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De Ortu Waluuanii: An Arthurian Romance now First Edited from the Cottonian Ms. Faustina B. VI., of the British Museum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The following edition of the De Ortu Waluuanii is based on an exact transcript of the Cottonian ms. (only with resolution of the usual contractions) which was made for me by Mr. D. T. B. Wood, of the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum, during the months of August and September, 1897. I have endeavored to print the Latin text as it appears in this transcript with as little change as possible. It has occasionally been necessary, however, to supply words omitted in the ms., yet obviously required by the sense, and wherever this has been done the inserted words will be found enclosed in brackets. In the case of corrupt or simply misspelt forms I have placed the ms. readings at the bottom of the page and incorporated the emended forms (italicized) into the text. Only in the case of the words sublimis and pugna and their derivatives I have retained the consistent spellings of the ms.— sullimis, pungna, and the like.
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References
Note 1 in page 365 The same means has been adopted for indicating letters and syllables which are omitted in the ms.
Note 1 in page 366 The Cottonian ms. is believed to be unique. For a description of this ms. see Ward's Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. London, 1883-93; Vol. i, p. 374.
Note 2 in page 366 Histoire Littéraire de la France, xxx, p. 31, note.
Note 1 in page 367 Syr Gawayne: A Collection of Ancient Romance-Poems by Scotish and English Authors Relating to that Celebrated Knight of the Round Table, etc., by Sir Frederic Madden. London, 1839.
Note 1 in page 368 Merlin, Roman en Prose du XIIIe siècle Edited for the Société des Anciens Textes Français, by G. Paris and J. Ulrich. 2 vols. Paris, mdccclxxxvi.
In Malory's Morte Darthur (Book I, Chap. 27) there is a story concerning Mordred's birth similar to that in the Huth Merlin.
Note 1 in page 369 Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte du Graal publié d'après les manuscrits originaux par Ch. Potvin—Première Partie: Le Roman en Prose. Mons. mdccclxvi, pp. 252 f.
Note 1 in page 373 The actual compilation of the Gesta Romanorum is probably later than the Perlesvaus or De Ortu Waluuanii. The legend of Gregory, however, was, of course, in existence long before this—at least as early as the middle of the twelfth century. See Gröber's Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie, ii, 479.
Note 2 in page 373 In the Old French version, Vie du Pape Grégoire le Grand, edited by Luzarche (Tours, 1857), they were placed, it seems, by his head, as it was there that they were subsequently found (p. 37). So in the story of Gawain's birth in the Perlesvaus.
Note 1 in page 374 Cp. the Vie du Pape Grégoire, p. 40:
E son non li a enposé,
Gregoire apeleent l'abé,
E s'il fu Gregoire apelé.
Note 2 in page 374 The Gregory legend seems to have been used also in the romance which M. Gaston Paris calls the Chevalier à la Manche. Cp. Hist. Lit. de la France, xxx, pp. 122 f. The Trental of St. Gregory has been exploited for the Middle English romance, The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne. Cf. Madden's Syr Gawayne, pp. 238 f.
Note 3 in page 374 See Greene's Works (ed. Grosart), Vol. iv, especially pp. 253-254, 264-270 (Huth Library, 1881-83).
Note 1 in page 376 In one respect the application of the legend of Gregory to Mordrec seems more natural than its application to Gawain: Gregory and Mordrec, I mean, were each the offspring of an incestuous union. It is evident, however, that the version of the Huth Merlin is very inferior to the versions which connect the legend with Gawain, and the motive of secrecy which is essential to the story and appropriate to the account of Gawain's birth could have had no place in a similar story concerning Mordrec, inasmuch as Loth is nowhere represented as being conscious of his real relation to the latter.
I had written this note as well as the whole of the discussion in the text when I noticed the suggestion of M. G. Paris in the edition of the Huth Merlin (p. xli, note 3) that the introduction of the story of Mordred's incestuous birth into the Arthurian romances was due, perhaps, in part to the influence of the Gregory legend. The influence of that legend on the stories I have been discussing has, of course, nothing to do with the question which M. Paris endeavors to elucidate in his note, as, indeed, it is a different and less essential feature of the Gregory legend with which I have been concerned.
Note 1 in page 377 So Lancelot du Lac in the prose romance passes at first under various nicknames simply (see P. Paris, Romans de la Table Ronde, iii, 27, et passim). He only learns his true name in the cemetery of the Douloureuse Garde (Ibid., pp. 165 f.). Cp. also the French and English romances on Guinglain, the son of Gawain, who is known as Li Beaus Desconneus (Le Bel Inconnu, ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1860) or Libeaus Desconus (ed. Kaluza, Leipzig, 1890), just in the same way that his father here figures as Puer sine nomine. The nickname, Miles cum tunica armaturae, may be compared with Le Chevalier à la cotte mal taillé (see Löseth's Le Roman en Prose de Tristan, Paris, 1891, p. 74, et passim), which has passed into Malory (Book IX, Chap. i).
Note 2 in page 377 This feature is, perhaps, too frequent to call for illustration. An example exactly parallel to that in our text will be found in the Libeaus Desconus (ed. Kaluza), p. 9.
Note 1 in page 378 In the description of Caerleon and its surroundings the author had in mind Geoffrey's Historia (Book IX, Chap, xii), where this city is also described.
Note 1 in page 379 I am not in a position to say whether the Lancelot mss. contain just this feature of the English poem. At any rate, there can be little doubt of its coming, like everything else in the poem, from a French source.
Note 2 in page 379 This story bears a certain resemblance, as regards motif, to that of King Arthur and King Cornwall and the group to which it belongs (cp. Child's Ballads, ii, 274 f.), but the adventures which follow are altogether different in our romance.
Note 1 in page 380 The tourney at the Chastel aux Pucelles plays a considerable part in the prose Tristan (s. Löseth, p. 102, et passim). Cp. also the Lancelot du Lac (P. Paris, Romans de la Table Ronde, v, 114 ff.). In Malory it appears as the Castel of Maydens (Book XIII, Chap. xv).
Note 2 in page 380 It was identified with Edinburgh. See the note on Castellum, Puellarum in San Marte's edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, Halle, 1854, p. 215.
Note 1 in page 381 The only suggestion of parallelism with Geoffrey of Monmouth which I find in this episode is in regard to Gawain's boast that he would accomplish alone what Arthur's whole army had failed in. In the Historia, Book III, Chap, xv, nearly the same thing is said of Morvidus: “ Plus ipse solus in praeliando proficiebat quam maxima pars exercitus sui principatus.” So, also, of Guiderius, Book IV, Chap. xiii. But these resemblances are no doubt accidental.
Note 2 in page 381 It is impossible to say from M. Paris's analysis of Ider—the poem is still unpublished—in the place cited above, whether the story of Arthur's expedition in relief of the Lady is told in full or not in that romance.
Note 1 in page 382 In Sir W. Scott's Bridal of Triermain (Cantos I and II) there is a story of an amour of Arthur with a fay named Guendolen, but the episode seems to be wholly of Scott's own invention. The name Gwendoloena was most probably taken from the Vila Merlini, usually ascribed to Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is there the name of Merlin's wife. Cp. 11. 170 f. of this poem in San Marte's Sagen von Merlin, Halle, 1853, p. 278.
Note 1 in page 383 So in the Livre d' Artus, in the ms. 337 fonds français of the Bibliothèque Nationale, no horse could bear the giant from whom Artus rescues the Countess of Orofoise. Cp. Freymond's analysis, Zs. f. franz. Spr. und Lit., xvii, 96. The idea is, of course, known to legend elsewhere. The same thing, for instance, is told of King Hygelac in the tract, De monslris et belluis liber, quoted Haupt's Zs., v, 10.
Note 2 in page 383 The Britons in Geoffrey (Book IX, Chap, xi), when they saw Arthur prostrate after the fall of his wounded horse, vix poluerwnt retineri, quin ruplo foedere in Gallos unanimiter irruerunt.
Note 3 in page 383 The idea of sending Gawain to Jerusalem as a champion of the Christians is due no doubt to a reminiscence of the Christian occupation of that city, which lasted from 1099 to 1187.
Note 1 in page 384 The proper names of this episode afford us no help in the matter. Nabor (usually Nabaor in the romance) occurs in the prose Tristan as a variant of the name of the giant, Nabon (e. g., cp. Löseth, p. 61), and the father of Sagremor in the Huth Merlin (i, 206) is Nabur, but no such story is connected with these characters. Neither the name of the king, Milocrates—a barbarous formation, indeed—nor that of his brother, Buzafarnan, do I find elsewhere. Curiously this latter personage is once called Egesarius (p. 410), but the origin of this name is as obscure to me as that of the rest. (N. B., also Odabal, which occurs nowhere else, as far as I can ascertain.) It is possible that Buzafarnan and Egesarius are both corrupt forms. How far names in the Arthurian romances have often departed from their original forms, in the course of copying, may be seen from F. Seiffert's Namenbuch zu den afranzösischen Arlusepen, Greifswald, 1882, pp. 5 ff.
Note 2 in page 384 It will be easy, perhaps, for folk-lorists to point out parallels to the conception of a people who rarely lived beyond fifty or died under ten (p. 398)—also to the conception of the charmed arms (p. 406), on the possession of which depended the possession of the kingdom.
Note 1 in page 385 Gawain's reply to the keeper: Nec arma nisi in vestris visctribus recondita deponemus (p. 399) may be a reminiscence of the phrase in Eldol's speech concerning Vortigern .... gladii mei mucronem intra viscera ipsius recondam (Book VIII, Chap. ii).
Note 1 in page 387 There is mention of Greek fire in the Historia (Book I, Chap. vii), but I do not believe that this is a point in which the romance has been influenced by Geoffrey.
Note 1 in page 388 See pp. 397, 409 et passim.
Note 2 in page 388 See A. Schultz' Das Höfische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger, 2te Auflage, Leipzig, 1889, ii, pp. 40 f.—also p. 58, where it is again stated as introduced “in den ersten Decennien des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts.”
Note 1 in page 389 The connection of this source with the passage in the Perlesvaus affords us no indication of date, because the two, as we have seen above (p. 375), are not directly connected. They only go back to a common source. Perlesvaus (or Perceval li Gallois) is assigned by Birch-Hirschfeld (Sage vom Gral, p. 143) to the second quarter of the thirteenth century.
Note 2 in page 389 If the images of birds attached to the masts, which deceive the Centurion on the approach of Buzafarnan's fleet (p. 410), do indeed answer to anything in the ornamentation of ships during the Middle Ages, a clue to the date of this part of the romance (i. e., its source) might be furnished. But with the means of determining this which are accessible to me, I am unable to say whether such is the case.
Note 1 in page 391 ms. albabuntur.
Note 1 in page 392 ms. ostentacionem.
Note 2 in page 392 ms. sanatorum.
Note 1 in page 393 ms. comperauit.
Note 2 in page 393 Word following undecipherable.
Note 1 in page 394 ms. resrari.
Note 1 in page 395 ms. apparentum.
Note 2 in page 395 On the margin is written nullus eius uiribus.
Note 3 in page 395 ms. congressi. Doubtless the additional stroke at the end omitted by mistake.
Note 1 in page 396 Cp. Ducange under praetaxatus (= praetactus = praedictus).
Note 2 in page 396 ms. alteriori.
Note 3 in page 396 ms. alteriora.
Note 4 in page 396 Cp. Ducange under appropriare (= appropinquare).
Note 1 in page 397 ms. pacierunt.
Note 1 in page 399 ms. aptus.
Note 2 in page 399 ms. ille.
Note 3 in page 399 ms. et torquens.
Note 1 in page 401 ms. qui.
Note 2 in page 401 ms. inquid.
Note 3 in page 401 ms. quodpiam.
Note 4 in page 401 ms. set.
Note 5 in page 401 ms. eco.
Note 6 in page 401 Is this intended as the Historical Infinitive?
Note 1 in page 402 ms. pmcā.
Note 2 in page 402 ms. minantem.
Note 3 in page 402 ms. oportunatum.
Note 4 in page 402 ms. que.
Note 5 in page 402 Cp. Ducanye under praetaxatus (= praetactus = praedictus).
Note 1 in page 403 ms. nuro.
Note 2 in page 403 ms. attumabat.
Note 3 in page 403 ms. verberabatur.
Note 4 in page 403 ms. cum.
Note 1 in page 406 ms. tuo.
Note 1 in page 407 ms. crassatur.
Note 1 in page 408 ms. magma.
Note 1 in page 409 ms. capnd.
Note 2 in page 409 Cp. Ducange under perhendinare (= morari).
Note 1 in page 410 ms. regum.
Note 2 in page 410 ms. set.
Note 1 in page 411 ms. ipse.
Note 2 in page 411 Word following undecipherable.
Note 1 in page 412 Obviously an attempt to Latinize Greek .
Note 1 in page 413 ms. asspis.
Note 2 in page 413 ms. venenifa.
Note 3 in page 413 ms. capud.
Note 1 in page 414 ms. hos.
Note 2 in page 414 ms. ruffi.
Note 3 in page 414 ms. rufa.
Note 4 in page 414 ms. flagranciam.
Note 1 in page 415 ms. elisio.
Note 2 in page 415 Cp Ducange, Incastraturae: “ Incastratura, incavatura, lignorum per quam sibi mutuo copulantur, scilicet in extremitatibus asserum runcinatorum,” etc.
Note 3 in page 415 ms. penetrantur.
Note 4 in page 415 ms. que.
Note 1 in page 416 ms. velud.
Note 2 in page 416 ms. lingna.
Note 3 in page 416 ms. myopacontas.
Note 1 in page 417 ms. continuebat.
Note 2 in page 417 ms. paciundum.
Note 1 in page 418 ms. cynedis.
Note 2 in page 418 ms haneli.
Note 3 in page 418 ms. retrahuntur.
Note 4 in page 418 ms. utque.
Note 1 in page 419 ms. calaphos.
Note 2 in page 419 ms. collisam.
Note 3 in page 419 ms. calebs.
Note 4 in page 419 ms. calibem.
Note 5 in page 419 ms. pertinaciam.
Note 1 in page 420 ms. regida.
Note 2 in page 420 ms. incipitique.
Note 3 in page 420 ms. timpora.
Note 4 in page 420 ms. stagmati.
Note 1 in page 421 ms. hanelis.
Note 2 in page 421 ms. aud.
Note 1 in page 422 ms. dare.
Note 2 in page 422 ms. hictus.
Note 3 in page 422 ms. rumphee.
Note 4 in page 422 ms. capud.
Note 5 in page 422 ms. questrum.
Note 6 in page 422 ms. sanctitis.
Note 1 in page 423 ms. discensus.
Note 2 in page 423 ms. transsiturus.
Note 3 in page 423 ms. Dernicie.
Note 1 in page 425 Written twice in ms.
Note 2 in page 425 ms. erigerit.
Note 3 in page 425 ms. transsitu.
Note 1 in page 426 ms. falleris.
Note 1 in page 427 ms. acscitos.
Note 2 in page 427 ms. quodque.
Note 3 in page 427 ms. indigaret.
Note 1 in page 428 ms. pacisseris.
Note 2 in page 428 ms. nunccupatum.
Note 3 in page 428 It seems necessary to assume the omission of one or more words after discrimini.
Note 1 in page 430 ms. obtrunctatos.
Note 2 in page 430 ms. quam.
Note 1 in page 431 ms. capud.
Note 2 in page 431 ms. capud.
Note 3 in page 431 ms. inquid.
Note 1 in page 432 ms. dupplicatur.
Note 2 in page 432 ms. operiosius.
Note 1 in page 433 These bracketed numbers refer to the corresponding pages of the Latin text.
Note 1 in page 416 Here called Egesarius.
Note 1 in page 447 This description, which is omitted in the Paraphrase, will be found, pp. 412-416.
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