventurer with a bowl, or a clue, which shews him the road to his place of trial, or with some other means of conveyance, as in the story of the Calenders; but in this case the number is 24, as in the Gaelic story of Magnus, No. LXXXIV.; and the dress is yellow, as is the dress of the mysterious people in the Lay of the Great Fool, and generally in the Gaelic and Welsh tales, and yellow was the colour of dresses of honour in the west long ago. The first person he meets is a great black giant with a club, who appears in the Breton tale of Peronek the Idiot, and in the Rider of Grianaig, No. LVIII., and in a great many other Gaelic
tales. He comes next to a mystic fountain; and mystic fountains are the scene of wonders in endless Gaelic stories--for instance, Nos. XLVI. and LVIII., where the transformations occur at a fountain. Then there is the arrival of a man on a black horse in a shower, who insults the warrior; which incident occurs in Nos. I., LII., LXXVI., and is common to many others, and is especially distinctive of Gaelic tales. There is the healing vessel of balsam in the keeping of a female, which is continually turning up in every possible shape in Gaelic. There is the fight between a snake and a creature of another kind, which opens the story of the Battle of the Birds, No. ii.; and there is the animal who helps his deliverer, as the raven helped the prince; and as the lion, wolf, and falcon, help the fisherman's son in the Sea Maiden; and in Straparola's Italian version of that old tale, which is at least as old as 1567.
There is the knight who wanders about with his rescued lion, conquering giants and monsters, like Magnus, in No. LXXXIV.; and like the boy in the Norse tale of the Blue Belt; and like heroes in plenty of other tales besides.
In short, through these old Welsh tales of chivalry, there shines an older system of popular tales, as clearly as the Welsh tales shine through the French and English romances; and the remnants of these very traditions exist in fragments at this day amongst the other branches of the Celtic race.
I do not mean that Gaelic-speaking tribes have a peculiar claim to them, rather than the Welsh, or that Celtic tribes invented them; I mean that these traditions are Celtic, and probably were Eastern; and that the popular tales now current amongst the poorest and least instructed of the Gaelic population, dwelling in
the far west, throw light upon the subject so ably treated in the Mabinogion by a distinguished lady, aided by Welsh scholars.
Compare the Breton traditions and popular ballads, founded on these same traditions of Arthur and his knights, with the next story in the Mabinogion, "Peredur, the son of Errawc," and with the story of the Great Fool, No. LXXIV.; and the general Celtic resemblance for which I am contending will appear in strong relief.
Peredur is the last of seven sons of the "Earl of the North," and he is brought up by a wise mother, in a distant country, so that he should not be a warrior, and perish as his father and brothers had done.
One day he sees some hinds, and not knowing what they are, he drives them in with the goats. So the great fool sees deer, and not knowing what they are, catches them by speed of foot.
On another day, Peredur sees knights on horseback, and knows as little what they are; but having found out, he gets him a horse, and goes to the king's palace, and there he begins by slaying a warrior. So the great fool catches a horse, and rides to the king's palace, and slays a man; and so Peronek, the Breton idiot, is a fool, and becomes a hero; catches a horse, and rides to Kerglas; and there are numerous other traits in Breton ballads which represent similar incidents, though in a wholly different dress.
Where the parallel fails with one story, it holds elsewhere. Peredur is recognised, and is saluted by two captive dwarfs, who had been his father's dwarfs. Conall Gulban is recognised, and is saluted by Duanach, who had been his father's "draodh."
Peredur, when he sets off in quest of adventures, comes to old men, brothers, who instruct him, and forward
him on his way, as happens in the story of Black, White, and Red, in a story told me by tinker MacDonald, in Norse Tales, and in endless popular tales besides. The old men replace the maidens, and the old man who entertains the knight in the Lady of the Fountain. And through all the magnificence of knightly pageantry, there peep forth such traits of popular manners as the scarcity of food.
When it comes to battles, the principle on which they are conducted is to be traced in Gaelic tales. There is the arrival of knights of increasing rank, and their overthrow by the hero; and further on, Peredur overthrows three hundred warriors exactly as Conall Gulban and other Gaelic warriors do; but these are not the mailed knights of the romances.
There is the incident of the bird of prey, the blood and the snow, which suggest love to Conall Gulban, and remind Peredur of the lady of his love; and that one incident joins the whole Celtic family, for it is all over the Highlands now. See page 201. It was in Wales in the fifteenth century. It is in a manuscript in the Advocates' Library, where "Darthula," in the story of the children of Usnoth, is joined to it. This is "Hiberno-Celtic," "intelligible to a Gaelic scholar," according to the account which I have of it; and the same incident is a Breton tale.
Kai, the counterpart of Conan, "ever in scrapes, ever ready for a fight," appears in his usual character.
Caerleon is the dwelling of King Arthur. Turleon is that of the King of Lochlann in "The witch," No. LXXIII.
There is the lady in the dwelling, of the wild heathen people who befriends the wanderers--the character who appears so often, for example, in Nos. I., V., VI., VII.,
[paragraph continues] XLIV., LII., LVIII., LXXX., and still oftener in Norse and German stories.
There are even such little touches of resemblance, as "Bald swarthy youths" in Gaelic "Maol Carrach;" and such strong bonds of kindred as the three wounded men, who are always fighting Addank, a monster, and mystic armies; who always conquer, but never win; who are wounded, and healed with precious balsam; exactly like the youths in the Knight of the Red Shield, who appear in many other Gaelic tales in other shapes.
There is even the Talisman, the stone of mystic virtues, which occurs in Conal Gulban, and elsewhere, and which is actually used at this day as an amulet to cure sick cattle.
There is the warrior who comes to a trial of arms disguised, who borrows money and clothes from a craftsman, wins, and will not come for his reward; who resists force by force, but comes at last for fair words; like the "Gille carrach dubh" in No. IV., vol. I., and the Smith's Apprentice in No. XVI.; and like Boots in many Norse tales, a character who appears in German also.
There is the hideous woman with the enormous teeth, who appears so often in Gaelic tales. There am sorceresses who, like the big women of Jura in No. XLVI., have to do with feats of arms, and generally, if this story of Peredur were modern, and the subject of adverse criticism, it might be said that it was composed of the incidents of half a dozen popular tales, disjointed, separated, shaken together, reunited, and polished; but as it is older than Straparola, an illiberal Welsh critic, if such there be, might claim all collections of later date as borrowed from Welsh ideas.
Now, this story of Peredur has been worked into romances, and exists in many of the languages of
[paragraph continues] Europe, including Icelandic. The question for argument is, Did the old fishermen of the Hebrides, the old wives of Norway, the old nurses of Germany, the people of Brittany, and the writers of "Hiberno-Celtic" manuscripts, all learn their incidents, which they have in common with "Peredur," from their ancestors, the ancestors from wandering minstrels, the minstrels from manuscripts, and the authors of the manuscripts from Welsh bards? or, Have the peasantry of Europe preserved the traditions from which writers and reciters made books and romances? and, in particular, have the Highlanders of Scotland preserved the Celtic traditions, which were also written in "the Welsh Red Book," in another guise, in the end of the fifteenth century? I hold the latter as the more probable, if only, because I have found no trace of some romances which as are wideCWSj x And then there is the man enticed into a bag and beaten; as the giant's mother was enticed by Maol a' bhoibean, and beaten to death. Then comes the woman who is mysteriously robbed of her children, and accused of eating them, which is in many stories; for example, in the French story of Princess Fair Star; in the Norse story of the Lassie and her God-mother; in the Hoodie, No. 3, and in No. 12 in Gaelic, and in endless stories besides. For example, in one called, "An t-urisgeal aig na righre, Righ na thuirabhinn agus righ nan Ailp," The king of the Ailp quarrelled with the Druids, and was killed, leaving a single daughter and a son. She was educated by the Druids till she was able to do many of their tricks, but they coloured her skin as green as grass. But the son fled up a mountain, called Beinn ghloine, because it was always covered with glass (or ice) in the winter, and he took his father's sword and sceptre. Then came a Druid and smote him as he slept, and turned him into a gray dog. Then he returned to the palace, leaving his sword and sceptre, and his sister got leave to come and see him, and there they staid; the green woman and the greyhound, and there they were to stay till some one would marry the greyhound of her own accord, and till the king's daughter should nurse three children, and get a kiss from the king's son. And no one was to bury the bones of those who fell in the Druid's battle till their grandchildren should do it. Then the king of the Urbhin went off with his men through the hills to fight with another king, and lost his way in a mist, and he cried out "keep with me;" and there answered him but a hundred. Then the mist was so thick that he could not see the end of his sword, and he shouted again, and there answered him but a score; and he cried out again, and there answered but three; and next time he cried, none answered at all; and so he wandered alone till he came to the palace, where he found nothing but a greyhound. He wandered about, found food and a bed, and ate and slept. Next day he wandered about and found a lot of bones, and began to kick the skulls idly, when the gray dog sprang upon him, and threw him down, and spoke, and abused him for kicking his father's skull, and then comes the story of beauty and the beast. The king had three daughters and a son, and he promised that a daughter should come in his stead, and the green girl went to carry the news. She put on "a’ chaisbhairt shiubhal," her travelling foot-gear, and a face cloth, and went and returned with the three daughters in a trice, for she had travelling foot gear for them also. The youngest staid as hostage for the king, and the rest went home, and she slept in the same room with the dog and the green sister till the year ran out, and the king came back. Then, to save her father's life, the youngest sister agreed to marry the hound, and the green girl got a priest, and they were married. In the morning when she woke, of course it was a fine young man who was beside her; and she asked where was the gray dog. Then the two elder sisters were furious; and the king fell in love with the green girl after be had taken a draught of the "mheadair Bhuidhe," yellow mead, from her hand. The two sisters concoct a scheme with a Druid to become queens instead of the brother and sister; and the first step is to get hold of their sister's child, and give it to the Druids. They carry her off, and when the child was born, "there came a green hand in at a window, and it took away the child." So in Welsh there came a great claw, and so a lake fairy took away Lancelot in the romance. And so it happened thrice, but a drop fell from the eyes of the children, and the mother gathered th JFIF d d Ducky < Adobe d
u !1"AQ2#3aqB%5S4 !1Aa"Qq2# ? /V$)(>cJhۈ KuEB4[j)>r L0Xh& Then the green sister brought in the three children, which she said she had carried off from the uirabhinn to save their lives, and they all three squinted for want of the drops that had fallen from their eyes, and the true mother had the drops, and put them back, and they saw straight. Then the green girl marked the sham queen with a black spot, and put salt into the Druid's food, and a sleepy drink into his cup, and when he slept she put him amongst the bones, where he could work no more spells. The Druid, to get free, told her to wash in the water of the well that was at the foot of the blue rock, in the Island of Deer, in a high hill, and the young prince of the uirabhinn fetched it and she was cured, and they married. The wicked sisters try to burn the house, and put magic draughts into their sister's drink, but they fail. The Druid is made drunk and beheaded; the sisters drink their own draught, lose the power of their legs, and fall into poverty and disgrace, and the young sister and the king of the Ailp who had been a gray dog, and his sister who had been green, and the young king of the Uira Bhinn, lived happily thenceforth, and their grandchildren buried the bones. Now this was a nursery story told to John Dewar, by a servant maid, about 1812; and this rough outline will shew that it is a version of the same popular tale which was written in Wales about 400 years before, which was in the Golden Ass of Apuleius 1600 years ago, and has to do with Cupid and Psyche, and is in the Arabian Nights. I have other Gaelic versions of the same incidents, including a detailed account of the manner of climbing the mountains, and the accusation of eating the children; but my object here is to shew the relationship between Gaelic and Welsh stories, and this must suffice for the present. In the next story, Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, which, if Gaelic, might mean black and white daughter ofPNG
IHDR pHYs
MiCCPPhotoshop ICC profile xڝSwX>eVBl "#Y a@Ņ
VHUĂ
H(gAZU\8 ܧ}zy&j 9R<: OHɽH g yx~t?o p.$P&W " R .T Sd
ly|B" I> ة آ (G$@ `UR, @".Y2G vX@` B, 8 C L0ҿ_pH ˕͗K3w!lBa)f "#HL 8?flŢko">! N_puk[ V h]3 Z
zy8@ P<
%b0>3o~@ z q@qanvRB1n#Dž)4\,XP"MyRD!ɕ2 w ONl~Xv @~- g42y @+ ͗ \L D*A aD@ $<B
AT:18\p` Aa!:b""aH4 Q"rBj]H#-r9\@ 2G1Qu@ Ơst4]k =Kut }c1fa\E`X&cX5V5c X7va$^lGXLXC%#W 1'"O%zxb:XF&! !%^'_H$ɒN
!%2I IkHH-S>iL&m O:ňL $RJ5e?2BQͩ:ZImvP/S4u%͛Cˤ-Кigih/t ݃ EЗkw Hb(k{/LӗT02goUX**|:V~TUsU?y TU^V}FUP թ U6RwRPQ__cFHTc!2eXBrV,kMb[Lvv/{LSCsfffqƱ9ٜJ!{--?-jf~7zھbrup@,:m:u 6Qu>cy Gm 7046l18c̐ckihhI'&g5x>fo b4ek So far, then, I have endeavoured to shew that Welsh popular tales of the fifteenth century, and Gaelic popular tales of the nineteenth, have a strong relationship to each other, that they are both intimately connected with mediaeval romances, and with modern Norse tales, and with old Norse mythology; with the oldest known collections of popular tales made in Europe, and with the last; with Irish traditions in the Far West, and with the Arabian Nights in the East. My opinion is, that these are all founded upon incidents which have been woven into popular tales almost ever since men began to speak; that they are all Celtic only because Celts are men, and only peculiarly Celtic because Celts are admitted by all to be a very ancient offshoot from the common root. They are peculiarly Cymric or Gaelic, because each fresh branch has a separate growth, and different tribes have varied their stories, as they have altered their language. 247:1 Poems des Bardes Breton, Paris 1850.
Footnotes